228 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. 11, 1888, 



showed me how to pack the fish down for safe keeping 

 until I got back to Old Mission. 



The next morning' I had that saddest of all experiences, 

 the losing of my largest fish, I stood on a log lying- 

 lengthwise in the stream and made several casts toward the 

 end of another log under wh ich the current dashed with a 

 swirl. At length the line straightened out as if I had 

 hitched on to the log itself. But the log, or whatever it 

 was, suddenly seemed alive. There was a surge and a 

 bending of iny bamboo and then the upward spring of 

 the rod brought what I believe to have been a 31b. trout 

 out from his lurking place. At length he was within 

 reach of my hand, but my footing was not very secure 

 and before I could secure him the hook broke out, my 

 fish was gone and I was very near sliding into the water 

 myself. One who has never been in a like position and 

 has never suffered a similar loss can not realize how dismal 

 and worthless this world seems at such a moment. I 

 shall go back after that fellow some day. During the 

 day and in an hour's fishing the next morning I brought 

 my total catch up to 210. In a very comfortable frame 

 of mind I mounted a load of tan bark with Mr. Clemmens 

 and rode back to Torch River bridge and caught the boat 

 for Elk Rapids. There is very good bass fishing in Elk 

 Lake which I subsequently 'tried, the best being just 

 where the lake runs into the river. Fishing from the 

 channel bank in water from 20 to 30ft. bass can be caught 

 running from 3 to olbs. in weight. 



Richard G ear Hobbs. 



MORE MAINE JIGGING. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The New England trout season is over and the rods and 

 lines are put away till the snow and ice are thawed again. 

 In Maine the season closed mid snow and rain. Indeed 

 the rain had prevailed nearly every day for a month. 

 Such weather is poor for trouting, as fishermen have 

 generally found to then- displeasure. Snow in September 

 is nothing uncommon on the last days of that mouth in 

 the north woods of Maine, but the freezing of ice to the 

 line is not common in fly-fishing, even on the 29th day of 

 that month. But such was the real fact this year. Mr. 

 N. C. Manson, with his friend Mr. Young, both Boston 

 iron merchants, were fishing on the Little Diamond Pond, 

 on the 29th of September with their fingers so cold that 

 gloves came in play, and ice actually made on the lines. 

 In spite of the weather they caught trout, a fair share of 

 them. But generally the fall fly-fishing has not been 

 satisfactory, the weather probablj' being the chief cause. 

 The trout have evidently sought the spawning beds early, 

 and hence they have not been foimd on their usual fall 

 feeding grounds. Generally the lakes lune been very 

 high, especially the Rarueleys, Richardson and Moose- 

 lucmagumic being full to the brim. On the last days of 

 the season the superabundance of rain raised the ponds 

 and streams almost to the spring snow-melting pitch, and 

 this nearly destroyed the late trout fishing. But the 

 hopeful angler can console himself with the idea that 

 more of the trout will be left for the spring next year. 

 Certainly they have not suffered badly during the fall 

 campaign. 



But again tii pre ate dark stories about trout being 

 jigged at the Upper Dam. It is certain that in some in- 

 stances the gates have been started to please such sports- 

 men as had the money to pay for the privilege, but in 

 every case these sportsmen have pretended that the trout 

 caught were always with the fly. The story reached 

 Warden Huntoon of Rangeley (so I hear, but did not see 

 the warden) that trout were again being illegally taken 

 at the Upper Dam, and he ca me down there about Sept. 

 29 and made some of the sportsmen produce then- trout 

 for inspection. The report has it that the warden found 

 no signs that the trout had been taken contrary to law, 

 and he returned the fish. I was at the Upper Dam mv- 

 self , on Sept. 27, for a short time in the morning only. 

 There were then only three or four sportsmen there, and 

 they were legally throwing the fly below the dam. 

 Among them was Dr. Jones of Norway, Me. . an old time 

 visitant to this celebrated trout resort, and a gentleman 

 who would scorn to take a trout other than in a legal 

 way. But it is a pity that Hi ere should be even a suspicion 

 that trout are taken with the jig at this point, the home 

 and breeding ground of the largest Sal-mo fontinaUs 

 known, and the State of Maine should station a warden 

 there all the season. This warden could also look after 

 the interests of the deer in the Richardson and the Beaver 

 ponds, where it is certain that jacking out of season has 

 been tried many times this summer, but generally with- 

 out success. The latest report that will interest the 

 sportsmen, who dock to this region, is that the Union 

 Water Power Co. is not to keep opeii house at the Upper 

 Dam next season. This is only a, report, however, and 

 may not be trucL Special. 



STRIPED BASS NEAR NEW YORK. 



T^ELE season for this fish about New York city has been 

 -L a good one, better than for some years. This is 

 credited by many anglers to the efforts of the Shellfish 

 Commission in enforcing the law against the pollution of 

 the waters by the sludge acid from the oil refineries., and 

 the law against dumping refuse of all kinds in the harbor 

 and up the East River. The season for this fish lias held 

 on later than usual, and some are still taken. On the 

 North River side they have been captured along the 

 river front of the city from Eighty-ninth street ttp to 

 Croton Point. The best catches have been down in 

 Prince's Bay, where some have been taken that reached 

 twenty pounds. Pish of three or four pounds have been 

 plenty in the Bay, and also up the Sound. 



On the 2d of this month Mr. Oliver T. Hewlett took a 

 striped bass in Davison's mill pond. East Rockaway, 

 which weighed 241bs. The fish was taken with rod and 

 reel and was on exhibition at Mr. Blackford's for a day 

 or two. It is some time since such a fish has been taken 

 m that locality, which is well fished by the city anglers. 



Shedder crab, sand worms, and shrimp have been the 

 usual baits, the latter being used where only the smaller 

 fish are looked for. The striped bass fishing may hold 

 good for two weeks yet, according to all appearances, 

 bm the fish will soon cease biting and go elsewhere. 

 Years ago the vicinity of High Bridge, Harlem, was a 

 famous place for striped bass but, they were driven from 

 thereby the refuse from the oil work's at Hunter's Point, 

 and u the practice of dumping this vile stuff! in Newtown 

 Creek is suppressed, the East River may again become a 

 favorite resort for the fish as it was in the davs of Genio 

 L . .Scott, who made the locality famous. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



OCT. 2,— Mr. J. M. Clark, in charge of the angling de- 

 partment of the well-known John Wilkinson Co., 

 accompanied by Charley Porter, of Blomgren Bros. &Co., 

 spent a day last week at Silver Lake, trying to round out 

 the fishing season. They found frogs of no use: fishing 

 with minnows they took half a dozen fine bass, although 

 the lake was too rough for successful work. Mr. Porter 

 hooked a small-mouthed bass— locally known as the 

 "tiger bass"— which was thought to weigh olbs. It 

 escaped after a long fight. 



Mi-. McFarland, a South Water street merchant, took 

 seventeen good bass in Lake Maria last week. Mi-. Shep- 

 herd a week ago, at Lake Maria, took a T^lbe. large- 

 mouth bass. I believe the tackle used in their last two 

 catches was not orthodox in fineness, and this detracts 

 from the interest of the record. We ought to have a law 

 regulating the weight of rod and fineness of line. People 

 should be legally instructed that they are missing all. the 

 fun there is in angling when they use a cod line and a 

 pole. Moreover, no self-respecting bass wants to be 

 caught that way. It's all a mistake. 



Mr. Watson of this city, Mr. Hogin of La Crosse, Wis- 

 consin, and a friend, lately concluded a grand fishing 

 trip on the Mississippi, at La Crosse. These gentlemen 

 took 12? bass in two days' fishing, using only fly-rods and 

 flies. The flies used were the raven, the bluebottle and 

 the "Read," the latter much like the Seth Green, except 

 for a heavier body. Sixty-five of these bass came to 

 Chicago, and some of them were glorious fellows. At 

 certain stages of the waters the river at La Crosse affords 

 wonderful sport. 



Wild brook trout are displayed in large quantities on 

 the market here — another obvious shortcoming of the 

 law. No man ought to be allowed to eat a brook trout 

 he has bought. If he can't catch him or isn't a good 

 friend to a man who can and will, he ought not to eat 

 him. It is a shame. 



In passingby a west side butcher shop last week I noticed 

 at the window the mounted head of a muscallonge. the 

 largest I ever saw. He was so old he had false teeth. On 

 making jtaquiry I found that this monarch was taken six 

 3 r ears ago in the St. Lawrence River and weighed when 

 caught a trifle over 821bs. The effete East has the record, 

 I fear. The largest muscallonge I have personally heard 

 of from the Eagle waters this year was 39ilbs. 



There is on Wabash avenue of this city a very gaudy 

 window display of a millinery store, which shows a great 

 assortment of many colored feathers, plumes and bird 

 breasts hi hat trimmings. I was amused in passing there 

 yesterday by the comment of a slightly exhilarated indi- 

 vidual who seemed to bo a sportsman or kin thereto. 

 "S-say, Bill," he exclaimed, as he stood before the 

 window, "g-get on to ze s-salmon flies, wontche!" And 

 the remark was apt . 



Oct. 6.— Messrs. Sutherland, Hoge, Tiffany and Thomp- 

 son have just gotten back from their trip to the Eagle 

 waters. They report an eventful and pleasant outing, 

 with plenty of results. They took a number of niuscal 

 longe, and I hear that some scaled between twenty and 

 thirty pounds, though I have not seen the catch, and 

 believe that a great part of it was necessarily left be- 

 hind, owing to imperfect packing facilities. Bass also 

 were abundant. E. H. 



The ToBiytJE Manslaughter.— As intimated in our 

 last issue the jury at Andover, N. B., in the case of Phil- 

 lipine and Trafton, brought in a verdict of manslaughter 

 for the killing of Mrs. Howes. They added to their ver- 

 dict a strong recommendation to mercy. Phillipiue and 

 Trafton were each sentenced to fifteen years in the penti- 

 tentiary. 



WORK OF THE WISCONSIN FISH COMMISSION. 



BY J AS. KEVIN, S L'l'E UlNTEN DENT.] 

 [Road before the American Fisheries Society. 

 r |MlK work of artificial propagation offish in the State of 

 JL Wisconsin is no louder an experiment in the minds of 

 the people of our State. When the good work of restocking 

 our streams and lakes with their native fish was first 

 attempted we did not meet wit h much encouragement from 

 many parts of the State. But with perseverance and suc- 

 cessful operations the old feeling has vanished, and the cry 

 from all over the State is "more lish." until now we are un- 

 able to supply the demand, even to that of German carp. 



First in rank comes the pride of all waters, brook trout, 

 and of these fish, most every county in the State has received 

 a portion of the 3,355,000 fry that have been distributed this 

 present season to 300 applicants, and the supply waB insuffi- 

 cient to fill the demand, which at the first of the season was 

 -1,730,000 fry, which were asked for by 380 applicants, and 

 now we have nearly 100 orders on file for next season's dis- 

 tribution, and I dare say t his number will swell to 350 orders 

 before the shipping season begins next season. 



Next comes California mountain, or rainbow, trout, which 

 have clone remarkably well in some parts of the State, and 



seek the larger ones, and the rivers, where they appear to 

 thrive wonderfully. A gentleman of good authority, from 

 St. Croix county, informed me that he caught a two-year-old 

 that tipped the scales at just 41bs., and I could relate several 

 instances where they have been taken at that age weighing 

 1M to SMlbs. We have just begun the distribution of these 

 fish, and out of the 183 orders now on file 1 hope to be able 

 to fill 150 of them with about. 1,750,000 fry. All orders re- 

 maining unfilled will be filled first the following season. 



Owing to the extreme high water in the Fox River this 

 spring, where I collect my supply of wall-eyed pike eggs. I 

 have been unable to procure a full quota, but have now in 

 the hatching jars at Milwaukee enough to bring forth about 

 8,000,000 fry, which will be eagerly captured by the 330 ap- 

 plicants whose names are now on 'file. Since we have begun 

 restocking our numerous lakes we have met with success, 

 and now reap the harvest of our endeavors, by reading con- 

 firmed reports of success from different part of the State, 

 and still continue to sow. 



The present season I placed in several inland lakes 800,000 

 Mackinaw, or lake trout, the eggs of which were collected, 

 in Lake Michigan, and were hatched at the Madison Hatch- 

 ery. I do not approve of this method of stocking lakes with 

 lake trout hatched in spring water, for I think it can be done 

 with less labor and expense by collecting large quantities of 

 eggs and carefully spreading them on the shoal reefs of the 

 lakes intended to stock, and let them ha tch and take care of 

 themselves. 



Our work on whitefish has not been as extensive the past 

 season as formerly, for we were unsuccessful in getting a 

 full amount of eggs, on account of the stormy weather on 

 the lakes last fall, and a few of what we did get were touched 

 by the frost, but have succeeded in hatching 16,000,000 fry, 

 which have been deposited in the waters of Lake Michigan 

 and Green Bay. 



It is very interesting to know that the Wisconsin Fish 

 Commission has at last got the good will of the fishermen 

 around the lakes, and that they are beginning to realize the 

 benefit of the work clone by the Commission. There has 

 been more whitefish taken during the past winter and spring 

 than any season in the last ten years. I heard a fisherman 

 remark the other day that fishing for whitefish was begin- 

 ning to look like olden times. Ever since the pound net has 

 beep in existence the fishermen have taken out the small 

 whitefish faster than the several hatcheries could put them 

 in. 1 have seen as high as 3,4001bs. of small fish taken 

 out of one pot, and there were not ten fish in the lot 

 that would weigh a pound each. It is now unlawful in 

 Wisconsin for a man to have in his possession a whitefish of 

 les than lib., dressed, or lj^lb. undressed, and I am proud to 

 say that the law has given entire satisfaction. The fisher- 

 men have always said that whitefish would not live after 

 being caught in the meshes of a net, but last fall, while col- 

 lecting spawn, I saw thousands caught that had the marks 

 of the net. on them, which proves that whitefish are not the 

 delicate little fellows they have been represented to be. 



The value of the lake fishing industry, as reported by the 

 fish wardens to the president of the Board, for the year of 

 1887, are as follows: 



Number of pounds caught 4,460,015 



Value of fish s?37l,369 78 



Number of nets 13,750 



Value of nets «161,860 00 



Persons employed. 1,300 



Number of boats '700 



Value of boats $177,385 00 



Which shows that the fishing interests of the State of 

 Wisconsin are worth protecting. 



In conclusion, I will say a few words on carp and 

 carp ponds. Of all fish I ever tried to catch by seining, 

 carp are the most difficult; for when they find themselves 

 .surrounded by the net, if they can't get under it they will 

 leap over it. As the temperature of the water at the hatch- 

 ery was too low to successfully raise carp, the Commission 

 leased a breeding pond, located about two miles from the 

 hatchery and covering about two acres. In the spring of 

 1887 I placed in this pond our large carp, and in May had a 

 lot of willows cut and placed in the pond for the fish to 

 spawn on. One day I went to the pond for some large fish 

 for an aquarium, and as the pond could not be drawn down, 

 1 thought I could soon catch them by seining. But we seined 

 two days and did not get a large fish. 



Another clay, later in the season, we went to the pond for 

 some fry to ship, and my two little boys, aged five and eight 

 years, went along to pass the time away playing around the 

 pond. Before beginning to fish, I had all the willows taken 

 from the water and placed upon the bank, and, to amuse 

 themselves, the boys rolled some of the willows back into 

 the water. After some time we came to where the brush 

 was to make a haul, and as we began removing it, were sur- 

 prised to see numerous small fish dart from under the 

 branches. Without taking out any more of the brush, we 

 carefully surrounded it with the net and were very much 

 surprised when we drew it in to take out of it 5,000 small 

 and fifty large carp. After taking care of the fish, we soon 

 replaced the brush at about a dozen different places around 

 the pond, and in this way we could catch all the fish— either 

 large or small— we wanted, as they seemed to seek the brush 

 for shelter and to hide. 



I do not think there would be the large losses of carp in 

 winter, if in the fall people would place a lot of brush in the 

 center, or deepest part, of their ponds, as the fish would 

 naturally seek the brush and not the shoal water, and thus 

 avoid being frozen in the mud. People who have carp ponds 

 that cannot be. drawn down, will find this experiment bene- 

 ficial in catching their fish as well as serving as a protection. 



Madison, Wis. 



RAINBOW TROUT IN ENCLAND. 



IT is a singular fact that the California rainbow trout, 

 which our Eastern fishculturists are abandoning, seems 

 to be a greater favorite in England than our beloved fonti^ 

 nalis. In our Eastern States the complaints against this 

 fish are that it will stray off clown stream and seldom 

 come back, and that its eggs do not yield anything like a 

 fair percentage of impregnation. 



Mr. W. Oldham Chambers, Secretary of the National Pish- 

 culture Association, Loudon, writes to a fishculturist on this 

 side as follows: 



"I am delighted with the rainbow trout, S. irideus. There 

 is no trout grown in England that can compare with them in 

 the rapidity with which they attain flesh; they are easily culti- 

 vated and tamed, I can at any time bring 800 yearling rain- 

 bows around the edge of the pond and make them feed from 

 my hand and follow me like chickens. My three-year-olds 

 are the same. They are non-migratory, rise to the fly, and 

 are particularly gamy and excellent eating. Prof. Baird did 

 a good turn for this country in sending me over these lovely 

 fish. They are far superior to your Eastern brook trout, S, 

 fohtiirtaUsS' 



Mr. Chambers would be a long while in convincing our 

 American anglers and fishculturists of his last statement, 

 yet, as is often the case, transplanted animals often do better 

 or worse in their new homes, so it is possible that in English 

 waters the rainbow trout may be the better fish. He is not 

 alone hi condemning our brook trout in English waters, for 

 it has not. found favor over there, because it is said to be 

 tender and to leave the streams whore it is planted. We 

 will be glad to learn what success he has in impregnating 

 the eggs of the rainbow trout, and it will be curious if this 

 fish breeds better there than in our Eastern waters. 



Uncle Lisha's Shop.— The Montreal Star says that "Lu- 

 cie Lisha's Shop" is the "best book of American humor 

 since 'Tom Sawyer. ' Sketching the characters who nightly 

 assembled at an old cobbler's shop in rural Vermont "forty 

 years ago, describing their sport and relating their yarns, 

 Mr. Robinson has written chapters of delicious fun. " That 

 he has command of a rare vein of pathos is shown in his 

 accounts of the search tor a lost child and of Uncle Lisha's 

 removal to the far West. One of Uncle Lisha's friends is a 

 certain Antoine Bassette, from this Province, who managed 

 even in Yankeeland to keep his end up, and he tells tales of 

 raccoons, of deer and other game quite as wonderful as any 

 of his .neighbors' stories. Mr. Rowland E. Robinson is a 

 welcome addition to the band of American humorists, most 

 of whom, truth to tell, seem to be pumping very hard, where 

 the only tolerable performance is to let^a natural spring 

 have its way." 



A Dining Car Line to the Pacific Coast— The completion of the all rail 

 line between Portland, Ore., and San Francisco gives the Pacific coast trav- 

 eler an opportunity to patronize the famous Dining Car and YeUowstone 

 Park Line, the. Northern Pacific Railroad. The sportsman traveling In the 

 West, whether a lover of the rod or gun, naturally seeks this road, pene- 

 trating as it does the lake park region of Minnesota, and running through 

 the valleys of such trout streams as the Yellowstone, Gallatin, Hell Gate, 

 Clark's Fork, Spokane, Yakima and Green Elvers, for a distance of fully 

 1,500 miles, as well as lying immediately contiguous to the finest hunting 

 grounds in the United States, viz., The Big Horn, Snowy Belt, Bitter Boot, 

 Coeur D'Alene and Cascade Mountains. Information in regard to this 

 region can be obtained by addressing Chaeles S. Fee, General Passenger 

 and Ticket Agent, N.R. R., P. Sc. Paul, iliim.~Adv. 



