17 8 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 25, 1898. 



PICKEREL FISHING THROUGH THE ICE. 



THE eye now discerns no difference between the rapids 

 of the rippling brook and its slack water, nor dis- 

 covers aught of the overhanging bank at the bend, where 

 in the sunshine of the summer the beautiful trout loves 

 to hide. Boreas has escaped from his northern borne, 

 .and has hushed its liquid melody in his icy embrace, 

 while wrapping the earth in the ample folds of his snowy 

 mantle. Human enactments are now in harmony with 

 Nature's laws, and the sportsmen erstwhile must forego 

 the pleasures of rod and gun, and content himself with 

 reminiscence and indifferent substitutes. The lowing 

 kine may not add beauty to the landscape, the leafy copse 

 may not give back the varied notes of its feathered song- 

 sters, nor the fern yield its fragrance to the trampling 

 foot; and yet the gentle savage within him may not be 

 wholly repressed though the highest canons of sports- 

 manship be offended in its gratification. The choice five 

 ounce split-bamboo must b8 laid away, and the delicate 

 fly of many and gaudy hues be relegated to the fly-book, 

 for to-day we must be content with the inelegant tilt and 

 the lively mionovv. 



The wind has veered around to the south and the day 

 grows sunny and warm with the passing morning hours. 

 A trio gather about the fire; and soon a fellow feeling 

 prompts an adjournment to a neighboring pond some few 

 miles away. As midday approaches Messrs. Seeley, Le 

 Noir and the $ riter, well tucked up in fur robes, with 

 four dczen tilts and a generous supply of all other things 

 needful, sally forth behind the merry music of the jing- 

 ling bells for an encounter with the pickerel in his native 

 haunts. 



It might be well to explain that there was some dif- 

 ference of opinion at the outset as to where Messrs. E3ox 

 were most "at home," but the junior member of the 

 party parts his hair in the middle and not yet having en- 

 countered many of the adverse storms of life his face is 

 generally decorated with a ten-gauge smile, which he is 

 in no hurry to part with by applying himself to the 

 serious consideration of such difficult problems, so he is 

 apt to do as did Ruth of the Scriptures, "Whither thou 

 goest I will go," so he is no longer a factor to the conten- 

 tion. The other member of the party, while smallest of 

 stature and carrying only a light 'load of years, has 

 scaled the crater of "Vesuvius, climbed the Matterhorn, 

 carved his name r>n the Pyramids and confronted the 

 bloodthirsty New Jersey mosquito in his native haunts. 

 He never failed to recognize tne superior qualifications of 

 the patriarch of the party, and. to accord the respect due 

 gray hairs, until in an unfortunate hour in the wilds of 

 Maine he became the victim of misplaced confidence and 

 found he had only a baby pathfinder in the person of the 

 patriarch for guide, when he lost a blazed trail and 

 floundered about for a long time in an almost impene- 

 tralble windfaii jungle. So he is now disposed to be 

 more exacting and critical, and it was not without the 

 use of many of the nice persuasive words of the dictionary 

 that he consented to the plans of the patriarch. 



Arriving at our destination we find the ice of only 

 moderate thickness, and have our first tilt set as the 

 steam whistles in the city are sounding for 1 o'clock. We 

 succeed in getting but a few tilts set when the game of 

 the big fish and little fish begins, and soon the red flag 

 flying at the masthead announces the usual result— that 

 the big fish has devoured the little fish, who in turn sur- 

 renders to a greater enemy and not less relentless. We 

 hurry up in the work of setting tilts, but have to desist 

 before we have half our number in. Callers we have 

 fast and furious. 



We eat our lunch while traveling from tilt to tilt, 

 keenly enjoying the beautiful calm, sunny winter's day, 

 its stillness broken only by the jollity of the fishermen, 

 the click of the tell-tale tilt or the sharp report of the dis- 

 tant woodsman's axe. We are out for a good lime, and a 

 good time we have, every condition being favorable. 

 Our pile of fish has grown rapidly, and then- black, 

 gold and green blend in harmony and make a pretty pic- 

 ture on the ice. We do not want all the fish in the pond, 

 and so pull up at 4 o'clock and return to the city with an 

 elegant string of forty-four fish that weighed as many 

 pounds. filed. McAleer. 



WoHCBSfTEK, Kfaes. 



Mr. C. E. Barret, of Barret Bros., Boston, went with a 

 friend "down on the Cape" after pickerel last week, to a 

 pond in Wareham, one of the best for pickerel in that 

 section. The day was stormy and they did not have the 

 best of luck, the score being only 23 pickerel; but the size 

 was good, and Mr. Barret thinks they did not do as badly 

 as they might have done, especially on a stormy day and 

 a day when he hesitated about starting at all. They 

 stopped at the house of Mr. A. Z. Bumpus, and they speak 

 highly of Mr. Bumpus as a guide and entertainer. 



It was a very jolly party of pickerel fishermen that left 

 the Boston Chamber of Commerce last Friday afternoon 

 for Lake Winnepesaukee. The party was made up of H 

 B. Moore, of J. E. Soper & Co. ; Geo. C. Moore, of North 

 Chelmsford, Mass.; Calvin Austin, General Manager of 

 the Bangor & Boston Steamship Co. ; Irving Powers, of 

 Powers Bros.; J. A. Ashworth, local agent of the Dela- 

 ware Mutual Insurance Co.; A. E. Aldrich and Will 

 Shapley, of Cambridge. They left Friday P. M. for Alton 

 Bay. They went across from Alton Bay three miles to a 

 well-known camp on an island in the lake. When they 

 left Boston the sun shone bright and the air was mild, but 

 the weather looked dubious. This caused Mr. Austin and 

 Mr Ash worth to back out, both being nearly on the sick 

 list from, colds, and perhaps it was fortunate for them- 

 selves that they did so. Before reaching Alton Bay it 

 was evident that the weather was cold. The mercury 

 was evidently lOdeg. lower than in Boston, and the wind 

 was blowing from that cold quarter in New England, the 

 northwest. Arriving at Alton Bay by rail, they found a 

 four-horse team in waiting to convey them up the lake 

 to the camp. It was here that then- troubles began, and 

 to say that the boys "nearly froze to death" on that five- 

 mile trip, facing the norwester, wouid be putting it 

 mildly. Scarcely one of the company had ridden a dozen 

 miles in cold weather for the winter, But they reached 

 the camp at last, where a good fire brought them to a 

 state of activity, and they found no limbs had been actu- 

 ally frozen. 



The thing to do next morning was to cut out the lines, 

 which were still set in the holes, some 150 of them. This 

 they started out to do, but the weather was so blustering 

 that they cut off the lines as well as the ice, and as for 

 clearing out the ice bo that the flags would work, why, 



that was about as difficult as it usually is when the 

 mercury is down about to zero and the snow sifting into 

 the holes under the influence of a strong nor'wester. 

 They found fish on several of the lines that had evidently 

 been on for a week. They got some fifteen lines clear at 

 last, and caught lake trout, some of fair size. They also 

 caught cusk, something of a new fish to some of the Bos- 

 ton boys. But they got no pickerel, much to the surprise 

 cf all. The probabilities are that the weather was too 

 cold and blustering. The trip down the lake Saturday 

 evening was made around by land, in order to avoid the 

 wind, and it was a pleasant ride. The boys speak of the 

 aurora borealis— everybody observed it "that evening — 

 purple and high in the heavens, as something magnificent 

 beyond description. They were all back to their grain 

 tables at the Chamber of Commerce on Monday, except 

 Harry Moore, the champion of the fishing party, and of 

 many another such party, and well known to the readers 

 of the Forest and Stream. He came in, but the chill 

 he got on the ice of Lake Winnepesaukee, with a thirty- 

 mile sweep of the wind, was sufficient to send him home 

 for a half day. 



Mr. Irving*Powers, of the Harry Moore party to Lake 

 Winnepesaukee for pickerel, staid over till Tuesday, and 

 it proves that he is the lucky boy of the crowd. He 

 brings back a 121bs. lake trout, which he bad the pleasure 

 of catching in 15ft. of water. He was on 'Change Tues- 

 day noon, seeming much pleased with his success. 



Special. 



SALMON IN CANADA. 



'TPHE movement, in the form of a petition to the Cana- 

 -L dian government, asking that the time the salmon 

 netters are allowed to have their nets in position be short- 

 ened, is meeting with a great deal of favor, not only 

 among the lessees and owners of rivers in the United 

 States, but it also seems to be meeting with a gooc! 

 deal of favor with those best posted on the subject, even 

 in Canada. The petition has already been published in 

 full in the Forest and Stream, Mr. David Blanchard, 

 of Boston, the originator of the petition, is meeting with 

 encouragement on every hand. Names of the lessees and 

 owners of rivers axe being signed to the petition and are 

 coming in by the score. Indeed it is now assured that 

 the names of nearly all of those most interested will soon 

 be attached to the petition. No difficulty has been en- 

 countered in obtaining the signatures of those interested, 

 except in one or two instances. In one case the reason 

 for withholding signature mentioned was that the "peti- 

 tion asks for too much." But the friends of the movement 

 explain this on the theory that they have asked none too 

 much for the best good of all concerned— even the salmon 

 netters themselves— and if the Canadian government, in 

 its wisdom, sees fit to grant less than asked, no harm will 

 have been done by the asking. 



Mr. Blanchard already has a letter from His Honor, 

 S. P. Bauset, acting Deputy Minister of Fisheries at Ott- 

 awa, saying that the petition may be presented at any 

 time, and that it shall receive due consideration. But 

 Mr. Blanchard and the friends of the movement are much 

 pleased and encouraged to find that already their case 

 has a warm advocate in Mr. Samuel Wilmot, Superin- 

 tendent of Fish culture for the Dominion. In the Annual 

 Report of Fish Breeding and Hatching for the Dominion, 

 for 1890, Mr. Wilmot makes his position very clear. It 

 seems that a petition of the net fishermen on the Quebec 

 side of the Bay des Chaleurs was sent to the Minister of 

 Fisheries, setting forth among other thing6: 



1. That their compliance with the Sunday close time is 

 injurious to them by reason of the fishermen on the New 

 Brunswick side of the bay being allowed to fish unmo- 

 lested through this close time. 



2. That the annual open period for netting salmon is 

 too short, and it should be enlarged. 



3. Because they are compelled to lift and tie up their 

 nets from Satin-day night till Monday morning, while the 

 New Brunswick fisherman is permitted to keep his nets 

 down and to fish them at this time. 



4. That the decrease of the salmon fishery by nets is 

 brought about by the abuse of fly-fishing up the river. 



These complaints were referred to Inspection Officer 

 Wakeham, of that division, who reported adversely to 

 these petitioners' views, and Mr. Wilmot fully indorses 

 that report, and now in addition enters more largely in- 

 to the general subject of the salmon fisheries of the Bay 

 des Chaleurs by saying that : 



1. The complaint of the petitioners that "their compli- 

 ance with the Sunday close time is injurious to them," 

 is no doubt correct, when they see their brother fisher- 

 men on the other side of the Bay are permitted to fish 

 during this close time, and in violation of the regulation 

 forbidding it. To obviate a continuance of this complaint 



. by the Quebec fishermen they should either enforce it 

 I against all, indiscriminately, by strictly enforcing the 

 weekly close time, or that your Department should en- 

 force it against all fishermen alike. But to allow the 

 weekly close time to be wholly set aside would mean ab- 

 solute ruin to the salmon fisheries of the Bay des Chaleurs 

 and its tributary streams within a sooner or later "period 

 of time. 



2. The request of the petitioners for a change in the 

 regulations for lengthing the annual fishery season, is 

 simply to obtain for themselves more extended facilities 

 for capturing fish, while it would also add very greatly 

 toward bringing about the destruction of salmon fish- 

 eries by giving additional help to the ruinous effects from 

 the non-observance of the weekly close time. 



3. With regard to the complaint "of nets being injured 

 from tying up for the Sunday close time" — this is but an 

 excuse to gain a point. This was never thought of in 

 former years, when all fishermen tied up their nets alike, 

 but since the introduction of the trap-net, which is some- 

 what more difficult to tie up, a pretext is made by the 

 Quebec fishermen that keeping the Sunday close time so 

 injures their nets that they should be allowed the same 

 privilege as the one usurped by the New Brunswick 

 netters, who, in violation of the law, keep their nets down 

 during the weekly close time. The not only absurd, but 

 selfish statement made, that "the salmon which escape 

 the nets by keeping the Sunday close time, are caught 

 further up on Monday," goes to show the true inwardness 

 of these lower netters, who, in fact, say: "We want all 

 the salmon, you upper netters and river fishermen shan't 

 have any, if we can help it." Not only do they have the 

 first chances of taking the incoming salmon, but so ava- 

 ricious are they that they petition for a privilege which 

 means, "no salmon shall pass us to the benefit of our 



brother fishermen above, nor reach the spawning grounds 

 to the river for breeding purposes." 



4. The petitioners allude to the "decrease of salmon 

 being brought about by the abuse of the right of fly-fish- 

 ing in the Restigouche River." Captain Wakeham meets 

 this fallacious statement pretty clearly ; but to this state- 

 ment should be added others bearing more conclusively, 

 in contradiction of the prejudiced ideas entertained by 

 these netters in the tidal waters, whose depenelence upon 

 maintaining their catch of salmon for the future rests 

 largely upon the protection given to the rivers by the fly- 

 fishermen. The net fisherman, from, the nature of his 

 calling, is in no way whatever the protector; he is the 

 destroyer of the salmon. The ambition and calling of 

 the tidal fisherman is to invent and apply the most 

 destructive engines possible for intercepting, capturing 

 and killing the incoming "runs" of salmon on their 

 migrations from the sea, on the coast line, to their native 

 rivers to produce their young; and if it were not for the 

 restrictive regulations as to the times and modes of fish- 

 ing, these netters would so bar the passage of the salmon 

 to their rivers, by extending their nets out in the bay and 

 across the estuaries of rivers, as to wholly forbid the pos- 

 sibility of sufficient numbers reaching the spawning 

 grounds to keep up their species. The whole legislation 

 in Canada, in Britain, and throughout the whole world, 

 so to speak, has been to make laws to keep within 

 bounds the avarice of the net fishermen from extermi- 

 nating these migratory fish, whose nature it is to travel 

 together in "luns" or "schools," within certain short 

 periods of the year, to their spawning grounds. In 

 England and Scotland, after centuries of experience, the 

 matter has been so restricted in the use of the destructive 

 engines which were formerly in use there that at the 

 present time many of the more important rivers continue 

 to uphold almost their original standard of fish, thus 

 actually benefiting the tidal fishermen, the river pro- 

 prietors and all concerned. 



It must also be borne in mind that the tidal salmon 

 fisherman is destructive, not protective in his calling, as 

 before stated. He renders no support whatever, pecuni- 

 ary or otherwise, for the guardianship of the rivprs and 

 the nurseries which produce for him the supplies of 

 salmon which come to his net to enrich him. It is the 

 upper proprietors of the rivers anrl the anglers who lease 

 them at high rentals, who bear the whole burden of 

 guarding the rivers against the invasion of the poachers, 

 and who are compelled to protect the parent salmon and 

 the spawning beds. The result of which is that the net- 

 ter gets the lion's share — and what is this shart ? If the 

 record of the angler's catch of salmon on the Restigouche 

 River and its tributaries is taken and placed in compari- 

 son with the catch of the netters below in the estuary 

 and coast it will show that while the netter gets some 95 

 or 96 per cent, of the salmon caught on their migration 

 to the spawning grounds, the angler takes but 4 or § per 

 cent. It will be quite within bounds when it is said that 

 the cost of every salmon to the ordinary angler will 

 amount to $1 per pound, while the cost per pound to the 

 netter will not exceed l| cents per pound. 



Mr. Wilmot then goes on, in the report, to give some 

 calculations, based upon actual records, in proof of his 

 position. He shows that the capture of, say, 2,000 sal- 

 mon by the anglers involves an expenditure of at least 

 S45,000, while the capture of the same number by the 

 netters involves an outlay of not above $930. In addi- 

 tion the angler will have to pay his proportion of the cost 

 of guarding the river, while the latter pays nothing. The 

 outlay of the angler is all spent among the people in the 

 way of labor, fares, etc. He takes little away with him; 

 he generally gives away he fish, even. 



The above is the reasoning of the Superintendent of 

 Fish Protection and Culture in the Dominion, and the 

 petitioners, owners and lessees of salmon rivers for 

 angling purposes, feel that he is on the side of right and 

 even justice to all. Special. 



SHAD FLY-FISHING SOUTH. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Can you tell me anything about line fishing for shad in 

 the South. For two seasons past I have been shooting in 

 the vicinity of the Waccaman River in South Carolina, 

 and am going again in about ten days. It is clear water 

 above the mouth of Bui! Creek (which is the main outlet 

 of the Pedee). Shad are very plentiful, and if they can 

 be caught with hook and line in Connecticut, why not in 

 South Carolina? Can you tell me how to prepare the 

 bait, the method of fishing and the kind of tackle to use. 

 Have read the article on shad fishing in the "Sports- 

 man's Gazetteer," but as the book was published fifteen 

 years since I take it for granted that better information 

 is now to be had. C. C, C. 



[We do not know any successful form of bait-fishing 

 for shad, but have caught the river alewife, whose feed- 

 ing habits are similar, with small pieces of cut fish, such 

 as a strip of the belly of the butterfish and scup. Shad 

 do not come into rivers to feed, hence they seldom notice 

 any kind of bait; but in a few localities, notably Wash- 

 ington, D. C, and Holyoke, Mass., they have been cap- 

 tured with small and light-colored flies, like white-miller 

 or white and ibis, dresserl on hooks corresponding in size 

 with No. 6 or 7 Sproat. There is opportunity for inter- 

 esting experiments with flies for shad, as the subject has 

 received little attention, but a relative much resembling 

 this fish, and known as hickory shad, has proved very 

 ready to rise to the fly. Mr. A. F. Dresel, of Baltimore, 

 Md., has caught a few with the Montreal in moderately 

 strong water from 30 to 60ft. below the dam at the Relay 

 House. Mr. John J. Donaldson has been very successful 

 on the Patapsco under conditions of weather suitable for 

 other kinds of fly-fishing. On April 21, 1885, he basketed 

 36, ranging in weight from 1-J to 2lbs. His largest single 

 catch since that vear was 10. The killing flies were the 

 Donaldson, the Penned golden salmon fly and a red and 

 white fly called the Dukehart. We should use a good 

 fly-rod about lljft. long and weighing 8|oz. Your fish- 

 ing must be done at the surface, and if you prefer bait 

 the range of choice is small; it will lie between small 

 pieces of silvery fish or a small bright minnow and some 

 of the little shrimp and water fleas upon which the shad 

 is known to feed.] 



Names and Portraits of Birds, by Guidon Trunibull. A 

 book particularly interesting to gunners^ for by its use they can 

 Identify without question all the American game birds which 

 they may kill. Cloth. 220 pages, price $2.50, For sale by Fobbst 

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