March 30, 1895. 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
247 
look around the pretty little village. It is named for an 
English capitalist, who many years ago purchased a tract 
of a million acres in this part of the State. This tract is 
still marked on the State map as "Bingham's purchase." 
The remainder of oar drive, some thirty miles, was un- 
eventful, and we reached home just at dark, well satis- 
fied with the pleasures as well as the hardships of our 
trip 
F. S. Bunker. 
Slack Line vs. Taut. 
Sand Lake, Mich. — It is refreshing to read the article 
on "Slack or Taut Line" by A. W. Cheney, and find one 
who can talk on angling, we believe with authority, and 
preserve a degree__of sense in the meantime. I have 
argued this point with others who claimed to be profes- 
sionals in the bas 1 * line, who would say that the fish when 
struck rushes to the surface and leaps into the air for the 
purpose of throwing his weight upon the leader to break 
it, that plenty of slack must be gi^en just at the vaultiug 
or the fish will surely fall on to the leader and be gone. 
I have had the good fortune to be around when a good 
many young bass have been taken, as we have five lakes 
within a mile of our village, all with fairly good fishing, 
ani I believe that failing to dislodge the hook by one or 
two headers for ieep water, the fish frantically rises and 
breaks with the sole object of shaking the pesky thing 
loose. In bait casting with phantom or live minnow (this 
is quite apt to succeed) then if ever the line should be taut, 
I have often smiled at a companion, who, having nicely 
hooked a four or five pound fish would begin the grind- 
stone act with a multiplying reel, and one couldn't wish 
to see a busier man for three minutes. Guiding the rod, 
holding hard against snags and weeds and leading into 
deep water, all with the left hand is no easy task, for the 
tight hand must be all the time winding away or paying 
off. All this, coupled with the expression on the face of 
the individual, the glimpse of white rushing madly 
through the water, the nervous reach with the net, the 
final joy of capture, make angling glorious sport, and no 
part of my tackle would be so difficult to replace as the 
reel where the "little finger does it." 
Last spring I received through the fish commissioner 
5,000 baby bass for stocking the water of Sand Lake these 
being the fruit of Michigan's first experiment in hatch- 
ing black bass. The hatchery is located at Cascade 
Springs in Kent county, and promises to be a success, as 
35,000 young were distributed this season as a starter. 
Possibly, the tourist who has taken trout from the Range- 
leys or Grayling from the Manistee, who has cast the 
"professor" for rainbows, and lured the salmon to de- 
struction may not think the common black bass worth 
the trouble. But for me — from the days when, as a bare- 
footed urchin, armed with a hickory pole, to which was 
tied a piece stolen from my father's chalk-line, I haunted 
the lakes, to the present time of more modern accessories, 
the bass have been pretty nearly good enough, and 
when we have a June day of leisure, when the wind is 
sou'west, when the lowering clouds promise just moisture 
enough, with a good companion to take his turn at the 
paddle, with phantoms and froggies and spinners, with a 
couple of Johnson's fancies for the more fastidious in 
answer to Frank's query, "Which shall it be, bass or 
trout?" I usually answer "Bass." J. H. B. 
Color of Salmon Flesh. 
I am sorry I can throw but very little light on the cause 
of the red flesh in salmon, but all salmon are not red. 
Instance the white-fleshed spring salmon of the Fraser 
River, equally good with the red, in both flavor and fat- 
ness, and so alike you cannot tell one from the other un- 
til cut, all coming into the river from sea together, and 
no doubt feeding together. In my experience of prepar- 
ing our Atlantic salmon for commercial purposes, I one 
season drew the stomachs from the fish before freezing 
them. All the fish caught on the coast were full to reple- 
tion; the lower portion of the food was herrings and 
mackerel, badly decomposed, the later food not much 
the worse for wear, was the caplin (the food of the cod) 
and found nearer the shores, not a sign of crusticed nor 
ova of any kind, not even a sand eel. Who, let me ask, 
has caught them on their feeding grounds, to really 
know what their food is when out in the ocan? 
Our Atlantic salmon vary in color of flesh just as much 
as they do in size, shade and color. Our large Metapedia 
River fish, are quite light in color, so much so that Billin- 
gate refused to buy them in 1S80 for that very reason, say- 
ing they cut white, and were bull trout. But we sold 
them to a Rotterdam party, who returned them nicely 
-colored in London as "Dutch sugar-cured." Come 
through, the Restigouche fish hatchery to-day, and among 
the two millions there of salmon eggs, you can see 
every shade of color, from nearly pure white to the 
deepest red; and from my observation I would assert that 
every salmon egg is different, one from another, no two 
salmon give ova of the same color or size. Fill a tray 
from each of a half-dozen of fish, place them side by 
side and the difference is plainly marked. So it is with 
trout, perhaps more marked. 
Another point is that on the salmon's first arrival from 
sea, his flesh is either pale or deep red; take him after 
four mouths in the river and the redness is gene, faded 
out, and although he may spend another six months, and 
may look nice and clean, although thin and lank, just cu 
into him and the flesh is very nearly white. It takes the 
sea water to restore the color. This I know from experi- 
ments I made with returning kelts in 1883 at Tadousac. 
John Mowat. 
Kill Fish When Caught- 
Cold Spring Harbor, Editor Forest an i Stream:— The 
Boston Dumb Animals puts out these principles: "On two 
conditions we find no fault with trout fishing. 1st, That 
no more fish shall be caught than are eaten; and 2nd, That 
each fisherman shall carry in his pocket a little baton, 
an 1 shall kill each fish as soon as caught, by a sharp blow 
on the back of the head." 
There is an excellent sermon in three lines below it. It 
is grand in its restriction of the catch, and grander in its 
humane instruction of saving agony to the trout gasping 
for breath in a rarifled atmosphere and suffering more 
than the agonies of drowning. Some abler pen could 
work out this sermon. Fred. Mather. 
A FLY-FISHER'S GOSSIP. 
Now is fishing time. Let me, rather an old hand 
with rod and line, remind you of some things you know, 
and maybe tell you something new. 
Do you know how to finish a whipping or lapping by 
drawing under the end coils so that there is no knot? If 
not, here is how to do it. 
Take a joint of a fishing rod and a piece of old fishing 
line, waxed to prevent kinking. Lay one end on the 
stick and lap round and r«und as shown in figure 1, only 
laying the coils close together and drawing tight, not 
loose as shown here. 
When enough turns are laid on, draw the end through 
get that peculiar combination that attract the fish. 
Then make a couple more like it when you get time. 
Everyone has his own idea as to what a fly rod should 
be. We used to bejieve in whips with very thin line, but 
tournament casting has taught us that the best work is 
done with a very stiff rod throwing a heavy line, tapering 
to a link of gut, as w'ill be set forth in detail later on. 
For skittering, your rod cannot be too stiff. As a 
material, first class split bamboo is the best, but often 
developes flaws in the jointing, which are like the little 
rift within the lute. A.sh and lancewood are no good. For 
all around long time use give me gre°n-heart, especially 
now, when everybody swaggers with a split bamboo that 
he last coil to hold it fast temporarily, as shown in figure 
2. Lay the end in a loop and make a series of loose turns 
as shown in figure 3. Lay the end along the close_ lap- 
ping, and continue lapping over it as "before. Every lap 
will unwind one. of the loose coils, and when they are all 
gone, close the last lap by drawing on the loose end, 
which you can cut off close later on. When you want 
to finish the whipping of an end, such as a rope's end, in 
snelling hooks or in making flies, all you need do is throw 
a long loop in line with the object, holding the loose end 
with the thumb. Then whip round and round over the 
loose end, and when enough turns are on, draw the loose 
end tight. 
Now, how to make flies. Go to some milliner and gret 
all the old feathers, scraps of chenille, silk and wool she 
can spare you. Ask your butcher for a handful of hackle 
feathers of different colors, and surely get some peacock's 
tail feathers. Provide yourself with a pair of sharp- 
costs all of $3. The tubular steel rod may be the rod of 
the future. I have hefted one in the shop but never 
used one. The action was good. A novice should get 
two cheap split bamboos, interchangeable, one heavier 
and stiffer than the other, and a couple of short tips in 
lance or green heart for trolling or bait fishing. ^ -4 « 
Every angler should have a good reel to his rod unless 
he prefers to fish as is done in the English midland waters, 
with a rod twenty-five feet long and a waxed line, taper- 
ing to a long single horse hair. With this arrangement 
the bait can be put in the water with great delicacy and 
pointed scissors, a skein of all sorts of fine silk, a bit of 
cobbler's wax the size of a hazel nut, laid in a slip of 
leather, hooks and gut. Split an inch of a stout quill 
tooth pick, flattened, lay round to round and lap two- 
thirds of it, a ad cut the loose ends to a point. This gives 
you a clip for holding things in position. Now take yottr 
hook, lay on a loop of gut with one end longer than the 
other; begin the lap with waxed thread at the head, 
down toward the thumb, finishing with the drawn knot 
shown in figure 2 and leaving a loose end. Lap on a 
couple of peacock ends for a tail. Take the chenille, 
wool or tinsel you intend for the body, lay one end over 
the last of the lapping, take a couple of turns with the 
silk to fasten it, and then put on your body, ending at 
the head of the hook. You can use stuff of-any color for 
your bodies. You may imitate standard patterns, "but 
an original design will do just as well and better. 
Next comes your hackle, which is stripped from the 
feather and the thick end lapped on thus, (Fig. 8.) then 
reversed an i laid around the body so that it looks like 
this. (Fig. 9.) Comb the hackle out with the point of a 
pin. Next take matched feathers and lap them on as 
shown above, reverse them and finish up with three or 
four turns and the second draw knot. A good way to 
learn is to buy a few large flies and dissect them, and 
then make them over again. Use the quill-clip when- 
ever you want it, Change your flies frequently uutil you 
■at a long (distance. As the fish is played, the butt joints 
are taken off one by one until the landing net can be used. 
Very .fine fishing it is too, but for casting, either with fly 
