July 10, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



495 



ANGLING NOTES. 



AS both Decoration Diy and the glorious Fourth came 

 on Friday this year, very little businefis was trans- 

 acted on th» Saturdays following; this gave many people 

 a chance to pass three days in the country, and anglers 

 made the most of the opportunity. Last Thursday, not- 

 withstanding the weather, the cars and boats were 

 crowded to their utmost capacity, and fishermen with 

 creels and rod cases were to be seen in every direction. 

 Some were bound for the cool forests and lakes of the 

 Adirondacks, while others were off for the wide water* 

 of the St. Lawrence, with its thousand shady islands and 

 savage maskallonge. The majority, however, had to 

 content themselves with shorter trips and seek the blue- 

 fi-L in the surf along the coast, or the gentle weakfish in 

 the quiet waters of Barnegat or Jamaica bays. The 

 various clubs in the mountains received a big contingent, 

 especially Blooming Grove Park, when the Fourth of 

 July always draws a large number of members and 

 guests, who are glad to escape from the noise and confu- 

 sion of the hot city, and take a much needed rest among 

 the cool mountains and snady forests of Pike county, to 

 say nothing of enjoying the luxury of a well-appointed 

 club house, and the trout and black bass fishing for which 

 thi*> association is famous. What a change there is be- 

 tween Blooming Grove Park of to-day and the same place 

 ten years ago. Great improvements have been made for 

 the better and the club now is one of the finest in the 

 country. 



The owners of property on the west branch of the 

 Neversink still have considerable trouble with poachers; 

 nine of them were arrested last week. They consider it 

 smart up there to get the best of one of those "city fel- 

 lers." They take bis money, and a good deal of it, too, 

 for land, taxes, etc., and then take every advantage of 

 him. After poople paid a big price for their land, hop- 

 ing to have a place where they could run up from the 

 city and enjoy a little quiet trout fishing in the streams 

 running through their property, they found that notwith- 

 standing the liberal price paid, the residents refused to 

 recognize their rights, but proceeded to trespass whenever 

 it suited them, and resented any interference. Even 

 after bavins been repeatedly ordered off and having the 

 law explained to them, they still thought it smart to 

 poach whenever the owner's back was turned. After a 

 number of law suits had been decided against them tbey 

 began to open their eyes to the fact that people still can 

 own property in this country when they pay for it, yet 

 the temptation is very great, particularly when they find 

 tbey have ruined the fishing in the public parts bf the 

 stream (there are miles upon miles still open) by catching 

 the fingerlings and snaring and set-lining the big ones. 

 The poachers laid great stress on the fact that these 

 streams had been stocked at the public expense. This 

 question, of course, had nothing to do with the right to 

 trespass, even admitting the fact tnat at one time some 

 trout were put in by the State, it does not affect the 

 question at all. The owners also bought trout and turned 

 them into the stream but no one ever claimed an exclu- 

 sive right to the fish, they can be caught by any one in 

 the proper season, but it con veys no right for people to 

 go on a person's land without permission. Another 

 point which has been settled by the courts is that the 

 land owner owns to the center of the bed of the stream, 

 so that if he owns both sides he controls the stream, 

 unless it is a public highway. 



Frank Dunning, a well known sportsman of this city, 

 has just returned from the Restigouche River. He 

 reports the salmon fishing excellent. His best score for 

 one day of about seven hours fishing, was seven salmon, 

 the largest weighed 361bs. 



Col. S. N. Martin, of Summit, N. J., reports fine 

 striped bass fi-hing in Chesapeake Bay. Onp day having 

 lent his rod to a friend, he killed two striped bass weigh- 

 ing respectively G and 101b3., on a little 6oz. Holberton 

 style of fly-rod. 



POSTING AND POLLUTING. 



MANCHESTER GREEN, Conn.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: The time has now come to call a halt, 

 and make an impartial examination of our game and fish 

 laws, and to understand just what effect these laws have 

 upon the rights of the many, and if other legislation is 

 necessary to protect these rights then let us have it. 



I am led to make these remarks by the attempt which 

 is being made to put the fishing waters of the State into 

 the control of a few so called sportsmen, who, entirely 

 ignoring the rights of others, seek only their own gratifi- 

 cation. There are whole-souled men— farmers and others 

 —who have large tracts of land in this vicinity, through 

 which course fine streams, who would pcorn the idea of 

 leasing the streams, and who believe in the God-given 

 right of enjoyment for all. There are others who have 

 as little regard for anything but self as can he imagined, 

 men who have as small conception of neighborly amen- 

 ities as a baboon. I have in mind one who posts the 

 streams through the land occupied by him. and fishes in 

 every other stream attainable. Another sells his meadow 

 to parties for $4 a year and considers he has much gain, 

 but has aB little conception of the comfort and pleasure 

 realized by a day's outing as a native of Zambezi. His 

 ideas are purely utilitarian. There is nothing to him in 

 nature's beauties — 



"A primrose on the river's brim, 

 A yellow primrose is to him, 

 And nothing more." 



That there is need of stringent laws, to prevent the 

 taking of game or fish out of season and in an improper 

 manner, no man of ideas denies, and we should also have 

 proper laws to prevent the pollution of streams by any 

 means, either by mills, factories, or in other ways. 

 There are those who cannot be prevented from violating 

 these laws, except by a heavy penalty and that rigidly 

 enforced. For instance, several days before April 1 a 

 person was seen, by one of my neighbors, with over 40 

 trout. The man who saw the trout would not divulge 

 the name of the person who had them. Now the man 

 who caught those trout took an unfair advantage of 

 those more concientious, who would not fi.hout of season, 

 and such a man knowing the law deserves punishment. 



There is no doubt that the fish and game laws could be 

 much more easily enforced, if the majority of people un- 



derstood that these laws were for the benefit of all. Many 

 of them say these laws are only for the wealthy. The 

 city men lease the streams and woodlands, and prevent 

 others from taking game or fish. I had this very thing 

 said to me yesterday by an intelligent mechanic, who en- 

 joys a day out when his labors will permit. It is better 

 to pass just laws now, than to have these citizens, when 

 they understand then- power, pass those that are worse 

 in retaliation. 



I was fishing a stream some fifteen miles from Hartford 

 a few days since, and had been quite fortunate in my 

 catch of trout. Then it got late, and I was about start- 

 ing for home, I noticed an open meadow below the road 

 and thought I would make a few more casts. Before 

 leaving tbe stream as I stepped into the meadow, a notice 

 confronted me forbidding fishing and signed with the 

 name of a Hartford man. On inquiry of a farmer near 

 by if this man. whose name was attached to the notice, 

 owned the land through which the stream flowed, he 

 said not one foot of it. The land belonged to a farmer 

 living near by. I said, "Very well, unless the owner of 

 the land forbids me to fish I shall keep on." And I did 

 so. This posting streams is the kind of business that 

 brings the laws into disrepute. 



If the farmers would take hold with others and oblige 

 the mill owners to cease the pollution of the streams by 

 running abominations into them as they now do, the area 

 of fishing waters would be increased, and the farmers 

 would have pure water for their cattle and other pur- 

 poses. 



The laws passed by the State for the protection of fish 

 are supposed to be for the purpose of increasing the sup- 

 ply, and should apply to any cause which tends to fish 

 destruction except in a legitimate manner. The pollution 

 of streams by the refuse from mills is one great source of 

 destruction. One stream of the many in the State in 

 which the fish are destroyed by thi3 means is the Hocka- 

 num River, a stream naturally as pure as any in the Com- 

 monwealth. It flows from Snipsic Lake, above Rockville 

 in Tolland county, through the towns of Vernon, Elling- 

 ton, Manchester and East Hartford, into the Connecticut 

 Fiver opposite the south part of the city of Hartford. 

 From Rockville to its mouth it is a stream of inky black- 

 ness, flowing through a large acreage of meadow and 

 pasture land, and is not fit for any purpose except to set 

 machinery in motion. It is a villainous mixture, emit- 

 ting an intolerable stench, and but for the long time it 

 has run in this condition it would be considered a nuis- 

 ance. The stream leaves Rockville with pollution enough 

 to create a pestilence. 



In some places such matter is utilized for fertilizers, 

 and it could be done here, and undoubtedly made a source 

 of revenue. 



No one has the right to destroy the usefulness of the 

 water for those on the stream below; and it is due to the 

 people of the State that legislative action be had in this 

 respect, and proper laws passed restraining mill owners 

 from the pollution of streams. Jonathan. 



HINTS FOR STRIPED BASS FISHING. 



A FEW facts about the above fish, obtained from per- 

 sonal observation, may be of interest. You see a 

 bass after traveling around some, or in other words, say 

 one that will weigh about 201bs., has got the deceptive 

 ways of the world down to a pretty fine point, and when 

 you start out to catch him, things have got to be about 

 right, or he shows a lack of interest in hook coverings 

 which is truly discouraging. The most important thing, 

 and at the same time the one most neglected, is to get 

 bait of the same kind as that upon which the bass are 

 feeding at the time. I remember one occasion, when 

 they were feeding on young mullet, which venturing too 

 near the shore, lost control of themselves in the breakers. 

 After trying lobsters, menhaden, mummichogs and live 

 eels, without the slightest success, although the bass 

 breeched for mullet within a few inches of where the 

 bait struck the water, I gave it up for the time, until, 

 finding a few mullet in a creek near by and returning to 

 the ground, almost every cast was rewarded by a strike. 

 In surf fishing with a rod most fishermen make the mis- 

 take of casting their bait too far from the shore, which 

 is a bad fault, as the bass are mostly inside the breakers, 

 for the very purpose of taking advantage of the force of 

 the sea, which loosens, for a few seconds at a time, the 

 crabs, small lobsters, etc., from the kelp and cracks in 

 the rocks, and causes the smaller fish to get flurried, 

 when they fall an easy prey to the striped bass, which 

 has a most perfect control of himself, either in a break- 

 ing sea or a swiftly running current. So when surf fish- 

 ing do not cast too far from shore; the bass are generally 

 inside the breakers in the white water. 



The most killing bait I have ever fished with, in running 

 water, is live eels. In striking an eel a bass always takes 

 him head on. This is because, having no holding teeth, 

 he would lose the slippery prize most every time if he 

 grabbed it by the tail or in the body. So in fishing for 

 bass with this bait, hook the eel by the under and upper 

 jaw, about a quarter of an inch back from end of snout, 

 and it will rarely happen that you have a strike without 

 hooking your fish, it being understood, however, that you 

 manage your rod, reel and line properly. 



A mistake often made is, after having hooked the fish, 

 in not holding him hard enough from start to finish. In 

 shrimping for bass, which kind of fishing is most success- 

 ful when the tide running through some bridge makes 

 numerous eddies, you can no' have too fine a leader on 

 too small a hook. By a small hook I do not mean a trout 

 hook, but the kind the bovs buy— five or six for a cent 

 —to catch mummichogs with. The little eve in the hook 

 gives a fine chance to tie the leader. If you have no luck 

 at first, try every eddy you can find, as a few yards often 

 makes a great difference in the catch. 



Bass caught shrimping generally run from lib. to olbs. 

 in weight. Always take a quart or two of shrimp to bait 

 up with, throwing over a dozen or so every minute, to toll 

 up, should a school be passing. Put but one shrimp on 

 the hook, and pick out the largest for this purpose. In 

 fishing in a tideway with live bait, do not always let it 

 be tailed out by the running water, as on a number of 

 occasions I have seen a bass refuse to strike at an eel 

 beaded against the current, but take it at once if cast the 

 other way and let swim down with the tide; these in- 

 stances were at places which had been fished very hard 

 during the season, and probably the knowing ones had 

 been pricked by a hook, or quite caught on by seeing 

 their friends and relatives led off by the nose. One rea- 



son for bass not being as plenty as of old is the pollution 

 of our fresh ponds and rivers by sewerage, etc., thus cut- 

 ting off one of their winter haunts, from which they used 

 to come out much refreshed to meet the fishermen in 

 spring. Willard Nye, Jr. 

 New Bedfobq , Mass. 



Courage of Spawning Fish.— Some days, while 

 wading and casting for bass in Lone Stone Lake, Wis., I 

 inadvertently stepped on the spawning bed of a rock bass, 

 or "goggle-eye" as they are sometimes called in the 

 West. The fish ran out, and a moment later came kick 

 at me and struck quite a severe blow on my leg as I stood 

 in the water. I stood quiet, and the little creature— it 

 was only about a half or three-quarters of a pound in 

 weight— ran at my leg again and again, bunting quite 

 forcibly with its head. The whole demeanor of the fish 

 was one of great anger. As the water cleared, I could 

 see it very plainly, and it could see me as well, but it 

 showed no signs of moving off, and evidently meant fight. 

 I stepped away from its nest I had unfortunately trodden 

 upon, and its possessor then abandoned the fight. This 

 was June 15, I believe. We could see a good many black 

 bass nests shining on the bottom of the la ke near the 

 shore. The men of that country said they often caught 

 bass by leaving the bait lying on the bed or ' nest." On 

 finding it there upon their return, one or the other of the 

 bass would seize it and carry it off from the bed, and the 

 fish could then be hooked. I caught only one bass here, 

 a big-mouth. The guides did not know there was a large- 

 mouthed bass in the lake, though the small-mouthed 

 were plentiful. I believe the bass were still spawning at 

 that date. There was a small amount of spawn in the 

 fish I caught. Bass do not usually bite much during tbe 

 spawning season, except on the beds. I found this fish 

 at the edge of a bank of rushes. — E. Hough. 



Some Wisconsin Fishes.— The Smithsonian Institution 

 is in receipt of a letter from Mr. W. W. Abbott, of Nee- 

 nah,Wis., containing sketches of two fish of that locality. 

 One of them was recognized by an old fisherman as a 

 "shovel nosed sturgeon," which he had seen elsewhere; 

 the other is known at Neenah by the names "shad," 

 "mooneye," "cisco" or "herring." The "shovel-nosed 

 sturgeon" is the paddle fish of the Ohio and Mississippi 

 valleys {Polyodon spathida), and we presume that it was 

 found in Lake Winnebago, which communicates with 

 Lake Michigan through Green Bay. The paddle fish is 

 common in the Mississippi Valley, but it is not often 

 found in Lake Winnebago. The paddle fish is also known 

 as the spoonbill cat and duckbill cat. It is frequently 

 considered unfit for food, but we have often eaten it in 

 Western hotels under the name of salmon and found it 

 very palatable. The species to which the other names are 

 applied is usually called "mooneye." It is the Hyodon 

 tergisus of the books and is placed between the whitefish 

 and herrings on account of its structure. Mr. Abbott 

 states that the flesh of this species is white, fine grained 

 and soft, and tastes slightly muddy. The fish takes the 

 artificial fly readily at sundown and is a game fighter. 

 Its weight ranges from £ to 21bs. 



"Two After Trout."— Montreal, Que., June 29.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: I spent part of to-day read- 

 ing my Forest akd Stream, and was very much inter- 

 ested in the article signed "0. O. S.," "Two After Trout." 

 I've been there. The reason that the Toronto hardware 

 dealer was afraid to sell him the spring scales [although 

 his objections could probably be overcome) is that it has 

 been against the law to sell them in Canada for the past 

 few years, because they are unreliable, and any person 

 buying goods weighed on them is liable to be sold. Or 

 perhaps the idea of the Government was to prevent 

 honest fishermen from calling a 4oz. trout a 4 pounder, 

 I guess "O. O. S." struck it about right when he said that 

 "perhaps the scales weren't just on the square." The 

 black bass season is open here now, and we expect to 

 make some great catches during the coming month. — 

 I. L. S. 



Lake Dunmore (Vermont) Fishing.— This lake is eight 

 miles from Middlebury. The mountains come down to 

 the water's edge. The lake is about five to seven miles 

 lone, one to one and a half miles wide, very deep and 

 well supplied with salmon trout, black bass and perch. 

 The fish so far are more plentiful than usual, the increase 

 being credited to the work of the State Fish Commission. 

 One gentleman had been out three times and took thirty- 

 eight trout, the smallest 61 bs., largest 1541bs. A gentle- 

 man from Brandon has taken over 100 trout, among 

 which were a number of 18 and 20-pounders. — W. A. 

 Wilcox. 



A Eestigouche Salmon Score.— A Bridgeport, Conn., 

 exchange reports: Mr. H. R. Ives, a cousin of E. R. Ives, 

 Esq., of this city, and a prominent manufacturer of Mon- 

 treal, has recently been salmon fishing with the Resti- 

 gouche Salmon Club, Matapedia, Quebec, and reports the 

 following catch, which is enough to set any fisherman 

 longing for a chance in such waters: First day, 9 salmon, 

 seven of which weighed as follows: 2? Jibs., 22|. 211, 22 

 17 24, 26; in all 160ilbs. In the evening of the sarne'day 

 he killed a 28 pound fish. This report accompanied a fish 

 sent to E. R. Ives, Esq., which arrived in good condition. 



Two Fish on One Hook.— Tangerine, Fla.— An uncle 

 of mine was out in a boat fishing for bream with a very 

 small minnow for bait, wh^u a shower came up and he 

 pu led in to shore to get out of the wet, leaving his lines 

 in the water. After the shower he started out again and 

 found that he had hooked a good-sized catfish during the 

 rain.- but you can imagine his surprise when unhooking 

 it that instead of its taking the original bait a fair-sized 

 rock bass bad been caught first, and the cat had pounced 

 upon the bass. — Tanger. 



Bass in the Corn Fields.— Mr. S. F. Denton has just 

 returned from Illinois, where he had gone to do some col- 

 lecting. He found the Big Vermilion and Illinois rivers 

 beyond their banks and collecting entirely out of the 

 question. While wading in water up to his neck his feet 

 were stUl on the grassy banks of the river. The people of 

 the country were fishing at Peru for bass with hook and 

 line, and minnow bait, in the cornfields. 



Cuttyhunk Bass Fishing this season is excellent. 

 Some large fish have been taken. Last year, it will be 

 remembered, the fishing was a failure, 



