230 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



^Sept. 22, 1892. 



BLUEFISH AT CHATHAM BEACH. 



Boston, Mass., Sept. 16. — For the benefit of my fellow- 

 sportsmen, I give you and them the following account of 

 one of the future fishing grounds of the New England 

 coast. I say ''future,'' for Chatham Beach has not to my 

 knowledge the reputation it deserves. It is undoubtedly 

 among the best shore bird grounds that we Massachusetts 

 gunners have, and perhaps its reputation in that capacity 

 has overshadowed its bluefishing. Then, too, up to last 

 year, there was no hotel or even boarding-house near 

 enough to the fishing ground to allow fisherroen to watch 

 for opportunities and take them when they come. Now 

 the hotel on the beach itself is becoming as much a sum- 

 mer and cool air resort as it is a sportsman's home. The 

 beach has to be reached at low or half-tide, because it 

 is an island at high water. It is about 3 miles long, very 

 straight and white, spotted here and there with wrecks 

 of years before, and, curiously enough, but happily for 

 the fisherman (and per contra, unhappily for the fish) it 

 is so abrupt tha,t one can almost dive from the edge into 

 deep water. 



I came to Chatham for the shore bird shooting, and I 

 got some, but how many I really can't tell, for the blue- 

 fishing has driven it from my head. The tide was not 

 right to set decoys the second morning, and I was sitting 

 with other gunners on the piazza looking out to sea and 

 listening to some of the most awful shooting fibs that 

 ever blackened the record of a gunner. I had noticed 

 an extraordinary number of gulls whirling round a spot 

 near the beach about half a mile away, and called the 

 attention of some one to it. It was not 30 seconds before 

 the quiet group was scattered through the house without 

 condescending to pay any attention to me and my in- 

 quiries. They told me afterward that the bluefish chase 

 the small schools of fish to the beach, and the gulls join 

 in the chase and become the alarm signal to the fisher- 

 men. By the time the lines were collected and the hapi>y 

 possessor of that one bass rod had prepared himself the 

 bluefish were nearly in front of the hotel within a hun- 

 dred yards of us. Capt. Gould whirled his five ounces of 

 lead round his head, and out it went about 50yds. oft' the 

 beach and beyond the small breakers. He had not 

 dragged it hand over hand 10ft. before the line tautened 

 and the fun began. We all caught them; ladies caught 

 them and the man with the bass rod and the light drail 

 was a fortunate man indeed. He had been at Chatham 

 a week and this was his third experience of the kind, 



We caught over !J0 fish. They all weighed over 8 and 

 most of them neaxer lOlbs. I have caught most kinds of 

 fish, and hitherto have not been a real enthusiast, and 

 have been sometimes worried about it, but it's all right 

 now, I am converted, and the four beetle heads I 

 shot over decoys that afternoon didn't give me the usual 

 thrill. I think there probably is just so much thrill in a 

 person, and mine I had used in the morning. On an 

 average of twice, perhaps three times a week the schools 

 of bluefish come down that beach during the months of 

 July, August and September, and here are fish enough 

 for every one or I wouldn't give the place away. 



BLUEFISHING AT ORIENT POINT. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Beins: comparatively a new subscriber to Forest and 

 Stream, and noting that most of your "fish stories" re- 

 late to trout and bass fishing, I will take the liberty of 

 giving you a little of my experience at bluefishing in 

 Plum Gut. When I read in Forest and Stream, from 

 the pen of some of your contributors, of the great ex- 

 citement attending the capture of a 4oz. trout, and the 

 desperate struggle he makes for liberty, it puzzles me a 

 little, as I have never had an opportunity to try trout- 

 fishing: therefore you must attribute it to my ignorance 

 of real game fishing when I claim that there is more 

 real excitement in trolling for bluefish in an 18-foot 

 boat, on "the rageed edge" of a spiteful rip, when a 

 slight lull in the wind gives you a chance of filling the 

 boat with water, and fish are hooking faster than you 

 can pull them in. I first went bluefishing with my 

 father, when about la years of age, and although he had 

 often fished at Montauk with old smackmen, he would 

 get so excited when the first fish struck that he would 

 luff the boat right up to it, all the while pouring forth a 

 torrent of advice as to the best way to get that fish into 

 the laoat. Of course that stopped the fun for the time, 

 for you have got to keep the boat under good headway 

 to hook them. 



Several years after my brother and myself tried it on 

 our own account, and, although we have had our lines in 

 some pretty bad tangles, we have had fair success nearly 

 every season since. I remember one trip we took an old 

 sea captain with us, and when my brother hooked the 

 first fish and had pulled it about half-way, with more 

 energy than he displayed in every-day life, the captain, 

 who was standing a little further aft, reached over and 

 finished the job himself. 



The language my brother used in expostulating with 

 him was much more forcible than elegant. Until last 

 season the fi-h caught here were mostly small, weighing 

 from -|lb. to 2+lbs. This summer and last also they have 

 •weighed from 3 to 61bs, The overseer of ex-Mayor 

 Hewitt's lalace told me the other day that he and his son, 

 in two small rowboats, caught 1,000 in one week. The 

 season usually begins about the middle of July and closes 

 about Oct. 1, with occasionally a week's recess. 

 ORIENT Point, L. I. Hazel Kirke. 



WINNEPESAUKEE BLACK BASS. 



New York, Sept. 15 — Having left New Found Lake 

 in disgust so far as the flahing was concerned, I arrived 

 at Weirs. N. H., Lake Wmnepesaukee, and learned that 

 at Long Island there was good black bass flehing. I took 

 the Lady of the Lake and arrived at Blake's Island 

 Hotel on Sept. 5 and engaged Mr. Luther Smith as boat- 

 man. In eight days' fishing I caught all the black bass 

 I wanted; and to tell the truth, I was so well pleased with 

 the fishing that I can safely say it is the best place I 

 know of, and I can recommend any one to this place. 

 Mr. Blake is an old resident and can give one all the in- 

 formation needed about fishing. Mr. M. Fleisher, of 

 Philadelphia, engaged Mr. James Day and came in with 

 good strings, Mr, Williama, of Boston, caught two bass, 

 weight 4 and dflbs., o£f the bridge connecting Long Island 

 to the mainland. Prof. EweJl, of New York, caught one f 

 at the same bridge, weight 5ibs, This is only a email ' 



record of what has been done and that came under my 

 personal observation. 



Blake's Island Hotel is pleasantly situated on Long 

 Island, Lake Winnepesaukee, and is reached by boat 

 from any place on the lake. Dr, Green has a magnificent 

 residence near the house, and his genial disposition 

 makes for him many friends. The house was filled with 

 peoi>le congenial to the tastes of fishermen, and great 

 was the excitement every night when the fish were 

 weighed, and very few were found wanting of the ne- 

 cessary weight to make one's heart feel happy and an 

 ambition to go a-fishing the next day. I will willingly 

 correspond with any one who may wish to know more 

 about this location; my address is with the Forest and 

 Stream; and I trust this may be of some benefit to my 

 brother sportsmen. H. C. W. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[From a Staff Corre«vonfio7it.'\ 



Chicago, 111., Sept. 17.— Mr. Carter H, Harrison, Jr., 

 assistant manadng editor of the Chicago Times, is an en- 

 thusiastic fly-fisherman. He writes me the following 

 interesting letter in regard to the grayling fishing in 

 Michigan, and I oSer it as good news to anglers. Mr. 

 Harrison says: 



"My brother and I put in the last three days of the sea- 

 son with the trout and grayling in Michigan, The first 

 day we fished the Maple Elver at Pelton with moderate 

 success: the fish were altogether too small — 6 and Tin, in 

 lf>ngth — my best being a Uh. trout and J^lb. grayling. 

 That night we hustled around to Wolverine on the'M. C. 

 and put in the SOth on the Sturgeon. My brother nailed 

 sixteen grayling and a few small trout; two of the gray- 

 ling ran |lb. each. 1 took five trout— two were i pound- 

 ers — and eighteen grayling, not one of which measured 

 less than lOin.; that means they ran from J to -Jib. each. 

 Every grayling under this size was returned to the 

 stream. 



"The following day it rained hard, and as the Sturgeon 

 rises with great rapidity we did not have much luck. A 

 friend of mine took thirty-six fish of legal size out of the 

 same stretch of water ten days before we were there, 

 three-fourths of which were grayling. I still think, as I 

 did last spring, that it is the angler and not the trout that 

 keep the grayling down. The grayling is the sturdiest 

 and boldest riser of any fish I have ever caught. No mat- 

 ter how often he misses, if you will keep on putting your 

 fly at him he will take it. All of our fishing was done 

 with the fly. I fished with an alleged gray-drake, the 

 hackle being ginger instead of gray, for the' middle fly; 

 the tail and hand fly were my own pattern, a fly I have 

 dubbed 'Harrison,' for the want of any other known name. 

 It is a corker for trout and grayling. Wings, tail and 

 hackle gray— the same as in a genuine gray- drake— the 

 body of yellow mohair. Practically all my fish and the 

 most of my brother's were taken on this fiy, 



"The Sturgeon is stocked with both brook and rain- 

 bow trout: has been for years, how many I don't know, 

 but there are rainbow trout in it running up to 3lbs, 

 in weight. Yet only in the West Fork do the trout 

 seem to be in the majority, I have never fished this 

 part of the stream. From what I learn it is rapid, rather 

 shallow water, better suited to trout than grayling. The 

 latter likes long, deep pools and rapids where the water 

 is very deej). Out of one pool of this kind I took six -Jib. 

 grayling without moving as many feec. If the fi?h hogs 

 can only be kept away from the grayling a few years 

 there is great joy in sight for some one. The day we 

 fished at Wolverine, however, two of the boys fished the 

 West Branch, carrying fifty-six fish away with them. A 

 man who saw the catch told me that at least forty of 

 these were not over Sin. long. One of the 'anglers' was 

 a preacher. 



"Another enemy the grayling have to contend with, in 

 this stream at least, is the spearer. Two fish my brother 

 caught and one of mine had long jagged wounds on their 

 sides which could only have been made with a spear. 

 After a good deal of pressure some of the loungers about 

 the hotel admitted that a few small boys occasionally 

 speared fish just below the mill. The fish in the Sturgeon 

 are as fine a ' lot as one would wish to see. There are so 

 many big fellows that strong temptation is ottered to the 

 spearer. I have written Mossman, a newspaper man at 

 Petoskey, who is also a game warden, and hope that this 

 end of the line will be watched. However, the fishing in 

 the Sturgeon at least is far better this year than it was 

 last season. The fish run larger and there are more of 

 them. The Sturgeon is a superb stream, 30 to 40ft. wide 

 and in places apparently 13 to 15ft. deep. The water is 

 exceedingly clear and rapid. Naturally it is as fine a 

 stream for trout and grayling as one would care to see. 

 One beauty of it is that for about twelve miles it is never 

 more than an eighth of a mile from the railroad, so that 

 it is easily accessible from Vanderbilt, Trowbridge, Wol- 

 verine and Rondo. The natives tell me the fishing has 

 been imiiroving every year for a number of years past. If 

 the other grayling streams in Michigan are in as good 

 shape the grayling will remain with us for a number of 

 years to come, 



"I got the hotel keeper's son at Wolverine to promise 

 uie that the next time he saw a man with a trout or 

 grayling under legal size in his possession he would have 

 him run in. As he is a good deal of a tishermau I think 

 he will do it. If you have information in regard to other 

 graylin.^ waters please let me know." 



Mr. Harrison's report is very interesting. I do not re- 

 member to have seen in Forest and Stream for four 

 years any other actual recountal of grayling experiences 

 in Michigan. It is interesting to note that one of the 

 known stream -despoilers was a preacher. It seems to me 

 that the morals of the pulpit might be much improved 

 these days, 



the kekoskee eish story. 



I was going to tell in this column the Kekoskee fish 

 story, referred to elsewhere, but it occurs to me that the 

 facts— although they are facts pure and indisputable — are 

 so strange and improbable that it may be best to lay them 

 before the editor of Forest and Stream tentatively 

 before putting them into shape for piiblication. It is 

 really a story about bullheads, and of course, therefore, it 

 cannot fail to be picturesqao, for the bullhead is naturally 

 a romantic fish. Every man in Mayville and Kekoskee 

 knows this story, and without any hint or coaching will 

 tell it to you exactly as his neighbor did. Every man of 

 them knows the horse, too. You see, there was a horse 



in the story — is yet, for that matter. It all happened 

 away back in 1860. when Horicon Marsh was Horicon 

 Lake. The Rock River ran into the lake then, and now 

 it runs into the marsh at the same place where it used to 

 run into the lake. It's the same river, and they will take 

 you to the same place, and show you where the story 

 happened, 'so you can't possibly doubt the truth of the 

 story in any particular. It was an awfully cold winter 

 that year, and that has something to do with the story, 

 too. But perhaps I ought not to tell part of the story 

 unless I tell it all, and I do not like to do that on my own 

 responsibility, E. Hough. 



175 MoNKOB Street. Chicago. 



Frying-Pan River Trout. 



On returning in July from a trip to Utah I halted a 

 day at Thompson ville, Col., on the Colorado Midland 

 Railway, on the west slope of the Rocky Mountains, for 

 a "hurl" at the trout in the Frying-Pan River. The 

 stream was high and turbid, and the conditions bad, and 

 I was too tired to exert myself greatly, and I caught only 

 two trout, though I had several rises and could easily see 

 that the stream was well stocked. My fish were remark- 

 ably tame in action, though handsome and brilliant in 

 color and markings, A small silvery and golden scale 

 was plainly visible. Will any one tell me the exact spe- 

 cies? C. H, Ames. 



[Judging from the size of the ecales we believe this 

 trout was one of the varieties of the red-throated species. 

 If the spots were black and most numerous on the pos- 

 terior half of the body, there is no doubt about this 

 identification. Colorado has many forms of native black- 

 spotted trout, all of them varieties of the red-throated. 

 Other black-spotted species, the California rainbow, the 

 Loch Leven and Von Behr have been introduced. The 

 Dolly Varden, a red-spotted species, is found in that 

 State, and the Eastern brook trout has been introduced 

 and thrives even in high regions.] 



The Adirondack Trout Season. 



A North Woons correspondent writes: "There seems 

 to be a vast difference in opinion in regard to the termin- 

 ation of the trouting season. I 'swear' by the Booh of 

 the Game Laws as published by you, and which I sent 

 for and have abided by, though reluctantly stopping my 

 trouting until the 15th of this month. Please editorially 

 state in your issue next week whether sportsmen in the 

 Forest Preserve could take trout until Sept. 15," 



The irout law of 1892 is correctly given in the Book of 

 the Game Laws, as follows; 



Sec. 105. Trouf- of any kind shall not be lished for, caught, 

 killed orpo8se88«ri hetwRen th^ first day of S pfember and the 

 flf feenth day of April following, except as provided by section 166; 

 and in Spring Brook Creek, situated in the couuties of Monroe 

 and Livingston, trout shall not be fished for, caught or taken be- 

 tween the first day of September and the fir&t day of April follow- 

 ing and except in the waters of ijaVe George, where the same 

 shall not be fished for between the first day of September and the 

 first day of May. 



Sec. 166 refers to Long Island, but does not even there 

 change the date Sept, 1, which is everywhere the first 

 day of the close season. 



The Sunday Fishing Case. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Permit me to inquire through your columns if there 

 are any sportsmen sufficiently interested in the "Sunday 

 Fishing Case" to join me in taking the issue to the Court 

 of Appeals. A reference to your numbers of Aug. 18 

 and Aug. 25 will put interested readers in i^ossession of 

 the leading facts and points in the matter. 



I should be glad to supplement this with any information 

 desired and to give my reasons why I consider the de- 

 cision as it now stands an erroneous one. If it be allowed 

 to remain unchallenged it will seriously affect the 

 privileges heretofore enjoyed by sportsmen and clubs 

 and will impair the value of their property in this State. 



Would it nut be desirable now that a test case is so far 

 advanced as the General Term to carry it at once to the 

 Court of final resort? Robert H, Moses. 



Darkness and Animal Colors. 



Some of the effects of the absence of light upon animal 

 life were strikingly revealed, not long ago, on the re- 

 opening of an old mine near Bangor, Cal. In a dry 

 slope connecting two shafts, one of the explorers was 

 astonished to find a number of flies that were perfectly 

 white, except the eyes, which were red; and directly 

 afterward he killed a pure white rattlesnake. The 

 animals had lived in the drj passages, where they had 

 been supplied with air but not with light. It is supposed 

 that the flies wei-e the oflispring of some that had "been 

 imprisoned by the partial filling of the mine with water 

 about thirty years ago, and that the snake, when quite 

 young, had been washed down in a rain. A few of the 

 flies were exposed to light in a glass case, and resumed 

 the colors of ordinary house flies within a week, — Nature, 

 Sept. 1, 



Third Lake Trout. 



Ca:\ "Von W." or some of your correspondents tell us ' 

 anything about th'> trout of Thh'd Connecticut Lake in 

 New Hampshire? During a recent visit to this region I 

 was much struck with the difference in shape and color- 

 ing of the trout of Third Lake from the others caught in 

 that section. Although it has been nearly a dozen years 

 since 1 have caught or seen the silvery-sided beauties of 

 Dublin Pond, in southern New Hampshire, these in the 

 most northern waters of the State seemed to me to be 

 almost identical, although I think the spots were a little 

 more prominent and perhaps not quite so silvery, yet if 

 my memory serves me right they were much the same. 

 Can any of your correspondents give us any light on the 

 subject? Ompompanoosuc. 



Mice as Bait for Trout. 



It is reported in the English papers as something new 

 that the trout are feeding on the abundant field mice that 

 are ravagiug^ the pastures in Scotland. When I was in 

 England thirty years ago, mice were used as bait for 

 trolling for trout on the Westnioreland lakes, and also in 

 the Scotch lochs that I visited, and I have taken large 

 trout in this way. H, Stev^^art. 



