888 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[May 4, 1893. 



Forest and Stream's 



^1 Fishing Postals. 



"DROP US A LINE" ON A POSTAL CARD. 



Fishing News, Place to Catch Fish, Fish Caiiglit, 

 Fishing Incidents. 



Cortland, N. Y., April 30— Trout anglers are beginning 

 to wear a cheerful smile and show a disposition to beat 

 some other fellow telling the most gloAfing fish yam. 



Jno. Doyle caught 17 trout last Wednesday, the combined 

 weight of which was 81bs. A few other small catches 

 are reported. The sharp and effective work of the game 

 protectors have irritated a good many farmers, I am told, 

 to such an extent that they are posting their land very 

 conspicuously. However, I am of the opinion that the 

 enterprising trout angler wUl continue to do business. 



A friend of mine living near Oneida Lake writes me 

 that pike are to be found in that lovely sheet of water in 

 great numbers this spring. "Not in a very long time," 

 he says, "have they been so numerous." Protector HaAvn, 

 assisted by E. D. Crosley, last week captured 110 fish law 

 violators and 20 nets on that lake. Verily, the illegal 

 fisherman is getting his fingers burned almost daily. 



M. C. H. 



Livingston Manor, N. Y., April 24.— Last Monday a 

 gentleman caiight in our river several nice trout, and I 

 saw one in his basket that weighed two pounds. It was a 

 cold windy day and the stream high. I think trout fish- 

 ing will be fine with us soon as the weather warms up a 

 little. Ice all thawed out and no jams or gorges this sea- 

 son, Wm. p. Rose. 



BLOOMiNGBURa, N. Y., April 30. — Yesterdaj^ was the 

 first fishing this season about here. Will Shearer, of this 

 place, caught 50 fine trout. Frank Redfield, also of this 

 place, caught about 30 fine trout, one that weighed l|lbs. 

 The weather is getting warmer with a few warm showers, 

 and this coming week will probably be a fine time to fish 

 for trout. Dell Case. 



SwiFTWATER, Pa., April 29. — Our stream has been 

 stocked this year as usual and the fishing ]3romises to be 

 good, if we may judge from early returns notwithstand- 

 ing the cold and inclement weather during the past week. 

 Two Philadelphia anglers took over two hundred fine 

 trout during their four days' visit here. We are keeping 

 a tally of the fish taken, etc., for our own information. 



Mrs. Arthur 1La.ginnis. 



Liberty Falls, N. Y., April 29. — Trout fishing has been 

 good the past three days, and if it is a little warmer and 

 showery next week, it will be the best of the season, as it 

 has been too cold weather till now. One boy caught 

 twenty-eight, that averaged lOin., in three hours in the 

 middle branch of the Mongaup near the old Kilbourne 

 mill. Edson a. Gregory. 



Liberty, N. Y., April 22. — Weather is too cold for good 

 fishing yet, as we have snowbanks, and on the 20th a snow 

 and hail storm, still Frank Huber brought in four pounds 

 of trout, but it was pretty tough fishing, as it froze all 

 day. Very little fishing has been done yet: 



G-EORGE Cooper. 



Neosho, Mo., April 20. —Black bass (both large and 

 small mouth), jack salmon and channel catfish are now 

 biting well in Elk river, 20 miles south of here. Highly 

 satisfactory strings are being caught near Lanagan, in 

 McDonald county, Mo. Our black and rock bass in 

 U. S. F, C, ponds are all nesting at present. W. F. P. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



The Parmachenee-Belle 



Few American fishermen but know the Parmachenee- 

 belle, a fly invented by Mr. Henry P. Wells, author of 

 "Fly Rods and Fly Tackle," "The American Salmon Fish- 

 erman," etc., and named after Parmachenee Lake m 

 Maine, where that prince of guides and camp keepers, 

 John Danfoi-th, presided over Camp Caribou until the 

 camp passed into the possession of a private club. The 

 Parmachenee-belle is a new fly comparatively, and with 

 one hound, so to speak, it sprang into public favor, not 

 only as a trout fly, for which it was designed, but as a 

 black bass fly as well, and a knowledge of it has spread 

 up and down and across the United States and Canada. 

 All this I was prepared for, but I was not prepared to find 

 that its fame had reached the far-away South Pacific, as 

 a letter in the Otago Witness, New Zealand, bears witness, 

 the writer says: "I am to have some samples of the cele- 

 brated Parmachenee-belle fiy sent to me for trial on the 

 streams in New Zealand. I shall send two or three to 

 each of the angling associations as soon as I get them, so 

 that they will get a thorough trial. This fly is a great 

 favorite in America, and experts say that large trout, 

 from Labrador to Alaska, take is ;-reedily, and at all sea- 

 sons. Mr. Bainbridge has already made an enormous 

 quantity for English and American anglers. I expect to 

 have them in plenty of time for the beginning of the sea- 

 son, and shall send them rotmd to as many as possible." 

 Mr, Wells will undoubtedly feel a glow of pleasure that 

 the fly of his creation has strayed so far away from home 

 and been received so hospitably by the fly-fishers of New 

 Zealand, and he may be surprised that Mr. Bainbridge has 

 sent an enormous quantity of the flies to America, for Mr. 

 Bainbridge is a fly tyer in Eton, England. 



Mr. WeUs designed the Parmachenee-belle while on a 

 fishing trip to the home of the big trout in Maine with 

 John Danforth as guide, and he says, "That the large 

 trout looked upon the artificial fly not as an insect, but as 

 some form of live bait, we agreed was probably the fact. 

 Upon this theory that combination should be the most 

 successful which most closely reproduced the colors of 

 some favorite trout food. Why, I cannot now recollect, 

 but the belly fin of the trout itself was selected as the 

 type." Before the Parmachenee-belle was created another 

 fly was designed for stream fishing for smaller trout than 

 are fished for in the Eangeley Lakes region, also with the 



idea of representing the belly lin of a trout. This fly is 

 called the fin-fly. and is made with body of red silk, 

 wings white, hackle chicken red, with the roots of the 

 fibres black (a fiu-nace hackle), whisk of same hackle for 

 tail, and gold tag. This I have often proved to be an 

 excellent fly in stream fishing, but it has little resemblance 

 to the Parmachenee-belle. 



The Parmachenee-Belle at Home. 

 I was starting earlj'- one morning from Camp Caribou 

 to fish in the tipper Magalloway River, and Mr. Wells 

 and John Danforth were starting from camp at the same 

 time for an exploring trip in another direction. As I 

 got into the boat John said to me, "There is a five-pound 

 trout in Cleveland's Eddy, for I saw him jump out of the 

 water, and I hope you will get him." It would be as 

 improper to talk Hebrew to a Digger Indian, as it would 

 to fish Parmachenee waters with anytliing but a Parma- 

 chenee-belle. Wlien I reached Cleveland's Eddy and 

 began to cast I raised and killed a trout of lbs., and 

 a few minutes after I killed one of 3+ lbs. , and accord- 

 ing to thispro,gression I should have been prepared at the 

 next cast for the five-pound fish which John had told me 

 about, but I was totally unprepared, and yet I believe I 

 raised the fish. I was in the bow of the boat and Marshall 

 Linnell, my guide, in the stern with a paddle, and as I 

 made the cast I discovered that I had cast over and across 

 a sunken tree trunk, the top of which stuck out of the 

 water just below me. I could see the stick, perhaps two 

 feet under water, directly in front, and it had some pieces 

 of the limbs sticking out In various directions, and at the 

 instant that I discovered the situation into which tlie boat 

 had drifted us while killing the previous trout I saw a big 

 trout ri e to my fly. He was in no particular hurry for a trout 

 and I checked my fly the moment I caught the gleam of 

 his sides coming from the depths. Marshall was rapidly 

 and silently pushing the boat up stream, and my fly 

 slowly settled in the water, and not a foot away the trout 

 settled with it. every fin moving and gently fanning the 

 water. We could see the trout as plainly as though he 

 had been in the boat, and were both sure that it was 

 John's trout. When the boat was far enough up stream 

 to make the stick dive in the water, I started the fly, and 

 the very instant that I did, the trout took it and I struck, 

 and with the same motion and before he could turn I 

 pulled him over the stub and then gave him his head. He 

 went at once to the bottom and began to execute a war- 

 dance that threatened disaster. After a moment I began 

 to reel the fish to the surface, but before I reeled him 5ft. 

 he gave a slight shake of his head, which I felt through 

 the taut line and rod, and then he was gone, and I never 

 saw him agam. The great pull that I gave to get the fish 

 over the sunl-en stub probably tore the mouth so that it 

 was an easy matter to shake the hook out. 



IVIaine Fish Laws. 



As I write of fishing in Maine I am reminded of a letter 

 written not long ago by an English angler \^^ho gave in 

 the Fishing Gazette an account of his visit to the Maine 

 lakes for landlocked salmon and trout. He reached 

 Rangeley Lake while it was still ice-bound and was 

 obliged to wait for a break-up. He says Avhen the ice is 

 gone .at first the salmon and trout will not rise to the fly: 

 "The method of catching them then is to troll with a lit- 

 tle hsli called a minnow, * * * According to the laws 

 of the State no artificial minnow is allowed and no tri- 

 angles, or hooks back to back, nothing but single hooks 

 in fact; and to their credit be it said, so far as I saw or 

 heard of , the fishers obeyed this law." I mention this 

 because of its tribute to tlie honesty of the Maine fisher- 

 men, but he is in error regarding the use of artificial min- 

 nows, for thej'^ are not mentioned in the law. An artifi- 

 cial minnow with a, single hook would not be unlawful, 

 as I read the law. But as the writer is accustomed to 

 seeing artificial minnows armed with an array of hooks 

 he naturally assumes that they are illegal. 



A. N. Cheney. 



A Curious Reel. 



Post Mills, Vt., April 19. — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I send you in separate package a reel which you may so 

 admire as to style and workmanship that you would like 

 to show it at the World's Fair in the Forest and Stream 

 exhibit. This reel, for bait-casting Henshall style, Avould 

 not perhaps be a success, but for "slinging a hunk of pork" 

 might be ' 'good enough for the Joneses, who were not used 

 to the best of things anyway." Of the early history of this 

 reel I know but little. It was sent to Thos. H. Chubb 

 some ten or a dozen yeai-s ago, and as keeper of the "hall 

 of curios" in the Chubb factory, it came into my keej)ing. 

 It was in the factory at the time of the fire two years ago, 

 but as usual at fires, every one carried out such common 

 goods as fishing rods or machinery, and this valuable reel 

 disappeared in the "devouring flames.' In removing and 

 clearing away rubbish preparatory to building the new 

 factory, underneath the remains of a cheap one thousand 

 dollar machine, which was destroyed almost beyond recog- 

 nition, was found, to the great joy of all, this reel safe and 

 sound, and I believe a little better than before, for the 

 heat had sort of tightened up the joints. 



You may know something of its early history, for I be- 

 lieve it was shown to several before it came here, and 

 there was something about it in Forest and Stream, I 

 can only remember now of those who were connected 

 with it, the name of old BiU Hess. 



If it is not suitable for a place in your exhibit to the 

 World's Fair, after showing it to the boys of Forest 

 AND Stream, please return it to me, as I am thinking some 

 of going into the reel business and would like to keep this 

 for a pattern. E. W. Raysiond. 



[The reel is certainly worth exlubiting, and the curious 

 reader can see it at the World's Fair hi Forest and Stream's 

 exhibit in the Angling Pavflion. We cannot learn that 

 it has any special history, and it is probably one of the 

 many home-made productions, manufactured in early 

 days by blacksmiths and other metal workere. The 

 peculiar point about this one is that the reel plate is at the 

 side instead of beneath the spool and so is opposite to the 

 crank or handle. Judging from appeai-ances the reel 

 plate was lashed to the rod with a line. J 



shoe factory, landed one that weighed SOilbs. Since then 

 Dr. Baxter has caught one that weighed 231bs. , and P. M. 

 Ayer and several others have taken fish of 201bs. or more. 

 The water is still cold and the fish do not bite well. I 

 have been up two afternoons and all I caught was a bad 

 cold. The fish are running big, however, this year, and 

 if the men a mile or two below the dam were compelled 

 to take up their nets there would be fine sport at the pool. 



Tom Ford. 



Connecticut Trout Season. 



Manchester, Conn., April 27. — Some one introduced a 

 bill in our Legislature this winter making the open season 

 on trout the IStli of March. I do not understand what this 

 individual sought to gain by the bill. Of course it was not 

 passed. Two years since some of the ponds east of here 

 were frozen over on the first day of April, and this year 

 April fishing is very poor. Our season should open the 

 1st of May and close the 1st of September. Then with 

 honest endeavor and j)roper legislation the streams can 

 once more be made productive. The trouble with us is 

 a few want to own all the waters in the State. 



Jonathan. 



N. W. Iowa Fish Notes. 



Fishing has not commenced here as yet. Trout season 

 opened April 1, but creeks and rivers were swollen and 

 full of ice, I have heard of no fish being taken. The 

 weather aU the spring has been such as to 5)ractically pre- 

 vent seining and spearing in this section, although they 

 have been at it in other places, as a letter from Fish Com- 

 missioner Griggs wiU show. He says he has made over 

 one hundred prosecutions already. Open season on bass 

 and pickerel begins May 15. Good fishing is expected. 

 Some three carloads of Iowa fish have been sent to the 

 World's Fair. They are prize-winners. Look for them. 



p. c. B. 



Salmon Fishing in New Brunswick. 



The salmon fishing privileges on the Nepisiquit River, 

 advertised in our columns for sale by auction at St. John, 

 N. B., on Ax^ril 26, were duly offered. The attendance 

 was small, there being only two competitors. The two 

 lots, each a one-fourth share in the Nepisiquit Angling 

 Club's properties, sold for |5,000 and $5,025; the third lot, 

 representing Mr. J. De Wolfe Spurr's fi.shing rights at the 

 Grand Falls of the Nepisiquit, offered at the upset price of 

 $4,500, was withdrawn. 



Bangor Salmon. 



Bangor, Me. — The salmon caught in tlie pool, a mile 

 above the city, are the largest on record this year. The 

 river opened April 5. No salmon were taken with fly 

 until April 21, when Mr. Libbey, an employe of a Bangor 



Mr. a. N. Locke, of Saleui, Mass., who has been a subscriber to 

 Forest and Stream for fifteeo years, otT'ei-s iu our advertising col- 

 umns this week part, of his liiintiiig ami lishin^^ outfit for sale. Inex- 

 orable, time has laid his haDd on tfie old sportsman, and he fears that 

 he will never again wander among fhe woods and lakes and lonely 

 trout streams that, as he expresses it, he has "loved almost to infatu- 

 ation. — Adv.^'' 



The best line to Cai.iforkia from either Chicat^o or St. Louis is the 

 Burlington route. Takes you via r)PD\ cr, Colorado Springs, Leadville, 

 Salt Lake and Oprdeli. Daily vestibuled trains, wilh Pullman sleepers, 

 chair cars (seats free') and Burlington route dining cars. — Adv. 



Immt 



CnmrtmnicaMons for 'publication relating to business 



shovA'l 'hf. aihr,-cssr:l in the Forest and Sbrernn Pub. Co. If 

 (iMr' ' I Jiial tliey 'Wlllbe siihject to delay in 



that iu'ttr iu iiii i '!.i>;-iuice. 



FIXTURES. 



DOa SHOWS. 



May 30 to June 2.— American Pet Dog Club, Lexox Lyceum, New 

 York. Marion E. Bannister, Sec'y- 



June 13 to 17.— World's Fair, Chicago. W. I. Buchanan, Chief Dept. 

 of Agriculture. 



Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.— Blue Grass Kennel Olub, at Lexington, Ky. Mr. 

 Roger Williams, Sec'y. 

 Sept. 5 to 8.— Hanailton Kennel Club. A. D. Stewart, Sec'y. 

 Sept. 11 to 15.— Toronto, Canada. C. A. Stone. Sec'y. 



FIELD TRIALS. 

 Nov. 7.— International Field Trials. W. B. WeUs, Sec'y, Chatham, 



Ont. 



Nov. 15.— American Field Trial Club trials, at Carlisle, Tni. W. J. 

 Beck, Sec'y, Columbus. Ind. 



Nov. 20.— Eastern Field Trial Club's Trials, at High Point, N. C. 

 Members' Stake Nov. 16. W. A. Coster, Sec'y. 



Great Dane Judging. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The article in your issue of April 27, headed "Great Dane 

 Judging," ought to have been properly named "Great Slur- 

 iug on the Judge;" and if it was not necessary to refute a 

 couple of Mr. Maenner's remarks, I would not reply, think- 

 ing it beneath myself to notice .such scandalous attacks. 



Any man has a right to his own opinion, and I demand 

 this as well, as I expect it of anybody else. I have never 

 spoken more than a dozen words in my life with Mr. Maenner, 

 and all he is alluding to mu.st have occurred iu his inventive 

 brain. I never went ten .steps witli the 7nan to look at his 

 bitch or any othei-s, and all the words I have ever spoken to 

 him, outside of customary phrases, when Mr. Heppner intro- 

 duced him, was after the judging, saying: "I am sorry I 

 could not do better for you," or so, what any man might say. 

 What an imagination has this man got, when he repeats 

 whole conversations, which never have taken place, at least 

 not Artdthme. Such absolute fabrications and false insinu- 

 ations ought not to appear in your paper, if you really meant 

 what you have said in your indorsement of Mr. Kreuder's 

 letter. You know yourself very well, Mr. Editor, that the 

 Westmuister Kennel Club is not in the habit of accepting 

 such offered services as judge, as Mr. Maeaner insinuates.! 

 had done, and it is the strongest bit of doubtful practice I 

 have lately noticed, inventing such halucinations to suit his 

 end. G. Mtrss-AKNOLT. 



Which is the Best Spaniel for Work? 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In the last number of FoEEST AND Stream, Mr. Cecil Cox 

 describes what is evidently a very usef ul spaniel. At the same 

 time I should like to know whether the measurements which 

 he gives are considered as anything extraordinary in a fully 

 matured and well developed field spaniel? For the sake of 

 comparison I should very much like to know the correspond- 

 ing measurements of a typical dog like Newton Abbot lieau. 

 The discussion at present going on in Forest and Stueam 

 in regard to the merits of the cocker as a field dog, is a profita- 

 ble one, as it recalls to the minds of most breeders the fact / 

 that the cocker is not a toy, but a workman. 



G. ROTLEDttE PUESTON, JR, 



Cazekovia, Madison County, N. Y., April ao. 



