3B6 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



I June 30, 1894. 



FORT MYERS TARPON SEASON, 1894. 



That the Caloosahatchie River in Lee county, south- 

 west Florida, is the home of the tarpon and the place in 

 all the world where the great fish takes the bait most 

 readily, is demonstrated by this year's record of the Fort 

 Myers fishing, which reached me yesterday. , 



In 1887 the first advancing wave of fishermen reached 

 the salt waters of Charlotte Harbor, and caused the erec- 

 tion of a most charming little hotel— the San Carlos— on 

 Pine Island, near the mouth of the harbor, and did not 

 spend itself until the year 1892, when the comparatively 

 few fish in the various pools near that hotel disappeared. 

 Even the patience of a tarpon fisherman can in time be 

 exhausted. These people, however, were not content to 

 see their sport destroyed, and in 1890, taking the hint 

 from certain small creeks which they had stumbled on, 

 and which yielded fish, tried the great Caloosahatchie 

 River, which empties Lake Okeechobee into the Harbor, 

 and has a length of over 100 miles, and for the last 

 24 is salt, and is from half a mile to two miles wide. 

 The pretty village of Fort Myers is near the head of this 

 broad part of the river, which ends at the northern or 

 eastern end, at "the jetties" and the Beautiful Islands. 

 These adventurers found the fish obdurate, and tarpon 

 fishing among the initiated and their subinitiated was 

 transferred to Myers, which has now become the 

 headquarters for those who pursue the fish. 



The growth of the pursuit is shown by the figures of 

 the record, which has been kept zealously and with toler- 

 able accuracy by W. R. Washburn, the local Poo-Bah of 

 the place — town councilman, cigar maker, newsdealer, 

 stationer and book seller, tackle dealer and barber. The 

 fish taken were: For 1891, 152; for 1892, 200; 1893,238, 

 and 1894, 416, to which I have added 3 taken by others 

 during my five days' fishing last March, which did not 

 find a place on the record. I have no doubt no less than 

 fifty fish were taken which were not recorded — probably 

 a good many more. 



The record for 1894 has just appeared and covers a 

 whole page of the local paper— the Fort Myers Press — 

 and shows facts which will be of interest to those 

 who annually visit the region. Its abstract is that the 

 number of successful fishermen was 87, of whom there 

 were 6 women who took 16 fish. The longest fish, 7ft., 

 was taken by Arthur M. Mitchell; the heaviest, 1921bs., 

 by J. H. Stevenson. In January there were taken 3; in 

 February 3; in March 65; in April 302, and in May 46. 

 The names of the captors with the number of fish taken 

 by them are: 



Prof. C. B. Ackley.. 1 



G. R. W. Armes 52 



Dr. O. T. Baldwin... 1 

 Henry Belknap 1 



E. P. Borden 4 



Edward Beadel 11 



George S. Bourne... 1 

 A. W. S. Cochran... 1 

 i. a rv,l« l 



W. J. Oomstoek u 



James W. Cooke 6 



W. Q. DeWitt 3 



H, S. Drinleer, Jr. . . 1 



J. L. EUwood 1 



Mrs. L. P. Evans 1 



L. P. Evans 2 



Alva C. Finney 1 



James G. de Forest. 1 



T. J. Falls 1 



John Forde i 2 



F. B. Frishmuth....l9 

 Dr. E. P. George. ... 4 



N. M. George 26 



M. S. Green 5 



F. L. Glezen 34 



W. T. Grant 8 



F. S. Hodges 5 



C. J. Hicks 1 



J. H. Hildreth 1 



R, T. Hollo way 27 



Slocum Howland... . 2 

 Clarence Howland. . 2 

 Mrs. R. T. Holloway 3 



H. S. Hovey 2 



Leland Harrison .... 3 

 Rev. W. K. Imbrie. . 2 

 Lindley Johnson. , .. 2 



Washby Jones 14 



»l. S. ivtiiu.uorei- 8 



Miss G. Kaminerer., 1 



Hartman Kuhn 4 



John M. Lakin 1 



Setb Low 2 



Amos R. Little 13 



G. R. Lyon 11 



John H Leathers... 2 

 kf. M. McGregor , , . . 9 

 B. M. McGregor .... 2 



T. C. Maitson 2 



Arthur M. Mitchell . 4 



J. R. Moore 7 



George Mixter 3 



J Boyd Nixon 2 



George A. Owen, ... 1 

 John V. O'Donahue. 4 



E. H. Pardee 1 



Vernon D. Price 1 



Charles Piatt, Jr.... 4 



B. O. Quimby 1 



B. F. Ray 1 



R R. Rand 1 



Robert H. Riddle ,,. 1 



W. O. Rew 3 



J. H. Stevenson 4 



Mrs. G. T. Stagg .... 4 



F. G. Stagg 7 



Nathan O. Scott. . . . 1 



T-reu or. »Co i t i 



M. Toland 1 



E. L. Toland 2 



E. H. Tomlinson.... 1 



M. L. Voris 3 



S B. Voris 2 



H. M. Voris 1 



P.M. J.VanCorllanilt,15 

 A. H.R.Woodward. 2 

 J. H. Woodward .... 3 

 Bertha Woodward.. 1 

 George D. Watrous. 2 

 Mrs. G. A. West .... 1 



G. A. West 2 



Robert Walpole 12 



Mrs. R. Walpole. ... 5 

 Judge L S. Wood... 2 

 Col. B. H. Young... 4 



D. G. Yates 9 



William Zeigler 2 



These people are from all over the United States, with a 

 fair sprinkling of the ubiquitous Englishman, and repre- 

 sent every profession and trade. There is none of them 

 who does not expect to return to the pursuit another 

 season. 



Last March, at the end of a two months wandering in 

 the West Indies and Mexico, I took a side excursion to 

 my old haunts about Charlotte Harbor to take a tarpon, 

 and spent five days fishing for him at Fort Myers. One 

 day I wasted on an old ground opposite the village, and 

 had no strike. The other four days I had two strikes each 

 day and savfd two fish, the largest 6ft. 6in., weighing 

 1341bs. This latter fish was taken on the last day of my 

 stay and at a place I had never before visited. I had 

 heard from a Sunday school picnic party, which had been 

 "up the river" about thirty miles, that the tarpon could 

 be seen from their steamboat in countless numbers, and 

 therefore, with two companions and the appropriate 

 guides and small boats, I chartered a steam launch and 

 went up the river until we struck a school about six miles 

 above the village. We found the water alive with the 

 fish. During the time we fished—from 10 o'clock until 3 

 — there was not a moment when from one to fifty fish 

 were not visible on the surface. Abundance of fish in 

 sight by no means insures fishing. The tarpon is a surface 

 fish, and I doubt that he pays much attention to what lies 

 on the bottom, I watched with keen interest squad after 

 squad of these glorious creatures rolling by my boat — 

 often so near that I could have speared them — showing in 

 the sunlight that beautiful rosy glow which I have ob- 

 served only on the unharmed fish, as their gleaming sides 

 emerged from the surface of the river, a brilliant hue 

 which disappears into opalescent paleness when the hook 

 drives them mad with terror. 



My companions anchored in the middle of the stream, 

 while I placed my boat so that I could cast under the 

 , shore in front of the "wallowing herds" which moved 

 along close to the bushes. In ten minutes one good fish 

 followed my bait to the bottom and ran out half my line 

 and then leaped at least 5ft. clear of the water, following 

 it immediately with the grandest effort I, or my boatman 

 ever saw, fully 15 ft. clear of the surface. ' 



I had him in 

 This was my 



19 minutes, after he had made 20 leaps, 

 largest fish of this season. 



I have read with interest the attempts to boom Texas 

 as a tarpon resort, which have appeared in Forest and 

 Stream occasionally the past season. I have seen no 

 communication as yet as to these new resorts from one 

 who has had experience in southwest Florida. These 

 writers fall into the natural error of inferring that tarpon 



can be taken where the fish abound. There may be a 

 thousand tarpon in sight, and twenty boats fishing with 

 all proper appliances, and not a fish touch the bait. Es- 

 pecially must this be true of a place like Aransas Pass, 

 described in the Cosmopolitan lately and in Forest and 

 Stream. Forty-five feet depth of water would rule out bot- 

 tom fishing, and although a fish might be taken by trolling, 

 the capture would be at very rare intervals. There is no 

 feeding ground like the Caloosahatchie. The wide, brack- 

 ish river is swarming with mullet, catfish and crabs — all 

 favorite food for tarpon, and the water is rarely more 

 than 15ft. in depth. The fish are not afraid of boats, 

 steam or sail. They are more abundant now than ever 

 before. I do not believe it is possible to materially dimin- 

 ish the supply, and I find all those of experience with 

 whom I have talked agree with me. F. S. J. C. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



Fishways for the Hudson. 



As president of the Mohican Rod and Gun Club I have 

 received many encouraging letters in regard to the action 

 of the club looking to the opening of the Hudson River 

 with fishways that salmon may ascend to headwater 

 spawning grounds. 



I am tempted to give a short extract from a personal 

 letter upon this subject that I received from my friend 

 Rev. Dr. Anson J. Upson, Chancellor of the University of 

 the State of New York : ' 'I have read your excellent 

 paper on 'Salmon in the Hudson' with very great interest 

 and profit. You have increased my knowledge in a very 

 interesting way. Your distinction drawn between 'a 

 sportsman' and 'a sport' is very significant, and your in- 

 cidental mention of my revered friend, Dr. Bethune, 

 touched my heart. My father was a sportsman, but un- 

 fortunately I have not inherited his tastes. What a 

 glorious sight it would be to see the salmon leaping in 

 our great river! May you and I live to see it. And if I 

 do not live long enough, may you enjoy the sight and the 

 flavor of many a noble fish. I shall keep your article on 

 the salmon among my treasures in my scrap-book, for the 

 pleasure of future ages." 



The matter of building fishways in the upper Hudson 

 is, I find, of interest to a great many people, not only in 

 the State of New York, but to people in other States as 

 well, but I am amazed to find so many that knew nothing 

 of the importance of building fishways. Some are sur- 

 prised to know that salmon have been planted in the 

 Hudson, but I am satisfied that there is and will be an 

 awakening upon this subject that will bear fruit. 



But there are things, other than fishing, to be considered 

 and combatted before the Hudson can become a salmon 

 stream with all that the term implies. The Glens Falls 

 Star reprinted the editorial in Forest amd Stream of May 

 26 as being directly to the point of the whole matter, "that 

 public sentiment must be aroused by educational pro- 

 cesses." A "gentleman in Lansinburgh, N. Y., who says 

 he has read my notes in Forest and Stream and is con- 

 sequently moved to write me, says: "I believe that un- 

 less some rigorous measures are taken with those who net 

 and spear the fish in the river here, the lovers of salmon 

 fishing will find but poor sport on the Hudson. During 

 the past three years I have seen probably twenty dead 

 salmon between this village and Mechanicville, and of 

 these about one-half were examined to learn if possible 

 the cause of their death. All showed injuries of some 

 kind and some were undoubtedly caused by spears." The 

 writer tells me, further, in a second letter, of nets that he 

 has d<-< troyed above the Troy dam. All that I can say at 

 preset i is that steps have been taken to see if it be possible 

 to educate the people down the river in regard to the use 

 of spears and nets. 



Fish Food. 



Apparently only a small portion of our anglers realize 

 how important it is that the trout in our streams should be 

 well fed. We hear much of stocking waters with fish, 

 and little about stocking the same waters with food for 

 the fish to live upon. Any fish to be at its best must do 

 more than simply exist — it must grow fat, and it cannot do 

 this on pure water. 



I have been surprised this spring to find brook trout 

 from many different streams in extremely poor condition. 

 Early in the season I accounted for it by saying that the 

 food had not hatched out and the trout were much in the 

 condition that winter finds them after they have wasted 

 from spawning. That excuse will not answer now that 

 June is here, and the fact to be confronted is that many 

 of the streams do not produce enough food for the fish 

 they contain. I know I have been accused of riding the 

 fish-food hobby, but I believe it to be a good hobby, and I 

 would .like to have others join me, for there is plenty of 

 room for this sort of riding. 



A gentleman in Boston, who fishes the trout streams of 

 Cape Cod, tells me of marking brook trout, as salmon 

 have been marked, in the stream he fishes. A few days 

 ago he caught a sea run brook trout (fontinalis) weighing 

 lib. 6oz. This trout was marked in 1892 and was then 

 8in. long and weighed probably 2foz. He tells me that 

 this growth is above the average of trout in the same 

 stream under similar conditions. The food of trout that 

 have access to salt water is largely crustacean, judging 

 from the color of their flesh, and there is no difficulty in 

 planting trout waters with fresh-water shrimp. 



Mr, C. F. Orvis wrote me recently and I quote the fol- 

 lowing from his letter: "Lots of trout have been taken in 

 the Ondawa" (this is the Indian name for the Battenkill 

 River, which rises in Vermont, not far from Equinox 

 Mountain, and flows through the Bennington Valley and 

 finally turns west through the mountains, crosses Wash- 

 ington county, N. Y., and empties into the Hudson). 

 "There are more trout in our river now than there were 

 20 years ago, and they are fine and fat. I believe the 

 shrimp that I put in the stream five years ago are yielding 

 good results. I do not know this, but do know that the 

 trout are now plumper and there are lots of them. The 

 trout fry that I hatched and put in the river, we fed for 

 some time after the sac was absorbed. I believe these 

 little fishes were much better for planting than fry with 

 sacs just or nearly absorbed." 



Only a few days after receiving this letter from which I 

 have quoted, Mr. Charles H. Wilson called upon me after 

 fishing the Battenkill in Washington county, and he said 

 that never had he taken such fine fat trout from this stream 

 as those taken this year. 



It is a very simple matter to stock a stream with fresh- 

 water shrimp, and they cost only $2 a thousand, delivered 



at the express- office, if one has to buy them, and at the 

 Caledonia station of the New York Fish Commission they 

 have been furnished free, and I presume they are yet 

 furnished to applicants in a like manner. 



Brown Trout. 



Mr. W. C. Witherbee, of Port Henry, N. Y., who has 

 been active in stocking the waters in Essex county, N. Y. , 

 also stocked with shrimp, but I cannot tell without over- 

 hauling his letters. Anyway .he writes me very recently 

 as follows: "I am a firm believer in stocking our waters 

 and protecting the fish, for I have seen the good results 

 of the first ha our local waters which were just about de- 

 pleted from over-fishing, but are now, thanks to restock- 

 ing, pretty fair fishing. I was interested in this week's 

 Forest and Stream article by you on the brown trout in 

 the Hudson. I stocked pretty liberally with them here, 

 both streams and ponds, and they have proved a success 

 in waters not quite suited for fontinalis. One brook has 

 furnished some first-rate fish, but it is too near the people 

 at Mineville and Port Henry for the trout to grow very 

 large — one pound is the largest I have known of being 

 caught there. But in the ponds they are doing grandly. 



"My wife and I caught five one morning from Turner 

 Pond weighing respectively 4£, 4, 4, 4 and 3flbs., total 

 20Jlbs. I have tried some of the other ponds since and 

 while not fishing the best times of the day have had fine 

 sport, and am glad to see the trout seem to be doing well 

 in hatching. I have tried not to keep any under 2lbs. in 

 weight, and have only savpd one under that size, a fish of 

 lflbs. that was hurt badly and I thought he would not 

 live. 



"I caught three yesterday of 21bs. 3oz., 21bs. lOoz. and 

 41bs. in a spring-fed pond that gave as good a fight as 

 any trout I ever handled. We see good results too in 

 stocking with fontinalis, although they do not grow as 

 rapidly as the brown trout in size." 



There is a disposition on the part of some people to give 

 the brown trout the cold shoulder, in othpr words not to 

 plant them, because they may interfere with the native, 

 brook trout, but the brown trout has its place as well as 

 the fontinalis, and will, as Mr. Witherbee suggests, thrive 

 in waters not wholly suited to the native trout. They 

 should be planted intelligently in selected waters, not 

 blindly as so many of our fish are planted, and they will 

 prove a most desirable addition to our list of game fishes. 



A. N. Cheney. 



REMINISCENCES OF OLD TIMES. 



My last, long, bootless tramp to the old trout brooks set 

 me to dreaming, as I rested with my pipe in my big chair 

 after I got home, of the old boyhood days before the for- 

 ests were all cut down, when an afternoon on the same 

 waters always assured me of two dozen trout, andoftener 

 of four or five dozen for the family breakfast, and some- 

 times for dinner the next day. 



It brought back a cloud of recollections of many happy 

 days, and pictures, photographed on the memory, of many 

 a wooded ravine, with falls and rapids, overshadowed by 

 old oaks and hemlocks, where the trout lurked beneath 

 the foam and bubbles; or many a broad grassy meadow, 

 where the snake-like brook now buried itself undf>r one 

 bank and now under the other, with as sure find for a fish 

 at every bend. Well do I recall my first trout, more than 

 60 years ago, when, a very small boy, I made my first 

 essay. How, when I went into the old alder swamp 

 back of the house (now long since cleared and cultivated) 

 to cut a "fishpole," I lost the new green line for which I 

 had just paid a "fourpenny bit" at the village store, and 

 how my mother consoled me by the production from the 

 depths of her spacious work-basket, of a piece of fine cord 

 which she had stored for some other purpose, but which 

 made a very good line for a first one. I even remember 

 the blue denim jacket and trousers, the "dog's head" on" 

 the brass buttons, foretelling the future sportsman, which 

 I wore, as I started for the brook in the morning, with a 

 two-quart tin pail in my hand to carry my luncheon and 

 bring back my spoil. 



That luncheon was never eaten, for the radiant beauty 

 of the first fish destroyed my appetite for all else, and I 

 started home on the run to exhibit him, without waiting 

 for more. I may have told this story before, but I was 

 as wild as Christopher North over his first minnow, of 

 which every one who has read his delightful "Recrea- 

 tions" will doubtless recall his description. 



I can see the whole scene now, the placid mill pond, 

 the quiet brook, entering it under the old wooden brid go., 

 and the bobolinks singing in the meadow above. How 

 carefully I concealed the hook in the wriggling worm 

 and then dropped it over the upper side of the little 

 bridge; how the sudden jerk on the line startled me at 

 first, and how triumphantly I swung the spangled victim 

 on to the bridge. He must have been fully five inches 

 long, if not six, and just went into my pail, and I asked 

 for no more that morning. I returned to the brook in the 

 afternoon with an older companion, who gave me my 

 first lesson in throwing the bait into the head of the 

 rapids and letting it sweep down with the current and 

 swing naturally in to the abiding places of the trout. 



The first meadow gave us a sufficient string for that 

 day, for creels were unknown to us, and a willow or alder 

 stick with a crotch at bottom, run through the gills, was 

 all our basket. 



As I grew older I went up the brook further, and many 

 a picture of it is yet fresh in memory. In the first meadow 

 it was joined by a larger one, which held larger trout, but 

 was not so sure fishing, for there was another sawmill, 

 two miles higher up, on it, and when that was running, 

 and the water was full of sawdust, we could not get a 

 bite. 



Later in the summer, when the winter's cut of logs was 

 all sawed up, we used to go up that branch, and I can see 

 now the big elm which overshadowed a great bend, and 

 feel the pull with which a ilb. trout seized my hook the 

 instant it touched the water, just when it drew in under 

 the roots; and how soon I had him turning somersaults in 

 the long grass of the meadow! 



But I am getting garrulous, and must bring this to a 

 close with one more picture. Further up the brook a pas- 

 ture road crossed it, at a shallow ford, and I can recall 

 one June morning when I came to this road, where the 

 farmer had just cut a "brush fence" across the brook to 

 keep his cows from straying up and down. It was a per- 

 fect day, the sun sprinkled the rippling waters of the ford, 

 as they broke over the bright pebbles, with splashes of 

 sunshine, constantly moving as the gentle breeze, swayed 



