134 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 7, 1889. 



"That reminds me." 

 861. 



IT was almost sundown in the rnonth of June. The 

 sheep were quietly feeding down the creek toward 

 the camping ground on a little stream in northern Mon- 

 tana. The herder was walking slowly behind his flock 

 smiling at the antics of a few hundred lambs, which 

 were kicking up their heels and running along the bank 

 of the stream. I was at the camp, a few hundred yards 

 below, preparing the evening meal, and was in the act of 

 dipping up a cup of water, when 1 heard a distant shout. 

 Ou my going to the door of the tent the herder called to 

 me, "Look at the ducks." And at that instant two large 

 mallards in full flight swept past me some 30ft. aAvay. 

 It was my only chance, and swift as thought, the little 

 round tin cup sped on its way. The cup went up, the 

 duck came down; not on my head, but on the ground; 

 and there he lay so stunned and still; he did not even 

 move his bill. The greedy cook pounces on hi* prey, 

 and roast duck and brown gravy were a most accept- 

 able addition to our bill of fare. W. 

 Craig, Montana. 



262. 



A boy going home through the woods with his skates, 

 saw two partridges probably mates. He threw one of 

 his skates and laid one of them low. 'Twas out of season 

 but they let the boy go. U. C. Brevity. 



Portland, Maine. 



"Sam Lovel's Camps." By R. E. Robinson. Note ready. 



TUCKERTON WATERS. 



II. — BAIT. 



MOST people who fish in the Jersey bays, secur e the 

 services of boatmen who supply bait and tackle, as 

 well as local knowledge of fishing grounds. Some, how- 

 ever, from choice or necessity, wait on themselves. 

 For the benefit of those the following suggestions are 

 offered: 



In choosing a fishing ground either obtain explicit 

 directions from some one familiar with the place, or, 

 what is better, go where others are fishing and take a 

 position near a boat which is catching something. If the 

 fish are supposed to be moving, get in the same line of 

 travel as the other boat. A difference of a few feet may 

 lose all the luck. The writer has had some most provok- 

 ing failures to catch anything while his neighbors were 

 taking large numbers. Move as he might, he could not 

 strike the right spot. Again, on one occasion, he joined 

 several boats that were fishing for porgies off Main Point, 

 near Manahawken. He was a stranger to the place, and 

 dropped anchor at a respectful distance from the others. 

 But they were taking nothing, while he was soon draw- 

 ing them up in a lively manner. In five minutes every 

 other boat had drawn close up and was having a fair 

 share of the luck, 



A proper supply of bait is essential to success in fishing. 

 Clams must be bought. They should cost a few cents a 

 dozen. Where clams and crabs are to be handled an 

 oyster knife is a useful adjunct. For weakfish use a 

 whole or half a clam. Make a large, juicy bait, for the 

 fish has a capacious mouth. For barb and sea bass take 

 a half -inch cube. For porgies, spots, flounders and black- 

 fish take half the size. Always prepare plenty of bait 

 before beginning, so as not to lose time when the biting 

 is lively. 



Mussels are a rather choicer bait than clams, but it 

 takes a great many of them, as one mussel makes only 

 one bait. They can, however, generally be found by the 

 fisherman himself by looking along the edges of the salt 

 meadows. They grow in bunches among the grass within 

 a few feet of the water, and are usually covered at high 

 tide. 



Crabs, hard and soft, are perhaps the bait most used. 

 They can be bought for about a cent apiece when they 

 are for sale, and may be easily caught around wharves 

 and on the flats when the water is four or five feet deep. 

 In most places more crabs will be pulled to the surface in 

 the course of fishing than are needed for use. Such as 

 are wanted can be landed with a net. If a fish be tied to 

 a string and sunk to the bottom it will draw them better 

 than the smaller baits. In preparing a crab, first break 

 his claws and pull them off, leaving the first short joint 

 attached to the 'body. With a little persuasion he will 

 part the limb of his own volition. I have seen a crab 

 that was held over the water by one claw make his escape 

 by casting off the member. Next break off in like man- 

 ner all his legs and flippers. In picking up the crab in 

 the first place, grasp him firmly by the base of one hind 

 flipper. He cannot work his claws around to that point. 

 Al ter he has been dismembered, take the body in the left 

 hand and pry off the back shell by pressing up at one of 

 its sharp corners. If this operation is difficult, break the 

 back down the middle with the oyster knife and it will 

 come off readily. Then cut the body in two from front 

 to back down the crack in the under part. Next cut each 

 half at right angles to this, passing the knife between the 

 stumps of its legs. If large baits are wanted, leave two 

 eyes to each piece. The white muscles of the crab will 

 be found to be fastened to the short first joint of the 

 legs. This joint must not be broken. Now take off as 

 much as possible of the body shell, and the bait is ready. 

 The piece which comes from the base of the back flipper 

 is much the best, and in certain kinds of fishing is the 

 only one worth using. In putting the pieces on the hook, 

 pass the point of the hook down through the eye of the 

 joint and out through the mass of flesh below. ' As soon 

 as much of the soft flesh gets washed or bitten off renew 

 the bait. 



When a crab has grown so much that his shell is too 

 small to hold him with comfort, he seeks a shallow, muddy 

 place, frequently above low water, and, burying himself 

 slightly, sheds his old shell, expands to nearly twice his 

 former bulk, and quietly and helplessly waits till the new 

 soft skin hardens into a shell. In this changing state he 



is a "soft crab," and constitutes the choicest bait known 

 in Jersey waters. Every fish will bite eagerly at any 

 bait of it. The serious objections to them are that they 

 cost from 50c. to a $1 a dozen, and even then are seldom 

 found for sale. If one wants them he must usuallv en- 

 gage a boy or man to get them especially for him. Their 

 scarcity results from their steady demand as a delicacy 

 for the table, and from their liability to die if handled 

 and their certainty of becoming hard in a few days if 

 they live. Often one must hunt for them himself. "When 

 the native wants them he rolls up his pants and wades 

 in the shallow water, or along mud flats, at low tide. 

 This I have never done. If, however, one goes carefully 

 along the bank and scoops up every crab he finds hugging 

 the shore, one in ten or so will be found to be a "shed- 

 der." Now a shedder is a crab which is just ready to 

 si ied big shell. If a corner of his covering be broken off 

 a new, soft, tough skin will be found inclosing his entire 

 body. In this condition all the old shell can be easily 

 broken off, and the claws and legs can be pulled out of 

 their coverings. The test of a shedder is to break off one 

 of the points pn the side of his upper shell. If it comes 

 off lea ving the flesh inside covered with the above men- 

 tioned skin, it indicates the right condition. The natives 

 distinguish several stages in the process of change of 

 shell. First it is a "shedder." Then when the old shell 

 is cracked all around, but still adheres, it is a "buster." 

 When the shell is all cast it is a "soft crab," and when 

 the shell is a little hardened, but still impressible to the 

 touch, it is a "paper crab." Every part, 'from claw to 

 flipper, of a crab in any of these conditions, is to be util- 



During the sirmmer, shrimp are often used. These are 

 small, translucent creatures, like miniature lobsters. 

 They are caught in a landing net of small mesh. They 

 frequent the grassy edges of banks, and the seaweed 

 which grows in shallow water. They may be found in 

 certain places, but not in others of equal apparent likeli- 

 hood. Dip around till some are caught and then scoop 

 up that place thoroughly. Handle the net by pushing it 

 along near the bottom, hoop foremost, as nearly horizon- 

 tal as possible, the net hanging under the hoop. When 

 the shrimp are disturbed by the hoop's striking the grass 

 they dart downward and go right into the net. But few 

 will be taken if the hoop be held vertically, and still less 

 if the net be swooped down from above. Put two or 

 three- shrimp on the hook, which should be as small as 

 will do for the particular fish desired. 



For sea bass and weakfish pieces of fish called fish bait 

 are often used. Let these be as white as possible, and for 

 weakfish the piece may be an inch or two long and nar- 

 row like a minnow. The finest fishing I ever had in salt 

 water was done partly with long strips of whitefish belly. 

 The way four-pound striped bass took them is stirring to 

 the heart even now. I was fishing from Barnegat pier 

 on a stormy day in late autumn. I began with sand eels, 

 continued with minnows and finished on strips of fish, 

 and all were eagerly taken. At another time I used with 

 success a long section of big sea clam. All of these baits 

 were trolled along near the top of the water, and were 

 much more successful than was the soft crab used in the 

 traditional way near the bottom. 



During one of these times I had a curious experience. 

 I had hooked a large fish , and was playing him when I 

 observed that the bait had slipped up the leader some 

 three feet. At the same time I saw another fish eagerly 

 pursuing the bait, and biting and pulling at it. This 

 was kept up for a minute or two, until the upper fish 

 had loosed the other. I immediately readjusted the bait 

 and threw out and had a fish on again in a few seconds. 

 On striking him my fine parted. Surprised and disap- 

 pointed I hurried to attach a new leader when I observed 

 that the end of the hue was ragged, and that a few 

 inches above the break it was half cut through. Then I 

 understood the whole thing. The bait had slipped up on 

 the line, and the second fish had bitten and pulled at it 

 till he had nearly cut the line. 



Under many circumstances minnows make good bait. 

 They may be easily caught in ditches and sluices, and 

 weakfish, sea bass, bluefish and striped bass will all take 

 them. Penn. 



MAINE PICKEREL. 



PICKEREL fishing is the order of sport at the present 

 time; or rather it was before the recent very cold 

 weather cut it short. A Boston military fishing party 

 has been the latest, or rather the members of the Har- 

 mony Club have been down to their camp on Harmony 

 Lake, in Maine. The party has considerable of military 

 distinction. It was made up of eighteen , among whom 

 were Gen. Samuel Dalton, Col. H. T. Rockwell, Maj. 

 Gen. Geo. S. Merrill, Capt. G. A. Keeler. Quarter-Master 

 S. D. Newton, Lieut. S. F, Hedges, and others. The in- 

 vited guests were F. H. Mudge, of Alfred Mudge & Son, 

 printers, and Henry Dennison, of the Dennison Tag 

 Manufacturing firm. The party reached the fishing 

 grounds at the upper end of the lake on Friday. They 

 had good fishing that day, taking some eighty pickerel. 

 But the next day and the next the wind blew a gale and 

 the mercury fell to 20 and even as low as 28 below zero. 

 All fishing had to be stopped, even by members of the 

 party who had the courage to brave the cold, for the 

 drifting snow filled the holes in the ice faster than it 

 could be cleared away. The party started for Boston 

 Sunday with the satisfaction of having had some good 

 fishing and of having found the mercury nearly 30 below 

 zero. 



Another pickerel party has also been down in Maine, 

 though it was rather of a mercantile or manufacturing 

 character, than military. It was made up of Mr. Foster, 

 of the firm of Foster & Weeks, a son of Mr. Weeks of 

 the same firm, with Mr. Emerson, both Brockton shoe 

 manufacturers, and Mr. A. G. Pierce, a Boston leather 

 merchant. This party was formed to visit Umbagog, the 

 lower lake of the Androscoggin system, and a lake cele- 

 brated for its pickerel fishing, though it was one of the 

 best trout lakes of the whole system before some misguided 

 individual put pickerel into it some thirty years ago. It 

 may be added, in passing, that it is a common remark 

 that the putting of pickerel into that lake has been a 

 great loss to the people on its borders, from the fact that 

 the other lakes of the chain bring in a handsome revenue 

 from trout fishermen, while this one brings in only a very 

 small one from pickerel. Again, this lake, and the fact 

 that there is pickerel fishing near, is made the scapegoat 

 of a good deal of illegal trout fishing, as well as in the 

 other lakes and ponds near. Once on the Umbagog, it 



is not a hard matter to slip up to the other lakes and fish 

 j for trout. Again, the trout law is foolishly framed to 

 J permit of the inhabitants of the State fishing for trout 

 for their own use after the 1st day of February; and this 

 is the cause of many a visitor from out of the State fish- 

 ing through the ice for trout. I am not prepared to state 

 that the party I have named did such fishing, but inhab- 

 itants of the State went up to B Pond, which is just over 

 the mountain from the foot of Richardson Lake, and 

 they caught some "very handsome strings of trout." 

 Some of the trout caught weighed as high as 3£lbs. They 

 had to go from Umbagog, or rather, from a logging road 

 from the upper end of the lake, some three miles, on snow- 

 shoes. Indeed, they had to use snowshoes on the pond 

 as they visited their hooks. They had to dig through two 

 feet and a half of snow on the ice, and six inches of the 

 snow full of water; then to cut through nearly two feet 

 of ice. But the trout bit voraciously. Indeed, the diffi- 

 culty seemed to be to get hooks to hold the trout, one 

 large one being caught at last with three broken hooks 

 in his jaw. 



Another party is reported to have gone up the carry on 

 snowshoes to an old camp not far from the Oxford Club, 

 near the pond in the river, where they stayed over night, 

 and the next morning went on snowshoes to the Middle 

 Dam and on to the Narrows. They also caught some 

 very large trout. They were all inhabitants of the State 

 of Maine— that is, the law requires that they shall be, and 

 if the State is ready to make such a law, why, if an inhab- 

 itant of Massachusetts happens to be in the party, he is 

 presumed not to fish. We stay-at-homes all the year, ex- 

 cept a very short vacation in the summer, when we pay 

 a very heavy price for the privilege of trying for a few 

 small trout in Maine waters, are not pleased with a form 

 of statute that permits the waters to be stripped by winter 

 fishing' or fishing through the ice after the first day of 

 February. The value of the law is either square protec- 

 tion or it is nothing but injustice. The party mentioned 

 above did not attempt to bring any trout from the State 

 contrary to law, but at the same time the chances are 

 that some of those trout will find then- way to Boston. 

 A non-export law is not half as effectual as the presence 

 of a warden to prevent illegal fishing, and the form of a 

 statute that treats all sportsmen alike, whether inhabi- 

 tants of Maine or Massachusetts, is what justice calls for. 



Special. 



DESTRUCTION OF ILLEGAL NETS. 



AMONG the decisions handed down by the General 

 Term, at Utica, N. Y., March 2, was that in the 

 case of Protector Steele, and is one that every angler- 

 will approve and applaud. William N. Steele is fish and 

 game protector on the St. Lawrence River. In the spring 

 of 1887 he seized a number of nets in Black River Bay 

 and destroyed them. The owners of the nets, George W. 

 Lawton and Frank C. Mtdlen, brought suit to recover the 

 value of the nets against Wm. N. Steele, Dr. Edward L. 

 Sargent, president of the Jefferson County Sportsmen's 

 Club, and Fish Commissioner R. U. Sherman, of New 

 Hartford. The last two were sued on the ground that 

 they had advised or directed the seizure. The case was 

 tried before Judge Williams and a jury. Plaintiffs were 

 non-suited as to defendants Sargent and Sherman. A 

 verdict for the value of the nets was rendered against 

 the defendant Steele, Judge Williams holding that the 

 law authorizing the destruction of the nets was unconsti- 

 tutional. An appeal was determined on, since the State 

 might as well be without game protectors as not to give 

 them power to enforce the law. An appeal fund was 

 raised, the case was argued in General Term. Following 

 is a- memorandum of the decision: 



George W. Lawton and another, respondents, vs. Wil- 

 liam N. Steele, appellant— Argued September, 1888; 

 decided February, 1889. E. C. Emerson, Eton Brown for 

 appellant. 



Per Curiam — We concur in the opinion given at special 

 term as to the questions involved in this case, except the 

 constitutionality of Chapter 591, Laws of 1880, as amended 

 by Laws of 1883, Chapter 317. At special term it was 

 held that that statute was unconstitutional. We think 

 the statute in question is not violative of the provision of 

 the Constitution which declares that no person shall be 

 deprived of life, liberty or property without due process 

 of law. We are of the opinion that the Legislature, by 

 virtue of the police power of the State with which it is 

 vested, was authorized to pass the statute under consider- 

 ation, and that it is valid and should be upheld. Smith 

 vs. Levinus, 8 N. Y., 472; Smith vs. Maryland, 18 How., 

 U, S., 72: Phelps vs. Racey, 60 N. Y., 10; State vs. Sne- 

 ver, 42 N. J. L., 341; Williams vs. Blackwell, 2 Hurl. & 

 Colt, 33; Glazier vs. Miller, 10 Hun., 435; Hinckley vs. 

 Emerson, 4 Cow., 351; Brown vs. Hoburger, 52 Barb., 25; 

 People vs. Cipperly, 87 Hun., 325, affirmed on dissenting 

 opinion of Learned, J., 101 Y., 634. 



The judgment recovered was for $21 6 damages,being for 

 the value of sixteen fish nets destroyed by the defend- 

 ant. Twelve of these nets were found set in the waters 

 of Black River Bay, in violation of the statute for the 

 preservation of the fish therein. The other four were 

 not set in the water, but were found on Perch River 

 bridge, and were worth $36. The defendant had no right 

 to destroy the four nets which were not in illegal use. 

 This was conceded. Hence we conclude that, while the- 

 plaintiffs were entitled to a judgment against the defend- 

 ant for $36 damages, they were not entitled to the judg- 

 ment awarded, and that the judgment and order appealed 

 from should be reversed, and a new trial granted with 

 costs to abide the event. 



Red Snapper Fishing.— The red snapper fishing of the 

 Gulf of Mexico is controlled principally by several firms 

 in Pensacola, Fla., who send the fresh fish North and 

 West. An attempt is being made now to sell the fish in 

 New York at wholesale from refrigerator cars, Small 

 snappers bring a higher price than large ones, and the 

 fishery for them is receding further and further off shore. 

 New fishing grounds have recently been discovered, but 

 there is still plenty of room for exploration. Four hundred 

 and thirty-eight thousand pounds were shippped from 

 Pensacola during the month ending Feb. 18, a smaller 

 amount than usual. 



The Fly-Fishers' Club, of London, has erected in 

 Winchester Cathedral a tablet in memory of the late 

 Francis Francis. 



