Nov. 3, 1894.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
383 
able time, patience, science and salmon eggs, absorbing 
considerable rain and a few degrees of cold, trying to 
feed them just what they were actually feeding on atthat 
particular time, and they simply flirted with my hook 
until I jabbed it through a chunk of chub, and then had 
everything my own way. Brother Greene, of Portland, 
why is this thus? Cannot we educate these "critters" 
into something like steady habits? 
Since that time I have worked the same skal-lal-aye (as 
the Siwash say) on them, and it is a winner every time. 
Therefore, ye who would coax the festive "fish of the 
rainbow" to your basket, paste this on your reel: "When 
the wind blows and the heavens are overcast, when the 
cold hunts your marrow and your patience is nearly gone, 
catch a fish and cut a spinner, make it wriggle like a 
"minner," and if you don't get a big trout real sudden, go 
home, for he has evacuated the premises and gone where 
no bait will fetch him! 
If I find out anything more I'll say so, for I've pitched 
my lodge within two blocks of a lake full of trout, chubs, 
black bass, "calico" bass (so-called), perch, goggle-eyes 
and a sprinkling of imported catfish of an inferior brand, 
and I'd'rather fish than eat. El Comancho. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
About Stocking the Hudson with Salmon. 
The last report of the Commissioners of Fisheries of the 
State of New York for the year ending Sept. 30, 1893, is 
an interesting one, showing the development of the fish- 
eries of the State, and no part of it is of more special 
interest at this time than that part which gives the result 
of planting the Atlantic salmon in the Hudson River. 
The chapter in relation to this subject begins: "The Com- 
missioners of Fisheries of the State of New York have for 
years endeavored to establish salmon in the Hudson 
River. The planting of fry began in 1882. * * * Since 
that time the following plants have been made * * * 
making a total of 3,094,723 of the fry of this fish that 
jiave been planted in the river since the Commissioners 
began this work." 
l£ut, did the Commissioners begin this work? Now that 
there is every prospect that the salmon in the river, as the 
result of those plants referred to, may become self-sus- 
taining, the credit for the work should be placed where it 
properly belongs. 
It would appear from the extract quoted that the credit 
for successfully stocking the Hudson River with salmon 
; belonged alone to the New York Fish Commission. But 
let ub look into the matter a little. 
Commissioners change from time to time, and it is 
•possible that one set of commissioners may not know 
what a previous board of commissioners did or did not do 
,on certain particular lines. Upon taking office the mem- 
bers of the board find the machinery of the organization 
at work in a particular direction, and as everything is 
working well they may assume, without looking into the 
history of the Commission, that the efforts in the direction 
referred to were inaugurated by the Commission when 
such is not the fact. It is true that the Fish Commission 
of New York did make a feeble effort to introduce Atlan- 
tic salmon into the waters of the State, but not specially 
into the waters of the Hudson, more than twenty years 
ago, by obtaining 4,000 impregnated eggs from Canada, 
and the report for 1871 contains this record; "About 3,000 
of these succeeded, and when they attained a proper age, 
a notice was published inviting any one to apply for them, 
who was willing to do so, and who had any suitable 
, stream or river where he desired to raise them. No 
answer was received at this office, and no application was 
i made for them, which is a strong endorsement of the 
-wisdom of the action of the Commissioners in not spend- 
iisng money on an attempt which, we are convinced, must 
be futile.'" 
The report for 1874 touches upon this subject again in 
these words: "Your Commissioners in their previous re- 
ports ventured the opinion * * * that salmon had 
never inhabited any of the rivers of the Atlantic sea- 
board west and south of the Connecticut. So entirely 
were they satisfied of this fact that they positively refused 
to expend money in attempting to introduce them in the 
Hudson, for they felt assured that it would be a waste of 
the public funds. In thiB course they incurred the disap- 
proval of some enthusiasts in fishculture, and some 
ignorant individuals who wanted salmon to abound in 
every horse pond in the country. * * * With the 
California salmon, however, we expect it will be differ- 
ent. * * * With them, of course, the undertaking is 
equally an experiment, and like all such attempts has the 
chances of failure as five tu one, to the chances of success, 
but the conditions are far more favorable." 
The next year, 1875, the Commissioners say in their 
report: "Time and more careful investigation have fully 
demonstrated that they (the Commissioners) were right, 
: and that the true salmon cannot be propagated in our 
^waters." 
That the waters of New York were not more favorable 
{for California salmon than for Atlantic salmon as was 
^prophesied, was admitted in the report of 1876. 
The Commissioners' reports do not take up the salmon 
question again until 1882-83, at which time a radical 
change had taken place in the composition of the board 
of Commissioners. Fresh blood dominated in the Com- 
mission, progress had been made in scientific fishculture, 
and experience had been gained that put an entirely di- 
fferent face upon the question of stocking the Hudson with 
salmon. In the report for 1882-3 I find this: "The Com- 
missioners have no authentic information of the existence 
of salmon in the Hudson River in the early history of the 
, country, though it is probable that there were some. * * 
i Certainly there is everything in the natural conditions of 
J the upper Hudson to favor the visits of these fish. There- 
fore the Commissioners have regarded with much satis- 
faction the experiment of the United States Commission, 
by its head, Commissioner Baird, .looking to the establish- 
ment, or re-establishment, of the lordly salmon in our 
river. 
This points very clearly to the one who "began the 
work," for the work of successfully stocking the Hudson 
dates from 1882, 
Familiar as I am with all that has been done in this 
direction since that time, I have preferred not to write 
of my own knowledge in what follows, and so quote from 
a recent letter from the present U. S. Fish Commissioner, 
Col. Marshall McDonald, regarding the plants of salmon 
subsequent to the initial one in . 1882. CoL McDonald's 
etter is dated Sept. 29, the present year: 
"The project of stocking the Hudson River with sal- 
mon was first entered upon by the New York Fish Com- 
mission, and afterward abandoned by them." (This prob- 
ably refers to stocking the river with the Pacific salmon, 
as it can scarcely be said that the New York Commission 
entered upon the project of stocking the Hudson with the 
Atlantic salmon, for none of the 4,000 eggs obtained in 
Canada can be traced to the Hudson.) 
"The joint work of the U S. Commission and the State 
of New York was the outgrowth of recommendations 
made by me to Prof. Baird in 1882. In my report upon 
the fisheries of the Hudson River, contained in the census 
of the fisheries industries for 1880, Sec. V., Vol, 1, pages 
658-659, you will find the following: 'The sources of the 
Hudson are in the Adirondack Mountains.. Its main trib- 
utary, the Mohawk, rises in the tableland which forms 
the divide between the waters that flow into Lake Ontario 
on the one side and into the Hudson River on the other, 
and flows southeast; but, breaking through the Catskills, 
precipitates itself at Cohoes to the level of the river valley 
of the Hudson by falls which are about 40ft. in height. 
These falls, while forming a magnificent water power for 
the many factories along the river's banks, present an 
insuperable barrier to the ascent of fish. An obstruction 
of this kind exists at Glens Falls, on the main river. In- 
deed all the tributaries are characterized by similar im- 
pediments, and this may explain the fact that the Hudson 
is not, and, as far as we can learn from historical data, 
has never been, a salmon river; and yet, Btrange to say, 
the Connecticut River, similar in physical features to the 
Hudson, in olden times had important and productive 
salmon fisheries.' 
"When the views above stated were brought to the 
attention of Professor Baird, he promptly directed that a 
systematic and persistent attempt should be made to 
cause the Hudson to become a salmon river. 
"The United States Fish Commission furnished Cold 
Spring Harbor station with all the Atlantic salmon eggs 
hatched at the station; paid the expense of feeding and 
distributing the fry, also a salary of $500 per annum was 
paid the superintendent of Cold Spring Harbor station by 
the U. S. Fish Commission. 
"The operations were continued on the part of the 
United States Fish Commission until 1889, after which 
the United States Commission furnished eggs of the At- 
lantic salmon to the New York Commission, but the dis- 
tribution of the fish was conducted entirely by the State 
of New York." 
This appears to be a clear statement of facts about the 
experiment of stocking the Hudson up to this time, and 
the State and National Fish Commissions have each the 
credit which belongs to it. 
Further on in the chapter devoted to the salmon in the 
report of the New York Fish Commissioners, previously 
mentioned, one may learn of circulars being sent out to 
obtain information concerning the presence of salmon in 
the Hudson as the result of planting the fry (and a lot of 
yearlings of which no mention is made), and replies to 
the circulars are printed. 
The writers of some of these letters report having taken 
salmon in the Hudson, and others appear to know noth- 
ing about the fish. That these net fishermen should 
devote their letters to what they do not know about sal- 
mon in the Hudson, is not strange, when one remembers 
that it is illegal to take the fish in nets, and there are 
people, it seems, who do not readily confess to breaking 
the laws. The report states: 
"Answers to this communication (the circular), although 
not very numerous, were the first satisfactory evidence 
the Commissioners have ever obtained of the existence of 
salmon in the Hudson River. Since 1885 or 1886 the 
newspapers have contained occasional reference to salmon 
caught in the Hudson, * * * but no accurate inform- 
ation has ever been obtained." 
This is a queer assertion to make. Whoever wrote 
what I have quoted may not have known that Forest 
and Stream was the first to furnish satisfactory evidence 
to its readers in June, 1886, of the existence of salmon in 
the Hudson, for it gave the number of fish killed, where 
captured, the name of the captors and the weights of the 
fish, and it has been giving similar evidence ever since 
when there was occasion for it. The most complete evi- 
dence given in reply to the circulars comes from Mechanic- 
ville, and records 22 salmon taken there in 1893, but Forest 
and Stream gave all that in detail, and more, too, more 
than a year before this report was issued. 
It may not be strange that all the evidence furnished by 
Forest and Stream as to the existence of salmon in the 
Hudson should have been overlooked, but I cannot under- 
stand how the Commissioners could overlook evidence 
furnished by one of their superintendents, which evidence 
is the result of a careful personal examination and cross- 
examination of the fishermen from the Troy Dam to 
Gravesend Bay. 
In 1888 Superintendent Mather, who has hatched all 
the salmon at Cold Spring Harbor, was directed by the 
U. S. Fish Commission to examine the Hudson with a 
view to learning if salmon had been captured in the Hud- 
son, and if so, how many. Mr. Mather's report is printed 
in the report of the Fish Commissioners of New York for 
1888, and details of the capture of 134 salmon are given, 
and he says that he has no doubt from what he learned 
' 'that four times this number were taken by the shad 
fishermen, who, as before stated, are very cautious about 
giving information." 
I presume the New York Fish Commission will thank 
me for calling attention to the above facts, for I have no 
idea that the Commission wishes to ignore what the U. S. 
Fish Commission has done in this matter, any more than 
they wish to discredit the information furnished in 
Forest and Stream. and then own reports. 
Section 1 40 Appears. 
I have on more than one. occasion called attention to 
the injustice done to Warren county, N, Y., by Sec. 140 
of the game laws, but the Mohican Rod and Gun Club of 
Glens Falls has just run against it so hard that it has left 
the executive committee looking at one another in amaze- 
ment. It has long been believed that one "Jock" Brown 
has, under pretense of taking bait fish, been netting one 
of the best trout brooks in the State, which happens to be 
situated in Warren county. The Mohican Club took up 
the matter and then took up Jock himself, and he was 
charged with using a net in a trout brook. He was ready 
to plead guilty to avoid prosecution on other and similar 
complaints when it was discovered that Sec. 140 saved 
him for the time. He admitted taking bait fish in a net 
in a trout stream, but Sec. 140 says that he can at any 
time, because it is lawful in Warren county to fish for 
perch, suckers, bullheads and pickerel with nets and 
fykes, and spear and shoot such fish through the ice. As 
the club has not, up to this time, any legal evidence that 
Jock did net trout, he escapes for the present, but the end 
is not yet^ a. N. Cheney. 
Dr. Blayney's Bass Record. 
Frankfort, Ky., Oct. 23. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
My attention has just been called to your very clever 
editorial in your last paper on my catch of 238 large- 
mouth bass in one day (weight 3661b3. instead of 3361bs.). 
I sincerely appreciate the motive and temper of your 
critique, and entirely agree with what you say. I pre- 
dicted at the time that if my performance got into the 
papers, anglers all over the country would brush up their 
arithmetic and do sums to see if the string could be done 
in a sportsmanlike way. And now, as our darkies say, 
"you've gone done it." 
But you mistake in limiting the fishing day in the for- 
ests of Wisconsin to ten hours. That day actually ran 
from 4 o'clock in the morning to 9 at night, with but lit- 
tle loss of time for meals. Upon that basis your calcula- 
tions will give you over four minutes to each fish, a 
pretty liberal allowance on the average for a pound and a 
half fish to play. Those who know me would hardly 
charge me with "yanking" fish in ordinarily, though I 
confess that on this occasion I did not give every one of 
them time to stop for meals by the way. 
My motive for the day's work was rather a complex one 
which I think, on the whole, sportsmen would appreciate, 
though I cannot claim that it was quite so worthy a one 
as "feeding the multitudes." About half a dozen fish 
were injured in the hooking and kept for use in camp. 
With that exception the rest were turned back into the 
water in good condition and are still there for the editor 
of the Forest and Stream or any other angler to enjoy 
some future day, or for the multitudes to feed upon if 
they will work as hard to catch them as I did. So that 
really I am not half the piscatorial butcher your good- 
natured comments would seem to imply, 
J. McCeusky Blaney. 
New Jersey Coast Fishing. 
ASBtJRY Park, N. J., Oct. 25. — The past week has been 
one of disappointment to anglers on our shore. The pre- 
vailing east winds have made the fishing poor and casting 
almost an impossibility. Other than good catches of 
plaice periodically and a few weakfish, the sea has yielded 
but few of its treasures to the angler. Consequently a 
great many have turned their attention to pickerel and 
perch, which are now biting well. I wonder how many 
anglers know that the small white' sand skipper or beach 
flea makes a bait that the perch takes with avidity. I 
have also taken several small-mouth black bass on the 
same bait the present season. The beaver dams at the 
headwaters of the Metedeconk River just now are re- 
ceiving lots of visitors. There is iio better pickerel fish- 
ing in our State than at that point. A friend of mine 
recently took forty-six in three hours' fishing, li to 3£lbs. 
weight. 
I have just cremated my fishing record which I have 
carefully kept for the past fifteen years. And I had 
always thought there was some pretty fair catches 
entered therein, but "Big Reel's" four days' sweep in the 
issue of Forest and Stream of Oct. 20, made me feel that 
I was just a no account fisherman, and that my memor- 
anda would in the future be but mockery to me whenever 
I scanned its pages, so sorrowfully I consigned them to 
the fire. The one recording forty-six fine blues in one 
afternoon gave me a severe twinge, but it could not be 
helped, I wanted it out of my sight forever. Even an 
item contributed to your pages two years ago by himself 
regarding a large catch of plaice I made at Avon shared 
the same fate, I have rubbed the whole score out ana 
am going to begin all over and catch nothing but big fish 
and plenty of them. Leonard Hulit. 
Smelt Fishing in Boston Harbor. 
Boston, Oct. 20. — Editor Forest and Stream: Smelt 
fishing has been on in the waters adjacent to this city for 
some weeks, and good catches have been made in all 
directions. The waters about Hull, Hingham, Nantasket, 
Downer Landing and Quincy, have yielded the best re- 
sults, but those who have not the time to make the harbor 
trip, but instead secured places on Dorchester and South 
Boston bays, have had fair fishing. Commodore John N. 
Roberts, an active member of the Fish and Game Protec- 
tive Association, is an inveterate fisherman and is prob- 
ably better rigged for the sport than any man on the 
south shore, if Peddick's Island can be included in that 
bailiwick. His "shanty" on the island is cosy and com- 
fortable, his boats are of the best, and ditto his tackle. 
The latch string is always on the outside to his friends, 
and if the Commodore happens to be up to the city 
"Johnny" does the honors with hearty hospitality. I 
have been down three times thus far and have had good 
fishing on several days. Taken altogether the season has 
been very successful, and with good weather the tackle 
will not be laid away for two or three weeks. 
Wm. B. Smart. 
Brown Trout Dimensions. 
Mr. Henry Loftie, of Syracuse, sends us a paper pat- 
tern of the brown trout caught out of Caledonia Spring, 
the New York State hatchery waters, by Monroe A. Green, 
Dec. 14, 1891. The weight was 9flbs,, and the dimen- 
sions: Length 27£in., girth 15in. This was one of the 
fish developed from eggs received at the hatchery in Feb- 
ruary of 1884. 
Birch Leaves in Fish Creels. 
If my brother trout fishermen will put birch leaves in 
their baskets instead of grass or moss, they will thank me 
for giving them the hint. J. G. S. 
■ The FOREST AND Stream is put to press each iveek on Tues- 
day. Correspondence intended for jmblication should reach' 
Vs at the latest by Monday, and as much earlier aspracticab le. 
