FOREST AND STREAM. 



Lisrr. i, 1890. 



BASS FISHING ON THE GREENBRIER. 



/CINCINNATI, Aug. 26.— When a disciple of Izaak 

 \J Walton happens across a stream wherein the wily- 

 bass is wont to disport in great numbers, and the eager 

 anglers at large know naught of its existence, he is apt to 

 treasure his secret and selfishly monopolize the sport the 

 gods have given. Such monopolistic instincts are not en- 

 tertained hereabouts, hence this epistle. 



The Greenbrier River finds a rugged basin at the foot of 

 that jagged range of the Allegheny Mountains that 

 separates old Virginia from her off -spring. The stream 

 for one hundred miles or more pursues a circuitous course 

 through abrupt cuts and rocky gullies, until it forms a 

 copartnership with the New River, the result being the 

 Great Kanawha. The water, clear as crystal, coming as 

 it does for the most part from numberless mountain 

 springs, rushes madly over a bed of disjointed rocks that 

 form a home for bass unexcelled in its naturalness. From 

 source to mouth the stream is a chain of pools separated 

 only by vigorous ripples that appear to delight in carry- 

 ing the fisherman's frail craft with an invigorating 

 energy that sends the blood tingling through every vein. 

 For miles the only evidences of civilization are the tracks 

 and occasional trains of the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail- 

 road, which company follows the south bank of the river 

 eastwardly to a point near White Sulphur Springs. The 

 lofty mountains on either side, covered with maiden ver- 

 dure, are occasionally replaced by picturesque rocky up- 

 heavals, not unlike the Hudson River Palisades. The 

 presence of man is made manifest by infrequent fields of 

 corn that at once suggest the feasibility of working billy 

 goats in a plow. In close proximity to every corn patch 

 is generally to be found a rude negro cabin, and in the 

 twilight, while the dying embers on the earthen hearths 

 emitted their faint glow and sent aloft, as if reluctant to 

 depart, their ghost-like columns of curling smoke, the 

 soft and sweet melodies typical of the darkies blended 

 harmoniously with the hurrying waters. It is the music 

 of which so much is written and too little remains. 



But, what about fishing ! 



It is pretty hard work to convince the ordinary angler 

 to bslieve that black bass will bite freely in the month of 

 August anywhere south of the northern Michigan region. 

 Yet, two decidedly amateur fishermen caught more than 

 one hundred bass in the Greenbrier River in two days. 

 To be sure, they were not of the size and weight to be ex- 

 hibited in glass cases at a nickle an exhibit, yet they pos- 

 sessed the life, energy and ambition that combined make 

 the bass the gamiest fish to be found in fresh waters. 



Did they fight ? 



Well, if snapping in twain two sturdy rods can be ac- 

 cepted as conclusive evidence, they are fighters of the 

 Sullivan school. Of course, on account of the rocky bed 

 and constantly recurring ripples there is more strain on 

 the rod than is experienced in lake fishing, where plenty 

 of water will permit the free use of the reel. A taut line 

 and but little play may abbreviate the pleasure experi- 

 enced while landing the game, but the enervating aggres- 

 siveness of a short struggle more than counteracts any 

 lack of fun that may arise because of the absence of a 

 superfluity of water. 



Here is a ripple, probably two hundred fret in length, 

 that carries the angler's craft at break-neck speed, more 

 enlivening by far than shooting Lachine Rapids on a 

 Royal Mail Line steamer. The sturdy oarsman steers 

 deftly in and out — now to the right and back to the left 

 — narrowly missing huge sunken boulders that would cer- 

 tainly bring to grief an inexperienced pilot, while from 

 the stern of the boat the fisherman has thirty or forty 

 feet of line trailing through the startled waters. Sud- 

 denly the craft darts into smooth water, a pool of light 

 green crystal, and a sharp tug at the line indicates the 

 presence of the enemy. "See him rush!" ''Give him 

 line." "There he goes." "Reel him in." In his mad 

 career he endangers the safety of the line among the 

 rocks on the south bank. The boat is propelled slowly to 

 what might be termed the leeward of a mass of hidden 

 rocks, and the last round in the brief battle begins. 

 Slowly but surely the line is taken in, care being exer- 

 cised in avoiding the sharp edges of the jutting stones, 

 until nothing remains but to land the boy. Yes. he's 

 landed, proud and brave as when in his element, he leaps, 

 turns and twists in the bottom of the boat, the bright rays 

 of the sun greatly increasing the wonderful beauty of his 

 glistening scales. "How mueh does he weigh?" "Two 

 pounds, sartin," replied the ancient guide, with an air of 

 positiveness that left no doubt as to his having been there 

 "many a time." 



An hour later. Mr. Fish, fresh from the frying-pan, 

 tickled the palate as ne'er a morsel e'er tickled without 

 the precincts of Epicurus' pantry. 



Alderson, W. Va., is the center of the fishing region, 

 and anglers may be certain of receiving courteous atten- 

 tion at that pleasant little place. Van. 



Mr. W. TJ. Low, Hank Smith, F. C. Donald and C. S. 

 Burton tried Cedar Lake also a couple of weeks ago. Thpy 

 caught one bass, lost another that was hooked, and Mr. 

 Law stole one out of Ed. Varu's ice-house, and that was all 

 they caught. Times have changed since my friend Har- 

 ryman and I were there on the Fourth of July. The cold 

 weather ha3 probably driven the bass out of the rushes 

 into the deep water. 



Mr. O. N. Blomgren, of Blomgren Bros. & Co. , this city, 

 is just back from a four months summer journey in 

 Sweden, where he did some fishing. Mr. Blomgren says 

 that owing to the strict enforcement of the game" and tres- 

 pass laws in that country the fishing is very good there, 

 while in regions here not settled for anything like the 

 same length of time the streams are utterly exhausted. 

 He had fine trout fishing in streams that were preserved 

 by the landowners, taking some very fine trout on some 

 American flies that he had carried with him. The 

 Swedish trout, however, like their American cousins, 

 preferred plain worms. The Swedish angle worm he 

 found much like our angle worm, but the Swedish trout 

 flies were far clumsier than ours. The anglers there paint 

 their rods a light gray or slate color, so as not to alarm 

 the trout. The trout in the language of that country is 

 called "lax," and the pickerel, of which Mr. Blomgren 

 also caught some good ones on the American skinner 

 spoon, is called "gedda." Both the trout and the pickerel 

 he describes as being very similar to our fish. A singular 

 feature attended this fishing, which was nearly in the 

 land of the midnight sun: there was almost no night at 

 all. Mr. Blomgren caught trout between 10 and 11 

 o'clock at night, and even made some very successful 



hotographs at a quarter of ten o'clock at night. He 



escribes the country as very beautiful in that region, 

 southwestern Sweden, near Ulrikshamn. The salmon 

 streams, further north, he did not think were leased or 

 preserved. There were wild deer in the mountains near 

 by, and in the evening they often heard the crowing of 

 the great grouse, the "cock of the woods," or caper- 

 cailzie, known in Sweden as the "chedde." This bud is 

 so shy that it is next to impossible to shoot it in the day 

 time. It is shot on the roosts hy night, in the way that 

 is so deadly to our wild turkeys. Mr. Blomgren is 

 delighted with his trip, and thinks Sweden a fine place 

 for an angling or touring American to visit. 



E. Hough, 



ANGLING NOTES. 



THERE is a report, which seems to be authentic, that 

 on Aug. 11 a small-mouth bass was killed in Lake 

 George that weighed Tibs. 14oz. The only thing we know 

 that would cast any doubt on this story is that the angler's 

 name was Billy Patterson. Black bass are rather scarce 

 in this lake, but like the trout in Raquette Lake, when 

 you get them they are big ones. 



Mr. A. F. Delafield, a prominent Connecticut angler, 

 has just returned from Lake St. John. He reports land- 

 locked salmon very abundant, but small, seldom running 

 over 21bs. in weight. They seemed to prefer small flies 

 and the best killing one was dressed on a No. 6 Sproat, 

 with turkey or mottled peacock wings, yellow body and 

 black hackle, and with junglecock shoulders. His expp- 

 rience was, that unless one belonged to one of the numer- 

 ous clubs that control the rivers emptying into the lake 

 it was impossible to obtain any trout fishing. 



The reports of the large trout caught in Lake Edward 

 seems to be greatly exaggerated. One gentleman states 

 that after fishing there for three consecutive seasons he 

 has yet to see a trout brought in over 31b3. in weight, 

 and none are taken on the fly. 



The early cold weather has made excellent fly-fishing 

 throughout the Adirondacks. Mr. W. Holberton states 

 that he never enjoyed better fly-fishing than he had last 

 week at Brandreth Lake. He caught all the trout needed 

 in camp, and never had to keep any under fib. in weight. 

 Once he had on two, each over lib. These two fish on a 

 4joz. rod gave royal sport. 



Mr. G. M. Fairchild, Jr., writes from VaJ Cartier, Que- 

 bec, that the trout fishing there is superb; so it looks as if 

 the many anglers now about starting for the September 

 fishing in Maine and Canada will have splendid sport. 

 Deer are very plenty in the Adirondacks and in fine con- 

 dition; many are already getting their blue coat. 



It seems a great shame that the bass in the Wal kill 

 River cannot be better protected. The farmers along 

 that beautiful stream are poaching in the most outrageous 

 manner. This is one of the best waters for fly-fishing 

 near New York, and if properly protected would, afford 

 fine sport for hundreds of anglers. 



THE PIKE OF LAKE MELISSA. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



While Dr. Davisson and I were fishing in the chain of 

 lakes south of Detroit City, Minn., we put in one day at 

 Buck's Mill on the outlet of Lake Melissa. The stream is 

 dammed at a narrow place and several hundred acres are 

 overflowed, the water backing up nearly to Lake Melissa. 

 The water in the pond is perfectly clear, but has a pecu- 

 liar yellowish tinge that one sees sometimes in ploughs. 

 There are floating islands of grass in the pond and tama- 

 rack trees grow in and around it. After a furious rain- 

 storm we started fishing for big-mouth bass and caught 

 several very large ones. In the deepest water Dr. Davis- 

 son made a cast and hooked what we supposed was a 

 largo bass, though he did not jump as the big bass of these 

 waters always do. After a hard fight which tested all of 

 the Doctor's skill he brought him to the landing net and 

 I dumped into the hoat a 41bs. wall eyed pike, almost 

 black on the back, a blackish bronze on the sides and 

 shading off into a white on the belly. We anchored at 

 once and caught several more, all large ones, regular 

 demons to fight and game as any bass that ever swam, 

 only wanting their acrobatic qualities to make them 

 superior. In the strange colored water, as they darted 

 around the boat fighting desperately after being hooked, 

 they looked as if made of gold, and it was a sight that 

 would make even a, pot-fisherman's blood tingle. Mr. 

 Payne and Mr. Hitchcock, of Casselton, Dakota, who 

 were anchored near us, also caught several. 



I have caught many wall-eyed pike, but never caught 

 one colored as these were. The pike we caught in the 

 lakes near the pond were'the common, every-day, white- 

 s'ded pike, with onlv a suspicion of brorze on their sides. 

 Whether it was a different variety of p'ke, or whether 

 living in the strange colored water gave them the deeper 

 markings we were unable to find out. Their fighting 

 abilities surprised us more than their coloring, the ordi- 

 nary pike bearing about the same comparison to them 

 that a rock bass would to a S'bs. small-mouth. 



The fish in these lakes are all game and there is splen- 

 did bass, pike and pickerel fishing to be had in Lakes 

 Sally and Melissa, and the smaller lakes near them. We 

 caught many bass that would weigh over 41bs. and pick- 

 erel that would weigh 10 and 12. We hooked larger ones, 

 but they got away with our light tackle. The lakes are 

 being seined and the neople residing near there se^m per- 

 fectly indifferent to it. Several seine reels were in plain 

 sight on the shores of Lake Melissa the whole three weeks 

 we were there. A. E. Goshorn. 



WlNTERSET, Iowa. 



Bluefish in Buzzard's Bay.— New Bedford, Mass., 

 Aug. 20. — Although Buzzard's Biy ha* been well stocked 

 with large menhaden during the season, the bluefish have 

 shown a much greater fondness for the young English 

 herring. These herring are about three inches long, and 

 are very abundant this year. For the past week or so the 

 bluefish have been feeding, also, upon the very young 

 menhaden, those a few inches in length, of which there 

 are more in the bay at present than there have been for 

 a number of years. Bluefish are verv plentiful, and 

 although they ma v frequently be seen rushing the schools 

 of young English herring or small menhaden, I have not 

 seen or heard of their making much of a raid on the 

 schools of full-grown menhaden. This may be due in 

 part to the fact that the bay blupfish generally run rather 

 small this year, and are too lazy to bite a fish in pieces 

 before swallowing it. The value of knowing that the 

 bluefish are feeding on the smaller fish does not seem to 

 be fully understood by the fishermen, as they, with few 

 exceptions, stick to the eel skin drail or squid, when if 

 they would use an imitation fish not over Sin. long, made 

 of block tin, at least three fish would be hooked to one 

 with the eel skin drail. To meet with the greatest suc- 

 cess this tin drail should have indentations cut or pressed 

 on it to represent the head, scales and eyes; it should be 

 scoured bright with back of a knife, and have a piece of 

 eel skin l£ to Sin. long and Jin. wide hooked through the 

 middle, to make a proper tail for the imitation fish. 

 When trolling let the boat sail very slowly, so that the 

 drail may sink into the school of bait, as most fish prefer 

 taking their food under water instead of coming to the 

 surface to strike it. and thus getting their mouth full of 

 air.— Will arb Nye, Jr. 



Fishing near Wellesley, Mass,— A good many black 

 bass have been caught lately in the Charles River. Mass. 

 A party living in Wellesley took a string of seventeen 

 large ones from the river recently, and thirteen at an- 

 other time. These fish ranged in size from 2 to 4lbs. At 

 Natick they have been getting large quantities of white 

 perch. I saw a string of eleven pickerel the other day 

 that were taken from the river, but not one of them had 

 a crooked tail. A peculiarity of the pickerel in the vicin- 

 ity of Wellesley is the large number of individuals with 

 deformed tails which are sometimes taken. I have been 

 trying to get a specimen for the National Museum for 

 some time, but although I have seen a great many during 

 the past I cannot now find an example. The frogs are of 

 large size and very numerous here this season. I caught 

 one the other day that weighed lTfoz., and I have made 

 a first-rate model of him. I think a good active man 

 ought to catch from 100 to 300 frogs a day in this vicinity 

 at present. My brother and I caught a large water snake 

 in Baker's Pond, and he has also gone into the model de- 

 partment where he will prove a startling feature.— S. F. 

 Denton. 



Colorado Streams. — I want to tell my brothers of the 

 rod and reel where I have found some, splendid fishing. 

 I made my headquarters at Sapinero, Gunnison county, 

 Col., and fishing for a few days in the Gunnison and its 

 three tributaries, that empty within two miles of the 

 settlement. Here the Utah trout wf-re found in abundance. 

 Then I fished up Lake Fork, for 22 miles, as far as Lake 

 City. There was good fishing every mile of the way . and 

 the one daily train is so accommodating as to pick up 

 anglers that make the signal of distress. Lake City is a 

 thriving mining camp, and a day or two can be well spent 

 amid the beautiful scenery of this region. From Lake 

 City a day's ride over the mesa, through a splendid game 

 country, brought me to the bearl of Siv. r i Cr.^eV, which 

 i- li L '::iu- i iv vuh Rio Givmde trr>n r . Todays' fishing 

 d '^li Hu-o-.-a Ctvnk brought me to Efia Gunnison, six 

 mil.'s ab&Ye Sapinero, having spent five days in en- 

 compassing the 65-mile quadrilateral.— Shoshone. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CHICAGO, 111., Aug. 27.— Mr. J. M. Clark of this city, 

 well known in bait-casting circles, has gone to Trout 

 Lake, Wis., after mascallonge. If he can get boats and a 

 guide there he will probably go on up into the Manito- 

 wish country, and should there have good sport if the 

 nights have grown cold enough this early. I have taken 

 pleasure in directing a party of gentlemen from New 

 York State to these same waters, and hope they will all 

 have good luck. 



Messrs. C. D. Gammon, H, D. Nicholls and Will Crib- 

 ben have left these parts for an unknown region in 

 Canada, via Grand Trunk Railway, after trout. This was 

 the party which I was to have joined on a grayling trip to 

 Michigan last week had not other developments prevented. 

 Their change of base was decided upon very suddenly, 

 and as the legal season was nearly out they could not wait 

 for the writer, who can only hope they may strike it all 

 right. 



Mr. W. R. Rittenburg. of Koada, Pa., called on me to- 

 day to ask where he could find good fishing for bass near 

 Green Bay or Oshicosh, Wis. I sent him to Neenah, and 

 he should meet success there during his stay of a week or 

 so. Mr. Rittenburg is of experience with the bass of the 

 Susquehanna, and it is hoped he will fined the right reefs 

 in Winnebago. 



Mr. John Soderbergis lately back from a week's stay at 

 ftedar Lake (on the C. and A,— -not the Cedar Lake close 

 to Chicago) where he took my adviee and went for a rr«t. 

 and a ba*? fish. Mr. S.-d :.U-.- A - reports .|ilt-nty of rain, 

 snakes acid fru^s, but few b,i:s. 



The following is an excellent and well tested list of 

 flies suitable for Maine fishing during this month: Dark- 

 Montreal, scarlet-ibis, professor, blue-jay, silver-doctor, 

 fairy, grizzly-king, brown-palmer, brandreth, also the 

 coachman and white-miller for fishing at dusk. Of 

 course there are many other excellent flies, but this is a 

 safe list for those who have not had much experience in 

 Maine waters. These flies should be dressed on No. 6 

 Sproat hooks, unless the angler uses the patent fluttering 

 flies, in which case No. 8 will be large enough. It is well 

 to take a few flies in addition, dressed on No. 3 or 4 

 Sproat hooks, to be used when the water is rough or 

 deep. Large trout will not rise from deep water at small 

 flies as a rule. The best flies to use on large hooks are 

 the brandreth. Parmachene-belle and white-miller. The 

 large flies should be allowed to sink well under water 

 before the recovery is made. Leaders for this work 

 should be at least 6ft. long, and better 9ft., and they 

 should stand a dry test of at least 41bs. Forty yards o*f 

 waterproof line, not tapered, on a good click reel with 

 an 8oz. split bamboo or hand-made wood rod, together 

 with a large landing net, completes the outfit. 



Scarlet-Ibis. 



Messrs. Btjzzjleni and Spadavecchi went fishing in a 

 catboat last Sunday, and when they were pulled out of 

 the water by the rescuers it was impossible to tell which 

 was Buzzivecohi and which Spadaleni. 



a Book A^out Indians — ffuit&x ani* ssjuiuM *fl u.hi. 

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