Nov. 3, 1888.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



309 



quite across the river; over this the water rushes wildly, 

 swirling out into a pool forty by seventy yards an size, 

 and perhaps eight or ten feet deep. The middle of this 

 pool, just along the streak of white water. waB the terri- 

 tory for fly- fishing. The big trout in question usually lay 

 in the deep eddy to the right of the current, and of which 

 the skill of mortal had not yet availed to permanently 

 allure him. . 



Murphy and T waded out on the rift, and steadying our- 

 selves up by getting our feet planted under a big stone, 

 began to cast with the fly, using coaohuiau and dark 

 hackles. In a moment Murphy ha,d a rise, and after a 

 moment of plav in the heavy cm-rent, in which his six- 

 ounce bamboo behaved admirably, he landed a pound 

 trout. My turn then came, and while I was untying a 

 knot in my line, the flies hanging in the water below me 

 about ten feet, a wild-eyed trout of about a pound's 

 weight made a rush and ate my coachman. I let go the 

 line and played the eager young fellow, finding that I 

 had hold of a remarkably good fishing rod in Jim Curry s 

 bamboo. The rod was 'ordered made for Mr. Curry by 

 his friend Mr. Holabird. It is an exceptionally good fly- 

 casting rod and a great killer. I got my trout up to my 

 feet, and having no landing net lifted him up by the line. 

 He tied himself up in a bow-knot, and with a sort of 

 watch-spring wriggle slid oil and back into the water, 

 with a wild, demoniac grin on his countenance. I didn't 

 want him, anyhow, Murphy now took a second small 

 trout, and we then reluctantly stopped fishing and went 

 down to a very good dinner, which Mrs. Curry had ready 

 for us. 



After dinner we all five prepared a campaign against 

 the old trout. Mr. Curry sat on the bank and directed 

 the hostilities, Mr. Jones' caught minnows, and the rest 

 of us carried on the active warfare. For myself, I tied 

 on a double leader and two double-snelled, double-hooked 

 flies, a coachman aud a black-gnat. Below this I tied 

 on a large Sproat hook, on which I hung a minnow fully 

 as long as my finger. My apology for this horribly 

 bloodthirsty outfit is that t had only two hours left to 

 fish, that the trout were said to be biting at nothing but 

 minnows at that late date, that I didn't propose coming 

 away from that pool with any story of broken tackle if I 

 did happen to hook the old citizen we were after. 



A very polite aristocratic trout of about three-quarters 

 of a pound obligingly took the coachman in out of the 

 wet, and I landed him. Yet another, doubtless by acci- 

 dent, and while making for the fly got mixed up with my 

 minnow, and I apologized to him out on the beach. Then 

 I apolog zed to myself and sent the minnow swinging 

 out ovei he big pool again. I struck what I thought was 

 the foundation of the earth. 



"Look out, there!" cried Jim Curry from the bank, 

 you've got one this time." And to this the great curve of 

 the rod and the growl of the reel surely bore testimony. 

 I knew the fish had taken the big hook, and resolved to 

 hold him or lose him at once, I struck him again and 

 again, hard enough to lengthen his backbone at least four 

 inches. A deep and pacid calm settled over the land- 

 scape, it seemed to me, when I found that the bony jaws 

 had been penetrated and the fight was well begun. 



"Gentlemen. "I've got your fish," I said with well- 

 feigned quiet, after five minutes of rush and sulk and 

 persistent boring to the bottom. 



"Well, if you've got that trout, you've held him longer 

 than anybody else ever did," said Jim Curry, with a large 

 doubt in his voice. 



"That's all right," said I loftily, shifting the rod from 

 my tired right hand and letting the latter drop down into 

 the water in which I was standing, "I'm that kind of a 

 fisher. I was born in Fishtown, and this is my day to 

 fish. I'm going to land him." 



Nobody said anything to this, and I was soon busy with 

 my contract. The rod was altogether lovely, and I soon 

 learned to like the automatic reel, which never allowed 

 the fish an inch of slack, no matter where he went. Five 

 minutes more passed, I was using an awful strain on 

 the rod, and this with effort to keep upright in the cur- 

 rent, which threatened momentarily to wash me down 

 and drown me in the eddy, tired me so that I wished 

 something would happen. We had not yet seen the fish. 

 These big fellows rarely leave the water as the smaller 

 ones do, but tug and sulk for the bottom. At last I felt 

 the old trout make a rush in and up. The reel kept up 

 with him, and putting on another horse-power or so, I 

 was delighted to see a swash and a swirl about forty 

 yards below me, and an olive-green back broke above the 

 surface of the foam. The back, it seemed to me, was 

 about four feet long. 



"Gentlemen," Baid I, in awe-struck tones, "that's the 

 original trout that got away from Adam. Say, I want to 

 get out of here. He'll eat me, sure! He's coming for me 

 now!" 



"Yes. "Pretty good fish," said Jim Curry, as the trout 

 came close in on his hunt after me. 



"Pretty good fish! What do you mean V" said I. "You 

 don't mean to tell me that isn't your big trout!" 



"Naw! T'other trout's big as three of this one. Still, 

 this is a pretty good trout, for a fellow that never fished 

 in the Rio Grande before." 



I treated this remark with scorn. 



Eighteen minutes passed after we began to time the 

 fight till we thought it safe to try and lead him into shal- 

 low water. I was almost as tired as the fish when Mur- 

 phy got the landing-net under him and bore him out on 

 the bank, an absolutely glorious, irradiant and truly 

 noble creature. Dark olive on the back, shading down 

 in salmon, pink, vermilion, white, with yellow tail shot 

 full of black dots, and with all his multifold color laid 

 over a frame of massive strength and sympathy — there 

 may be things more beautiful, but I do not know them. 



"Tell me, isn't he the big one?" asked I. 



"No, honestly, he is not," was the reply. "That trout 

 in there will weigh seven or eight pounds, possibly nine 

 or ten. This one will weigh about four." 



"Well, this is big enough for me," said I. "I don't 

 need any bigger trout than this in my business. I want 

 to go home now." 



At this point a faint halloa from the lower end of the 

 pool attracted our attention, and looking up we saw 

 Swan playing a heavy fish in the deep water. His rod. 

 which was a cheap wooden one, was bending at an ob- 

 tuse angle in the middle. We knew he had no reel, but 

 was fishing with his line tied to the end of his pole. We 

 ran to his assistance, and from the bank could clearly see 

 the big trout rushing up and down in the clear green 

 water. Swan told us the trout had followed his flies and 



grasshopper bait into the shore like a pickerel several 

 times, but had refused to bite until he offered him a piece 

 of minnow, which latter he took at once. This trout was 

 played skillfully for several minutes, and at last landed 

 safely. He proved to be only just smaller than the one 

 taken by myself, being not quite so portly, though quite 

 as long. The two made a beautiful picture. We con- 

 cluded we had done enough, and therefore carried our 

 prize down to the house and had a little jubilation. That 

 evening, after hurried good-bys to my new-found friends, 

 with whom I wish I could have remained four or five 

 years, I rolled East over the twisting D. & R. G., and at 

 length out from the solemn and majestic mountains, 

 guardians of the well-springs of rest and peace, dignified 

 holders of the cup of some forgetfulness. 



The dimensions of my trout were, length. 19fin.; spread 

 of tail, olin. ; depth from dorsal fin down, 7iin. We had 

 no means of weighing him, but he must have scaled four 

 pounds, we thought. I don't want any bigger trout than 

 he was. I would be afraid of him. I took him with me 

 to Great Bend, Kansas, to the coursing meet, and there a 

 little party of us ate hitn up. For some time, when any 

 one asked me if I thought the black and white dog would 

 win in the puppy stakes, I absently answered that I 

 would bet it would never weigh ten pounds. 



This is how we didn't catch Jim Curry's big trout. 

 That trout is alive in that pool now, and open to all the 

 world. A dozen skillful anglers of Del Norte and Ala- 

 mosa know him, and all say he will weigh over seven 

 pounds. There is a league sworn against him. All sorts 

 of plans are laid for him. For instance, they are scour- 

 ing all Dei Norte for a live mouse, to be used as bait for 

 him, a very large trout being taken near there on that 

 bait. Jim Curry just sits back and laughs, and lays his 

 money on the trout. "They can't catch him," he says, 

 "he's too big for 'em." 



If they don't catch him, they wall certainly try. He is 

 an actual and established fact. Arrangements have 

 been made whereby, if he ever is caught, full description 

 of the tackle, bait and rod, particulars of the fight, shall 

 be given to the readers of Forest and Stream; and I for 

 one await the result with impatience. 



From these hurried words, 'judge whether or not there 

 are trout in Colorado. E. Hough. 



A TRIP TO THE "SOO." 



ON Saturday morning at 5 o'clock, June 9, 1888, our 

 party of three from Columbus, Ohio, stepped off the 

 Wagner at Indian River, Michigan. We were kindly re- 

 ceived by the hotel men and the mosquitoes, the last 

 especially were quite friendly. This is a pleasant little 

 village situated one mile from Burts Lake, and five miles 

 from Mullet and Twin lakes. The Sturgeon, Little 

 Sturgeon, Pigeon aud Maple rivers are all grayling 

 streams, and within a short distance of the village. At 

 the head of Indian River, on a bluff overlooking the lake, 

 are a number of cottages, owned chiefly by Columbus 

 people. These were empty now, but later on they would 

 be filled by happy ones from our own city. 



At 8 o'clock we were on the road to Pigeon River, 

 where we intended to camp for a few days and fish for 

 grayling. A lovely drive of seven miles over a sand road 

 and through clumps of jack-pine trees brought ns to 

 the Pigeon, where w T e selected a camping place and soon 

 had our tent up and everything in shape for business. 

 The Pigeon is a pretty Btream, rocky and very rapid, just 

 the place for trout and grayling; but alas for our hopes 

 of catching grayling; we did not get a rise all day though 

 we whipped the stream faithfully for a distance of two 

 miles. Fortunately we had brought some angle worms 

 with us, and with these we caught some chubs, which 

 were better than no fish. That night a thunderstorm 

 came up and it rained in torrents, but our tent was a good 

 one and we suffered no inconvenience. The next morn- 

 ing at 4 o'clock Henry started afoot for Indian River, and 

 at 9 o'clock was back again with a team to take us away 

 from Pigeon River as there was no use of staying there 

 if we could not catch any grayling. 



Arriving at Indian River at noon we chartered a tug to 

 take us across Burts Lake to Indian Point, seven miles 

 distant. It began to rain soon after we started, and when 

 we reached the Point at 3 o'clock it was pouring down. 

 We had some difficulty in getting our tyaps ashore on 

 account of the wind and rain, but we finally succeeded 

 in making the landing with everything all right. In a 

 very few minutes we had the tent up and our traps under 

 cover: then around a big fire we tried to talk cheerfully 

 and imagine that we were having fun. The mosquitoes 

 were en joying themselves at our expense. Toward even- 

 ing it stopped raining, supper was cooked and disposed 

 of , beds were made and then we sat around the fire 

 smoking instead of going fishing. In the morning we 

 all started out fishing, but after trying several hours we 

 came back to camp without any bass. Later in the day 

 we went to the mouth of Crooked River, where we had 

 good success with the bass, bringing enough to camp to 

 last us for two or three days. About a mile from the 

 Point is an Indian village. There are about twenty 

 families of them. They are very quiet, nice people, de- 

 pending a great deal on the tourist for a living. 



We broke camp Tuesday evening, and in two rowboats 

 pulled out for Indian River, where we arrived at 8 P. M. 

 We had covered the eight miles in just two hours. At 

 10 o'clock we went to bed, but not to sleep, for the bed 

 Henry and I had was alive with bugs. We asked the 

 landlord for another bed, but all were taken, so we sat up 

 all night in the office playing cribbage. We boarded the 

 5 o'clock tram in the morning and arrived at St. Ignace 

 at S o'clock. It rained incessantly all day, and it was not 

 until the following morning that we got started on Carp 

 River, which we reached at 11 A. M. We found the 

 river very high and a gang of men were running logs, so 

 there was no fishing in the Carp for the present, that is 

 for trout. There was a plenty of suckers, and big ones, 

 too, some of them weighing 3 and 41bs. each, and we got 

 considerable sport taking these. Fly-fishing for suckers 

 was something new to us, and we enjoyed it very well for 

 a while. 



The recent heavy rains had washed out the two bridges 

 between the mouth of the river and the dam, so there 

 was no way to get there with a team. Henry and I 

 walked to the dam the next day, the old trail Ave followed 

 led through a swamp almost the entire distance, six miles, 

 but it seemed, twelve to us. We tried the fishing at the 

 dam but there was too much water and we did not get a 

 vise. On the way back to camp we stopped at a small 



creek and caught twenty fair sized trout. These were the 

 fust trout we had taken this season and were prized a 

 good deal, especially at the supper table. We waited 

 here three days for the river to get clear, and becoming- 

 discouraged at the prospect we broke camp and returned 

 to St, Ignace. 



Here we took the train for Ozark, where we secured a 

 team and started for the upper dam on the Pine River, 

 where is located one of the lumber camps of the Mackinaw 

 Lumber Company. The distance is ten miles and we 

 arrived at the dam about noon. Before we let the team 

 go back we tried the fishing and became satisfied that we 

 wanted to stay there for a few days. In a very short time 

 our tent and fly were put up, table and benches make, 

 hay brought from the stable for our bed, and dinner of 

 trout, bacon, onions, potatoes, coffee, bread and butter 

 prepared and on the table. The weather was extremely 

 warm but there was a little breeze stirring, and as we sat 

 under the awning before the royal feast we felt in high 

 spirits and would not exchange places with a king. The 

 river here has cut its way through an immense sand bank 

 125ft. deep. A dam is built across with a sluice in 

 the center. The pool below the dam is about 150ft. 

 across and fairly alive with trout. The water from the 

 sluice drops about five feet, and just here the water boils 

 considerable, but a short distance away the surface of the 

 pool is smooth and affords fine fiy-fishing. The Pine 

 River region is pretty much all sand and at one time was 

 covered with yellow pine timber. Deer must be very 

 abundant in this section for we saw lots of them every- 

 day. Wolves came howling around our camp every 

 night at dark but we were always too sleepy to be kept 

 awake by them. The trout here are rather small, running 

 from a quarter to a half pound each, but any quantity of 

 this size can be taken. In four days' fishing we caught 

 two weighing one pound each. We called this Lazy 

 Man's camp, because there was so little work to do, wood, 

 water and trout in abundance within 100yds. of camp. 



Friday afternoon the team came for us and we were 

 taken to Alexandria, where we boarded the train and at 

 9 P. M. arrived at Sault St. Marie. The "Soo" is a won- 

 derfully pretty place, and our stay of three days was 

 scarcely long enough time to take in all its beauties. We 

 went fishing twice in the rapids on the Canada side with 

 fair success, but we spent most of our time watching the 

 vessels passing through the ship canal. The view across 

 the rapids is grand, and we were much impressed with 

 this magnificent scene. The manner of taking whitefish 

 from the rapids by the Indians is an interesting sight, 

 and visitors sit for hours at a time watching them. 



On the following Tuesday evening at 8 o'clock we and 

 our traps were dumped out of a big wagon on the south 

 bank of the Unknown River, 140 miles from the ' Soo." 

 We had come 125 mixes by steamer and the remainder of 

 the way in a farm wagon over a corduroy pike. The 

 place we had selected for our camp was in a small clear- 

 ing close to the river. In an hour we had the tent up, 

 supper prepared and dispatched, and everything made 

 snug for the night. The mosquitoes turned out in great 

 numbers to greet us and were altogether too friendly for 

 comfort. The next morning soon after daybreak found 

 us up looking after our fishing tackle and preparing for 

 sport if there were any to be had. We had come a long 

 distance to fish this very river and here we were all ready 

 to wade in and see what it would produce. 



About 50yds. below camp there is a bend in the river, 

 and the water, after jumping a lot of big boulders, makes 

 its way to the opposite bank with a rush, and just here 

 we tried our luck. George got the first cast and hooked 

 something that surprised him greatly. His face was a 

 study as he watched his line running but at a rapid rate, 

 and 'it was a full minute, it seemed to me, before he got 

 over his surprise and followed his fish down stream. In 

 about ten minutes he shouted back that he had landed his 

 fish. In the meantime I had fastened to one and had 

 just landed him when George returned. The t wo weighed 

 411 bs. George's proved to be the heaviest by a quarter of 

 a pound, though there seemed to be no difference in 

 their size. We walked back to camp much elated with 

 the prospect and wondering what we would do with all 

 the trout if our luck kept up as it started. In half an 

 hour one of the trout which had been watching for flies 

 and bugs in his native element was served smoking hot 

 to hungry fishermen, along with common things such as 

 potatoes and. bread. We found some boards at an old 

 mill near by and after breakfast made a table and benches 

 and three live-boxes. We did not want to waste any 

 trout, so the live-boxes were stationed along the river at 

 convenient places. When our work was finished we 

 tried the fishing again and by 4 o'clock had secured 25 

 trout, only a few of these weighing less than lib. each, 

 and t wo of them weighed 24Ibs. each. 



We had an elegant camping place, the river was wide 

 and shallow, just right for wading, with deep holes here 

 and there and not a stick nor a log in it anywhere, no 

 overhanging trees to bother and a stream full of trout 

 ranging from one to four pounds. We did most of our 

 fishing within two or three hundred yards of camp, and 

 only went further away occasionally for a change. We 

 used dark files, as these trout would not touch a light color. 

 There seemed to be no small trout in this river, as we 

 rarely hooked one under a pound. One day George 

 hooked a large trout, but it got aw-ay. We saw it several 

 times and judged it would w-eigh over four pounds. The 

 largest one we caught weighed three pounds and a half, 

 then we got several weighing from two and a half to 

 three and a quarter pounds each. The large one was 

 taken the evening before we broke camp, and two days 

 after it weighed three and a quarter pounds on grocery 

 scales. One day of the six that we were here it rained 

 all day, and the" mosquitoes were just awful. We could 

 not loaf a minute, for the moment we stopped they would 

 swarm around us so thick we could hardly see. George 

 said something emphatic to them several times, but they 

 did not seem to mind, at least they did not go where he 

 told them to. The six days rolled around very quickly it 

 seemed to us, and it was with many regrets that we 

 pulled up stakes preparatory to leaving one of the pretti- 

 est camping places and one of the best trout streams in 

 Michigan. 



When the team came for us fifty of the largest trout 

 were taken from the live-box and packed in a box with 

 grass, and these with our traps were put in the wagon. 

 Taking a last look at the rapids, we bade good-by to our 

 friends the bears, deer, porcupines, trout and mosquitoes, 

 climbed into the wagon and were off. Arriving at the 

 boat landing we packed the trout carefully in pounded 



