April 11, 1896.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
209 
MASSACHUSETTS TROUT STREAMS. 
Boston, April 4.— April 1 found many of Boston'8 
anglers tramping along the banks of Massachusetts trout 
streams, and most of those who had the courage to go 
found very fair success. A. H. Wood and C. B. Jefferson 
were down on the cape and report very good fishing for 
the day, so good in fact that Mr. Wood has gone down to 
try it again. Augustus Flagg and some other members of 
the Somerset Club fished Scorten stream down near Sand- 
wich, but I have not yet heard with what luck. E. J. 
Brown owns a tide-water stream near Sandwich, and has 
made it a rule to be there on April 1 for several years. 
.This year was no exception, and on his return Mr. Brown 
told me that he had caught a nice string, the largest 
weighing 2^1bs. He blessed his luck over and over again, 
for just as he got the large one safely landed the snell of 
his hook broke off at the loop. Joshua S. Duncklee, 
chairman of the Boston Board of Assessors, and a friend 
who has fished with him for many years, were out on the 
first day, and the sum total of their catch were nine good- 
sized trout. The stream they fished was only fifteen miles 
from Boston, and considering that it was very high and 
Tunning over the meadows, they certainly did well. I 
have also heard that the Worcester anglers who were out 
on the 1st met with good success, but have had no in- 
dividual account of good luck as yet. 
Dr. H. C, Haven, of Boston, who has a camp at the 
Rangeleys, only three miles from the Upper Dam, has 
gone down to make some preparations for the coming 
season. As the Doctor spends eight months of the year 
at this camp, no little amount of work is needed to place 
everything in good shape. He has generally left these 
preparations to others, but thought this year he would go 
down in advance and get a taste of the Rangeleys in 
winter. 
H. A. Harrington and Geo. P. Johnson, of Boston, 
whom I mentioned in Forest and Stream a few weeks 
ago as going South on a fishing trip, have just reached 
home. They have been to Homosassa, Fla., and report 
great sport in channel bass fishing. The tarpon were just 
beginning to arrive in the waters of that section as tney 
were about to leave. They saw several, but did not do 
any tarpon fishing. Fine, warm weather prevailed dur- 
ing their entire trip, and letters from home containing 
accounts of the severe weather of the March just passed 
did not encourage them to return home earlier. 
It is reported that two 201b. salmon were caught a day 
or two ago in the Bangor pool with the fly. It seems to 
me this is a little earlier than usual, and no doubt the 
news will start some of the enthusiasts down there post 
haste. 
The ice in Lake Winnepesaukee, N. H. , is strong enough 
to last all Bummer, according to the stories of people who 
live on its shores. Twelve to sixteen inches is its reported 
thickness, and yet the lake is generally the first of the 
large lakes of New Hampshire to welcome fishermen in 
the early spring. It is a favorite place with Waltham, 
Mass. , anglers, quite a number of whom visit it annually 
as soon as the ice goes out. For landlocked salmon 
Newfound Lake is the place of pilgrimage. A few days 
later than Winnepesaukee is when it usually clears of ice, 
and the salmon anglers begin a race up there as soon as 
the news comes in. 
For a long time many members of the Megantic Club 
have urged the board of directors to have an annual 
ladies' night, so that the club members and their ladies 
could meet and become better acquainted. The proposition 
has finally been consented to, and the evening of April 24 
has been set aside for the celebration of the First Annual 
Ladies' Night. The affair will take the form of a dinner, 
entertainment, etc., and will take place at the Hotel Ven- 
dome, in Boston. Like all the undertakings of this pop- 
ular club, it will probably be a most successful affair. 
Hackle. 
The Massachusetts legal open trout season has been a 
cold one. The first day of April was fairly pleasant, and 
some of the local fishermen were off. But Thursday, 
Friday and Saturday were cold and windy, with the 
mercury below freezing the most of the time. Some of 
the members of the Monument Club were at their pre- 
serve, but few trout were taken. Mr. J. Russell Reed, 
well known to the Forest and Stream for his efforts in 
the direction of fish and game protection and propaga- 
tion, has been down to his favorite resort on the Capo, 
and he is understood to have taken fifteen trout the first 
day; a good score certainly. 
The brant shooters at Monomoy are having cold fingers. 
Mr. Warren Hapgood, the veteran of the Monomoy Brant 
Club and one of its founders, was down last week with 
several members and invited guests. At this writing no 
reports of success have been received. What is termed 
the Boys' Party is to start for the home of the club on 
Wednesday, but the rough weather and the lateness of 
the season have aboutkilled their enthusiasm. At last ac- 
counts the gunners were reporting a good many brant 
seen, and "all young birds." 
Salmon fishing has begun at Bangor, Me. The first day 
of April, the legal opening day, there were a number of 
boats on the swift water below the dam, but no salmon 
are reported taken. The river is full of ice and ice water, 
and since the opening day to this writing the weather has 
been cold and windy, with the mercury at 10 or 12° below 
freezing the most of the time; not very nice weather for 
fishing, to say the least. A Bangor, Me., special says that 
the State of Maine has received 40,000 brook trout eggs 
from the U. S. Fish Commission, from the hatchery at 
Greene Lake, near Bangor. The superintendent of the 
hatchery was directed to deliver 20,000 trout eggs to Com- 
missioner Stanley and 20,000 to Commissioner Wentworth. 
The eggs have been delivered and are all being cared for 
at the Enfield hatchery. About 500,000 trout eggs are 
taken annually at the Government Hatchery at Greene 
Lake. The law provides that 25 per cent, of the eggs 
taken shall, when hatched, be returned to the waters of 
the parent fish. This leaves 375,000 to be distributed. 
Greene Lake brook trout are mentioned as particularly 
hardy and fine, and consequently the young fish from that 
lake are very desirable for restocking. 
Later. — A Bangor special says that early on Thursday 
morning, April 2, Frank Cowen, of that city, hooked and 
landed a beautiful salmon on the Brewer side of the river; 
the first salmon of the season at the Bangor pool. The fish 
was large enough so that he got nineteen silver dollars for 
it in the market. A few hours after John E. Kent, of 
Vesie, got another salmon on to the land that weighed 
17£lbs. Still the weather is cold, with the river full of 
floating ice; conditions very unsatisfactory for salmon 
fishing. It is understood that the above fish were both 
caught with bait, nothing having yet been done with the 
fly. Special. 
THE BONE FISH. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your April 4 number F. S. I. C. describes his experi- 
ence with a game fish which he believes superior to the 
tarpon, but its name and place in nature are unknown to 
him. Judging from the excellent description and from 
the name applied to the species in Florida it is almost 
certain that the conclusion reached by the Fish Commis- 
sion in Washington is correct. 
Possibly F. S. I. C. may have in mind the "bony fish" 
or menhaden of Northern waters when he says the "bone 
fish" of Biscayne Bay is in no way related to this, and if 
so he is right; but "bone fish" and "bony fish" are very 
different animals. 
The best way to ascertain whether or not the game fish 
of Biscayne Bay is what the Fish Commission people 
claim is to examine the lower figure of plate 218 in Sec- 
tion I. of "Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United 
States," or plate XXIH., figure 31, in^the Nineteenth Re- 
port of New York Fish Commission. 
If this suggestion proves well founded the Biscayne 
Bay fighter is the lady fish (Albula vulpes), and its pur- 
suit and capture may delight the anglers of the West 
Indies, the Bermudas, Cape Verde Islands, Indian Ocean, 
the Red Sea and the coast of Japan, as well as those on 
both coasts of North America, extending occasionally 
northward to Cape Cod. 
Dr. Goode says it is called "bone fish" and "grubber" in 
the Bermudas. W. I. de Nyse informs me it is some- 
times caught in Gravesend Bay, L. I., where it is known 
capture his prize. With a strong right arm outstretched 
he stooped to conquer, slipped, and sat down heavily to 
his armpits in the rushing waters. It required a heroic 
struggle of two minutes' duration to get extricated from 
the icy bath, with rod and line badly tangled, and the 
"speckled beauty" — pardon the term, brethren — gone! 
When the Corpulent Dentist emerged from a nearby 
farmhouse half an hour later attired in a flaming red 
flannel shirt, a pair of trousers lacking several inches in 
sufficiency of waist measure, cowhide boots having a low 
decollete cut to them, a seventeenth century dicer and a 
frock coat that would have aroused the envy of a New 
Jersey hobo, he lacked all of the divinity that doth hedge 
a king. Although he realized fair success that day, our 
friend avenged his mishap of the morning only by reach- 
ing home at nightfall and having his most intimate asso- 
ciates mistake him for a Western road agent. 
M. Chill, 
LAKE CHAMPLAIN SMELT. 
New Russia, N. Y.— Editor Forest and Stream: I am 
surprised at the article on Lake Champlain ice fish in 
your paper of March 28. I am afraid the anglers our 
friend Cheney interviewed were a stupid and queer lot. 
While having the greatest respect for friend Cheney and 
his writings (from what I have seen for the last twenty- 
years), I beg to differ with him, and would say, be it 
known to all it may concern, that as a rule Lake Cham- 
plain smelt and herring do not migrate to salt water, but 
at the approach of summer retire to the deepest part of 
the lake, where they find 200 to 400ft. of water. Here 
they stay at the bottom most of the time. When the 
broad lake freezes over they work up in shoaler water, 
where the fishermen take them through the ice. They 
are caught later in the winter at Port Henry, it being 
BONE FISH OR LA.DY FISH. (From Fisheries and Fishery Industries.) 
to fishermen as the "cering." At the Bermudas Dr. 
Goode states it is considered a fine food fish, and he testi- 
fies to its value from his own experience. In the Carib- 
bean Sea it is highly esteemed for the table. 
Capt. Lewis B. Thurber, of Patchogue, L. I., secured a 
fine specimen of the fish in Great South Bay. The early 
writers on the fishes of New York, Mitchill and De Kay, 
do not include the "bone fish" and "lady fi3h" in their 
lists of fishes of the State. De Kay, however, refers to it 
as an extra-limital species under the name Butirinus 
vulpes, no common name being given. 
All authorities agree that the "bone fish" is so named 
for cause, but it is unquestionably a fine fish, and now 
that its game qualities have been discovered we may ex- 
pect to hear more of it. The beauty of the scales and the 
symmetry of the body combine to make it a striking ob- 
ject of the angler's art. Tarleton H. Bean. 
Naw York, April 3. 
New York, April 3. — Editor Forest and Stream: In 
your last issue I notice an interesting description of the 
bonefish of Biscayne Bay, Fla., and also an inquiry as to 
its classification, etc. 
While being a comparatively new fish to the angling 
fraternity, it is by no means new to ichthyologists, as it is 
recorded in "List of Food Fishes of the United States," of 
1879, under the name of Vulpes albula (Linn). 
During a ten years' residence on the east coast of 
Florida I have had a large experience with this fish and 
heartily agree with F. S. I. C. in proclaiming it "the 
game fish par excellence of the Atlantic." 
As he says, sand fleas, fiddler and hermit crabs are the 
most successful baits, but I have derived more sport from 
using a medium weight fly-rod with large, gaudy salmon 
or bass flies. Jock-Scott, butcher, scarlet-ibis and parma- 
chene-belle are my favorites, all tied on No. 3-0 hooks 
with twisted gut loops. There is some excellent advice 
to fly-fishermen intending to visit Florida contained in 
Dr. Henshall's "Camping and Cruising in Florida," and 
in the collection of papers made by C. F. Orvis and A. N. 
Cheney entitled "Fishing with the Fly," but the bone or 
lady fish, mentioned in these works, is a totally different 
fish in appearance, habits and habitat. 
I will add that there is great and almost unknown sport 
in store for the Northern angler who will go to Biscayne 
and depart from the conventional bait and "billiard cue 
rod" and experiment with the fly along the sandbars and 
mangrove shores. Maxie, 
An Episode of Opening Day. 
The first day of the brook trout season found the Cor- 
pulent Dentist at Willow Brook, sixteen miles away, 
wielding the daintiest of rods and tOBSing the most seduc- 
tive of flies lightly on the turbulent stream. Ill fared it 
with the angler for a brave hour's work when, reaching 
an inviting riffle, the luscious fly dropped gently on the 
water and was instantly taken by what the dentist called 
"a veritable monster of the tribe of trout." It was a 
sturdy fight, carried on for a heart-breaking space of 
time, before the angler dared venture to lead the trout up 
to within reaching distance of him. Arrayed in wading 
boots and otherwise well equipped for daring aquatic 
feats, the portly Dentist, like Kipling's ship that found 
herself, felt tolerably safe in making a fearless attempt to 
further away from the deeper part of the lake. 
I have seen smelt in the lake every month in the year, 
and have caught them in most of the summer and fall 
months. While trolling off Cedar Beach in very deep 
water with a lake trout rig I caught a smelt 14in. in 
length. This was in July. I was running a good-sized 
dace 150ft. below the surface, using 1-Jlbs. lead. Also in 
August while trolling I caught a ilb. smelt in the middle 
of the lake opposite Westport, where I was running a 
minnow 200ft. below the surface. When camping in 
August at Apple Tree Point, a little north of Diamond 
Island, I used to go out before sunrise to fish for wall- 
eyed pike in about 100ft. of water. Very often the pike 
would chase and drive schools of smelt to the surface. 
They would leap out of the water by hundreds; they were 
fair-sized smelt. 
In September I was fishing on a reef far out in the lake 
opposite Westport. This reef has 18ft. of water on it, 
breaking off suddenly to 200ft. A strong current was 
running from the deep water over the reef. Pike were 
biting finely. Once in awhile the water would fairly boil 
close around the boat, caused by the smelt coming to the 
surface, driven up by large fish. Some of the pike threw 
smelt from their mouths after they were in the boat. 
Game protector Goper Liberty was with me at the time. 
Once while anchored on this reef in a still time with the 
current running as before, suddenly I noticed great quan- 
tities of air bubbles rising to the surface all over the reef. 
This was a mystery, but it was soon solved by the appear- 
ance of thousands of smelt leaping from the water ap- 
parently disabled and in trouble. It seems that the cur- 
rent brought them up from deep water and the dimin- 
ished pressure expanded their air bladders to such a degree 
that it brought them to the surface in distress, notwith- 
standing that they expelled part of the air before they 
broke water. 
I have taken fair-sized smelt from the mouths and 
throats of wall-eyed pike all through the summer and fall 
months; this was when fishing in and near very deep 
water; and have frequently used smelt so taken for bait 
with good succes3. My friend, Samuel P. Avery, Jr. , tells 
me that he picked up a dead smelt on the shore of his 
island at Button Bay. He went out on his favorite reef 
and with this single smelt caught five fine wall-eyes. 
Smelt are the natural food of wall-eyes in Champlain and 
make the best of bait. I have never found smelt in black 
bass taken in Lake Champlain. 
Sometimes smelt come to the surface toward night, and 
in cloudy weather when the lake is still observing persons 
can see them swimming about in large schools, making a 
wide and curious ripple on the water. This is generally 
seen at the middle of the lake, where the water is the 
deepest. Smelt can be caught in Lake Champlain in any 
of the summer months by going to the right place and 
using the right means, but I do not think to much advan- 
tage, as they lie in deep water and are more scattered 
than in winter; still, by a little effort enough can be 
caught to use for bait, 
Here I want to raise a note of warning to those that 
think of introducing smelt to feed lake trout; they are 
ferocious little brutes and persistent destroyers of small 
fish living in all depths of water; they would destroy the 
young trout. This I think is one reason lake trout are not 
more plenty in Champlain. Bainbridge Bishop, 
