Aug. 35, 1892.] 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



168 



go with him. but he went alone. He came back bathed 

 in a long'forgotten, honest perspiration, and had in his 

 company — one solitary bassl 



"Those bass didn't want any frogs to-day," said he: 

 "they just turned up their noses at 'em." 'Cause why, it 

 wasn't the same stream. Heraclitus had a good head, if 

 he was a ancient. 



NeverthelesB, when Mr, W. H, ('omstock. of this city, 

 asked me yesterday where to go for some fly-iishiug for 

 bass, I sent him to this same locality unhesitatingly. I 

 do not know of any wading water, anywhere in the 

 country, where there are so many large bass. They 

 ought to rise to the fly, and if they do at all, Mr. Corn- 

 stock will get some of them, for he never uses anything 

 but the fly for bass, and is very succ(^8sful. 



ariEAT FISHING, 



I do not know any reason for it, and indeed, there is 

 every reaton against it, but it is a fact that fish of all 

 kinds are biting ravenously all over this part of the 

 country. Everybody is having luck. Mr, C, W, Lee. of 

 the Boaid of Trade, tells me that all the Board of Trade 

 men now dropping in from their summer trips report 

 good fishing. On all h9,nd8 the stories are the same. The 

 high water of this spring was a blessing to anglers. The 

 Fox Lake country is alive with fish. At Antioch we 

 found big-mouth bass a drug on the market, 



Bass are now taking the fly very well on the Fox at 

 Elgin, and the fly-fishing there will be good all the rest of 

 this month and perhaps for a week or so in September. 



The Kankafeee swarms with bass in its upper reaches. 

 The Mak saw-ba boys are glorying in the pport, Billy 

 Mussey has been living there, and weekly adds some new 

 and lurid light on records. He brought up 34 Inass in one 

 lot, the last time he came, and in three days cauerht ;24, 

 19, 14, Roll Organ caught 16 last Saturday, L, R. Brown 

 10, Frank Reynolds 12, Geo, Holden 8, and others of the 

 club in the same ratio. Talk about bassl I never heard 

 of such fishing in these parts. All f ma: casting. I recom- 

 mend to these anglers in the narrow Kankakee that they 

 lay aside their bait-rods and try pitching small frogs on 

 fly-rods. It is a shame to use a fly-rod so, but you can 

 take an old and stiffish one. In this way the angler can 

 have some fun with his fish. I should like to hear some 

 of these mighty men in connection with a 41bs. bass and a 

 fly-rod, and the Kankakee current, 



Mr, C, W. Lee starts soon for a couple of weeks at Lake 

 Chautauqua, N. Y,, where be anticipates divers strug- 

 gles with mascallonge, pickerel or maybe rock bass, if he 

 has luck. 



Mr, Abe Pool, of this city, is back from a northern lake 

 whose whereabouts he is not a,nxious to reveal. In one 

 day he caueht 83 bass there. On the same day a market- 

 fisher caught 189 bass in the same lake, 



Mr. Harry Wadhams is just back from Wausaukee 

 Club, near Wausaukee, Wis. In his stay of some days 

 be caught 582 trout in the adjacent streams. He caught 

 8? trout in one day. He brought back with him 21 trout, 

 of which not one weighed less than Iflbs. They ranged 

 from that up to 2|lbs, I knew in a minute where these 

 trout were caught, for there is only one place in that 

 region where that is possible. It was in the deep, cold 

 hole at the mouth of Medicine Brook, where it eo pties 

 into the Peshtigo River, about 10 miles above Ellis Junc- 

 tion. I have reported other heavy trout from the same 

 spot in previous years. Yet old men will tell you gravely 

 that there isn't a trout in the Peshtigo! 



DESTRUCTION OF TOUNG BASS, 



Dr. Bartlett, of the State Fish Commission, cites an un- 

 usual and most unfortunate state of afliairs in the hook- 

 and-line murder of young bass along the Mississippi 

 River. The worst of it, there is no remedy. Leave the 

 greed of the average clown alone, and it will know no 

 limit till the end of the fish has come. The letter men- 

 tioning this reads as follows, and one can imagine the 

 feelings of the man who wrote it, for Dr, Bartlett is sin- 

 cere in his love for things that swim. 



"QuiNOY, lU,, Aug, 17,— Small game fish never so 

 lolenty as this season. Everywhere the waters are full of 

 them, but I fear that irreparable damage is being done to 

 the future of good bass fishing. Hundreds of thousands 

 are caught every week of young black bass, measuring 

 hardly 4in. in length. 1 presume Sunday last and Sun- 

 day preceding 100,000 voung black bass' were taken by 

 hook and line outPf Quincy Bay, and every day enor- 

 mous strings of these little fish are taken. I have just 

 come to my office from the depot, and on my way up I 

 counted thirty-two men and boys on one little point of 

 land jutting out in the bay, not over 40ft. across, and 

 there was a little black bass in the air all the time. Every 

 individual had a big string; as I sit now writing I look 

 out of my office window and count nine boys all catch- 

 ing these little bass as fast as they can bait hooks. 



"Think of it; one man boasted of a catch of 800 Sun- 

 day, and not one of them fit to eat. Ninety per cent, of 

 all these fish are thrown away, spoiled when they come 

 in, or, if taken home, go to the ash heaps. These people 

 are doing more harm to the bass fishing of the future 

 than the fishermen, a long way, and yet there is no re- 

 dress. It is a hard sight to see the strings that go by the 

 office— 200 to 300 on each, 



"We have a goodly number of prosecutions and con- 

 victions reported by our wardens— over 1,100 for the sea- 

 son. 



"Am out of all my damage suits in good shape — new 

 trials or continuances, I have been quite busy with the 

 work in hand. S. P. Bartlett." 



The Chicago Fly-Casting Club continues its practice 

 meets, the last being that of Aur. IB, Many erstwhile 

 novices are becoming quite protishient, as it were, 



__________________ E. HouaH, 



Fishing at Fountain City, Wisconsin. 



R, L, C. and myself left Minneapolis A.ug. 11 on the 

 Chicago, BurlinKton & Northern for a week's vacation at 

 Fountain City, Wis , 107 miles from Minneapolis. Foun- 

 tain City contains, in its normal condition, 972 inhabi- 

 tants — 970 German, 1 Englishman and 1 Irishman, the 

 last two speaking the German language as she is spoken. 

 It will repay any one to make a trip to Fountain City, 

 and it's dollars to cents th^y will say they have seen no 

 other place like it in the United States. 



The fishing on the ilississippi River is very fair, and is 

 imj)roving every day as the water in the river lowers. A 

 large variety of Hah can be taken with the minnow for 

 bait— black bass, striped bass, croppie, pickerel, sand- 

 pike, pike, skip- jack, buffalo, sheeijshead, gar, sturgeon 



and catfish, Trout can be taken in the brooks f rom four 

 to six miles into the country. 



The accommodations are first class; at the Scherer 

 Hotel, which is kept by Albert Scherer, board can be ob- 

 tained at $3 per day. or by the week for $7. 



Aside from the fi-^hing, as notes of sjiecial interest may 

 be mentioned the springs, or fountains, and the blufts. 

 The place is rightly named Fountain City; it abounds 

 with clear, cool, sparkling springe, gushing out from the 

 side of the bluff, and almost every residence has its pri- 

 vate fountain. The high bluffs overhang the city to the 

 height of between 500 and fiOOft. Eagle Bluft', the high- 

 est, takes its name from Eagle Valley, in which is lo- 

 cated a very nice trout stream, 



C, and 1 made a trip up the bluff and were well repaid 

 by the view we got of the Mississippi River and the neigh- 

 boring islands. 



We have put in the week and are to come back in Oc- 

 tober, whpn the trees of the hills and blulfs have taken 

 on their autumn colors and the ducks and jacksnipes are 

 in the land. W. F. D. 



BLUEFISHING IN OLD TIMES. 



Ha viNa read in the Forest anij Steeam many accounts 

 of fishing trips and of various incidents in connection 

 therewith. And being an old and enthusiastic bluefish 

 fisherman, I wish to add my part to reminiscenes of the 

 past life in New York city.' I found myself financially 

 able to own a fishing yacht and thus to follow my 

 favorite sport night and day, for pleasure and profit. 

 Profit consisted in an outlay of |5 for 35 cents worth of 

 fish sold. 



My thoughts go back to my apprenticeship of five 

 vears. Date 1840. Shop llth street and od avenue, New 

 York city. Terms i||;20 per year, boss to board me. We 

 used to go fishing and bathing, summer evenings, at 

 Sandy Gibson's, corner 13th street and Avenue B. 



This love of sport seems to follow man from youth to 

 old age. Well, Hove it yet. But alas! where are the 

 fishV Thirty years back, bluefish were plentiful and 

 were then caught by trolling, or in the absence of wind, 

 by throwing and hauling the squid. As a edible or sale- 

 able fish they were scarcely marketable. But the mode 

 of catching for the past thirty years has been by chum- 

 ming or baiting. In a conversation with that noted smack 

 fisherman, the late Capt. Hiram Bebee, he told me how 

 this mode of baiting bluefish was found out. It was 

 thus: After catching in the smack a fare of sea bass, por- 

 gies and other marketable fish, and when the smack's 

 crew were washing the decks, the large bluefish were 

 seen feeding on the scraps of bait. So Captain Bebee 

 would drop a line and baited hook and haul in a few for 

 market. Thus, I am informed, this mode of fishing was 

 introduced. 



Let u^ go on a bluefishingr trip. Time, twenty years 

 back. We have a boat, say 40ft., with living accommo- 

 dations on board and provisions. There are four of us on 

 this trip. We get 500 mossbunkers for bait from pound 

 nets in Gravesend Bay. Then we sail outside of Coney 

 Island Point on the "^ebb tide as we sail off shore. We 

 wish to anchor inshore off the lightship, or off shore of 

 the wreck of Black Warrior, We grind our bait in a mill, 

 thus making our mossbunkers into sausage, or fine 

 ground fish. We do this grinding as we sail out for the 

 fishing ground. 



And now the order is down jib and stow it away, round 

 up in the wind and drop anchor, down mainsail and stow 

 it. And now a guess as to how long before we can draw 

 the fish to us and get them to bite, I say fifteen minutes. 

 As I generally feed the bait overboard with a spoon I 

 could, most times, get the first fish. But to-day we have 

 a novice at this mode of fishing. 1 see we have a nice 

 tide to carry the bait so I bait my line and give him the 

 best place, and also try to instruct him how to act in 

 fishing. In about ten. minutes I see the wake of the fish 

 which iiave found our feed, and I tell him the fish are 

 around . Then I see him snatch and haul in his line as if 

 his own life depended on it. As I stop him he finds there 

 is no fish on his hook, but he tells me what a bite he had, 

 I tell him not to snatch his line, but if he feels the fish 

 working at his bait to pay out his line and the fish will 

 take the bait in, and when hooked will pull in earnest; 

 then to pull him on board. In a short time he said 

 he felt a fish at his bait. I told him to pay out 

 his line. He did so, and now he has an 81bs, blue- 

 fish. But what an exciting time until he gets him 

 into the boat. And as he admires the fish he asks how it 

 will be known from the other fish. I cut a notch in this 

 wonderful fish's tail so that it can be known. And thus 

 we fish, some days catching five to 300, and then, as we 

 read of fishermen in the wonderful Book catching 

 nothing, so the same with us. 



I am writing of twenty years back, when fish were 

 plentiful. The past few years they have been scarce, 

 and there are too many blank days. But they now make 

 it a game fish by using rod and reel. But the fish of the 

 past would have broken fancy tackle. 



We formerly caught bluefish by trolling, I often 

 think of and laugh over the tricks and pranks we used 

 to play on each other, especially on a novice at trolling. 

 It used to be great fun, when you had 150ft, of line out, 

 and thought you were pulling in a large bluefish to lift 

 in a couple of bricks or a bottle, or two dead fish on one 

 hook, And how the man knew it was not a fish on his 

 line. 



The late C, G. Gunther (ex Mayor) was a noted one for 

 pranks when out with a party of friends. As he owned 

 a small steamboat he was often out trolling. Once as I 

 lay baiting fish I saw him with friends trolling for blue- 

 fish: and as his boat passed my own his friends and him- 

 self were shouting, and the water was flying, and what 

 they thought was a large hluefish on their line I saw was 

 a large iron frying-pan. But how that fish did skip and 

 jump; and what a time when his friend lifted it into the 

 boat. But I must stop this rambling, and if worthy of a 

 reminiscence to you, you are welcome to it; and if not, 

 these thoughts have brought to me pleasant memories of 

 the past. John Bateman. 



Gbavksknd Beach, Now York. 



Angling Talks. By Qeorge Dait^son. Pnee 50 ceaiA. J^'ly- 

 Eocls (ind Fly-TacMe. By^H. P. Wells. Price $2.50. Fly- 

 Fvilung and Fly-Making for Trout. By J. If. Keene. 

 Price $1..5U, American Angler's Book. By Thud. Norris. 

 Price $5M. 



FISHING RODS FROM THE HUB. 



BOSTOK, Aug, 33. — The latest reports from the fly- 

 fishermen are rather dubious. The weather has been 

 extremely hot .and very few trout have been taken in the 

 principal Now England trout waters since August came 

 in. Fishing at Eangeley has been very pooi'. There is 

 some fly-fishing in the smaller bodies of water that are 

 remote in thfi woods. At Kennebago the sport has boen 

 only fair. Mr. Frank S. Dpxter, of Boston, left Dix- 

 field, Me., last week for Kennebago; Mrs, Dexter is 

 with him and Miss Addie Sherma as guest. This will 

 be the young lady's first trip to the Maine fronting 

 grounds, though Mr, and Mrs. Dexter have spent aome 

 six weeks at Kennebago every season for a number of 

 years. 



Mr. ,J, F, Dwinell, of Dwinell, Hayward & Co,, left 

 Boston the other day for a fishing trijp to Moosehead, 

 He was accompanied by Mrs. Dwinell and one or two 

 lady friends. Mr. Dwinell is an expert fly-fisherman. 

 He writes his son that he whipped the waters of Moose- 

 head all one day without a single rise. Then he was 

 ready to give up in disgust. The party has since started 

 for a trip to the White Mountains. 



It seems that the nnening of the narrow-gauge rail- 

 road from Phillips to Rangeley, Me., twenty-eight miles 

 through woods and mountains, has opened up some very 

 good trout streams and ponds. It also seems that the 

 fishing has been abused. People who go up and down the 

 road tell me that enormous strings of small trout have 

 been taken in that vicinitjr of late. The little train even 

 stops to let the sportsmen off, and at night it stops to take 

 them on again. They tell of catches of oOU, and even uji 

 to TOO ti"Out in a day, or from one train to another. A 

 Boston gentleman tells me of a couple of New York boys 

 who got on the train he was coming out on the other 

 afternoon. The boys got on at ReddinE;ton, a lumber 

 town that has sprung up on this road. They had fifty- 

 eight trout that weighed IriOIbs. They had never had any 

 previous experience in catching trout, but this time then- 

 trout catching was ordy limited by their bait giving out. 

 They had tried to dig worms with a stick, but did not 

 succeed very well. 



As suggested in the account of their departure in the 

 Forest and Stream, the gentlemen of the Edwards 

 party, with Mr. Clarence M. Reed, were not satisfied 

 with fishing for bass in Nova Scotia. Mr. W. P, Ed- 

 wards is too much of a lover of trout fishing. They fished 

 for trout at Kempville, about twenty miles from Yar- 

 mouth, and had excellent sport. Their best catch was 

 about fifty pounds of trout, weighing about three-fourths 

 of a pound each. These were caught in about an hour 

 and a half. 



It seems that the inhabitants about Lake Oobbossecon- 

 tee and' the Winthrop, Me., ponds are at last awaken- 

 ing to the desirability of having their beautiful sheets 

 of water stocked with salmon and trout. It is proposed 

 that if local fish and game societies can be formed, so 

 that the fish may be protected, that the State will furn- 

 ish the fry. But the worst di-awback to be encountered 

 is the fact that black bass are now in the most of these 

 waters, and that they are fast destroying the perch, 

 pickerel and other food fish, A gentleman, well ac- 

 quainted in that section, tells me that the inhabitants are 

 now claiming that it was a great mistake ever putting 

 bass into these waters. The people care nothing for the 

 bass: not many of them ever using them foi- food, and as 

 for the sport of taking them, they have little time or care 

 for such pastime. Such is generally the case in Maine. 

 People who have a taste for trout and salmon— a taste 

 for angling for them — do not take kindly to black bass. 



At last some pickerel are being taken in the Charles 

 River this summer. It will be remembered that the pick- 

 erel fishing was good in that river last year; but those 

 who have given the river a fair trial this year, a number 

 of times, have met with no success. Local fishermen 

 have been at a loss to understand the situation. But now 

 it would seem that the lusty pickerel has concluded to come 

 to the hook, Mr,T, J. Houlahan made a good catch of pick- 

 erel near Millis the other day. He took fifty-five fish, 

 the largest weighing 31bs. A Mr. Ellsworth is reported 

 to have caught a i -pound black bass in Lake Waldron 

 last Saturday. This is the largest bass on record from 

 that lake. It is perhaps not generally known that Cheat- 

 nut Hill Reservoir was stocked with black bass several 

 years ago, aiid that some permits to fish there are being 

 granted. No considerable strings are reported, however. 

 Bass are being taken from Island Pond at West Roxbury 

 and Dedham this summer, the first for several vears. 



Srecial. 



Harvey Goddard's T]?out. 



There is hardly a fisherman in Springfield, Westfield 

 or Hartford who does not know Harvey Goddard, of 

 Granby, and few who are not more or less under obliga- 

 tion to him for fishing privileges in his streams or trout 

 pond. An unusual feature of a recent heavy storm, as 

 related by himself, will prove interesting to perhaps 

 more than the fishermen of the vicinity. At 6 o'clock on 

 a recent evening there came up a heavy thunder storm, 

 and the rain fell in torrents for two hours. Mr. God- 

 dard's stream during this storm rose higher than it had 

 ever been before, overflowing the road and the stone 

 wall, rushed through his fields, digging deep gulleys, 

 and finally plunging down through the ravine with a 

 terrific roar. The water, however, subsided almost as 

 quickly as it rose, and the following morning the stream 

 was only at its usual height for this season of the year. 

 But here comes the sad and painful feature oi^ the narra- 

 tive to the hearts of all genuine sportsmen : On inv^esti- 

 gation Mr, Goddard found that thousands and thousands 

 of speckled trovit had been washed from the stream, and 

 while naost of them were lying dead in the fields, there 

 were many still alive in the various jwols of water that 

 were left in the little hollows. With assistance he placed 

 many of the surviving trout back in the brook, but it 

 will take years, sayt) Mr. Goddard, to get the stream in 

 the fine condition that it was in before the storm. He 

 has kept this stream well stocked for years, mainly for 

 the pleasure of his friends, of whom he has many in 

 Hartford, where he -has served in the Legislature as 

 representative of his town. No (me regrets the work of 

 that great storm more than Mr. Goddard, but there are 

 still trout in his'stream, and, compared with the average 

 trout Itrook, it will prove "mighty good fishin'."— 6'or- 

 resfjondence Siyringfleld Republiccm. 



