Jan. 29, 1891.] FOREST AND STREAM, ^ 2& 



CARP IN LAKE ERIE. 



WHILE passing through the fish market in this city 

 about two years ago I saw exposed for sale a Ger- 

 man carp. It was about 20in. in length and weighed 

 ISlbs. It was a scale carp, very dark in color, and very 

 beautiful. I asked the dealer, and he said the fish was 

 caught in the nets set out in the lake from this port. I 

 did not see any more or hear of any others being sold in 

 the market until within the last two weeks, when they 

 have been plenty. These were caught in the lake at Port 

 Clinton. They were mostly about 7in, in length, and 

 varied from the mirror to the scale varieties. One was 

 very large, and much like the first one I saw two years 

 ago. Some of the others had no scales; others had a few 

 very large scales, w%ile others were covered evenly with 

 the regular carp scale. I have no means of knowing how 

 they got into the lake; but the interesting fact is, that 

 they are there in great numbers and are thriving wonder- 

 fully. They sell at the same price as the yellow and blue 

 pike caught in the lake. Being grown in such pure cold 

 water, their growth is not as rapid as it would be in 

 warmer water: bat the flesh is firmer and of a better 

 equality. This goes to prove that if it is difficult to stock 

 the streauisand ponds and lakes with what are considered 

 better fish, they can soon be filled with carp; and while 

 they may. commonly not be as fine a table fish as some 

 others, there can be no doubt that they will adapt them- 

 selves to almost any circumstances and thrive well where 

 others would not do well at all. There was a great craze 

 about them when they were first introduced, and now we 

 have gone to the other extreme. As a people, we are too 

 notionate and impulsive. We all go crazy over some- 

 thing new to-day and drop it entirely to-morrow. Now, 

 while the carp, when raised in some stagnant little pud- 

 dle, may not be very desirable food, it is just what any 

 sensible person would have expected. It is stating a fact 

 that cannot be controTerted when I declare that tbese 

 fish, when raised in pure water and on good food, are 

 very firm in flesh and excellent for the table. There aA'e 

 literally thousands of acres of water scattered throughout 

 our country, which are now furnishing scarcely any fish, 

 which woiild, if planted wifh young carp, in a few years 

 furnish tons of good edible fish to thousands of our people 

 who a,re scarcely ever fortunate enough to get any fresh 

 fish of any kind. If they can live and thrive as these have 

 done, among the millions of carnivorous fish, they can 

 live any where. Homerus. 

 CiiEvWiAND, Ohio. 



ANGLING RETREATS OF MAINE. 



II.— THE MONSON LAKES AND POKDS. 



fpHE township of Monson is situated in the north west- 

 i. ern part of Piscataquis county, whicli has within 

 ■ its limits the largest and most magnificent sheet of inland 

 •water (Moosehead) wholly within New England, and the 

 highest and most famous mountain in the State (Katah- 

 din), often erroneously placed by map makers and writers 

 in the adjoining couiity of Penobscot. Morson is fur- 

 teen miles below the foot of MooBohead Lake, ten miles 

 West of Sebec Lake and six miles north of the Bangor & 

 Piscataquis Eiilroad, being connected with this line by a 

 narrow-gauge road. It is only twenty miles by rail to 

 the Piscataquis terminus of the Maine Central system 

 and twenty-five miles by rail to that great highway 

 of nations, the Canadian Pacific Railway. This town is 

 about 1,000ft, above the level of the sea, and the air is 

 pure a,nd healthy. Hay fever and all malarious diseases 

 are entirely unknown and impossible in this region. 



Three-quarters of its territory is yet an unbroken wil- 

 derness, and many of its highest hills are still covered 

 ■with a native growth of spruce, fir, cedar, white and 

 yellow birch, poplar, pine, maples, ash, hemlock, etc. 



The largest sheet of water within its borders is Lake 

 Hebron, more than three miles in length, at the foot of 

 which nestles a pretty and picturesque village. Here is 

 a summer hotel of grand proportions and excellent facil- 

 ities, and on its snores are summer cottages. A local 

 company are selling cottage lots, and quite a large num- 

 ber will be built here during the season of 1891. This 

 lake is surrounded by mountains and sloping hills of 

 forestry farms and pleasant farm habitations with the lofty 

 and pine clad peaks of Russell and Bald mountains in the 

 adjoining town of Blanchaxd standing as grim as sentinels 

 over all. The landscape from any point of view is de- 

 lighting and pleasing. 



It contains the spotted square-tail trout (Salmo fontin- 

 alis), ranging in weight as high as 51bs. Lake trout 

 {Salvio confinis) are often taken which weigh 6 and 71b3., 

 and some weighing 81bs. have been caught here within a 

 few years past. The spotted trout rise to a fly, and a 

 favorite method of taking them is by trolling, sometimes 

 with flies and sometimes with a single hook baited with 

 angleworm. The lake trout fishing is usually in about 

 40 or 45ft. of water, with minnows, shiners and small 

 chubs for bait. The natural supply of fish here has never 

 been depleted by poaching, and in addition to this several 

 hundred thousand trout fry have also been planted. 



Taking lake trout with a light rod and reel is exciting 

 sport for one who has no scruples against being dubbed a 

 common bait fisherman, for they are very gamy. Their 

 meat is nearly white and exceedingly sweet and tender. 

 The Fish Commissioners of the State planted European 

 whitefish here four years ago, and they are seen in large 

 schools and are beginning to be taken by our own peojile. 



Sail and row boats and canoes of all descriptions are 

 on the lake, and the steamer Molly Tomah makes hourly 

 trips during the summer season. Besides Lake Hebron 

 there are witliin this town twenty-three or twenty-four 

 other ponds, as follows: The two Spectacle ponds, Tib- 

 bets, McLarign North Pond, McLarign South Pond, Bell, 

 Lillie, Ward, the Twin Doughty ponds, Strout, Doe, 

 Duck, Monson or G-oodale, Squaghquign, Meadow, Jacobs, 

 Thatcher, Curtis, Doughty Bog Pond, Jumper and Eigh- 

 teen Pond. 



The two Spectacle ponds are in the northwest part of 

 the town on the county road to Moosehead Lake, the old 

 highway passing over the narrows between the two. They 

 are designated as Spectacle East and Spectacle Wett 

 ponds. Their name was derived from their shape, both 

 being round and the two together resembhng a pair of 

 eye-glasses. Dense forests surround them and spotted 

 trout are plentiful in each. The eastern or lower one is 

 the larger one, it being one mile from the narrows to its 

 foot. The Rev. O. F. Staft'ord, D.D., now of Deering, 

 Maine, secjured spijie liberal catches there in the season of 



1889. Trout are sometimes taken there which weigh 3 

 and 4lbs. each. Its outlet is a rapid stream emptying into 

 Monson Pond and fi-om thence into the Wilson River. 



Childs Falls, a beautiful and grand looking cascade in 

 the wilderness and which have long been of interest to 

 the tourists, are on this stream. They are some 40ft. high 

 and rush and tumble over huge piles of slate rock. The 

 lovers of brook fishing frequently traverse its banks for 

 the lively brooklet trout and are always weU rewarded 

 for their undertaking. 



On the west side of the road to Elliottsville plantation 

 about four miles from Lake Hebron is Meadow Pond, 

 one-fourth of a mile from the highway. This is a pretty 

 little pond, covering fifty acres or more of land entirely 

 surrounded by old growth forestry and is in shape nearly 

 round. Trout weighing 2 and 3lbs. are often taken with 

 a fly at this pond. 



About one mile through the white birch woods in an 

 easterly direction from Meadow is South Pond, another 

 famous and popular resort for fly-fishermen. This is con- 

 siderably larger than the former. These trout are remark- 

 able for their superior beauty and very small ones are 

 rarely taken. The outlet of each of these ponds winds 

 through forestry and the forest waste and ruins of ages 

 to Wilson River. J. F. S. 



Monson, Me. 



AMERICAN TROUT FLY IMITATIONS. 



I HAVE been thirty years a fly-fisher, and during that 

 time have been an amateur rod maker, and always 

 tie my own flies. I have just finished a black bass min- 

 now, and trout fly-rod, of bois d'arc, as presents to friends. 

 Getting up these fixings I call angling indoors and take 

 almost as much pleasure in it as in catching fish. I have 

 now a nice little trout stream on my own farm and can 

 enjoy and study these beautiful fish at will. 



For many seasons I was resident physician at old Raw- 

 ley Springs, on Dry River, which, take it all in all, is one 

 of the finest trout streams in this country. The trout 

 are larger than in any stream at the South, except Green- 

 brier. The casting is as unobstructed as on an ox^en lake. 

 There are no flies or insect pests of any sort at all. No 

 stream afi'ords finer opportunity for studying mountain 

 trout in their native place. 



One summer, at Rawley, I made up a fly at random, 

 using some remnants of floss and feathers, just what I 

 happened to have, at the request of a friend, to show his 

 wife how a fly was made. When it was finished it was 

 thus made: Lower third of body golden yellow, U}}]i8r 

 two-thirds dark red floss, this tipped and ribbed with 

 gold: hackle black center, red tips (coch-a-bondu); wings, 

 the striated feathers of lesser blackhead duck. To show 

 that trout would actually take this fly I went, after sun- 

 set, to a pool, near the springs, used by gentlemen as a 

 bathing pool, and at the first cast took a splendid trout 

 13in. long. 



For years I liave found this fly the very best for the 

 larger trout of Dry River. I tie one with the wings on a 

 No. 8 Carlish Kirby for stretcher, one without wings, 

 Palmer fashion, on a No. 10 Aberdeen for dropper, and 

 with that cast, after sunset, I have caught more i)ig trout 

 than with any other I ever tried. The same combination 

 tied on No. 3 and 5 Sproats is splendidly killing for black 

 bass. 



Now what is the original insect for which theoretically 

 the fish mistake that fly? Held in the fingers dry, or 

 pinned to card, it recalls no insect known to me, but on 

 a very short line cast, as in fishing, and drawn close to 

 your feet as you stand in water knee deep, in the dusk 

 of evening, it does exactly resemble in appearance a 

 common fii-efly or lightning bug. Taking the hint, with 

 a specimen before me, I tied one which was an exact 

 imitation and after thoroughly testing the matter I came 

 to the conclusion that the original fonn was much more 

 attractive both to trout and bass. I therefore abandoned 

 the lightning bug theory. I now suspect (a "working 

 hypothesis") that the above described fly is easily seen 

 and not suspiciously gaudy, and the fish take it for some- 

 thing alive in the nature of a bug go©d to eat. 



In order to see whether the trout were feeding at that 

 hour on any fly of the least resemblance to any artificial 

 fly I examined the stomachs of all the big ones I caught, 

 I found that they mostly contained crawfish, small min- 

 nows and worms; no flies. 



Therefore, I started another "working hypothesis," to 

 wit, during the daytime these big trout are iDottom feed- 

 ers; certainly you can't get one of them to rise to any 

 kind of artificial fly in any of those mlich-frequented 

 pools until it is nearly dark. At dusk they begin to feed 

 on the surface, and at that hour an exjjerienced angler 

 will generally get the largest one in the pool at the first 

 cast, the fly being bright enough to show well and not 

 gaudy enough to scare the fish or rouse their suspicion. 

 That is the very hour when the air is full of lightning 

 bugs. Yet I have an idea that fish don't like lightning 

 bugs, for using them as bait I find to be a dead failure. 



If my opinion that the largest trout are bottom feeders 

 by day and surface feeders at night is correct, this will 

 account for the well-attested fact that they are very 

 rarely taken in the day time, either in Dry River or any 

 other, and are taken almost to the exclusion of smaller 

 sizes from dusk until it is too dark either to see how to 

 fish or to avoid treading on a rattler or copperhead. 

 Hence also we may understand why the antipodal hour 

 at the other end of night — that is to say, from dawn to 

 broad daylight— is not near equal to that from dusk to 

 dark. 



I begin to feel almost a stranger to readers of Forest 

 iND Stkeam, and would not at this time venture upon 

 their patience with anything fishy, except that I know 

 that like that "time-honored Lancaster," of whom we 

 read, angling hath an "infinite variety, which time 

 cannot wither nor custom stale." Out of my experience 

 by many waters allow me just to suggest that I never 

 put a tail on a fly any more. I dress them as near no- 

 thing to be anything, as, well, say a leading actress of 

 the day. Most flies have too much body, too much 

 hackle, too much wing, too much tail, too much every- 

 thing. I hate, I despise, I do detest a big, loose, hairy, 

 feathery, gaudy fly, and I am fully convinced that not 

 only trout, but even big-mouthed black bass are of the 

 same mind that I am. A happy New Year to Forest 

 AND Stream and all its readers! And now, if nobody 

 "jumps on me" about this I may have something else to 

 say about the big trout of Dry River at another time. 



^ M. G. Ellzey, M.D. 



GREENLAND ESQUIMAUX FISH HOOK. 



WITHIN a few minutes after the bark Argenta, ply- 

 ing between Philadelphia and the Arsuk Fiord, 

 Greenland, in the cryolite trade, had moored at her docks 

 at the Danish settlement called Tvigtut, an Esquimaux 

 came over the gangway carry- 

 ing a string of Arctic codfish. 

 This was on Sept. 25 last. The 

 Arctic codfish was described 

 and pictured very interestingly 

 in a recent number of the Forest 

 and Stream, as well as the 

 method of catching them 

 through the ice on the Alaska 

 coast. It is likely, therefore, 

 that the Greenland method of 

 taking them in open water may 

 be interesting to sportsmen as 

 well as naturalists. 



The Greenland Esquimaux 

 uses what is probably the largest 

 hook in the world for the size of 

 the fish taken, for it is about as 

 long as the fish itself. The one 

 here pictured had been in use 

 for several years, but was still 

 in good condition for work. It 

 is more properly a jig than a 

 hook, for the fish are always 

 caught under the gills or the 

 belly by the hook. Its length over 

 all, not counting the seal-leather 

 loop • to which the line was 

 fastened, is lOiin. The iDoints 

 of the hook are 2|in. apart. 

 Beginning at the top there is a 

 J)iec6 of hollow bone l^^in. long in 

 wliich the loop is secured by two 

 dowels, or treenails, passing 

 through and through the bone 

 and loop. These pegs are ac- 

 curately fitted and, though 

 slender, are of ample sti'ength. 



Next to the bone is a wedge- 

 aha^ped piece of greenstone, of 

 the kind used extensively by the 

 Esquimaux in marking their seal- 

 oil lamps. It is 2|^gin. wide at 

 the top, by i-t^,^m. long and lin, 

 wide at the bottom. But while 

 it tapers from the top down 

 when looking at it square in 

 front, it is more than a quarter- 

 inch thicker at the bottom than 

 at the top. Why this peculiar 

 form was given to the stone I 

 could not learn, because I could 

 not talk the language or find an 

 interpreter who could make the owner understand what 

 I wanted to know, but the owner said greenstone was 

 used because it was the color of the water of the fiord. 



The lure consists of four seal teeth and a bit of red 

 flannel fastened with strings and pegs to the face of this 

 stone. They hang loosely so that they ^vill flourish about 

 as the jig moves up and down in the water. 



The two hooks were secured together by casting some 

 lead about the shanks, and the lead was then smoothed 

 otf, flattened on top and lashed to the bottom of the stone. 

 The joints, like the scarf between the bone and the top 

 of the stone, showed first-class workmanship. 



As appears from the illustration, the hooks are barbed, 

 but in catching the fish the hooks, I was told, rarely pene- 

 trated as far as the barb. The hooks are obtained from 

 the whites. 



The fish were at that time caught in w^ater about 300ft. 

 deep, but at other seasons are found in much shoaler 

 water. I saw one Esquimaux fishing from his kayak. 

 He lowered the hook on the end of a linen line, that was 

 about the thickness of a carpenter's chalk-line. When it 

 reached the required depth, that is within two or three 

 feet of the bottom, as he explained by holding his hands 

 about as far apart as he could reach and then within 

 about two feet of each other, he began jigging the line up 

 and down, lifting it say six inches and lowering it again 

 and occasionally raising it a foot or more. My Danish 

 companion said a white man could not tell when a fish 

 was on the end of such a long line, but I guess a white 

 man could learn to tell if he tried long enough. When a 

 fish was caught it was hauled up and strung on a line of 

 seal leather. I did not see one hauled out, for the fishing 

 was bad that day and my time limited, but I was told 

 that the fish seeing the lure waving about ran their noses 

 against it and were then caught as the hook was raised up. 



There were three ships at Iviglut while I was there, 

 and they were supplied with all the codfish the crews 

 wanted. The Esquimaux wanted hard-tack or tobacco in 

 exchange, but commonly took hard-tack. There was no 

 regular price. The native brought a string of fish — 

 ordinarily a dozen or so— and got sometimes one dozen 

 and sometimes two dozen sea biscuits in return, according 

 to the humor of the ship's steward. The fisherman always 

 went away smiling, whether he got much or little. 



The owner of the fish hook offered it to me for a plug 

 of smoking tobacco. John R. Spears. 



Whitefish and Trout.— At the station of the IJ. S, 

 Fish Commission at Alpena, Mich., the total number of 

 whitefish eggs collected during the spawning season was 

 50,920,000. Of this number two employees of the Com- 

 mission took 1,920,000 from Dec. 1 to" 6, at Beaver Island, 

 Lake Michigan. The loss of eggs during December was 

 only six per cent, of the total. About one-third of the 

 eggs were obtained from fish caught in gill nets. The 

 temperature of the water ranged from 33 deg. on Dec. 1 to 

 32J deg. on the Slst. On the last day of December there 

 were available for distribution from the station at North- 

 ville: Lake trout eggs, 2,500,000; brook trout eggs, 140,000; 

 Loch Leven eggs, 120,000; Von Behr [S. fario) eggs, 

 220,000. 



Somerset, Ky.. Jan. 17. — Our hunters ai-e devoting 

 most of their spare moments to the quail, but I notice that 

 while in the earlier part of the season bags of from 35 to 

 .50 were numerous, the number now averages 10 or 12 per 

 day. Our fishing club members are only waiting for the 

 , river to get in good shape, as the pike and wall-eyed pite 

 i will bite most any day this time of the year, — H, 



