June 6, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
483 
only resource for amusement. She has caught several of 
the blue-back trout, which this paper will describe, and 
some very large rainbows. 
Mr. Cross took good care of us, beginning his mission 
by a well-cooked dinner; then we lit our pipes and started 
out to explore the lake. 
Following up the points gained on Lake Sutherland, we 
used three small and one large spoon, the first near the 
surface, the latter deep. As before, the surface spoon paid 
good dividends, but it was not until late in the afternoon 
that we heard from the big one down below, the line of 
which Carrigan had made fast to his leg. What occurred is 
decribedin the Democratic Leader, of Port Angeles, thus: 
"Fishing was prosecuted in the waters of Lake Crescent, 
off Eagle Point, all of Monday. Late in the afternoon of 
that day Mr. Carrigan, in anticipation of a bite from 
a monster trout, had securely fastened the line around his 
leg. All at once, when peace and calm reigned supreme 
in the boat, the Admiral and Ben Lewis saw, almost with 
the rapidity of lightning, the leg to which Carrigan had 
fastened his fish line shoot outward, as if in response to 
some tremendous movement thitherward. This was 
quickly followed by excited exclamations from Mr. Carri- 
gan, who by this time was an almost indistiguishable 
mass in the bottom of the boat, entreating Ben Lewis to 
come at once to his rescue, as he had certainly caught a 
whale. Lewis quickly responded to the summons, and 
being an expert fisherman, soon, with the combined efforts 
of the Admiral and Carrigan, succeeded in landing what 
proved to be, and what the Admiral pronounced to be, a 
distinct species of blue-back trout, weighing lOf lbs., meas- 
uring 3u£in. long and 7|an. through." 
This was the only very large trout and the only blue- 
back caught that day, but we had no end of sport with 
moderate-sized ones, by which I mean from lib. to 31bs., 
mountain and speckled. We carried home over fifty, of 
which not over half were under a pound. 
That night early, in consideration of the facts that it was 
bed time and that the Michell cabin furnished but one 
such luxury — which had been assigned to me — Messrs. 
Cross and Carrigan adjourned to a nearby cabin and left 
me alone. Mr. Cross, in his capacity of assistant to the 
Postmaster, did his duty faithfully and locked up the post 
office — my room — and I was solitary in the wilderness. 
As I lay meditating I could not but wonder at the pluck 
of Mrs. Michell under the same circumstances, which, 
when her husband was away, must often have occcurred. 
The place is on the high road for tramps. I concluded that 
she must employ her wakeful hours planning campaigns 
against the deer and trout, and I followed her lead, and 
planned to stay another day and to resort to devices to 
secure one or more of those big trout. 
In the morning the weathei was unpropitious; a heavy 
frost had whitened the ground, the air was full of fog, arid 
there was a nasty east wind — all dampers to an early start; 
.so I waited for a comfortable breakfast. It was not until 
.after 9 o'clock that we started. 
As the day was to be devoted to the capture of blue- 
backs or other large trout, we discarded the rods, the 
small spoons, and fitting our copper lines with large 
spoons we gave Ben instructions to row slowly, 
j |If our judgment as to Lake Crescent were based upon 
that forenoon's work, this letter would not have been 
written. 
At last, tired of doing nothing but to cover distance 
And mechanically twitch occasionally on our hand lines, 
we put out our rods with surface gear and with them 
•caught now and then a mountain or speckled trout. 
About noon we had enough for our dinner, a dozen per- 
haps, and Ben rowed us over to his cabin to dine and rest, 
while he cooked for us a most appetizing meal. Ben's 
furniture was a little scarce, but he had boxes for himself 
.and Carrigan, giving me the only chair. 
Ben is a bachelor and never kept boarders, but he is a 
good cook and his cabin was as clean and neat as one 
•could wiBh. 
I have put it into Ben's head to keep boarders, that is, 
tfo be prepared to care comfortably for the people who I 
hope will be induced by the tale I have yet to unfold to 
;seek Lake Crescent this coming spring. He promises to 
be all ready, and I hope I may be one of his first board- 
ers — that is, he will increase the size of his cabin, fit up 
more bedrooms, buy some furniture and boats — in all of 
which adventures Mr. Carrigan has promised to help hiui 
with capital, and I to do my share; shall leave to him as 
ihis professional secrets, his tools of trade, so to speak, the 
•details of the methods by which I conquered the blue- 
backs. Ben, if you employ hi n, or Mr. Cross if Ben is 
engaged, will show you just the localities where the big 
trout hide, and post you as to my mode of baiting, the 
iproper depth, the proper speed, etc. Of course, if there 
were no Ben in the case I should take all of my Forest 
•and Stream readers into my confidence and post them 
up. 
The weather continued dubious, and we sat by the fire 
.listening to Ben's yarns and looking at his collection of 
hunting trophies, antlers and skins. The stock was not 
large; such things are Ben's stock in trade and furnish 
him' with groceries and clothing. He had several sets of 
deer antlers, but those of the elk killed last winter had 
been disposed of. Among Ben's hunting stories was one 
< of the adventures of a friend of mine whom he took a 
winter or two ago to the elk ranges. The latter paxt of 
the tramp was hard, -up a steep rise and through deep 
s snow, and by the time the bench was reached Ben's com- 
panion was about used up; but the sight, only a few yards 
off, of a band of some thirty elk put new life in him, and 
he immediately began pumping into them with his Win- 
■ Chester, landing every ball not less than 500yds. beyond 
them. This and the fatigue made him wild, and Ben had 
ito lash him to a tree for quite a while till he cooled off, 
otherwise he would have chased the elk, which had made 
i off, and probably would have got lost. After a while Ben 
j let him out, and a half hour after coming again on to the 
band the hunter proved a good shot and killed three in 
i three shots, which was all Ben would allow, as he can't 
. afford to kill more than he can use and tote. He kills 
i only those with fine antlers. Ben says this was the worst 
i case of buck fever he ever saw. 
About 2 P. M. we got under way. The weather had 
improved, the fog had lifted and what was left was wefi 
mixed with smoke, a calm had succeeded the east wind 
and for an hour or two we had f ah" fishing, taking several 
-2 and 3-pounders, not blue backs. 
About 4 P. M. a light breeze sprung up from the west- 
ward and almost coincident with it something happened, 
and that something was a strike from a very heavy fish, 
At first I thought it a snag, but the rapidity with which 
my spun fine began to travel downward showed me that 
I had at last what I long had sought, a big trout. 
For a while it was give and take. The fash was at first 
a gamy one, but as I got him nearer to the surface he 
began suddenly to weaken until as I drew him alongside 
he was exhausted and made no final rush, lying as quietly 
as a daz : d pic!?e re), so that I had no difficulty in holding 
aggregate dO^lbs., a large quantity of smaller-sized trout 
were caught. 
"The jubilant fishermen returned from the lake Wed- 
nesday noon. A photographic view of the larger trout, 
hanging from a pole, suspended from the shoulders of 
the Admiral and Mr. Carrigan, was taken." 
While admiring this beautiful fish, Carrigan, who was 
sitting forward, joining in, I was astonished and some- 
what alarmed by a fierce and frightened expression which 
came suddenly upon his usually calm and gentle face, his 
"child-like and bland smile" became a grim and deter- 
mined frown, he began to pull for all he was worth, and 
in less than ten minutes from my first strike I gaffed in 
for him a worthy mate to mine, and hardly was this ac- 
complished before my line again called on me, and so it 
went on for about an hour and a half; then came sunset 
and we concluded that we had enough. 
Four of these big fish lay in our box, one hardly up to 
the mark, for he was only a 6-pounder, but three of them 
were fair 11 -pounders. Besides these there was another of 
about the same size, which I lost by a bungle with the 
gaff. So counting in the three, the one taken the day 
before by Mr. Carrigan and the misgaffed one, our five 
fish were fully 551bs. 
The photograph shows four of these fish, besides some 
smaller mountain trout that were in the box we opened. 
The dimensions and weights, beginning at the left of the 
big ones, were: 
No. J.. 
No. 2. .... 
No. 3 
No. 4 

• 
• ••••••• 
....a.. ............ 
Length, 
W^- 
» • • • « 
30m. 
...32^in. 
3(%in. 
Weight. 
6lbs. 
lllbs. 
10Mlb8. 
lllbs. 
A S1WASH FAMILY. 
the line in one hand while with an extemporized gaff — a 
halibut hook lashed to a stick — I lifted him on board. 
The cause of this lethargy was made manifest as Ben 
kneed him down to take out the hook: he was bloated 
with air, but as this came away he fought hard. 
Mr. Carrigan's account of this capture as published in 
the Leader is appended; it is graphic. 
"The Admiral then determined to remain another day, 
if agreeable to Mr. Carrigan, and himself catch and land, 
if possible, unaided, one of those enormous trout. 
"His expectations were by no means doomed to disap- 
pointment, as Tuesday afternoon at 4 o'clock an uncom- 
monly vigorous jerk at the line suggested that a trout of 
unusual size had taken the hook. Then followed a 
desperate struggle; the trout would be drawn in and 
plunge down into the depths of the water hundreds of 
feet in the frantic struggle for life and liberty. Finally 
a landing was made, and the supreme strength Of Lewis 
was required to overcome the monster. And what a 
magnificent specimen it was, weighing ll^lbs., the meas- 
No. 3 was a male, long and lean, spent, and evidently a 
fighter, for he was adorned with battle scars. The others 
were females. Carrigan's lOf-pounder is not in this 
photo — we ate him. 
In regard to this photo I wish to explain a bit. First, 
in it Forest and Stream gets the long-promised picture 
of Piseco, very appropriately surrounded, in the fat figure 
on the left. Second, all that is not fat, nor is it to him 
alone that the responsibility which rests on the trousers 
buttons is due. It so happened that, going xo the lake with 
a full gripsack, he returned with comparatively an empty 
one, leaving very early in the morning for an eighteen- 
mile drive in a very low temperature and surrounded with 
frost. The gripsack was nearly empty and the fishing 
suit held its contents in the way of extra underclothing. 
The figure on the right is Mr. Carrigan, a good fellow to 
go fishing with. 
Third — When we reached the photographer's on our 
way in it was a little foggy and the day was waning. We, 
cold and hungry, did not waste time in trying to arrange 
the fish to the best advantage. 
To return to our subject. When after dark we got that 
catch back to Michell's, Mr. Cross was simply astonished, 
and was "free to admit" that such a catch had never 
before been made. We spent that evening weighing, 
measuring, note-taking and packing, and the next morn- 
ing, Oct. 29, returned to- Port Angeles, where our fish 
made a sensation, as they did subsequently throughout 
the cities of the Sound, as thus shown: 
THOSE MONSTER TROUT. 
Itear-Admiral Beardslee After Forty Years' 
EXPERIENCE TROUT FISHING IS 
Treated to an Agreeable Surprise while Fishing on Lake 
Crescent— He Catcbes Monster Blue-back 
Trout that Prove a Revelation. 
Now I propose to enter into a bit of description of these 
fi3h, first giving all I have learned of their history. 
Mrs. Michejl told me that she had caught several during 
her four years at the lake. 
POST OFFICE AND HOME OF GEORGE MICHELL, FAIRHAVEN, LAKE CRESCENT.; 
urements of which were 28+in. long and Sin. through. 
As the exultant fisherman beheld with conflicting 
emotions, first of doubt, then of self-satisfaction and 
pride, words can ne'er express, his achievement, the 
crowning accomplishment of forty years' pursuit of this, 
to him, delightful sport must indeed have afforded in- 
expressible pleasure. 
"This exceeding stroke of good fortune was followed 
with the Admiral catching three other monster blue-backs, 
the respective weight and size of which were as follows: 
lllbs., length 28in., depth 8fin.; lllbs., length 28£in., 
depth 8in.; 61bs., length 22fin., depth 7in.; another mon- 
ster blue-back was caught by Mr. Carrigan, which 
weighed lOJlbs. and was 31+in. long and 7in. through. 
"Besides these sixjmonster trout, weighing in the 
Mr. Sanborn, a pensioned soldier who has taken up a 
homestead on the lake, has also caught several, one of 
which weighed, I was told, 13Jlbs, 
Ben Lewis, who hunts more than he fishes, has caught 
some, but never any of such size or numbers as came to 
us, which beyond question broke the record. Piseco. 
[As recorded in our issue of May 23, the two fish sent to 
President Jordan were found to be new forms. So one of 
them, the speckled trout, has been given the name Salmo 
beardsleei, in honor of Admiral Beardslee as the discover- 
er; and to the blue-back the name Salmo crescentes, after 
• the lake. A detailed description of the specimens taken 
by Piseco will form the concluding paper of the series 
our next issue.] 
