]\Ut 14, 1891.] 



FOREST AND STREAM 



SSI 



dude in the lot, and thej average mighty high-grade as 

 Bucces'^ful trout fishers. Among so hearty a lot of men, 

 therefore, you would expect in the club house about what 

 you would find, a roomy, comfortable pleasant sporting 

 domicile, with no dudery visible. The building is two 

 stories, with ample room for everybody. The main room 

 below has a mammoth fireplace which is useful as well 

 as cheerful, for the club opens its season March 15. The 

 walls of this assembly room are decollated with trout de- 

 signs in colors and black and white. Some artist, in 

 playful allusion to Mr. Harvey Brown's partiality to a 

 big Parmachene belle, has presented the club with a 



{)ainting of that fly in colossal proportions. There are 

 ife -size di-awings of numbers of the notable trout, includ- 

 ing one showing a trout with the tail of a mouse sticking 

 out of its mouth, just as it was when the fish was caught. 

 It is a very comfortable place. The locality is so quiet 

 and peaceful, too, I should think one could stay a month 

 there, or may be a year, and not get tired at all. 



Explaining to Miller's family our mission from Mr, 

 McBride, Mr. Sadler and I started out in the afternoon to 

 explore the stream, We found the fish not rising well 

 and only brought in half a dozen: all, of course, were 

 the club standard of Sin. The rules of the club are very 

 simple. No fish less than Sin. must be kept, and not over 

 lolbs. a day. No lure but the artificial fly can be used. I 



recent accession to the club ranks, having taken a share 

 left vacant by the death of a member. Mr. Van Vleck I 

 found very comfortable and pleasant, and something of 

 a fly- fisher withal. Between'him and Miller I learned 

 that evening some of the facts which have been pre- 

 sented. 



We barded out the club records that night, and looked 

 for big fish. One thing was at once apparent. The fisher 

 for count abides not here. The main thing sought is to 

 have the greatest weight in the least number of fish. 

 The heaviest fish ever taken on Castalia Stream, it seems, 

 was found in the fishway at the old brick mill, when the 

 water was shut off on the first trial of the shute. Tiiis 

 fish was a brook trout, and weighed 3 Jibs. We prowled 

 along the pages in search of big fish taken on the rod, 

 and found something like this, only a few instances 

 being given, picked up half at random: .Julian Yale, one 

 trout, iJirlbs. : Fayette Brown, 1, 31bs. 3oz.; Julian Yale, 

 March 30, 1885 86 trout, lolbs. 3oz,: Fayette Brown, 

 March 38, 24 trout, 181bs., largest lib. 2oz.; Julian Yale, 

 1888, 1 trout, Slbs. 2oz., and twice a catch of 4 trout, 41bs. 

 4oz ; Julian Yale, May 20, 1887, 1 trout 19in. long., 

 weight 3lbs. 3oz. , and -3 trout, total 51bs. 7oz. It seems 

 that Mr. Yale and Mr. Sheffield in 1887 eaught trout on 

 the fly when the thermometer stood 6 below zero, and 

 the lines froze stiff. The stream never freezes. Mr. Yale's 



^eat quantities. It would seem that the experiment*- 

 tive stage had gone about far enough along the Castalia 

 Stream. If they will leave nature and the brook trout 

 alone there, they can have any quantity of sport assured 

 for the future, and beyond that nothing better lies or can 

 be gained by experiment. The basis of all this is the 

 wonderful stream itself. It falls 27ft. in 2i miles, includ- 

 ing one dam, 4oft, in 5^ to 6 miles, dams and all. Its 

 current would appear at least six miles an hour. Artifi- 

 cial barriers, floats, bridges, etc.. have been provided in 

 abundance, and all in all, the little river is simply lovely. 



I must have a little more to say about the "Upper 

 Club"' next time, and about the great springs which 

 make the head af Castalia Stream. Much more could 

 easily be written here about the pleasant stay at the 

 Lower Club. The gentlemen comprising these 25 im- 

 mortals are as follows: 



Mr. Fayette Brown, president, Cleveland. O.; Mr. Lee 

 McBride, secretary and treasurer, also of Cleveland. 

 Messrs. J. H. McBride, E. T. Scovill, James Pickards, H, 

 H. Brown. Prescott Ely, Amos Townsend, S. W. Sessions, 

 C. J. Sheffield. R, W. Hickox, H. C. Gaylord, E. P. 

 Williams, H. A. Sherwin, Hon. Wm, Bingham and Judge 

 S. E. Williamson, all of Cleveland. Messrs. Ceorge H. 

 Van Vleck and W. T. Carrington, of Toledo. Messrs. A. 

 C. Ely, Robert Forsythe, W. L. Brown, Jay C. Morse and 



THE LOWER CASTALLA CLUB HOUSE. 



Any man using bait would be promptly expelled from the 

 club. But I ought not to put it that way. No man of 

 this club would chink of using bait, and I should say 

 rather that the club would not admit any candidate whom 

 they had not kno^vn to be above any sort of crookedness 

 in any walk of life. It is a club of friends and gentle- 

 men and no abuse of privileges was ever heard of. For 

 instance, there was once a rxile regulating the number of 

 guests a member might bring dm-ing a season, but this 

 rule is now obsolete, and no restriction is asked, because 

 no one ever abuses his position or his privileges. There 

 are trout enough for the purposes of this club, which are 

 simply pure sport and some fun a-fishing. I don't know 

 where there is a nicer little club. 



But a nice club, a pretty stream and pleasant surround- 

 ings may be one thing, and really good trout fishing quite 

 another. How about the actual' supply of trout? There 

 is no question about that. The stream is simply full of 

 trout. We saw them by hundreds, all active", strong, 

 brilliant fish, not stall fed, but endowed with all the vigor, 

 shyness and cunning of the wild trout, untamed and in- 

 comparable. We saw any number of great fellows, over 

 lUhs. or probably over ' 21b3. The fish were very shy, 

 and I soon learned that curiosity and fishing didn't go 

 well together, for when I stopped casting from a distance 

 and stepped up to the bank to count the trout they scamp- 

 ered off, and not only refused to be counted but declined 

 to rise. The water of this stream is something to rave 

 over. It is very swift and pure as pearl. It has a sort of 

 bluish cast, a steel color, taken from the reflection of 

 the sand in places, but it is as transparent as air. Need- 

 less to say, it takes fine tackle and fine fishing to take 

 trout here. The best flies for early spring are dark, black- 

 gnat, brown-hen and the like being much used. You will 

 see fine gear used by the Castalia anglers. 



Miller, the club keeper, was not at home when we 

 arrived, and did not return that day. During the after- 

 noon I had the misfortune to step on a sharp nail, which 

 pierced the rubber boot and inflicted an ugly hurt, so as 

 Mr. Sadler was returning to the city I went with him. 

 On the following day I returned, in order to have some 

 talk with Miller, and then I met one of the members, 

 Mr. George H. Van Vleck, of Toledo, who had come on 

 alone for a little fishing. Mr, Van Vleck is the most 



total catch for 1887 was 45 trout, total weight 521bsi. 14oz. 

 In 1887 Fayette Brown caught 142 trout, 611bs. loz ; Har- 

 vey Brown, 1887, 133 trout, Sllbs. lOoz. In July, 1890, Mr. 

 J. H. McBride took 26 trout, 121b3. 2oz. : Mr. Fayette 

 Brown, April 5, 20 trout, ISlhs, : Mr. McBride again, 35 

 trout, ISlbs.; Mr. Prescott Ely, April 14,1890, made the 

 remarkable catch of 31 trout, weighing 151bs., and 33 

 jacksnipe! Mr. Fayette Brown, June 13. 1889. caught 25 

 fish, 12lbs., and on May 9. 29 fish, 131bs. On some days, 

 said Miller, a man could catch 75!b3.; he could catch a 

 bushel basket full. I have caught lOlbs. in two hours in 

 a heavy snowstorm, said Mr. Van Vleck. Mr. Sadler 

 said he had often caught his basket full before breakfast 

 and gone back to Sandusky. Mr. Jay C. Morse, May 25, 

 1888, caught 14 trout, lOlbs., one fish IQUn. long 'and 

 weighing 31bs. On May 23, 1888. Julian Yale, 18 fish, 

 lOlb?,. and Mr. Fayette Brown, 18 fish, 9^1bs. Mr. Yale 

 in 1880 caught 6 trout that weighed 61bs., coming to the 

 club at 6:30 one evening and going back in the morning 

 at 8 o'clock. Mr. Lee McBride, June 1, 1880, took 18 fish, 

 7flbs. In 1890, Mr. W. T. Carrington caught a fish that 

 weighed 21bs. 2oz. The same year Mr. J. H. McBride 

 took at one fishing 26 trout, 91bs., and Mr. Prescott Ely 

 22 trout, 81bs. March 15 and the day after, 1890, Messrs". 

 A. C. Ely and W. H. Comstock, of Chicago, took 50 fish, 

 211b8. , during a heavy snow. Mr. Lee McBride, 35 fisBT 

 ISlbs. 



I could fill the paper with I'ecords like the above, but 

 enough have been given to show the quality alike of the 

 fish and the fishermen. The Castalia is above all things 

 a fishing stream. It is stocked, full stocked, and has no 

 fear whatever of diminution. There are some European 

 brown trout in the stream, and also some rainbow trout. 

 They are not often met. Miller, the keeper, bemoans the 

 fact that anything but brook trout was ever put in the 

 stream. He believes in letting well enough alone, and he 

 is just exactly right about it. too. There were some gray, 

 ling planted six years ago, but since then Miller has only 

 caught two of them, and I heard of no others. Not long 

 ago some one in the upper club planted a lot of water- 

 cress, and this beastly and tenacious plant has spread all 

 through the stream, to the great detriment of the fish and 

 fishing. The lower club has spent about a thousand dol- 

 lars in trying to get rid of this cress. It is raked out in 



J ulian Yale, all of Chicago. Mr. J. Merrill, Jr., of Newark, 

 N. J.: Mr. Chas. H. Hubbard, of Hartford City, Ind. 



175 MoxEOE St., Chicago, III. E? HouaH. 



[Since writing the above I have met Mr. A. C. Ely. of 

 this city, just returned from a successful visit to Castalia. 

 He informed me that a few days previous the artesian 

 well which was being sunk by the Lower Club, some dis- 

 tance above the club house, struck a great subterranean 

 stream, which could not be controlled in any way, and 

 which when Mr. Ely left was flowing a volume appar- 

 ently half as large at least as the old natural stream below 

 the club house, or pretty near half the volume of the 

 whole stream. This was being led off through the meadow 

 below the club house, into the old channel. The first night 

 of the fiow, the big ''Blue Hole" spring of the Upper Club 

 sunk a foot or more, but in the morning it rose again to 

 the old level. The Lower Club was afraid that tJie late 

 artificial meandering of the stream by the Upper Club 

 would make the water too warm in the lower stream, and 

 so it sunk for water. It got it, just as cold and of the 

 same quality, as that of the main stream. There is un- 

 questionably a strong subterranean stream flowing to the 

 Bay beneath this valley. I suppose one more point of 

 mystery and of interest may thus be added to the history 

 of this peculiar little river. As I understand it, the ar- 

 tesian well is about a mile and a half or two miles below 

 the "Blue Hole" whose waters temporarily sunk. I hop* 

 to hear more about this new "spring" later, — E. H.] 



St. Louis, May 8. — I note that our neighboring city ef 

 Hannibal has a new club, that was orgam'zed last week 

 under the name of the Sny Carte Hunting and Fishing' 

 Club. Tlie club has been incorporated, and has for its 

 object the propagation of fish and game and the enforce- 

 ment of the fish and game laws of the State of Illinois. 

 Leases have been secured for the waters of the Sny Slough 

 for a distance of nearly 8 miles. A club house wiU be 

 erected at once for the accommodation of the 150 mem- 

 bers. The ofQcers of the dub are as folloTrs: Pres.. Tfr. 

 D. H. iShields; Vice-Pres., Mr. Geo, A. Mahan; Sec'y. J*n 

 J. Brown. The recent heavy rains have made the water 

 so high in the fislung resorts near this city that there is 

 but mtie angling being done, and there will not be any 

 until after the waters are clear again.— Aberdeen. 



