362 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 21, 1894. 
DAYS AT CAMP BLAIR. 
Camp Blair, North Wakefield Trout Fishing Club, P. Q. , 
Sept. 30. — Editor Forest and Stream: Leaving New York 
on the 6 P. M. train of the New York Central R. P. on 
Sept. 14, our party of seven, members and guests of the 
North Wakefield Trout Fishing Club, found ourselves in 
Ottawa at 11 o'clock the next A. M. , and also found that 
all of our checked luggage had gone to Montreal without 
our consent; but by the kindness of Mr. Meyers of Rouse's 
Point, where our belongings started on their wayward 
course, everything was returned to us in good order at 
Ottawa by the time we had made a. few needed purchases 
and partaken of an excellent lunch at the Russell House, 
a very comf ortable and pleasant hotel. I can also state 
with considerable pride that the Customs officer intimated 
that we did not look like a party who would be likely to 
defraud Her Majesty's just revenue, hence he sent us our 
luggage unopened, and we broke the seals after getting 
into camp. 
Instead of waiting for the P. M. train for North Wake- 
field we chartered two comfortable teams and enjoyed a 
delightful ride, most of the way along the banks of the 
Gattineau River, surrounded by grand and beautiful 
scenery ,with forests outrivalling New England's autumnal 
hues. Within about six miles of camp we crossed the 
Gattineau River in a scow propelled by a "white ash 
breeze" which we furnished without extra charge, and of 
course we found the old scow on the wrong side of the 
river and had to go over in a skiff and pull it to the right 
side, leaving it again on the wrong side to accommodate 
the next customer. About three miles of the remaing six 
miles of our road to camp is what Pat described as 
"sandy" to one who had never been over it; and wher/ 
being called up on the subject after getting into camp, 
Pat shielded his veracity by saying, "The sand was a lit- 
tle coarse to be sure." 
Arriving at camp about 7 P. M. we found Tom and 
Le Roque ready to greet us, and a good warm supper at 
our disposal. Of course, next in order after supper was 
getting out our fishing toggery, adjusting rods, trying 
lines and selecting flies which we were sure would lure 
the big ones to our end of the boat the next day. But in 
this we counted without consulting Old Probabilities or 
the other parties in interest, viz. , the trout we expected 
to try the elasticity of our rod and the strength of our 
lines. 
The day dawned as warm and mild as a June morning 
— the lakes were like liquid glass, making a perfect mirror 
for the bordering landscape except for the splendid colors 
of the foliage — the gentle zephyrs that toyed tenderly 
with the leaves high up on the .surrounding mountains 
seemed loth to descend and mar the perfect tranquillity 
below; but alas! all this quiet beauty was only withering 
our cherished hopes of capturing those beautiful fish ; for 
do what we would they would not rise to the fly, and 
some of the party tried to tempt them with minnows and 
earth worms with no better success. Occasionally a small 
half-pound trout would so far forget his surroundings as 
to toy with the artificial lure, and was generally deposited 
in the tank for his indiscretion. And such was nearly 
the whole week; we Would frequently see a score or more 
of the big fellows gliding quietly about, but with all our 
allurements they seemed to say to us:. "We are boarding 
ourselves during this kind of weather, and care nothing 
for your new-fangled arrangements." Still we thrashed 
the quiet waters with our flies as relentlessly as the farmer 
uses his flail on the grain-covered floor of his barn, only 
to give us, not sport, but barely enough fish for our 
breakfast. 
Now, why were these miserable results? Who can tell? 
I only know the facts and gave up the conundrum after 
a week's study and fisherman's patience. Some of our 
club members and their guests were forced to leave camp 
at the end of the week on account of pressing business 
requirements, but I fear there was some disgust and dis- 
appointment at our ill luck mingled with the pressure. 
And here I would not fail to mention the kindness again 
of our friend Meyers of Rouse's Point. He wired us on 
Tuesday, inviting any who wished to join him in a day's 
fishing for black bass in a lake about ten miles distant 
from our camp, and one of our party spent a day with 
him, bringing back about a dozen fair-sized trout which 
they had caught while fishing with minnows for bass. 
Now, why should trout take minnows iu that lake and 
not in ours? You tell — I gave it up without a struggle, but 
such were the facts. 
On Friday we were reinforced by three who could not 
join the first party that came in, and on Sunday five 
others took their departure, and thereby missed the glori- 
ous sport of the remaining five. On Sunday, the 23d, it 
began raining, with a strong wind, clearing up cold and 
frosty, and during the whole week we had splendid sport, 
taking about 150 trout ranging in weight from 1 to 31bs. ; 
twice doubles were taken at one cast. The change in 
temperature had done the business for us, and enabled us 
to do the business for the trout. It needs cool, frosty 
nights, and a breeze by day that will bring a ripple upon 
the water to make the trout in these lakes rise well to the 
fly. 
One of the Canadian members of the club visited camp 
about the 1st of September, and in parts of two days took 
over seventy-five trout, fishing one evening and one 
morning; so it is not the time in the month, but the con- 
dition of the temperature and wind, that insure the best 
results. These trout are natives, the lakes never having 
been stocked, and from present indications will never 
require it. 
The lakes controlled by the club are six in number, 
named respectively Clear, Angelus, Long, Round, Forked 
and Wright's. The waters of all except Wright's flow 
from one to the other, and have but one outlet. Lake 
Angelus is about 50ft. higher than the four others with 
which it connects, and Wright's is. from 75 to 100ft. lower 
than any of the others. The combined shore line of the 
six lakes is by estimation about twenty miles. They are 
situated in a wild rocky region between the Gattineau 
and the Lievres rivers, presenting some grand and strik- 
ing scenery, with granite cliffs, the ragged and almost 
perpendicular sides of which tower 200ft. above the Bur- 
face of the lakes. The portages between four of the lakes 
are neither long nor difficult, and boats can be floated in 
two of them most of the distance. The subject of stock- 
ing one of the lakes with black bass is being considered 
by the club; Wright's Lake will probably be chosen for 
this purpose, as it has no connection with the other lakes. 
The Canadian authorities furnish small fish for such pur- 
poses the same as is done in most of the States. These 
lakes can never be polluted by manufacturing, as there 
are no large streams running into them, but are fed by 
springs so tbat the waters are always pure, very clear, 
and delightfully cool. 
These considerations with many others that might be 
named make the property of the North Wakefield Trout 
Fishing Club an exceptionally desirable one, and its value 
will increase as the chances for a few days' good fishing 
become less and less in the poor worn-out streams and 
lakes of the States. This is our last night in camp for the 
season; the wood fire has burned low in the broad fire- 
place and my companions have sought the sleep which 
these cool nights make sound and refreshing, leaving me 
alone with my thoughts and the few remaing bits of 
wood I have raked together in the center of the fireplace. 
Those who have enjoyed thus the last flickering embers 
of a camp-fire, know how soft and gentle are the reveries 
that come hovering o'er mind and soul; and know that 
whatever is good and true in us will come welling up 
from the spring-like depths of our natures almost unbid- 
den, and I am sure makes us better men, and these rever- 
ies die not with the embers on the hearth. Our time is 
up to-morrow, Oct. 1 closes the season for trout fishing in 
these waters. Our company of members and guests has 
been larger than any previous year and our enjoyment 
has increased with the numbers. 
After such a glorious good time it may not be in good 
taste to express a single regret, but "murder will out." 
My heart was set on feeling at the end of my line just one 
more of those big beauties; I knew where to find him in 
the early morning, and asked the cook to have me a cup 
of coffee soon after daybreak. I got the coffee but not 
the trout. As I arrived in sight of the foot of Long Lake, 
the first sunbeams were just struggling through the 
foliage on the hills beyond. I could see the locality on 
which my hopes were based nearly a mile distant. I could 
see neither man nor boat, but at intervals of a few seconds 
I could see the spray as it flashed from the swift line and 
glittered in the sunlight, and I knew it meant death to my 
hopes and the big trout. Remembering the old proverb, 
that to err is human, but to forgive divine, I am con- 
strained to forgive him this time; but if it were just as 
divine to err as to forgive, I fear I should "go out on an 
error" regardless of the umpire. And now, Mr. Editor, 
having fulfilled my promise to you, I bid you and Camp 
Blair a good night. A. 
THE RAINBOW TROUT. 
I have caught our beloved Salmo fontinalis in the 
Adirondacks, in the small brooks of Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire and Vermont, and along the shores of Lake 
Superior, and feel myself tolerably well acquainted with 
him; but his cousin of the Rocky Mountains was a 
stranger to me until this season. My fishing was then 
limited to the month of September, and to a small portion 
of the waters of northwestern Colorado, and, in other 
times and waters the fish may and doubtless does, show 
himself after a different fashion; but I found the experi- 
ence interesting and novel, and hope some of the readers 
of Forest and Stream may be glad to hear of it. 
The first fishing was done at Wolcott, Colorado, in the 
cafion of the Eagle River. The stream is very rapid, but 
not broken by falls at that point. The water was re- 
markably clear and the day extremely bright. I put on 
my leader for tail fly a Reuben-Wood and the Abbey and 
brown-hackle for droppers, all on No. 10 hooks. The 
stream was full of attractive rapids, but fishing industri- 
ously over these for nearly an hour did not bring a single 
rise. The first fish was taken from an eddy at the foot of 
a ripple, where the water was 6 or 7ft. deep and compar- 
atively sluggish. He rose quite lazily, not showing above 
the water but taking the fly much as a chub does, only 
the nose passing above the surface, but, when hooked, 
showed an astonishing amount of energy, and, though 
only weighing about 4oz., gave me fully as much trouble 
as many a ^lb. Eastern trout has done. He seemed to 
me when landed to be of precisely the same shape as an 
Eastern trout, differing only in having a forked tail and 
in the color. The sides and belly were silvery white, the 
spots black, beginning about the dorsal fin and thickly 
covering the rear of the back and sides, and the tail fin, 
and about the size of No. 10 shot. After the first one I 
took five or six more, but always from similar places in 
the stream, getting none at all upon the ripples. The 
flesh of these fish when cooked for dinner was decidedly 
white, with a very slight yellow tinge and a small streak 
of pinkish along the spine. They were firm and well 
flavored, but it seemed to me less succulent than Salmo 
fontinalis. 
On Sept. 16, we camped in the canyon of the Bear 
River, which at that place is the perfection of a trout 
stream, having a succession of deep pools and rapids, 
none of the latter being too deep to wade across if care 
were used. The water was very cold and clear. I began 
fishing just after sunrise and wasted an hour or more on 
a most attractive rapid, without a rise. Going then to a 
deep pool and casting my fly over an eddy, just to one 
side of the rapid current which flowed into its head, I got 
my first rise, and, before it was eight o'clock had a dozen 
fine fish ranging from -lib. to 21bs. My first cast of this 
day consisted of a small black-gnat as tail-fly, a large 
black-ant as first drop and a brown-hackle as the second 
drop, and nearly all the fish took the black-ant. By noon 
the fish ceased to rise well and I shifted flies until nearly 
everything had been tried, but found the black-ant the 
only fly which was at all successful. 
The trout in this river had the same general markings 
as those of the Eagle, but showed considerably more red 
upon them, the belly in many cases being scarlet and red 
lines marking the edge of the gill covers. They showed 
the same habits as those of the Eagle, being found not in 
the swift water but in still pools and eddies. Generally 
speaking, they were very sluggish in the rise, though one 
or two fish struck my flies with a rush, throwing them- 
selves completely from the water, very much in the 
manner of the Eastern trout. After being hooked they 
showed extraordinary vigor, especially those under a 
pound in weight, and I did not succeed in landing any 
until it was completely exhausted. 
The trout seemed much less timid than its Eastern 
brother. I frequently saw a trout come up and take my 
fly, from the bottom of a still pool, while I was perfectly 
within his vi w. He would rise very leisurely, examine 
the fly carefully and usually take it when it was a few 
inches under wa.ter. When the sun was high I found the 
most successful way to fish was to allow the flies to run 
down a rapid and swing off into the eddy, when the trout 
would take them well beneath the surface. 
Our guides said that we were too late in the year to get 
the best fishing, and that in July or August our catch 
would be much larger and the fish much more eager. 
Certainly the stream abounded in trout, and in looking 
down into any still pool one could see hundreds of them. 
At this time of year it froze sharply every night and there 
was but little insect life visible at any time. In addition 
to this the stream abounded in small fish of all kinds, so 
that the trout must have been very well fed. My own 
catch for the first day was about forty and would weigh 
perhaps 25lbs., and I left with a high respect for the rain- 
bow trout. 
So far as my experience goes Salmo irideus is distinctly 
inferior to Salmo fontinalis, both in the energy of his rise 
and in merits as a table fish, but when his spirit is aroused 
by being hooked he is at least equal if not superior in 
vigor, and in no particular is he to be despised. 
A. S. Newberry. 
Cleveland, O., Oct. 15. 
FISHING THE WOLF. 
The thermometer was hovering around the 90° mark 
in Chicago on July 12 last when we rushed into the Chi- 
cago & Northwestern R.R. depot for the train north. 
After a thirty -six hours' visit with a sportsman brother in 
Oshkosh , during which we lived over again many a happy 
hunting experience enjojred together on the marshes of 
Illinois, and on the prairies and shallow lakes of South Da- 
kota, I started north alone for Clintonville, Wis., which 
was my place of rendezvous at my physician friend's 
home, and that same afternoon a party of us went for a 
drive to Pine Lake, taking along our rods and spoons, and 
after trolling a short time returned with five nice spring- 
water pickerel. 
Here after resting for three days and then, accompa- 
nied by Mr. Wm. H. Tinney, the doctor's son, we took 
the C. & N. W. train for Aniwa, and at the latter place 
changed cars for Mattoon, Wis., on the Mattoon Manu- 
facturing Co.'s train, and traveled over their private 
forest railroad a distance of about twelve miles. Our des- 
tination was four miles from here, and Dr. Wm. A. 
Cottle kindly volunteered to drive us over with his own 
team after dinner. He landed us at Mr. Dave Mattison's 
in Phlox during the afternoon. Phlox is on the Red River 
branch of the Wolf River, and the stream is said to con- 
tain many large trout, but owing to the ample feed, min- 
nows, etc., they are rarely known to bite a lure, and we 
were dissuaded from attempting their capture. Next 
morning we had an early breakfast and, accompanied by 
Mr. John Mattison, who wanted a day's fishing, we were 
driven half way toward the west branch of the Wolf 
River, two miles through the virgin woods to an Indian 
sugar camp, on the Menominee reservation. This camp 
consisted of several log shanties built in the midst of a 
group of sugar maples which the Indians tapped each 
year. The smoky odor of the log house kept the flies 
away, and here was a safe and quiet place for our patient 
horses. 
Now we had to walk a mere trail for about two miles 
further to the river, and before starting in the sultry at- 
mosphere we carefully covered the exposed skins of 
hands, forehead and neck with a mixture of pennyroyal, 
3 ii. ; menthol. 3i.,and olive oil, 3 vi., whose odor was 
not to the liking of the myriads of mosquitoes we would 
disturb and attract as we passed along the path. 
On we went; and very soon noticed an appraching In- 
dian. As soon as he reached us he exclaimed, "Going 
fish?" and before catching his breath, "Got bottle?" But 
we had no bottle, save the mosquito mixture, and when 
so informed his head dropped and silently he passed on. 
He had neither pennyroal nor mosquitoes about him, but 
the paleface-vice was uppermost in his desire, and we 
were told that these children of the forest, void of all 
sense of money values, would rapidly dispose of the im- 
mense timbered woods through which we were then pass- 
ing for the corked contents of a few demijohns of fire- 
water. 
We soon heard and later reached the babbling stream, 
and it looked very trouty, and we were delighted at last 
to reach the goal for which we had traveled so many 
hundred miles — through heat and resultant fatigue. 
Trout were the only inhabitants of this brook, and had 
been planted here by the State authorities six years ago. 
It is a stream of probably 15ft. across, and here of an 
average depth of 2ft. We had been advised, per letter, 
that there was no trouble in filling a lOlbs. creel with 
trout in a half day's fishing; and our enthusiasm was re- 
suscitated on reaching the water's edge. I started to fix 
a Oft. salmon-gut leader on the end of my line, and Mr. M. 
noticing this said, "Oh, pshaw! you can't use that in this 
part of the stream. Just tie a gut hook on the end of 
your line, put a split buckshot about six inches away 
from it and a worm on the hook and fish that way." I 
did as advised, and with a sudden falling away of 50 per 
cent, of my enthusiasm for that day's sport, and into the 
cold, clear water my rubber boots and I went. I dropped 
my wormed hook immediately in front of a crossing, 
submerged log and allowed the rapid current to carry it 
beneath the latter's shade and immediately I felt passing 
along my right arm muscles that electrical thrill which a 
first connection at the terminal end of the line can alone 
produce. I felt that feel whose pleasure in its height 
and breadth no words of mine can fully describe, but 
which must be experienced to be understood, and felt, 
forsooth, by one who fully loves the feel. In its produc- 
tion the salmon family are the best operators, and for its 
full effects the true, born-in-the-flesh fisherman its best 
subject. 
I had a bite, feeble, it is true, but nevertheless a bite. 
The result was nil, but on the second cast he came again, 
and I raised into the air a yearling trout, which I rapidly 
returned into his native element. The brook was full of 
these small fish. Our view in front and behind was im- 
peded by the heavy growth of timber of this virgin forest, 
and across the stream windfall-trees, at all heights, were 
plentifully cast in perfect abandon, and the spreading 
branches of those yet standing often covered the water, 
so that the sun's direct rays did not reach it. Here a log 
beneath the shallow water, under which the rapid current 
