Sept. 8, 1894.] 
Forest and stream. 
207 
TEXAS AND THE SOUTHWEST. 
Never in the history of southwest Texas has the tarpon 
fishing been as good as it is this season. In fact, the cap- 
tures of the silver king are so numerous that it has ceased 
to be considered a piscatorial feat to hook his glittering 
majesty. 
Gov. Hogg and family are at Rockport and his Excel- 
lency declines to be interviewed as to the political question 
of the day, asserting "by Gatlins" that he has brought his 
wife f 'and the kids" to the coast to catch fish, and that he 
don't propose to descend to the enervating task of discus- 
sing politics "as long as the fish bite." 
f Hon. C. A. Culberson, Democratic nominee for Gover- 
nor, which of course means that he will be the chief 
magistrate of this great State by 175,000 majority, is also 
at Rockport. He also abandons himself to the pleasures 
of the hour and refuses to dive into the mazy intricacies 
of the political situation. He comes from a family of 
sportsmen and his election will be hailed with delight by 
the votaries of the gun and rod, for through him the 
Texas Si :>ortsmen's Association hope to amend the existing 
game laws so as to effectually put an end to the illegal 
slaughter. 
Among the prominent San Antonians who have sum- 
mered at the coast may be mentioned Mrs. F, E. Elgin, 
Mrs. Jose Cassiana, Mrs. Hoover, Mrs. Chas. P. Smith, 
Mrs. Marguerite Smith, Mrs. Olmstead, Kate Cassiana, 
Alice Cassiana, Ruby and Mary Mallony and Messrs. Jose 
Cassiana, J. S. Marquin, A. B. Caldwell, Alfred Smith, 
Jas. Burnett and family, State Senator Perry Lewis, Mr. 
Arthur Guenther and family — all ardent anglers, and 
every one who has been so fortunate to cast a line in the 
bay report the finest fishing of their lives. 
The Aransas Pass railway , has put in a reduced rate 
which is taken up by our people and hundreds have taken 
advantage of them and gone to the coast. 
The black bass fishing near Kenville is a,lso said to be 
at its height, and hundreds of pounds of the finny beau- 
ties are captured every day by San Antonio fishermen. 
Reports continue to come in to the effect that the quail 
crop this year will be as of yore. The birds are returning 
from somewhere — no one knows exactly where. Bob 
White has been sojourning for the past three years, but 
he is coming back and there is no section on earth where 
quail are as plentiful just now than southwest Texas. 
While on a recent visit to Corpus Christi, Mr. Marti u, 
vice-president of the Mexican National Railway, hooked 
and landed one of the largest tarpon of the season. He 
has had the glittering fish mounted by a local firm, who 
made a complete success of the job, its silvery scales 
under a light coat of varnish retaining their brightness. 
The monster silver king will be shipped to Mr. Martin in 
Mexico City and placed on exhibition in his office. This 
is Mr. Martin's first tarpon, and he feels very proud of 
capturing a fish which President Cleveland would travel 
a thousand miles to capture. 
Mitchell's Lake, nine miles south of San Antonio, is 
now full of water, which insures first-class duck shoot- 
ing for the entire winter. Visitors to San Antonio, ac- 
cordingto the rules of the club having the lake in charge, 
are to be permitted to hunt thereon free of charge, and 
San Antonio extends a hearty invitation to all brother 
sportsmen to have a go at the webfoo<s this winter. 
O. C. G. 
A FLY-FISHERS' CLUB IN AMERICA. 
On several occasions during th • past ten years I have 
suggested, briefly, the desirability of organizing a fly- 
fishers' club in this country upon the lines of the club 
with that title in London. In a recent issue of the Fort- 
nightly Revieio there is an article which incidentally treats 
of the London Fly-Fishers' Club, by Mr, Basil Field, him- 
self a member of the club, and one of the executive com- 
mittee, from which I quote: "It rents no waters, it gives 
no prizes, it encourages no competitions. But it does col- 
lect statistics, organizes meetings, promotes the reading 
of papers, and encourages discussion, not only on techni- 
cal details of the angler's craft, but on the fishing laws, 
river pollution, fishculture and subjects of wide interest 
to mankind at large. It is, however, primarily a social 
club. 
"The library is a well-selected collection of the most 
important works on angling and fishculture that have yet 
appeared. The club owes its origin to a widespread feel- 
ing that there is something in fishing beyond the mere 
catching of fish. The late Francis Francis reduced it to 
words and the present editor of Fishing Gazette impressed 
it with life. The result was the Fly-Fishers' Club. It 
consists of over 300 members, British and foreign, repre- 
senting the House of Lords, the House of Commons, art, 
science, literature medicine, diplomacy, the church, the 
army, the navy, the bench, the bar and the legal profes- 
sion in general, manufacture, commerce and trade,whole- 
sale and retail. In short, among its members are men 
of every known occupation, and some with no occupation 
at all. For it must be remembered that while the busy 
man spares time to kill fish, the idle fishes to kill time, 
and the one common bond that unites this heterogeneous 
mass of humanity is the love of fly-fishing." 
The objects of the Fly- Fishers' Club as set forth in the 
Club Annual are as follows: 
"The constitution and purpose of the Fly Fishers' Club, 
which is purely a social club, may be stated in brief to be: 
"To bring together gentlemen devoted to fly-fishing gen- 
erally. 
"To afford a ready means of communication between 
those interested in this delightful art. 
"To provide in the reading room, in addition to the usual 
newspapers, periodicals, etc., catalogues and books, for- 
eign as well as English, having reference to fishing, par- 
ticularly fly-fishing, so as to render the club a means of 
obtaining knowledge about new fishing places and vacan- 
cies for rods, and making it a general medium of informa- 
tion on all points relating to the art." 
The club is governed by a committee of twenty-one, 
selected from the membership, two of whom act as hon- 
orary treasurer and honorary secretary respectively. The 
club has no other officers. The annual subscription is two 
guineas for London members and one guinea for country 
members. Originally the London members paid three 
guineas annually, but this was found to be greater than 
was necessary, and the subscription was reduced. 
The club has twelve honorary members. Five reside in 
Great Britain, one in Germany and six in the United 
States, Country members are those who have no fixed 
residence in the city of London. 
As long ago as in 1885, the Forest and Stream said of 
this club: "We have been struck by the fact that there 
is no association of this kind in America. There is room 
for just such an organization here, in New York, and it 
could be made very popular if the right men could take 
hold of it." 
During the nine years that have elapsed since that 
paragraph was written nothing has been done towar 
organizing such a club. But apparently there is no good 
reason why such a club should not be organized, and 
there are many reasons why it should be. 
Quite naturally, the club should find a home in New 
York city, as it seems to be a sort of clearing house for 
the anglers of the entire country. Without doubt there 
are enough fly-fishermen in New York city, if their atten- 
tion could be drawn to and their interest aroused in a 
club of this character, to put it on its feet at once, and 
with non-resident members from all over the United 
States and Canada, who would naturally be drawn to it, 
the club would very soon become a general meeting place 
for fly-fishermen and a bureau of information for the 
dissemination of knowledge in all things relating to fly- 
fishing. The love of fly-fishing is of vigorous growth in 
this country and is spreading far and wide. So that 
every year there are large additions to the ranks of those 
who practice the highest style of the contemplative 
angler's art; for let the most inveterate bait-fisherman 
catch a trout, black bass or other fish with a fly on a 
light rod, and ever after he is a fly-fisherman from pref- 
erence. 
Fly -fisherman are companionable men, and as a rule, 
gregarious before and after the actual fishing, even if 
they prefer to cast their flies in lonely solitude, so I be- 
lieve that at this very moment the material for a Fly- 
Fishers' Club, in which the anglers of the country would 
be greatly interested and from which they would receive 
great benefit, is now going to waste for the lack of action 
to organize and shape it. Through the London Fly-Fish- 
ers' Club I have made acquaintances that have become 
friends, and have gleaned information of value, and it is 
this experience which prompts me to advocate a similar 
club in this country to draw our anglers closer together 
for their common benefit and mutual advantage. 
Forest and Stream is the agent through which the 
club may be brought about and that journal may become 
the god-father of a club that will rank with that of our 
cousins' ever the sea. A. N. Cheney. 
LONDON ANGLERS AND THEIR DOINGS. 
Sunday is a great day with the metropolitan angler. 
The Saturday half-holiday is of little avail here-for fish- 
ing purposes. Many years ago, say between fifty and 
sixty, there used to be excellent roach and dace swims 
*o be had off the Thames Embankment, and the angler 
then needed no railway "privilege" tickets. Now, it 
would be like fishing in pea soup to cast in off say Black- 
friar's steamboat pier, or put in the leger from a boat at 
Cleopatra's Needles. 
No, the Saturday afternoon — when the clerks, 
the mechanics and the working men in general leave 
business — does not give one an opportunity of getting 
away to fish. Unlike the country angler, the cockney 
piscator has a considerable distance to travel before he 
can get anything like decent fishing. Up here the rivers 
don't run by the bottom of the garden, and there is no 
fishing to be had out of the parlor window. In the course 
of a single season thousands of miles are individually 
covered upon fishing expeditions, but thanks to the liber- 
ality displayed by the various railway companies the club 
angler is enabled to travel at a greatly reduced fare. In 
fact, the London angler is a big traveler, and nothing is 
thought of covering 200 miles m a day and then being 
back in plenty of time to "weigh in" at night. 
Each year sees a great increase in the number of anglers 
and clubs in London, and the sport of fishing was never 
more popular. It is estimated that there are quite 10,000 
club anglers within the metropolis, and the clubs now 
number over 230. Then there are the unattached or non- 
clubmen, who probably number 20,000 or 30,000, so that 
altogether the sport of anglmg can lay c'aim to being in 
a very flourishing condition. The London club fishermen 
are governed by two associations, one being called the 
London Anglers' Association and the other having for its 
title that of the Central Association of London Anglers. 
The former is by far the most powerful of the two, and is 
known piscatorially as the "Anglers' Parliament." Mr. 
Philip Geen is its president: Mr. Richard Ghurney, who is 
sometimes referred to as "the father of the London 
anglers," is the secretary. Each society enrolled with this 
association is entitled to send two delegates to its monthly 
meetings. The association has a general committee, a 
renting and preservation committee, etc., and at the dele- 
gate meetings all matters relating to the angling world 
are dealt with. There is a great business air about the 
delegates, who sit on long rows of chairs facing the chair- 
man and "Dick" Ghurney and his assistant. As each dele- 
gate arrives he gives the name of his club to a gentleman 
termed the "tyler," and he at the end of the proceedings 
calls the roll for the purpose of seeing how many societies 
affiliated to the association have been present. 
Prior to the minuiesof the previous meeting being read 
a great sharpening of pencils can be heard, notebooks are 
produced and the delegates look more like a corps of 
reporters waiting for some great speaker to open his ora- 
tion than a lot of "jolly anglers." The reason for this 
great display of pencil and paper is that each delegate is 
supposed to give an account of the Association's meeting 
at the next gathering of his own society. When the 
chairman— who is generally Mr. W. H. Beckett— taps the 
table with his little brass hammer, and Mr. Ghurney ad- 
justs his "goggles," every pencil falls upon its notebook 
awaiting for an item likely to interest brother club men. 
At this meeting new clubs are enrolled, complaints re- 
ceived and inquired into, matters relating to the renting 
and preservation of club waters, and railway concessions 
discussed; in fact, this meeting is the one where every- 
thing concerning the interests and doings of the Associa- 
tion's affiliated members is dealt with. The business of 
the Central Association, of which Mr. C. H. Medcalf is 
the president, is conducted in much the same manner. 
The delegates take notes of the proceedings, and reports 
are handed in by the visiting officers, etc. Mr. W. J. 
Wade is the secretary of this Association, and he has left 
no stone unturned to secure its success. Through his 
efforts, a grand piece of water was obtained on the Sussex 
Arun, where many "boncers" and "tonkers" in the roach 
class last season came to grief at the hands of the skilled 
London disciples of the rod. Lots of 2-pounders were 
basketed, and several fish were had up to 2|lbs. For 
roach, such fish are worth noting — and they are worth 
catching, too! In the sharp tidal waters of the Arun they 
fight like a trout! 
The London anglers have a benevolent society, and over 
£200 was paid out last year to members who had en- 
countered misfortune in their path. The society is carry- 
ing on an excellent work, and many a fisherman has had 
reason to be grateful for the assistance rendered him in 
this direction. A subscription of Is. Id. only a year is 
charged, but this would be totally inadequate to meet the 
calls on the fund were it not for the aid of smoking con- 
certs, collecting boxes, etc. Recently the Anglers' Benev- 
olent Society has secured six beds in a convalescent home 
at Dover, where sick members go to regain their health 
and strength. Very often when anglers in straitened cir- 
cumstances have been sent away to the seaside, the com- 
mittee have not forgotten their all but empty purses and 
have made them "pocket money" allowance. During the 
last year the committee had to deal with some extremely 
painful cages and I am happy to say that those in distress 
have been trea,ted in the spirit of the true brotherhood of 
angling; where help was needed it was ever forthcoming, 
and as a result many a Waltonian set on his legs again in 
more ways than one. The Anglers' Benevolent Society is 
indeed a grand institution, having a noble object in view,, 
and long, I say, may it prosper and flourish. 
The clubs are mostly held at a local hostelry, and meet- * 
ings generally take place twice a week. The clubs all 
have their president, vice-president, chairman, treasurer 
and secretary. Round the room many fish caught by 
members figure on the walls in ornamental glass cases. 
The fish are known as "specimens," and they range from 
a tiny bleak to a monster pike. The inscription on the 
case runs something after this style: "Bream, caught by 
Mr. Smith in the Thames, July 16, 1889, weight 5ilbs." 
Some of the fish are very fine, and large collections are to 
be found at some of the clubs. For instance, the Friendly 
Anglers' Club room is adorned with close on 150 cases, in 
which may be found trout of lOlbs. and 131bs., chub of 
5lbs. 14oz. and bream going 71bs. 13oz. There is a grand 
show of fish at the Piscatorial Society's Saloon at the Hol- 
born restaurant, there we have specimens of the Ameri- 
can striped bass and the American black bass caught by 
Mr. T. R, Sachs. Plenty of the clubs have from thirty to 
fifty cases of fish on view. The leading angling clubs in 
London are considered to be the Fly-Fishers', Piscatorial 
Society, Gresham, Friendly Anglers, New Albions and 
the True Waltonians, and they indulge from time to time 
in some very grand banquets and other festive doings. 
The annual dinner of the Piscatorial Society is perhaps 
the most brilliant function in London angling circles, the 
occasion being one on which large numbers of ladies grace 
the proceedings with their presence. 
Among other things discussed at the clubs are of course 
the competitions, in connection with which several prizes 
are offered each outing, some of the clubs having a prize 
list of something like £80 or £90 for one season. When a 
competition is about to take place, the secretary sends a 
report to the fishing papers to the effect that the "mem- 
bers' attendance is urgently requested" on such and such 
an evening, "when important business will be discussed." 
The London angler is noted for always arriving late at his 
club, so that a start is frequently not made until consider- 
ably past 9 o'clock. The worthy secfetary — he is always 
"worthy" — then reads the minutes of the last meeting, 
and the chairman afterward calls for some one to propose 
and second that they be duly passed. 
This function over, the chairman intimates that there is 
to be a competition next week; "but," says he, "before we 
proceed to the business I would thank you to give your 
orders — the waiter is in the room." This is by no means 
unwelcome news, and what with beer, whiskies and teeto- 
tal drinks the waiter gets very much mixed. But eventu- 
ally the drinks are supplied, and the chairman, rapping 
the table, says something to this effect: "Worthy secre- 
tary and brothers, we have a competition in a week's 
time, and it is for you to say where you would like to go 
and how to fish when you get there. There are three 
prizes: First, Mr. Smith's £1 Is.; second, Mr, Money's 
10s. 6d., and third, Mr. Bacon's ham. I don't think you 
will get much sport wherever you go; the water is 'gin- 
bright' all over the place. However, it is for you to de- 
cide." For a minute the company remains silent, and 
then one of the members: 
Mr. Robinson exclaims, "Why not try the Arun, there 
are some prime roach ther^ and bream like bellows. 
You'll stand a better chance in the tidal waters than any- 
where just now." 
Mr. Katchemall: "Well, I should like to give the 
Thames a turn. I'll bet I'll sneak a barbel or two out on 
the leger, and don't you think I don't know where there 
are some boncing chub. I propose we go to Staine's. 
They are sure to come on in the 'cool of the evening'." 
Mr. Brown: "Try the Thames! I wouldn't go if you 
paid my fare there. It is like gin, so Harry Jones says — 
be was down at Sunbury yesterday— besides what about 
boats? Hundreds and thousands of them kicking about. 
And the steam launches a plunging through your swim! 
Might as well fish in the water cistern this time of year." 
Thus suggestions follow each other in rapid succession,' 
and it often takes an hour or so before a spot can be fixed 
upon to fish the match. Then if it is not a "roving" com- 
petition, boundaries have to be arranged, etc. Sometimes 
the event will be a "pegged down" one, and stewards are 
appointed at the meeting to peg out swims for the com- 
petitors. No one is allowed to go down to the river over- 
night except the stewards, and when the contestants 
reach the scene in the morning the former gentlemen 
have put the stakes in and numbered them. Subse- 
quently a draw promptly decides where each man is to 
go, and the expression on some of their faces is a sight to 
behold when they do not get a pitch to their liking. 
There, however, theylmust stick or forfeit all participation 
in the match. Many of the London clubs are also the scene 
in connection with the weekly meetings of numerous 
smoking concerts and "visits" in the course of the year, 
while papers on angling are also read during the season. 
The great event of the year, however, is the club'a 
annual dinner, when the fishermen have quite a reunion 
and spend the evening merrily amid toast and song. The 
