^TT<*. 29, 1889.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



109 



the matter is at length pressing so heavily upon me, that 

 my sleep is disturbed by vi-ions of a monstrous ouinanish 

 fighting me for hours, and then at last poising itself in 

 mid air, fixing its fishy eyes upon me with a countenance 

 expressive rat Iter of sorrow than of anger, and reproach- 

 ing me for duties neglected, then shaking himself free of 

 the fly and plunging sullenly into the depths of the 

 river. 



Thus urged and haunted, I seize my pen at every avail- 

 able opportunity; and if any one wants to know why I 

 didn't begin with the fishing, let me politely crave per- 

 mission to tell my story my own way: you shall know all 

 about the ouinanish in due course. 



Moreover, catching fish is not the sura total of the joys 

 of a fishing tour; there is, perhaps, as much enjoyment 

 drunk in with tiie exhilarating forest air, or by sympathy 

 with the scenes reflected upon the retina. Who does not 

 love the plunging, rolling, rippling, eddying river, with 

 its black pools and frothy rapids? What sweeter music 

 is there than the soft murmurs of its waters? But, for 

 all that, when I set out with the aphorism that "the 

 glory of the Laurentian region is its lakes and rivers," it 

 was but as a prelude to a second aphorism, that the glory 

 of its lakes and rivers is its game fish. My passing re- 

 marks upon t he scenery were only introductory and by 

 the way. I am a fisherman, and although I am intensely 

 fond of river scenery, and appreciative of the oxygen of 

 the piue forest, I am free to admit that I never enjoy 

 them so much as when I find waters densely populated 

 by gamy fish after my own heart, with whom I have, suc- 

 ceeded in placing "myself on a familiar footing. You 

 cannot get the same ouinanish on every day for a week, 

 see him jump six feet out of water almost within reach 

 of the landing net, survey you tranquilly from the corner 

 of his eye while poised in air, then shake himself free 

 and plunge into the depths of the pool, without establish- 

 ing something of mutual appreciation. And all this is 

 after the manner of ouinanish or wininish — whichever 

 may be the approved spelling. 



My acquaintance with the ouinanish began on a Satur- 

 day; it was July 27. The boat from Robervale crosses 

 the lake only on Werlnesdays and Saturdays, fare seveutv 

 cents: leaves about 9 A. M., reaches the opposite shore, 

 some two miles from the mouth of the discharge, about 

 1 P. M. 



The opening of the discharge, the first rapids, and the 

 great pools or lakes below them, about two miles as the 

 crow flies, and perhaps nearly double that distance fol- 

 lowing the tortuous course of the river, is held by Mr. 

 Griffiths under the old riparian laws which vested the 

 fishing rights in the owners of the adjacent lands. Mr. 

 Griffiths is a man of means and leisure, an ardent fisher- 

 man, and spends his summers with his wife on the bor- 

 ders of the lake. They keep no hostelry, but many guests 

 are received under their hospitable roof. Fishintr permits 

 can be obtained from Mr. Griffiths at a charge of $5 a day 

 per rod, the number of such permits in force at any one 

 time being limited to five. 



Next in order come Mr. Scott's waters, which are leased 

 from the Quebec Government for $100 a year and extend 

 about seven miles further down the discharge. 



Below this the Alma Club, of twelve members, owns 

 down to the junction of the Grand and Little Discharge, 

 the two main headwaters of the Saguenay. This is prac- 

 tically the seaward limit of the ouinanish, although an 

 occasional fish goes down the rapids to the Saguenay 

 proper and makes one in the score of the Saguenay Club. 



Mr. Scott has put up a light factory-made budding of 

 pine and paper with accommodations for a dozen guests, 

 and charges $4 a day for accommodation and fishing- 

 permit. A canoe and two boatmen are necessary adjuncts 

 to ouinanish fishing in these waters, and these are sup 

 plied at a further charge of $3.50 a day. It is possible 

 to get along with one good man by making a carry when- 

 ever one comes to the ascent of rapids, especially if the 

 fisherman being peddled into convenient places will do 

 a good share of his fishing from the rocks, but one gets 

 along much better with two, especially in the matter of 

 handling the fish in rougn waters, when one man is 

 wanted to give ail his attention to the canoe. So much 

 for the preparatory conditions. 



The mer itself, for the Grand Discharge, although 

 properly described as such, is by no means a river of 

 the conventional type, of approximately equal breadth 

 throughout its course. The outlet is dotted with numer- 

 ous wooded islands, and the escaping waters are soon in- 

 closed in a wild Tocky gorge, down which they rush and 

 leap with roar and fury, emptying themselves into a 

 broad deep basin about a mile in diameter, with two 

 small islands in its center. There is perhaps no more 

 favored fishing spot in the river than in the seething, 

 whirling, eddying waters of this great pool, although a 

 succession of shallow rapids and deep broad island-stud- 

 ded pools is the leading characteristic of these waters. 



The ouinanish should always be sought where the 

 waters are in commotion, either in the rapids, or where 

 the white foam floats on the surface of the whirling 

 eddies; in these latter the whitefish too disport them- 

 selves, their arched backs continually showing above the 

 surface in their gambols, but it is hard to induce them 

 to take the fly, and harder still to haul them in out of the 

 wet, so delicate are their mouths. I did not succeed, in 

 taking one during my stay, but I learned by experience 

 at Mrs. Griffiths' hospitable board, that she and a white- 

 fish could make excellent chowder. 



The pike or pickerel lurks in the quiet eddies at the 

 fool of the rapids, and as he is also sometimes taken in 

 some of the broad basins of the river in which the water 

 is as calm as in a lake, and in which the ouinanish is 

 never found, it is probable that he goes there to digest 

 his prey in quiet, for yourpike, althoughnot a game fish, 

 is doubtless something of a philosopher. The dore or 

 pike-perch is also found in these waters, and a sucker or 

 chub appears plentiful enough and takes the fly occa- 

 sionally. These latter too may be very good although 

 coarse table fish, but with ouinanish in plenty the fisher- 

 man is quite content to see the canoemen take all the 

 other spods of the waters to their families. As to the 

 ouinanish, his good qualities at the table harmonize per- 

 fectly with the excellent traits he displays as a game 

 fish. These fish are admirably fitted to minister to man's 

 enjoyment, for I can safely say that from the moment 

 they took the fly until they passed into my digestive 

 organs all my experiences of them were pleasurable. 

 The flesh is more delicate than that of either trout or 

 salmon, and may be eaten continuously without palling 

 on the appetite. 



Well, as I said, I reached the waters of the ouinanish 

 on a Saturday. I was on my way to Scott's, and as one 

 of his guides, John Morell, crossed in the steamer with 

 me and had his house just a hundred vards from the 

 landing place, I was soon on my landward way to my 

 destination. John Morell's report was one and a half 

 miles by buckboard, and an equal distance on foot, and as 

 John had often tramped it with a load on his back, his 

 estimate proved pretty correct. 



The buckboard broke down with a snap at the foot of 

 the first rough descent, but it was only the spring board 

 that had snapped, and by sitting one in the front and the 

 other behind and driving carefully over the stones, we 

 took the strain off the other board and achieved the jour- 

 ney in safety. 



John engaged me to fish from his canoe before starting, 

 and regarding me as a tenderfoot in possession, he eyed 

 the two casting lines around my hat, and asked what 

 sort of flies 1 had brought. I showed him those I had 

 bent on, which included slate grays, browns, scarlet and 

 white, but he shook his head remarking that they would 

 not do at all, and produced a packet of smaller flies 

 which he said were the correct thing for ouinanish. In 

 vain I ransacked my memory for the French equivalent 

 of the good old saying that "old birds are not caught 

 with chaff," but I managed to express myself to the 

 general effect that my flies were all so good that any one 

 of them was better than all the rest, and that thev dis- 

 played a measure of diversity which fish are always 

 charmed with. 



John sighed, and when on the Monday following we 

 shot the first rapid a hundred yards below the house, 

 and reached the pool below with three fish on, one on a 

 royal- coachman, one on a scarlet-ibis and the third on a 

 Jock-Scott, I found it impossible to lead him into a dis- 

 cussion on the comparative merit of flies, he looked far 

 more disposed to auathematizn the fish for their lack of 

 discrimination. Ho vever, his flies were good enough, and 

 I have no doubt he will find a market for them some day. 



I found only one guest at Scott's on my arrival, and he 

 had just eaten all the dinner and gone fishing again. 

 But the good wife had spared one egg, perhaps for the 

 baby, and this, fried with a rasher of ham and supported 

 bv good bread and butter, with tea, appeased the cravings 

 of the inner man. 



Dinner disposed of I reported courteously to mv em- 

 ployer that I was at his service whenever lie felt dis- 

 posed to go fishing, but he replied that 5 o'clock was early 

 enough, and then went to his shanty and lay down for a 

 nap. I let him sleep until four, then roused him and told 

 him that I was going fishing, and asked whether he felt 

 disposed to go with me or not. We were soon afloat, 

 and after fishing some time in a swilling pool and land- 

 ing one or two fish we shot a rapid, and bringing the 

 canoe into an erldy at the foot John suggested to me to 

 fish from the rocks, while he went to find another man 

 to help him. 



I caught half a dozen fish before supper, one of which, 

 a three-pounder, I took on a minnow, and after the meal 

 was over I lighted my pipe, took my rod and strolled 

 down to the rocks in front of the house. 



The whitefish were disporting themselves n lively 

 style, and supposing they were large ouinanish, I cast my 

 flies in eager anticipation ; but they did not rise, and I 

 gradually took in the !-ituation. 



I took two small ouinanish, both under half apound, and 

 a two-pound sucker, which fought so gamely that I mis- 

 took him for a black bass. The ouinanish I put back 

 again for next season. 



Here let me remark that while a few fish of six or 

 seven ounces are taken every dav at this season, they are 

 comparatively rare, at least in the waters fished in. The 

 next size, about three-fourths of a pound, and presum- 

 ably a two-year-old fish, is very common, but the pre- 

 ponderance of fish in a day's catch, as far as my experi- 

 ence goes, is of the third siz*, a fish running pretty uni- 

 formly about a pound and a quarter, and, as I suppose 

 a three-year-old fish. The next larger siza is a two- 

 pounder, also in fair proportion as to numbers, while 

 three, four and five-pound fish are rare in the order of 

 their size, and anything above five pounds exceptional. I 

 was under a misapprehension as to the size of these fish, 

 and took larger flies than were necessary, but a half- 

 pound trout or ouinanish can take the biggest salmon fly 

 made. 



But for sport I want no bigger fish than the ouinanish, 

 and nothing more gamy, a though in the matter of fight- 

 ing I think some writers have unconsciously overesti- 

 mated his abilities. In leap ng, whether for height, 

 grace or frequency, he is unsurpassed by any fish I know; 

 but for a desperate run which makes the wheel spin 

 round while he runs out fifty or a hundred feet of line, 

 the black bass is unapproachable by a wininish of equal 

 weight. In fact, it is not the tactics of the Canadian fish 

 to make one desperate plunge and exhaust himself in the 

 effort. At the moment of striking ho may go off a few 

 yards, but give him the butt and place your finger on the 

 line and he is content to maintain a good steady strain, 

 springing occasionally into the air to try to shake the fly 

 loose. Get your fish on, and it matters little what size 

 he is, you may paddle away to the opposite shore and 

 tow him along with you without paying out more than an 

 occasional yard or two of line. The consequence is, that 

 when you get him alongside he shows little sign of ex- 

 haustion, and unless your boatman is handy in getting 

 the net under him at the right moment, your fish makes 

 a little run, springs into the air to reconnoitre, and even 

 if he fail to win a slack line and work the hook out, as 

 he is apt to do at close quarters, he is still as fresh as 

 when first struck, and it is better to give him line freelv 

 and encourage him to run, than to keep him wheeling 

 about the boat. 



The Sunday morning following my arrival at the camp 

 it rained incessantly, but it cleared up a little in the after- 

 noon, and I strolled down to the rocks below the camp 

 and did a little unsuccessful fishing with the fly; then 

 I bent on a minnow and enticed a 4 pound pickerel into a 

 dry cleft of the rock; bent on the flies again, and at length 

 landed a 2-pound ouinanish, which gave fresh fish for 

 supper. A little later I took two 1-pound chubs at one 

 cast, which completed my fishing for the day: a smart 

 shower and a sprained ankle suggesting that I had better 

 have left Sunday fishing alone. 



The following morning we were at work in good time, 

 and made one or two circles of the foaming water above 

 the first rapid. We then shot down the rapid. A fish got 

 on as we entered it, and when we reached the basin below 



r -• " ' 



j I found as beforesaid that wc had three on. One of these 

 ' fish was a three-pounder, one a pound and a half and 

 one three-quarters of a pound. John saved them all 

 cleverly, and paddling into a broad expanse of still water 

 suggested that I bend my minnow on the second rod. 

 This I did, and finding the reel revolve slowly 1 placed 

 it so that the handle was in contact with one of the ribs 

 of the boat. There was a run, and before I could get 

 the rod in my hand a pickerel, or pike, as they are prop- 

 erly called here, snapped the line and carried away the 

 only minnow I had. Fortunately I was able to replace 

 it with a spoon, and before we had completed the circuit 

 of the pool I got on another pike, which gave three runs 

 and made as plucky a fight for life and liberty as one 

 could ask for in a game fish. He weighed 71 bs. John 

 commenced another circuit of the poof, hut I reminded 

 him that I came out primarily for ouinanish, and he 

 turned and paddle^ me into .living waters. 



Fishing alternately from the canoe and from the, rocks, 

 I scored up seven ouinanish before dinner, after putting 

 back one or two yearlings, and I have no doubt I might 

 have doubled the score had we devoted all our attention 

 to the rapids, but while John was as capable a boatman 

 as one could wish in a canoe, and a man to be relied on 

 in an emergency, he soon rendered it clear to me that he 

 wasn't in search of any emergencies. 



After dinner I saw Mr. Griffiths in his canoe, and after 

 a little chat with him, he insisted on my becoming his 

 guest and having a day in his waters, and I promised to 

 avail myself of this privilege on the morrow, and the 

 raw edge of my enthusiasm having been by that time 

 baken off,. I allowed John and his son and helper a two 

 horns' rest before I called them to renewed exertions. That 

 afternoon I took six fish ranging from three-quarters 

 of a pound to two pounds, and although I was eclipsed 

 every time by my brother of the craft, a genial Ken- 

 tuckian who was at the camp with me, I took quite 

 enough to satisfy me, 



In the evening John asked permission to take the pike 

 and some surplus fish to his family, being anxious to see 

 his wife who was sick. This was readily conceded, and 

 he appeared enthusiastic at the prospect of securing some 

 big fish in Griffiths' waters. I had consequently no anxiety 

 about his being promptly on hand in the morning. 



C. F. Amery. 



[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



NORTH CAROLINA TROUT STREAMS. 



I NOTICE fishing notes in Forest and Stream from 

 various sections of the country, but do not i emember 

 to have seen any from Western North Carolina. Many 

 of your readers may not be aware of the fact that some 

 of the finest trout fishing is to be found in the streams 

 rising among the hills and mountains of the western 

 part of this State. A portion of the headwaters of the 

 Savannah River are to be found in Jackson and Transyl- 

 vania counties, and probably there are no streams in any 

 section of the country better stocked with trout than 

 these. They are cool, pure, mountain streams, not 

 deep, so that the fish do not grow much larger than a 

 pound in weight, but they are very plenty, and the 

 sportsman soon finds that his creel is full. It is not an. 

 uncommon thing for one hundred or more to be taken in 

 a single forenoon, and in some of the streams even more. 

 Most of the waters are fiohed by wading, and as the 

 streams are shoal this can be easily done. There are 

 many places, however, where a fly can be easily cast 

 from the bank. The Horse Pasture and Toxaway rivers 

 are the two best streams in Transylvania county, and 

 the east forks of the Chatuga, in Jackson county, are 

 very good. The writer is an invalid and able to walk 

 but a short distance, so he has been obliged to c mfine his 

 fishing to the easterly fork of the Chatuga, and to a 

 distance of half a mile on the stream, and yet has taken 

 this spring— from March 15 to June 1— over five hundred 

 trout, and within a distance of a mile and a half over 

 one thousand have been taken from this stream. No 

 other fish are to he found in the upper waters of these 

 streams, and the season for fly-fishing opens on March 1 

 and lasts until Sept. 1. 



I have fished the streams of Connecticut. Massachu- 

 setts, Vermont, New Hampshire, the lakes and streams 

 of Nova Scotia, but have never found any stream fishing 

 equal to such as is found here. In some of the larger 

 streams in Maine the fish grow to a much larger size but 

 do not compare in number. Here they are very gamy, 

 and with light tackle afford most excellent sport. 



The game here consist^ of rabbits, gray squirrel, ruffed 

 grouse, partridge (Bob White), wdd turkey, deer, wild 

 cat, and occasionally bear. This section woulcl be a fine 

 location for a sportsman's club. There are no natural 

 ponds nor lakes, but plenty of small branches where 

 trout ponds could be constructed at very little expense. 

 The climate is mild and healthy: seldom any snow in 

 winter, and cool and salubrious in summer, and is much 

 sought as a summer resort by people from the low coun- 

 try as well as from the higher latitudes. Parties de- 

 siring to visit this section of the State should go to 

 Walhalla, S. G, by rail, and there take private convey- 

 ance to Cashiei-s Valley, N. C, which is a central loca- 

 tion, from which point the best fishing can be easily 

 reached. Comfortable quarters, with good plain fare, 

 can be had here at a very moderate price. W. 



Collector Erhardt, of the New York Custom House, 

 gave this advice to a young man who was going fishing- 

 one day last week: "You are a young man. You are a 

 nice young man. You are going fishing. Much of your 

 future welfare, your success in life and in business may 

 depend upon your action during the next few weeks. 

 Never be misled as to the size of the fish. It is wonder- 

 ful how large a small fish will become after it gets cut of 

 the water. Young man, a very small Kodak will take a 

 very large picture of a very small fish. Good luck to 

 you." 



Wood's Holl, Mass., Aug. 15.— Bluefish are quite 

 plentiful this season about here. Young bluefish from 4 

 to 6in. long are in good numbers. Squeteague are very 

 scarce and run small. Sea bass fishing with hook and 

 line is about as last year, fair. I have seen but six or 

 eight young sea bass this season, and not a single young 

 squeteague. Bonito, Spanish mackerel and cero have 

 been common this summer, more having been captured 

 this season already than in the five years previous to this 

 altogether.— V. N. Edwards. 



