June 86, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



455 



FLORIDA FLY-FISHING. 



17 LIZA BETH, N. J., June 18.— Editor Forest and 

 u Stream: Asa fisherman has a reputation for accuracy 

 to maintain (or establish), will you permit me to correct a 

 recent item in the Forest and Stream relating to myself? 

 The paragraph gavo me too much credit, and at the ex- 

 pense of my companions. There was but one tarpon 

 killed with the fly-rod during the trip, and this was ac- 

 complished by J, Herbert Johnson, of New York. Tar- 

 pon rose freely to the fly, but owing to the hardness of 

 their mouths a strike was rarely successful ; and with a 

 light fly-rod it was f requently impossible to keep the tar- 

 pon away from the roots of the mangroves, entangle- 

 ment in which of course was immediately destructive to 

 the leader. 



The "251b. channel bass" was doubtless an allusion to 

 one of 241bs. 5oz., killed previously on a fly-rod by one of 

 my companions, Dr. George Trowbridge. On the trip 

 referred to, although innuuierable large bass were caught, 

 there were none of weight approximating this. The 

 "nine varieties of game fish killed on one occasion" were 

 the joint result of the labors of Messrs. Johnson, Trow- 

 bridge and the writer. The fish were so large and gamy 

 that a man of ordinary strength could scarcely have en- 

 dured the physical strain incident to killing the number 

 involved in the performance alluded to. 



It seems impossible to exaggerate the fishing possibili- 

 ties of the west coast of Florida. With a fly-rod the 

 number of fish which may be caught is purely a question 

 of physical endurance. The frequent uncertainty for 

 ten minutes after striking, as to what manner of fish is 

 attached to the line, is pleasurably exciting. Indeed , one 

 frequently starts in with one fish and lands another, the 

 fish originally struck having been swallowed by a larger 

 one. 



When one tires of the rod there remain the better 

 weapon and the manlier sport of the harpoon and har- 

 pooning. This sport involves more exercise, demands 

 more skill, is more truly sportsmanlike, and is vastly 

 more exciting than the capture of any manner of fish 

 with any form of hook or rod which the wit of man has 

 yet devised. But I must not make you the victim of my 

 hobby. Would you like the cold statistics of the victims 

 of rifle, harpoon, net and rods in our recent trip? Devil 

 fish, 2; deer, 4; turtle, 5; alligators, 3; sawfish, 6; whip 

 rays, 14; jewfish, 7; sharks, 22; tarpon, 21; kingfish, black 

 grouper, cavalli, ravaille, bluefish, Spanish mackerel, 

 channel bass, sea trout, skipjack, bonita and nineteen 

 other varieties in great numbers. A. W. Dimock. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



A FINE pair of salmon were seen last week disporting 

 J\. themselves in a pool below the falls near the mouth 

 of Rondout Creek, which flows into the Hudson River. 

 They remained there two days, chasing one another 

 around the pool and even to the very edge of the bank. 

 They were undoubtedly male and female and in search 

 of a spawning bed. 



The Hon. Geo. A. Brandreth reports that the bluefish 

 are quite plenty at the inlet at Rockaway Beach . A num- 

 ber have been caught from 8 to 121bs. in weight, and one 

 was taken that turned the scales at 161bs. Sea bass are 

 also reported as being very plenty, but weakfish are scarce. 



At Manaequan Inlet, on the New Jersey coast near Point 

 Pleasant, large numbers of bluefish have made their ap- 

 pearance and the anglers there are having great sport. 

 A large shad was picked up on the beach, having been 

 chased ashore by the bluefish. Quite a number of striped 

 bass are also being caught by casting from the shore. 

 The most attractive bait seems to be the white sandworm. 



As soon as the weather becomes hot the surfaces of the 

 majority of our lakes get too warm to suit the trout and 

 they retire to the deep cool pools and spring holes. When 

 this occurs it is very difficult to find good fly-fishing. 

 This generally is the trouble in going too late to the 

 Adirondacks or Maine. If the weather happens to keep 

 cool good fly-fishing may be had up to the middle of" 

 July, but after that time and until the cool nights of 

 September reduce the temperature of the surface of the 

 lakes, it is almost impossible to coax up decent-sized fish 

 to the fly. There is one notable exception to this rule, 

 and that is in the region of the famous Seven Ponds in 

 Maine. These lakes are so cold that one can enjoy good 

 fly-fishing all through the summer. Prof. Mayer of 

 Stevens Institute spent a couple of months there, and in- 

 dorses this statement. The fish are not very large, but of 

 good fair size, and afford excellent sport. There is a 

 good camp on Beaver Pond belonging to Evvd. Grant. 

 He will furnish those who wish to visit this region with 

 the necessary information; his post office address is 

 Rangeley, Maine; or Mr. Wakeman Holberton of 18 

 Vesey street will gladly give further particulars. 



Reports from the Restigouche place the number of sal- 

 mon killed per day at about 200, an average of about two 

 to each rod, as it is estimated that there are not less than 

 100 anglers on the river at present. 



There are many stories told that prove that the killing 

 of fingerlings is yet far too common. Sometimes it is the 

 countryman with a big tin pail full of little fellows, re- 

 sembling soft soap, snaked out of the side streams and 

 sold at the hotels and boarding houses; and sometimes 

 it is the city angler who imagines he is doing a big thing 

 to fetch in a basket of trout that would run 32 to the 

 pound. What a pity it is that people will be so short- 

 sighted. Just to think what fun each of those little fin-* 

 gerlings would furnish if allowed to grow up and become 

 a 10 or 12in trout! We shall have to adopt the foreign 

 style and have a man go out with every fisherman, who 

 will carry a rule and measure each fish before it is put in 

 the creel. 



Michigan Trout Streams.— Our esteemed correspond- 

 ent, Mr. Alex. Starbuck, is now on the north shore of 

 Lake Superior among the huge brook trout of that icy 

 basin unless the allurements of Deer Creek have held 

 him a willing captive for a longer time than he intended 

 when writing us from. Grand Rapids, June 17. We quote 

 from his letter for the information and pleasure of 

 anglers who are hoping to enjoy an outing in the State 

 mow famous for trout of several kinds, and particularly 

 the fontirtalis: "Trout are reported here and elsewhere 

 as being quite numerous and taking both the fly and bait 

 with avidity. A friend writes me from Boque Falls that 

 two anglers caught in Deer Creek in one day 225 trout 

 running from G to lOin. Another one drops me a line 

 that he took out of two holes in a creek within eight 

 miles of Petoskey 75 lovely trout from Gin. up. A mei> 

 chant of Grand Rapids informed me last evening that in 

 the early part of May he took 55 fair-sized trout out of 

 Pine River, in the northern part of the State, in six hours' 

 fishing, and that when the stream was high and roily. 

 Two of the attachees of Spalding & Co. of this city, 

 caught in one day in May in Bear Creek and the Hersey 

 82 and 85 respectively, among which were some running 

 over 21bs. In fact, from all inquiries I learn that trout 

 are more numerous this year in Michigan than ever be- 

 fore, and. that big catches are the rule." 



Stocking Maine Waters.— David Kneeland and John 

 Meade recently made a trip to the Edes Falls hatching 

 house and got some 25,000 landlocked salmon fry, which 

 they turned into tributaries of Anonymous Pond, Har- 

 rison and Long Lake, at North Bridgton. Messrs. Frank 

 Bennett and J. F. Libby also procured several thousand 

 fry for Lakin Brook, in Sebago. We learn that there 

 were hatched at Edes Falls this season about 600,000 

 landlocked, 250,000 sea salmon and about 7,000 brook 

 trout. All excepting the sea salmon eggs were taken 

 from fish caught in the Crooked River weir, and nearly 

 all will be turned into local waters. The increased num- 

 of small landlocked salmon taken in Sebago Lake this 

 spring demonstrates that artificial propagation ' is the 

 right method. Five years ago it was rare to see a smaller 

 fish than 31bs. taken there. The Sebago Lake fishing has 

 compared well this season with former years, notwith- 

 standing high water and bad weather. The mouth of 

 Slickey River, near the lake station (Sebago Lake) has 

 come into some prominence as a fishing ground, and we 

 predict that there are others to be discovered yet. 



Protecting Connecticut Trout. — In the latter part 

 of May president A. C. Collins, of the Connecticut Asso- 

 ciation of Farmers and Sportsmen for the Protection of 

 Game and Fish, learned that, three parties had netted 

 West Brook (a famous trout brook) in Windsor. Mr. 

 Collins and Detective W. C. Fielding put their heads 

 together and took up the trail. As a result of their work 

 Lewis Hoskins and Charles McKinney, of Tariffville, 

 were brought before Justice Sidney E. Clarke, of this 

 city, at Windsor to-day. Hoskins and McKinney both 

 entered a plea of guilty on one count, and were fined $5 

 and costs, the latter amounting to $14.69. A Hartford 

 man who was mixed up in the affair with Hoskins and 

 McKinney will be arrested. Law-loving fishermen are 

 invited to assist the Connecticut Association of Farmers 

 and Sportsmen for the Protection of Game and Fish, by 

 their financial aid, as this association receives no support 

 whatever from the State. Fifty arrests and forty-eight 

 convictions is the record of the association since Septem- 

 ber, 1888. 



Some Sea Fishing.— On the south side of Martha's 

 Vineyard enormous schools of very large mackerel have 

 made their appearance. Among them are seen individ- 

 uals measuring 18in. in length. A boat captured 600 in 

 a short time. There is a great deal of sport in hooking 

 mackerel when they rise freely to the bait. Their move- 

 ments are swift, their form symmetrical and their colors 

 showy. The angler can see hundreds of them darting all 

 around his boat and may become too much excited to 

 bait his hook, as w T e have learned by experience in the 

 days when mackerel swarmed around our shores. On 

 the shore fishing grounds off Cape Ann an 81bs. salmon 

 was recently taken on a trawl. There is a very gratifying 

 increase in the number of Atlantic salmon, judging frr u 

 the reports of the present season. 



Ironton, O. — Our corresspondent, J. D.,w' ; o spent his 

 three-days' vacation at Bennet's Mill, in, the early part of 

 May, reports 4 black bass and a white perch as a yt >v ard 

 of a Monday's fishing. He adds : "T read ,with , much 

 sorrow your account ot the death of 'Neaspnik,' 'he is a 

 man I should liked so much to have kjjiow^a personally. If 

 there were thousands more h ke him now rnsxch better the 

 world would be and how inuou iess feu^e, A love of the 

 woods and of woods, li ?e makes a man better for every 

 occupation." 



A Pair of Trout. — Rangeley, Me., June 16. — Messrs. 

 H. C. Kennedy, of New York, and E. W. Blodgett, S. M. 

 Blodgett and W. B. Tanner, of Pawtucket, R. I., while 

 fishing on the Bemis Bar this afternoon, took one trout 

 weighing 71bs. and one weighing 5. While the 7-pound 

 trout was being landed another large one followed it to 

 the surface several times. Soen afterward the 5-pounder 

 was taken near the same place. The trout proved to be 

 jl ; and female.— F. C. Barker. 

 ■(• IS 



A Pity He Did Not Hook Them.— Traverse City, 

 Mich., June 19. —Bert Winnie, a sixteen-year-old boy, was 

 spearing from one of the docks in Grand Traverse Bay at 

 this place, when he captured and landed two muscalonge, 

 one 4ft. 9|in. long, weight 571bs. ; the smaller one weigh- 

 ing 241bs/ This was a big haul for a boy. — W. M. C. 



in an attempt to jig it at night. Big Spring is frequented 

 at night by plenty of poachers or pot-fishermen; they use 

 all kinds of tactics to take the trout, and it is a wonder 

 that there are any trout left in the stream. Kingfishers, 

 suckers, eels, ducks, geese, muskrats and farmers' boys 

 prey on the Spawn and trout, until a person would think 

 that there would be none left; but last evening they 

 were rising by hundreds all along the stream. I took 

 eight after dark with a white-miller, all 10 and 12in. 

 long, catching the last one at 8:20, and then the flies and 

 mosquitoes were so bad that I had to quit. Last Friday 

 morning between 6 and 7 o'clock I took fourteen bass 

 with a fly on the Susquehanna River, fishing from the 

 shore on the Cumberland county side, with a red and 

 yellow fly, A. J. F. 



Hahhisbubc, Pa., June 10. 



Fishing is poor in the Susquehanna River at this locality 

 on account of the high and muddy water. At York 

 Haven, Pa., a party of lawyers and leading business men 

 of York have established a fishing club house. A num- 

 ber of black bass and wall-eyed pike have been caught 

 at the falls, but fishing is bad for the reason stated. Pros- 

 pects are good when favorable weather and water exist. 

 A wall-eyed pike weighing 71bs. was caught at Collins's, 

 Pa. , last week. A fish of this kind was recently taken 

 at Washington Borough, Pa., under very peculiar cir- 

 cumstances. A boy Sf-t an outline in the Susquehanna 

 probablv to catch eels and catfish, and in going over it 

 he found this large fish tugging to get away. The pike 

 was not fast to the hook, but the hook and line had 

 ejassed through its gill out at the gill opening, and on the 

 hook was a good-sized eel. It is reasonable to suppose 

 that the eel took the hook first, and later the pike tried 

 to accommodate both, but the eel probably had too much 

 foresight in its tail to venture into his pikeship's abdomi- 

 nal region,' and preferred to %vriggle through the forest 

 of gill-rakers and thus regain his native element. The 

 pike made the absurdly common mistake of opening his 

 mouth too wide and once too often. Stehman, 



Bain rtRiUGE, Pa., June 16. 



In our issue of May 22 we published Mr. Moore's note 

 on the capture of croppies at Havre de Grace, and on 

 June 5 Ave mentioned the spawning of the calico bass in 

 the Sufquehanna and Tide Water Canal. The two names 

 refer to the same fish and are identical also with the 

 grass bass of the Pennsylvania Fish Commission reports. 

 Two very fine specimens of this handsome game fish 

 were forwarded to the V. S. Commissioner of Fisheries, 

 June 17. by Mr. R. E McClenahan, from the Susquehanna 

 River, at Port Deposit, Md. One of them is lOin. and 

 the other 12in. long, and both are in fine condition. The 

 fishermen supposed the fish to be a cross between the 

 black bass and the white perch. The grass bass, we be- 

 lieve, was introduced into the Susquehanna from Lake 

 Erie, for it is mentioned in the fish laws as the Lake Erie 

 or grass bacs. We repeat the fact previously stated that 

 this species is one of the finest pond fishes in our waters. 

 With its white perch, striped bass, wall-eyed pike and 

 rock bass, reinforced by the black bass and the grass bass, 

 the Susquehanna commends itself to the angler as a 

 highly profitable field for his recreation. The praise- 

 worthy efforts of the Pennsylvania Fish Commissioners, 

 to increase the supply of w 7 all-eyed pike and other valu- 

 able game fishes, are bringing the river into well-merited 

 prominence, in spite of the strange whim of calling them 

 Susquehanna salmon. 



ADIRONDACK WATERS. 



EW YORK, June 23. — I left here on the 13th, and 

 after a ride of eleven hours reached North Creek, 

 where I found one of the new six horse stages in waiting. 

 After a ride of 18 miles I met my guide, Harvey Bonney, 

 who from his experience of over thirty years in the Chain 

 Lake region, was, of course, a safe, and I can add with 

 pleasure, a cheerful and amusing guide. Bonney and his 

 log house are known and pleasantly remembered by prob- 

 ably more persons than any of the "old guides" in the 

 Adirondacks. After a tramp of 9 miles, over a rather 

 rough trail, we reached his cabin, which is on Chain 

 Lakes. It is dry, cheerfully furnished and very com- 

 fortable, with a bed of balsam boughs that would put to 

 shame the odors of new-mown hay. After a supper of 

 good mountain fare and a good night's rest, we stepped 

 iuto our boat and were on the lake to try our luck for the 

 speckled trout, which find their home in the cold waters 

 of Chain Lakes. Our first day's catch numbered 25 and 

 weighed 16lbs. The following two days it rained, and 

 the two remaining days I succeeded in getting respec- 

 tively 18 trout that weighed 81bs. and 13 that weighed 

 91 bs. 



Deer seemed to be very plentiful. On Saturday we 

 saw one come out of the woods and bathe himself in the 

 cool waters of Deer Pond, and on Monday we came across 

 two in the afternoon feeding on the suckling grass of 

 Grassy Pond. The open winter and the grass being a 

 month earlier than usual has helped to preserve the deer, 

 and they were all in their red coat, which indicates their 

 being in a good healthy condition and unusually fat for 

 this season of the year. If the present game laws are 

 continued in force for a few years there is no doubt 

 that deer and trout in the Adirondack region will be 

 very plentiful. 



A great deal of credit is due to the Adirondack Rail- 

 road Co. and their associates, the National Express Co., 

 for refusing to carry deer or trout to market, which is a 

 great source of protection to the game of the North 

 Woods. I have traveled the Adirondack region pretty 

 generally and have not seen any point of the woods that 

 looks so well as Chain Lakes. There is no sign of fires 

 here, which is getting to be unusual in this region, now 

 that so much lumbering is done; and nothing destroys 

 the appearances of these woods so much as a lumbering 

 camp and the fires which they are the origin of. 



W. S. 



Great Catch of Striped Bass.— Where are the striped 

 bass? Early in June a great body of them were in Pam- 

 lico Sound, N. C, and 10,000 of them were taken by the 

 fishermen in a single day. Of course the men had more 

 of these fine fish than they could handle, and the proba- 

 bility is that many of them were wasted. The time is 

 not far distant when injurious methods of fishing will 

 be prohibited if the extermination of the fishes is con- 

 sidered worth striving against. " ' 



And now it is becoming the fashion to troll lor speck- 

 led trout with the deadly phantom minnow 'tir cruel gang 

 bristling with treble hooks. We ought to copy the laws 

 of Maine and forbid the use of more than one hook. And 

 even better yet would it be to do away with all bait-fish- 

 ing and stick to the artificial fly, so tn&fc the trout would 

 grow up and increase, and there would be plenty for all. 



Bluefish.— A few bluefish have been taken in the 

 Great South Bay, Long Island, 



North wo OD , N. Y., June 20.— The streams are too 

 high to fish much. Will Lovel caught the largest mess 

 (71bs. before dressing). Arthur Miller caught the largest 

 trout; it weighed 2|lbs. Partridge are plenty.— Wood- 



CHUCK. 



New York City Bass.— Mr. Franklin caught 7 striped 

 bass, on the first of the flood, at the foot of 126th street, 

 on Monday last. One weighed 8|lbs. The bait was white 

 worms. 



