April 7, 1894.] 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



296 



more springy they are the better. Rods from 6| to 8oz. 

 in weight are the best, although lighter and even much 

 heavier ones are used. The practical point is to have 

 plenty of them, at least two or three, with several extra 

 tips. Broken rods, and tips especially, are a frequently 

 occurring contingency of ouananiche fishing. 



Eight or ten varieties form an ample variety of flies 

 and most of them sh ould be tied on No. 4 hooks. The 

 Jock-Scott, silver-doctor, brown-ha.okie, cow-dung, Seth- 

 Green, Lord-Baltimore, Parmacheene-belle and scarlet- 

 ibis I have always found to give me sufficient variety, 

 and I have rarely used anything else. A good supply 

 should be taken, since those not broken soon become 



SNAGGING SALMON ON THE HUDSON. 



I noticed the article in your last number on ''Fishing 

 With a Bare Hook." There was a similar method used 

 on the Hudson last year at Mechanicville. As is well 

 known salmon were abundant in that river last year. 

 The fishway at the Mechanicville Dam was not opened 

 for some time and many fine salmon were spawning in 

 the river near the mouths of several cold streamlets which 

 flowed from springs near the river. Where these streams 

 entered the river there would often be a few feet of sand 

 covered by shallow water and then breaking off abruptly 

 into a deep round hole which was surrounded by a 



%lbs. OUANANICHE TAKEN BY MR. EUGENE MCCARTHY. 



worn and battered from violent usage, are useless and 

 need to be frequently renewed. I find, as a rule, that the 

 most successful cast is cow-dung or brown-hackle for 

 trailer and a Jock- Scott or silver-doctor for dropper. Use 

 two flies only and fasten the dropper at the last knot on 

 the leader next to the line. By doing this it will skip 

 the surface better and take most of the fish, as its action 

 seems to attract them more. 



To give advice just how to fish for ouananiche, and to 

 make fishing successful, is an utter impossibility; general 

 information only can be given. It is practically neces- 

 sary to know what to take in the way of clothing, tackle, 

 etc., as one is too far removed from a base of supplies to 

 get anything that may be needed. It is necessary also to 

 know what one has to combat with in catching the 

 ouananiche, what to use, and in a general way how to 

 use it. Such knowledge to the angler fishing these waters 

 for the first time will save him much vexation, a quantity 

 of broken tackle, and perchance some fish. Beyond this, 

 his own acquired experience will be his guide. Experi- 

 ence alone can prove his teacher. As the French say, "A 

 force de forger on devient forgeron"— practice alone makes 

 perfect. Previous fishing experience is a great aid, but 

 the ouananiche is so totally different from other fish that 

 it is like learning a new art to successfully angle for and 

 land it. 



When fishing the pools in the rivers, it is generally 

 better, and more convenient to fish from the rocks, but in 

 the Grand Discharge one can more readily reach the pools 

 from a canoe. 



Imagine yourself in the midst of a boiling rapid, your 

 canoe dancing and bounding on the troubled waters. You 

 make a cast, and you have an ouananiche, or perhaps 

 two. as sometimes happens. Here you have excitement 

 beyond compare. Imagine the skill necessary to handle 

 and save them; your varied emotions; your surroundings 

 « — all — and then one fully appreciates that he is engaged 

 in the finest fishing known. No fitting eulogy can be 

 given such fishing. Only those who have been fortunate 

 enough to enjoy it can understand and appreciate. 



But one proviso is to be made to insure satisfactory suc- 

 cess in ouananiche fishing, and that is to take sufficient 

 'time to fairly test them in the right waters at the right 

 times mentioned. 



The Brook Silverside. 



Central Lake, Mich., March 10. — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: I send you by this mail in separate packages 

 two specimens of small fish taken in our lake. The) 7 

 are not familiar to us and may be from the plant of 

 "wall-eyes" made three months ago, of which no results 

 have been apparent. It is hoped that you may be able 

 to identify them. F. H. Thruston. 



[The fish is known as the brook silverside, or skip 

 jack. It is not related to the "wall-eye," but belongs to 

 the family containing the silverside or friar of the Atlan- 

 tic Coast. The species grows to the length of only four 

 inches and is valuable only as food for larger fish. It is 

 common in streams and ponds in the Ohio and Missis- 

 sippi valleys, and has been taken recently in the States of 

 South Carolina and Florida. The brook silverside is a 

 surface swimmer; its habit of skipping out of water and 

 along the surface suggested for it the name skip-jack. 

 This little fish is an excellent species for introduction 

 into black bass waters and proves a most attractive live 

 bait for that species when properly placed before the 

 game.] 



Rappahannock Club 



Fredericksburg, Va. — We have a club under the name 

 of the Rappahannock Rod and Gun Club and Fish and 

 Game Protective Association, with a membership of 75. 

 Luke W. White of the Grace Pointer Kennels, President; 

 Hy. Weman, Treasurer; C. McCalley, Secretary. We have 

 secured the control of 1,500 acres of land as a game pre- 

 serve, and have planted 200 large-mouth bass in the Rap- 

 pahannock, with the same number of rainbow trout in a 

 stream above town. We have also six Mongolian pheas- 

 ants which we keep in pens, and with the increase of 

 which we propose to stock our preserve. L. G. R. 



growth of weeds. The salmon would come into these 

 holes and be in the cool water, rolling on the surface oc- 

 casionally so as to be plainly visible. The fishing was 

 done entirely from the shore until a fish was hooked, 

 when the person who was so fortunate, jumped into a boat 

 and followed the fish into deeper water. All the boats were 

 run up on the shore and from the stern several persons 

 would fish. The boats were so numerous and so close to- 

 gether that it was almost impossibele to cast. In pulling 

 in your line you would always catch either a big stump, 

 which must have been one mass of flies and broken lead- 

 ers or another line. It was very odd salmon fishing to 

 any one who had cast their flies on the swift salmon 

 streams of Canada. The rods used were what each man 

 happened to have and were a surprising collection for 

 salmon fishing. A leader with four or five flies was the 

 usual thing. These were in most cases baited with small 

 pieces of salt pork. A very light sinker was used by those 

 who had the best success. The most desirable position 

 was to be right over one of the holes which I have already 

 described. The flies, pork and all were allowed to sink. 

 If a salmon was attracted by a fly so as to touch it or the 

 pork (the feeling was like a minnow nibble), the line was 



THE ALBEMARLE SHAD FISHERIES. 



Comparatively few who eat shad in their season are 

 aware that the greater part of the supply in the New 

 York and Boston markets comes from two single fisheries 

 in Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. These two fish- 

 eries are vis-d-vis. One, the largest, belonging to Dr. 

 Capebart, at Avoca, near Edenton, employs fine steam 

 seine boats and 50 men; the other, Hare-Woods, directly 

 opposite, has only two seine boats and a proportionate 

 number of men, but it saves a handicap by using a seine 

 which is five miles long, including the hauling ropes! 



Just now the season is nearing its best, and in a - few 

 days will be at its height, fishermen being augurs. When 

 the runs of shad are largest, as many as 6,000 fish are 

 known to have been taken at a single haul. Four hours 

 are required for a haul, and four hauls are made in a day, 

 throughout the season, which is supposed to last 60 days. 

 It is hard work. Last Saturday, when I was down" at 

 Hare-Wood's beach, 1,200 shad came in at one haul. 

 Sometimes half a dozen big rockfish, or striped bass, 

 come in, too, and no end of herring. Six rockfish came 

 in on Saturday. During the climax of the herring season, 

 which follows the shad, and continues after the shad have 

 done, 200,000 herring at a haul are not uncommon. This 

 makes a pile at the beach of 80ft. front, which measures 

 22ft. wide, and nearly 2ft. deep. At a distance it looks 

 like a snow bank. Parties of ladies and gentlemen drive 

 down from Edenton in carriages to see the sight. 



Many of Edenton's best citizens operate fisheries, and 

 while the season is on they rough it in common with the 

 working fishermen, who are quartered in large barracks, 

 where there is also a mess room, salting and packing 

 rooms, barrel houses, engine houses for the steam winches 

 which haul the seines, and other accessories. Recently, 

 owing to warm weather, the business has not been 

 remunerative, although the catch has been satisfactory. 

 Prematurely hot weather is as fatal to profit in shad 

 catching as premature frost is to the trucking interest. 

 On March 23 the thermometer at Albemarle showed a 

 noon temperature of 90°. On the 26th following snow 

 threatened the growing peas which were already in blos- 

 som. Such are the vicissitudes of life and occupation on 

 the Sounds. 



Of course a good many shad are caught in seines in the 

 Neuse River and at other places in Pamlico and Albemarle 

 sounds; and they are caught in stake, drift and pound 

 nets as well. Horse power is employed in hauling second- 

 class seines, and the scows which "shoot" them, or lay 

 them out, are propelled by oars. Their average length is 

 6,000ft., which is over a mile long. Pound-fishing is the 

 least laborious and expensive. To operate a big shad fish- 

 ery costs $L0,000 a month, and the plant or outfit requires 

 a capital of $20,000. It costs a good deal of time, money 

 and laborious work to prepare the ground for seining by 

 clearing it of snags and other obstructions. Drags, dyna- 

 mite and sweeps are used, and frequently the services of 

 submarine divers are employed. When ledges or reefs 

 are discovered other ground has to be selected. 



Formerly in Tyrrell county there were operated some of 

 the largest seine fisheries in the world, but they were de- 

 stroyed in the late war, and for want of capital have never 

 been refitted. There are openings now for others to take 



ouananiche pool, fifth falls, mistassini. 



Club Constitutions. 



Secretaries of game and fish protective clubs will 

 favor us by sending copies of their club constitutions and 

 by-laws. 



jerked straight upward in the hope of hooking the fish in 

 the side or belly. 



I believe there was only one fish taken fairly. He rose 

 to a fly cast in the proper manner and weighed a little 

 over 91bs. I did not care to try the pork method and cast 

 my flies on the surface, but with little success. 



While fishing I noticed a tremendous fish-hawk which 

 was sailing over the island in the center of the river. All 

 at once he shot down into the water, and it was easy to 

 see that he had fastened into something that was no toy, 

 for though he flapped his great wings he could not fly, 

 and could not seem to raise the fish at all. He kept beat- 

 ing his great wings, however, and striving with all his 

 might to go off with his prize, but after ten minutes he 

 saw that this method was all to no purpose, and tried a 

 cute trick. He let go his hold for an instant and then 

 fastened his claws firmly into the fish's head. He raised 

 his right wing and struck it into the water, giving a pow- 

 erful shove, then with the left, and in this way he swam 

 75yds, to a shoal off the island, and here succeeded in get- 

 ting the fish ashore. Two fishermen started at once for 

 the island and scared the bird away. They brought the 

 fish to where I was and I saw that it was a salmon that 

 would easily weigh 91bs. W. T, Morrison. 



Nkvt Brunswick, N. J. 



their places. This fact may be of interest to the proprie- 

 tors of the deserted fisheries of the Connecticut. 



Shad all go North on ice, but herring are chiefly salted 

 and shipped in barrels. Herring roe has become quite an 

 important commodity of late. Sturgeon of large size are 

 occasionally taken in the seines, and their roe is utilized 

 for caviare. Charles Hallock. 



Took Two to Catcn Him. 



Fredericksburg, Va. — Tom Larkin and myself were 

 bass fishing together in the Rappahannock, above this 

 place. Tom had on a large chub, or fallfish, for bait, 

 while I had a smaller one. After a few minutes Tom 

 had a strike. The fish proved to be a slow biter, and 

 mouthed the bait for ten minutes or more. Finally he 

 made a circle and passed around my line before I had a 

 chance to move it, and as I supposed, fouling my line. 

 Tom said a few things and struck the fish, while I gave 

 him plenty of slack. He was landed after a struggle of 

 ten minutes and was found to have both hooks deep in 

 his throat. He was a 4-pounder and a beauty. I promptly 

 claimed half the honor of capture, which it is needless to 

 say was not accorded by Tom. L. G. E. 



