460 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Dec. 2ft, 1888. 



in before it could sink to the bottom. Then he slowly 

 moved toward deep water, but in our hurry to take up 

 slack line he became alarmed and ejected the hook be- 

 fore a strike could be made and went off the flat with 

 his head high in the air, apparently walking on his tail, 

 and with a most ludicrous expression of terror on his 

 very open countenance. . 



The great flat of white sand was deserted, and I inter 

 that our friend had driven off all the other fish; there 

 was a. flock of a hundred or more willets on a sandbar, of 

 which I took toll. • ^ T . , 



Then followed an interesting afternoon. We cruised 

 along the islands, seeing no more tarpon, but selecting 

 and taking the biggest channel bass out of the numerous 

 schools, and winding up our fishing at the pelican rook- 

 ery, where we secured a large pelican for Z. to take home 

 with him. We all arrived at the yacht early, and before 

 sunset had discussed fried grouper, biscuits and cigars, 

 and had gone over the various incidents of a day which 

 had been delightful to all. F. S. J. C, 



THE SUNSET CLUB. 



An association devoted to the interests of fish and fishing; game 

 and hunting; yachting, and for the encouragement and advance- 

 ment of outdoor recreation. 



THE autumn meetings are always well attended; ang- 

 lers, hunters and yachtsmen are anxious to relate 

 their experiences and exchange views of the closing sea- 

 son. At early candle light a dozen members were 

 seated around" the old stove, against which their feet 

 were firmly braced, patiently waiting the appearance of 

 the president. Men who seek outdoor recreation are 

 generally a good-natured class, who always have some 

 interesting story to tell. It was not long before they 

 drifted into exchanging fish stories, Capt. J. B. Battelle, 

 the famous Muskoka, light-rod angler, leading. He said: 

 "Many of you recall the days when fishing at the Mau- 

 mee Rapids was considered very fine, in fact it was the 

 North to many people. Gentlemen, I had a reminder of 

 those log cabin days. This fall I was fishing at the foot of 

 the rapids, wading in the water to my waist and using a 

 light elastic rod, single gut leader and a No. 2 Carlisle 

 hook. I made a cast near some reeds, in which the shore 

 abounds, and the line had hardly straightened when I 

 felt a very heavy strike, followed by a rapid movement 

 toward the center of the river. I at once recognized an 

 old resident, and knew I had a hard fight before me. I 

 hooked him, and gentlemen, I blush to say it, but I was 

 never so scared in all my life. Now up stream, across, 

 then with the current at lightning speed, and in the lan- 

 guage of our esteemed angler, Dr. Henshall, 'he had the 

 arrowy rush of the trout, the untiring strength and bold 

 leap of the salmon, while his system of fighting tactics 

 was peculiarly his own; ' finally I was tired out, and 



He turned up his breastplate, snowy white, 

 A vanquished, conquered knight. 



At my feet lay a three-pound bass." 



' 'I have the most profound respect for the man who will 

 speak in words of praise of the black bass," said Hon. 

 Wm. H. McLyman, whose island reputation for angling 

 is second to none, we might except Hon. Charles Foster 

 or Hon. W. D. Bickham, of the Dayton (Ohio) Journal, 

 but would hesitate to compare the catch of the past sea- 

 son with Hon. James Dority, ex-Fish Commissioner. 

 However, it is a conceded fact that Senator McLyman 

 has, to date, never been caught deviating from his motto, 

 "A bite, a fish." With that characteristic look of assur- 

 ance,carrying truthfulness with every word,he continued: 

 * 'You may talk about the newly discovered fishing grounds 

 in Canadian waters, or your Maumee 'flyers,' but give me 

 the reefs and shoals at the islands of Lake Erie. An 

 instance. While fishing one afternoon in sight of Middle 

 Bass, I had an experience I probably shall never again 

 have. I used three leaders; bait, ordinary sized shiners. 

 T had made several casts when I felt a heavy strike. I 

 soon hooked a fish by giving a retaliation strike. I found 

 I had three bass. They at once began their antics, each 

 inclined to go in opposite directions. To land them with 

 an 8oz. bethabara rod required more agility and spright- 

 liness than is usually credited to men of my size, but I 

 landed them. They were beauties." 



Maj. Wm. R. Lefiet, editor of the Railway Service 

 Gazette, and the champion pike angler of the Northwest, 

 was an attentive listener to the distinguished gentlemen; 

 finally he said, with an air of perfect truth which he had 

 acquired from his early pike angling companion: "I pre- 

 sume you relate those experiences as remarkable catches. 

 I have hooked and landed four large fish with three 

 hooks." 



"Four fish?" cried a half dozen voices. 



"Four. Listen. In Ottawa River, a tributary to Mau- 

 mee Bay. You who have seen me fish know how I use 

 bamboo poles in their natural state. At this time I was 

 fishing with a pole I call 'Jumbo,' about 20ft. in length, 

 and weighing as many pounds. I was experimenting 

 with baits, using horsehair leaders. Upon my lower 

 hook I had a 4in. minnow; a frog upon the second; the 

 first, angle worms. Presently Jumbo had a call, the 

 rapid spinning of the reel was sufficient warning that I 

 had a big fish. He turned up stream, and I saw another 

 fish take the frog. I was patient and gave them all the 

 line they called for until at the proper time I gave an 

 experienced pike jerk, and I found it required all the 

 strength I could bring to bear. You know what a thril- 

 ling sensation runs through the system when you hook a 

 large fish and he shows fight. My anchor chain trembled 

 as they started for the lake with that limited number four 

 speed. When I had them pretty well tired out, and was 

 gradually bringing them toward the boat, I saw I had 

 three fish, a pike, a bass and a perch. When they were 

 almost within reach of the landing net, and I stood 

 trembling in the balance, there was a sudden flash and I 

 saw the perch seized by a monster voracious pike and 

 this started for deep water, at once putting new life into 

 the school. I weighed anchor and gave chase, until they 

 gave up the fight. I was fully an hour in landing them. 

 Their combined weight was 5i9flbs." 



The members glanced at each other, no reply, no look 

 of surprise, a self-evident expression being visible upon 

 each countenance. They are all truthful anglers, of one 

 brotherhood and bound by the same obligation to tell the 

 truth. Hon. E. S. Dodd, with his peculiar wave of the 

 hand, signaled his intention of relating his late fishin 

 experience at St. Clair Flats, when the president entered 

 the hall. 1 



A heavy rap with the mallet called the club to order, 

 and the officers and members were seated in their respec- 

 tive places. , , ... . 



"The Keeper of the Keys will see that the blinds are 

 closed, all doors and by-ways securely fastened, close the 

 upper damper in the stove, and notify the sentinel to tyle, 

 and not to permit any person to enter without the proper 

 signs and passwords. The club is now open for such 

 business as may be brought before it. Are all true sports- 

 men entered from the North, South, East and West? 



A nod of the head from a high official so assured the 

 chair. Several tardy members entered the hall as the 

 Keeper of the Books read the minutes. 



"Brethren, give the secret signs of brotherhood that we 

 may open our hearts, so each may know the other. 'Tis 

 well." 



"Mr. President," said the chairman of the enlargement 

 committee, "we are ready to make a favorable report. 

 We find our financial condition good, and our reputation 

 throughout the land for truth and veracity unquestion- 

 ably fair. We have concluded to yield to the many re- 

 quests from our sporting friends and make the club a 

 National one, and any person of good sociable standing in 

 the outside world, and who will furnish evidence that he 

 has never told a willful fish lie, by paying the initiation 

 fee shall become a member of the Sunset Club. There 

 shall be fishing, hunting and yachting degrees." 



The report was unanimously accepted, the committee 

 discharged. The club was then opened under the head 

 of applications for membeiahip. The name of Hon. 

 Charles Foster, ex-Gov. of Ohio, was proposed as candi- 

 date for honorary member. 



The club at once went into secret session, where the 

 elegibility of the candidate will be thoroughly discussed, 

 and the history of his Put-in-Bay angling will be pre- 

 sented to the club at its next meeting. 



Club adjourned. John E. Gunckel. 



DEEP-SEA FISHING AND HUNTING. 



NOT a week has passed for many months in which I 

 have not opened with joy my Forest and Stream 

 to wander in sylvan scenes with that equal of our own 

 sesquipedalian Evarts, "A. N. C," with rod and reel after 

 that lively denizen of fresh water, the Salvelinus namay- 

 eush. Phoebus what a name; and I would fain have lin- 

 gered with the inimitable "Kingfisher," who alas! some- 

 where has stowed away his gray goose quill, and stands 

 apart from the busy haunts of men who read Forest 

 and Stream, curtained from the gaze of the gross world. 



Let "Kingfisher" come again, for we miss him, and 

 "Nessmuk," who warbles woodnotes wild! There is a 

 never-failing charm in that graceful old nimrod even if 

 he is only describing a load of "duffle" in an antique 

 canoe. My eye runs down the clear inviting type of your 

 columns, and the first name I seek is "Nessmuk," and to- 

 day as I was sitting by an open wood fire at the Hotel 

 Sturmer after a day among the ducks, I found to my 

 delight among the letters loose in my overcoat pocket 

 a warm-hearted letter from the graceful poet, who so 

 often makes his home where 



"The melancholy pine trees moan, 

 And where the cedars make reply." 



His quaint rhymes speak for themselves, worthy of 

 our genial, gracious old Norse king of sportsmen, who is 

 at home alike among the trout streams of Pennsylvania, 

 in the dense woods of the Adirondacks, or among the 

 hills of the historic Saguenay, "rock-ribbed and ancient 

 as the sun," or lazily lying in a Florida hammock eating- 

 oranges at Palatka. 



But a hypercritical reader may say, what has Palatka 

 to do with Anglesea ? This, you know, is my old summer 

 paradise for rod and reel, nor does it change save for the 

 better. This year the mackerel fishing was unsurpassed. 

 We no longer catch the ten or fifteen-pound mackerel, 

 but we did catch in September bushels of them weighing 

 from two to three pounds. Strange to say the toothsome 

 flounder has almost disappeared from these waters, as 

 well as from the inlet and adjacent fishing grounds near 

 Atlantic City. But this fall has been a famous one for 

 red drum, or channel bass, almost as game a fish as the 

 bounding salmon, as many a fisherman can testify who 

 has spent an hour with rod and reel trying to bring a 

 fifty-pound red drum in out of the wet, near the bell 

 buoy. Capt. Christopher Ludlani, who has just been 

 presented try Congress with a gold medal for bravery in 

 saving the lives of the crew of the bark Ingram, went 

 out with me to the second buoy the middle of last Sep- 

 tember, and we caught sixteen red drum in one morning. 

 Mr. Christensen, of Philadelphia, who was with us, 

 looked on in wonder to see these great red fish come in 

 over the sides of the skiff. 



"Well, well," exclaimed the amazed landsman, "this is 

 what I call heroic fishing." So it was. We lost half a 

 dozen lines and innumerable hooks, but we had a red- 

 letter day after red drum, and beat the record, eleven 

 being the highest number caught hitherto in one day. 

 We had drum steak galore all the way to Hollv Beach 

 and at the now famous hostelry of Mr. Peek -Weeks, mine 

 host of the Hereford House, Anglesea, whose patronymic 

 is Alfred Shakespeare Weeks (for short Mr. Pickwick), 

 who is a lineal descendant of the Bard of Avon, who sat 

 "pensive and alone above the hundred-handed play of his 

 own imagination," and who really resembles the divine 

 William in facial expression. On one occasion Mr. 

 Weeks accompanied Capt. Joe Ludlani, and the obese 

 Boniface hooked a 60-poirnd drum. 



Weeks was sitting in the stern of the schooner, and the 

 beer was abundant, so were the waves. Weeks held on 

 to his drum like death to Scipio Africanus. But, as his 

 adipose tissue is enormous— he weighs 3021bs. — and the 

 vessel rolled, he could not get up. The big fish was play- 

 ing wild pranks with Peek-Weeks's 100ft. of line, and the 

 rest of the piscatorial crowd laughed consumedly as Mr. 

 "Pickwick" roared out, "Skipper, come 'ere quick; don't 

 you see I've 'ooked 'im, but I can't 'aul 'im m?" When 

 the skipper got the ponderous drum aboard it was "Pick- 

 wick's" turn to laugh, for nobody else caught a scale that 

 day only saving and reserving the immortal Peek- Weeks 

 himself. 



It was my good luck to be down here the worst day of 

 the great storm. By reason of the elevated location of 

 Anglesea, and the magnificent inlet in front of Anglesea, 

 the sea, like an angry god, could only vent its fury by 

 Throwing up waves higher than the Anglesea hotel and 

 then pouring its "surplus" over the meadows for two 

 miles back from the Hereford Inlet. The water was so 



deep that a three-masted schooner sailed over the mea- 

 dows. The debris, gathered from the marsh and floating 

 landward from the sea, was covered with mudhens, which , 

 to my surprise, still remain in the marshes. The ponds 

 among the holly trees between here and Holly Beach, two 

 miles, were full of ducks, and one adventurous hunter (it 

 took some courage to brave that northeast siorm) bagged 

 seven wild geese, thirty ducks, and mudhens innumera- 

 ble one day. The taste may be acquired, but to one sur^ 

 feited with the uneatable quail on toast, or served up iu 

 New York d la Irish stew, I infinitely prefer a broiled 

 mudhen, which now loses its semi-fishy taste and is as fat 

 as a butterball duck. The island of Anglesea is four miles 

 long. The wild cattle are all killed off, but the island is 

 overrun with wild rabbits. Htmting ducks by moonlight 

 is just now the latest fad or fancy of city' sportsmen. 

 Will tell you about it in my next. I wish some of your 

 correspondents would tell more about wild turkey hunt- 

 ing. I would rather kill a turkey than a buck, 

 Anolbsea, :N.J.,Dec. 10. J. M. S. 



TROUT POACHING IN MAINE. 



WE learn that there has been a great deal of illegal 

 trout fishing with net and gaff in Swan Lake, 

 Waldo county, Maine. The lake is protected by warden 

 Joseph A- Marden, of Swanville, who was recently ap- 

 pointed, who found constable O. B. Patterson and others 

 about the lake one night under what was thought to be 

 suspicious circumstances, a net being found on shore. A 

 quarrel ensued and the warden says that the constable 

 struck him and pushed him into the water, wereon the 

 warden broke the constable's jaw with a stick. The 

 constable claims that he was there to prevent poaching. 

 Mi-. Marden found also a large hook lashed to a pole for 

 gaffing fish where they were crowded on the spawning 

 beds, and laid the matter before Commissioner Stilwell, 

 Marden has been arrested for an assault on the constable 

 and last week all the parties went to Belfast for trial but 

 settled the matter among themselves. All connected are 

 related by family ties, and the Belfast Journal says: 

 "If the people of Swanville want their fish protected 

 they must stand by their warden, without regard to 

 family relations. If the fish are protected for a few 

 years they will become so plentiful that people can catch 

 all they want in a legitimate manner, and at the proper 

 season. We are informed that when the lake is frozen 

 over holes are cut through the ice and the fish gaffed 

 out. We hope now that the matter has attracted such 

 attention poaching will be stopped." 



THE ROD AND REEL ASSOCIATION, 



THE annual meeting of the Association was held at 

 Mr. Blackford's laboratory, at Fulton Market, on 

 Saturday, Dec. 22. The minutes of the last meeting 

 were read and approved. Secretary Poey read a list of 

 receipts and expenditures for the year. Treasurer Val- 

 lotton read his report to 1888, showing a balance of 

 $158.48 in the treasury. 



The election of officers for the coming year was next in 

 order, and President Wells intimated that he had served 

 the Association to the best of his ability for several years 

 and would prefer that a new president be chosen. Capt. 

 Dunning offered a motion that the secretary cast one 

 vote for the election of the old officers, which was car- 

 ried. They are: Henry P. Wells, President. Vice- 

 Presidents: H. P. McGown, J. A. Roosevelt, Wm. Dun- 

 ning, D. W. Cross, D. B. Fearing, C. Van Brunt and L. 

 B. Wright. Treasurer, James L. Vallotton. Secretary, 

 Gonzalo Poey. 



Mr. Wells suggested that in future only medals be 

 offered as prizes in the amateur classes, and money prizes 

 in the expert classes, and that the Association should 

 bear the whole expense, and not solicit prizes from tackle 

 dealers. Messrs. Poey and Levison were appointed a 

 committee to report at the next meeting on the cost of 

 such medals and prizes. The meeting then adjourned to 

 call of chair. 



Lafayette, Ind., Aug. 2L 185j8.— IX. 8, Cartridge Co., Lowell, 

 Mags.: Dear Sir— I am pleased to be able to give you a moat sat* 

 isfactory account of the paper shells you sent me. I have, used 

 Sclniltze powder altogether for the last seven years, with Eley's 

 shells, and yours are the first perfect substitute I have found, and 

 I shall take care to recommend tbeir use. ('Signed^ W. GBAHAM, 

 Champion Shot of England. — Adv. 



EFFECT OF SAWDUST ON FISH. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Your correspondent "Sportsman," who writes on the evils 

 of sawdust, seems to me like most others who hold the same 

 views, to take for granted the thing to be proven. The onus 

 prohandi hoiug with him who affirms, I dispute the state- 

 ment that "sawdust kills fish" by fastening itself in their 

 gills. "Sportsman" says: "After sawing pine in a mill I 

 have gone along the stream and picked up dead trout, and 

 upon examination found their gills to be full of pine saw- 

 dust, which, without a doubt, kills them. I can name 

 several persons who have witnessed the same thing." But 

 finding a dead trout or two with sawdust in their gills is no 

 proof that the sawdust did the killing. Those who are 

 familiar with rivers and river fish know that when a fish 

 dies, from whatever cause, its gills will open, and if saw- 

 dust is running plentiful in the water some of it is likely to 

 lodge in the gill openings of a dead fish. I have seen one or 

 two such cases, but evidence was there also plain and clear 

 to an experienced eye, that the fish had died from other 

 causes. Morever, fish don't allow anything to get into its 

 gills which is likely to kill it, except by accident. It is pro- 

 vided with the necessary instincts and means for protecting 

 them from all or any such foreign substances as sawdust, if 

 not, we should long since have lost about all the anadrom- 

 ous fishes in our streams, and at certain seasons, and in 

 certain places, large numbers of dead, struggling and dying 

 fish would be seen in, upon and about the surface and shores 

 of rivers. But such is not the case, no such sights are seen. 



In order to sustain his views "Sportsman" should pro- 

 duce some stream where the fish have either been wholly 

 destroyed, or largely decreased, where plenty of sawdust 

 exists, while dams have been opened so that the fish have 

 had ready access to their spawning beds above. Such a 

 case, I think, cannot be found on this continent, unless in- 

 discriminate fishiDg has been allowed at all seasons of the 

 year. I herewith produce tables showing the catch of fish 

 on two, out of a dozen or more, similar cases in Canada. 

 Sawdust has been running into these two small streams for 

 six to nine months of the years for over half a century. Im- 

 passable mill dams at the head of salt water had completely 



