May 2, 1889.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



299 



ly straightened out. and cried to the captain to help him 

 land his fish. After pulling like a pair of oxen they man- 

 aged to get on deck a piece of coral, perfect, which 

 weighed, probably, 501bs. All manner of queer things 

 were found in the branches and in the roots: starfish, 

 queer little yellow fish with bright blue backs, etc. Gen- 

 try was more pleased with his coral than if he had caught 

 a "201bs. grouper. Presently. Tate had a bite, and at- 

 tempted to pull in, but the fish was too strong for him, 

 for lie fell over on his back, but still holding on to the 

 line. After considerable work, and exciting work, too, 

 he landed the finest catch of the day, a lOlbs. red grouper, 

 and a lOlbs. black grouper. 



Ae tiit' wind had almost died out, we started back, and 

 reluctantly coiled up our tackle. After a pleasant run, 

 with all sail set. we made Big Pass by dark, and the 

 wharf by 8 o'clock, with a string of fish that anybody 

 might be proud of. Starr, Tate and 1 had twenty-eight 

 groupers and twenty grunts. Two men could hardly 

 carry the load up the bluff to the hotel on a stick of tim- 

 ber." Gentry and Phillips had an equal number. We 

 went up to the hotel feeling very much satisfied with our- 

 selves. The gentlemen who stayed at home and scoffed 

 were preen w jth envy; but ate grouper steak for break- 

 fast, just the same. 



We have had splendid fishing in the bay and inland 

 lakes during the winter. The tarpon have not arrived 

 here in any great numbers, but we saw a school of four- 

 teen or fifteen sporting in a bayou. If any one wishes to 

 spend a pleasant winter, with Rood accommodations, 

 come here, for the Orange Bluff Hotel is here, and has a 

 good manager. Francis Goodhue, Jr. 



Clearwater Harbor, Fla. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



/CHICAGO, April 22.— Messrs. D. P. Wilkinson, J. M. 

 \J Clark, Frank Stone, Tom "Waters and Ed. Van Ber- 

 gen were, out on the Fox River fishing last Saturday. 

 They are all devotees to the art of casting. They caught 

 one crawfish and one mud-puppy, but say the air was 

 very fine. 



Considerable numbers of pickerel with some bass and 

 wall eyed pike have already been picked tip at Fox Lake, 

 but there has been no regular sport at all. 



Attention should be drawn to the manner in which 

 wall-eyed pike and bass have been speared in the Kanka- 

 kee River m Indiana during the past year. One pusher 

 told rne this spring that he had speared 85 wall-eyed pike 

 in one night during the spring run of a year ago, and 

 that this spring he had often killed two to three dozen in 

 a night. The Kankakee is being cleaned out. Yet it is a 

 good angling stream if treated right. 



A pril 87. — To-day is a warm and beautiful day, and 

 ( here is moving a mysterious something in the air which 

 has filled up all the sporting goods stores with crowds of 

 men who are inspecting and buying fishing tackle. This 

 is really the first day of the fishing season, because it is 

 the first day when the gentle angling malady has really 

 claimed its victims wholesale. It is in the air now, and 

 all Chicago seems eager and good-natured, as the symp- 

 toms always run of this delightful ailment. 



Chicago never displayed a larger and more perfect line 

 of angling goods than 'she does this spring. I presume 

 few cities could equal the display. It shows clearly the 

 growing interest in the pleasant and healthful sports of 

 the flood and- field, which are this year beginning to draw 

 a large following from other popular but less rational 

 sports. It, shows also the fact, not yet fully known, that 

 Chicago is the natural center and starting point for as 

 grand a fishing country as there is in the United States. 

 I hope to do what I can toward definitely confirming this 

 statement this spring. There is a wealth of undiscovered 

 fishing knowledge lying about here, and it ought to be 

 looked up. 



Among other gentlemen whom 1 saw outfitting at 

 Spalding's this morning were Messrs. C. H. Adams of the 

 Board of Trade and Mr. Theodore Gray. Both of these 

 gentlemen are going East, Mr. Adams to fish in Maine 

 waters. Mr. Gray will also visit Maine this summer, re- 

 turning here about July 1, in time to catch some fish. All 

 nonsense, going to Maine. The Maine men would better 

 come out here. There are fish as is fish in some places 

 not a thousand miles from here. E. Hough. 



CURRENT RIVER CLUB. 



ST. LOUIS, Mo.— Editor Forest and Stream: The Cur- 

 rent River Hunting and Fishing Club has decided to 

 erect a handsome and suitable club house, and has there- 

 { ore levied an assessment of $5 upon each member. It is 

 t he intention of the club to erect the building on the 

 banks of Current River, in Ripley county, this State. 

 Current River is a beautiful stream with pebble bottom, 

 and abounds with pickerel, jack salmon, pike and black 

 bass. It is called Current River because the current in it 

 is very swift. At times, when the water is low, there are 

 a number of mean and dangerous rapids to be encoun- 

 tered in it, and an expert boatman is required to pilot 

 one over them in safety. 



Deer are very plentiful in the vicinity, and quite a 

 number were shot and secured by the members of the 

 above club during the past season. Turkeys are also 

 quite numerous. Small game, such as quail, woodcock, 

 squirrels and rabbits, are also plentiful, and good sport 

 is to be had on them down there when in season. 



There are now eighty names on the club's membership 

 list, and the assessment, with what there is in its treas- 

 ury, will give it a sufficient amount to erect the club 

 house and furnish it, build boats and purchase whatever 

 else may be deemed necessary for a complete equipment 

 of the club. 



The Missouri Lumber and Mining Company have 

 donated to the club forty acres (reserving the mining and 

 timber privileges), being the property surrounding the 

 site selected for the club house, while the ground on 

 which the club house will stand, including eight and one- 

 third acres, is given to the club by S. Short of Northeast 

 Pennsylvania in fee simple, thus insuring the club a per- 

 manent location, free from any interference whatever. 



The club house is to be neatly and substantially built 

 on a high point overlooking the river and at one of the 

 bfst fishing pools on the entire river. Work will begin on 

 it immediately, and will, it is expected, be ready for oc- 

 cupancy in a few weeks. When completed it will be put in 

 charge of an experienced hunter and fisherman, who will 

 be found at the club house at all times to attend to and 

 furnish sport for the members. Unser Fritz. 



CALIFORNIA'S FISHED-OUT STREAMS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



As in many other States, the trout season opened this 

 month in California; that is the legal season opened. 

 Very little attention is paid to game laws in this county, 

 and, indeed, in all the other counties that I know any- 

 thing about. The first Saturday of the month, with a 

 companion, I went up on Mark West Creek to investigate 

 the trout question. We went pretty well up the creek, 

 about eleven miles from town. We found the creek in 

 good condition in every way except for fishing. A native 

 informed us that the creek was about fished out. So, 

 somewhat discouraged, we went to work and at night we 

 had about one hundred trout. Now, in one respect, trout 

 are like men. Some men are to be counted ana some are 

 to be weighed. So it is with trout. These trout were to 

 be counted. 



There is a creek about twelve miles east of town that I 

 have always heard was full of fish. I have been there 

 many times, but until last Saturday had never fished it. 

 It is called Sonoma Creek. Friday I made my prepara- 

 tions to go next day. Saturday morning I got up at 5 

 o'clock to start, but then the rain was just pouring down. 

 I went back to bed and slept till six. The rain had 

 stopped then, so I got on my bicycle and started. It was 

 pretty muddy for a bicycle, and several times 1 had to g. o. 

 p. But in an bom- and a, half I got to the creek and started 

 to fish. I fished for about an hour and only got one bite, 

 and that was a sucker. That disgusted me and I quit. I 

 then came back toward home, and stopped at Santa Rosa 

 Creek, about five miles from town. Here I fished all day 

 and caught only seventeen. Like all the other trout that 

 are caught around here they are very small. The trout 

 here range from three to eight inches, average about five. 



I learned to day that the fish in Sonoma are all below 

 a dam, which is about fourteen miles from here. My in- 

 formant said there are plenty of trout below the dam. I 

 think I will wend my weary way out below the dam next 

 Saturday. 



I was greatly interested in the "Mexican Notes" which 

 appeared in the last issue. The gentleman who wrote 

 the article used to teach in a college here. I was one of 

 his pupils. I hope he will give us some accounts of his 

 hunting trips, something about the turkeys, deer and 

 bear which are in those motmtains. Bicyc li;. 



Santa KoSA, Cab, April 16. 



BIG TROUT AND PICKEREL. 



IT IS evident that the giant trout are not all dead yet, 

 if we are to believe the stories told of the ice fishing 

 this spring. An Augusta, Maine, paper recently had 

 an account of a "square-tail trout" .just caught in Snow 

 Pond, in the town of Belgrade, that weighed 1 1-jTbs, The 

 fish after it was dressed weighed over 91bs. In the same 

 pond there was also caught recently two big trout, the 

 united weight of which was over l'4lbs. The town of 

 Belgrade is noted for its ponds, there being several large 

 lakes within the town or partly in it, and these ponds 

 have always been noted for their fish. But of late years, 

 or since the pickerel craze, which swept through the 

 entire State some thirty to thirty-five years ago, these 

 ponds have been more rioted for pickerel than any other 

 fish, unless, indeed, it be for white perch, which have 

 afforded good sport in some of these ponds at times. 

 Some twenty years ago there was in existence a white 

 perch association, made up of Waterville, West Water- 

 ville — it then was, now Oakland— and Belgrade gentle- 

 men ; and later their ladies were taken into the association . 

 But the stocking of the ponds with black bass was of no 

 benefit to the white perch, and within a few years the 

 association died out. Ephraim Maxham, formerly one of 

 the editors of the Waterville Mail, but now asleep in the 

 valley of the Kennebec, was a warm friend and sup- 

 porter of that White Perch Association. He had in his 

 rind heart all the genuine love of an Izaak Walton for 

 the shining waters of the Belgrade ponds, the meetings 

 of the White Perch Association, the rods and lines, 

 the bait, even the chowders on the island. But there 

 finally came to his creel one of those giant trout, which 

 the pond was noted for before the deadly pickerel came. 

 Ephraim was "fishing over the side of the boat," so he told 

 the story, "with a worm and taking now and then a perch." 

 The creel was nearly full, and he fell to chatting with 

 a friend, and his rod hung idly over the gunwale. A 

 little minnow became impaled on the hook through vora- 

 ciously snapping at the worm, "and just to punish him," 

 Ephraim remarked, "I thought I would let him dangle 



there for a Avhile. Absorbed in talking with Mrs. , 



on our Sons of Temperance affairs, the' hook dragged for 

 some little distance with quite a long line out. All at 

 once there came a great swirl in the neighborhood of the 

 hook. The rod gave a bound and nearly went out of the 

 boat. By mere chance I caught hold of it, and then I 

 thought the hook was fast- to the bottom, but only for a 

 moment, for the bottom proved to be a very lively one, 

 to say the least, and I began to fear for the rigging— only 

 a dry juniper for a pole and a strong pickerel line. I 

 was aware that I could not land the fish by main force, 

 as we had been doing with the white perch all day, but I 

 thought that I could the him out and get him alongside 

 of the boat, where we could see him. The fish tugged 

 and pulled, and the old juniper threatened to break at 

 every extra swirl. But the line was strong, the hook was 

 large, and soon I drew him in till I caught hold of the 

 line and had him up to the boat. He was a monster, and 

 such colors! He was the biggest trout I had ever seen, 

 and land him I must! Collins, who was managing the 

 boat, suggested that we tip the boat down to the gunwale 

 and then I could jump the trout in. It was done, and in 

 a twinkle I had the biggest brook trout in that boat that 

 I had ever seen. It weighed over 61bs. I was king of 

 the White Perch Association after that. I had caught 

 the biggest and the only spotted trout seen in that pond 

 for years.' 



But the question in hand is that there are yet a few of 

 those giant trout left in many of the lakes and ponds in 

 Maine, where once they were about the only fish, except 

 the minnows on which they feed. These lakes and ponds 

 are all of them natural trout waters, and but for the 

 pickerel and bass they might again be trout waters. 

 The natural woodsy condition of the most of these ponds 

 still remains favorable to trout, but there are the pickerel. 

 The pickerel not only eat up all the food — the minnows — 

 on which the great trout could subsist, but they prey upon 

 the young trout. It is only occasionally that one reaches 

 such a size that the pickerel cannot master him. Then 



he is left to grow, and when such a trout is caught, it is 

 one of the giants such as is mentioned at the beginning 

 of this article. The pickerel lakes and ponds of Maine 

 are all fed by streams, and these streams are all trout 

 streams, if you go up far enough to find rapid water, and 

 above such rapids as the pickerel cannot stem. Here the 

 small trout continue to be hatched, and they would go 

 down, and doubtless do go down, only to be destroyed by 

 the pickerel, instead of growing up to be giant trout as 

 in days gone by. If great Jupiter with a thunderbolt 

 would only blot all these pickerel out of existence, and 

 then throw the bass and sticklebacks over into the ocean, 

 what trout waters we again might have! Special. 



THE SALMON IN NORWEGIAN SEAS. 



A POINT always obscure in the history of this fish is 

 the knowledge of its actions at sea, where it is 

 reputed to pass a large portion of the year and where, 

 however, there has been no record of its capture. Mon- 

 sieur, the Marquis of Ferronnays, has propounded a new 

 theory in regard to this subject, which appears to rne 

 well worthy of attention. "We always have," he remarket, 

 "Norwegian, sailors in our ports, and they all tell us that 

 in their country, when they engage in fishing along the 

 shores, they take in their nets large, medium-sized and 

 small salmon at the same time; that is to say, salmon of 

 all ages and every degree of development." 



This proposition, in its present form, is a little vague 

 and does not give evidence of the careful observation 

 which one would demand in considering a statement so 

 novel; the question which it raises is always so interest- 

 ing that I desired at once to have the opinion on this 

 matter of the man best qualified to inform us— Mr. Rob- 

 ert Collett, professor of zoology in the University of 

 Christiania, the well known ichthyologist, who has in 

 recent years prosecuted a study of the Salmonidae of 

 northern Europe, with the intention of publishing the 

 results of his work. The following letter, dated Jan. 9, 

 which my esteemed colleague has obligingly written me, 

 answers the question directly: 



"As to the statement concerning the Norwegian fisher- 

 men in their relation to the salmon fishery along our 

 shores, the case stands thus: During the summer thou- 

 sands of salmon are caught in nets along the coast, from 

 Lindesnces to Finmaxk: most of them are young, but 

 there are some adults also. They evidently follow the 

 shore, seeking the mouths of rivers, in which they ascend 

 to spawn. Salmon certainly never spawn at sea, but only 

 in the streams; at the end of autumn they descend again 

 to the sea, in the depths of which they pass the entire 

 winter, never being captured on the shores at this season. 

 Very rarely a male remains in fresh water throughout 

 the winter": when such an individual is caught in the fol- 

 lowing spring, it is found to be excessively thin, because 

 food is very scarce in rivers. During its sojourn in 

 streams the salmon really eats almost nothing; in the sea, 

 during the winter, it grows rapidly, for it is a voracious 

 animal, feeding on herring, sand launce and other fishes. 

 The young sometimes leave the rivers, but rarely until 

 they reach the age of twelve to fourteen months, and 

 more frequently two years. At this period they measure 

 from 6| to 6*nT. long. They remain at sea until they are 

 ready to spawn; the river which they ascend is most fre- 

 quently the one in which they were born." 



This extract * * * shows that on the coasts of Nor- 

 way the same conditions apply to the salmon as on our 

 own shores, except, perhaps, as regards the abundance of 

 the fish and certain facts as to the time of its appearance, 

 differences which may be satisfactorily explained by the 

 difference in climate. 



To summarize: (1) The salmon in Norway is not caught 

 far from the coasts, but near the shore; (2) when both 

 young and adults are taken the young are not kept; (8) 

 there is no fishery except in summer when the fish at- 

 tempt to ascend fresh waters to spawn. 



It results unfortunately from this disposition of the 

 question that the presence of the salmon at sea is un- 

 certain, for though Mr. Collett, and all ichthyologists, 

 admit that this fish after having deposited its eggs in 

 fresh waters retires to the depths of the sea, this is merely 

 an inference, doubtless natural, but wanting direct proof. 

 The animals which this savant mentions as constituting 

 the food of the salmon throw no light on the subject, as 

 they are without doubt such as it captures when approach- 

 ing" the shores; the sand launce (Ammodytes) especially is 

 a shore species. 



If, on the other hand, the salmon secretes itself in great 

 depths, how comes it that the numerous dredgings made 

 in this region have not yet yielded any. or that a speci- 

 men has not even been secured accidentally, like certain 

 other fishes from the same regions, after severe storms ? 

 The non-capture of the salmon seems the more extraord- 

 inary since the rapid increase in the size of the fish in salt 

 water indicates sufficiently that its life therein is a very 

 active one. — Leon Vaillant, in Bevue des Sciences Natur- 

 elles AjypUquees, February, 180,9, 



Trout Fishing Note.— Leonardsville, Madison county, 

 N. Y., April 27. — Trout fishing does not open up very pro- 

 pitiously in this section this spring. The fact is, there 

 are but few trout here in what are known as trout 

 streams. It seems a shame that right here in the natural 

 retreat of the speckled beauties, where purling, splashing 

 brooks of limpid water abound, they should be almost 

 exterminated. The writer is familiar with the streams of 

 northern Michigan, and on the small tributaries of the 

 Upper Muskegon we have met with splendid trout fishing 

 in stocked waters, where it was very difficult to force a 

 passage through the jungle of cedar and evergreens that 

 fringed the banks of the log-clogged creeks. The water 

 was vellow and sluggish, and had scarcely supported 

 suckers prior to the introduction of these mottled 

 gamesters. They are multiplying very rapidly up there, 

 while grayling are on the decrease. Fish for gray- 

 lino- on the headwaters of the Manatee and Pine, and for 

 royal speckled trout on the upper tributaries of the Mus- 

 kegon. A State hatchery is located at Paris, near Reed 

 City, which is the savior.of the fishing interests in that 

 region.— Boxer. 



Salmon in the Hudson.— A fine 211bs. salmon was 

 taken last Thursday in a shad net off Keyport, N. J., and 

 for a day or two after that was to be seen on the slab at 

 Blackford's, in Fulton Market. This is the sixth large fish 

 of this kind reported this year. It has been suggested 

 that this year some might be taken with the fly below the 

 dam at Troy, but we have not learned that any successful 

 attempts to do this have been made. 



