July 8, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



3 



quiet of the sleepy junketers, marked their departure with 

 silence as noticeable as the noise of their coming^. 

 Fbrrisburgh, vt. Rowland E. Eobinson. 



CAMPS ON THE MANITOWISH.-I. 



The smell of the wilderness was beginning- to get into 

 my study. The particular wilderness was 500 miles away, 

 but that made no difference. A man with the instinct of 

 a confirmed outer can smell the pine woods further away 

 than that. There was only one thing to disturb my 

 serenity as^ the day for departure hurried on. I had told 

 sorne considerable stories on my return from an outing in 

 the Wisconsin wilds a year before, thereby exciting the 

 angling ambitions of some of "the boys,'' and they had 

 made up a crowd to go with me this time. I believed I 

 had told the ti-uth. All anglers do, of course. But would 

 the fish be as big and fight as hard this summer as they 

 did m mysteries during the winter? That was the soul- 

 harrowing question which kept me awake o' nights. But 

 I refrained from hedging and trusted to good fortune to 

 keep my reputation wliole. 



The party consisted of Tom, Doc, Sam, Ira, Charlie, 

 "Kansas," Mr. M. and the Parson. According to the tes- 

 timony of the Parson, it would be hard to get together 

 such another aggregation of good fellows. 



We went by way of Chicago, the gateway to the finest 

 fishing country in the nation. Leaving Chicago at 5 P.M. 

 Monday evening, Aug. 15, we were whirled 400 miles 

 north that night on a road which will do anything to ac- 

 commodate sportsmen, the Milwaukee, Lake Shoi-e & 

 Western, reaching Manitowish at 6 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing. At one of the three or four houses we succeeded in 

 getting breakfast. Our plan was to take boats and go 

 down the Manitowish River. It was an unkno^vn countiy 

 for which we were making. Only one party had ever 

 preceded us, so far as we could learn, and they had hur- 

 ried down the Manitowish and up the Turtle without fish- 

 ing much. Only Indians and woods cruisers had fished 

 the waters toward which we were turning. 



The Parson had tried his hand at boat building. He 

 had brought along the result in what looked like a bundle 

 of boards. Tom volunteered to help him set it up on the 

 depot platform, gro^vling some and predicting the thing 

 would never fit together. Tom was right; after a strug- 

 gle of an hour or so with the stubborn thing the remains 

 were pitched aside and the Parson's ambitions as a boat 

 builder were shattered. About 10 o'clock we got our 

 stuff and ourselves, with two guides, Ed and Frank, into 

 three boats and two birch bark canoes. The wind was 

 dead against us, that is for the first few rods. After that 

 it came from all directions, for the stream is as crooked 

 as the letter S. It is not more than 15yds. wide at the 

 railroad bridge, and sportsmen crossing on the cars can 

 hardly guess at the sport which it yields a few miles 

 fm-ther down. 



We were eager to wet our Lines and had jointed our 

 rods for a cast at the first likely spot. And right here 

 we made a mistake; the fishing is not good above Bear 

 Creek. Tom and I got off first and soon began to toss 

 our frogs into the deep holes. These were so frequent 

 that by dinner time we had made only about three miles 

 and had caught only a half dozen fish in the whole crowd. 

 But Sam produced a basket which his wife had filled for 

 our first day out. There is a great deal of consolation in 

 such a dinner as that basket turned out for the hungry 

 crowd. "Mrs. Sam" was instantly made an honorary 

 member of the expedition. During the afternoon the 

 fishy looking places grew more abundant, but the frogs 

 on which we depended for bait were scarce. The log 

 ch'ive two montlis earlier had driven them out, so the 

 guides tliought. 



It was almost dark when we reached the mouth of Bear 

 Creek, said to be ten miles from the railroad. It seemed 

 considerably further to us. The boys were already pretty 

 badly frazzled, and we had not accomplished one fourth 

 of our journey. There was a subdued air about the crowd 

 as they climbed up to the high point of ground opposite 

 Bear Creek and pitched one of our tents. Here loggei-s 

 have camped for years and the Indians pitched their 

 tepees time out of mind. We soon had our first camp-fire 

 blazing and ferns cut and strewn on the tent floor for a 

 bed. This was the best stuff at hand, as there Avas no bal- 

 sam near us. Indeed there are better, things for a bed in 

 the woods than balsam bouglis according to my way of 

 thinking. I, of course, am a heretic in this, for it is a 

 cardinal point of faith with the ordinary outer that the 

 balsam bed is a great luxury. I think I know how to 

 make it as well as any man, but have never found it half 

 so soft as the six or eight inches of moss and mold to be 

 found covering the ground of the North Woods where no 

 fii-e has swept through to destroy it. Spread a rubber coat 

 and a blanket down on this and it beats balsam and wire 

 mattresses. Next to it a good armful of swamp grass 

 well dried makes a good couch for tired fisherman or 

 weary hunter. Last of all take balsam boughs and 

 imagine yourself comfortable. 



After supper we began to feel a little more cheerful, 

 and the incidents of the day were recounted. Only 13 

 fish had been caught. Seven of these had fallen victims 

 to Tom's rod and mine, and one of them was a musca- 

 lunge, not a large one, but big enough to begin with. I 

 had seen n young duck go saihng down the stream, and 

 was watching, gun in hand, for ft to rise and give me a 

 shot. Tom was raising a vigorous ash breeze. My frog 

 was twisting along a few yards from the boat, when the 

 'lunge made a grab for the batrachian and my reel began 

 to sing tlie liveliest tune I had heard for a year. The duck 

 Avas forgotten, and after a shai-p but livelv battle the fish 

 was brought in. Mr. M. had caught the fii-st fish, a wall- 

 eyed pike. The evening was warm and the mosquitoes 

 began to give us a cordial reception. They did not seem 

 t(} remember that we were strangei-s and might resent the 

 familiarity of their conduct. They pressed their atten- 

 tions upon us still more warmly after we crawled into the 

 tent. A thimderstorm came up and one terrific clap lifted 

 every mother's son of us, except Tom. who v/as sleeping 

 peacefully with his head wrapped in his blanket. Tom 

 and the mosquitoes attended strictlv to business through 

 all tlie crashing of the elements. The rest of us tossed 

 about till daylight delivered lus from this purgatory. 



The next morning we were off by 7 o'clock bound for 

 the unknown. A Hvely skirmish along the sliore now 

 and then would yield us a few frogs— the best all-ai-ound 

 bait for Wisconsin watere. A Skinner No. 5 spoon is 

 about the right size for trolling, and with a half or three- 

 quai-ters grown frog attached makes a killing bait. I have 



long since ceased to fish these waters with a bare spoon. 

 With the frog, or even a good-sized minnow attached, the 

 number of strikes is largely increased. 



The morning was bright and hope was high. We be- 

 gan to appreciate the beauty of the stream. The bottom 

 is everywhere a golden yellow sand. The sun shining on 

 the surface ripples covered the sandy bottom with waving 

 masses of delicate, tangled shadows. It looked like in- 

 tricate lace work done in threads of silver upon cloth of 

 gold. In half an hour from our start the river plunged 

 into the woods, and the wonder is that with all its twist- 

 ings and turnings it does not get lost. The boats were 

 soon scattered along the river, stopping here and there to 

 fish a little. The guides were paddling the two canoes, 

 and we fomid them about the middle of the forenoon cut- 

 ting out a log jam. Ed's ax soon cut through one log 

 which keyed the others in place and an opening was made 

 wide enough for our boats to go through with a rush. 

 About noon we passed the first and worst rapids. Just 

 here Mr. M. had a fine battle with a small-mouth, a three- 

 pounder. Tom and I watched the contest with admira- 

 tion. Kansas and Mr. M. were in a boat together. They 

 did not say much but it was manifest from their faces 

 that they were feeling deeply. The fish never sulked for 

 a moment but kept up a steady tug accented with plunges 

 and darts and jmnps and dives which made plenty of ex- 

 citement for us all, until he lay panting in the boat. Be- 



THE OLD SETTT.ER OF PANTHER KEY. " 

 Born in 1781. From a photo in 1893. 

 See "To the Ten Thousand Islands," page IG. 



low the rapids, always a good place to fish on these 

 Northern streams, we caught several bass and wall-eyed 

 pike and then stopped for dinner, when Ed and Frank 

 called from the bank that all was ready. The amovmt of 

 creation which we moved at that meal would have im- 

 poverished the larder of a fair-sized hotel. We were be- 

 ginning to find our appetites, which were among the 

 things Ave had come half a thousand miles to hunt up. 



As we started down stream again, Tom and I began to 

 talk over the situation. It was evident we w^ould not get 

 through that night. As the afternoon wore on we resolved 

 to push on as fast as possible and keep the boats going as 

 late as possible. Doc, Sam and Charlie got their dander 

 up. They thought we were trying to run a race and they 

 spurted ahead. We kept pushing them hard, though 

 they kept weU in advance. As we stopped just before the 

 sun dropped out of sight and selected a camping place, 

 the crowd looked rather Aveary. It had been a long day, 

 and the guides thought it was at least six miles yet to the 

 mouth of a creek up Avhich Ave had planned to go to reach 

 a chain of lakes which had never been fished. I had ex- 

 pected a hard trip, but this Avas proving rather tougher 

 than I had looked for. By the time we had the tents up 

 some of the boys began to growl a little. I could not 

 blame them much. The bloodthirsty mosquitoes were 

 biting them, their muscles were sore, and they could not 

 forget that sonietime or other they must pull back again 

 up that interminable stream. Supper was a solemn meal. 

 The night grew rapidly cool. Tliat proved fatal to our 

 little tormentors with long bills and soprano voices. In- 

 deed, we were Uttle troubled with them from that time 

 on. It was mid-August, but the nights were so cold that 

 no man had any blankets to lend. As we gathered about 

 the camp-fije, Doc gave us some of his army experiences, 

 and they were vastly entertaining. A rare man he is in 

 camp, full of good nature, making the best out of every- 

 thing. 



Tom and I were the last to put oars in the water, the 

 next morning. After catching a lively 21bs. bass and 

 losmg a good sized muscalunge in the first bend, we 

 hurried on to find Doc, Sam and Charlie with their boat 

 resting against a snag in mid-stream, and each of them 



playing a fish. One landing net was not enough for that 

 boat for awhile. They had struck one of the best pike 

 holes we found on the river. These fish lurk under 

 any logs or brush that may lie near the bottom of the 

 stream. They dart out from these hiding places and Avill 

 often strike a spoon Avith all the savageness of a 'lunge. 

 They are hard to hook, and after being played about for 

 awhile Avill slip off. Their mouths are hard and not easily 

 pierced Avith the barbed steel. They are vigorous fighters 

 while their strength lasts, but they are soon tuckered. 

 The boys had already forgotten the woes of the downward 

 voyage in the joys of successful fishing. 



We found the mouth of the creek Avas only about a 

 mile below our camp of the previous nights But Kansas 

 and Mr. M. had gone by it, and Avhile we waited one of 

 the guides hurried down the river a couple of miles to 

 bring them back. The only consolation they had for their 

 extra pull was the sight of a big buck and doe which 

 came out on the river bank, not 50yds. off, and stood 

 looking at them. 



The creek was too shallow for rowing. There were not 

 enough hip boots in the crowd to furnish one apiece, so 

 there was nothing to do but to jump into the water and 

 wade. We managed to get soaking wet above the knees, 

 but no one seemed to mind that. At home such an ad- 

 venture would have giA-en us all the pneumonia, but we 

 felt no ill effects from the Avetting. The creek swarmed 

 with frogs, and we laid in a supply of a hundred or so. 

 Charlie got ahead with a gun and knocked doAvn a brace 

 of young ducks. We saAv nothing but local ducks during 

 our stay. The flight ducks from the far North begin to 

 come into the rice beds of northern Wisconsin about 

 Sept. 1. About a mile up the creek we came to a dam 

 where Ave portaged and found ourselves at Fishhook 

 Lake. The wind was bloAving great guns as we came out 

 on to the lake. But Ave worked our Avay over to the north 

 shore and found a pretty camping place. That evening 

 Sam and I took a turn around the lake after the tents 

 were up. The water was black with tannin — unlike the 

 clear water of the northern lakes. The dam has backed 

 the Avater up among the brush, and this is probably the 

 cause of its being so impregnated with the tannin. If 

 there Avere any fish in it Ave did not find it out. One 

 stray little pike ran against Sam's spoon. We concluded 

 it was purely accident on his part. He probably didn't 

 see the spoon in the black water in time to get away. 



That night we had a royal time in camp. We built up 

 a roaring fire and eA^ery fellow was put through his best 

 paces as a story-teUer. It developed that Ave had a fair 

 quartette in the crowd, and it exhausted its repertoire 

 over and over again as the evenings went by, even doAvn 

 to scraps and snatches of old half -forgotten songs. 



Diligent attention was given to the rods, for the next 

 day was to be devoted entirely to fishing. Kansas had 

 brought a coffin-like looking chest, aAvkAvard enough to 

 have in the boats, but a capital thing now when he began 

 to open its trays and tills and corners, stocked Avith every- 

 thing one could possibly need in rod mending. Several 

 rods had been badly damaged by the big pike in the 

 river, and Kansas looked on good-naturedly Avhile we 

 made a raid on his supplies for repairs. 



Fishhook Lake is the most northerly of a system which 

 forms about the only group of unfished lakes in Svisconsin . 

 We were bent on exploring them. The next morning Ave 

 M^ere early afloat, having sent Ed back to the railroad for 

 mail and bread— a ninety-mile trip. Frank, the French- 

 man, stayed behind to roAv Mr. M. about, but during the 

 day they failed to catch a fish. We pushed into Town- 

 line Lake, trying to find Boot Lake to the south by walk- 

 ing through the timber. We traveled by compass, but 

 either the map we had was wrong or we veered from the 

 true course, for no lake could we find. When we had 

 gone stumbling in Indian file through the almost 

 impenetrable swamps for a long time, it fell to my 

 lot to climb a tree, but nothing could be seen to 

 the south but still more impenetrable swamps. For- 

 tunately we had carefully blazed our way or we 

 would have found it hard to get out of the woods. We 

 stumbled our way back to the boats, and consoled our- 

 selves ovf r our failure by the fact that Ave had not gotten 

 lost. A tenderfoot, lost in those Avilds, might about as 

 well hang himself to the first tree, for his chances of 

 gettmg out Avould be small indeed. The morning Avaa 

 gone and our long laid plans seemed entirely defeated. 

 W. H. Smith, of Frfield, Wisconsin, an old Avoods cruiser, 

 had told me wonderful stories of the bass and muscalunge 

 in Boot, Bear's Paw, Loon and Crooked lakes, and we 

 longed to reach them. But we never could have gotten 

 even a birch bark canoe through the woods anyway. 

 The maps showed a little stream coming into Fishhook 

 Lake, but not as having any connection with Boot Lake. 

 We resolved on pushing up this. Within a hundred rods 

 we came to brush so thick that it seemed impossible to go 

 through. Kansas and Sam, however, were not to be 

 turned back. Tom and I were afraid of snagging our 

 birch bark, and Doc and Charlie "didn't believe there 

 was any lake up that pesky little creek, anyway." Once 

 in a while he Avould yell, and Sam's voice would come 

 back fainter and fainter. Each time, as he answered, it 

 looked as if we were being left behind, so we fought our 

 way through the worst tangle of bushes I ever saw. 

 After a while the creek opened out clear again. On and 

 on we went, led forv.-ard by the delusive hope that the 

 next open looking space ahead Avould prove to be the 

 lake. But no lake appeared. We hated to give up, but 

 finally turned back. We afterward found out that if we 

 had gone a few rods fm-ther our eyes would have rested 

 upon what is probably the finest lake in Wisconsin for 

 big small-mouth bass. And Crooked Lake beyond it 

 swarms with big-mouths. Beyond, and a little more to 

 the east, is a chain of small lakes Avhich, from the best 

 information I have, are alive Avith hard fighting musca- 

 lunge of the largest size. Sam says we will reach them 

 next year, and I believe we will. 



We returned to camp a little crest-fallen. As explorers 

 Ave were a little off' color. Also a little off on our muscle. 

 Before night fell Mr. M. and I determined not to leave the 

 day an entire blank, went out with Frank to row and en- 

 ticed three pike into the boat. They must have been 

 lonely. It was a mercy to rescue them. I think they 

 were the only the fish in the lake. 



That night the rear column, consisting of Ira and a 

 guide, pulled into camp about an hour after dark. Ira 

 had not been able to start Avith the rest of us, but by hard 

 rowing the guide had brought him down the river in one 

 day. On the way doAvn, trolling, Ira had caught three 

 fair-sized muscalunge and a smaU-mouth ba^s, not ba4 



