324 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 1, 1892. 



BOSTON ANGLERS— NORTH AND SOUTH 



MR. CHARLES P. STEVENS, so well know among 

 anglers, especially in the vicinity of Richardson 

 Lake, Me., has not given up the idea of further visit- 

 ing the old haunts after all. He has felt at times as 

 though fishing was "playing out" there, and at one time 

 it was understood among his friends that Camp Vive 

 Vale, at the Narrows, was for sale, or likely to be for 

 sale. But after considering the matter thoroughly this 

 lover of angling, almost to the extent of Old Izaak him 

 self , has come to the conclusion that fishing is on the 

 wane at any point, and together with Mr. Edward J. 

 Shattuck, he has leased the lot on which their camp 

 stands for another five years. Mr. Shattuck is manager 

 of the Geo. H. Morrill printers' ink establishment of this 

 city, and Mr. Stevens is head of the well known firm of 

 printers' roller manufacturers Wilde & Stevens, hence 

 Camp Vive Vale has sometimes been called the printers' 

 camp. Mr. Stevens has been spending the winter at St. 

 Louis, Mich., with Mrs. Stevens, whose health has 

 been considerably benefitted by the mineral springs 

 there. Mr. Stevens has had some good fishing there. 

 He will visit the camp at Richardson Lake this spring as 

 soon as the fishing promises well. But as for going in 

 before the ice is out, as on former seasons, he says he is 

 done. It was Mr. Stevens of whom formerly the Forest 

 amd Stream had an account of going into camp before 

 the ice was out of the lake, and trying the fish every day 

 for many days in the open water in the Narrows, but not 

 getting a trout till after the ice went out of the lake. 

 He kept a record of the temperature of the water, taken 

 each day, and found that the trout did not take the min- 

 now even till the mercury showed several degrees warmer 

 than ice water. 



The opening of the. trout season in the Bay State was 

 accompanied by the usual enthusiasm, though the weather 

 had been very cold and unfavorable up to that date. 

 Messrs. G. B, Appletpn & Co. made a finer display of 

 live trout in their window, on Washington street, than 

 fiver. They show native trout, English brown trout, 

 Loch L^ven, or Scotch, trout, California, or rainbow, 

 trout and hybrid trout. The fish seem to attract more 

 attention than ever and it sometimes requires police 

 assistance to keep the sidewalk clear. There was but 

 little use of trying the streams on opening in any part of 

 the State, except on the Cape and the. south shore, where 

 the influence of the sea breezes had removed the ice. 

 Capt. Nat Hoxie had a good delegation of trout fisher- 

 men at his place in Plymouth on that day. Among 

 those booked to go there, and to other resorts on the 

 Cape, may be mentioned W. C. Thairlwali, W. S. Peel, 

 L. R, Rowe, R. B. Blodget, Luther Little, and other gen- 

 tlemen well known in Boston business and professional 

 circles. Then there is the Monument Club, which takes 

 its name from the town, a club of highly-esteemed Bos- 

 ton sportsman. On April 1 there were booked for the 

 club William Stackpole, J. S. Stackpole, C P. Horton, 

 and other prominent Boston lawyers and business men. 

 Although the resorts of the Cape were visited by these 

 usually successful anglers, yet the accout of catches is 

 rather unsatisfactory up to date. But the warm weather 

 of early this week has doubtless changed the complexion 

 of trouting matters. 



Mr. Fred W. Ayer, so well known as a salmon fisher- 

 man, and especially a devotee of the sport at the cele- 

 brated Btngor, Me., pool, was in Boston the other day. 

 He had just returned from Ottawa. He had been there 

 on business, and had given the celebrated salmon petition 

 of Mr. Blanchard, of which he is a supporter, consider- 

 able attention. While not thoroughly hopeful of full suc- 

 cess, Mr. Ayer thinks good must come of the salmon peti- 

 tion. He is of the opinion that money, judiciously ex- 

 pended, in buying up the netters, or buying the raising 

 of their nets, would work wonders for many salmon 

 rivers. He is not over hopeful of a run of salmon at 

 B mgor this year, though he will try them, probably as 

 faithf ully as usual. He has usually been the first and the 

 last to take salmon there. It is only the efforts of re- 

 stocking, put out by the State, that leaves any salmon at 

 all to get up as far as Bangor. Mr. Ayer believes, and it 

 )s a matter of record, that there are about 50 salmon 

 netters on the Penobscot below Bangor. It is estimated 

 by the c mrniissioners, as well as Mr. Ayer, that about 

 10,000 salmon, are caught each season by these netters, 

 while from 75 to 100 are caught in the pool at Bangor. 

 Mr. Ayer also thinks that possibly 200 salmon may be left 

 to go tip through the fishways at that point and into the 

 river above. Here they are again beset by poacher and 

 netter, though there are not salmon enough that get above 

 the dam to make either netting or poaching in the upper 

 waters of the Penobscot particularly attractive or profit- 

 able. The State restocks and the 50 netters get the 

 silmon. 



The Maine trout lakes and streams are still cased in ice, 

 and little is known of a certainty as to the going out of 

 this ice. The Rangeley Lakes have been very low all 

 winter, the result of the remarkably low water last 

 autumn and the continued drawing by the mills below 

 all winter. But a spring freshet or the. gradual moving 

 of the snow, which is still two feet deep in the woods, is 

 sure to fill these lakes. What the trout fishing will be, is 

 a question. High water in the winter is usually followed 

 by good fishing in these lakes in the spring, and low water 

 has usually brought poor fishing. But the spring of 1892 

 may disprove all past theories. Tom French, of Richard- 

 son Lake steamer fame, was in Boston some days ago, 

 looking after engines and machinery for a fine new boat 

 he and his father are building for that lake. He says that 

 very little winter fishing has been done this year, and 

 that since the low water almost completely ruined the 

 autumn fishing last year, the trout ought to' be there for 

 the anglers this spring. Capt. Fred. C. Barker is also of 

 the opinion that there are really more trout, notwith- 

 standing the low water, than there would have been had 

 the fishing been good last autumn. 



Already is the question asked me manv times a day as 

 to when the ice is likely to go out of the Maine lakes, and 

 parties of Boston sportsmen are already being formed. 

 Lines, rods and reels are looked over. Mr. Wadsworth 

 and Mr.Paine of the former Eugene Clapp (latelv deceased) 

 party are making plans. Capt. J. B. Thomas, Jr. , of 

 the American Sumar Refining Co., mentions Moosehead 

 very frequently. He is a son of Capt. Thomas, deceased, 

 the founder of the Standard Sugar Refinery, and next in 

 -Moq.r -^fining busires^ in the East to the Havemeyers of 

 New York, Capt, J, B. Thomas, Jr. has been many sea- 



sons the commodore of the Kineo Club, Mr. Dwinell of 

 D winell, Hayward & Co., well known in the coffee trade, 

 will go to Moosehead this year, for his annual trout fish- 

 ing, he having usually visited the Rangeleys, These 

 few may be mentioned among the hundreds of Boston's 

 best business men who will go afishing this spring. 



The king of tarpon anglers seenn to have come to light 

 this year. The Forest and Stre a.m has already had a 

 partial account of the success of Mr. Chas. A Dean, vice- 

 president and selling agent of the Hollingsworth & 

 Whitney Paper Company, of this city, in catching the 

 silver king in Florida the past season: a full score is pub- 

 lished below. Mr. Dean got home to Boston on Friday, 

 and to say the least he has a right to be proud of his suc- 

 cess. The score is a most remarkable one. On Jan. 13, 

 1891, at Punta Gorda, Mr. Dean landed his first tarpon 

 for the season. It weighed 158lbs., was 6ft. b^in, in 

 length, and he was five hours in landing him. The 

 length of time occupied is explained from the fact that 

 Mr. Dean was weak from the effects of the grip. On 

 Jan. 22 he landed his second fish, weighing 105lbs., 5ft. 

 lOin. long, time half an hour. Jan. 23 another fish 

 was brought to the gaff, weighing 133lbs., 6fc. 6iin. 

 long, time twenty-three minutes. Jan. 24 Mr. Dean 

 landed his fourth and largest fish, weighing 172lbs., 

 length 6ft. lO^in., time three hours. This fish 

 Mr. Dean is to have mounted for his office. A scale 

 of the monster is to be seen there and it is as big as the 

 top of a fair-sized teacup. Feb. 4, the fifth fish 

 was landed, weighing 901bs., 5ft. ]0in. in length, 

 time, 16 minutes. Feb. 8, at St. James City, the 

 sixth fish was hooked and saved, weighing 1171bs., time, 

 22 minutes. Feb. 15, the seventh tarpon was landed, 

 weighing 1051 bs., time, 30 minutes. Feb. 22, the eighth 

 fish was caught, weighing 1251bs., time, 20 minutes. 

 March 15, at Punta Gorda again, Mr. Dean's ninth silver 

 king was conquered, weighing 80 lbs., 5ft, long, time, 29 

 minutes. March 19, he caught his tenth fish, weighing 

 125lbs., 6ft. long, time, 15 minutes. March 25, his last 

 fish for the trip was taken, weighing HOlbs., 6ft. 6in, 

 long, time, 45 minutes. The fish were all given to the 

 taxidermists, and they will go to grace natural history 

 rooms, and the rooms of anglers' who have not been as 

 successful as Mr. Dean. The united weight of all the 

 fish was l,3501bs. SPECIAL. 



INDIANA LAKES AND STREAMS. 



SPEAKING of the Indiana lakes, Fish Commissioner 

 Dennis says these lakes occupy the highest ground 

 in the State. It may not have been noticed by all my 

 readers that all the lake* in the world, with a few ex- 

 ceptions, are on the highest ground; that is, they are on 

 the top, or near the top, of the watershed, or "divide," 

 on which they lie. It is also true that the more exten- 

 sive the watershed the larger the lakes. The great lakes 

 of the North American Continent are at the top of its 

 most extended watershed. It may be said that these 

 great lakes have a watershed of their own and good sized 

 rivers run into them, which proves they are at the foot 

 instead of the top of a watershed ; but that fact only 

 shows that the lake basin is not complete at some point 

 and, therefore, is never full of water. It is a fact that 

 part of the water of these lakes reaches the sea through 

 the St. Lawrence and another part goes through a canal 

 from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, and their 

 waters are higher than the rivers that flow either north 

 or south from either side of them. A little study of 

 any map will show that this rule holds good even to the 

 tiniest lakelet. It is true that there are many bodies of 

 water along the alluvial bottoms of great rivers, but they 

 are not true lakes; they are washouts and old river chan- 

 nels left by the river cutting a new channel across the 

 neck of a bend. 



Another exception is what may be termed the earth- 

 quake lakes, of which Reelfoot Lake in western Tennes- 

 see is a good example. 



During the earthquakes of 1812 a large area of heavily 

 timbered land sank many feet below the level of the 

 surrounding country and the basin so formed filled with 

 water. It is said the submerged forest is plainly seen in 

 places more than 60ft. below the surface of the water; 

 but as this article was not intended for a treatise on phys- 

 ical geography, let us return to the Indiana lakes and 

 their fish. Quite within the memory of the present oldest 

 inhabitants these lakes were fairly alive with pickerel, 

 bass, perch and other kinds of game fish. For thousands 

 of years they had been left to multiply, unmolested save 

 by their natural enemies and the feeble efforts of the In- 

 dian fisherman. Forty years ago it was not uncommon 

 for an angler to cut a 2lbs. bass into three pieces to make 

 that many baits for 201b. pickerel, and there were vast 

 numbers of bass that weighed more than 61bs. each. 



When that most savage, destructive and rapacious of 

 all creatures, the white man, appeared on the scene, he 

 attacked the fish with hooks, seines, nets, spears, traps, 

 and later with dynamite. Day and night, summer and 

 winter, the destruction went on, till the accumuiated in- 

 crease of a thousand years was wiped out in half that 

 many months. The mischief has been done; the ques- 

 tion for present consideration is, can it be repaireo? It 

 can, but I fear not in time to be of much benefit to the 

 present members of the "old guard," The difficulties of 

 restocking these waters are not great, but it will take a 

 long time to educate the people into believing that public 

 property is not rightfully their property if they can in 

 any way get possession of it. It will take a long time to 

 educate men into the belief that it is their duty to assist 

 in enforcing the laws because they are laws, and regard- 

 less of whether their violation is a personal danger to the 

 citizen or to his property, and finally, it will take a long 

 time to get every man to comprehend that he is a part 

 owner of all public property, and that his duty to him- 

 self as well as to the public, is to take care of it instead 

 of wantonly destroying it. A mari has no more moral 

 or legal right to explode dynamite in public waters for 

 killing fish than he has to explode it in his neighbor's hen 

 roost; but Forest and Stream and similar educators 

 will labor a long time before they convince men that it 

 is so. 



It is also a matter for regret that these lakes have not 

 the depth they used to have, and that the end of all of 

 them will be marshes instead of lakes. Every year a 

 rank growth of vegetation dies and rots, and as there is 

 no current it settles to the bottom, till finally the lake 

 becomes a marsh. 



Because it could be done, the streams of Indiana have 

 been more thoroughly depopulated than the lakes. Seines 



and traps are much more effective than in the lakes. 

 Dynamite has been used for blasting stump3 in almost 

 every field that borders these streams, and it was very 

 easy to put some of it in the streams. Besides being de- 

 populated, the character of all except the largest streams 

 has greatly changed. Formerly they were crooked, had 

 many deep pools, drifts and sunken stumps and. logs — the 

 ideal home of bass. The porous, shaded soil of the woods 

 absorbed the rainfall, preventing violent floods and giving 

 a steady supply of water. 



Now the streams have been straightened, the drifts re- 

 moved, and the deep holes have filled up. The timber 

 has been cut off their slopes and the land ditched, so that 

 when a heavy rain comes the stream is for a few hours a 

 raging flood of muddy water, subsiding in a few more 

 hours to an insignificant rivulet. From streams of this 

 class the glory has departed forever. One of these streams 

 is near my home, and many pleasant days along its banks 

 are well remembered. Within less than a mile of each 

 other were the old dam, the elm stump, the sycamore 

 stump, the willow bank, the high bank, the long swim- 

 ming hole, and the big drift. Any of these places would 

 yield a mess of bass, if they were in a biting mood, and 

 many nice strings have I carried away from each of them. 

 Now but two of these places are left, and a persistent 

 angler might perhaps get two or three half-pound ones. 

 Thousands of miles of Indiana streams have had their 

 fishing spoiled in this way, but it was right, for the land 

 along their banks was too valuable to be let lie idle for 

 the sake of the fish, and they had to go. 



Col. Dennis, our fish commissioner, has been personally 

 acquainted with more black bass than any other man in 

 the State; although of ripe age, his enthusiasm and energy 

 are unbounded; but what can he do on a salary of $1,000 

 a year and pay expenses out of it? If the State would 

 allow him five times as much it would not be long before 

 the Colonel would be a terror to every fish poacher in the 

 State. O. II. Hampton. 



THE ROUND WHITEFISH. 



T AC LA PEC HE LAURENTIAN CLUB, March 24.— 

 JLy Editor Forest and Stream: In your issue of Jan. 14 

 I notice a very interesting article on the round whitefish 

 (Coregonus quadrilateralis). 1 have cast my line on 

 many lakes throughout the country between the Gatineau 

 and the St. Maurice rivers, in the Province of Quebec, and 

 have noticed the fish in question only in the lakes at the 

 source of the Lac Quarro River, the main branch of the 

 Assomption. 



Many years ago, while visiting one of my lumber 

 camps on the Lac Croche, a tributary of the Lac Quarro, 

 I had occasion to follow up a logging road running par- 

 allel with a brook which emptied into the lake. A ray of 

 sunshine lit up a pool, in which I noticed schools of fish. 

 As the water was shallow below the pool, I thought there 

 was a fair chance of capturing the fish, whatever they 

 might be; so one of the men who accompanied me was 

 dispatched for a bed tick, out of which was improvised a 

 net, into which the fish were driven to the number of a 

 couple of barrels. They proved to be the round whitefish, 

 and most excellent eating: in fact, I prefer them to any 

 fresh-water fish I have ever tasted. The fish were fre- 

 quently speared, but never caught on a hook. I have 

 made inquiries of the Hudson's Bay Company in the St. 

 Maurice Territory as to whether the "round whitefish" 

 was found in any waters of the St. Maurice Territory. 

 Invariable the answer was, "We have never seen the flsh 

 you describe." The whitefish of the Great Lakes is found 

 in lakes at the source of the St. Maurice. 



W. H. Parker. 



Grandes Piles, Quebec. 



TROUT AND BASS VS. PICKEREL. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



It has often occurred to me that the law which pro- 

 hibits pickerel fishing through the ice in Lake George is 

 not a wise one. It is a well-known fact to anglers who 

 are well acquainted with this lake, that about eight 

 years ago, before the law was on pickerel, there was ex- 

 cellent trout and bass fishing to be got. Since that time, 

 however, the trout and bass have steadily decreased, until 

 last year there was not a dozen bass caught at the end of 

 the lake. Now, it is just a matter whether it is to be 

 trout and bass or pickerel. I prefer the former, and who 

 does not? 



I will admit that it is not sportsmanlike to fish the 

 pickerel at a time so near their spawning season; yet 

 something must be done, and in this case I think we 

 ought to let the "proper thing" go by and keep this fish 

 a little more within bounds. This must be done at once 

 if at all, and then, and not till then, will we be able to 

 come in with a fair basket of these, the gamest and best 

 of all fresh-water fishes. 



There is another matter, too, that is ruinous to the trout 

 and bass of Lake George, and that is explosives. This is 

 by far the most dastardly way of catching fish ever prac- 

 ticed, and as a sportsman, I would call on summer visi- 

 tors and all who are interested to investigate and report 

 every case they come across. Let them, in the interest 

 of sport, do so individually, for everybody's business is 

 nobody's business. The game constables will welcome 

 every one who brings news of these diabolical hoodlums, 

 and a few heavy fines will have the good effect desired . 



I have heard of lots of cases where pickerel have been 

 caught while trolling for trout in from 90 to 150ft. of 

 water. This proves that they are there after trout. 



Will Hodldoroft. 



Ticondeboga, N. Y., March 29. 



[The pickerel of Lake George is the common pike.] 



Spring Weather in the A dirondacks.— North wood, 

 N. Y., April 8.— Snow covers the ground in patches only. 

 The creek is open at this place, the ice having gone out 

 in the last two days. Robins and bluebirds have been 

 here more than a week. Some wild geese were seen here 

 Sunday. On Saturday a kildeer plover flew around the 

 ponds. To-day, in a walk of about a mile and a half, I 

 saw a woodcock, several ducks, and some woodpeckers, 

 robins, bluebirds, song chips, blackbirds and woodchucks. 

 Game of all kinds wintered well, except deer, of which 

 large numbers are said to have been killed by workmen 

 on the new railroad about Moose River. Numerous in- 

 sects have put in their appearance. Among them are 

 several kinds of gorgeous butterflies.— R. S, Spears, 



