March 1, 1896. j 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
199 
siderable skirmishing I secured two. But they were of no 
use. No matter how carefully I hid or handled the line 
the trout would not yield to this bait, which is often so 
effective when the best flies fail, Angle worms were not 
to be thought of here, and it was too far to the timber for 
grubs. A fin or an eye might do, but we had brought no 
fish along and none of the new ones seemed disposed to a 
sacrifice on the alter of brotherly love. The trout did not 
try to run away, but either allowed the bait to drift 
around their noses or came out from under the bank and 
looked at it and went slowly back. In no case did they 
seem to care whether I were in sight or not, though later 
on they would not bite unless I were hidden. 
I soon wearied of trying to fathom the mysteries of 
their tastes, played the grab game on one and slung him 
over 50ft. on shore at the first trial. I felt ashamed as a 
gleam of gold and silver sheen slid past me through the 
air, but really how much patience can a trout expect one 
to have who has come several hundred miles to see him? 
He was not over 7in. long, but such colors I had never 
before seen on a fish. The back was a combination of 
pearl and silver in fine scales on a background of very 
light olive green, looking little different from the back of 
a common trout while in the water, but shining in a 
hundred tints when brought to the sunlight in the air. 
Down each side were a dozen or more dark oval patches 
*in. or more in greatest length, with the longer axis up- 
right. These seemed sunk beneath the skin, and over them 
ran a broad band of carmine from the gills to the tail 
and about ^in. wide in the middle. The lower half of 
each side was of brightest gold, running into lightest 
lemon on the belly. Down the center of the belly was 
another band of carmine like that down the side. The 
black spots or speckles appeared about the middle of the 
back fin, increasing rapidly in number toward the tail. 
The whole seemed pellucid as a jelly fish, and against the 
sun was almost transparent. 
And still they would not bite. Vainly I tried the eye 
and fin of the victim, such good bait many times when 
other things fail. Then I tried the larva of the salmon 
fly found in a case of concrete on the side of stones be- 
neath the water. That brought a bite instanter, and an- 
other and another was tried with the same result. In half 
an hour they began to take the brown-hackle, and soon 
they would take anything. In about an hour more they 
stopped all along the line as if by electric signal and 
would look at nothing. As we had all we could eat we 
were satisfied, and retired to camp to freeze until sun- 
rise, for we were not prepared for such nights as we found 
here. 
Further down the creek we found the fish larger, though 
none as large as many of the common trout in the Kern. 
The flavor of them we found superior even to that of the 
Eastern trout, while in dash and spirit they were not equal 
to the fish in the Kern. Some were quite dull biters, and 
the largest one I took (about lOin. long) I should never 
have hooked had I not seen him rise to the fly. It is said 
that in times past they have reached 3lbs , but they get no 
chance to attain that weight now. How they maintain 
themselves in that tearing stream, within a few yards of 
a fall that they cannot pass up, is one of the problems I 
leave to others. None of the common trout are found in 
the upper stream, though they are plenty up to the foot 
of the falls. And scarcely any of these are found below 
and none in the river. It is evident that a few have 
slipped over at long intervals and stay in their native 
stream below. 
TheBe trout present also an interesting study in biology. 
If life sprung from conditions instead of creation, must 
not heat have been one of the principal if not the princi- 
pal condition. If so, is it not certain that the home of 
these trout was once higher and colder than it is even 
now? And why can they not exist in warmer waters? 
And when they already live under ice nine months of the 
year and in ice water the rest of the time, how cold do 
they need it for creative purposes? T. S. Van Dyke. 
ADIRONDACK FISHING. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have been renewing my youth for the last few years 
by fishing over again the Adirondack streams in which I 
fished a generation ago. My preference has been for 
Hamilton county, and the streams within a dozen miles 
of Lake Pleasant. The streams remain much as they 
were, but everything else is changed. The woods that 
shaded them are gone, and the trout have almost disap- 
peared; even establishing a hatching house in the heart of 
the region, the product of which was to replenish the 
streams, has not stopped the decrease. ' 
I attribute this condition to a number of causes, the first 
and foremost of which is that the fishermen have in- 
creased in number enormously. 
During my first visit, just forty years ago, in going 
from Lake Pleasant to the Lower Saranac, about seventy- 
five miles, by the streams and lakes, we met four parties, 
numbering nine persons, during the fourteen days we 
were on the way. Now one would meet hundreds in 
going over the same route, and if the dwellers in the 
hotels were included, thousands; not all fishermen, it is 
true, but all eager for trout. 
Again in those early days the trout held the mastery 
in all the streams and ponds, and chub and sunfish were 
comparatively few and were seldom found of any size. 
But as all the trout taken were saved, and the occasional 
chub was returned to the stream by the humane fisherman, 
the chub has gained the mastery, and has become large 
and fat and self asserting, and will take the fly with all the 
dash of the former trout, and no doubt feed upon the fry 
and smaller fish, as they were formerly fed upon. 
And then the hatching house authorities seine the large 
fish in all the adjacent ponds and streams for breeding 
purposes, and place the fry in comparatively few localities. 
The consequence is that the fishermen who supply the 
hotels know just what places to bait, so ss to fill their 
orders most easily. I was told by one well informed that 
401bs. a day were taken during the height of the season 
by these fishermen from one lake alone, in the tributaries 
of which a large amount of the product of the hatching 
house was placed. And then the landlords, in their * 
anxiety to please their guests, and furnish game of some 
sort every day, are not helping to preserve the trout. I 
don't know what is done out of season, as all my visits to 
the Adirondacks have been made during the fishing 
months, but they are not particular about the 6in. law. 
During a stay of five weeks in the North Woods las. 
summer, in every instance when we had trout on the 
table the ma jority of them were under 6in. The excuse 
was that they had been caught with bait, and as they 
swallow it they are too badly injured to be returned to 
the stream. The consequence is there are few left large 
enough to reproduce their kind and soon there will be 
none in* public waters. 
The remedies for this state of things are many. Let 
fishermen destroy the trash fish when they catch them. 
It is said chub and sunfish are good eating when taken 
from cold waters. They are the first spring delicacies in 
the South. Let the catchers eat them — at all events do 
not return them to the stream — enough will remain for 
food for game fish if every one taken should be used to 
manure the land. 
When the hatching house authorities use a seine in a 
stream or lake let it be a State requirement to return a 
portion of the fry produced to the stream or lake from 
which the parent fish are taken, In this way the streams 
will be enriched instead of impoverished. The inlet and 
outlet of Elm Lake are favorite places for using the seine. 
Formerly a good fisherman could always obtain there 
some reward for an afternoon's work, with an occasional 
half or three-quarter pounder; but recently none — or next 
to none — can be caught, and a 4oz. fish is a monster. 
And then if the landlords would resolutely buy no fish 
under 6in. the market fishers would soon cease to 
catch them. It is because every size finds a ready sale 
that so many baby trout are too much injured to return 
to the water, and small streams are fished for fingerlings. 
The charges in the Adirondack hotels now vary from 
$10 to $30 per week. At these rates the landlords could 
well afford to put a few thousand fry in their streams 
every year. The cost to them would be transportation 
only. There is no investment that would produce larger 
returns. They might count on an expenditure on the 
part of visitors equal to $2 per pound for all their streams 
would produce. The reputation for good fishing took a 
party of seven, of which the writer was a member, to a 
certain Adirondack resort year before last and they 
stayed four weeks. They paid the landlord over $350. 
There were not 30lbs. of trout taken from brook or lake 
during their stay by the whole party, and they were all 
expert fishermen, using flies only for brook trout. The 
landlord couldn't understand it, of course. There must 
be something unusual the matter. It never had been so 
before, etc., etc. The fact was the streams and lake were 
fished out. An expenditure of from $10 to $20 per year 
would keep these streams and lake so supplied that fairly 
good fishing could always be had. 
The consequence of this lack of enterprise on the part 
of landlords is there is no longer any fishing in public 
waters for those who fish for recreation. And the whole 
Adirondack region will in the near future be given up to 
private clubs and invalids, and the holiday fisherman be 
forced to spend his money in Canada or New Brunswick, 
as so many are now doing. Walton. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Fish Killed by Lightning 
In looking over the letters on my desk to-day, I found 
one from Mr. H. C. Ford, president of the Pennsylvania 
Fish Commission, containing an account of what he calls 
a "singular accident." The letter is dated Sept. 5, last. 
It seems that during a thunderstorm lightning struck one 
of the ponds at the State hatchery near Allentown, con- 
taining 5-year-old trout, and killing from seventy-five 
to one hundred of the trout. They were fish weighing 
from 2 to 4lbs. each. It was indeed a singular accident, 
the like of which I never heard of before. When I read 
the letter I marked it, "Look into this matter and get par- 
ticulars," but I never have heard more about it by letter 
or in the newspapers, as I forgot all about it until to-day. 
It is not at all likely that such an accident as this would 
happen to trout in wild waters, as one might at first 
thought suppose, but I am curious to know if readers of 
Forest and Stream have ever known of a similar 
accident in any waters either in a hatchery pond or else- 
where. 
Only in a hatchery pond would such a large number of 
big trout be found together in a small space and in such 
shallow water as to feel the effects of a lightning stroke. 
Perhaps Mr. Ford will now give the conditions existing 
at the time and the details of the accident, which I 
neglected to ask for at the time it occurred. 
Record Salmon. 
Newspapers, particularly angling newspapers, devote 
considerable space to the capture of a big salmon, and if 
the fish happens to be a record-breaker it is usually pho- 
tographed and every detail of its capture related at 
length, because the record is not broken every year. 
Last season, when the Marquis of Zetland killed a salmon 
of 551bs. while fishing the water owned by Col. Sande- 
man on the Tay, in Scotland, the English papers had 
much to say about the fish in several successive issues, and 
a number of photographs of the fish, its captor, the owner 
of the water and the pool where the salmon was killed 
were reproduced, because it was claimed that it was the 
heaviest salmon on record taken with the fly. 
When Mr. R, G. Dun killed a 54lbs. fish in the Cas- 
capedia, in Canada, the Forest and Stream reproduced 
a line picture of it. because it was the record salmon of 
this country, beating by 4lbs. the salmon killed on the 
same stream by President Arthur, which was the record 
fish at the time of its capture. 
With these facts in mind I was somewhat surprised to 
read in a New York daily newspaper of Feb. 16 that Mr. 
A. K, Sloane, of the Long Island Country Club, had last 
summer killed a salmon of 74lbs., presumably in the 
Romaine River, Labrador. Here is a fish exceeding the 
American record by 201bs. and the British record by 
191bs., and its capture is announced without beat of drum 
or blare of horn. I wonder if the reliable compositor did 
not for once get his hand in the wrong box of type and 
put a 7 in his stick when he really meant to nail a facer. 
The Romaine has not been noted for its exceptionally 
large fish, and that it should suddenly spring a 74 -pounder 
on an unsuspecting public in the dead of winter causes 
one to look with suspicion on the compositor and proof- 
reader until other evidence is forthcoming. 
On the other hand, the grand Cascapedia is noted for 
its large salmon. List year, while visiting Dr. W. H. 
Drummond, of Montreal, president of the St. Maurice 
Club, I noticed on the wall of his house a photograph of 
a salmon from the Cascapedia which weighed 501bs. 8oz., 
and was 52in. long. Dr. Drummood killed this fish on 
June 25, 1890, and its weight entitles it to rank between 
the fish of President Arthur and that of Mr. Dun. 
Tarpon in Jamaica. 
During my visit to Mr. Drummond in Montreal, al- 
ready referred to, we talked of tarpon fishing in Florida 
and Texas, and he informed me that in Jamaica the tar- 
pon furnished excellent fly-fishing. The fish do not run 
large, as they do in our Southern waters, but in the 
streams entering the sea the tarpon swarm fairly, as trout 
do in a well-stocked trout stream, and, averaging about 
3lbs. in weight, take the fly readily. The only instance I 
can recall of a tarpon taking the fly in Florida waters 
was a small one taken by Dr. George Trowbridge, of New 
York city. 
Record Trout. 
A few years ago a friend of mine applied, to the State 
for some brown trout fry, and when he received them 
planted them in a pond in Essex county, N. Y. , contain- 
ing no other trout than those he planted. Two years 
ago he and his wife fished the pond and caught trout 
weighing —lbs. He supposed they were brown trout 
and so called them, although they looked to him suspi- 
ciously like the native brook trout, but not being familiar 
with the European trout he was not able to note their 
peculiarities. Last spring he invited me to visit the pond, 
but it was just after the ice had left it and the water was 
high and thick and we caught nothing. A little later he 
sent me a trout from the pond "just like the other trout 
that had been caught out of it," and it proved to be a 
native brook trout. Naturally he was not disposed to 
find fault with a mistake at the hatchery in consequence 
of which he had received brook trout for brown trout, for 
there was but one species of trout in the pond. All the 
trout taken from the pond, so far as can be learned, have 
been large fish, 4, 5 and even 61bs. being common, but 
the fish have not been abundant. To-day my friend 
writes me that he has learned from a reliable man, a 
farmer living near the pond, that last season, late in the 
summer, just at dusk one evening he caught a trout from 
the pond weighing full 7i-lbs, If the trout are all like the 
one sent to me, and there appears to be no doubt of it, 
this fish was a brook tx*out, S. fontinalis, and therefore 
the record trout of this State, as I believe. The trout 
heretofore claimed to be the record fish of New York 
waters was found in a dying condition in Loon Lake, in 
the Adirondacks, and weighed 6|lbs. 
Fly Tying. 
Anglers in this country are not given to tying their own 
flies to any great extent, although it is a common practice 
among British anglers, where it is part of the fishing to be 
able to tie a fly on the stream to imitate the fly whicb hap- 
pens to be rising at the time, provided the fly book does 
not furnish it. We Yankees find it much easier and a 
saving of time to purchase our flies of a dealer, and the 
trout of our waters accept them. If the trout happen not 
to take the flies provided by the fly book that ends the 
matter; "they are not feeding," and it rarely occurs to us 
to investigate the matter, find if the fish are really feed- 
ing,' and what on, and then to tie a counterfeit on the 
spot. Mr. R. B. Marston, editor of the London Fishing 
Gazette, has written a paper for the first annual report of 
the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission of New York, 
in which he illustrates the difference between fly-fishing 
in his country and ours. All who knew the genial, kindly 
Uncle Reuben Wood will admit that he was a past master 
in casting a fly for trout; but, in company with Mr. Mar- 
ston, when he tried his American flies on the English 
trout Uncle Reuben got a goose egg, until he was forced 
to put his patriotism in his vest pocket and use an English 
imitation of the fly then on the water where he was 
fishing. 
Once in a while we hear of some one who wishes to 
learn how to tie his own flies, or to be able to fashion a 
special emergency fly when the occasion arises, and for 
such there are a number of excellent manuals, fully illus- 
trated; but the best method of instructing a novice in fly 
tying, to my mind, is one practiced in England. For a 
small sum of money a fly dresser will send a card, to 
which is attached an actual trout or salmon fly in all its 
various stages of construction. This seems to be next best 
. to personal instructions from a practical fly dresser, and 
if it were taken up m this country it might create a de- 
mand for instruction cards. We are gradually but surely 
discarding the conventional fly that resembles nothing 
under the sun in the animal, vegetable or mineral king- 
doms, and adopting imitations of natural insects. The 
"Joseph's coat" is still a killer in the backwoods of Can- 
ada, and so is a fragment of the tail of a shirt; but as trout 
become educated to the ways of the angling man they 
require a heap of fishing to kill them, and fine tackle and 
flies that resemble something other than a fantastic, dis- 
ordered dream must be used or the creel will be light. 
Sunapee Trout. 
The fact that the State of New York is to receive some 
Sunapee trout or American saibling eggs from the State 
of New Hampshire, as announced in Forest and Stream, 
does not meet with the unqualified approval of the New 
Hampshire press. An editorial article in the Manchester 
Union says: "We find the New York Sun and Mr. A. N. 
Cheney, the State Fishculturist, rejoicing together over 
the promise of 15,000 eggs of the rarest fish found in our 
waters, a fish, too, which is found nowhere else in the 
world, with a single exception." Perhaps so, perhaps 
not, aB there is an honest difference of opinion regarding 
the identity of the fish, all of which has been threshed 
out in the columns of this journal; but admitting that it 
is the rarest fish in the waters of the world, the protest of 
the New Hampshire newspaper~appears to be narrow in 
its conception and unworthy of the commonwealth. Had 
a Chinese wall been built around the woods and waters of 
that State back in 1857, when fish propagation was 
first publicly advocated, it would not in all probability 
have created the surprise that such a suggestion does in 
this day, when the State has witnessed the beneficial re- 
sults of exchanging fish eggs and fish with other States. 
To-day New Hampshire has natural fish food which came 
from New "iork; landlocked salmon which came from 
Maine; black bass whicb came from New York by the 
way of Massachusetts; Loch Leven trout which came 
from Scotland, the gift of a citizen of New York; brown 
trout which came from the United States Fish Commia- 
