292 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[APRm SO, 1891. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CH:T0A.G0, 111., April 23,— It would seem that we are 

 to be snipeless this spring. There is so much water 

 everywhere that the birds are scattered. George Airey 

 got 61 snipe on the "S ig," south of town, last Thursday, 

 but that is the only shooting I hear of. Tom Marshall 

 writes Charlie Willard from Keithsburg, on the Mississijipi 

 River, that the snipe are not there in any quantity. Clark 

 Neltnor said yesterday from Fox Lake that a few snipe 

 were in there and that the bass were biting well. Snipe 

 have made their appearance around Ft. Dodge, Iowa, and 

 indeed they are probably away north of here. They can 

 be heard in the air at night all around Calumet Lake, but 

 none seem to be stopping. Al Sharp and Dick Turtle only 

 got 21 at Water Valley in two days, Billy Mussey had a 

 big hunt and got one snipe this week, and one is a good 

 many this week. I have not fired a gun this spring," and 

 since reading the recent editorial in Forest and Stebam 

 have about concluded I won't go out at all. 



Mr. Lew Harrison, of Minneapolis, is again in town, 

 I don't know what makes him, but believe he is buying 

 his spring tackle. 



Spring tackle is getting to bs of great importance just 

 now, for the bass season will soon be upon us. I should 

 not counsel bass fishing in serious earnest until nearly the 

 first of June, for the run and the spawning season should 

 first be over. I do not know of any bass having been 

 caiight yet, except a half-dozen taken by our party at 

 Momence, 50 miles below here, on the Kankakee River. 

 Mr, Harryman, Mr. Hirth and myself went down there 

 more to wet our lines than anything else, and to spy out 

 a new land for the people. We found a great many fish- 

 ing, and learned that a number of bass had been caught 

 under the dams. We caught two or three bass apiece, 

 but I can't say that we should be very proud of that, 

 though we found no spawn, except in one Oswego bass! 



We were simply delighted with the Kankakee River at 

 Momence. It runs through a rock bed there, and for 

 miles is a swift, dashing, sparkling stream, clear when 

 we saw it, in spite of the high water. Momence is a 

 pretty little country town, and the country thereabout is 

 lively, the shores of the river being high and covered 

 with blue grass all along that part of the stream. The 

 Stream itselt is simply lovely. 1 cannot get any word 

 that it has ever been fished with thefly, but it is elegantly 

 adapted to that in season, I caught one good bass on the 

 fly while there. I shall certainly try for bass down that 

 way later on, for I have found no water around the city 

 that I like so well as this at first sight, I presume we 

 may add the Momence trip to the cheap and desii-able 

 fishing trips out of Chicago, Round trip tickets S3. 70. 

 Minnows 10 cents a dozen and plenty, such a.s they are. 

 Hotel good at |1.5U to |'3 a day. The fishing is \vithin 

 250yds. of the hotel, or begins there. The train leaves 

 Chicago 4 P. M. or 5:05 P. M., and leaves Momence for 

 Chicago in the morning at 4:40 or 7:32. No wagon 

 needed. I don'c know how a much nicer trip could be 

 planned. It was a new one to me, but I presume there 

 are plenty of other new ones waiting to be found out, 

 and of these we shall hear later I hope. 



It is high time the lower Kankakee were visited and 

 investigated and shown up, for certainly a more lament- 

 able state of absolute lawlessness never existed than is 

 now displayed there. No feature of the law is observed. 

 We saw a dozen spearing lights the night we were there, 

 right in the city limits. We purchased one bass, speared, 

 that weighed 4ilbs. The bass were working inshore 

 and were sufl'ering for it. I intended to show this 

 fish to Dr. Bartlett, our State Commissioner. To him 

 and Mr. Cole, president of the Fox River Association, I 

 gave a four- hooked grab hook, or "jig," which we pulled 

 up from below the dam. At the corner of this same dam 

 we saw a boy who was working one of these jigs, or 

 "grab-lines." He had six hooks tied at intervals on a 

 leaded line, none of the hooks baited. He jerked this 

 sharply through the water under the corner of the dam, 

 and in an hour caught a long string of fish. I saw him 

 catch three magnificent bass, all snagged in the side or 

 belly. Then I couldn't stand it any more, and told him 

 to skip or I would stay over and prosecute him. He 

 skipped, blaspheming, but going. I could not find any 

 fish way in the upper dam at Momence. In the lower dam 

 there was a break or cut, apparently, but no fishway. 

 There are eight dams in forty miles on the Kankakee, I 

 was told by Mr. Strunk, of Momence, and not a fishway 

 in one of them. The heights of these dams are as follows: 

 Two Momence dams, about 6ft. each; Altor dam, 6ft.; 

 Kankakee dam, 8ft., Wilmington dam, lift.; dam right 

 at Wilmington, 6ft. : "Feeder" dam, 6ft, ; dam below that, 

 height unknown. Once there was a sporting club at 

 Momence. They tell me it broke up because it could 

 accomplish nothing at getting the ways put in the dams. 



I saw Dl-. Bartlett yesterday about this matter, and he 

 said he would go down at the end of this week and see 

 what was wrong at Kankakee and Momence. The latter 

 . town, he said, had an ordinance requiring the opening of 

 a section of each dam for three months in the spring. He 

 had been making a big fight to get a way put in at the 

 great Wilmington dam. Unless that was in the rest were 

 useless, and that was a government atTair and therefore 

 slow. Dr. Bartlett invited me to go down with him on 

 this trip, and I hope to be able to do so, and in any event 

 expect to have further news about this lower country, 

 which is altogether too good to be allowed to waste. 



The Fox River and the Kankakee River are the sport- 

 ing streams for Chicago, and they have actual merit 

 besides that of accessibility. Both are good streams for 

 game and excellent streams for fish. Both should be 

 protected in every possible way as spoi'ting grounds for 

 the rapidly increasing population of this great city. The 

 Fox River is protected. I have often called attention to 

 the splendid work done by the Fox River Association, 

 and even now cannot find praise enough for it, qualifying 

 that only with the ho^e that its work may never begin to 

 lag. The record of this society, which was only organ- 

 ized in 1888, is a grand one, and shows what a few years 

 of serious effort can do. It is the only association in the 

 State which has results to show, but its record is sufiicient 

 and convincing. It has won every suit, put in fish ways 

 in the dams from the Mississippi River to the head of the 

 Pox, furnished support to the State Commissioner when 

 needed, enlisted club after club along the Fox and 

 Illinois in the work, and even now is morally behind the 

 great raiding at present in progress against the nebters of 

 the Illinois, for Mr. Cole, the president, is in receipt of 

 daily letters regarding the work of the State boal", the 



Lotus, which has this spring, under Dr. Bartlett's orders, 

 filled a big ice house full of illegal nets and is afcer more. 

 The Fox River Association has filled its stream and lakes 

 with game fish. Warden Buck reported yesterday that 

 a big Mississippi River catfish was taken this week clear 

 up the Fox, above the St. Charles dam. This was not a 

 game fish, but its capture is cause for exultation, for such 

 a fish has not been taken there for twenty years, and it 

 shows that the water way is now open for the fish to run 

 up even from the big river. 



Now what I want to get at is this: If a protective asso- 

 ciation could be organized for the Fox, and could do so 

 much work, and accomplish such unquestionable results, 

 why could not an association be organized also for the 

 Kankakee? 



The Kankakee is unprotected. It is simply ravaged. 

 That it has a fish in it or a bird along it is a miracle of 

 natui-e. No butchery is spared its creatures, no illegal, 

 wasteful or destructive method of taking the life of its 

 fish and fowl is forgotten. Rob, kill, destroy, biitcher, 

 spare not, pity nothing — that is the rule of the dweller 

 along the Kankakee. Yet the Kankakee is a larger and 

 yet as good a stream as the Fox, and just as close to Chi- 

 cago. The Chicago ducking clubs are located, it is true, 

 on the Kankakee jnarshes, which lie in Indiana, but the 

 best fishing part of the stream is in Illinois. Help the 

 Illinois end of it, and you certainly help the Indiana end. 

 Every club man of the Kankakee would be interested in 

 a Kankakee Fish and Game Association. 



Now, why not have it ? No reason not, unless apathy, 

 indifference or niggardliness. Has not the time gone by 

 for us to have those things in sportsmanship, especially 

 in the sportsmanship of Chicago? Has not the time ar- 

 i-ived to continue a work which we have seen made plain 

 as possible and effective. All the earth hates a bluffer, 

 and loves the quiet man who gets there. The Kankakee 

 is as pretty and good a stream as flows in the West. The 

 men who camp along its banks are as good men as any, 

 and they have as UTuch money, and they can organize as 

 well, and work as well, and accomplish as much, andean 

 get there if anybody on earth can. Then why not? 



I talked with Mr. Cole and Dr, Bartlett about this, and 

 they thought it over seriously before answering. Then 

 they did answer, and they sa!id that the association for 

 the Kankakee ought to be organized, and that they 

 would back and aid it, counsel and advise it all they 

 could. Mr. Cole said it would not need much money for 

 the first year, not as much as the Fox River Association 

 spent. He could show how to save some money in that 

 work, and besides the work done in suits by the Fox 

 River men would not need to be done over so exten- 

 sively now on the Kankakee, but would serve as prece- 

 dent. I asked Mr. Cole if he would take the presidency of 

 such an association, and he said he would act in any ad- 

 visoi-y ofS.ee, though he would not take the full execu- 

 tive. Then I asked him if, with an able and respected 

 vice-president for acting executive and a working secre- 

 tary and $600 put in bank before a hand was turned, he 

 would come in and take the headship of the association. 

 This shook him a good deal. Mr. Cole ought not to be 

 taken away or subtracted from the Fox River Associa- 

 tion the least bit in the world, for that institution should 

 be guarded jealously on the principle of letting well 

 enough alone. That is what we have to go by, to meas- 

 ure from, to refer to. But Mr, Cole has showed that he 

 could get there, and that is the quality wanted in the 

 leader for this work. There are not many suitable for 

 it. That is why he is wanted to lead this new move- 

 ment, if it is ever made. Miscues, blunders, errors are 

 unavoidable to novices in this work, Mr, Cole and his 

 associates now know how to avoid much of that, They 

 have bought their experience. To-day Dr, Bartlett said: 

 "I use George Cole's name as a club over the law- 

 breakers, Down along the Fox and Illinois they think 

 George Cole has horns," Now, the Kankakee association 

 certainly ought to be organized , and its leader ought to be 

 a man with horns. 



The success of a Kankakee association ought to be 

 even quicker and easier than that of the Fox River Asso- 

 ciation. There are the three great clubs, English Lake, 

 Cumberland, Mak saw-ba. Couldn't Abner Price raise 

 $150 in a hurry among his English Lake peoph? Couldn't 

 Geo. Faxmer, "Charlie Gammon, a dozen, twenty, fifty, 

 in Cumberland Lodge raise a little $150 in about one 

 evening? Wouldn't Benton Leiter, Roll Organ, Joe Card, 

 Joe Kinney, Billy Mussey, Dick Cox^ or half a hundred 

 others, acquire a hundred and a half in about a minute 

 and a half if they started out and said, "Boys, it has to 

 come?" Couldn't Henry Ehlers go among his German 

 friends at the Diana Club and make 'em liquidate $100 

 before breakfast? Couldn't Dick Turtle and his friends 

 hustle out $50 from the Water Valley Club? Wouldn't 

 Momence men put up $50? Wouldn't Kankakee town 

 jump at a chance to drop in $100? 



The difficulty in interesting these clubs is that most of 

 the men are shooters and fishers. That ought to cut no 

 figure. The fish wardens could also stop the illegal shoot- 

 ing of the woodducbs, woodcock, teal and mallards. It 

 would be a good thing all around. Besides, it is the right 

 thing, and I'll tell why. Some day there is going to be a 

 State league of all these protective societies, with an an- 

 nual meeting at Springfield, and delegates enough to scare 

 certain legislators who need it. Dr. Bartlett, Mr. Cole 

 and others are already talking this over. Ic is Mr. Cole's 

 idea. The time will come for it. The organization of 

 the Kankakee association would hasten that day. Word 

 is coming up from the Beardstown Rod and Gun Club 

 every day now, and Mr. A. A. Greene, their president, is 

 jubilant. The Fish Commission is doing great work in 

 this State, and it ought to be known, and so should the fact 

 of the assistance of these local clubs. They are yanking 

 them. They are snaking them this year, sure, and now 

 finally we have got to a place where we can say that the 

 fish protective work for Illinois is past the day of promise, 

 and into the day of performance. It's getting there. 

 Now, what greater step forward in all this work could be 

 taken than the formation of a little league along the Kan- 

 kakee? It should be organized, and that for success, and 

 not for failure. 



We make a mistake when we go away up into Wiscon- 

 sin, or out into Minnesota, or somewhere else, for fine 

 fishing, be that with bait or fiy. We don't know our own 

 country. The Kankakee is a lovely stream. Go see it 

 and then match it for excellence by any other river 

 within 300 miles. It's too good a stream to be robbed, 

 abused and ruined by the mob, as now is being done, lb 

 ought to be ijrotected. It stands to reason that some day 



it will be. The organization of the Kankakee association 

 is a proper and natural thing. Time will bring it. Why 

 not now? It may not be this year, but I will bet my 

 rifl°, blankets andnonies that it will be some day. 



April "24. — Mr. Greene writes from Beardstown that the 

 Lotus, the State Commission's steamer, aided by two 

 men, sent out by the club, captured on the I7l;h two big 

 focus nets (fykes) and a boat load of other nets, and in- 

 tended to take a flat boat and go for another load. He 

 says the market men are getting scared now. He reporta 

 $75 in the treasury of the Rod and Gvm Club and offers 

 aid in men or money. Dr. Bartlett yesterday received a 

 telegram from one of his men that the Lotus had seized 

 another big focus net in an adjacent creek. I met Mr. 

 Cole on the street and he told me he had yet another let- 

 ter from that locality and that a lot more nets had been 

 seized, but I have not yet had time to go over and see 

 this last letter. It looks as though they were shaking 

 things up down BeardstoAvn way. E. Hough. 



THE MONARCH OF THE POOL. 



THE morning of Sept. 13, 1890, broke in gloom over 

 the State of Maine and the rain beat a restful tattoo 

 upon our camp on the Little Jo Mary, and contributed to 

 a lengthy morning snooze on our fragrant beds of spruce 

 and hemlock. The camp-fire sizzled and spit — the cir- 

 cling smoke now forced to earth by fitful gusts of wind 

 and again circling up and losing itself in the branches. 

 The weird notes of the loon made mournful threnody 

 with the soughing of the wind in the treetops and the 

 swish of the waves as they broke upon the shore. Dur- 

 ing the forenoon we snoozed, played whist (our wives 

 being members of the party), oiled boots, made needed 

 repairs to tackle, mounted some new casts of flies — when 

 came the summons to report at the dinner table. Our 

 stomachs always accompany us on our outings and we 

 strive to treat them as we would our best friends, and • 

 years of experience have made us somewhat fastidious in 

 the selection of a chef. The savory odors that had reached 

 our cami) for some lime previous attested his skill, and 

 these joined to our sojourn in nature's haunts high up in 

 the mountains had so sh.arpened our appetites that we 

 stood not upon ceremony in obeying the call. That we 

 did ample justice to the inner man and to the skill of oar 

 chef, may be inferred when it is known that the one rule 

 ihat he thought he would have to make and enforce was 

 one limiting our time at table to an hour and a half ! 



The x-ain having ceased, our friend of former camps, 

 H, S, Seeley, jumps up from the table and sings out: 

 "Here's a go for a paddle to the upper end of the lake." 

 No sooner said than he and the writer with Frank 

 Jones as factotum are off. 



The clouds rolled low and Katahdin's nightcap was still 

 upon its head. Spiteful whitecaps broke against and 

 over the bows of our canoe, b\it being well laden we rode 

 along quite smoothly. Not expecting to do much if any 

 fishing we left all of our cackle behind save a cheap rod 

 that had been left on the beach under the overturned 

 canoe, and a few casts of flies which we carried in our 

 hats. 



A beautiful sand bar and shoal has been formed by the 

 action of the Avater where a brook enters the lake, passing 

 which we find deep water extending back from the moiith 

 about a fourth of a mile, now broken only by gentle rip- 

 ples. The width varies from twenty to fifty yards with a 

 forest growth on either aide and an occasional bouldof as 

 large as a small house jutting out from either shore or 

 nearly submerged in the water. 



Who could resist the temptation to cast? The rod was 

 soon jointed and a cast made by Harry, a second, a third, 

 and a rise and a strike. Ah! and a' game boy is he. I 

 grasp my watch to take the time as he flashes his beauti- 

 ful sides out of water. Down he goes, out again! down 

 and off as the pliant rod yields and the reel sings a tune 

 to which Paganini never played an adequate accompani- 

 ment. 



It is give and take, and take and give for twenty 

 minutes, when our disciple of Uncle Izaak begins to think 

 it more labor than fan. puts severe strain upon the rod 

 and forces the fight. By dint of great efifort and con- 

 siderable skill he leads the victim around to the stern, 

 where I sit, and as I reach out my hand to grasp the line 

 to lift him in, the fish makes a plunge for liberty, break- 

 ing the rod at the second tying from the tip, but T grasp 

 the line on the instant and he is in the canoe and the 

 struggle is ended; and we have an addition of two and a 

 half pounds of beautiful freight to our cargo, 



"Well, yes! he made a splendid tight and I am tired. 

 You take the rod, Doctor, and give them a try," 



Examining the rod we find it like all cheap goods, only 

 "a delusion and a snare," The strip's had never been 

 cemented, but glued, and the glufi yielding to the mois- 

 ture, had allowed the strips to ee]nrate and bend over 

 nearly to a right angle. Had we another rod along this 

 one doixbtless would have gone where it de&erved — to the 

 bottom. But we straightened it out, split a quill tooth 

 pick and bound it firmly about the rod with a bit of line 

 and startf'd down stream toward the lake. 



We had gone some distance witbuut a rise and T began 

 to distrust my store flies, A huge sunken tr(?e, which 

 had fallen athwart the str ,'pm at an angle and right in 

 line with an immense boulder, which extended into the - 

 water, turned the current and made a whirlpool that 

 looked to be a most promising spot, and we did our best 

 for "distance, delicacy and accuracy." And, lo! a rise! 

 a swirl of the water and all is quiet. I note that he is 

 a large one, and distrusting my flies tell the paddlers to 

 send the craft right along to the shoal. Here I mount a 

 cast of flies tied by Geo. H, Burtis, of this city, composed 

 of Parmachenee belles for hand and tail fly with a Jenny 

 Lind for dropper, and back we turn to try conclusions 

 with his lordship. We near the spjt and redoul^le our 

 efforts. A rise, a strike, and right a bL.ut face went our 

 canoe down stream for the lake as if drawn hj a .span of 

 ponies. And here we are anchored to a giant" with a dis- 

 abled rod and no gaff or landing net. Let him go, says I, 

 keeping the canoe in mid-sti-eam, and if he reaches the 

 clear water of the lake I will make a landing at the sand 

 bar and reel him out on the beach. We fight minute by 

 minute and contest inch by inch. We near the mouth 

 and I prepare to step out. but no, says he, as he makes a 

 grand break and darts up stream as if he divined my 

 purpose. He sulks, and we think it safe to reel in — a 

 dart to the surface, a break, a dive, a break and dive 

 again. Break, dive, dart, sulk succeed break, dive, dart 

 and sulk! Minutes have sped along into an hour and yet 



