Aug. 4, 1892.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



97 



quarter of a mile in extent, that the now famous "moon- 

 eye8"or "mooneyed shad," or so-called "fresh-water shad," 

 are taken. There has been much discussion over this fish 

 in the columns of Forest AND Stream, which has been 

 the only paper to locate and name the fish. It had never 

 been my fortune to see one of these fish, and being now 

 upon Ihe lake I was glad to find opporlunity to accept 

 Mr. J. P. Roberts's repeated invitations to come up and 

 catch one. I did catch one, and just one; for although 

 the run has been very large and' has lasted very late, it 

 is now long past time for the disappearance of these fish, 

 and when they leave the river no one knows where they 

 go. Their biting time rarely runs over thirty days, and 

 usually depends upon the supply of a large ephemera, 

 locally known as the "G-reen Bay fly.'" It is like the 

 "sand fly," which sometimas delug'es Chicago, though I 

 think larger. The gray drake artificial fly is in its imi- 

 tation, though a No, 3 bass fly would not be larger than 

 the actual insect. Early in the season the fly deposits 

 eggs on rushes or other water plants. These hatch and 

 the larva? fall into the water, and in the first stage of their 

 life become water insects. Shortly the shell-like chry- 

 salis is abandoned and left floating upon the water to 

 make the ignorant wonder why so many young crawfish 

 have shed their thin and tender skins. The delicate fly 

 now takes to the shrubs and trees. AU day long you 

 will not see it unless the weather be very cool and cloudy. 

 At evening, not at sundown even, perhaps, but half an 



fishing lasted only about ten minutes. It was over in half 

 an hour the night before. No one in the past week has 

 caught over two on any evening, I have mentioned Mr. 

 Earle's catch of eight a couple of weeks ago. A few 

 years ago a boat could catch 40 or more in an evening. 

 There were thousands of the fish. The dredging in the 

 Neenah River seems to have disturbed the mooneyes, for 

 they are. not half so abundant aa formerly. At no other 

 point about the lake, neither in the Northern Fox River, 

 nor in Lake Butte des Mortp, or in Little Butte des Morts, 

 nor in any of the other connecting waters, are these 

 singular fish to be found. At least that is what I heard 

 on my too brief trip. 



WINNEBAQO BASS. 



In early July the black bass were in schools and chas- 

 ing minnows in shore. Chet told me that two weeks 

 ago he saw one school of bass along the beach, which he 

 thought was over a mile long. IIe.ivy catches can be 

 made on such occasions. We had very dull hot weather, 

 and no really lively bass fishing, but we caught 21 black 

 bass in our boat in the part of a day we fished. And on 

 what sort of bait does one suppose? Worms. Plain 

 worms and nothing else. Nothing else would do. Min- 

 nows, frog, fly, crawfish — none of these woxild my lord 

 Dolomieu have. J ust now the best of all bass baits on 

 Winnebago, even for. big bass, is the plain, red, wriggling 

 worm, and plenty of him. This was the first time I 



Forest and Stream's Fishing Postals. 



"BBOP VS A LINE" ON A POSTAL CARD. 

 FisMng Newa, Place lo Catch Fish, Fish Caught, Fish- 

 ing Tncldents. 



Capis Vincent, Thousand Islands, N. Y., Aug. 1.— The 

 following veritable record of a half day's sport by some 

 of the guests of the Algonquin Hotel may interest the 

 readers of Forest and Stream: 



O. W. Weeks 87 bas8, 71 lbs. weight. 



O. T.Mackey 98 W " 



O iaren re Fall nest ock 101. " 68 " 



w. p. Estorljrook .,.,92 " W " " 



John Baldwin 48 " 34 " " 



The above gentlemen are all New Yorkers, who fre- 

 quent the upper St. Lawrence River, and who know 

 where the best bass fishing in America is to be found. 

 Now that the illegal netting is well nigh under control, 

 this is the most attractive spot in all the United States 

 for those who love to "fight it out on that line" with the 

 gamy bass or the fierce muskallonge, Carleton. 

 ♦ 



GLtSN Eyre, Pike county, Pa , July 29. — The black basa 

 fishing in the lakes and ponds of Pike county is the best 

 for years, and the lover of this aport cannot complain of 



HI ll.LUb f KAT.I^U 'A'QUUU S.LAH; UHIOAU.O, 



THE FISHERIh:S BUILDING OF THE WOHLU'S FAIR. 

 Bi' courtesy of ttie "riluatratBil Worlrt'.^ Fair." 



hour or an hour later, and most just as the darkness 

 thickens, you will see the fly come out. Then, if you be 

 fortunate, you will in this restricted bit of water be in- 

 debted to it for a few moments at least of rare and 

 keenly interesting sport. 



In company with the best guide upon the lake, Chet 

 Halsey (I wonder why the best guide and boatman on 

 any water is always named Chet? I know a dozen of 

 them), I went out from the hotel dock at about half-past 

 7 in the evening, and made for the bank opposite, near 

 the inlet of the river. 



"I don't expect we'll get a fish," said Chet; "they're 

 working out pretty fast now. Few days ago you could 

 see them rising, hundreds at a time, all over here. Look! 

 There's a rise now." 



A faint circle of the water showed where the fish had 

 broken. 



"There goes a fly now," said Chet, "watch it. There's 

 another. Here they come. We'i'e going to have a few 

 flies after all. Look out now. Get ready. See 'em — 

 there they rise!" 



The dusky air now began to fill with the flight of large, 

 gray-winged flies, and as these fell upon the water, splash, 

 splash! the "shad" began to take them, ail around the 

 boat, and everywhere, sometimes with a faint ripple, 

 sometimes with a big boiling splash. No man ever saw a 

 scene like that on a trout stream, 



I thought I was going to catch about a hundred fish in 

 four minutes, for they were taking the fly within ten feet 

 of the boat, but I soon found that they knew the differ- 

 ence between my No, 8 gray-drakes and the big natural 

 insects, though I cast scores of times directly over the 

 swirls made by feeding fish. At length I felt a sharp tug 

 in the dark, and had a fish hung, all by accident, A 

 prettier little fight I never had. The mooneye played 

 fair, and did not take to the weeds. He ran long and 

 sharp, and kept on running, and three times he came out 

 high and shook himself like a little tarpon. I don't see 

 that a trout of the same weight has much the advantage 

 of a mooneye. This fish was not large, weighing only 

 about a pound and a half. In shape and color it was 

 quite like a shad. The great round eye was the distin- 

 guishing mark of it. The mouth was smallish, but not 

 at all a sucker mouth. The roof of the mouth was very 

 hard and covered with sharp teeth, which proclaimed it 

 a minnow feeder beyond doubt. Some of the heaviest 

 catches of these fish have been made on small minnows. 



They speak of the mooneye being a very "tender- 

 mouthed" fish, and needing very careful playing. I think 

 this is only half true. The lower jaw is softer, but I 

 believe most of the mooneyes are lost because they are 

 BO hard-mouthed. It must be hard to set a hook into that 

 bany roof of the mouth. 



Out of 500 rises I saw, and seemingly twice that many 

 casts, I only hooked one other mooneye, which escaped 

 at once. The following night I did not get even one. I 

 had a heavy strike, and after a long fight discovered that 

 we had on two fish, a walleyed pike and a mooneye. 

 In landing them the mooneye broke away, as Chet 

 took the top fish, the wall-eye, into the net first, and the 

 eader parted below the net at once. On that night the 



ever still-fisbed with a casting outfit and got baas out 

 from under the boat. We caught 4 good big bass, Sllbs. 

 each, on worm, but also caught a great many so small 

 that I was ashamed to keep them. Thinking to give 

 them a show for their white alley, I rigged up my fly- 

 x'od for worm, but the bass quit biting after I had lost 

 half a dozen strikes by waiting too long. When you 

 are fishing black bass with worms, it seems, you must 

 strike as soon as you feel a touch at the hook. Chet says 

 they take in the whole buDch of worms at the first 

 motion, and will spit it out if you are not careful. When 

 I was a boy and fished for minnows this way we used to 

 "let them run with it," but this will not do on bass. Sa 

 much for another chunk of experience. 



Our friend the big-mouth bass seems in disrepute on 

 Winnebago. Even Chet did not know where to find 

 them. "I don't hunt after any sort of fish but the regu- 

 lar black bass," said he, This hunting after the bass in 

 a big water like this, where they have full swing for all 

 their capricious habits, is a course of study where it 

 takes time to reach a df'gree. I took pleasure in listen- 

 ing to Chet, who is one of the men we don't hear talk 

 about their skill and knowledge, but who do actually 

 know something of what they talk about in black bass 

 habits. 



"No man can learn 'em," concluded he, "and it makes 

 me tired to hear of anybody knowing all their habits so 

 as to tell what they are going to do. You can't tell 

 when they are going to bite, or what they are going to 

 bite, or why they are going to bite. They are liable to 

 take Just the bait you don't expect, in just the sort of 

 weatner when you weren't expecting it. You can't 

 figure 'em out, and all you can do is to learn their run- 

 ways and keep on a trying, I've studied 'em for years 

 and I vow they're too deep for me." E. Houail. 



New Tarpon Grounds. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



It is generally conceded that good tarpon fishing; is to 

 be had at only three or four localities in the United 

 States and those on the Mexican Gulf coast. Of these 

 probably the best are Punta Gorda and Fort Myers, Fla. 

 But I saw last winter many tarpon at Tampico, Mexico; 

 so plentiful were they that at times one could fe^ several 

 breaking the surface of the river at once. But the 

 reader says Tampico is out of the world. Not at all. 

 It is a pleasant ocean voyage from New Y'ork via 

 Havana, and doubly so in winter. Tampico in winter is 

 quite warm. The only drawback is the hotel accammo- 

 ciations, but better are promised soon, Tampico can also 

 be reached by rail from Laredo, Texas, to Mont'^rey, and 

 by Monterey & Mexican Gulf Railroad to Tampico. 

 Aside from the chief attraction, game of all kinds is 

 abundant and the country and people odd, strange and 

 picturesque. • J. B, BuKKls. 



ClovbrdatjE, Ind., Julv 37. 



The Big- Fish. 



First Fieh— Say, I came mighty uear gettiuyr ctiugbt by an 

 atiglw thismorniBS. 



Second Ditto— Well, voa're in luck. I'll bet you'vp pot th« 

 reputation o£ being the biggest flsli in the eea now.— 2V. F. Herald 



poor results. Not since 1888, then the best year for some 

 time, have the average catches in numbers or size been 

 equal to this season. This applies to all waters of Pike 

 CDunty. The waters near Milford are easy of access, and 

 Jones Lake near Hawley oft'ers ample sport. Trout fish- 

 ing closing this month has been poor of late owins to 

 severe drouth. Y, 

 ♦ 



Boston, J uly 30. — I have just returned from an eigh- 

 teen-day trip from Belgrade Mills, Me,, after black bass. 

 The largest bass caught while I was there weighed SJlbs., 

 taken in Long Pond. They state that the fishing is not 

 as good as last summer. H. 

 ♦ 



Frankesmoth, Mich., July 36.— Perch and bass flshine: 

 is fine in Saginaw B iy at present. Some fine fish are 

 caught here. ^ K. 



Just What Was to be Expected. 



Dr. S. T. Davis, of Lancaster, Pa , who has been 

 advertising his anti friction tip in the Forest and Stream 

 and elsewhere, writes us: "I have had calls for the tip 

 from all parts of the United States, and cheering words 

 from nine-tenths of my customers. I li.ive received 

 one-third luoie orders tliroiigli tlie FOREST AND 

 STREAM tliixu frtnii all the other sources coiiibiued." 

 That was to be expected. There is no other medium in 

 the land that goes to so many anglers as does the Forest 

 AND Stream: none other of such value to anglers ; none 

 other so carefully read: none other that can pay so well 

 the advertiser of anglers' goods. 



Three Harvest Excursions. 



HAlit' KATKS VI.i THE5 IIjLINOIS ClfiHTUAL. AUG. 30tH, SEPT. 27tH 

 AND OCT. ?5TH, 1892. 



The Central Route will sell excursion tickets to the agricultu- 

 ral regions of the West, Southwest and South, at one fare for the 

 rounri trip, from stations on its lines north of Cairo, on Aug, 30 

 and Sept. 27. A third excursion will be run to the South and 

 Southwest on Oct. 25. Your loo il ticket agent will give you full 

 particulars in regard to these Harvest Excursions. Arrange- 

 ments can also be made in this connection to visit the desirable 

 rail'-oad lands for sale by the Illinois Central in Southern Illinois, 

 on obtaining special permission to do ao by addressing the Com- 

 pany's Land Commissioner at Chicago. Mr. E. P. Skene. In ad- 

 dition, a few weeks before the first Bscursion date, your local 

 ticket agent will be able to furnish you with a special folder, 

 issued by tbe Illinois Central, which will give you particulars o£ 

 these Harvest Excursions in such forms as will enable you to plan 

 your journey at home. Should you not be within call of a rail- 

 ro^id ticket oflce, address A. H. Hanson, G. P. A., Illinois Cen- 

 tral H. R., Chicago, 111.— ^Idt'. 



COPY FOR ADVERTISEMENTS MUST REACH THIS 

 OFFICE NOT LATER THAN TUESDAY MORNING, 

 AND SHOULD BE RECEIVED AS MUCH EARLIER 

 AS PRACTICABLE. gaf 



