Sept. 20, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



167 



it; lost his appetite: usually eats fifteen trout for his 

 breakfast (Canada dogs cat fish when they are lucky 

 enough to get them; generally live on faith); this morn- 

 ing lie only ate fourteen. Our grief reduced our appe- 

 tites to an even dozen; we usually see that number and go 

 half a dozen bettor. The fishing grows better until Oct. 

 1, when the law is up and the snow begins to fall , but 

 not enough to bother until about the 15th. The early 

 spring will see us on hand again. We have had a glori- 

 ous time, glorious Ashing, and ought to be satisfied. Of 

 fishing we have had our fill, but of this free and easy 

 life not so. Hence this coming winter of our discontent — 

 vale! Podgers. 



Later— Home.— One of us said, "Let's try that Quebec 

 Central again borne; they may treat us better this time." 

 T'other of us said. ''If you can stand it, I can:'' and so Ave 

 tried that "tlirough-without-change" road again. It was 

 worse than before. Sleeper full. At Sherbrooke over 

 500 people got aboard ; there had been a. horse race, fair 

 or base ball match. Time, midnight. Men and women 

 crowding and pushing, children yelling, half the men 

 tight. They stood up in the aisles, out on the platform, 

 sat on the stove (no fire, and a white frost outside), sung 

 boisterously in bad French, gorged themselves with pea- 

 nuts and gingerbread, girls sat on fellows' laps (that was 

 not so bad), children were put on the floor to sleep. 

 Toward morning we got a "sit up" in a parlor car. 

 Changed four times, got into Springfield four hours late, 

 lost; our train home, waited at Pittsfield four hours, fin- 

 ally got home toward morning, instead of 8 P. M., as ad- 

 vertised. Comment is unnecessary. If you want to 

 travel on six different (indifferent) railroads take the 

 "through-without-change" Quebec Central, Grand Trunk, 

 etc., etc., and then hire a small boy to kick you for being 

 such a blankity blankity fool for doing it. P. 



A RESPONSIVE CHORD. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Not long ago one of your contributors, "W. A. B.," 

 wrote: 



I have bad applied to me at. times by some of my friends— and 

 good friends, too— tbat much-abused epithet "crank," because of 

 my enthusiasm for the woods and streams, and affection for the 

 rod and gun. They cannot understand or appreciate the taking 

 long journeys or tramping for miles and subjecting one's self to 

 the discomforts of wet and cold and fatigue all for the sake, as 

 they say, of a few fish, which, if the scribe is so fond of tnem, he 

 might have purchased at a market. 



"W, A. B." has expressed just what I have long been 

 trying to put together and slap down in front of those 

 inhuman, unnatural, vulgar and ignorant "persons from 

 whom the savage has been wholly eliminated." "W. 

 A. B." is not the only true lover of nature who is called 

 a "crank" by the city man who, while he ridicules all 

 that is beautiful in the way of birds, trees, flowers, fish 

 and the general object of the world itself, can brag of 

 nothing in their stead but an elevated railroad, a barber 

 pole dude collar, ice cream, tight shoes, and a lot of silly 

 companions. Talk to any of these people about the beauty 

 of the woods or stream, and ask them if they like' hunt- 

 ing and fishing and they will tell you yes, if there is 

 plenty of game, and that they don't care to walk all day 

 for nothing. Talk to a man of good heart, a man of true 

 purpose, of enjoying rural life, and he will not think 

 only of the game,' but of the natural splendor, and will 

 gladly approve of your appreciation. I have been shoot- 

 ing and fishing thousands of times, and I never walked 

 "all day for nothing," and many and many a time I 

 came home without bird or fish. "W. A. B.'s" article 

 has proved a great find for me, I have long waited for a 

 time to come when I could show my crank-calling friends 

 just how silly they were, and the first column and a half of 

 "W. A. B.'s" affair marked with a blue pencil and mailed 

 to each of them has proven just the thing. What a great 

 man he must be, and how I would like to know him real 

 well and then spend a week or two in the woods with 

 him, walking "all day for nothing." It is a great thing 

 to come on to these men, Avkose very ideas are quite like 

 your own in every particular, even if one does feel a little 

 embarrassed as I do at not being able to express himself 

 as prettily as his ideals. There is that "Yo" and Row- 

 land E. Robinson and "Iron Ramrod" and "Nessrnuk" 

 and a host of others you might insert among them, all 

 just such kind of men many of their disciples would be 

 fairly crazed to meet. 



I'm tired of the city and the city man and long for the 

 time when I shall have saved a few hundred dollars, 

 got together a shotgun, rifle, two light rods, a setter, a 

 pointer and spaniel, a wife and a cottage, and gone out 

 into the rural world to walk forever in the woods through 

 the fields, along the river banks every day for nothing. 

 Long live the savage! Kahkahlin. 



NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLIES. 



T N the year 1830, being then a stripling of nineteen, I 

 JL was residing at Ewart, in the county of Northumber- 

 land, England, in the double capacity of tutor to a friend's 

 children and a student of practical agriculture. The 

 farm consisted of 600 acres and was bisected by the 

 pretty little trout river Glen, which pursues a devious 

 course of about a mile through a deep and narrow chan- 

 nel between steep banks of alluvial soil to its junction 

 with the Till, which river forms the eastern boundary of 

 the farm for about a mile and a half further. Both these 

 rivers abound with speckled trout, which attain a large 

 size, individuals from 21 bs. to 4"'bs. being occasionally 

 taken ; and they are besides frecptented by the whistling 

 or sea trout in the spring and fall. In ordinary states of 

 the water and weather these fish are difficult to catch, as 

 the rivers flow with a slow and gentle current, presenting 

 everywhere a smooth and glassy surface, unbroken by 

 stream or ripple, on their course through and alongside 

 the farm; so that the angler's only chance to make a fair 

 basket is late in the evening or early in the morning, or 

 during the prevalence of a smart breeze. 



One morning in the month of June I awoke before 

 three o'clock and not being inclined to sleep again, I 

 arose and taking my rod which lay ready mounted on 

 its hooks in the back passage, went up to the northern 

 boundary of the estate, where I knew there were two 

 or three good casts, and fished them very carefully for 

 nearly an hour without success. Not a fin could I induce 

 to stir, though I tried all my favorite lures. By this time 

 it was nearing four o'clock, and the sun was beginning 

 to show his disk above the low range of the eastern 

 hills; and thinking to try a natural bait, I stepped into a 



clump of osiers which bordered the stream to look for 

 some small beetles. While engaged in the quest, the sun 

 attained a sufficient elevation to shoot his slanting rays 

 above the bushes on the opposite bank, and light up with 

 a golden glow the branches among which I was stand- 

 ing. Absorbed in admiration, I stood for a time motion- 

 less watching the play of light and shade, when suddenly 

 "plop" sounded from the water outside of the willows. 

 Thinking it was caused by a water-rat, I went to look 

 for it. when "plop! plop!" sounded again, and I saw it 

 was fish and not rats stirring. As the sunbeams crept 

 down lower on the branches a perfect stream of flies 

 began to pour from their tips on to the surface, and 

 the water became "like a boiling pot," as an old angling 

 acquaintance of mine used to say. 



I tried a few casts where the fish were most numerous, 

 but they would not take my flies, although leaping all 

 around'them. I captured a few of the flies, and taking 

 a short cut ran home and tied four of the best imitations 

 1 could make. The head, thorax and legs were black, the 

 wings of a brownish hue, the body or abdomen covered 

 with a blue down like that on a plum, and the size about 

 that of the common housefly, only rather longer. I tied 

 two of them on a trace and went up to where the flies 

 were floating down and the fish feeding on them. Keep- 

 ing well in advance, and casting where the fish broke the 

 surface while sucking in the flies, 1 fished down to the 

 junction of the Glen with the Till, and when I went home 

 to my breakfast at 8 o'clock I turned out of my basket 

 twenty-two trout, not one of which was less that 9in. in 

 length, and the two largest weighed over lib. each. 



At noon I went down to the river again and fished for 

 an hour, but could only get three fish, and these must 

 have taken the fly from pure greediness, as they were 

 gorged to the throat with their insect food. I went down 

 to the Till in the evening, but the trout were not on the 

 feed, and I could only get a few small ones, which I 

 returned to the water. What makes this remarkable is 

 that though I have been an angler for over sixty years, 

 and a collector and observer of insects for the same time, 

 I have seen that species of fly only on that one occasion, 

 and the artificial imitation has not proved a favorite with 

 the fish, as I never had any success with it in subsequent 

 trials. 



If any of your numerous readers should have had a 

 similar experience with a local insect, I should like if 

 they would relate the same through the columns of For- 

 est and Stream. J. T. B, , Sc.D. 



BbwjE vmiiE, Ont. 



SOME BASS RECORDS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I could not follow your advice to go to St. Albans Bay, 

 Vermont, for bass, but I sent an inquirer there, who gives 

 me the result of his visit. He writes: "From St.' Albans 

 I drove six miles to Samson's Lake View House, reaching 

 there at 2 P. M. After dinner my guide and I caught 

 nine bass and one wall-eyed pike. Wednesday was an 

 off day. Crickets were all over the fishing grounds and 

 bass would not bite. Thursday bass were leaping all 

 round my boats after the crickets. I tried flies, but un- 

 fortunately had no black ones. Guide and self took but 

 seven bass and lost several, one very large one. I took 

 one 41b. bass, and I do not exaggerate in saying that he 

 leaped nearly 4ft. out of water, fell on tip of my rod and 

 broke it off short. The place has wonderful fishing 

 capacities. The house is very well kept, and a sportsman 

 can have a jolly good time there. Bass fishing is a lot- 

 tery; and if one has not the real Ike in his make up he 

 had better buy his fish. Samson is dickering with a party 

 who wishes to make the place into a club house. In view 

 of a possible deal next season, I would suggest that you 

 be advised as to what the place is before you go to (now) 

 Samson's in 1889. I am obliged to you for steering me 

 to a very pleasant place. I would further say that the 

 catches are iust what you have heard them reported." 



W. H. R. 



Will De Graw of the Lakeside House, at Greenwood 

 Lake, writes that large and small mouth bass have been 

 biting well, the former on live bait and pickerel belly 

 and the latter on crawfish, worms and helgramites. On 

 Monday, Teller Faust, of the Spring Garden Bank of 

 Philadelphia, was out with Tom Garrison, and caught 

 fifty-three large and small mouth bass, and Fred Clarke 

 took out a New Yorker who caught sixty fish. A small 

 mouth black bass, weighing 4flbs., was caught dimng 

 the previous week by Robt. N. Porter, of this city. He 

 and his brother caught fifty-two pickerel on Sept. 14. 

 DeGraw says that he intends to keep his house open all 

 winter for fishing parties. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



We have some pretty fair bass fishing in our small lakes. 

 Occasionally one is taken which will go better than 71bs. 

 One of 71bs. 6oz. is the best I ever saw taken from North- 

 ern waters; but while in Florida last spring I caught a 

 big-mouth black bass, which weighed full 10+lbs. This 

 was in Lake Tsala Apopka, Citrus county, about fifteen 

 miles east of Homosassa. I used a troll line and common 

 spoon hook. My time was limited, so this was the only 

 opportunity I had to try the fishing. In less than one 

 hour I took four bass, ranging from 31bs. to 10+lbs. This 

 was a big catch according to my notion, but I was assured 

 by Judge Crofts, Col. Sam McCall, P. J. Peacher, Esq., of 

 Citrus county, and Dr. J. C. Perine, of Ocala, that it was 

 no uncommon thing to catch bass which would weigh 16 

 and 181bs. The hunting and fishing there are certainly 

 "immense," and I expect to return this fall accompanied 

 by several friends. I was induced to visit this sports- 

 man's paradise by reading descriptions of it in Forest 

 and Stream. Returned delighted with my trip and 

 anxious to get back. W. B. T. 



Ravenna, O. 



Editor Forest aud Stream: 



Col. D. A. McKibben, of this city, returned from Lake 

 Minnetonka, Minn., yesterday. He brought with him a 

 black bass, weighing 6flbs. This magnificent specimen 

 was the largest caught in those waters this year, Mr. 

 McKibben is an ardent fisherman, but still hangs on to 

 the old bamboo pole. During his two weeks at the lake 

 he caught 217 trout, weighing 4581 bs. in all, an average 

 of over 21bs. . Nim. 



Leavenworth, Ka n., Sept. 13. 



Lake Hopatcong, N. J., is yielding some big bass 

 just now. We were shown a 6+lb. bass caught there 

 Sept. 15 by Mr. H. P. Frothingham of this city. 



GRAND CASCAPEDIA SALMON SCORE. 



QUEBEC, Canada, Sept. 10.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: Having recently returned from my an- 

 nual tour in the Kingdom of Herring and Cod, in the 

 lower St. La/wrence, I have been in a position to ascer- 

 tain the yield of our deep sea and shore fisheries. It is 

 a sorry record, this year. The cod and herring, J fear, 

 must have known intuitively that our amiable neighbors 

 were bent on brewing trouble in their old summer haunts. 

 They have deserted a large portion of their former re- 

 treats, in quest of other feeding grounds. The summer 

 fishing has failed. Possibly the fall catch — which begins 

 in September — may restore hope and bring relief to our 

 despairing fishermen of the Gaspe and Bale des Chaleurs 

 coast, who depend on hook and line for their winter 

 supplies. Gaspesians have not captured enough of the 

 finny tribe to keep together the body and soul of the 

 natives; and there has been none to spare lor American 

 fishermen. 



Your columns have lately teemed to overflowing with 

 so many flourishing accounts of Lake Edward and the 

 Lake St. John region as the elysium of anglers, thai I 

 shall abstain from adding on this score any more fish 

 stories; it would look like an attempt to "paint the rose." 



My visit to the salmon estuaries of the Baie des Cha- 

 leure has made available to me the official score of the 

 most famous salmon stream of Canada — I may add — of 

 the world; for Norway and even British Columbia must 

 hide their heads in presence of the record of the Grand Cas- 

 capedia. The score was made by that keenest of fisher- 

 men, our popular new Governer-General, Capt. Joceline 

 Bagot, his aide-de-camp, and party. 



The grandest of all salmon rivers, the Grand Cascapedia, 

 was especially set aside and fished during the month of 

 July by Their Excellencies Lord and Lady Stanley of 

 Preston, and their suite, composed of His Excellency's 

 eldest son, the Hon. Victor Stanley, R. N., Mrs. Bagot, 

 Miss Lysten, Miss Barrett, Capt. J. Bagot, Lieut. A. H. 

 McMahon, Grenadier Guards; Mr. Campbell, Sir John 

 Ross, Col. Lanne and E. Jenkins, Esq. Three hundred 

 salmon were caught. Total weight, 7,6921bs.; average 

 weight, 25+lbs. Of the twenty-nine pools spread over the 

 course of this noble stream, the following yielded: 



Almond's Pool 34 salmon. 



Big Camp 81 



Limestone 28 



Ledge 27 



Parson's .24 j. 



Lazy Bogand 17 " 



Rook 17 " 



Captain's. 16 " 



Tent 14 " 



Big Pico 14 " 



His Excellency made a capital score and so did the 

 ladies, but the most remarkable one during the twenty- 

 one days' fishing was Capt. J. Bagot's, which actually 

 reached eighty-nine fish and one grilse — his largest fish 

 weighing 431bs. I subjoin the actual weight of each fish. 



Salmon caught in the Cascapedia by Capt. J. Bagot: 

 28, 25, 22, 22, 32, 21, 39. 33, 43, 27, 29, 20, 28, 21, 25, 23, 12, 

 24, 24, 29, 20, 21, 22, 35, 24, 27*, 23, 32, 33, 19, 31, 30, 114, 

 39, 28, 31, 23, 13, 26, 24, 34, 221, 19, 23*, 22*, 27, 29, 34, 351, 

 24, 23, 2L 24, 24, 22*, 22+, 27, 23, 25, 35+, 22, 26, 32. 36, 22, 

 24. 28, 23+, 25+, 17+, 28, 21, 25, 25*, 25+, 22, 24, 33, 24, 34, 

 25*, 22, 22, 35, 10*, 20, 21, 41, 31. 



I do not recollect a larger score ever exhibited by this 

 river in the same number of days. J. M. Le Moine. 



TROUT AT THE UPPER DAM. 



CAMP BEMIS, Me., Sept. 8. — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: I give you a correct statement of the 

 weight of trout taken with a fly in the pool below the 

 Upper Dam, Rangeley Lakes, since Aug. 24: 



Mr. W. H. Fullerton, of Windsor, Vt., has taken two 

 of 51bs., one of filbs., two of 6ilbs., two of 6flbs., one of 

 7flbs., one of 6|lbs. The 6f -pounder Avas taken on a 4+oz. 

 Leonard rod. 



Rev. Mi-. Wall, of New York, one of 5+lbs., one of olbs. 

 Mr. Drury, of St. Louis, one of 6+lbs. 

 Mr. Bearce, of Lewiston, Me., one of 6*lbs., one of 

 6|lbs. 



Mi-. F. P. Thomas, Andover, Me., one of 5flbs., one of 

 3*lbs.. 



These trout were taken between Aug. 24 and Sept. 6. 

 Since then, which is two days' time, there have been 

 taken fish of 6, 6+, 3*, 3£, 2±, 4f, 2, 7f , 5+ and 31bs. 



I believe every one of these trout have been taken on a 

 fly by fair casting. The Parmachenee-belle has been the 

 favorite. 



If the fishing was entirely "played out" here three years 

 ago, does not this look as if there had been quite a re- 

 markable increase of trout since then? This is the place, 

 Forest and Stream readers should remember, where the 

 persistent angler claims to have cast his flies for thirteen 

 davs without getting a single rise, three or four years 

 ago this month. F. C. Barker. 



We never could see why the man who fishes should be 

 suspected of lying. As a matter of fact not one man in a 

 hundred ever lies ahont his fish.— Detroit Free Press. The 

 Free Press man should remember that the dog was hung 

 for having a had name. 



Tue Hunter's Paradise.— If you would hunt, fish or camp out, 

 and enjoy any or all of the various pastimes incident to camp 

 life, we are here to say, and to hring the indisputed logic of ex- 

 perience to support our statement, that no region under the sun 

 offers better facilities, move genuine sport "to the square inch," 

 clearer sky or balmier atmosphere, than Northern "Wisconsin and 

 Michigan. Within a few hours' ride from Chicago are virgin 

 forests and streams, where the wary deer and speckled trout 

 reign in almost uninterrupted supremacy, quiet and fearless in 

 their own wooded haunts, unused to the invasions of men. The 

 Chicago and Northwestern Railway, with its varied ramifications 

 of main and branch lines, penetrates the sylvan depths of these 

 "forest homes," and carries the sportsman in palace cars to with- 

 in a few miles of trout streams that surpass the liveliest fancies 

 of Izaak W r alton, and hunting grounds whose actual realities ex- 

 ceed the brightest visions of the most enthusiastic Nirurod. As 

 an inducement to sportsmen to visit, these regions, the North- 

 western has made round trip excursion rates to the various 

 hunting resorts, which will materially reduce the expense of t he 

 trip. If you want real, unadulterated sport, you can hardly go 

 amiss by taking the Northwestern into the woods of Wisconsin 

 or Michigan. Full details will be given on application to E. P. 

 WmsoN, General Passenger Agent C. & N, W. R'y, Chicago.—*** 



