Sept. 1, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



183 



revolving spoon, spinning on its swivel -will be seen pres- 

 ently. Look out! is your arm out of joint? Gather your- 

 self. Never mind McGmlpin's chuckle, for he will look 

 out for oars; you look out for yourself. You have hitched 

 a lightning express train, and it is billed through. Haul 

 in, keep taut, oh, for your life don't slack the line. Blood 

 on your finger? all right, that will cool your fever a little, 

 it is only the line that has cut through into the flesh. 

 Come in steady, jerk not, still come in. You can't. You 

 must. Take a good breath. Never mind McGulpin, he 

 is pulling toward shore. There he goes, that hillock of 

 foam means one fearful strike for life. It must be tiger 

 against tiger now. Let him tangle your line and he is 

 safe. Ah , that rush means business, never mind the boat, 

 go overboard, but hold that line tight. Pull, pull, pull— 

 o)i, pull, for a yard of slack will raise the laugh on you. 

 Good, McGulj)in, the bow is among the bulrushes and the 

 shore is near. The lashing monster feels the tickling of the 

 I bulrushes and he knows that means speedy death. Now 

 for one last, mad, despairing effort. Straight up into the 

 air he shoots himself, his lithe sides sparkling with drops 

 that glisten like diamonds, a volcano of hot rage; let him 

 have his way, let out the line just so much; how much? 

 enough to keep him from snapping it in twain, and not 

 enough for him to loosen that hook; this is his one grand 

 chance for life. He flings himself like a circus acrobat, 

 nose pointed away from boat and shore. Now, if you 

 know anything, let him go, but only until with gentle 

 pressure you can turn him as a tug will tow a great ship 

 around. Is he off? No, that white turbulent circle means 

 that he is still hooked and your skill is bringing him to- 

 ward you again. Will he try another leap? He would if 

 he knew how out of breath you are, standing there quiv- 

 ering like a frightened girl, panting and with eye aflame 

 with delirious intoxication. Draw in steady, the boat is 

 in the shallows. 'V^^iat's that brushing your legs? Never 

 mind, it is McGuli^in crawling aft with his gafl^-hook. 

 Are you going to lose your quarry? You see him plainly 

 now, six feet away. Will he shoot that monstrous power 

 against the boat and tear himself away to freedom? You 

 may have the muscalonge ague and lose everything if 

 you are not cool and steady. Lean out, throw that right 

 arm as far as possible from the boat. Suppose you do 

 fall out. Stand up to your armpits but don't lose your 

 taut hold. There he is, his tiger eyes, bloodshot and de- 

 flant, glaring at you. Now for McGulpin— you have done 

 all that man can do. Steadily the guide reaches out the 

 gaff— a plunge, a mighty lashing— a peaceful flash — out 

 you go— up the bank — falling limp and breathless on the 

 sweet, soft boughs of spruce, while McGulpin hauls in 

 hand over hand your 40 lbs. muscalonge. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[By a Staif Corrmjonclent.l 



From Sept. 1 on till Nov. 1 the fishing for bass, pike 

 and masuallonge will be good and will improve for thirty 

 to sixty days. This fact is usually lost sight of in the 

 advent of the game season. From now on we will hear 

 less and less of fishing, and more of shooting, from those 

 who leave the city for a sporting trip. Bass fishing is 

 bettfir now than it has been at all, but the ducks and 

 chickens will drown the bass, so to speak, after next 

 week. 



Mr. F. H. Andrus, of A. G. Spalding & Bros., in com- 

 pany with Mr, J. D. Knight, start to-morrow to join the 

 Oliver camping party, now on the Little Two-Heart 

 River, Lake Superior, South shore. There are already 

 in camp Messrs. John Oliver and his law partner Mr. 

 Showalter, with Messrs. Snow, Holden and Marshall, all 

 of this city. These have been in the woods for some 

 time, and must doubtless have had magnificent fishing 

 on those little- fished and abounding waters. Mr. Andrus 

 and Mr. Knight will arrive too late for trout fishing, as 

 the season closes Sept. 1, but will have some bass fishing 

 near by. Word comes down that the party now in camp 

 killed a fine black bear lately. 



State Fish Warden F. L, Buck, of Elgin, had a serious 

 aff:ray in attempting the arrest of four men who were 

 doing illegal seining in Honey Lake, Lake county, July 

 38 The men resisted arrest, and one of them stabbed 

 Buck in the back. Buck used the fellow, a big Bohe- 

 mian, very roughly, indeed, after he was struck himself, 

 and would probably have killed him — as he ought to 

 have done — had he not grown weak from loss of blood. 

 Buck landed all of his prisoners, and they were duly 

 fined, but the warden was then forced to take to his bed, 

 and is now only just able to be about. It is a very foolish 

 thing for illegal netters to resist arrest, and resistance of 

 tliis sort would have justified the promptest and straight- 

 est sort of shooting the warden knew how to do. Buck 

 did not shoot, but beat the fellow insensible with his re- 

 volver. The Bohemian is badly disfigured for life, and 

 he ia no longer in the ring. 



She wore glasses, carried a handbag, and wanted to 

 buy her husband a birthday present. 



""Vou sell fishing poles?" she asked of the gentleman at 

 the tackle counter. 



*'We have a fewrods in stock for that purpose, madam,"' 

 said he. 



"What do they cost?" asked she, 



"More than we sell them for, madam," said he. "This 

 is a ■' 



"You needn't get gay with me, man. All I want to 

 know is what them poles cost. I want to buy one for my 

 husband for a birthday present. Is this here the bargain 

 counter?'' 



"Madam,'" said the salesman, with his hand upon his 

 heart, "every rod on this counter is a bargain. We sell 

 only the finest goods, made especially for the birthday 

 trade. Our birthday presents in fishing tackle are war- 

 ranted to restore peace and harmony to families long torn 

 by discord."' 



"Say, I'd like to know what difference "" 



"Oh, not at all, madam "' 



"How do you know there's any discord in my fambly?" 

 "I did not mean in the least " 



"Ob! you didn't? Well, I don't care what you mean. 

 I won't have no talk like that from you, a perfect 

 stranger. I come in here to buy a pole " 



"Yes, madam, a rod " 



"A pole for my husband, an' you go to talking of dis- 

 cord in my fambly." 



"You misunderstand me, madam, I assure you. I beg 

 a thousand pardons, but I meant another family alto- 

 gether," 



"Oh, did you? You didn't mean me an' Henry? Well, 

 now, I tell you: there hez been a little trouble in our 

 fambly. Me an' Henry has been havin' an argyment ever 

 sence last winter," 



"Ah?" 



"Yes. He's great to go fishin'." 

 "Yes." 



"I told him it cost too much, a.n" me needin' a new 

 dress." 

 "Exactly,'" 



"Yes. An" he said I had dresses enough." 

 "Humph." 



"Yes. That riled me." 



"Of course." 



"Yes. An' 1 cried." 



"So?" 



"Yes, an" threatened to leave him." 

 "Well!" 



"Yes, an' — say, I didn't half cook." 

 "Indeed!" 



" Yes. Well , that fetched Henry. " 

 "He got the dress?" 



"Yes. Got it on. Pretty good dress, ain't it?" 

 "Certainly is.'" 

 "Fits pretty smooth?" 

 "Indeed it does." 

 "Becoming, eh?" 



"Well, I should say it was. You look simply charm- 

 ing in it." 



"Go 'way! Do I'?" 



"Yes indeed. A good figure, you know, always — '" 

 "That's what I always said. Henry, he's got carelesser 

 about how I look or what I wear, but I says a woman 

 has to have clothes, if she expects to be anybody at all." 

 "Why, certainly."' 



"Well, Henry he got the dress all right, an' so, to show 

 him there's no feelin"s on my part, I thought I'd get him 

 a fishin' pole, for I know there's nothin' on earth he likes 

 so well as to be foolin" around with a fishin' pole, even if 

 I didn't let him go fishin' very often."' 



"Exactly.'" 



"Now, what's the price of this here little pole, with 

 red an' yellow stripes around it? It's rather pretty, but I 

 think navy blue 'd be a better color for summer wear." 



"We can sell you this rod for |2.5, madam.'" 



"What! Twenty-five dollars for that little thing? You 

 must be crazy. Say, you don't know your business. I'm 

 goin' right to the head of this house and see if I'm going 

 to be insulted this way.'" 



"The boss will charge you $40, madam; the further 

 upstairs you go the more it costs." 



"You don't say? Well, I'll have to get another sort of 

 pole. Have you got any for a dollar?" 



"Yes, madam, we sell an excellent rod for a dollar,with 

 hook, line and sinker thrown in." 



"Thafs more like, I guess I'll have to take it, though 

 I did like that pole with the red and yellow passamenterie 

 trimmin's on it. Say, have you got any o' these little 

 wheels they wind up the line on?'' 



"Reels'/"' 



"Yes, maybe, What do they cost?" 

 "A good one can be bought for |10 to $50. " 

 "What! Gee, but you folks are robbers. Got any for 

 fifty cents? 



"Yes, madam, an excellent reel for thirty-seven cents." 



"That's too much money. I guess I won't buy none of 

 them wheels, I used to go fishin' myself, not so very 

 long ago, when I was a girl, an' I know we never had no 

 wheels to wind up fish with. 



"No?" 



"No indeed. Well, how much do I owe you"?'' 



"One dollar, madam. Is there nothing else to-day?'" 



"Oh, yes. Henry must have a yachting cap. I come 

 near forgetting that. How much is these blue ones on 

 this counter?" 



"Two seventy-five, madam. They are the latest." 



"All right, I'll take one of them. Six an' five-eighths, 

 please. I'll get it small so't I can wear it myself some- 

 times." 



"Is that all, madam?" 

 , "Yes, that's all. How much? Three seventy-five? All 

 right. Good bye. I think this is a real nice place to buy 

 things." E. Hough. 



175 MoxROE Street, Chicago. 



THE FISHERMEN OF BOSTON. 



Boston, Aug. 30.— It is singular how bad luck always 

 goes in strings. I do not mean that a plenty of twine 

 in one's pocketjwhen one goes a-fishing means bad luck, 

 or that there is bad luck in. a good string of fish. Bad 

 luck goes quite the contrary, in both cases. Perhaps 

 my meaning is more exactly expressed by the familiar 

 saying that "It never rains but what it pours." Mr. 

 David H. Blan chard has got back from his second trip 

 to his salmon river, the St. Marguerite. He left Bos- 

 ton Aug. 9 on receiving word from his men that there 

 were a good many salmon in the river. He reached 

 Quebec all right, but there his string of bad luck began. 

 The steamer started down the river, but she encountered 

 such rough weather that she had to put back; some- 

 thing that very rarely happens. This delayed Mr. Blanch- 

 ard two or three days, and all the time the salmon 

 were running. Finally he got started again, with his 

 baggage and his fishing tackle all checked for Tadousac. 

 He got ahead of his tackle. It went wrong, and he 

 saw nothing of it for ten or twelve days. Ml this time 

 the salmon were running but he had no tackle, vifter 

 the rods did come he got four salmon— one up to 871bB. 

 Mr. Blanchard carefully cleaned and smoked his sal- 

 mon. They were for friends in Boston and elsewhere. 

 He used fine salt in the process. When he got to Bos- 

 ton the other day he opened the smoked salmon that 

 were intended to be the finest his friends ever saw. 

 They were all spoiled. This completed the string of 

 bad luck and tied a knot in the end. He thinks the 

 fine salt did it. 



Mr. John Fottler, .Jr. , is in Boston again after his sum- 

 mer's outing at the celebrated salmon river, the St. John, 

 at Gaspe, owned by himself and Mr. I. W. Adams. He 

 went into camp early in the season, with Mrs. Fottler and 

 his little daughter, twelve years of age. They have actu- 

 ally "kept house" in camp for some thirteen weeks. Mr. 

 Fottler says that he has found the true way to enjoy a 

 fishing season. He has taken some fifteen salmon this 

 season, the average weight of which was about IT^lbs. 

 The largest weighed 361bs., and there were several that 



tipped the scales at 2.5lbs. and above. But then one would 

 come in that would only weigh lOlbs. or so, and this 

 would knock the average down badlv. But their best 

 sport was with brook trout, after all. Mr. Fottler and Mr. 

 Adams own a beautiful trout lake also. It is up the 

 mountain something like a thousand feet above the river, 

 and yet is reached quite easily from the salmon camps. 

 At the lake Mr. Fottler has built a cabin or two, so that 

 fishing trips can be made there covei-ing several days. 

 The fly-fishing in the lake is something delightful, as Mr. 

 Fottler explains it. Even the little Miss Fottler could 

 take the very lively trout with the fly, though only just 

 beginning to learn to cast. But like the real sportsman 

 that he is, Mr. Fottler allowed no trout to be killed that 

 could not be made useful for food. SmaU ones were in- 

 variably returned to the lake. 



Mr. Fottler must have had simply a glorious time, and 

 there are few men that deserve it more than he, for the 

 noble work he is on record for having put in for fish and 

 game protection in Massachusetts. While not flagging 

 in his interest in the cause in his own State, Mr. Fottler 

 is forced to acknowledge that after all "we must go 

 further into the wilderness for fishing and hunting than 

 is at all satisfactory." He will visit the salmon camps 

 later in the season, or go into that section for caribou, 

 and he has every reason to believe that his chances for 

 success are very good. It seems that Senator Aldrich 

 and Mr. Reed, of Boston, did not get as far as Gaspe, as 

 mentioned in the Forest and Stream, though they 

 started, and Mr. Fottler was ready to receive them. The 

 Hon. Senator received telegrams that called him back 

 before the St. John was reached. He hopes to accom- 

 pany Mr. Fottler after caribou this fall, however. 



Special. 



A KANKAKEE BASS POCKET. 



HtJNTiNGTON, Ind., Aug. 2.5.— Last Sunday we visited 

 some friends at a railroad contractors camp, on the Kan- 

 kakee River, just above Mud Lake, and were told some 

 very encouraging stories of the good fishing, not four or 

 five miles up or down the river, but right there at the 

 camp. We took a look at the water, and found the chan- 

 nel BOyds. wide, with a depth of 8 to 13ft., the current 

 sluggish, and the moss encroaching on the channel from 

 both sides, till there was only .20 to 40ft. of clear water in. 

 the center. Had we been looking for an ideal place for 

 4lb. bass and 151b. pickerel, we would have looked no 

 further. 



The following evening we drove to a creek five miles 

 away and caught several hundred minnows, and an 

 elegant lot they were. From 2 to Gin. long and of all 

 varieties that live in creeks. The minnows were supple- 

 mented by two dozen half -grown frogs. 



Next morning the rising sun found us in the boats, en- 

 tirely happy, except that we feared our tackle was not 

 strong enough. It had not entered our heads that pos- 

 sibly they would not bite. No indeed. No bass in his 

 right mind would refuse such tempting minnows as those, 

 and no pickerel ever passed by such frogs as we had. It 

 was not in expectation but in full confidence that our 

 minnows were dropped right at the edge of the moss; but 

 the confidence soon changed to disappointment, for no- 

 body got even a nibble. At last, after an hour of this, 

 Mr. E. said, "I've got one." At this, the rest of the party 

 took in their tackle to give Mr. R. a clear field, and lots 

 of advice. 



He was told to "play him easy.'" "Don't let the line 

 slack.'" "Keep him out of the moss," and a general as- 

 sortment of advice was showered upon him. For the first 

 five minutes the fish bad it all his own way. The line 

 did not seem to control him a particle, btit fortunately he 

 did not go straight away till he reached the end of the 

 line and then break it, but chose to swim in circles. After 

 a whilo he weakened and was drawn nearly to the top of 

 the water, but he didn't stay there. He went straight to 

 the bottom, and was see-sawed between the bottom and 

 top of the water a good many times before he was drawn 

 near enough to see what he was, and when we did get a 

 view, there were vigorous exclamations that would not 

 look well in print, for the fish was nothing but a worth- 

 less old dogfish, but it was the only fish that was hooked 

 in eight hours' faithful work. They would not bite and 

 we couldn't make them. Sadly we put away our tackle, 

 threw the minnows overboard and were unanimously of 

 the opinion that we had been basely lied to by everybody 

 that told us fish could be caught in that nart of the Kan- 

 kakee. O. H. Hampiojst. 



CRAIG'S POND. 



BuCKSPORT, Me., Aug. 25.— The fishing in Craig's Pond 

 has been better than ever before. Brook trout and land- 

 locked salmon are found in considerable numbers. Parties 

 have gone from Bucksport, Castine and other towns, and 

 most of them have been unusually successful. The pond 

 contains minnows and smelts in great quantities, and 

 these are the natural food of trout and salmon. 



At first it was sufficiently easy to catch all the minnows 

 needed ^^^th a dip net along shore, but gradually the little 

 fellows would rush off out of reach upon the approach 

 of the netter. Earth worms and cut fish were relied 

 upon for hand line fishing, and the best groiinds were 

 located near the middle of the lake in about 40ft, of 

 water. 



The same difliculty was met in the capture of land- 

 locked salmon during August, as described by a corre- 

 spondent in Bridgton; the fish refused to take bait be- 

 cause they were in the deepest water in company with 

 their favorite food, the smelt. 



The improvement in the fishing in C^raig's Pond has 

 steadily improved since the results of stocking from the 

 Craig's Brook station were first noticed. The average 

 afternoon catch of landlocked salmon has been 8 or 10 to 

 the line, and the fish weighed from 3 to 41bs. 



Last spring for the first time these salmon were caught 

 in Toddy Pond, at Mason's ftlills; but Craig's has been 

 the favorite water. Mr. Creamer, of Bucksport, had 

 taken 3-5 salmon up to the end of July, and continued to 

 make fair catches in August. Mr, Winters and Mr, 

 Emerson were also among the successful anglers. 



Many of the lakes in the vicinity of Bucksport cojitain 

 black bass, white perch and pickerel, and furnish excel- 

 lent fishing. T. H. B, 



Tfie Book: of the Game liAws ha-is all fish and game lawit 

 of tlve TJMtecL States ma Cmctda. Price 50 cmis. 



