814 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[July It, 1890. 



SOME MASCALLONGE EXPERIENCE. 



[Concluded from ¥am 4,93.1 



THE morning after our loon adventure, Mac and I 

 walked half a mile through the woods to the bridge 

 over the Whitefish thoroughfare. Bert took the boat 

 around, an hour's journey, full of mosquitoes and crooked 

 water. Then we took a whirl or two around Whitefish. 

 didn't raise a Tunge. got to catching pike, which we didn't 

 want, grew disgusted, and ran back to Virgin in time for 

 lunch at the house. There are good fish in Whitefish, 

 but you take your chance there, as everywhere. 



That afternoon we spent on Virgin. The. water was 

 very rough. We caught plenty of pike, and some good 

 ones. There was a bit of deep, still water back of the 

 island, among the rocks. We rowed past there, and all 

 at once on Mac's line there came that great, angry, splash- 

 ing, leaping strike, and we all shouted " 'Lunge!" Bert 

 began to pull for the middle of the clear water, but to 

 our surprise the fish, which we had seen to be a good one, 

 made no fight at all. "There's something the matter 

 here," said Mac, as he towed the fish alongside and skated 

 it into the boat 



The matter was plain enough. The fish was freshly 

 bruised and bleeding from one end to the other, its bril- 

 liant armor broken and crushed in half a dozen places. 

 No wonder it did not fight. We rowed back to where 

 the strike was had, and there we found a large rock, 

 about six inches or a foot below the surface. On this the 

 fish had unquestionably struck as he fell back from his rise. 

 This was one of the most singular incidents I ever saw in 

 fishing, and it certainly shows more clearly than any- 

 thing I could say, the tremendous blind fury of the nias- 

 callonge in striking. This fish was about 81bs., and was 

 perhaps the largest we took. The muscles along the 

 back and shoulder were crushed and broken in. We 

 made great sport of Mac about this, and got even with 

 him on that fish strangling story by telling him he couldn't 

 catch a mascallonge without first banging him to death 

 on a rock. I will back W. W. McFarland, of Austin, a 

 Chicago suburb, against any man on earth, to catch live 

 wild mascallonge by knocking their brains out on a rock, 

 31yds. rise, both men to wear stockings on their hands. 

 1 don't want any foolishness about this. Chicago leads 

 • the world. 



We saw the team arrive that was to take us over to 

 town, and therefore reluctantly turned our bows inshore. 

 We paused long enough to take a turn around a promis- 

 ing bar which we had discovered, lying hidden away out 

 in the lake. Mrs. Russell had taken a good 'lunge near 

 here the day before, and she told us that she had struck 

 and lost a very heavy one, which she had '-thought was 

 a log or snag at first." We were ju3t turning to leave 

 when I felt something strike my hook or jar my line, I 

 could not tell which, " 'Nother pike," I grumbled, and 

 gave the line a snip with the rod, when, just as the spoon 

 left the water, out came a mascallonge, full glory, zebra- 

 like, quivering. "Whar is that spoon hook?" said he, 

 anxiously. "Did any of you fellows see it ? Did — " but 

 by that time his voice was drowned in the silvery wave, 

 and we sorrowfully and swearfully rowed away. This 

 was about an 81b. fish. Observe my moderation. I 

 could make it 401bs. just as easy. He barely nicked the 

 hooks, and we could not make him rise again. 



We now bade farewell to our quaint and kindly host 

 and his wife, and indulged in the luxury of a wagon ride 

 over to town. A ride of this sort in that country is not 

 luxurious by reason of its comfort, but because it comes 

 high. 



It was now time for Mr. McFarland to go home, and 

 this he did at 10 P. M. He took a fine box of fish down 

 with him. He had been out a little over two weeks, and 

 had taken, I believe, thirteen mascallonge in all, averag- 

 ing about 5 or Gibs. each. He always fished two fines. 

 At Russell's our fish had been buried in a mossy swamp, 

 with a chunk of ice on top of them. We put them on 

 ice at the station, and although it was two days later be- 

 fore I opened my original package, I found the fish in 

 perfect condition. I had just an even barrelful of fish 

 and ice. This was out of what Mac and I caught in a 

 day and a part of a day, and we gave Bert a quantity of 

 pike and a few pickerel. We at once threw back nearly 

 all the pickerel we caught. I don't know what any one 

 would want of any finer fishing than that, and as for the 

 big mascallonge, I'll get him some day sure, so I'm not 

 worrying about that. I must say that I never caught a 

 load of fish so quickly and easily in my life, though I 

 never did care anything for trolling. 



I was to have gone up to Gogebic, under Mr. Vliet's 

 invitation to meet him there, but I heard that friends 

 of his had wired him to come on down to Three Lakes, 

 and later I heard he had passed down the line to Milwau- 

 kee, suffering from prostration due to overwork This 

 was hard news to hear, for Mr. Vliet is a genial and 

 hearty gentleman, only less fond of sport than he is ad- 

 dicted to hard work. His early recovery is hoped by 

 many friends, who told me that his illness was reallv 

 severe. * 



I mentioned Mr. Bonnell as one of Mr. Vliet's party. It 

 seems that the bass fishing was not yet good at Gogebic, 

 and Mr. Bonnell and two friends whose names I could 

 not learn had come down here to try for mascallonge. 

 They got Blodgett to take them out on the "Main Chain " 

 and they fished Planting Ground and Long lakes the 

 same day that Mac and I fished Julia. We heard that 

 they brought in five fish that weighed 831bs. That was 

 as near as the hotel keeper's conscience could come to it. 

 W e asked Blodgett about it, and he said that the heaviest 

 fish weighed 221bs.,but that all were good ones. His 

 boat caught four fish, he himself landing three out of the 

 tour on a hand line, as I heard it. It appears that early 

 in the morning Blodgett's angler, whom he speaks of as 

 the tenderest kind of a tenderfoot, was kicking because 

 a mascallonge did not come and get in the boat, as per 

 contract, until Blodgett got tired of it and calmly rowed 

 tarn across the lake and put him ashore, telling him he 

 could swim if he wanted to get home. At this the young 

 man made amends and was taken back in the boat. That 

 afternoon they struck seven mascallonge, and owing to 

 bungling, unexperienced and excited handling, the aniler 

 lost three, all the largest ones. On one spoon hook two 

 of the hooks were broken off and the fish got away. 

 Another time, such was the strain put on the line by the 

 frantic young man that the entire gang of three great 

 hooks was torn off from the No. 8 spoon and a 

 magnificent fish lost. This disgusted Blodgett and 

 he took a hand in the game himself. That must have 



been high jinks on the lake that day. In the other boat 

 the two anglers tried to land a 151bs. mascallonge in a 

 landing net. Holy Moses! They will never try it again, 

 on that fish at least. He smiled adieu. How many fine 

 fish these poor people did strike that day I do not know. 

 I am accurate only in giving this story as it was told to 

 me. All this time here had been Charlie Gammon and 

 Mac and Will Cribben and Tom Smythe and myself, 

 some of us, at least, good, plain single-handed fishers, 

 wandering all over the country after just what these fel- 

 lows, unable to handle it when they got it, had found 

 right under our noses, in old and fished out waters. 

 When I heard of that I could no more go home than I 

 could fly. 



"I'll row you over that ground to-morrow," said Blod- 

 gett, "and if we don't strike a big 'lunge I won't charge 

 you a cent." 



"I'll go you," said I. 



On the next morning we walked down to the little 

 round lake which runs up into the edge ®f the town, 

 crossed it, walked about forty rods, took another boat on 

 the next lake, crossed it, went up the creek to the big 

 sheet of water known as Planting Ground Lake, itself a 

 water that has yielded hundreds of great fish, trolled 

 around its best shore, ascended the short "river" up to 

 Long Lake, fished the latter hard and steadily and faith- 

 fully all day long, caught a few little pike — and never 

 saw or heard of the first sign or suspicion of a mascal- 

 longe. 



Such is life. It may have been the rain of the night 

 before, it may have been one thing or another, or then 

 again it may have been something else, but anyhow, we 

 didn't have a strike all day. And yet those other fishers 

 had a dozen only two days before, on the same water. 



I talked with Blodgett a good deal that day. He told 

 me that the largest fish ever taken on these waters was 

 caught at the mouth of the river running into Planting 

 Ground. This fish was taken on a handline by a Mr. 

 Saunders, of Wausau, Wis. It weighed 551bs. Blodgett 

 was rowing, and they shot the fish four times, straight- 

 ened a gaff on him, and finally got him by the gills, and 

 both lifted him into the boat. 



Blodgett told me that these were the waters where that 

 celebrated and execrated angler, Dr. Robert Hunter, of 

 Chicago, used to come four or five years ago. Blodgett 

 told me that he knew Dr. Robert Hunter, of Chicago, to 

 leave 3001bs. of mascallonge to rot in one heap on the 

 bank at one time. Blodgett said that Mr. Winans, of the 

 Wabash road I believe he is, whom I mentioned last year 

 as having "good success," used to come up with Dr. 

 Robert Hunter, of Chicago, and used to fish these waters. 

 In common with Dr. Robert Hunter, of Chicago, Mr. 

 Winans used one of those infernal automatic spring 

 boxes for winding up mascallonge, first contrived, so I 

 am informed, by the learned person before mentioned. 

 Mr. Winans, so Jim Clark, of Wilkinson's, told me, was 

 for a time inclined to brag a little about his automatic 

 spring contrivance for winding up mascallonge. It is 

 self-acting, gentlemen. By its means you can catch 

 3001bs. of mascallonge, so many that you will be obliged 

 to leave them to rot. A child can operate it. Its inven- 

 tion is due to the brain of a fishing philospher whose 

 modest ambition was only to kill every fish in the lakes, 

 if he could. Step up, gentlemen, and buy one. Join the 

 ranks of the noble anglers who never go out without 

 bringing in fish. Have a share of our glory, gentlemen ! 



Now, I suppose, if I sat down and tried I could find 

 some pretty hard writing to do about fellows like that. 

 I will not. But I've got the facts now, and so have 

 the readers of this journal, whose pages are customarily 

 too clean to spoil with the adjectives appropriate to this 

 case. I'm not much of a kicker. But I have told the 

 plain story of our little trip on these waters this spring, 

 hoping it may be of that service I could wish toward taking 

 others to as good a time, at least, as we had: and Iwould 

 just like gently to ask, is it not barely possible that one 

 or two of the mascallonge that our party did not catch 

 may have been* in that pile of 3001bs. that the worthy 

 gentleman, alluded to above, did catch and leave rotting 

 on the bank? In that pile, or some other pile? And how 

 many piles were there in all? 



I talked with Mr. Vliet about this, and lie said, referring 

 to a certain gentleman whom I do not name further: "I 

 know all about that man. The boatmen tell me he has 

 buried mascallonge in the sand. I do not want hhn to 

 come up over the Lake Shore road, and I would not sell 

 him a ticket if I could help it. Such men hurt us." 



I should prefer to let some one else ask or answer the 

 question about the mascallonge supply. Our individual 

 experience is given just as it happened. This is the first 

 time I was ever in that country, and I never saw such a 

 fishing country, even as it is. If it was ever better, it 

 must have been a screamer. I caught three mascallonge 

 myself, total weight about 151bs. I had a barrel of fish, 

 or half a barrel anyhow, and a good deal more than a 

 barrel of fun. 



I had long wanted to take the trip into this country, to 

 see just what it held for addition to the story of fishing 

 waters about Chicago. Now I can see and say definitely : 

 It is a one night's run on the sleeper either way. The 

 total expense for a week or two weeks, including railroad 

 fares, guide and boat hire or freight charges, will run from 

 $30 to $50 per head in a party of four. The cost can be 

 made $40, and everybody live like a king. You can go 

 for lesB and have about as good a time, stopping at a local 

 place and hiring a boat as you need it. 



The guide told me there was a lake two miles above the 

 town of Three Lakes, where the bass were as thick as flies, 

 and at Pine Lake, a little lower down, any quantity of 

 bass can be taken. In short, I heard of so much fishing 

 country that it nearly distracted me. Anybody can catch 

 fish there. The trouble is, small-mouthed black bass 

 aren't good enough. The angler must have mascallonge 

 or nothing. Such being the case, he should go prepared 

 to stay two weeks at least, and go till he finds him. The 

 fish may be shyer than they used to be or the water may 

 be too high, as it is this year, but perseverance conquers 

 mascallonge, and the fish are there. The lakes were not 

 in bloom two weeks ago, or about June 10. August is 

 about the only month when the fishing is not good. 

 Anglers going up in July will doubtless have better luck 

 than we did in June, this year. E. Hough. 



175 Monkob Street, Chicago. 



Omaha, Neb. , July 9.— Large quantities of inferior black 

 bass are being taken from Horse Shoe Lake, and the pick- 

 erel at Honeycreek never were more ravenous.— Gris. 



CANADIAN CLUBS AND WATERS. 



QUEBEC, July 10.— Quite a revolution has been caused 

 among the angling fraternity of the quaint old 

 Kock city of Quebec. The exhibition of some magnificent 

 specimens of ouananiche and brook trout in the show 

 windows of the Chinic Hardware Co., prizes of the mem- 

 bers of local clubs, have set our resident and visiting 

 anglers on the qui vine for sport. 



Numerous parties left for the fishing grounds in this 

 district within the last two weeks, some in quest of the 

 gamiest fish existing for his inches — the ouananiche of 

 Lake St. John; others after the equally gamy but more 

 beautiful Salmo fontinalis, the speckled denizen of our 

 waters. 



Many salmon anglers are now returning to their homes, 

 delighted with the sport experienced this year. The king 

 of fishes has been more plentiful than usual, and no one 

 of late has been disappointed. Messrs. Amos Little, D. C. 

 Yates and Borden, also Messrs. Ellis and ESercher have 

 just returned from the Moisic, where they have been fish- 

 ing for a month. The largest salmon caught was the 

 prize of D. C. Yates, Esq., and weighed 33^1bs : over 

 6,5001bs. of fish were killed by the party. The Natalquen 

 River is furnishing grand sport this year, Next trip will 

 bring some news of the catch on these waters. 



The famous Godbout River is being fished by Messrs. 

 Colonel J. D. Gilmour, of Quebec, and A. Law and party, 

 from Montreal: 35 salmon were killed in one day by the 

 party. Satisfactory evidence that His Excellency the 

 Governor-General and party are having good sport is that 

 several leading citizens have been the recipients of magni- 

 ficent specimens. Among the fortunate ones are His 

 Honor the Mayor of Quebec, Lieut.-Col. Forest, J. U, 

 Gregory (the genial Commodore), and many others. 



Of the Restigouche I can say but little, as these gentle- 

 men do not come or go our way. 



The sea trout are in high favor in all the streams empty- 

 ing into the Gulf as far up as Tadousac. They vary from 

 H to 71bs. and will average 31bs. This is getting to be a 

 very popular fish with our local anglers. The best fishing 

 is to be had on the north shore where permits can be ob- 

 tained. They are to be reached by taking steamer Otter 

 from Quebec. Any person wishing to have an outing of 

 two weeks or more should take this trip, the steamer 

 leaves Quebec every two weeks and is owned by Messrs. 

 A. Fraser & Co. of this city. 



The Montmorency Chib. — The Montmorency is once 

 more giving some grand sport. Dr. H. Tevers and L. 

 Welch, C. Ganoreau and a few others have just returned 

 from a three days' trip to Snow River, one of the tribu- 

 taries, where they captured Salmo fontinalis averaging 

 2lb6. , the largest 41bs. This river is not up to the standard 

 as yet, however, the waters being still very high and 

 much blurred. 



The Jaques Cartier River Club. — Sport of a very 

 curious nature was the result of a fishing trip up this 

 stream last week. Rods, etc., were discarded when the 

 vicinity of a bear was made apparent to them by the un- 

 earthly howls proceeding from a cluster of pines close by. 

 Mr, Bruin had very foolishly got caught in a trap and 

 consequently made things lively in the environs. The 

 members present being so much taken up with this new 

 kind of sport did not do much in the way of angling. 

 Unfortunately this is the first outing this year on these 

 waters, and we shall have to wait for revelations later. 



The Tourilli Fish and Game Club.— The Orand St. 

 Anne still holds its prestige for the best fly-fishing in this 

 district. Mr. E. A. Panet, of St. Raymond, vice-presi- 

 dent of the club, and Geo. Van Felson. of Quebec, secre- 

 tary of the club, have just returned from a three days' 

 trip on these preserves, having wended their way by 

 water and trail to Lake Jambon. They here camped for 

 two days, and although the weather was much against 

 fishing they secured an average of 1^1 bs. of the gamiest 

 trout on this continent. The next day was spent on the 

 St. Anne and Tourilli. Six fine fish were captured at 

 Tourilli Falls, one of 4|lbs., two of 'Si, one of g|, two of 

 2*, all with the fly and from the immense rapid here, 

 gave as fine sport as any salmon. An eye witness giving 

 a description of the sport exclaimed, "Gentlemen, it was 

 worth the trip to any man to witness the skillful hand- 

 ling and grand play of these fish." In these falls 80yds. 

 of line were spun out in less than ten seconds. It took 

 thirty -five minutes to play the 4ilb. fish. Some very fine 

 specimens were caught immediately opposite the new 

 club house. A contingent of the American members is 

 expected this week. On this trip no less than ten coveys 

 of grouse were seen, and they are said to be very plenti- 

 ful all over these limits. Caribou, the famous Canadian 

 winter game, are so numerous as to keep the club trails 

 in good order by their continuous passage to and from 

 the river and lakes. The season which opens Sept. 1 is 

 anxiously looked forward to by the members. 



Tlie Little Saguenay Club.— These gentlemen have 

 abandoned their limits for the time being and gone to 

 try the ouananiche; they are, however, expected on their 

 grounds this week, grand sport and a goodly gathering; 

 of flies await their arrival very anxiously. This club 

 has received a great honor in having a view of the Little 

 Saguenay, their headquarters, as frontispiece to the beau- 

 tiful work of Mr. Samuels, "With Fly-Rod and Camera." 

 It well deserves this marked attention, as a more beauti- 

 ful spot is not to be seen on this continent. 



Tlie Laurentides Club. — This enterprising club is re- 

 ceiving considerable attention from its members this 

 summer; no less than 40 members and their friends hav- 

 ing visited these preserves since May 34. Some very fine 

 catches have been registered in the club books; no very 

 large fish have been killed here as yet, but still 3lbs. 

 ought to satisfy any man; and they get a good few of 

 these and none smaller than fibs. 



Tlie Stadacona Club. — Lac au Rognons re-echoed the 

 shouts of joy of a party of jovial young Englishmen who 

 had abandoned a salmon trip in order to visit these waters 

 productive of big trout. Not being well acquainted with 

 these lakes, their guides being also novices here, their 

 catch was not what it might have been. When fly-fish- 

 ing is to be had in these lakes it is in shallow water. 

 This important fact became known to them only when it 

 was too late, consequently the best fishing was lost. It 

 is important for persons visiting the Lake St. John region 

 to secure guides knowing the waters they intend fishing. 

 The largest fish for this party was 41bs. , but a good creel 

 of others around 31bs. and little less were killed. 



Lake Edward. — Laurentides' house furnishes its hospi- 

 tality to some thirty guests who have certainly raised the 



