88 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 19, 1891. 



A DAY WITH THE WALL-EYED PIKE. 



THE 25tli of September, 1889, was one of those perfect 

 autumnal days that, with its bright sunshine and 

 balmy air, never fail to send a thrill of pleasure through 

 every fiber in the being of the enthnsiasiic devotee of the 

 "angle" as he hies himself to the spot where so many 

 pleasant hours have been passed. 



On the morning of that day I started on my way to, what 

 is to me, a favorite fishing'resort, a short distance above 

 Creswell Station, on the Columbia & Port Deposit E. E. 

 The waters at this point mark the terminus of the rapids 

 extending southward from the Columbia Dam, and hence 

 are not so swift here, but form a series of eddies and deep 

 pools (the latter being locally known as "hollows") in 

 which the "lord of the Sus(|uehanna'' delights to make his 

 home. Owing to the uneveness of the bottiom and the de- 

 posits of rocks and snags, it often happens that while fish 

 are plentifid the angler is sometimes put to a disadA^antage 

 by getting his hooks fast in the above obstructions. 



Having arrived at the desired point, I at once proceeded 

 to fish, which, of course, meant work and no little amount 

 of vexation, owing mainly to the usual difficulty of getting 

 "snagged." 



I continued trolling nearly all the forenoon, baiting 

 and casting in the most tempting waj' T could conceive, 

 but without success. Indeed, it began to look as if the 

 wily inhabitants, yielding to the influence of the unusu- 

 ally fine weather, had, on the impulse of the moment, 

 gone to visit their friends or, possibly, to iittend a mass 

 meeting held for the purpose of discussing a question 

 which is to them one of vital importance— the pollution 

 of the waters of the Supquehanna in other parts. 



I was much surprised, and not a little discouraged at 

 the ill luck that attended my efforts, so much bo that I 

 began to think seriouslj' of giving up and returning home. 

 But wait! what is that? Ah! no inanimate snag this 

 time, but just the very kind of snag I bad been longing to 

 get fast to all morning, and now my fine fellow, since you 

 have evidently 'just returned from one excursion, and 

 have been so kind as to give me the opportunity, I will 

 take you on another free of charge. 



I succeeded in landing this fish with little difficulty, 

 though a good-sized "salmon," and making a cu-cle over 

 the same place, took a second, and in a short time I added 

 two more and one bass, making in all four ".salmon," or 

 wall-eyed pike, and one bass. 



I now concluded to go liome, get dinner, and then re- 

 turn and resume the sport in the afternoon. While taking 

 dinner, learning that it would be convenient for my wife 

 to go, I persuaded her to accompany me back to the scene 

 of the morning's failure and success. 



We started accordingly, our little daughter also making 

 one of the party. As Mrs. S. had done no fishing up to 

 this time, I decided to devote the afternoon to teaching 

 her how to fish, and that she should go through with the 

 entire programme of handling the fish, from the time it 

 "struck" until safely landed, ^vithout any assistance 

 other than verbal directions: for I wanted to make a 

 " fisherman" of her, and determined that if any fiah were 

 caught the credit should all be due to her. Ho%v well she 

 succeeded we shall see later on. 



Arriving at the point where I had taken the fish before 

 noon, and having prevailed upon Mrs. S. to take the rod 

 (which she was quite reluctant to do) while I did the row- 

 ing, she began, as I supposed, to try to fish, but ended 

 with genuine fishing. 



Considerable annoyaiice was experienced by getting 

 "snagged," and more so by the apparent absence of fish. 

 It is not surprising that, after rowing about for an hour 

 and a half or more, getting fast numberless times and 

 taking no fish, Mrs. S. was tlioroughly digusted with fish- 

 ing, refused to hold the rod any longer and insisted upon 

 going home. But I I'eally wanted to see her catch a fish, 

 and I had to use all my powers of persuasion to induce 

 Mrs. S. to consent to hold the rod long enough to encircle 

 a spot where I felt sure some vi'ary "salmon" must be 

 waiting for a tempting bite. She consented to do so, but 

 only on condition that we should leave for home imme- 

 diately if there were no stiikos during this round. 



We had gone some oistauce, when suddenly there was 

 a sharp pull on th-i^ line that made the reel whizz, I 

 knew at once by tiie irregular nervous jerking of the 

 line that the fish was hooked, and told Mrs. S, tlaat now 

 she had her fish fast. "Oh, yes," said she, "it is very 

 likely one more of the kind I have been hooking ever 

 since we came—" but at this moment the fish, becoming 

 alive to the sense of his condition, began, to make such 

 vigorous demonstrations of resistance aa to cause an 

 abrupt ending of her speech. 



Now you should have seen Mrs. S. reel him in. "Be 

 quick about it, don't give him any slack," said all in one 

 breath," "How, how? which way? where?" said 8h%, 

 getting excited and turning the reel in such a manner as to 

 let out line at an alarming rate. "Turn the reel the other 

 way as quickly as possible and bring your fish up stead- 

 ily," said I, almost ready to explode with laughter at the 

 events which were occurring. Mrs. S. had by this time, 

 to a certain extent, recovered her composure and began 

 to follow my directions in a very encouraging manner, 

 and in a short time had her first salmon up to the side of 

 the boat; here, after some little excitement, she succeeded 

 in landing the fish. 



I now asked her if she still desired to go home and was 

 answered with a big "no." Enthusiasm had now taken 

 the place of disgust and so, after resting for a few 

 moments, we started around the same line we had taken 

 when the fish "Btruck." When crossing the same spot 

 another tug was felt by Mrs. S. , who being an apt pupil 

 and using to advantage the experience she had gotten in 

 playing the first fish, j)layed this second one quite well, 

 indeed, and soon landed it in good style. 



Mrs. S. becoming more confi.dent of her abilities as a 

 "fisherman" continued the operation of extracting a 

 "salmon" at each succeeding round until she had seven 

 fine ones. On making the eighth circle she had a "strike" 

 but missed. This discouraged our "fisherman," and as it 

 was late in the afternoon she thought she had enough for 

 one day and began to talk of going home, but from the 

 nature of the strike I knew it was a large fish that had 

 been missed and was anxious to make another trial; we 

 did so and on this round Mis. S. succeeded in landing her 

 eighth and largest fish. This individtial tipped the beam 

 at41bs. We then returned home after what finally proved 

 to be a pleasant and successful excursion, Mrs. S. being 

 much elated over her remarkable good fortune, and well 

 she may be, for landing eight fish out of nine that struck 



is a fact that even experienced anglers do not acCom.pIisli 

 very often. 



I have spent many days (and pleasant ones too more' 

 successful in regard to the numbers of fish taken) upon 

 our beautiful Susquehanna, but the day when together 

 with my family I shared the excitements and pleasure 

 that only the true angler can feel I look back upon as the 

 brightest and happiest of all. G, 8. 



Washinoton Boro ugh, Pa. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



/^miCAGO, 111., Feb. 11. —Mr. W. Hoyt, of Aurora, was 

 \J in town the other day and we fell foul of each other. 

 Mr. Hoyt is a genial angler and much of an enthusiast in 

 fly-fishing for bass, for which he has the best of opportu- 

 nity in that bassful stream, the Fox Eiver, which flows 

 through Aurora, Mr. Hoyt is, however, I believe, inter- 

 ested in some milling properties situate along the Fox, 

 and that changes the whote color of the world to him. 

 He didn't love the State Fish Commission. He didn't 

 love Dr. Bartlett. He didn't love the ideaof putting fish- 

 ways in dams. He said that to put a practical fishway in 

 a dam would ruin the dam. He admitted that bass fish- 

 ing was good in the Fox, but denied that it had been in 

 the least benefited by the fishways. He said fish couldn't 

 get up over the fishways, but claimed there wasn't a dam 

 on the river the bass couldn't run over at high water. He 

 had seen suckers run up almost over the dam. I don't 

 know how he reconciles these two ideas, and forgot to 

 ask him. Mr. Hoyt says that the fishway at Dayton Dam, 

 low down on the big river, is absolutely worthless, and 

 that no fish can get over it. Allusion was made to the 

 opposition the dam owners made to the putting in of the 

 fishways, and to the suits instituted by the Commission. 



"Yes, and you can't name a. single case where they won 

 their suit," said Mr. Hoyt. 



"How about Carpenter ville?" I asked him. 



"Oh, that was a widow they sued thera^" said Mr. 

 Hoyt. 



This is a criss-cross sort of world, anyhow this Illinois 

 end of it is Here's Mr. Hoyt, or the dam owners. They 

 think the Fish Commission is a vile, wicked and ineffectual 

 affair. The Fox Eiver Fish Association thinks the Fish 

 Commission is a good and worthy body, working in a 

 noble cause, and it therefore lends a hand. The Fish Com- 

 mission returns thanks, and says the Fox Eiver Associa- 

 tion has been its best friend and ally. The Illinois State 

 Sportsmen's Association says to the Fox Eiver Associa- 

 tion, Let us unite in this great and glorious work of pre- 

 serving the game and fish of this great and glorious 

 country. The Fox Eiver Association says it don't mind 

 if it does unite some, but all the same it doesn't want to 

 and doesn't mean to. The Illinois State Sportsmen's 

 Association says to the State Fish Commission, Show your 

 hand. Here, blame you, unite with us, or we will ever- 

 lastingly knock your political eye out. The State Fish 

 Commission says to the State Sportsmen's Association, 

 Don't say another word, we are going to unite with you, 

 and we meant to all along. Brotherly love. Nice, isn't 

 it? Hands all 'round, and dos d dos. I wish I could draw 

 a picture of it, showing what each feilow has in the hand 

 he keeps behind his back. In the meantime, the little 

 fishes and the birds that fly, in this great and glorious 

 land of the free, are getting it extensively in the neck, so 

 to speak. 



Mr, Ed. Howard, keeper of the well-known sportsmen's 

 hotel on Fox Lake, was in the city this week and had 

 something to say about the ice fishing that has been going 

 on up in his country, and which was shown up in last 

 week's Forest and Steeam. Needless to say, Mr. Howard 

 has always opposed this sort of business, though his house 

 is right on the lake where a great part of it is done. 



"It isn't so bad now as it used to be," said Mr. Howard, 

 "but the farmers used to make a regular business of com- 

 ing to Fox Lake and catching all the fish they could 

 through the ice. They had their shanties all over the 

 lake. Naturally, the more thoughtful of us who lived 

 about the lake, and had some consideration for the people 

 who came to visit us, didn't like to see the lake robbed in 

 this way. One night, in 1885, there was a lot of shanties 

 out on the lake, and I don't know how it happened, but 

 some way 22 of those shanties got piled up in a bunch to- 

 gether and were burned up, slick and clean. After that 

 the ice fishers used to miss the doors off their shanties a 

 good deal, and stoves would disappear from them by 

 night, and spears and lines would turn up missing, so it 

 wasn't all plain sailing for the ice fishers. One old 

 fellow got sharp. He used to bring his fish shanty with 

 him on his bob sled every morning and take it back at 

 night, so no one could get at it. One evening when he 

 went to hitch up his team he found his horses gone and 

 he had to walk home, away over in the country, and left 

 his shanty. Next morning his team was back hitched to 

 the sled out in the woods, but his shanty wasn't in prac- 

 tical working order. He staid away after that. 



"It is shameful, the destruction these ice fishers create. 

 I hope you will keep up the work and show them the folly 

 of it all. As to the men living above me on the lake, I 

 think they would listen to reason, and if you and Mr. 

 Cole, the president of the Fox River Association, will go 

 up through there and try to get them to agree to quit 

 their winter fishing, I will go with you and do all I can to 

 help. It certainly is unwise to keep up this ice fishing." 



Mr. Howard said that a great many bass were caught 

 by the ice fishers. He had often tried to have men help 

 him in his work, but often they would say they could 

 make more fishing. Willie Dunn ell, three weeks ago, 

 caught 33 fish in one day, and of the whole 16 were pick- 

 erel and 16 were bass. Percy Hill, son of Capt, Hill, a 

 man who ought to know better, had 5 black bass to bring 

 down to Chicago for sale last week. He thought he 

 "might as well do it as anybody," George Drury was 

 fishing right along, and what could be expected of the 

 Stanleys wlio more than once had seined up young black 

 bass and sold them for bail? 



"A strange thing happened not long ago," resumed 

 Mr. Howard, "which shows the size of some of the fish 

 in the lake. George Drury brought in a pickerel which 

 we weighed and found to "weigh' just 21bs. lloz,, quite a 

 fish you may see. This pickerel was fairly skinned from 

 the gills clear back to the tail, and George told me how 

 it happened. He found this fish on one of his lines, and 

 was pulling it in when he saw a big fish run at it, and 

 grab it right by the middle. George pulled and the fish 

 let go, but made another run aiid nearly swallowed the 

 little pickerel. George pulled the big fish on into the 

 hole, and when he let go he had the little pickerel pretty I 



near scaled. We could see the marks of the teeth of the 

 big fish, both crosswise and lengthwise of the pickerel. 

 The fish may have been a mascallonge. 



"You didn't know there were mascallonge in Fox Lake? 

 Well, there are not many, but there are a few. Ten 

 years ago Mr. Bell — you will remember he was drowned, 

 with his warm friend Mr. Wilcox, in that unfortunate 

 trout fishing trip on Lake Superior — was fishing on Fox 

 Lake, and he landed a 43Jbs. mascallonge, right on my 

 beach. In 1868 Monroe Staidey speared a mascallonge 

 which weighed .5j)lbs, They had three spears in him 

 before they got him. Only three years ago, Harry 

 Stanley, while fishing with a common bamboo rod and 

 bass outfit, caught a mascallonge 4ft. lin. long, that 

 weighed BTIbs, His father helped him. land it. This is 

 the la,8t one we know certainly to have been caught. I 

 think they must be a slow fish to reproduce or to mature, 

 so they are easily killed out of a water. 



"When I was a mere boy, twenty years ago, I caught a 

 mascallonge thatweighed Silbs., in Fox Lake, and ca'iight 

 it in a very singular style, too. I yanked him alongside 

 and hauled him over the boatside, but after I got him into 

 the boat he jumped square out and swam off. I pulled 

 him up and hauled him aboard again, and again he 

 jumped out and swam away. I got pretty anxious, and 

 pulled him in again, and for the third time he jumped 

 out of the boat. When I got him in again I had had 

 enough, and I smashed him till he held still. I don't be- 

 lieve anybody on earth but myself ever caught a mascal- 

 longe that jumped out of the boat three times and yet was 

 saved, 



"You may think that is a pretty hard mascallonge 

 story, but I can tell you a worse one, and one equally 

 true. A little more than three years ago Chas. Eidridge 

 was fishing on Fox Lake, and struck a mascallonge which 

 was later found to weigh 11 lbs. This fish went square 

 under the boat, and ran clear out to the end of the line, 

 the rod being out on the opposite side of the boat. As iie 

 reached the end of the line, which was short and rotten, 

 he sprang clear out of the water, turning back as he felt 

 the line check him, and landed directly in the boat, where 

 Eidridge nailed him. The funniest part is that before 

 the fish struck the boat the line was bi'oken short off, and 

 he lit with a piece of it hanging loose out of bis mouth. 

 He evidently broke the line when it snubbed him, and in 

 his crazy jump landed in the boat by mistake. I believe 

 this is the only case of the sort that ever happened." 



Ed. Howard is a quiet, straightforward sort of man, 

 and I never knew him to wander from the paths of stern 

 reality, but after these last two stories I looked at him 

 with an increased i-espect. If he has any more mascal- 

 longe stories like this, he can come and sit in niy ofilce 

 and talk a week at a time, and his board won't cost him 

 anything, 



I notice in a recent daily paper the following, which I 

 think will astonish even the most profound believer in the 

 glorious climate of Californy: "The San Diego (Cal.) Sun 

 tells of a monster black bass taken with hook and line 

 recently near that port. It weighed .3l81bs., and the 

 catcher was forty-two minutes in getting the fish along- 

 side a steamer." There is something wrong about that 

 story. 



But about that ice fishing. The eiiort must be made to 

 get these jjeople to see the matter in a reasonable light, 

 i hope to be able some day to report these summer-resort 

 men all as much opposed to the practice as they are now 

 in favor of it, and to see every one of them a member of 

 the Fox Eiver Association. E. Ho UGH. 



TROUT FISHING PAST AND TO COME. 



1NQUIEING as I go from town to town regarding au- 

 thentic records of trout caught reveals the fact that 

 more and larger trout have been caught the past year 

 than in any year within the recollection of the oldest 

 inhabitants. 



Waterbury, Conn., tells us of good success, and our 

 genial friend Guernsey, who keeps everything in the fish- 

 ing tackle line that one may need, says that all the boys 

 had good luck, bringing home a basketful every time they 

 went. As to size, lib. may be the limit reached by the 

 largest. 



Naugatuck followed right along and here the dealer is 

 Col. Tolly, A poimd to lilbs. was the limit. 



Seymour and Birmingham told similar stories. 



Torrington and Winsted, noted in former years for 

 their fish lies, gave us a little better report, l ilbs., and in 

 one or two instances Iflbs. were the big ones here, and at 

 Colebrook Eiver, a point a little vvay out from Winsted, 

 one was reported weighing 2f lbs. This one was taken 

 alive and sent to Hartford, where he made the owner 

 thereof happy $10 worth. 



Canaan, where Mr. Camp sells the hooks, says: "We have 

 got a new gag on the trout here; we just get on the train 

 and go over here a little ways and catch all we can lug 

 home. Big ones? Why yes, pound and three-quarters, 

 several of them, but no larger." 



At New Milford I got no report except good success, 

 but as to pize I inferred that a pound was the big one.^ 

 Sandy Hook "got there" with sevei-al of a pound and' 

 three-quarters, and "Pape" and O'Hare are prognosticat- 

 ing for 1891, Well, good luckl Hope they will catch 

 whales next time. 



Great Barrington didn't know much about trout fishing; 

 got some, I gupss, but Sagey says that one and three- 

 quarters was the largest here. Lee, Lenox and Stock- 

 bridge could do no better, but West Stockbridge just man- 

 aged to pull through with two and three-quarters for 

 trumps. 



I got so by this time that I swallowed fish lies without 

 auy Ylifiicurty, and took in all sorts of stories. But Phil- 

 mont takes the whole bakery, for in this quiet village, 

 where Mr, Lockwood sells the strings, lives a man, if in- 

 def d he lives yet, Frank Alberts by name, who caught a 

 trout that weigiied three pounds and fifteen ounces, and 

 another fellow got one that weighed ti^^o and one-quarter, 

 No jokes, for Lockwood says it's straight. 



And so they go, and every one says we we will catch 

 larger ones this spring, of which more amn. NoTLlKS. 



Gltjb Electiok,— Newport, E, I., Feb. 11.— At the 

 annual meetiag of the Newport Fish and Game Assccia- 

 tion, held Jan. 14, the following f;flicers were elected: 

 President, J. P. Cotton; Vice-President, Eobt, Frame; 

 Treasurer, W. A. Armstrong: Secretary, F. H. Wilks. 

 Directors: Messrs. ,1, P. Cotton, Eobt. Frame, W. A, 

 Armstrong, W. H. Hanmaett and F. H. Wilks.— F. .B, 

 Wilks. Seo'y. 



