464 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Dec. m 1889. 



SPOON-HOOK IN BIG KLAMATH LAKE. 



'•^7~0U feel better now, doncher!" This was Ephe's 



X way of felicitating me as at about sundown on a 

 certain day of the past summer I finished weighing four 

 trout at our camping place, whither we had made our 

 way for the night a few moments earlier. Our tent was 

 pitched in a notably out-of-the-way nook of Uncle Sam's 

 dominion, its site being on the margin of Pelican Bay, 

 an arm of Big Klamath Lake, Oregon. We were newly 

 arrived here, scarcely two hours having elapsed siuce 

 our camping arrangements were completed. As will be 

 understood, our errand was of a piscatory nature. At a 

 friend's ranch, situated on the shore of the lake, some 

 twenty-five miles distant, where we were guests, the 

 fishing in this particular bay was so greatly vaunted 

 that we had been moved to test the matter by actual 

 trial. The conveyance to which we had recourse in the 

 emergency was the readiest that turned up— a bulky sail- 

 boat. Besides the ordinary run of stores, camp equipage 

 and sporting paraphernalia of sundry sorts, needful for 

 such an enterprise as the one we were embarked upon, 

 our cargo included — Sophronia, our hostess, pressing the 

 matter upon us so vigorously that we could not say her 

 nay, and as it proved giving in to her greatly to a good 

 purpose — an empty barrel and a sack of rock salt. 



Our passage had been made quite leisurely. As it was 

 the midsummer season and therefore the period when all 

 through the region hereabouts the wind, save at inter- 

 vals, is absolutely a dead letter, we were, of course, 

 mostly forced to rely upon our oars for our propelling 

 power. Although humanity will rarely own up to the 

 fact, it is still true that there is no bore much more griev- 

 ous to it than this same delectation of rowing. Further- 

 more, the scenery of the shore of the lake being novel and 

 odd to a marked degree — want of space forbids particular- 

 izing — frequently arrested our gaze as we passed along. 

 Such were some of the influences that held us back. At 

 the close of our first day out, happening to sight a scow 

 at anchor ahead of us, we made our way to this craft with 

 the view of examining into its capacity for affording us 

 acceptable sleeping accommodations for the night. As it 

 turned out, the sole navigator in charge of the vessel was 

 an acquaintance of Ephe's, and therefore the hospitality 

 of his homely argosy was extended us with not a little 

 entrain. Sharing a snack with our host, and listening 

 for a while to his speculations as to the future prices of 

 hay and rails, in which sorts of merchandise he was a 

 dealer, we at last spread our blankets on the portion of 

 the scow floor offering the most inviting inducements for 

 the purpose and turned iu. In the morning with the 

 dispatch of breakfast, and a parting gift of a spoon-hook 

 to the sco w owner, for which we were later remembered by 

 him by a sort of retort in kind of almost priceless value 

 to us, we re-embarked in our own boat and began plying 

 our oars again. A stretch of some twelve or fifteen 

 miles was yet to be covered by us, and we determined, if 

 possible, that the task should be completed by noon. But 

 as we managed to lose ourselves for quite an interval in 

 a labyrinthine ditch that we vainly took to be a cut- off. 

 it was fully three o'clock before we reached the point 

 marked on our chart as our goal. An hour and a half 

 later, or thereabouts, saw us through with the establish- 

 ment of our camping quarters, as well as our efforts to 

 fill our inner bodily void. And now, as if intending to 

 extend us a thoughtfully pat greeting, ^Eolus let loose 

 from his cave (if this is the right way to put it) a pattern 

 angling breeze, and under the influence of which the bay 

 was soon in a state of brisk corntuotiori. Needing no 

 prompting relative to the fleeting quality wont to char- 

 acterize favors of this sort in these latitudes, we hurried 

 to our beat with such fishing tackle as was nearest to be 

 come at, and put off. 



Our fishing ground had been described to us as compris- 

 ing a deep, lengthy channel, following the outline of the 

 shore, and with one opening within a mile of the site of 

 our camp. Having at last succeeded in locating this 

 watery defile, while Ephe took the oars and kept the 

 boat under easy headway, the writer paid out overboard 

 a hundred feet or thereabouts of line with one of the 

 larger sized Skinner spoon-hooks made fast to the end of 

 it. The day was now rapidly waning. The close of an- 

 other hour would witness the sunset. If good luck was 

 to be our portion on this occasion, that it needed to be 

 forthcoming with little delay was plain. It had beed de- 

 creed, however, that narrow as the opportunity was, it 

 was to prove a golden one to us, as a few turns— the 

 work of not over fifteen minutes at the longest— made by 

 our boat back and forth on our fishing ground resulted in 

 the victimization and landing of fourtrout, each of which 

 was a double hand's grip in girth, and fully as long as 

 one's forearm. With the nightfall so close at hand and 

 sundry evening camp chores— one of which was the cook- 

 ing of our supper — imperatively claiming our attention, 

 we now agreed to end our fishing bout on existing terms 

 and withdrew shorewar*d. Ere long on consulting the 

 balance as to the weight of our prizes tbe aggregate score 

 was found to be somewhat in excess of 24lb3. Of course, 

 as Ephe's salutatory exclamation put it, I felt decidedly 

 better at the juncture, both by reason of the luck vouch- 

 safed to us, as well as the prospective outlook held out to 

 us therefor; and this, too, if the entire truth is set forth, 

 our catch just effected was not altogether clean cut work, 

 its instrument having been simply the hand line; the full 

 outfit of gear that piscatorial virtuosity holds duly meet, 

 having been, through our over-eagerness to get after the 

 fish, neglected to be brought together. As is needless to 

 remark, we saw the expediency right away of bringing 

 our empty barrel and bag of salt into requisition — the 

 validity of Sophronia's argument that these things were 

 indispensable to us already beginng to be made manifest — 

 and when our prizes were duly dressed, pickled and given 

 lodgment in the repository named, we disposed of our 

 supper, and, later in proper order, disposed of ourselves 

 a bas, submissive subjects of the drowsy god. 



That the Oregon waters are notably fertile in fish 

 everybody is aware. This is particularly the case with 

 Big Klamath Lake, where the conditions favor the pros- 

 perity of fish life as in but few places. After a not un- 

 common piscine predilection, the trout incident to the 

 locality are signally prone to roving. During the colder 

 months they mostly confine themselves to the main body 

 of the lake. As summer sets in, however, they leave the 

 lake proper almost en masse and take up their quarters in 

 the bays, where inflowing mountain streams at once 

 vivify the water as well as keep it comfortably cool. 

 The bay, on the shore of which we were encamped, 



received the influx of two mountain streams, each of 

 larger volume by considerable than the average mountain 

 stream hereabouts. This being the case, it followed 

 naturally that t}& place Was in great vogue with the 

 trout as a summer resort; no other similar part of the 

 lake, in fact, as the story ran, being at all equal to it in 

 this particular. Such were the main facts by which we 

 had been led to undertake our venture, and which, as we 

 naturally felt, abundantly warranted it. Wanting at the 

 time in the actual experience in the fishing, and wherein 

 Sophronia had the better of us, we really took no stock 

 in her recommendations touching the barrel and bag of 

 salt, being quite convinced that her true design in the 

 matter was to play off ft huge joke on us. But as we 

 had fidl reason ere long to know, her pressing of these 

 things on us was an act of entire seriousness and good 

 faith, and as a way of sizing up the scope of the sport 

 nothing could well have been more to the point. 



On the morning following our arrival we were natur- 

 ally impatient to have another go at the fish, and after 

 breakfast, being equipped with gear in which the rod 

 and reel bore their rightful parts, we took to our boat 

 and started again for the fishing grounds. We had 

 scorned to bother ourselves with the question of the wind 

 this time, and, in fact, there was almost an entire dearth 

 of it. Under these circumstances, as is obvious, a good 

 deal of management was requisite in the handling of the 

 tackle, and accordingly the lure was weighted sufficiently 

 to keep it well down in the water while making its 

 rounds, and the length of line paid out was preeminently 

 generous, in order that any feeling of disturbance ex- 

 perienced by the fish as they chanced to see the passing 

 boat might be done away with when the bait caught 

 their eye. Proceeding in this manner we bagged some 

 twelve or fifteen fish in perhaps an hour's time. In 

 weight, however, not one of these captures would overgo 

 a couple of pounds or thereabouts. With the memory of 

 the take of the previous evening still firing our minds, 

 we were not the men to stomach the catching of mere 

 two-pound fish with unhurt pride, and consequently 

 with the achievement of such results as have been noted, 

 we gave over fishing and turned the head of our boat to 

 our landing place. The water being still and wonder- 

 fully clear withal, we noted as directing our attention 

 that way, very many fish in the glassy depths as we 

 passed along. These mostly consisted of trout. But a 

 few enormous suckers were also included in the multi- 

 tude, as well as a liberal admixture of chubs; the last of 

 which were doubtless privileged in the providence of 

 nature to contribute in goodly store to the epigastric ease 

 of the first named preeminently kind feeding species 

 with whom they were apparently so amicably associated, 



The most impressive sight, however, to which we were 

 treated at this time was altogether of another stamp, 

 although the water was its scene. It was Ephe who first 

 described it, announcing his discovery in the following 

 graphic utterance: "O-r-e-a-t Scott! Look astern there! 

 There's a deer a-putting it across the bay," And such 

 indeed was the fact; as on looking stem ward the head of 

 a full-antlered buck met the eye about two gunshots off, 

 and which faced a promontory on the bay shore at right 

 angles with our course, and whither the creature, as was 

 seen at once, was bound. Under what circumstances it 

 had reached the point where it first became visible to us 

 was a mystery. But here it was, and plainly in the best 

 of fettle, and prosecuting its journey totally tmconcerned 

 as to our presence in its neighborhood. We were with- 

 out weapons of any sort, and besides to attempt the pur- 

 suit of the animal in such a boat as ours was not to be 

 thought of, and hence its safety from harm on our part 

 was beyond question. All that was left us, therefore, 

 was the natural human mode of procedure under the cir- 

 cumstances, which was to assume the sour grape atti- 

 tude toward it, and so marked its final emergence from 

 the water and disappearance in a distant sea of sedge 

 grass, magnanimously deciding that venison was to be 

 religiously kept out of ours anyway. 



That subsequent to our above turn with the fish we 

 were unalterably committed to the doctrine that the 

 summons of the breeze should alone be recognized by us 

 as the true call to take after them will be understood. 

 Our attitude now for a good deal of the time was there- 

 fore a waiting one. But an entire day never passed 

 without an interval when the surface of the bay was 

 well ruffled, if it was a brief one. These periods, I need 

 not say, ever found us ready for action, and so far as in 

 us lay we made the most of them. Our efforts in this 

 direction were greatly aided by an almost incalculably 

 advantageous favor rendered us by our friend, the scow- 

 owner. This was the loan of his scow- tender, made us 

 while his larger craft was tied up for an interval in our 

 neighborhood waiting a charter. When I say that this new 

 navicular appliance thus furnished us was a regular two- 

 oared skiff, and duly light and swift, the reader will 

 readily understand that the work of getting about on the 

 fishing ground was greatly lessened by its agency, and 

 therefore we accomplished more within a given time, a 

 matter of vital importance with us. Our captures now 

 as we had hoped were made up almost exclusively of fish 

 of the more cunning and hence riper stamp. Occasion- 

 ally a juvenile light-weight was included among them, 

 but virtually these representatives of the breed were 

 strangers to us at this period. The weight of the great 

 run of our prizes would average from 6 to 8lb3., and a 

 trip was voted a failure which did not yield us at least 

 half a dozen such fish. The extreme limit of bigness 

 reached by any one of our trophies was Hi lbs. It was 

 the writer's good fortune to bring this lusty fellow to 

 gaff. Two 9 -pounders followed next in the "class of our 

 bulkier takes, both of which succumbed to Ephe's prowess 

 during one run over the fishing ground as his turn came 

 to take a hand in the fun. 



The fortunes of our barrel, as will readily be supposed, 

 throve apace right along. Yet at the same time a liberal 

 portion of our spoils were disposed of otherwheres; we 

 ourselves getting outside of them very freely almost 

 every day at dinner, while the scow-owner, as well as 

 sundry ranchmen living adjacent to us, whose habit it 

 was to visit us now and then, were ever well-laden at 

 their departure with oar finny remembrance*. With 

 the lapse of a week or a little thereafter, however, the 

 barrel proved to have fulfilled its office, being even full 

 to the chine. The way was prepared for us mw to put 

 up our rods to be coveted above all others; sport galore 

 could be our boast, and yet the overstepping the line 

 into the field of murder was not chargeable against us. 

 Packing up therefore bag and baggage, we handed the 



scow-tender over to its rightful proprietor, inwardly 

 blessed the scene all about us — being all the more ready 

 to do so as the region was absolutely mosquitoless, ana 

 left. 



As doubtless few of my readers are unaware, the com- 

 mon trout of Oregon of which our bag consisted, is dis- 

 tinguished by the authorities as the black spotted trout; 

 and according to Prof. Goode, the species is not a trout 

 in a strict sense, but a salmon trout. In the water fished 

 by us, as we found, the larger representatives of the 

 breed — truly salmon shaped as they were and clothed in 

 rich changeable purple— were pronounced beauties; and 

 when it is added that their destructiveness of tackle was 

 measured by a goodly little sum of dollars during our 

 experience with them, their success as furnishers of 

 sport is affirmed as emphatically as need be. 



W, L. Tiffany. 



THE NEVERSINK. 



THE famous Neversink waters, in Sullivan county, 

 New York, formerly controlled by the Neversink 

 Club, are now in the hands of private parties. Mr. 

 Clarence M. Roof, formerly a member of the club, bought 

 four miles of the west branch of the. Neversink; and Mr. 

 R. M, Cook, of this city, purchased that part of the stream 

 above Mr. Roof's waters, which belonged to Mr. Satterly. 

 The west branch of the Neversink was at one time famous 

 for its trout fishing, but the people who used to visit it 

 fished it in the most ruthless manner. It was a common 

 occurrence for parties of two to four to take away four or 

 five hundred trout, the result of a couple of days' fishing. 

 To put a stop to this, a few gentlemen leased from Parker 

 and others, four miles of the best part of the stream, re- 

 stocked it, and did their utmost to protect it. The mem- 

 bers were not allowed to kill more than twenty-five fish a 

 day, and the fish had to be at least seven inches long. 

 The fishing soon began to improve, and even the free 

 waters above and below felt the benefit of these wise 

 measures. 



Of course, many people objected to being deprived of 

 their fishing, and at first the club had great difficulty in 

 preserving their stream. The natives particularly 'felt 

 very sore at being ordered off, though they did not object 

 to taking the club's money, which in 'some instances 

 saved them from bankruptcy. Several serious encounters 

 took place on the stream, and some arrests were made, 

 resulting in suits which were ended in favor of the club; 

 but at last the owners were left in comparatively peace- 

 ful possession. While the Neversink Club was in exist- 

 ence, Mr. Alfred Roe, of this city, was its president and 

 managed its affairs for a number of years with great 

 skill. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



THE number of lady anglers in this country is con- 

 stantly increasing, and a large proportion of them 

 can handle a fly-rod with great skill. There is one young 

 lady in this city who deserves to rank high among the 

 angling fraternity. Last year she visited" a number of 

 the Western States in searching for black bass and mus- 

 kallonge fishing, ending with a trip up the Nipegon, 

 where she enjoyed the best of trout fishing. This year 

 she made an extended trip into Alaska. In the harbor of 

 Sitka she caught a great many fish resembling our sea 

 bass, and during her visit she killed a great many trout 

 (Salmo pxrp/'ratus) on the fly, although every one assured 

 her that they would not take flies. The march-brown, 

 brownstone and grouse were the most killing. Two days 

 out from Port Townsend the steamer Anchou (Alaska 

 line) was wrecked and Miss Taylor passed five days on an 

 island in the company of 200 passengers before they 

 could be taken off. Among her numerous exploits was 

 the hooking of an immense king salmon on a Brandreth 

 fly, while a small rainbow salmon took the pearl bait at 

 the end. Unfortunately the rainbow gave the salmon 

 a purchase, and after leaping two or three times in the 

 air, slinging the rainbow after him, he tore out and es- 

 caped. Miss Taylor is of slight physique and quite deli- 

 cate looking. Most of the time she made these trips 

 alone, with only letters of introduction to the different 

 missionary posts. She brings back numerous specimens, 

 sketches and photographs, and will probably put them 

 into shape to publish before long. 



A resident of Rockaway beach informs us that flounders 

 are still taken in the bay. 



ALBINO CATFISH. 



AT the central station of the U. S. Fish Commission 

 in Washington may be seen two very handsome 

 catfish which have recently been obtained from the 

 Potomac river in the vicinity of Fort Washington. They 

 belong to the common species known to every small 

 boy in the East as "bullhead," "hornpout," or "cattie," 

 and are described in the books under the name of Ameiu- 

 rus nebulosus. The coloration of those two fishes is 

 remarkable. One of them has the top of the head and 

 the back as far as the dorsal fin velvety black. The 

 body is faintly tinged with yellow on a silvery ground. 

 The eye is colored like the body. The barbels on the 

 nose are black at the base. This example is about seven 

 inches long. The second specimen is about six inches 

 long. In this the head and lips are yellow. The top of 

 the eye, the nape and the upper half of the body as far 

 back as the tail are very dark olive. The sides are 

 slightly mottled with yellow and olive. The lower parts 

 are a little paler than the body. The first dorsal fin, the 

 soft fin and the caudal are pale yellow. The pectoral, 

 A T entral and anal fins have some dark patches. The 

 barbels are pale yellow. 



Specimens showing similar freaks of color have been 

 caught in the lower Susquehanna near Havre de Grace, 

 and the National Museum has a couple of beautiful casts 

 made from these. 



An effort will be made to propagate this beautiful 

 albino for the aquarium. The fish is much handsomer 

 than a goldfish and ought to prove hardy. The golden 

 colors are believed to be due to incipient albinism; com- 

 plete absence of pigment cells seems to be unknown in 

 the catfish family. T. H. B. 



Angling Talks. By George Da wson. Price 50 cents. Fly- 

 Rods and Fly-Tackle. By H. P. Wells. Price $2.50. Fly- 

 Fishing and Fly-Making for Trout. By J. H. Keene. 

 Price S^. 50. American Anglers Book. By Thad. Norris. 

 Price $5.50. 



