102 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Aug. 5, 1893. 



ANGLING TALK. 



Charlestowh, N. H., July 21.— Let me add my con- 

 gratulations to those of many of yom- other readers on 

 the change of date of going to press. 



I got my copy of the dear old paper last week and this 

 on Thursday morning instead of waiting, as I often have 

 of late, till Saturday noon or evening. What numbers 

 your late ones have been too! I can say as Shakespeare 

 said of Cleopatra: 



"Age cannot wither nor can custom stale, j^our infinite variety !" 



My attention is caught this morning by your answer to 

 "A. M. M.," as to the size of pike, which I indorse, 191bs. 

 being the heaviest I have ever seen, though the great 

 Northwest may furnisli larger ones. 



I had been intending to refer before to the capital 

 photo of fish from Black Lake, on page 516, of June 15, 

 which shows the light, oblong spots of the true pike 

 very clearly, and ought to help those who persist in call- 

 ing them all pickerel. 



The 47-pound pike from Lake Tschotagama, on page 

 519 of the same number, is to mj eye an imquestionable 

 mascalonge, though the photograph may deceive me. To 

 be sure, they all belong to the pike family, but a little 

 more accuracy in writing of them would render the read- 

 ing less confusing. I would advise those of your corres- 

 pondents who are ransacking the world for 'mascalonge 

 to try that unspeakable Canadian lake. 



The pleasant letter of your new correspondent "Payson" 

 requires a little comment. I am inclined to agree with 

 him on the whole as to the small danger from putting 

 black bass in trout waters, but am not fully satisfied yet. 



There were no salmon in Sunapee when the bass were 

 put in, and none were introduced until ten years later, 

 and the brook trout had been nearly exterminated by 

 spearing, clubbing and shooting in the fall when on the 

 way up Pike Brook, where the State hatchery now stands, 

 to their spawning beds, and tlie Commissioners of that 

 date, instead of trying to stop tlie destruction, put in black 

 bass to help it! 



It was not until 1876, when the board of which I was a 

 member came into office, that measures were taken to 

 stop this slaughter and restore the Salmonidce, for which 

 the lake was admirably fitted, and I cannot help thinking 

 that the great plants of brook and Loch Leven trout and 

 "winninish" which have been put in since then would 

 have afforded still better fishing, if the bass had not been 

 there. I was instrumental in getting the law passed pro- 

 hibiting the introduction of bass in trout waters without 

 the consent of the Fish Commissioners, and it was done 

 thus. Commissioner Stilwell, of Maine, wrote me that a 

 certain wi-iter of guide books to the Eangeley Lakes had 

 been refused permission to put bass in those lakes, and had 

 defied the Maine Commissioners with a tlireat to put them 

 in Umbagog Lake, the lowest of the chain, which is in 

 New Hampshire, and I immediately "blocked his game" 

 by getting that law passed, imposing a heavy penalty for 

 any such act. 



Although Dr. Quackenbos and Com. Hodge think the 

 bass do not destroy the trout and salmon to any great ex- 

 tent from their dift'erent habitats, I am not fully convinced 

 of the fact, and had rather see them kept out of the chance 

 of danger. StiU ' 'Payson's" comments on the favorite 

 food of the bass are decidedly sound. 



I am very much disappointed that Commissioner (not 

 Colonel) Hodge was not reappointed, for he has done 

 more to carry out the fish and game laws than any man 

 in the State ever did, unless it was the late A. H. Powers, 

 who broke up the slaughter at Sunapee. 



StiU, with ten hatclieries to superintend, I think he 

 must have his hands full, and if he had to give way to 

 the favorite New Hampshire dogma, of "rotation in 

 of&ce," I know of no better man in the State for Commis- 

 sioner than my good friend Judge Shurtleff , who is a true 

 sportsman in every sense of the word, "with all that that 

 implies." I should like to meet him at Diamond Ponds 

 again. Von W. 



FISHING ON THE LONG ISLAND COAST. 



In the ocean bordering Long Island fishing has been 

 unusually good for the past week, and large catches of 

 bluefish and weakfish have been taken by boats from Say- 

 ville, Islip, Babylon and points on Jamaica Bay. Capt. 

 B. L. Dunbar's boat, from Oceanus, caught 86 weakfish 

 July 24 ranging in weight from 8^ to Slba., and other 

 boats have since reported even better catches. The 

 method pursued in catching weakfish ' 'outside" is to sail 

 through a school and jig the fish by means of an adroitly 

 thrown squid. 



July 26 one boat from Eockaway brought in 64 bluefisl 

 of lai-ge size. Good luck is reported on all sides, and fish- 

 ermen are able to substantiate their stories by tlie exhibi- 

 tion of chafed and bleeding hands, wliich biar good wit- 

 ness to struggles with the gamy blues. 



A large school of bluefish are now in the Great South 

 Bay. Large numbers of heavy fish were taken last week 

 and the prospects are good for some days to come. Om 

 fish was taken weighing 121bs., and several 81bs. A few 

 weakfish have been caught by squids. Monday large 

 bluefish were caught off the inlet. Boats and men can be 

 had at SayviUe, Islip, Bay Shore and Babylon. 



The following cHpping is taken from a New York news- 

 paper;- "Spanish Mackerel on Tap Ofi: Long Island's 

 South Shore. — Immense schools of Spanish mackerel 

 ruffle the waters off the south side of the Long Island 

 coast from Fii-e Island to Montauk Point. Old fishermen 

 say they have never before been so plentiful. Sunday a 

 school of them ran into the breakers opposite Sayvdle, 

 and for a time the beach resembled Fulton Market on 

 fish day. Thousands were strewn along the sand, and a 

 party out bluefishing gathered a two-horse w^agon load 

 before the stranded fish got to sea again on the high tide." 



This note is wholly unrehable and misleading, and on a 

 par with much of the so-called fishing news published in 

 the New York daihes. The Sunday in question a gale was 

 blowing ashore, and no boat could have lived to have 

 landed through the surf as the bluefishing party is said to 

 have done. The narrow strip of land opposite Say ville on 

 which the ocean beats is composed of sand dunes, and if 

 the clipping is taken to mean that the ' 'two-horse wagon 

 load" was carried oii hi a two-hoi-se wagon, it is again 



highly improbable. Probably no two-horse wagon was 

 ever on this strip of land— certainly not last Sunday week. 



The fishing in Jamaica Bay has been nothing to boast 

 of lately. It will improve very much as the season ad- 

 vances, but good fishing can hardly be expected before 

 the middle of August. A few nice blackfish and fluke 

 have been caught in the neighborhood of the breakwater, 

 and some fair catches of weakfish running from 2 to 41bs. 

 at other points in the bay. July 27 a party fishing off the 

 Shell Bank caught fourteen. The upper part of the bay 

 near Far Eockaway seems to be the best point at present 

 for weakfish. For fluke the Point of Beach at the Inlet is 

 perhaps the best. One boat from Seaside (Boerum's) 

 caught twelve fluke July 27 at Euffle Bar. 



A great many bluefishing parties start from Canarsie, 

 which is easily reached from New York or Brooklyn, and 

 where there are a great number of fine fishing boats. 

 These boats can be had for from $8 to $10 for ordinary 

 days, and from |12 to $15 for holidays. The prices vary 

 according to the style of boat and accommodation. The 

 parties often sleep overnight on the boats so as to get an 

 early start the following day. The hours just after sun- 

 rise are the best for bluefishing, and after 11 o'clock very 

 little fishing is attempted. If the blues cannot be found 

 the captain often takes the party to fluke pormds and 

 drifting for the big flat fish is indulged in. As these boats 

 will accommodate 8 to 10 persons easily the individual 

 expense of such a trip is not great. 



July 33 a party consisting among others of Hon. John 

 Zeller, of Guttenberg; Lewis Braun, of Paterson, and 

 Wm. Eckhardt, of West New York, N. J, , fished outside 

 off Eockaway. They made a large haul of fluke and caught 

 also a few nice bluefish. They reported hundreds of 

 weakfish to have been caught by jigging. Michael Hain 

 of the Eomet captained their boat. 



Mr. Eckhardt is the gentleman who holds the record 

 for the largest black bass caught at Greenwood Lake this 

 season. It was a large-mouth caught trolling with spoon 

 early in June and weighed 8.Vlbs. It was caught in the 

 evening near the island and opposite Coojier. 



THE WININNISH. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I want to smile a smile born of a letter printed in the 

 Forest and Stream, dated June 29, and written by Mr. 

 Eobert C. Lowry, in which he laments the deficiency 

 of game qualities in the "much- wi-itten-about-and-largely- 

 advertised" wininnish of Lake St. John. Mr. Lowry pays 

 "It makes me smile now when I read the high-flown ac- 

 counts of the far-famed ouananiche." 



Imprimis I do not propose to take up the battle on be- 

 half of the wininnish, for a long and varied experience 

 with the fish has convinced me that it is eminently fit to 

 do so for itself, but I cannot conceive how an angler can 

 begin to estimate the game qualities of any fish taken on 

 the murderous spoon, as Mr. Lowry says he did. It is 

 one of the deadhest and most merciless devices ever in- 

 vented for destroying fish life, and its use is justified only 

 in the case of the unprincipled mascalonge and its flat- 

 nosed relatives. 



However, in spite of a mouthful of relentless and san- 

 guinary hooks, the fish made "one or two leaps out of 

 the water," says Mr. Lowry. Well, imder the conditions 

 I think the fish did remarkably well, and like a chosen 

 few of the angling fraternity, clearly exhibited a marked 

 repugnance toward the treacherous spoon and its deadly 

 gang of hooks. 



Mr. Lo^v-ry says frankly that he was "crurious to see 

 this renowned fish," and without stopping to ask whence 

 came its world-wide celebrity, I must confess I do not 

 blame him, as it is w^ell worth a week's journey to look 

 upon this cross-bespangled salmon, with its glistening 

 silvery back and sides, but he adds, "He had the head, 

 the mouth and the shape of a trout." 



Your correspondent adds that he killed a pickerel "of 

 81bs. weight which gave us almost as much of a fight as 

 the ouananiche." To this proposition I can add nothing 

 because it all depends upon wiiat one considers "a fight," 

 yet it forces me to laugh right out loud when I read the 

 comparison between such game fish. 



After this Mr. Lowry went at them like a good, honest 

 democrat, and cast flies, wasting his energies in the foam, 

 and then, moving to a "large rock that jutted out from 

 the shore, around the end of which a heavy current was 

 flowing." Here, with a "silver-doctor" he hooked a 51bs. 

 wininnish that "came to the net in the most placid 

 manner." You can fasten a dead weight of 51bs. to a 

 fly-rod and it will never come to the net "placidly" when 

 drawn through a heavy current, more especially the 

 powerful water at the Grande Discharge which I know 

 so well. Furthermore, you can take the meekest and 

 lowliest sucker extant, give him olbs. of weight, hitch 

 him to a fly-rod and try to pull him through a heavy 

 ciu-rent "placidly," and the chances are that you wiU lo.se 

 time, and possibly sucker and tackle. Question: Don't 

 the wnnmnish fight a Uttle bit harder than the Lake St. 

 John sucker? Mr. Lowry states that he has killed the 

 l eal landlocked salmon in Maine and it is "almost iden- 

 tical in appearance with the regular salmon that comes 

 up from the sea." If this statement "goes" then the 



CHAINED TO BUSINESS? 

 Can't go fishing? Do the next best thing. Read about It in th. 

 "Forest and Stream." 



pigeon and the grouse are twins, the poodle and the 

 mastiff are "birds of a feather," and dragging 5-pounders 

 with a fly-rod through a heavy current "placidly" be- 

 comes an undeniable fact, especially w^hen that heavy 

 current is like "the rush of the waters of the Niagara." 



Mr. Lowry says that he woxild rather "kiU. a Bibs, bass 

 than an ouananiche of double that weight," and would 

 get more fight and more sport out of him. Does he 

 mean with the spoon or with the fly? Ejt Clarke. 



''FOREST AND STREAM" PISHING POSTALS 



Send us a postal card report of your own luck, your partner^s luck, 

 your neighbor's luck, your father-in-law's luck. And— her luck. 



Hell Gate, New York, July 26.— Mr. George E. Bird 

 and friend caught 12 striped bass yesterday while trolling 

 about Hell Gate; none were under lib. and the laxgest 

 weighed 31bs. Wm. H. Eockwood. 



Clayton, N. Y., July 27.— Mr. Lasselle, of Fine View, 

 and Oarsman J. Nulty, caught 13 pickerel and 3 bass, the 

 largest weighing lOlb's., within sight of Fine View Hotel, 

 40 being caught within two days. Fishing is good. 



Geo. W. Brutsch. 



Ebdw-ood, N. Y., July 27.— The guests of the Dallhiger 

 Hotel have been fishing with these rewards: A. C. Salis- 

 bury and wife (Mr. S. is superintendent of the D., L. & 

 W. E. E.), 45 bass, 16 pickerel. E. M. Smith (proprietor 

 St. James Hotel) and John Pifferfe, of Utica, 87 bass 

 (largest 5|lbs.), 9 pike, 14 pickerel. F. L. Mould, of San- 

 quoit, and W. C. Truman, of Arizona, three days' fishing, 

 175 bass, 12 pike, 16 pickerel; last day's fishing, 55 bass, 

 largest 611bs., smallest 21bs. Dr. Laird, of Watertown, 

 and Dr. Eyan, of Eedwood, one day's fishing, 11 bass 

 (largest 6Mbs.), 5 pike (largest 41bs.) and 6 pickerel. Fish- 

 ing is of the best; bait abundant. Z. S, 



Highgate, Vt., July 21.— So far fishing has been very 

 poor here and at the springs. The seine fishing in the bay 

 near the springs cleaned out the waters in that vicinity, 

 and the sawdust has choked out the fish here in the river. 

 It is fast making our once beautiful stream a stinking, 

 reeking mass of filth. A few good bass and maskinonge 

 are, however, ca-ught here, but imless there is a change soon 

 they wUl be extinct. We receive with pleasure the new 

 variety of trout {S. marstoni). I was, I beheve, the first 

 to call attention to a fish that was in some of the Canadian 

 lakes, which, while called the fontinalis, was a different 

 variety (see page 193 in "Game and Fishing Eesorts" of 

 HaUock's "Sportsman's Gazetteer," which information 

 was furnished by me). Yesterday, in company of Eev. 

 Horace Jones, I visited an old fishing ground up the Black 

 Creek bottoms through the Newton meadows, and had 

 but indifferent sport. It was the old story. Persistent 

 fishing in and out of season has nearly spoiled that once 

 noted locality. The only way to save our game and fish 

 is for the sportsmen in every town to form themsels^es 

 into a club and then rent for preserves the best localities 

 and then post and protect them thoroughly. Stanstead. 



Atlantic City, N. J., July 29.— Under the guidance of 

 the best boatmen obtainable, and over grounds which in 

 days gone by have yielded abundant catches, I have 

 fished in vain so far this season. True, a goodly numbei- 

 of drum and a few bluefish have been caught outside, but 

 shrimp, crab, clam and minnows fail to lure weakfisii, 

 seabass or kingfish. Flormdcrs are caught to some ex- 

 tent. Have all the others gone to Buzzards Bay? 



E. M. M. 



Long Lake, N. Y., July 27.— Jas. Hammer caught in a 

 half day, 82ibs. of lake trout. Hai-ry Williams caught in 

 a half day, lOlbs. of brook trout. Both of Long Lake, and 

 both fished for me. Anderson and Moynehan. 



Tottenville, Staten Island, July 29.— The weakfish 

 have been running well this week, and were worthy of 

 attention— from 16 in an hour and a half, to 20 for the 

 tide to a boat. John T. Hawkins. 



Barnegat, N. J., July 25. — The fishing is very poor in 

 our bay yet. Not over 150 weakfish were caught last 

 week, but sea fishing is good. Peterson, Cox, More and 

 Boilers caught big lots of sea bass and porgies, etc., out- 

 side last week. Eight sheepshead were caught in bay last 

 week. Wm. C. Inman, Jr. 



Fort Dodge, la., July 26.— Fishing in the Des Moines 

 Eiver near this place is fair. The fish taken are black 

 bass, wall-eyed pike, pickerel and blue or channel catfish. 

 Messrs. Sackett, Burnham, Loomis, Eobertson and Holrn 

 have just returned from a trip up the river. They were 

 gone nine days and had a very nice trip. The camp was 

 two cars side-tracked at the junction of the east and west 

 forks of the Des Moines, at the bridge of the M. & St. L. 

 E. E..over the east fork. Some very fine bass and pike 

 were caught by the party, some of the pike weighing over 

 71bs. Frogs proved to be the best bait for both pike and 

 bass. The Des Moines Eiver is one of the best streams in 

 the country for small-mouthed black bass. But there is 

 a lawless element who destroy the fish by dynamite, 

 spears and such other devilish contrivances, that a fine 

 bass stream is nearly spoiled by their infernal work. If — 

 alas for the if — there were no fish taken from the Des 

 Moines except those taken lawfully with hook an4 line, 

 the fishermen of this vicinity would soon have a stream 

 to be proud of. Convis. 



Bass of Dallas Club Lake. 



Mayor W. C. Connor, of Dallas, Tex. , sends us a pho- 

 tograph of a catch of fine fish made by him at the Dallas 

 Fishing and Hunting Club Lake, situated 12 miles from 

 that city. The lake contains some 500 acres, is well 

 stocked and owned by some thirty of the citizens of 

 Dallas. The Mayor writes: "I left Dallas alone at 1.30 

 P. M. with a bucket of live minnows, reached the lake 

 about 3.30 and was fishing by 4 o'clock. I fished until 

 good dark and my catch up to that hour was 06. I went 

 out after supper with a torch and fiished for an horn- and 

 a half and landed 17. Next morning about 6 I was out 

 again and by 3 P. M. my enthe catch was 147 calico bass 

 (or white perch) and big-mouth black bass. The calico 

 bass would average 21b8. each, and the black bass ranged 

 from fib. to 71bs., which is the largest ever landed out of 



