80 
\J\S. 12, 1895, 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Fly Fishers and Duffers. 
'Since my first note was printed in Forest and Stream 
about the proposal to organize a Fly Fishers' Clnb in 
this country a number of letters relating to the subject 
have been sent to me. Some of them contain queries 
that I have not been able to answer because other mat- 
ters have demanded my time and attention, and some 
contain queries which only the club or a committee 
appointed to organize the club can answer I will say 
here that I will later acknowledge all letters as soon as 
it is possible for me to do so, and answer such ques- 
tions as it may be possible for me to answer. Two gen- 
tlemen have asked, to put it briefly, who would and who 
would not be eligible for memberhsip in a Fly Fishers' 
Club. Naturally, this is one of the matters for the club 
itself to determine, but the London Fly Fishers' Club 
held its annual dinner on Dec. 14, and the last issue of 
The Fishery Gazette devotes over three pages to a 
description of it, with an illustration of the members 
and guests seated at the tables, and portraits of ' ' John 
Bickerdyke, " (Mr C. H. Cook), the chairman, Mr. 
Marston, the honorary treasurer, and Mr,. David Wilson, 
honorary secretary. 
The London club is so prosperous and has been grow- 
ing so steadily in membership that it has-been proposed 
to have a club house of its own, instead of renting 
rooms, as at present, and the chairman referred to this 
subject in his speech, from which I take an extract : "It 
has been the dream of my boyhood, the hope of my 
middle age and the consolation of my declining years 
that we should some day have a clubhouse of our own. 
But we cannot have a clubhouse of our own on 300 
members, and yet I don't see how we can have more 
than 300 members if we do not have a clubhouse of our 
Own. So that it cuts both ways. If I tell you a story 
it will illustrate my meaning. In the rural parts of 
France it is the custom for the parish priest to go round 
at certain seasons of .the year, accompanied by the 
peasants, to bless the fields, .and the fields are supposed 
to yield more produce because the priest has blessed 
them. Well, there was one very wise old priest who 
was going round blessing the fields. At last he stopped 
at one which he refused to bless. ' Why, father, ' asked 
his people, 'why don't you bless this field?' 'My 
children, ' he replied, ' it will do no good whatever to 
bless it ; the field wants manure. ' Now, that is my 
point. Mere blessing won't make our club grow. The 
club wants a fertilizer, and how are we going to get it? 
The enricher that I propose is — Duffers. We, gentle- 
men, are the finest fly fishers in the world. There is no 
one in the whole of Great Britain who is a good fly 
fisher who is not a member of the club. It would be 
mock modesty on my part to say that we are not the 
best fly fishers in the world. We glory in it. Except 
ourselves, there are really no great fly fishers left. So, 
when we ask a gentleman to become a member of our 
club he says : ' Oh, but I am a duffer ; I would only be 
a duffer in the Fly Fishers' Club. ' 
"Well, I think we should welcome duffers, because if 
we don't have duffers in the club there is no one to 
whom we can tell our fishing stories with effect. The 
question is : What is a duffer and where shall we draw 
the line Of course, a man may be so great a duffer that 
he should not be eligible for election. * * 
"What I would suggest as the requisite qualification 
is that everyone who has caught three trout, each over 
•" 1 ._. ounces and is in possession of five flies and a fishing 
rod, should be eligible to become a member of the club. " 
While Mr. Cook's proposed qualifications may not 
serve as an answer to my correspondents, or be accepted 
by the committee on rules of the American Fly Fishers' 
Club, they may be taken as pointers. A nice, patient, 
long-suffering duffer is one of the noblest works of his 
Creator. Somewhere in his composition, down deep and 
very faint, perhaps, there is secreted a love of fishing. 
It may be only a spark, but susceptible of being fanned 
into a living flame. He may not freely understand that 
he possesses it, and certainly he does not know how to 
cultivate it. It is like the facial memory of a song to 
which he cannot fit words, nor even make sense of the 
music. 
When the fly fisherman strikes the duffer with the 
undeveloped love of angling in his soul he treats him 
accordingly as he may be a fly fisherman of high or low 
degree. If the former, he treats the duffer tenderly and 
gently, discovering the spark and fanning it into a gen- 
tle flame until the duffer becomes a full fledged fly 
fisherman. If a fisherman of low degree hooks a duffer 
the duffer has my deepest sympathy should he stay 
hooked. In such a case my memory usually goes back 
to my schoolboy days. A fisherman of low degree was 
in the habit of hooking a duffer in the lower part of the 
city of New York and leading him into a Fourth ave- 
nue car at City Hall Park, and then he would take him 
up to Twenty-sixth street and into one of the steam cars 
that the horses hauled up to Forty-second street, where 
the train was made up ; and when the engine was 
coupled to the train the fisherman took his duffer some- 
where into the upper part of Westchester County. -It 
was always the same duffer, and as near as I could 
judge he was hooked and played daily. As a boy I 
named the fisherman the ' ' horse car fisherman, ' ' for 
though he had acquired the newspaper habit I in some 
way got the idea that he did the greater part of his 
fishing in the horse cars and in the articles he wrote for 
the papers. I did not then recognize the duffer as a 
duffer, but I called him the ' 1 victim. ' ' Time and again 
have I heard the horse car fisherman pour (that's the 
proper term) his impossible, to say nothing of improb- 
able, fishing stories into the ear of the duffer. For a 
time I was fooled myself, because I thought a man who 
had acquired the newspaper habit could not lie about 
fishing. This was before Forest and Stream was bom 
and before men had been made better by its influence, 
but I finally dropped to the game and then, at any 
time, I would not have been surprised to see a halo 
appear — a rich and rare halo — midway between the top 
of the Silk hat on the duffer's head and the advertise- 
ments^ , ! ' 444 ^Broadway' ', in the: deck of the carl above 
it. He was such a good naturedfcluffer, and hadjsuch a 
pleasant face ,and laughed so heartily, ^though gently, 
as if he enjoyed the catching of every fish from Spruce 
street to Twenty-sixth. He was a rare bird L even for a 
duffer, for he never even attempted to do any of the 
talking, and his laugh was so low that the horse car 
fisherman did not have to raise his voice much above 
an ordinary tone to make all the people in the car hear. 
I suppose that over and over the horse car fisherman 
was, in fact, must have been, voted an ass by the other 
and older passengers, but I came to think chiefly about 
the long-suffering duffers, and from that time to this I 
have been his friend. By all means vote into member- 
ship all the happy-face duffers, and while about it vote 
out the horse car fisherman. 
Fishing Changes with Ghang-ed Conditions. 
It is to be presumed that nearly every angler who has 
fished waters widely separated in this broad land has 
observed that the habits of fish may change as they are 
found in one water or another. Rules which govern 
fishing in one lake for one species of fish may be of no 
avail to bring success when applied to the same species 
of fish in another lake. As an example, I know of one 
lake in which it would be comparatively useless to fish 
for black bass during the day in the month of August 
except in water 20 to 25 feet deep having a grass bottom. 
True, in this lake a few bass may be caught morning 
or evening in shallow water on the shoals, but the fish- 
ing is not at all certain to bring fish to the angler, and 
it is not practised to any extent. This lake has an 
utlet into an other and larger lake, and there in August 
the best fishing is on the shoals, and at high noon one 
may catch big bass in water that little more than floats 
the boat from which the angler fishes. 
Ordinarily the black bass in New York have retired 
to the rocks in water 30 to 40 feet deep by the time 
October comes around, although there are exceptions; 
but one long to be remembered, fishing which I made to 
Canadian waters in October I found the best of black 
bass fishing in water 8 to 10 feet deep, and on one very 
rough day caught bass in water not over three feet 
deep. Such examples might be extended indefinitely if 
that were the purpose of this note, and I shall not 
attempt here to give reasons for the change of habits of 
the fish in different waters. 
Last spring I mentioned in this column that appar- 
ently the habits of lake trout in Lake George were 
changing from what they had been so long as any one 
could remember, and promised to refer to the matter 
again. 
Originally the chief "food of lake trout in this lake was 
the round whitefish or "frost fish. " When the ice left 
the lake in the spring the frostfish appeared at the sur- 
face and the trout with them, both remaining at or near 
the top of the water for about ten days or two weeks, 
after which both retired again to the depths. 
Surface trolling for trout extended over the period 
during which the trout and its food remained "up." 
Lately it has been observed that the trout remained 
"up" for a longer time than formerly; even six weeks 
after they first came to the surface some were caught 
near the top of the water by fishing in the early morn- 
ing horns. What has occasioned the change of habit? 
\4 In 1887 whitefish from the Great Lakes were planted 
in Lake George, and while these big whitefish come to 
the surface with the trout and frostfish they do not go 
down again when the frostfish do, and therefore offer an 
inducement for the trout also to remain up as they did 
not before the big whitefish were introduced. Fish 
culturists will say that if one wishes to have trout that 
will take the artificial fly readily they should have food 
for which they will have to look up to the surface, 
rather than down at the bottom. The food question is 
one that fishermen think little about as a rule, but it 
is fully as important as the fish question if one is to 
have good fishing. A gentleman came to see me yes- 
terday and asked about planting a small spring pond 
with trout, and when he asked if they should have food 
and I said yes, and among other things suggested May . 
flies, he looked up from his memorandum and over his 
glasses at me and exclaimed : "May flies !" in a tone of 
voice that he might have used had I said bull pups. 
But it is an easy matter to plant May flies, and they are 
excellent food. Trout in ponds that contain no other 
fish life are the best trout in the world, and yet the first 
thing which suggests itself to the average man who is 
forced to plant fish food is ' ' minnows. ' ' But this is 
subject matter for a book instead of a note. 
*" . Gut. 
t * A letter just at hand from Mr. Alfred C. Harmsworth 
of London tells me something of his recent experience 
in France, where he has been for some time past each 
year for many years. One thing he learned which was 
new to him and it is also new to me. He says : " While 
the best gut in the world comes from Murcia in Spain, 
it is a curious fact that this silk worm gut can only be 
produced in a district not more than two miles in area. 
In this district a certain kind of mulberry leaf grows, 
and it is from this small place that all the best gut in 
the world comes. ' ' I say this was new to me, and by 
this I mean that it was new that the district which 
produces the best gut is so small, but the next sentence 
is the one which made the greatest impression upon me. 
' ' A certain kind of mulberry leaf. ' ' To me that opens 
vast possibilities. We have in this country a native silk 
worm which will produce gut nine feet long, round and 
smooth, and when a certain kind of leaf is found on 
which to feed the worms we will have the finest, 
longest and best gut in the world. This long gut— each 
length long enough and thick enough for a salmon leader 
— possesses every necessary quality except strength. 
That lack of strength in the gut is due to lack of proper 
food for the worm (that "certain kind of leaf") is 
established from the fact that when the gut has been 
drawn in Ohio it is as strong as the gut from the 
Chinese worm, but when drawn in Vermont it lacks 
strength. 
In the light of Mr. Harmsworth \s statement it is 
more than likely that it requires a certain kind of soil 
to grow the food for the silk worm to produce gut of 
the required strength for leaders. To the best of my 
recollection the native worms from which Dr. Garlick 
in Ohio drew the long, strong gut, each strain a perfect 
nine feet Jeader,_were^fed on the cotton ball bush, 
while the worms from which Mr. Orvis drew equally 
long gut, but lacking in strength, were fed in Vermonc 
on plum and apple leaves. We have^four native silk 
worms, the Attacus cecropia having the larger cocoon, 
and it is the one from which the largest gut has been 
drawn. The A. prometheus is nearly as large, and Mr. 
Orvis cultivated both, I think, although it may have 
been the cecropia and the polyphemus. The fourth, 
Attacus luna, is a rare moth, so rare that I certainly 
know nothing about the worms (larva?). ^ Mr. Orvis 
found no trouble in cultivating the lar'va3 a of the two 
moths and the cocoons were gathered easily, _but he gave 
up the cultivation of the larvae because, and for this 
reason only, he did not find that certain kind of leaf 
necessary to the worm to produce strong gut. 
A. N. Cheney. 
A Taut Line on Bass. 
Will you excuse me if I dance a pigeon wing after 
reading Mr. Cheney's advice to a correspondent anent 
slack or taut line and leaping bass. We have been told 
to believe by high and mighty authorities for generations 
that the object bass had m leaping was to hunt up a 
slack line and leader and then wrapping themselves all 
round these things and tying knots in them, to cast 
themselves with mighty impetus-into their native ele- 
ment, snapping line and leader, also their tails in 
derision. But somehow in all my bass fishing, when 
one leaped, instinct always seemed to impel me to keep 
a taut line, and I almost always managed to keep my 
fish with it. How can a bass fall on a taut line. If he 
falls on a line at all, it will have to be in a position so 
that he can fall on it, which is slack. Why is advice 
given to keep a taut line while the fish is in the water? 
So that the fish can't shake the hook out. And when 
the fish is in the air we must give him slack so that he 
can shake it out, eh? If you have a proper rod and 
common sense a taut line on a leaping fish will never 
help the fish escape or break your line or leader. Thanks, 
Mr. Cheney. O. O. S. 
Fishculture in Europe and in America. 
In (Science JProqress for December Piof. W; C. Mcintosh con- 
trasts the support given to the Scottish 1'ishery Board for 
scieutifio investigations and fishcultural operations with the 
appropriations for the aame objects in North America. The 
Board receives only $15,000 annually for all branches of its 
work, while Canada expends $500,000 per annum, of whieh 
$50,000 is devoted to fishculture, and the TJniied States anpro- 
priates $350,000 a year for its Eish Commission, besidea'sup- 
porting two steamers, a schooner aud a large number of smaller 
craft. Tho State of New York alone expends nearly three times 
as much annually for fishculture and protection as the entire 
grant to the Scottish Board. 
Europe does very little to encourage public fishculture, four- 
fifths oi its hatching establishments belonging to private par- 
ties. Norway is the only European country worthy of mention 
for its work in that direction. It begun the hatching of cod 
nearly a quarter of a century ago. T. H. B. 
New Hampshire Trout Season. 
Clakemont, N. H., Jan. d. — In ray article on brook trout you 
made me say that 1 had never failed to find brook trout after 
April 15 that were not filiod with spawn. It should read ''Aug. 
15" instead of April 15. We ought to have a law forbidding 
brook trout fishing after Aug. 15 in tho State of New Hampshire. 
Columbia. 
A Travelers' Opinion. 
I had been told that the scenery on the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail- 
roarl was fine, that its grandeur was varied in scores of unexpected 
coin binattons of mountains a ml rivers and clouds and forests. 1 had 
learned from others who had been over it that whereas there are roads 
in America and Europe with points on their route of as great pictur- 
esqueness as these hills afford, nowhere is there a line having such 
constant interest for hundreds of miles— and, notwithstanding that 
I had hoard and read these things, I was totally amazed at the reality. 
Tho service is worthy of tho road. The famous F. F. V. Limited— 
the most celebrated train in the world to-day— runs solid between 
New York and Cincinnati via Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washing- 
ton, and carries a Pullman sleeper from Washington to -Louisville, 
Kj., without change. 
Another vestibuled limited train runs solid between Washington 
and Cincinnati. This train carries a Pullman sleeper between 
Washington. Indianapolis and st. Louis without change, and makes 
closo connection with tho Pennsylvania Railroad at Washington in 
both directions. 
Roth trains are vestibuled, electric lighted, steam heated and 
strictly up to date. 
Observation cars run on the F. F. V. through the most picturesque 
regions of America, and there are no flaws in either the cuisine or 
appointment of the dining cars, which serve meals on all through 
trains . — Ado . 
Dictionary of United States History— 1492-1894. 
The Dictionary of United States History from the press of the Puri- 
tan Publishing Co., Boston, Mass., is a valuable work of reference. 
The facts of our history from 1495s to the present time are concisely 
stated, and arranged alphabetically for ready reference. Utility has 
been the foremost consideration in the preparation of this book", and 
great pains have been taken to make it both comprehensive and 
accurate. 
't he book covers a wide range of subjects, aud is handsomely illus- 
trated.— A fir. 
1895 Outlook. 
.Straws show which way the wind blows, and the number of large 
orders already placed for sundries indicate that the production of 
wheels next year will be futly as large as anticipated by tho most 
sanguine. Cushmau & Denison, who make oilers for tho loading 
manufacturers and jobbers of bicycles, are very much rushed on their 
'95 orders and will make a larger stock than ever before. 
The "Perfect" Pocket oner is being made even better than at pres- 
ent. In spite of the reduced price of wheels aud the consequent 
tendency to use. cheaper material, the "Perfect" Oiler will be used 
with almost aU the really high grade wheels. — -l</i\ 
" Forest and Stream" Fan Pedigree Blank. 
For some time past breeders of dogs have demanded a pedigree 
form that would afford spaces for a more extended pedigree than 
those hitherto published. The difficulty has been in arranging a form 
that, while admitting the required extension, would bo compact and 
not too large for mailing. This difficulty has been solved in the 
••Forest and Steeam Fan Pedigree Blank," which is so arranged that 
a dog's pedigree can be recorded for eight generations, and the spaces, 
radiating from a center the reader is enabled to trace at a glance tho 
different strains which lead from sire and dam. Spaces are also pro- 
vided for recording the name of dog, its breed, color, sex, breeder and 
address, dates of birth and purchase, from whom purchased, E. K. 0. 
and A. K. C. Stud Book numbers and certification. These blanks are 
for sale at $2 per hundred, 30 conts per dozen, by the Forest aud 
Stream Publishing Co., 318 Broadway, New York. 
