FOREST AND STREAM. 



[July 21, 1893< 



ANGLING NOTES. 



In a recent issue of the London FisMng Gazette there 

 is a fascinating story written by "The Amateur Angler" 

 about his outing with "Pigcator Major" on the Itchen in 

 the south of England. The sport is dry-fly fishing for 

 brown trout, but there are grayling in the stream, and 

 thereby hangs a moral: 



"Another rise— across the water a little higher up. The 

 major's eye is upon him, and his unerring fly is over him. 

 Down he goee— a tremendous rush and splash, 



" 'It's a grayling, I'm afraid," says Piscator. A gray- 

 ling it turned out to be; and who after this will tell me 

 that a grayling is a 'dead-hearted" fisb? This grayling 

 was as plucky as ever was a trout — he came to grass 

 ■weighing at least 2^ lbs. Now, as a faithful narrator. I 

 have to tell a melancholy story. Says the Major, 'He 

 must go back to the water.' '"Wlaat foi?' said I. 'What 

 has he done? He's a regular beauty— fat and plump.' 

 'Out of season,' said this quixotic angler. 'Grayling 

 spawn in April and this is only May,' And back to the 

 Itchen goes this beautiful, sweet-smelling, thymy-Ecented 

 fi^sh." 



That is "The Amateur Angler's" tribute to "Piscator 

 Major's" respect for the unwritten laws of eport. ' Pis- 

 cator Major" writes me: 



"I had a glorious time on the Itchen with my dear 

 father and hope to have many more. He is the best man 

 I ever met, God bless him ! Don't mis« his articles in the 

 (razeite." That is "Piscator Major's' tribute to "The 

 Amateur Angler." Who will say that angling has not, as 

 Walton says it has, "A calmness of spirit and a world of 

 other blessings attending upon it?"' 



We look to England for our silkworm gut and England 

 looks to Spain for it. Every year we get discouraging 

 reports about the gut crop, and higher prices are pre- 

 dicted, until we have become accustomed to and look for 

 these pessimistic reports from the other side. It is 

 generally the best grades of gut that suffer most, but 

 there is a generous falling ofl: in the quality of all grades 

 in length or thickness, or both, I cannot see what is to 

 prevent the gut industry from starting in this country, 

 A bill was introduced in the United States Senate early 

 in the spring for the encouragement of silk culture, and 

 it provided for five experimental silk stations to be 

 under the direction of the Agricultural Department. 

 There are now two Government stations, one at Wash- 

 ington and one at Philadelphia, but they lack money for 

 carrying on the experiments. We have one silk-produce 

 ing State, for in Kansas not only are the cccoons grown 

 but the silk is reeled. This station receives State aid 

 and it is said that cocoons are raised in forty-six counties 

 in the State, I have seen gut drawn from Chinese 

 worms, raised in the United States, that was equal to 

 Spanish gut. It is a simple matter to draw the gut if 

 you have the worms. If the worms are raised here it 

 would seem that the gut would follow as a natural con- 

 sequence. The gut of the future, however, will be that 

 from native American silkworms, the cecropia. and the 

 2)olyphemnf<, when the proper food is found for the 

 worms. Strong gut has been drawn from thf se worms 

 that was 9ft. long, and can be again if they are thoroughly 

 experimented with, 1 have two paintings, life size, of 

 the cecropia and pohjphemus moths that were painted 

 in 1T90, 



Most any kind of a record is a ticklish thing to deal 

 with. A man may think he has a cinch on some particu- 

 lar record and prints it onl^ to find that a fellow in the 

 next county walks all over it. For instance, the St. Louis 

 EepiibUc has an interview with a man who has beaten a 

 record, and it is all about a tarpon that is ''perhaps the 

 biggest silver king yet caught." As the fish weighed 

 "nearly ITOlbs,," and as Mrs. Stagg has killed two tarpon 

 of IIH and 205lb8., and Mr, John Hecksher killed one of 

 184+ibs., all three killed on a rod; it is not the biggest, 

 but that is not where the record comes in. The record 

 was about the time of playing and killing the fish. The 

 tarpon was caught in April last, and its captor desired to 

 "make a new record, the best then being about two hours 

 from the time of a bite to that of landing a tarpon." 

 After the tarpon was killed the gentleman's time keeper 

 said: "You are the luckiest man I have ever seen. With 

 a broken pole you have landed that tarpon in just 56 

 minutes." ' It was true I had broken the record, but let 

 me tell you I had to remain in my cottage for three whole 

 days afterward." Now let us see about that record, for 

 the tarpon which weighed "nearly ITOlbs." has been pre- 

 sented to the St, Louis University and is on exhibition, 

 and the record of its capture may need some repairs. On 

 April 17, 1892, Mrs. McGregor killed a tarpon of 1601 bp. 

 in 45 minutes, but that may have been after the St. Louis 

 fish. So we go back to i&91. On May 1, of that year, 

 Mrs. Geo. T. Stagg killed a tarpon of lieibs. in 27 minutes: 

 on the 5th, one of 1251bs. ia B2 minutes: on the 6th, one of 

 Ol^lbs. in 4 minutes; on the 7ch, one of llSlbs. in 12 

 minutes, and one of lOOlbs. in 15 minutes; on the 8th, 

 three tarpon of 16o, 153 and 1251bs. each, in 35, 24 and 155 

 minutes respectively. Even then this lady did not retire 

 to her cottage for any length of time, for the next day 

 she killed a tarpon of l4Slbs. in 25 minutes. If it is 

 necessary to whittle the "record" down any finer, the kill 

 of Mr. H. A, Weatherspoon, of Louisville, Ky.. who on 

 April 5, 1892, landed a tarpon of 1451b8. in 3 minutes 

 may be added. If the St. Louis gentleman had used a 

 rod instead of a "pole" he might have killed his fish more 

 quickly. 



I see that Dr. Henshall has succeeded in getting an 

 "Ohio River pike" or mascalonge, and now he can settle 

 thp matter of the number of spines in the dorsal fin. In 

 1883 the late Dr. Sterling, of Cleveland, Ohio, wrote me: 

 "The Mahoning pike of the Mahoning River, etc , is an 

 inhabitant of all the tributaries of the Ohio, as far down 

 as the State of Illinois. * * The markings of this flsh 

 are very similar to those of the mascalonge, without 

 scales on the operculum, and would be taken by the care- 

 less observer for thp latter fish. * * Another peculiarity 

 of the fisla is its thirteen spines in the dorsal fin." The 

 same year that this letter was written one of these 

 mascalonge weighing 361bs. was sent to New York city, 

 where it was found among other things that "the anterior 

 half of the lower jaw was toothless and it had thirteen 

 spines in the dorsal fin." This is a less number than is 

 possessed by the mascalonge of the St. Lawrence system. 



Ju4^€ Greene'd article upon the feeding of salmon re- 



minds me of a recent experience. A marketman in town 

 sent me word that he had a salmon from the Delaware 

 river which he would like me to see. Upon seeing to the 

 market I found a handsome fresh-water fish, and one 

 that had been in fresh water long enough to lose its sil- 

 very appearance, lying side by side. The bright fish 

 was the alleged Delaware River fish, but I contended that 

 it was not what it purported to be, as in all probability it 

 came from Canada. In proof I could only say that the 

 Delaware contained no salmon but those recently planted 

 unless it might be a stray one from some other stream, 

 in which case it would not get into the country to be sold 

 for thirty cents per pound. The fish was so fresh that I 

 bought a part of it — it weighed twenty-six pounds — and 

 when it was opened the stomach was literally packed full 

 of capelin; some were scarcely digested, being nearly 

 perfect in form. This settled the question as to the sal- 

 mon coming from the Delaware, for the capelin are not 

 found so far south as even off the New England States. 

 The fish proved to be by far the best I have had this year. 



An advertisement in one of the newspapers begins: 

 •'The grand pilgrimage to the wonderful shrine of Sainte 

 Anne De Beaupre, 21 mil^s below Quebec, will leave, 

 etc.," and itconcludes: "This pilgrimage will give parties 

 a splendid opportunity to make a trip to Saguenay and 

 Lake St, John's celebrated fishing grounds." At first 

 glance a devotional pilgrimage and a fishing trip may 

 seem to be strange bed fellows, but the Christian religion 

 and fishing have always been associated together. As 

 the result of a conversation in the street with Rev. Dr. 

 George B. Gow, be sent me a letter, of which I give the 

 substance. The Greek word signifying fish is composed 

 of five letters, although in English characters it is spelled 

 Jchthus, The early Christians made use of the figure of 

 a fish as a symbol of their faith, reading the word thus: 

 The first letter stands for Jesus, the second for Christ, the 

 third for God's, the fourth for Son, the fifth for Savior. 

 So that the fish to the early Christians, carved on a tomb- 

 stone or used in any place,' signified "Jesus Christ, God's 

 Son, (our) Savior." 1 conclude that the pilgrimage and 

 the fishing trip are all regular. 



Lastepring I sent you, at request of Mr.John Mowat, of 

 Campbellton, N. B., an advertisement of some fishing 

 water that he had for sale on the Restigouche. The fish- 

 ing was not sold and I brought it to the attention of wy 

 friend Mr. Archibald Mitchell, of Norwich, Conn,, who 

 leased it with the privilege of buying. Mr. Mitchell has 

 just returned from fishing the water, and writes me that 

 it was all that he expected to find it. He killed thirteen 

 salmon, weighing 2751bs., an average of 211bs. per tish. 

 He also hooked eighteen kelts, which after giving lots of 

 sport, were beached, unhooked and returned to the water. 

 The last clean fish was a 25 pounder, which rose twice to 

 a silver-doctor (which ily killed nearly all the fish taken) 

 and then refused it, when it rose to and was killed on a 

 Mitchell fly. One day while poling up stream one of the 

 canoemen saw a salmon in swift water which the other 

 man gaft'ed. It was an ISlbs. fish with both eyes gone, 

 having lost them in a net. This, he was told, was not 

 uncommon. Mr. Mitchell was so well pleased with the 

 fishing that he bought Mr. Mowat's Upaalquitch water. 



A. N. Cheney. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[From a Staff C(yrres^Mnd6nt.^ 



Chicago, 111., July 9. — The labor riot now agitating 

 the town of Homestead, Pa., could have been predicted 

 on May 9 by at least one man in Chicago. That man is 

 Mr. A. Hirlh, manager orSpaldingb' retail tackle depart- 

 ment in this city, who received letters at that time which 

 described fully the situation now actually existing, say- 

 ing the a flair would be as bad as that of 1881 2. It is a 

 fact not generally known that in 1881 2 Mr. Hirth was 

 burgess, or mayor, of this same town of Homestead, and 

 had the handling of the labor riot of that time. He says 

 he doesn't want any moi-e of it. 



I presume that Mr. Chas. Norris, of the Big Four rail- 

 road, has this season caught more large trout than any 

 angler of Chicago. He is back to-day from another trip 

 to his paradise iji the north peninsula, whose where- 

 abouts he persistently refuses to divulge. This time he 

 had good luck and bad luck too. He caught plenty of 

 good trouf, but lost nearly all he caught, through a series 

 of singular accidents. He tried to keep his fish alive, and 

 to this fact owed his misfortunes. Twice hi^ live box xrp- 

 sefc in the river and let out every trout he had; once he 

 smashed a barrel which he had impressed for similar use 

 and so lost all the live trout he had in that. Finally, 

 having caught another lot to bring home, he left them in 

 stUl water over night and they all died and turned a faini; 

 and sickly j'ellow. This sort of fishing does not depopu- 

 late a stream very much, but it is rough on the angler. 

 Mr. Norris swears an early revenge. 



I ran across Charlie Burton and a party of friends up 

 at Eagle Lake, Wisconsin. One day last week when I 

 found him he was out in a boat, casting fly for sunfish. 

 His party had 18 bass and a half dozen pickerel. On the 

 day following, I hear, Mr. Burton got into somebody's 

 trout preserve by mistake, caug;ht a 2iS lb3. trout, and got 

 chased out of the field. And the trout went with him. 

 If I had a 2^ lbs. trout that I loved, I should hate to risk 

 it with Charlie Burton. 



There will jirobably be a good many anglers among 

 those who for one reason or other will go up next week 

 to attend the meeting of the Western Canoe Association 

 at Linden wald Point, below Oshkosh on Like Winnebago. 

 There is splendid fishing on this big body of water, and 

 up Neenah way it is likely the mooneys have not yet all 

 done running. Mr. John Earle caught 8 on the fly last 

 week. 



The Chicago Fly-casting Club sends out to its members 

 the following card : 



"The July practice meeting will be held Thursday, July 

 14, at Washington Park, 3 P. M. The entertainment 

 committee will set out a light lunch at the grounds. 

 These meetings are proving very instructive. Attend if 

 possible." It is pleasing to think of a better understand- 

 ing of this essential art in angling growing up in this 

 city, where it has been all too little known. 



Speaking of a light lunch reminds me once more of 

 the proportions which the angler's appetite may assume. 

 Now there is my friend T. B. W., just back from his 

 camping trip. I went with him into a restaurant to-day. 



"I am not very hungry," said he, "so I think I'll just 

 have a New England boiled dinner:" and hedid. I never 

 saw a New England boiled dinner before, and at the time 

 I had doubts as to my friend's ability to cope with it. 

 Those doubts exist no longer. His sublime confidence in 

 himself forced admiration. He told me these New Eng- 

 land boiled dinners were the only thing that seemed to 

 touch the spot, since he had come back from the woods. 



Mr. Herman J. Burrell, of Portland, Ore., was in the 

 city lately, though I believe he has since returned to his 

 home in the great Northwest. The longing thoughts of 

 many anglers of this region will go back with him. 

 From what they tell us, I presume our fishing here is not 

 worth the name, in comparison with the sport of that 

 great domain beyond the upper corner of the Rockies. 



Our little parly on its brief camping trip took just 70 

 black bass, not fishing very hard, but still having only 

 two really big das §• I can not refrain from a wordabout 

 the latter of these, bpcause it was one of those thoroughly 

 enjoyable and satisfactory experiences which make an 

 angler feel good all over. We had been taking in the 

 lake all the big-mouth bass we cared for, and had grown 

 disgusted because they wouldn't come out of the grass 

 and fight like men. We wanted some email-mouths, and 

 the day before 1 had located some, during a frog hunt 

 along the banks of the Fox River, about 3 miles from our 

 camp. I had found them in a deep pool beneath a wagon 

 bridge, but had not been able to make them bite, for they 

 seemed as shy as trout. On our last afternoon in camp 

 we concluded to walk over to this wagon bridge, just 

 for the sake of looking at the big fellows in their home. 

 I had tried them in vain with frog, flv and all the arti- 

 ficial baits at hand, and we had no idea that we could 

 make them rise 'to any lure within our means, for we had 

 no minnows nor crawfish, indeed no live bait whatever but 

 a few big frogs, which under the circumstances we did 

 not value, for the day; was warm, bright and cloudless. 

 As we approached the bridge, one of the party with his 

 rod knocked ddwn one of the dragon flies, or "devil's 

 darning needles," which were flying all about. Recalling 

 the f£cc that we had found many of these insects in the 

 stomachs of the big-mouth bass we had taken on the lake, 

 he put this one on his hook, and stepping to the end of 

 the bridge tossed it over. On the instant the water was 

 all a-boil! A dozen great bass broke for it. One big fel- 

 low missed, doubled back, nabbed it, and swung down 

 under the bridge with a strain which nearly broke the 

 stout bait-rod at the first rush. A pretty fight he made, ' 

 but had to yield. He weighed 41b3. and was a magnificent 

 fish in every way. Meantime J. B. H. essayed a cast 

 with a live fi-og, and at once hung a second bass almost 

 as large. We could see a whole school of big bass follow- 

 ing the hooked captive about as he rushed wildly through 

 the water. The scene was most exciting, and all three 

 of us yelled like Indians, We were directly above the 

 fiih, and the unrulfled water was so clear that we could 

 see every movement they made. I doiiibt if a better 

 chance was ever offered for watching the feeding habits 

 of the small-mouth bass. 



The first bass struck boldly, savagely, and in apparent 

 anger. His fins were all ruffled up, and he seemed mad 

 clear through. The second bass seemed to feel the same 

 about the frog. After that the bass acted differently. 

 They seemed to see us, and to grow cautious. They sank 

 to the bottom, and took the bait slowly, carefully, deli- 

 cately, and only after the most thorough investigation. 

 With the most tempting live frog they would have noth- 

 ing to do. A spoon hook they scorned. A quill minnow 

 they would not look at. An artificial cricket brought 

 one gingerly rise, and no more. There was just one bait 

 which they could not resist, and that was the dragon fly. 

 When we lowered one of these, hooked lightly through I 

 the shoulders and not broken up or mutilated, down to 

 the bottom of the deep clear water, we could see tempta- 

 tion depicted on every bass countenance. They would : 

 c7ias.st;r around, look nervous, go up and softly take a; 

 smell of it, and then finally one o'd fellow would gently 

 suck it in. Then would come the rush of his jealous 

 comrades, suddenly emboldened, and the fight, and the ^ 

 wild yells from the bridge above. We could see the • 

 whole panorama, could count the bass in the pool, could 

 see each bass take the bait, and knew in advance how 

 large a fish we had to play. T do not think a similar 

 opportunity often otters. We simply exulted in the fact 

 that we had outwitted these wily fellows by finding the 

 bait they couldn't help taking. It was matter of further 

 self-gralu'ation that we found near by a clover field in 

 which the dragon flies were numerous, and where we 

 could catch them easily in the landing net. After this 

 we shall bear the dragon fly in mind when the bass will* i 

 not rise. We took here, under these interesting circum- . 

 stances, 16 small-mouth black bass, averaging 2^1bs. in 

 weight. It happened that I was the only one using a fly- 

 rod, in this instance a Harris model Kosmic, weight less 

 than 4ois. On this baby tool I killed 3 bass, each weigh- , 

 ing over 2Ub8. , and a more sensational angling experience 

 I do not care to have, for at every moment we expected ' 

 to see the little rod go. The bass would only bite at the 

 edge of the shadow on the upper side of the bridge, and 

 when one was struck it ran with the current, directly 

 under the bridge. There was no way of saving the rod, 

 and there was little skill possible in playing the fish, for 

 it was only a question of the endurance of the rod, whose 

 slender tip, even under all the lift I dared give it, rattled 

 ominously along the ends of the planks. Sometimes the 

 fish would run out from under the bridge, but when he 

 saw us he would go back under, and then we could hear 

 the fight, but could not see it. The rod would tell when 

 the bass sprang clear of the water, and we could hear him 

 splash when he fell back, but we could not see the spring , 

 or the shaking of the head. We were all mightily tickled ' 

 to see how the little strip of bamboo stuck to the big bass, i 

 and finally brought them out completely beaten. It was 

 as severe a test as could be devised for any rod, and I 

 must say my admiration for the capabilities of the fly-rod 

 increased materially. There is no comparing a bait-rod 

 with a fly-rod when it comes to sport in playing a fish. 

 Here we had actual, genuine sport, and albeit a trifle 

 anxious in its nature, I believe the best lever knew under 

 any circumstances. We left the 'bridge with our big ' 

 string of bass after only a couple of hours of fishing, and > 

 each of us asserted that prettier, cleaner, easier and 

 better sport he had never had. Above all rose the exults ) 

 ant feeling that we had circumvented these knowing 

 fish, and beaten them at their own game. We had gone 

 there baitless, but we returned with abundant credentials 

 to show our fortune. Dillenbeek, the owner of the vilL 



