194 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 28, 1889. 



A TROUT SUPPLEMENT. 

 The next issue of the Forest and Stream. April 4, will 

 )u(ve a supplement, devoted to trevt. /' u-ilt he profusely 

 iVuftntted ■with carefvl portraits of American ■Snlmmiidtr. 



SOME TROUT SEASONS. 



THE trout season for 188!) will open in the States named, as 

 follows: 

 Connecticut— Trout, April. 



Maine.— Landlocked salmon, trout, togue, May 1. (Citizens of 

 the State may catch for own use in February. March and April.) 

 Salmon, April 1. 



Vermont.— Trout, landlocked salmon, salmon, longe, April 1. 



New Hampshire.— Landlocked or fresh-water salmon. Jake trout, 

 brook or speckled trout, May 1. (Lake trout with single hook and 

 line, January. February and April.) 



Massachusetts.— 'Trowx,, landlocked salmon, lake trout, April I. 

 Salmon, May 1. 



New York.— Speckled trout, brook trout. California trout., April 

 1. Salmon trout, lake trout, landlocked salmon, April 1 (in Lake 

 George May 1). In the Forest Preserve and for all named. Mav 1. 



New Jersey.— Trout, March 1. 



Pennsylvania— Speckled trout, April 15. 



Michigan.— Speckled trout, landlocked salmon. May 1. Gravling, 

 California trout, .June 1. 



DRUM FISHING AT ANGLESEA. 



IT was a day in September, suck a day as Shelley would 

 have pictured in immortal verse, for to him the sea 

 was as dear as the voice of one beloved singing alone. It 

 was such a day as the poet calls a marriage of the ocean 

 to the sky, the sea being the bride. Swinburne describes 

 the day I went a fishing in his --Off Shore" tints: 



"With music unheard 



In the light of her lips, 

 In the life-giving word 



Of the dewfall that drips 

 On the grasses of earth, and the wind 



That enkindles the wings of the ships, 

 White glories of wings, 

 As of seafaring birds 

 That flock from the springs 



Of the sunrise in herds, 

 With the wind for a herdsman and 

 Hasten or halt at the change of his word. 

 Even such a Sybarite as Swinburne sees God in the 

 ocean blue, whose kingdom is in Heaven and His shrine 

 is the sea. Upon such a day as this any poet of passion 

 would grow eloquent. Only four of us started out from 

 Hereford Inlet, intent on drum. The party consisted of 

 Skipper Hewlett Brown, Assistant £ kipper Joe Ludlam. 

 Chas. Stewart, of Philadelphia, and d. M. S.. in the cat- 

 rigged yacht J. W. Huyser. We drifted slowly clown 

 behind the. breaker toward Holly Beach, catching sea 

 robins, sharks and skates in abundance. The sea was 

 full of these abnormal fish, and J. M. S. suggested that 

 we up with the killick and try fresh fields and sea pas- 

 tures new. 



We struck out with a light wind and were rewarded 

 with a dozen small sea bass at Buoy No. 1. But we were 

 after drum, and remembering some lucky days among 

 the noblest game fish that swims the deep sea, near Buoy 

 No. 2, I timidly suggested to "Holy Joe, " as we call 

 Captain Ludlam, that we try the waters near the,buoy. 

 Hither we sailed. Our bait was corned menhaden, of 

 which we had half a barrel. No sooner had we reached 

 the buoy and begun to drift than I threw my line over 

 with a big menhaden fast to my hook, tied with black 

 thread. In one minute I felt a gentle sucking at my 

 bait, the habit of the channel bass or red drum in biting, 

 and soon the big fish, without my consent first had and 

 obtained, started out for Cape Heniopen wdth all his 

 might and main. I gave the wild drum 200ft. of line, 

 and as the last of the line payed out I suddenly turned 

 the fish square around and began to haul him in under a 

 pressure of at least SOlbs. Soon the water began to boil, 

 as the immense drum sprang out of the sea and attempted 

 to shake the hook out of his mouth. The drum did not 

 like the outlook and struck out for the bottom of the deep, 

 making a straight wake for Florida. Again I gave him 

 all the line I could spare, and as the fish paused I put the 

 Cuttyhunk line between my teeth and stripped off my 

 overcoat "quick as a cat can wink its eye." Again I 

 hauled in on the cotton-laid twine line and got one more 

 sight at the drum, which showed no abatement of what 

 the Quaker calls his "creaturely activity." I began to 

 get tired and the line burned my fingers, as the fish with 

 renewed vigor struck out at a rate of thirty miles an 

 horn*. 



''Give me that line,'* said Holy Joe Ludlam, "audi will 

 show you how to save that fish." J. M. S. replied "This 

 fish is not for Joe." In his anxiety the skipper danced a 

 minuet on the deck. Still I played the angry drum, and 

 Charley Stewart exclaimed, "Well, well! Hoop te doon 

 du! this is what I call heroic fishing." The drum was 

 getting weary, so was J. M. S., and he began, by main 

 force, to haul in the fish. "Easy, easy over the stones," 

 said Holy Joe. ' ' Who's a doing this thing?" said J. M. S. . 

 and soon the magnificent fish, whose scales shone in the 

 evening sun like the sheen of the minarets of an eastern 

 mosque, turned over on its side, Holy Joe leaned over the 

 side of the yacht and gob his nimble fingers in the drum's 

 gills, and with a strong pull flung a 60lbs. drum over the 

 guard rail of the boat, when Charley Stewart gave a wild 

 Comanche yell and danced the "Fisher's Hornpipe" on 

 the low-down deck of the J. W. Huyler, singing the song 

 of "Hooptedoodendu." 



This was the first red drum of the Anglesea season, and 

 no sun upon an Easter day was half so fine a sight. The 

 next drum was hooked by Holy Joe himself. The sharks 

 and skates had bitten off all our hooks, save those on two 

 lines, and one of these was an old eel skin-covered squid. 

 Holy Joe was happy; it was his first red drum in two 

 years, The fish fought like a Bengal tiger and took out 

 every foot of his line — three hundred feet. It took him 

 half an hour to get the drum into a condition of* ausge- 

 spielt or played ovtedness, for this red drum was a cross 

 between the sea-horse and an alligator; but finally he 

 yielded to the inevitable and his red sides shone in the 

 sun as he turned over on his belly. 



"Easy now, Skipper Joe," said J. M. S.; "go slow." 

 "Get out, Jim," said Holy Joe, "do you think I can't haul 

 a drum in out of the wet?" J. M. S. replied: "I want 

 you to go slow." Joe reached over the yacht's side 



and rammed his hand deep into the red gills of the 

 red drum. "Ouch!" he yelled as the drum closed his 

 teeth on his horny hand, Joe let go his "holt" with an 

 unearthly yell, which caused the Philadelphian to plain- 

 tively exclaim: "Hooptedudendoo!" Joe slowly endeav- 

 ored to haul in the drum on the squid, the drum stood 

 t he hauling process kindly only a moment, shook his tail, 

 broke the hook, and made one wild dash for liberty. 

 Holy J oe dropped on the deck, ' 1 Hooptedudendoo !" shouted 

 Charley Stewart, "may I be permitted to exclaim, this is 

 heroic fishing! Well, well!" 



Capt. Ludlam was like Francisco di Rimini, "He fished 

 no more that day." J. M. S. bagged two more drum, the 

 three fish weighing 1511bs. 6ez. "Enough is as good as 

 a feast." said Stewart; "let's go home." Home we went 

 to a good dinner at set of sun, with that gifted and genial 

 Boniface-lawyer Alexander Gray, of the Hotel Anglesea. 

 At night we caught eight more drum, and thus ended the 

 biggest day's fishing for red drum ever seen on the beauti- 

 ful island of Anglesea. As we sailed homeward bound 

 one by one the stars came out into the quiet sky. 



In an hour 1 must bid farewell (for a season, for this, 

 my summer idyl in September, was my last day among 

 the drum) to Capt. Joe, my Fidus Achates on the sea, the 

 rarest and quaintest of all the sad sea dogs I've ever 

 known, and say my parting words to Boniface Pickwick, 

 of the Hereford, who never stales with the infinite vari- 

 ety of his antique jokes or in the quality of his salt-water 

 eels. 



Sadly I said: "I greet thee, infinite sea, but I must 

 must leave thee, though— 



" 'Like the tongue of ray country ripples thy waters; 

 Like dreams of my childhood seems the glimmer 

 On thy wild, wavering, watery realm.'" 



It is hail and farewell; for the call of the work-day 

 world is paramount to the joys "the deep, unfathomed 

 caves of ocean bear. " Stewart stands waiting on the bow 

 of the Huyser, for he wants to catch a night train, bear- 

 ing a 60 pound red drum to Brother Rudolph, who doesn't 

 believe there is such a fish on the Atlantic coast. 



Later on, as he sits on the cowcatcher of the Mud Hen*, 

 I will hear his farewell "Hooptedundoo" as he waves his 

 tender farewell on the shore with a white silk handker- 

 chief. 



As we sail, I long to linger. But it is only one day in 

 life's journey now, as pleasant "as a gentle summer 

 night, when scythes are busy in the headed grass." 



Unconsciously, the sotmd of the sea recalls the words 

 of Mr. Gilfill's love story: "Rich brown locks, passionate 

 love and deep early sorrow, strangely different as they 

 seem from white hair, the apathetic consent and the un- 

 expected acquiescence of old age, are but part of the 

 same life journey, as the bright Italian plains, with the 

 sweet add in of these beckoning maidens, are part of the 

 same day's travel that brings us to the other side of the 

 mountain, between the sombre rocky walls and among 

 the guttaral voices of the vallais.''' Jas. M. Scovel. 



*The oldest and wheeziest locomotive in New Jersey. 



INDIANA FISH AND FISHING. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The fun is about to begin. The spring opens beauti- 

 fully, and the festive red-eye, goggle-eye or rock bass is 

 on the wing. Great strings of them were taken out of 

 White River this week. I have taken them as early as 

 March 8. They are a most delightful fish, weighing 

 from 6 or 8oz. to lib., though the latter size are scarce in 

 this locality, but plentiful in the lakes. They are about 

 the earliest fish to come and latest to go and are tooth- 

 some and long-lived. A string of them is beautiful to 

 behold. From twenty to forty at an outing is a reason- 

 able catch. I prefer their flesh to that of a bass, black 

 or green. 



Speaking of bass, they have also shown up. but are as 

 yet scarce, it being a little too early in the season for 

 this greatly prized fish. Last week half a dozen, ranging 

 from 1 to 1 Albs., were taken from a trot line, and one 

 that weighed 31bs. was caught with rod and line. They 

 are hardly due for a month yet, and then comes their 

 spawning season, when no true fisherman will want to 

 take them. They grow from 4 to 61bs. in weight and by 

 a great many are thought to be about the sweetest fish 

 that swim, and they are certainly among the gamiest. 

 They take kindly to minnow or crawfish and rise to the 

 fly, although it is only in the last few years that they 

 have been educated up to this. We have a spirited fly- 

 fisherman's club, which last year gave a recherche exhibi- 

 tion and I believe are making preparations for another. 



Suckers — black ones at that — are now in their glory. 

 Although a great many turn up their noses at a black 

 sucker, properly prepared for the table, there are few 

 more palatable fish in the spring and fall. They will 

 sometimes weigh 3 to olbs. and afford considerable sport 

 in their capture, as they are quite gamy. 



Indiana streams are generally well adapted to fishcttl- 

 ture if the fish were only protected; but in this we are 

 probably behind all other States in the Union. Our 

 education has been sadly neglected and our streams 

 have been depopulated by the Goth and the Vandal, the 

 Goth represented by the seiner, and the Vandal by the 

 dynamiter, and we have them in disgraceful profusion. 



We have good laws enough, but they are not enforced. 

 Neither judges nor grand juries will enforce them, 

 while the farmers as a general thing violate them con- 

 tinually. A farmer thinks it a terrible thing if he can- 

 not be permitted to seine and catch his fish for winter 

 use. If the streams were protected for a few years 

 there would.be no scarcity of fish, and we have some of 

 the finest varieties known. The State is very backward 

 and careless in all that concerns fishculture. True it has 

 a Fish Commissioner who is paid the magnificent sum of 

 $300 per year, while $700 per year is appropriated to- 

 ward protecting the fish and stocking streams, which 

 need no stocking if they are protected. The Fish Com- 

 missioner has no more power than the ordinary citizen. 

 His hands are literally tied so that he can do nothing 

 and there was talk this year of abolishing the office. It 

 should have been done unless about $5,000 were appro- 

 priated to fish interests. Mr. William Dennis, of Rich- 

 mond, was appointed Fish Commissioner a few months 

 ago. There is nothing like a hatchery that I know of 

 in the State, indeed there would be no need of one if the 

 fish we have were afforded protection. Indiana needs a 

 grand awakening in regard to fishculture. 

 Indianapolis, Indiana, March Pi. Enos B. Reed, 



FISHING RIGHTS IN PRIVATE WATERS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of March 14 you quote with apparent ap- 

 proval the verdict of the Supreme Court in the case of 

 the people of New York against Aden Mclntyre, charged 

 with taking ten fish with a net from his own private 

 waters, in and near Cossayuna Lake, Washington county , 

 New York, 



In this case there is no question of fact; defendant 

 raises the questions: 1. That by the laws of the State 

 fishing with a net in Cossayuna Lake is not prohibited. 

 2. That if the Legislature have enacted a law intended 

 to apply to fishing with a net in said lake, such law is 

 unconstitutional, and contrary to the provisions of Sec. 

 18 of Article I. of the Constitution of this State. 



The court in its decision finds, both as a matter of fact 

 and of law, that defendant and other land owners are the 

 absolute owners of the lands and waters of Lake Cossa- 

 yuna; that is of the waters and the land under the waters; 

 owning it as fully and absolutely as any one can own 

 lands on which there are ponds and streams. But the 

 court decides first in answer to the plea that the act is 

 tmconstitutional in its application to private ponds, 

 "That no right of property in defendant has been im- 

 paired—his rights of property remain the same as they 

 were before the passage of the act in question." 



This involves the decision that although the land and 

 water of the lakes are absolutely private property, the 

 fish are not, although the owners may have stocked and 

 maintained the ponds at their own cost, a decision incom- 

 patible with the generally accepted view that the fish in 

 the fish hatcheries of the State or in private hatcheries, 

 or in ponds or tanks are private property. If the fish in 

 the one case are fern natural, so are they in the other, and 

 the objection of the court is not well taken. Fish in a 

 private pond are as much property as deer in a park. 

 But the court in its judgment cites various authorities 

 to show that all property is held subject to those general 

 regulations which are necessary to the common good and 

 general welfare, and that the fact that a statute impairs 

 the value of property does not render it unconstitutional. 

 These decisions were not intended to over-ride or set at 

 naught the limitations of the powers of the Legislature as 

 defined in Sec. 18 of Article I. of the constitution of this 

 State, but simply to qualify it. The Legislature may not 

 pass laws destructive of, or prejudicial to, vested rights, 

 but it may impose such restrictions on the exercise of 

 those rights as may appear desirable for the public inter- 

 est; it may even pass laws embodying ill-judged and 

 vexatious provisions without infringing the constitution, 

 but to render it constitutional there must be some shadow 

 of plea at least that it is for the public interest, but as 

 laid down in the judgment under review the question at 

 issue is not merely whether the Legislature had the 

 authority to extend the provisions of the fisheries act to 

 private waters, but further, whether they had it in con- 

 templation and intended that its provisions should so 

 apply. 



In construing a law the court lays down that it is 

 proper and often necessary to see what was the object 

 to be attained by the law, and what was the intention of 

 the Legislature in passing it, and to this may be added 

 that on the part of the courts it would be an insult to the 

 Legislature to assume that that body would impose any 

 vexatious restrictions upon the free and full exercise of 

 individual rights of property, unless such restrictions 

 were held necessary to the general well being; and here, 

 I think, the court has erred in confining itself to a critical 

 reading of the text of the law instead of considering 

 whether the extension of the prohibition of netting to 

 private waters was presumably necessary to secure the 

 objects for which the law was designed. 



The literal rendering of the law is always subject to 

 qualification by considerations of its intent. The literal 

 readings of the act would make its provisions apply to 

 trout or bass in aquaria or glass globes, but in common 

 courtesy to the Legislature we are bound to infer that it 

 never meditated any such vexatious interference with 

 rights of property. It would be competent to that body 

 to prohibit the sale, or exposure of such fish for sale, dur- 

 ing the close season, because the absolute interdiction of 

 such sale, or exposure, is a protection against fishing out 

 of season, but to prohibit an individual from taking his 

 own fish out of his own glass globe, tank, pond or lake, 

 in his own way, the right of absolute property in the con- 

 taining vessel, pond or lake being conceded, cannot be 

 defended on the plea that it is for the common good. 



The object which the law aimed at securing was the 

 prevention of the depletion of the waters over which the 

 State holds control in the interests of the public. Fishing 

 with a net in such waters is antagonistic to the objects of 

 the bill, tending to the exhaustion of public wealth. 



The exhaustion of private wealth is not a matter about 

 which the State concerns itself; is not, in fact, a proper 

 matter for legislation. Unless it can be contended that 

 the objects of the bill were frustrated, or in danger of 

 being frustrated, by the defendant lifting his fish with a 

 net, the extension of the act to his private fish pond 

 would be unconstitutional, and we are bound to infer 

 that the Legislature did not contemplate any such vexa- 

 tious interference with private rights of property. 



The case of Phelps vs. Racy, cited by the court as a 

 precedent, does not apply. The exposing of game birds 

 for sale in close season was incompatible with the efforts 

 of the Legislature to prevent the taking of those birds 

 during such close season; but no such contention can be 

 set up in the case under notice. It should be carried to 

 the Court of Appeals for review of judgment. 



C. F. A. 



Florida Fishino. — Many anglers are now in Florida 

 fishing. Mr. W. C. Prime, author of "I Go A-Fishing," 

 and Mr. N. Merrill, a brother of Major H. W. Merrill, are 

 at Ormond, on the Halifax River, fifty miles south of St. 

 Augustine. Mr. Merrill writes, under date of March 17, 

 to his brother: "Yesterday the fishing was good, the 

 trout (weakfish) rising beautifully to the fly. Mr. Prime 

 took some twenty-five by casting; but I killed the largest 

 fish yet taken here this season. My slight tackle was in 

 full strain for some fifteen minutes, as he got under the 

 bridge once." 



Burbot in Illinois.— We have just 'learned from Dr. 

 S. P. Bartlett, Fish Commissioner of Illinois, that a 

 burbot {Lota maeidosa) about 12in. long was taken in 

 the Mississippi River, near Canton, in the latter part of 

 last November. This is the first instance he has known 

 of its occurrence in the Mississippi in his State, 



