424 



NEW HAMPSHIRE'S COLD STREAMS. 



CHARLESTOWN, N. H., April -30.— As your corre- 

 spondent "'Halford'' says, "the trout law is off,"' so 

 far as the laws of New Hampshire are concerned, but 

 those of nature are on yet, and pretty well "froze on," 

 too. There have been very few brook trout caught yet. 

 I have heard of 12 and 131b. landlocked salmon from 

 Newfound Lake, and some good trout from Sunapee, 

 caught from the rocks on shore, where they were chasing 

 the smelt on their spawning beds. Live bait was used in 

 both cases. 



In 1840, before there were any game laws, I caught a 

 big basketful of trout on April 23, and it has been a "red- 

 letter day" in my memory ever since. Last Saturday, 

 being the anniversary, I thought I would try again, and 

 taking rod, creel and "worm box" (coo early for flies) I 

 went up the "Mill Brook,'" about two miles from the 

 village, and fished back leisurely, trying every yard of 

 water that I could drop a hook into. The morning 

 promised well, cloudy and rather milder than for a week. 

 Thermometer 54° at 7:30, and I anticipated a good day, 

 but before I had got fairly at it the wind rose and the 

 clouds began to scurry overhead, and it was with diffi- 

 culty I could manage my line among the alders. I took 

 two small ones under the old Sawmill Dam. one of which 

 went back again in short order, and by the time I had 

 fished down through the old "Sugar Orchard," an eighth 

 of an acre or so, I had basketed five, the best 9in. Ion?, 

 and thrown back two more. This was all in the swift 

 water and in the open. Then through a short piece of 

 woods, full of good holes, without a bite, and" a mile 

 through the big meadow in the same way, till just as I 

 was reaching the main road again and thinking of start- 

 ing by it for home, my line declined to come out from 

 under a little bunch of willows, where I had thrown it. 

 Supposing it had caught in a twig, 1 gave a vigorous pull, 

 which made the light split-bamboo tip spring and quiver, 

 but resulted in swinging safely in the grass of the meadow 

 a noble trout 12|in. long with the hook well bedded in 

 his throat. He had given no signs of life, nor had I a sus- 

 picion of his being in the neighborhood. 



Two young friends of mine tried another brook on 

 Thursday last, getting a few trout of good length, but 

 very lank and lean, and reported the same state of dull- 

 ness and inactivity. 



It will be the middle of May, instead of April , before 

 the trout will rise freely, even in this part of the State, 

 and certainly June before it will be worth while to go to 

 Diamond Ponds or the Connecticut Lakes. My friend 

 Scott writes. me from Lebanon, 30 miles north, that he 

 went "opening day," the 15th, and caught three, of which 

 he threw back one, and went again last Tuesday, the 26th, 

 and got "one bite." I hope our next Legislature will put 

 the date for opening the season back to May 1, where it 

 should be, so as to correspond with Maine and Vermont. 

 And if New York would fix the same date for all waters 

 north of the Erie Canal, it would be amply early, on the 

 average of seasons. 



"That calf" would not find much feed "on the lawn" 

 yet, in this part of the world. We need rain badly, the 

 brooks are rather low/and only cold spring water mixed 

 with that from a few belated snow drifts in them. 



However, I have had some good tramps over the hills 

 for "May-flowers," the Epigeu, usually miscalled "ar- 

 butus," which have been very plentiful this year. The 

 cool weather has agreed with them. Von W. 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



The opening of the fishing season in New Hampshire 

 found the ponds in the northern part of the State covered 

 with ice, and the same condition of things obtains at this 

 writing:. Most of the streams are open, but little fishing 

 has been done yet, although I saw Mart Noyes at Cole- 

 brook yesterday, and he said some trout had been caught 

 through the ice at Diamond Ponds. But the ice is so 

 rotten now that a stake can be driven through it almost 

 anywhere, making it unsafe fishine. Mart has his 

 camps at the ponds nearly ready for occupancy and will 

 go out to stay some time next week. The daily stage 

 from Colebrook to the ponds will resume its regular 

 trips just as soon in fact as Mart gets out there and gets 

 his "post office" in the eupboard in the corner of the 

 "gent's" office in running order. 



Brad Bailey has gone into Hell Gate Camp (will the 

 new owners pardon me if I use the old name?), on Dead 

 Diamond, to make ready for the spring delegation of 

 anglers which are sure to visit him, 



There is a rumor of a new sportsman's camp to be 

 built this season at G-reenough Ponds, about six or seven 

 miles northwest of Errol Dam. Fine trout fishing is to 

 be had there, and if the project is carried out I will en- 

 deavor to give you more aefinite information. Green- 

 ougb is at present visited by numbers of sportsmen each 

 year, but as there are no camps or houses nearer than 

 about four miles, it is not quite so convenient to fish it 

 unless camp and equipment are taken in. Mr. Walter 

 Aiker3 lives the nearest to the pond, and I know of 

 several parties who stop with him, and I think he has a 

 small camp or "shake down" at the pond which might 

 accommodate a party of two or three. 



While at Colebrook this week I met O. C. Bumford of 

 Connecticut Lakes. He says he has a crew of men at 

 Second Lake cutting and storing his summer's supply of 

 ice. How is that for early fly-fishing? Mr. Bumford' has 

 commenced his new camps at that place too, and will 

 complete them by the time fishing will probably begin, 

 which wont be much before May 20 or 25. The Lake 

 House at First Lake will be opened May 10. 



Commissioner Hodge has at the Colebrook Hatchery, 

 20.000 landlocked salmon fry which will be put into First 

 Lake, as soon as the conditions are favorable. We are 

 expecting great things from the Colebrook hatchery, 

 which was erected last fall. With this aid to the natural 

 increase it is expected to improve upon the already very 

 satisfactory trout fishing this portion of the State affords. 



When the act of the last session of the Legislature, 

 ohangining the opening of the fishing season from May 

 1 to ;April 15, was passed an amendment should have 

 been added prohibiting the taking of speckled trout 

 through the ice. It may be all right for our brother 

 anglers in the southern part of the State to go fishing in 

 the middle of April, as there is fully that difference in 

 the season between the northern and southern portion; 

 but every 15th of April finds the ponds in Coos county 

 covered with ice, and as with this season, theice remains 

 until from the first to the tenth of May, thuB affording 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



two weeks or more of time to fish through the ice and 

 take the speckied trout legally. It may be all right, but 

 there are some of "us fellows'" who have "notions" about 

 fishing, with which the above methods do not in any 

 sense coincide, and we propose ro try at the next Legis- 

 lature to have the matter so arranged that ice fishing for 

 speckled trout will no longer be allowed. Of course this 

 feeling is not confined to any particular section, but is 

 shared by all true sportsmen throughout the State, and I 

 think that clause was left out by the last session more by 

 accident than design. 



I notice in this week's issue of Forest and Stream 

 that "Halford" reports the ice as "rapidly passing out of 

 Connecticut Lake." Mr. Bumford is cutting and hauling 

 ice to fill his ice house. Solid blue ice 14 to 18in. thick 

 don't "pass out" very "rapidly" in any other way with 

 such weather as we have had the past three weeks, We 

 have a job here for the man who produces rain, nice 

 warm rain, if he is present will he please step forward. 



Bob. 



Lancaster, N. H., April 30. 



CANADIAN WATERS. 



QUEBEC, April 29 —Before these lines reach the eyes 

 of the Forest and Stream readers the waters of 

 Canadian rivers and lakes will have been whipped by 

 thousands of anglers who are now busy assorting their 

 tackle and impatiently awaiting the end of the close sea- 

 son on Sunday next. The streams in the vicinity of 

 Quebec, as well as in the entire Lake St. John district are 

 all clear of ice, but Lake St. John, Lake Edward and 

 Lake Beauport are still frozen over at present writing, 

 though the ice may leave at any moment. The season is 

 fully ten days earlier here this'year than usual, but not- 

 withstanding this, the army of fly-fishermen, now pre- 

 paring for the attack, can* expect but little success in 

 their role of gay deceivers of the finny kind during the 

 first fifteen days of May, What may be called success- 

 ful fly-fishing, rarely commences in this Province prior 

 to May 20. This season, judging by present indications, 

 good sport will probably' be had from the 12th or 15th 

 inst. Large catches of heavy fish will undoubtedly be 

 heard of prior to those dates, especially in lakes Edward 

 and St. Joaeph, but they will be taken by bait — minnows 

 and earth worms. Anglers that want to make sure of 

 good catches of large red trout at any time during the last 

 twenty days of May and first part of June, are sure to 

 find what they want at either of the localities above 

 mentioned, provided they have patience to return to the 

 bait-fishing of their boyhood days. Any amount of min- 

 nows can be had in close proximity to the fishing 

 grounds. 



Ouananiche are seldom lured by the fly during the first 

 few weeks of the season. But they take bait readily in 

 Lake St. John from the time that the ice leaves the sur- 

 face of the water. Mr. B. A. Scott, of Roberval, an 

 authority upon everthing connected with this inland sea, 

 and who is well known to almost all American ouanan- 

 iche fishermen, is at present in Quebec, and tells me that 

 the ice will probably Jeave the lake this year some time 

 next week. From the week following until the middle 

 of June these fresh-water salmon will readily take bait, 

 not only close to the Roberval shore of the lake, directly 

 opposite the terminus of Lake St. John Railway, but also 

 at the mouth of the Ouiatchouan River, a short distance 

 below the far-famed falls of that name. Here they will 

 take the fly in the early part of June, and I will endeavor 

 to let your readers know later about the period that they 

 are making their way toward the seething waters of the 

 Grande Discharge. 



While the Canadian authorities have declined to grant 

 the prayer of the petition of the American salmon fish- 

 ermen, who asked to extend the time during which nets 

 must be renewed each week from the mouths of the rivers 

 in order to permit the fish to ascend to their spawning 

 beds; they have acceded to the demands of a deputation 

 of prominent anglers, chiefly members of the Restigouche 

 Salmon Club, who waited upon the Minister of Marine 

 and Fisheries at Ottawa, and simply asked that existing 

 laws regarding the raising of nets, etc, be strictly en- 

 forced. Even this, it is claimed, if the promise be faith- 

 fully observed, will result in very great advantage in the 

 preservation of the fish, and it is certainly the least that 

 any government can be asked to do, to attend to the en- 

 forcement of its own laws. 



Mr. Samuel Wilmot, superintendent of fishculture, has 

 returned from Tadousac, whither he went ten days ago 

 to examine the new government hatchery. He says the 

 establishment is one of the most complete of its kind in 

 existence. It will be utilized principally for the purpose 

 of salmon breeding, and at the present time about 

 300,000 salmon eggs are in the trays. 



E. T. D. Chambers, 



SALMON AT THE BANGOR POOL. 



BANGOR, Me., April 27— Inclosed find the list of B&lmon taken 

 at the Penobscot pool this season up to date. On account of 

 a rise of water in the river they have not taken the fly very well 

 the last two or three days, but the water has cleared up now and 

 there will be good iishiDg, as there is no snow to make a freshet 

 this Bpriug. 



April 9 Edwin Buck. . . .llJ4'bs. April 17 George Burr. . . .lSlhs. 



■' 13 Fred W. Ayer..,21 *' 17 J. Doane 19 



" 12 Fred W. Ayer..28 " 17 J. Doane 28 



" 12 Fred W. Ay er.. 22 " 17 Thomas Allen. . 10 



" 12 J. H. Peavey — 19 " 17 Charles Fomer.. 10 



" 12 Peail Willey....30 " 19 C. A. Cutler . .10 



" 13 Frtd W. Ayer..2u " 19 W. D. Lovell 19K- 



" 13 J. H. Peavey 19 " 19FredAyer 19 



" 13 W. W. Fogg 1T> ■* 19 fapd Ayer 31 



" 13 W. W. Fogg . . . .15 •' 20 C. A. C a tier 12 



" 13 Pearl Wiliey...,15 " St John Mahai J ey..SKM 



" 14 Fred W. Ayer.. 19 " 23 A. Mitchell 19 



" 14 Fred W. Ayer. .19 " 22 J Doane 18 



" 14 Fred W. Ayer. .2? " 22 A. Mitchell ltSJ^ 



" 14 Chas. Bars' ow..2«J4 " 32 G. Libby 30 



" 14 Thomas Allen . 30 " 22 Freii Ayer 30 



" 14 Thomas Allen.. 19 •' 22 F. H. Lougee 21 



»» 15 C. A. Jerrard .... 9 " 32 W. W. F< .gg 33 



" 15 0. A. Jerrard... .20 " 32 B.Hale. ... '. 7H 



15 Fred W. Aver.. .33 " 33 W. A, Pm irston.2u 



" 15 Thomas Allen.. 31 " 23 W. A. Purmton.10 



" IB Fred W. Ayer... 23 " 23 Frank Oook ...M 



" ]6 Fred W. Ayer . 38 " 23 >J. Smylbe 23 



•• 16 Kidder French, sm " 23 7,. R. KoOins — 22 



18 Bert Valentine. 21 " 33 a. Mitchell 10 



" 16Samuel.Atwood.19W " 24 Geo. Burr . ...20 



" 16 Mr. Hale lbj^ " 24Chas.Hodgkins.33 



17 Frank Co wan... 18 " 25 A. Mitchell 19 



17 George Kent.... 34 " 25 A. Mitchell 19J£ 



" 17 George Kent. . . .20 " 26 F. SV. Ayer !58£ 



" 17 Ward Dtvoe....l7 " 27 A Mitchell St 



" 17 George Labbey.. 20 " 27 F. A. Ayer 30 



" 17 George Burr 17 



I will send you later scores, M. H. D, 



| May 5, 1898. 



PERE MARQUETTE FISHING CLUB. 



EAST SAGINAW, Mich., ^pril 18.— Two Saginaw 

 sportsmen, Messrs. Jas. B. Peters and C. P. Morley, 

 have purchased Kinne Creek, 100 miles west of Saginaw 

 on the F. & P. M. Ry. This stream affords good trout 

 fishing for about six or seven miles, or in other" words its 

 entire length; it heads in two lakes, fed bv cool springs, 

 and empties in the Pere Marquette River. It has long 

 been famous for the quantity and size of its brook trout; 

 an occasional grayling is also taken, but of late they have 

 become very scarce. Though a small stream, trout 

 weighing 3lbs. have been taken from its waters, and 

 claims not thoroughly substantiated of 4lb. monsters have 

 frequently been made. It is proposed to stock this 

 thoroughly, and we hope to locate a fish hatchery on the 

 premises, The entire plant (after the saw mill was 

 moved) of the W. & D. Wing Co. lumbering outfit went 

 with the purchase; twelve or fifteen very good houses, 

 together with barn, ice house, etc., are standing unused 

 on the premises: for, as the pine is cut out in northern 

 Michigan, land is good for little elRo; and in this case it 

 was purchased at a nominal figure. Eventually a club 

 will be formed of 25 to 80 members, but for this year; 

 possibly for some time to come, a favored few wiil get 

 great fishing, than ks to the kindness and hospitality of 

 Messrs, Peters and Morley. W. B. M. 



Mr. Peters sends us these additional details: 



The stream is about six miles in length and is fed by 

 never-failing springs. Its temperature ranges from forty 

 degrees in winter to fifty degrees in the hottest months 

 of summer. It has a fall of about seventy-five feet, and 

 varies but little in its volume, being never turbid or 

 muddy. It has never been meandered and does not ap- 

 pear upon any of the government maps, nor is it a navi- 

 gable stream. It is, therefore, in the hands of its present 

 owners, as private as a spring flowing in any one's door- 

 yard. The owners have posted notices required by law 

 in order to designate their property as being private and 

 intend to inclose it, and in order to eventually have the 

 good fishing which they desire, have agreed to restrict 

 their own use of the stream to a few days and a few 

 pounds of fish for each owner for the next few years. 

 The organization is purely private and not incorporated, 

 yet for convenience, and by reason of proximity to the 

 waters of the great river so named, it has assumed the 

 title of the Pere Marquette Fishing Club, 



The headquarters are at Wingleton, as a central point 

 convenient to the waters named, and from which many 

 other streams and lakes in the vicinity can be reached. 

 A comfortable club house, well furnished, is on the 

 property. To carry out the plans of the owners a keeper 

 has been placed in charge of the property with instruc- 

 tions to notify trespassers that private rights must be re- 

 spected, and while it is not apprehended that many will, 

 after becoming acquainted with the facts, insist upon 

 using property belonging to others, yet, in such cases as 

 may arise, those who do not respect private rights will 

 find the owners prepared to enter upon a disagreeable and 

 expensive litigation in defense of their property. 



The public can rest assured that the action of the new 

 owners of Kinne Creek will not detract from the pleas- 

 ures which fishermen have enjoyed heretofore in that 

 vicinity. It is true that one stream will be closed to the 

 public, but the benefit that adjoining streams will re- 

 ceive from the planting of brook trout, lake trout, Ger- 

 man trout and bass in adjoining waters will more than 

 compensate them. 



The State Game Warden has agreed to appoint the 

 keeper now in charge as one of his deputies, to the end 

 that the State laws in regard to the protection of fish may 

 be better enforced, and it is to be hoped that hereafter 

 the stories of spearing, netting and fishing out of season 

 which have come from that section will oease. 



Pike County, (Pa.) Law.— Commenting on a corre- 

 spondent's note in these columns suggesting that the 

 Pike county, Pa., special fish law was unconstitutional, 

 the Port Jervis Gazette says: "The writer speaks unad- 

 visedly when he says that the Constitution of Pennsyl- 

 vania 'prohibits the passing of any special act,' etc. Sec- 

 tion 8, Article III., of the Pennsylvania Constitution 

 says: 'No local or special law shall be passed unless no- 

 tice of the intention to apply therefor shall have been 

 published in the locality where the matter or the thing to 

 be situated,' etc. This shows that special laws can be 

 passed in Pennsylvania. We presume that the special 

 game law for Pike county was passed in pursuance of 

 this provision. The provision prohibiting the regulating 

 of the affairs of counties, townships, boroughs, etc, can- 

 not be stretched to prohibit the passage of a special game 

 law. It is worthy of remark here that the Governor ap- 

 proved the present general game law of Pennsylvania 

 and the special law for Pike county on the same day, 

 after they had both been examined and passed upon 

 favorably by tbe Attorney- General, and it is fair to pre- 

 sume that he knew what he was doing. And the fact 

 that Attorney- General Hensel, in recently passing a ques- 

 tion relating to the special law, recognized its validity, is 

 proof sufficient that he considers it a constitutional en- 

 actment. The special game law of Pike county must be 

 considered as good and, we believe, ic cannot be repealed 

 by a general act but only by a special act, after due 

 notice as required for its passage," 



Where Poles are Proper.— Philadelphia, N. Y., April 

 31. — The fishing has appeared and a few messes of bull- 

 heads and suckers are reported. Pickerel refuse to take 

 anything but live bait during the spring. A few pickerel 

 have been caught in the river. Yesterday I saw a biack 

 bass jump for a fly that was skimming over the water. 

 No one uses the artificial fly here. A light fly-rod 

 "wouldn't hold a minner," the fishermen here say; and 

 the angler's outfit c msists of a 12ft. cane "pole," a chalk 

 line, and a trolling spoon 3 in. long. Four-pound pickerel 

 are sometimes thrown over the fisherman's head with this 

 outfit.— Ray Spkars. 



Swan Bass, according to Commissioner H. C. Ford, is 

 a local name at Lake Erie for the calico bass or strawberry 

 bass. Specimens were sent to Luzerne county, Penna.. 

 under the first name last spring. Over a thousand were 

 brought from Lake Erie and deposited in Eastern rivers 

 and lakes, 



