Aug. ll, 1894.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
121 
noted fiah must be studied ; all written advice can only 1 
aid in a slight degree. Practical experience is the only 
teacher. 1 1 
These are some of my "fish stories" as they have been j 8 
often called, and some corroboration of their truth. '} 
in the future, I 
so 
Others can now, and many more will 
corroborate still further their correctness. 
Eugene McCarthy 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Condition of Flshways In the Hudson. 
Last spring I noted in this column that a petition had 
been presented to the Legislature asking that the location 
of the fish way in the dam across the Hudson River at 
Thomson's .Mills be changed, because as at present situ- 
ated the fishway collected drift. In commenting upon 
the petition I said that the fishway was located by its in- 
ventor probably after considering the driftwood question, 
and that if the fishway did not work it must be due to 
other causes than a collection of drift, and it was more 
than likely that Mr. Kogers, the builder, would visit the 
fishways in person early in the season and inspect them. 
Mr. Rogers confirmed this in a letter which I published 
later, and now he writes me under date of July 25 as 
follows: 
"I had occasion to visit Albany a few weeks ago, to see 
the State Engineer about a fishway at Baldwinsville, 
N. Y., where a State dam is now being built. I examined 
the dam and found it but about one-third built, .which 
made it quite impracticable to place a fishway this season. 
While at Albany I had a day or two to wait for the En- 
gineer and improved the time by examining the fishways 
at Mechanicville and ^Thomson's Mills, both of which 
were found in perfect repair. At Thomson's Mills the 
headgate of fishway was closed— to save the water the 
foreman told me, while a quantity was wasting over the 
dam at the time. As the fishway draws such an insig- 
nificant quantity of water, this excuse seems quite un- 
reasonable. In rebuilding the wrecked portion of the 
dam and the upper end of fishway, the two top buckets 
were left out, and a straight run put in instead. This, 
however, will not prevent the fish from passing — not half 
so much as a closed headgate will. The matter of drift- 
wood was considered, and $5 or $10 at the most, will 
remedy the evil perfectly. A small wicket placed in the 
mill frame about 6ft. from the fishway, and arranged to 
slide up and down at the will of the mill men as they 
clear the debris from their rack, is all that is needed to 
keep all drift from the fishway. The foreman agreed 
with my idea and said it would cause no inconvenience. 
The wicket would sink about 2ft., and the fish would pass 
under. Had I not been limited for time I should have 
placed the wicket myself and thus have relieved the fish- 
way of blame that does not belong to it. Knowing you 
were away from home at the time of my visit I did not 
go up to Glens Falls. 
"No salmon were seen at Mechanicville up to the time 
of my visit. It was the opinion of those acquainted with 
the river and the fish, that they were not able to pass the 
Troy dam since it was repaired. 
"However, I have no knowledge on this matter, but 
there is certainly nothing to prevent them from passing 
the Mechanicville dam it they one get to it." 
It will be noticed in the concluding paragraph that Mr. 
Rogers is silent about the salmon passing the Thomson's 
Mills fishway, although he states positively that the fish- 
way is in perfect repair, and it is easy to see why the 
salmon cannot pass when the headgate is closed. With 
one exception 1 have not known a season since the 
Thomson's Mills fishway was built that salmon have been 
seen above it, and this is not the first time that I have 
heard of the headgate in the fishway being closed at a 
time when water was wasting over the dam. 
One of the owners of the mill assured me that the fish- 
way should not be closed, and I cannot yet think that he 
knows that it has been. In fact, very recently an officer 
of Washington county came to me and said that he knew 
positively of the fishway being closed when water was 
wasting over the dam, and he proposed to institute legal 
proceedings to determine the rights of the fish and the 
mill owners, and I advised him to first see the mill owner 
and inform him of the closing of the fishway. There has 
been no trouble of this sort with the Mechanicville people, 
and there should not be with the fishway above it. 
A Fish Commissioner of the Sfc^te once told me that 
some of the stockholders in the Mechanicville mill were 
also stockholders in mill property at Holyoke, Mass., and 
it was at Holyoke that a suit was commenced which was 
carried to the United States Supreme Court where a de- 
cision was given adverse to the mill owners and from 
which I take a single extract: "Ownership of the banks 
and bed of the stream, as before remarked, give to the 
proprietor the exclusive right of fishing opposite his land as 
well as the right to use the water to create power to oper- 
rate mills, but neither the one nor the other right, nor 
both combined confer any right to erect obstructions in 
the river to prevent the free passage of fish up and down 
the river at their accustomed season." There is more of 
this decision to the same effect, and it is given by the 
highest court in the land sustaining a similar decision of 
the Massachusetts State courts. 
Black Bass Fishing in Glen Lake. 
Every year I have inquiries about the black bass fishing 
in Glen Lake, N. Y., where the largest small-mouthed bass 
in the world have been caught. This year is no excep- 
tion, but I was away from home when the season opened 
in the lake (by supervisors' law the open season begins 
July 10), and of course I knew nothmg of the fishing 
before that time, and I could only reply that I knew noth- 
ing about it, but would not advise any one to make a long 
journey (one query came from Indiana), to fish the lake 
with the hope of catching one of the monster bass, as the 
fishing was altogether too uncertain in its results. Since 
my return home I have been to the lake and have made 
inquiry about the fishing. The largest bass that has been 
killed was one of 6Hbs. Mr, Charles H. Hitchcock, a 
member of the Mohican Rod and Gun Club, spent ten 
days at the lake, and his largest fish were as follows: 
6ilbs., Gibs., 5^-lbs. and 4 Jibs. One of 71bs. was reported, 
but 1 have not been able to confirm the weight. 1 believe 
that some men are honestly mistaken about the weight of 
fish taken years before the time of relating it when they 
trust to memory alone. A case in point. 
This morning I was questioning a caller about the fish- 
ing in Glen Lake, and he mentioned a bass of lOJlbs. 
taken some years ago from the lake by a man with whom 
he was fishing. I said I never heard of the fact, when he 
[exclaimed, "Why you had the fish and sent it to Forest 
'and Stream, and it was exhibited in New York city and 
p later was sent to Washington, as I understood." Turning 
to the issue of Forest and Stream of Oct. 2, 1884, I read 
to my caller a letter of my own about that very fish: "I 
weighed it, as did many others, and found it weighed 
plump Silbs., etc." His lips parted, and he looked as 
though he had seen a ghost, and then said, "Of course 
that is correct, but do you know I have told fifty people 
that that bass weighad lOJlbs., and I thought I was telling 
the bare truth." No doubt he was honest in the matter 
but his memory had failed him. 
To return to Mr. Hitchcock, who has seen most, if not 
all, the big bass taken from Glen Lake in the past 
eighteen years. He is a man with a level head and good 
judgment, and in estimating the weight of fish in the 
water his opinion is as good as any man's. I know this 
is a delicate subject and I tell his story for, as he would 
say, what it is worth, but I know it is his honest judg- 
ment. Early one morning Mr. Hitchcock was rowing 
along the shore from his cottage on his way for mink. 
The water was perfectly still and he noticed a sunfish on 
its spawning bed near the shore and checked his boat to 
watch the sunfish, the water being shallow and clear. 
There was nothing to move the boat and he had an 
excellent opportunity to see the fish. The sunfish was 
uneasy, swimming around and around its bed, until sud- 
denly it sped into shallow water, where part of its body 
was out of the water, and at that instant a black bass 
came into view in pursuit of the sunfish. Several times 
the bass darted for the sunfish, each time driving it 
almost out of the water on to the shore, and after each 
attack, when the bass had retired a little, the sunfish 
would return to its bed and swim around and over it 
until the next assault. 
For about fifteen minutes Mr. Hitchcock watched the 
contest, neither fish appearing to notice him or his boat, 
and all the time the bass was under his eye, and he says 
it is his best judgment that the bass would weigh over 
121bs. How much over he did not care to say, as he 
"wished to be safe in his guess when the fish is produced 
to be weighed on scales." 
He had no fishing tackle in his boat, and later in the 
day he returned home. The same fish, or one like it, was 
seen in the same place the morning before Mr. Hitchcock 
observed it, by Mr. Cole, Superintendent of the Poor in 
South Glens Falls, and he, too, places the weight of the 
fish a,t considerably over I21bs. When Mr. Cole saw the 
bass it was trying to capture the same sunfish, or its mate, 
that it was in pursuit of when seen by Mr. Hitchcock. 
Only the small-mouthed species of black bass are found in 
Glen Lake. A. N. Cheney, 
CANADIAN ANGLING NOTES. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Excellent reports have recently been received of the 
ouananiche fishing in the Grande Discharge, especially in 
the vicinity of Isle Maligne, where the scenery, too, is of 
the wildest character. But most anglers now who un- 
derstand the habits of this fish and are anxious to en- 
counter the largest specimens are at this time of the year 
pushing their way up the Peribonca, the Ashuapmouch- 
ouan or the Mistassini rivers. A favorite spot in the 
Ashuapmouchouan is at the Salmon. River Falls. Those 
who ascend the Peribonca, if time permits, should go as 
far as Lake Tschotagama. Lac a Jim offers splendid fish- 
ing in August and September for both trout and ouanan- 
iche. Mr. Davis, of New York, and a friend from Texas, 
who have been fishing the Adirondacks for some weeks 
past with very little success, have just gone up at my re- 
commendation to the Fifth Falls of the Mistassini, where 
I expect to hear of very large catches of fresh- water 
salmon during the present month. 
Fine fly-fishing for trout has been had during the past 
few weeks on the Triton Tract and on Rat River, one of 
the feeders of Lake Edward. From about Aug. 15 it is 
certain to be good in all the streams and lakes north of 
Quebec. 
Space would fail us both were I to attempt to give you 
the names of all the American anglers who fished this 
part of the country during the past few weeks, but the 
number increases every year. 
Mr. Eugene McCarthy of Syracuse, N. Y., writes me 
that he expects to be here about the end of August with 
Messrs. Curtis and Dean, his fishing companions of the 
last two years. Quite a number of Syracuseans, he says, 
will also go to Lake St. John this month. 
Mr. Archibald Stuart has returned from his trip to Lake 
Mistassini, and an exciting and interesting trip it was. 
He left Lake St. John on June 27, remained part of three 
days at Mistassini, and returned to Lake St. John on July 
29. Besides the four Indians who accompanied him 
throughout, he engaged others to assist them part of the 
way. He reports much good land and good timber where 
little of either was believed to exist, and any number of 
ducks, bears, beavers, etc., on and around several of the 
large lakes which he crossed. He found ouananiche as 
far up the Ashuapmouchouan as the foot of the Grosse 
Chaudiere Falls, six days' journey from Lake Sb. John, 
and lots of large pike, dore or pickerel, and chub or 
ouitouche everywhere. White fish are also plentiful on the 
other side of the height of land, 
Mr. Stuart is a successful amateur photographer and 
has taken ? number of most interesting views of the 
country traversed by him, and which country but very 
few white men indeed have ever seen. 
E. T. D, Chambers. 
Quebec City, Aug. 4. 
Weakfish in New Jersey Waters. 
Perth Amboy, N. J., July 31.— For the past month 
bluefiBh of 3 to 5 lbs. have been abundant in Raritan Bay, 
and for ten days the river has been full of weakfish, biting 
freely. No empty baskets to carry home. "R-dst-rs" all 
happy. Baitsters ditto. K 
Newark, N. J,, July 31.— On July 28 and 29 we caught 
197 weakfish, average 21bs., in Barnegat Bay. We have 
stopped at the Lafayette House. Forked River, and went 
out with Capt. Ed. Parker. We used very light tackle 
and they were good fighters. We could have doubled the 
above score with heavier tackle. There are plenty of fish 
in the bay. m, 
|NOTES FROM THE ANGLING WATERS. 
II Trout Lake, Wis., Aug. 2.— To the fisherman who has 
of recent years depended upon the more frequented 
waters, it is quite a relief to find such sport as these lakes 
of Wisconsin present. The writer one day of this week 
took thirty bass from a virgin lake — which had never be- 
fore been fished, unless by an Indian— and as at least five 
minutes was devoted to the landing of each bass, the ag- 
gregate of sport was something of moment. In five days' 
moderate work the writer has taken 65 pike, bass and 
mascalonge; largest pike 81bs., bass 3 Jibs , and masca- 
longe 161bs. , all on a 7ft. steel rod. Equal success has 
been experienced by all the guests. Camp Franklin is 
within easy range by way of Woodruff station on the 
Chicago & Northwestern R. R. J. M, S. 
Central Lake, Mich., July 31.— The past month has 
been very warm and dry, and therefore unfavorable as to 
most waters for trout fishing. I may state that of the 
trout which I have taken during this month, rather more 
than two-fifths contained spawn. Kelpie. 
The Mohican Club Rewards. 
The Mohican Rod and Gun Club of Glens Falls, N. Y,, 
has posted the vicinity with placards offering $25 reward 
for information that will result in the conviction of any 
person catching brook trout under 6in. long in violation 
of the game laws; $25 reward for information that will 
result in tbe conviction of any person using a net in any 
trout stream; $25 reward for information that will result 
in the conviction of any person catching salmon under 
18in. in length. 
■ / 
Sunapee Black Bass. 
Claremont, N. H, July 28.— Messrs. R. Spencer and 
A. A. Martin caught 97 black bass in Sunapee Lake, July 
7, from i to 3|lbs. Mr. Martin has a cottage at the 1 >ke 
and Mr. Spencer visits him three or four times during the 
bass season, and both are expert fishermen and generally 
make things lively for the bass. Columbia. 
Not in Their Class. 
They were two fishermen of the truly sportsmanlike type. As they 
were making their way to the scene of their hopes they met a boy, a 
small boy, with a carelessly trimmed branch from a tree thrown over 
his shoulder. In one hand he had a tin can and about the branch was 
festooned a fishing line. 
"Hello, my boy," exclaimed one of the visitors; "going fishing?" 
The lad surveyed with envious eyes their neat costumes, the hand- 
some poles furnished with shining reels and all the rest of their equip- 
ment, and replied with a sigh: 
"Nope. I ain't goin' fishin'. I'm jes goin' down ter ketch some 
fish." — Washington Star. 
^vs'hquUnre unci <$ish ^raiectian* 
St. Lawrence Anglers. 
• Alexandra Bay, N. Y., Aug. 5.— Editor Forest and 
Stream : The annual meeting of the Anglers' Association 
of the St. Lawrence River, was held at Clayton, N. Y,, 
Aug. 1. Protector Northrup reported that siuce the last 
meeting he had taken 87 nets, valued at $731; 32 set lines, 
value $115; and had collected in fines $360. Reports from 
officers and members showed a growing respect for the fish- 
ery laws. The Association is prosperous, and is accomplish- 
ing much for the special interests it has undertaken to pro- 
tect. The new officers are: 
President, W. C. Browning, New York; First Vice-Presi- 
dent, H. R. Heath, Brooklyn; Second Vice-President, C. M. 
Skinner, Clayton; Secretary, W. H. Thompson, Alexandria 
Bay; Treasurer, R. P. Grant, Clayton, N. Y : Executive 
Committee, A. C. Cornwall, Alexandria Bay; George H. 
Strough, Clayton; R. H. Pullman, Baltimore, Md.; W. T. 
Bascom, Alexandria Bay; G. T, Rafferty, Pittsburgh, Pa.: 
F. J. Amsden, Rochester; R. E. Waterman, Ogdensburg; G. 
M. Skinn, Clayton; C. G. Emory, New York; O. T. Mackey, 
New York; John Foley, Clayton; Walter Fox, Alexandria 
Bay. 
There were present at the meeting Messrs. Geo. Taylor, 
member of Parliament from Gananoque, C. W. Britton of 
Gananoque and Wm. Daily of Rockport, and the Canadian 
license fee was discussed. The Canadians expressed a wil- 
lingness to make an effort to have the 15 license for rods re- 
pealed, and offered to go with a delegation from the associa- 
tion to Ottawa and confer with their Minister of Marine and 
Fisheries and try and get a mutual agreement as to fish on 
the St. Lawrence. President W. C. Browning is chairman of 
this committee. Hon. Geo. Taylor was to wire the Minister, 
and as soon as a conference could be held he was to notify 
the committee and a like committee was to go to Ottawa; 
but at this writing nothing has been reported. As soon as 
we get any result we will advise you of same. 
W. H. Tho mpson, Sec'y. 
The Baldwinsville Fishway. 
The Fish Commissioners of New York have arranged for 
. putting a Rogers fishway in the State dam in the Seneca 
River at Baldwinsville. The work will be begun at once. 
F I XT U R ES. 
DOG SHOWS. 
Sept. 4 to 7.— Des Moines Kennel Club, at Des Moines, Iowa. M. 
Bruce, Sec'y. 
Sept. 10 to 14.— Toronto Industrial Exhibition Association, at 
Toronto. C. A. Stone, Sec'y. 
Sept. 18 to 31.— Rhode Island State Fair Association, at Cranston, R. 
I. W. W. Dexter, Sec'y. 
Sept. 19 to 22.— -Orange County Fair, at Newburgh, N. Y. 
Sept. 19 to 22 — Stockton Kennel Club, at Stockton, Cat John 
Hefferman, Sec'y. 
Nov. 27 to 30.— New Jersey Kennel League, at Newark, N. J. E. H. 
Morris, Sec'y. 
FIELD TRIALS. 
Sept. 5.— Manitoba Field Trials Club, at Morris, Man. R. J. Callaug 
her, Winnipeg, Sec'y, 
Nov. 5.— United States Field Trial Club, at Bicknell, Ind. P. T. 
Madison, Indianapolis, Ind., Sec'y. 
Nov. 6.— International Field Trials, at Chatham, Ont, W. B. Wells. 
Sec'y. 
Nov. 23— Eastern Field Trials Club, at Newton, N. C. W. A. Coster, 
Saratoga, N. Y„ Sec'y. 
Sarcastic. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
On looking over the premium list of the Banbury show I 
find a class for "wire-haired cocker spaniels." I have read 
the letters in the late spaniel controversy, with great benefit 
to myself and increased knowledge of the breed, as they 
pointed out so clearly just what the winning type of cocker 
should be. Will one of these writers, so well posted on the 
subject, give me the additional information I ask? What is 
a "wire-haired cocker spaniel?" A Novice. 
