434 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[June 19, 1890. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CHICAGO. June 9. — A short time ago some comment 

 was made upon the taking of a mascallonge in the 

 Grand Calumet River, over which some surprise was 

 expressed. This fact is now eclipsed by the taking of a 

 genuine mascallonge of 2241bs. weight in Lake Mukwan- 

 ago, in lower Wisconsin, by a Mr. Blackburn and a friend 

 who is an Adams Express Co. agent. Lake Mukwanago 

 is about sixty-five miles north of Chicago. No one seems 

 to remember of any mascallonge ever having been seen 

 there before, but Mr. J. M. Clark, who gave the facts in 

 this case, saw the fish, and assures me it was a genuine 

 mascallonge. 



Mr. Clark has lately been having a good deal of fun 

 with his old friend the black bass. On Decoration Day 

 and the day following he and Mr. Morell caught Go bass, 

 running from 21bs. to 5£lbs. This is the finest basket that 

 has yet come down from Loon Lake. Most of the fish 

 were taken in the upper lake. At one time Mr. Clark 

 caught nine bass along the shore of the lower lake, where 

 he was wading and casting among the rushes, the nine 

 weighing 3olbs., which is a large run. All these bass are 

 of the large-mouth variety. 



Mr. Chas. L. Ryder, General Agent of the Milwaukee, 

 Lake Shore & Western Railway, got back Monday even- 

 ing from a hasty run up over' the road to Gogebic, and 

 displayed a dozen or two of good bass. These bass were 

 all small-mouthed, and were a peculiar looking fish, being 

 very dark-colored, indeed nearly black, on back, belly 

 and sides, with no green shades about them. 



Mr. John Soderberg, treasurer of Blomgren Bros. & 

 Co., of this city, left last Saturday for a stay of a week 

 or so at the pretty little sheet of water known as Silver 

 Lake, which is his favorite summer haunt. This is one 

 of the many desirable waters of the Fox Lake system, and 

 is only about sixty miles north on the Wisconsin Central. 

 Silver Lake has a game warden, a Mr. Schinnig, who also 

 keeps the summer resort hotel there. He is not on record 

 as having wardened anything, but he has a lot of 

 boarders. 



Mr. A, Hirth, the suave gentleman who runs the fish- 

 ing tackle end of A. G. Spalding & Bros.' house, in this 

 city, has been fishing with two friends at Lake Maria, 

 near Antioch. He reports having taken 38 black bass 

 and 5 pickerel on one day, but he very prsbably means 

 that it took 3S of them to catch a black bass in 5 days. 

 He is unable to give the names of the gentlemen who 

 were with him, or to produce documentary evidence of 

 a reliable character, and moreover, his nose is not legiti- 

 mately sunburned. 



It may be seen that the backward season has at length 

 begun and that the bass are biting. There has also been 

 some trout fishing, though not much. It is very likely 

 that more fish will be taken this week than in all the 

 season up to this date. 



A party of railroad men lately got back from a day's 

 fishing on the White River, and thev had 51 trout that 

 weighed 531bs. I could not learn names or the number 

 of rods. 



A letter just dewn from Wausaukee, Wis., on the Mil- 

 waukee & Northern, states that constant rains have kept 

 the river full and that the prospect at date is poor. 



Dr. Buechner and party are back from their trip to the 

 Gay lord Club, and report a good catch of small trout in 

 the Pike. An unusually large number of big trout have 

 been taken on bait in the deep waters of the lake thia 

 spring, as well as many bass. 



Young Armour, of this city, got a 31bs. trout and a lot 

 of small ones on one of the trout streams not far from 

 Lake Gogebic last week. A number of gentlemen from 

 the South and East are now in at Eagle Waters, Vieux 

 Desert and Gogebic. The mascallonge are reported to be 

 beginning to bite this week, for the first time this season. 



I have just got back from a very pleasant visit to the 

 St. Clair Flats, above Detroit, where I went in company 

 with Mr. John Parker and Mr. Frank Wherry, both game 

 wardens, who were on a hunt for certain violators of the 

 fish laws in the neighborhood of the flats. I shall have to 

 make full notice of this interesting trip later on, but I 

 cannot refrain from saying here that the reports of viola- 

 tions of the law are only too well founded. At the time 

 I left, June 1, the bass were just beginning to run on the 

 spawning beds back of the club houses, over toward the 

 old North Channel, and here, right at the time they 

 should have been protected, the native fishermen, mostly 

 Frenchmen, were spefj-ing them, and over the Baltimore 

 Bay they were netting and seining them. At the Penin- 

 sula Club I saw three great small-mouthed black bass 

 brought in by one boat, each cut and gashed by the spear. 

 It looked pretty tough. At the Star Island House, among 

 a lot of speared pickerel a French boy brought in I saw 

 another fine bass with the unmistakeable marks of the 

 spear. It is legal to spear pickerel, but none of those 

 natives hesitate to spear a bass or get him any other way 

 he can. The Indians also spear bass day and night. I 

 saw two spearing lights out over toward the North Chan- 

 nel the last night I was on the Flats, and three over on 

 tne Canadian side. Do you suppose these spearers are 

 choice in what they spear? And do you suppose that we 

 blundered across all the bass that were speared on the 

 flats that day? The answer lies in the growing complaint 

 that the bass fishing on the St. Clair Fiats, once thought 

 to be exhaustless, is now nothing like what it was, and is 

 growing yearly poorer. The old story will be repeated 

 here, and once more it will be proved that, no matter 

 how large the water, and no matter how abundantly it is 

 stocked, the persistent efforts of fishers for the market 

 will drain and depopulate it. 



Now about the remedy. Observe how infinitely puerile 

 ia the law. I don't know how it is that so little business 

 sense is observed in making game laws. They certainly 

 do seem to be so framed as to make the discovery and 

 punishment of a violation as difficult a matter as possible. 

 For instance, the Michigan law is one embracing the 

 county warden system. Each warden has his own county 

 and cannot go beyond it. For all the vast watery and 

 marshy region, including the Detroit River, Lake St. 

 Clair and the St, Clair River, indefinite and difficult of 

 determination as the county lines must under such cir- 

 cumstances be, the county warden system alone obtains, 

 further complicated by certain special clauses which per- 

 mit certain sorts of netting of certain sorts of fish within 

 certain artificial lines, drawn from the mouth of Milk 

 River to Providence alone knows where. Over these 

 lines the foreign warden may not step. It would have 

 been the easiest thing for the people to detect a crime of 

 the sort in hand , but no, it must be a warden and a warden 



of that county who must detect it. And this he must do 

 chiefly for love, for there is no money it. To be plain, 

 here were John Parker and Frank Wherry and myself, 

 not one of whom was by profession fond of seeing spawn- 

 ing bass speared, and not one of whom but had the plain 

 facts before him of such outrage. What could we do ? 

 Nothing at all. The boys had with them a commission 

 from the State warden for the appointment of a warden 

 in that county, vice Mr. Chris. Smith resigned. Chris. 

 Smith, spite of all reports to the contrary, was probably 

 a fair warden, but he could not afford to work for noth- 

 ing. For the pay of the proposed new warden all the 

 boys could offer was the more or less indefinite promise 

 of a very few club members, who had said they would 

 help raise a salary for a' local warden. From what I 

 learned before I came away it seemed likely that the boys 

 would secure a new candidate for game warden honors; 

 and after that the old, old story will be in order. 



Now, with the very two men I was with, and the very 

 craft that we had along, the whole region I have men- 

 tioned could be patrolled and kept clean of illegal nets 

 and spears, at a less total expense than a decent county 

 warden system would entail. I would agree, if so pro- 

 vided, within one month to sweep every illegal net out 

 of those waters and to catch a dozen illegal spearers 

 every week. A boat whose crew was made up of ward- 

 ens not known to all the local fishermen, and whose 

 movements up and down the lakes could not be known 

 beforehand and figured on, could stop all that foolishness 

 in just about one season. John Parker and Frank 

 Wherry could save the State of Michigan a good many 

 thousands of dollars, and could insure the clubs and 

 hotels of a continued foreign angling patronage, if the 

 fish law department of the glorious State of Michigan 

 had a reasoning and business head to it. But under the 

 present system all these men could do, all that any one 

 could do, was to sit and look on at the baskets of speared 

 bass, and to hear the stories of lessening sport and lessen- 

 ing fish supply. The law wants no results. It does not 

 contemplate actual accomplishments. It kind of, sort of, 

 m a half way fashion, hopes that somebody will warden 

 something, somehow, some day, if he will be so good. I 

 don't think it is mere narrow criticism which rails at 

 such a law and the others of which it is a type. Scrip- 

 ture, common life, common sense, bear in on us every 

 day the truth of the thought, "By their fruits ye shall 

 know them." Yet we ask no fruits of the game laws, 

 and we bear with their vacuities with a patience child- 

 like if not childish. Let us have this straight. We have 

 the same law out in Illinois. The people may not see or 

 complain about a theft of the property of the'people. No, 

 but the people may appoint an agent, who, for the fun of 

 the thing, will see all such thefts and punish them. I 

 think a blind, deaf and dumb idiot, with one foot in the 

 grave, could make a better law than that, with both eyes 

 shut and one hand tied behind his back. 



Milwaukee, Wis., June 10.— Mr. C. D. Gammon and 

 several friends of his left last Thursday for a mascallonge 

 trip on Lake Vieux Desert, where they had such great 

 sport last year. They were so good as to delav their start 

 a few days, in order that I might accompany them upon 

 my return from Detroit, and I have now wiggled out of 

 all sorts of moral responsibilities and have gotten this far 

 north to meet them, where I am unavoidably held over 

 a day. As their party breaks camp next Thursday, it 

 looks as though my privileges would be brief, but I hope 

 to catch them for a day at least before they start home. 



E. Hough, 



He Saved the Fly.— Fredericton, N. B. — A number of 



years since Captain , of the Royal Artillerv. was 



salmon fishing on the southwest Miraniichi, above"Boies- 

 town. In an unlucky and unguarded moment he was 

 rather hastilv and heedlessly swinging around his salmon 

 rod preparatory to casting, his large hook caught in the 

 thin part of an ear of T. P., who was one of the Captain's 

 men, who, as ardent and a better fisherman than his 

 master, was intently watching the motions of a large 

 salmon, which the Captain was endeavoring to secure. 

 Seizing the line with both hands, so as to save his ear, as 

 far as possible, T. P. slowly walked up to his master, to 

 be relieved from the hook. "Break it off, Captain. 

 Break it off!"' said one of the party. "No, no," replied 

 the Captain, "I am going to do no such thing. Would 

 you have me destroy my best fly?" And so quietly tak- 

 ing a sharp pen-knife out of his pocket and slitting the 

 lobe of his servant's ear, he thus safely redeemed the 

 favorite fly uninjured. The story was related to me by 

 the sufferer, who bore on his body confirmatory evidence 

 of the truth of his statement.— Edward Jack. 



Minnows in Corked Jugs.— Garrettsville. Ohio, June 

 12.— At intervals during the past two years the feasibility 

 of transporting minnows in hermetically sealed jars, etc., 

 has been discussed in your valuable journal. I recently 

 met in Cleveland that expert fly- caster and enthusiastic 

 angler J. T. Hasbrouck. Upon one occasion he ran across 

 a veritable old Izaak Walton fishing for bass, and ob- 

 served that he carried his minnows in a bottle securely 

 corked. In conversation upon the subject he was assured 

 that they might be easily transported for long distances 

 if put in a two or three-gallon jug filled two-thirds full 

 of water and tightly corked or sealed. A short time 

 since, upon my recommendation, the plan was tried by a 

 member of our Angling Association, and the minnows, 

 when turned into bait pails at the end of a seventeen-mile 

 drive, were found to be in splendid condition, only one of 

 the entire lot having turned up. As it is of great import- 

 ance to many of the vast army of anglers throughout the 

 land, I hasten to give the result of the practical experi- 

 ment. — E. S. Whitaker, 



Black Bass in Schuylkill River.— Black bass have 

 recently been taken ireely in the Schuylkill at Phcenix- 

 ville, Pa., with a royal-coachman fly. "in this river the 

 bass are not yet through spawn mg; a female was seen in 

 the act of depositing her eggs in the shallows, June 9. 



Large Carp. — In Rancocas Creek, near Hainesport, 

 Pa., some large carp have been recently taken. As the 

 spawning season is not yet ended we presume that the 

 fish were pronounced flabby and insipid, as all fish are 

 when out of condition. 



To Salmon Angleks.— T. J. Conroy. 65 Fulton street, N. Y. 

 has a loi of flue salmon rods, assorted kinds, which lie will sell at 

 a sacrifice until stock is reduced. Don't miss the opportunity.— 



TROUTING ON THE SIOUX. 



{Concluded from Page 391.~\ 

 TT7 E a11 met at the breakfast table, and after the story 

 " of the midnight hunt had been told in various 

 forms until it was threadbare, we gave our prospective 

 trouting some attention. I arranged to take Mike with 

 me and go to the upper ripples on the stream, which 

 could be reached by a short detour through the woods of 

 about a mile and a half and then have three miles of 

 angling. Albert was to take Tom and fish the lower 

 part of the river, starting from the house, provided he 

 and Tom did not get too much enthused about the deer 

 and start for the wild woods. The repast finished Mike 

 and I at once got ready and were off for the ripples. We 

 were soon in the dense wilderness, going over the hills 

 with a radiant sky o'erhead and a bright sun shedding its 

 golden gleams o'er the plants, the bushes, the hedges and 

 the trees, as if nature was rejoicing in her best holiday 

 garb. The woodland songsters were out in full force and 

 plumage bright. The soft note of a nuthatch would 

 break the stillness, then the scream of a family of jays 

 rings out, and a little troop of gold-crests raise their 

 tiny voices, or the missel thrush send forth its note of 

 alarm, while the red squirrel raced o'er the branches or 

 sat on a dead bough with his brush curled over his back 

 It was a pure delight thus roaming through the forest 

 amid the silent shadows, the hum of insect life, the 

 warbling birds and the lovely hues of the flowers that 

 peeped out over the grasses and nodded to the gentle 

 breeze. 



Time was lost sight of in this delicious walk, and it ap- 

 pears that Mike had also lost himself, for he made that 

 surprising announcement after we had gone about the 

 distance that should have brought us to the ripples. He 

 placed his ear to the ground to ascertain if he could 

 catch the sound of the purling stream, but it came not. 

 He said he could strike the river at any time, but it was 

 the ripples he wanted to reach. We concluded to bear 

 to the right for a while and see what would develop. 

 After going about a quarter of a mile in this course we 

 again halted and tried once more to catch the coveted 

 sound of the murmuring waters. It was a flat failure, 

 and so we tramped on a little further and then made 

 another stop and listened. This time it was a success, 

 and all was happy and serene. A few minutes' walk and 

 we are at the stream and ripples, which were lovely in 

 gleam of gold and grace of shadow. Beneath the out- 

 stretching foliage, where the alders and the sumac wave, 

 and the violet and primrose in beauty flush, the brook as 

 it gently meanders sweetly sings: 



"With many a curve my banks I (ret 



By many a field and fallow, 

 And many a fairy foreland set 



With willow, weed and mallow. 



"I chatter, chatter, as I flow. 



To join the trimming river, 

 For men may come and men may go, 



But I go on forever." 



But a moment or two suffices to prepare for the angle, 

 and as I was ready to cast the daisied fields of poesy are 

 for the nonce banished. Yonder where the current is 

 tossing around a boulder is an inviting place, and to it 

 the line is gently tossed and the bait immediately gob- 

 bled, and then a trout of near half a pound is racing 

 around much to his dismay, and is soon safely consigned 

 to the creel as first blood". I obtain one of his fins, and 

 with this for the attraction I send it into the same place, 

 and after I have made it quiver a few times, it is greedily 

 seized, and another of about the same size secured. I 

 try once more, but the dappled beauties seem scarce; and 

 then a little further down the ripples I am in luck again, 

 and two more of about eight inches are captured. Again 

 I change my base, and this time a nurseling, who knew 

 nothing of man's subtle strategy, was badly fooled, but 

 he was returned to the stream to tell his scarlet-robed 

 brothers, with wondering eyes and aching jaws, of his 

 visit to another world. The ripples were soon covered, 

 and when we left them there was a total of ten in the 

 creel. We were now in quieter waters, and have come 

 within casting distance of the exposed roots of a hemlock 

 which soon bids fair to span the brook from the effects of 

 the undermining current. It is an inviting locality, and 

 I am confident of coaxing a beauty or two from it. 

 Away sails the decoying fin, and when it struck the 

 water and quivered by the roots it was suddenly snatched 

 by a greedy trout, who never released his hold till assisted 

 by the crafty assassin at the shore end of the rod. He 

 was a full half-pounder and as pretty as a pink in his 

 scarlet jacket. Again the fin is sent on its destructive 

 mission, and one more foolish trout reaches terra firma 

 and the basket. The third cast secures still another, and 

 that is the last the rootlets here yield. 



Mike now suggests a walk to a favorite pool just a rod or 

 two below, and so we hasten along, and in a few minutes 

 are there and ready for the feast. It is a charming-look- 

 ing place where tulip trees and spotted buttonwood are 

 luxuriating amid the low thickets and hazel bushes, from 

 which came the clear whistle of the brown partridge and 

 the mellow bell of the wood thrush. 



"Plenty there," says Mike. 



"Yes, and soon there will be plenty here," I responded 

 as I struck the creel with my open hand. 



Our reward at this ideal pool was generous, for we se- 

 cured eight of the enameled beauties, among which were 

 one full-pounder and two half-pounders, before we re- 

 sumed our march down the flowing brook, which was 

 now singing: 



"I wind about, and in and out. 

 With here a blossom sailing, 

 And here and there a lusty trout, 

 And here and there a grayling." 



The flowing stream seemed to be fairly alive with trout 

 that morning. From under shelving rrcks, around boul- 

 ders, among graveled roots, by moss-grown logs, in sun- 

 shine and in shade, in gentle ripples and in quiet waters 

 the golden fins were liberally taken. The creel was 

 growing heavy, and as we were growing weary and 

 hungry we sought a lovely resting place on the bank 

 under shade of bright maples and towering elms. Here 

 we satisfied the inner man with the lunch the kind- 

 hearted old lady had so generously provided for us. 

 After that we lolled in idleness, watching the great vel- 

 vet butterflies flutter in the bright sunshine, revelled in 

 the beauty of the lovely landscape and listened to the Over- 



