Am 8, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Ill 
peninsula, and I wrote and asked Mr. Mitchell how the 
situation was. He replied, "I shall be glad to see you, 
but I cannot promise you a grayling. Have caught none 
this season myself, and others are getting very few. You 
would be more certain of one on the upper waters of the 
Manistee River." This seeming not of sufficient promise 
and my time being short, I did not try Mr. Mitchell's 
country, and was not able to get upon the upper Manistee 
that trip. 
At the little summer town of Oden-Oden. on that prince 
of angling railroads, the Grand Rapids & Indiana (the 
Fishing Line), I fell into a delightfully beautiful piece of 
angling country, and at once began inquiring about the 
grayling. The local anglers at Oden-Oden all said that 
in the Maple River, which empties into Burt Lake near 
Oden-Oden, the grayling was by no means extinct, but 
on the contrary very abundant and could be taken at the 
expense of very little pains. All one had to do was to 
get on the morning train and run up to Brutus, a distance 
of eight miles or so, and then fish down the Maple, which 
runs near that town. There was about twelve miles of 
water between Brutus and the mouth of the stream, I 
was told, and in that distance one could get all ihe trout 
he wanted and a few grayling at least, perhaps a good lot 
of thi-m. I was crowded for time when I first struck 
OJen-Oden, but as I thought it would be so easy to 
get a grayling out of there, I resolved to go on and 
finish my other business and then come back there 
and catch my grayling, So I went on in over the beauti- 
ful Inland Route, through Crooked Lake, Crooked River, 
Burt Lake, Indian River and Mullet Lake — some thirty 
odd miles, I believe — to the camp of canoeists in search of 
whom I was. At this camp I met an old-time canoeist 
and angler, "Grandpa" Gates (T, S, Gates, of Columbus, 
O.), who had fished a number of those streams, and who 
told me that it would be no trouble at all to get a gray- 
ling on the Maple. "Four years ago," said he, "a friend 
and I got an Indian to take us a boat over to the Maple 
River from Indian Point, and we ran the river from our 
entry point down to its mouth in Burt Lake. We fished 
from the, boat, letting our lines swim down stream ahead 
of us, and we caught all the grayling we wanted. We 
found the stream too swift to wade, but kedged our boat 
down, dropping ancht)r where we saw a good fishing 
spot ahead. I should say there were grayling in the 
Maple — lots of them. If you go over there you are sure 
to get one. I may go over myself again this year." 
This looked pretty good. A little later I was down at 
the Topinabe Hotel, on Mullet Lake, and they told me 
there that the Pigeon River — which I knew was once a 
famous grayling stream— ran into Mullet Lake just across 
from the hotel. At the hotel I actually saw several pre- 
served grayling fins (the trophy of that fish is the dried 
back fin), which was the nearest I had come to a grayling 
yet. But I was sure I was going to get nearer still, 
A little later than this I was invited, in company with 
;Mr. O. A, Woodruff and Mr. W. H. Yardley, to visit the 
club preserve of the Fontinalis Club for some trout fishing. 
Of this visit I must speak later and at length, for that 
blessed spot is worth extended mention, but all the way 
over I was asking about that grayling. We were side- 
tracked at the little lumber town of Wolverine, which is 
right on the banks of the Sturgeon River. Now the Stur- 
geon River, I had been told by Mr. Carter H. Harrison, 
Jr., of Chicago, was a good grayling stream, for he had 
caught them there very often. At Wolverine I asked 
how about it. I found one young man who was intelli- 
gent and who had fished grayling in the Manistee, the Au 
Sable and other grayling streams. He told me that the 
grayling was almost entirely gone from the Sturgeon. 
He said the trout very soon drove the grayling from a 
stream, and that the two fish couldn't long live together. 
"The trout are as numerous as ever in the Sturgeon, if 
you get away from town," said he, "but you won't get 
any grayling now, not one chance in a thousand for it." 
This same young man told me it was not worth while to 
try the Pigeon, for though there were perhaps a few gray- 
ling in that stream, the lumbermen were flooding on the 
river that week, so it was no use trying to fish there. I 
gave up the Pigeon and began to have doubts about the 
Sturgeon, although it was a noble stream and looked 
capable of any kind of sport. I could learn of no gray- 
ling actually caught this summer at any place on the 
Maple, the Pigeon or the Sturgeon. This last fact set me 
to thinking. 
At the Fontinalis Club we were received by Mr. George 
L. Alexander, of Grayling, Mich., as ardent and skillful a 
fly-fisher as ever wet a line — and, in passing, as kindly a 
host. Mr. Alexander lives on the banks of the Au Sable. 
Why then, I asked myself, does he come a hundred miles 
away from home to fish here? I asked Mr. Alexander 
about the absorbing topic, telling him I had lost a gray- 
ling. He replied: 
"If you want to get a grayling you had better not wait 
very long about it. That fish is passing away, and will 
soon be extinct in all these waters. Could I get you a 
grayling? Yes, if you would come with me for a few days. 
I could not promise it for the first day, now. It might 
need two days, maybe more. I should have to send you 
some distance away from Grayling, but you might get 
your fish. Get him soon. Before many years it will be 
too late." 
My heart sank a bit at this, but I recognized in Mr. 
Alexander one whose opinion is very practical and valu- 
able. He was not guessing at things at all, but spoke 
from experience. 
At the Fontinalis Club I met a gentleman from Chi- 
cago, Mr, C. Valentine, who was for a long time the fish- 
ing companion of Mr, Harrison on bis trips to the Stur- 
ereon, the Maple and other streams of this region. Mr. 
Valentine told me that he would advise my going to the 
Maple. He had two years previously found the Maple a 
very good grayling stream, having then taken a number 
there, one very large one, whose fin he showed me, care- 
fully preserved in his tackle box. Mr. Valentine had 
taken many grayling in the Sturgeon. Asked how long 
ago, he said it was three or four years back. He had not 
fished there last year. He advised me to go not to Brutus, 
on the Maple, but to Pellston, the next station above; then 
to take the river, which he said could be waded easily 
there He thought I would be sure to get a grayling 
there. My heart bobbed up a few degrees again. 
A little later I found myself at Oien-OJen again, and 
this time I stopped at another hotel and engaged the 
clerk in solemn consultation. He admitted that he had 
nob heard of the taking of a single grayling in the Maple 
or any other stream of that locality this season. He said 
the Maple was too treacherous to wade, that I would 
get drowned, that there were no grayling. My heart sank 
again. 
None the less I got upon the early morning train of the 
G. R. & 1. bound north from Oden-Oden, and determined 
to get off at Pellston, On the train I found the station 
agent for Pellston, who fishes some. He said he had not 
heard of a grayling being caught in the Maple this year. 
"There are trout," said he, "but no grayling. The trout 
have driven the grayling all out in the last year or so." 
My heart went still lower. Here I was, all alone in .a 
strange country, after a fish which was not going to be 
there. 
But my spirits rose temporarily when I was accosted 
by a fellow traveler who had some fishing tackle along 
and who saw that I had some fishing tackle also. In a 
few minutes we were good friends and had decided to 
fish together that day, as he also got off at Pellston. My 
new friend told me his name was Mr. Cassius Drake, of 
Grand Rapids, and he added that he had fished the Maple 
for years. My next question may be imagined. He 
answered discouragingly. "I have no idea you can get a 
grayling in the Maple now," said he. "I have fished this 
stream for years, and for ten years have watched the 
trout steadily increase and the grayling as steadily disap- 
pear. I have taken none for some time. I have heard 
of none taken in the Maple this year. I have taken them 
in the Little Manistee, in the Manistee, in the Sturgeon and 
in the Maple. If I were in your place I would go to 
Hopkins Creek, on the G. R, & I. road. I have caught 
many fine grayling here. That is a branch of the Manis- 
tee, and I took grayling there two years ago, I can't say 
there are any now. It is too bad the Fish Commission 
ever began planting trout in these streams. Before the 
Maple was planted with trout it was alive with the gray- 
ling. The two fish can't get on together and the trout 
drive the grayling out very soon." 
My heart was now very poor, and I began to think it 
was all up with my ambition for the time. It proved so 
in the end, for I saw no grayling at all during my stay 
on the Maple, and every angler I met on the stream — 
which we found fished to death near the railroad — 
laughed at the idea of a grayling in that water. Inquiry 
at the hotels and other points at Pellston proved that no 
grayling had been heard of there this year. Everybody 
said "the trout had driven the grayling out." I found 
Mr. Drake, my new friend, a trout fisher of good grade — 
a fact recognizable as soon as I saw him in the stream. 
And I found the Maple as lovely a stream as ever lay out 
of doors. It was a comfort to fish it, even had we found 
no fish, though we got about thirty legal fish between us. 
This was one of the few streams hereabout where one can 
wade and cast a fly and catch fish. It is all wrong about 
its being too wicked a water to wade, at least in the stage 
at which we found it, though it was quite low, I was told. 
It is just the prettiest, most gentlemanly river I ever got 
into. As we went along down it in our day's fishing, Mr. 
Drake broke my heart by pointing out the places where in 
the past he had taken baskets full of grayling. He said 
that when the railroad went through there first the stream 
was full of grayling, and he had filled his basket in an 
hour. He said it was a certainty that the trout meant the 
going of the grayling. Of trout there are an abundance 
in the Maple now, though, as I said, one should not fish 
right up against a railroad town to get them. I would 
advise going about six miles from Pellston for trout. Of 
the trout fishing in this region I shall say more next week. 
It is the grandest trout fishing locality I have ever person- 
ally seen in the East, this upper part of the south penin- 
sula. 
But I had not my grayling. Mr. Drake and I sat on the 
hotel stoop that night and talked of the past, and I was 
not happy. The next day was Sunday, and I concluded 
to go up to Mackinaw City to spend the day, as Pellston 
is not metropolitan in size. I found Mackinaw City the 
very end of the world, the jumping-off place, and the 
same as Pellston in metropolitan respects. In my mind 
was the horrible feeling of disappointed ambition, I had 
come after a grayling and had not gotten him. Every- 
body knows how that feels — at least, everybody does now- 
adays, I refi.cted that it was only 100 miles to the tovvn 
of Grayling, which was named after this very fish, and 
that Mr. Alexander had lived there long enough to know 
what he was talking about, and that I could get my gray- 
ling if I would just run down there. It was a a pleasant 
vision, and my spirits rose at it. Against this came con- 
science, with sundry offsetting visions of a desk at Chi- 
cago with a lot of things in it that I ought to be knowing 
something about. It was hard, but I finally turned my 
face away from the grayling country, and came home 
beaten, without any grayling — without seeing one, with- 
out hearing of one, without any information which would 
lead a fair-minded man to suppose there is any practical 
supply of that fish left in the Maple, the Sturgeon, the 
Manistee or the Pigeon, at least for this season; and next 
season may be worse yet. Of the Jordan River I heard 
nothing more this time than I did once before, when I 
wired the station agent there and got the reply, "There 
are no trout in the Jordan ; never heard of any grayling 
there." Yet that was once a famous grayling stream. 
The Boyne River was also famous. I heard nothing of it 
this time. 
The last word I had about the grayling was just three 
minutes before the train pulled out south from Macki- 
naw City. There I met Mr. McArthur, of Cheboygan, 
who was just off the boat from Mackinac Inland. Mr. 
McArthur has lived all his business life in the grayling 
country. 
"No, you wouldn't be apt to get a grayling in the 
Maple," said he. "There may be a few in the Sturgeon, 
but it is a slim chance there. There would be a better 
chance in the Pigeon, if you got the water right. I pre- 
sume the Au Sable is the best stream now, but I am told 
they are getting very scarce there now." 
At Mackinaw City Mr. Drake, who accompanied me 
there and begged me to join him on a trip to the Carp 
River after trout, met a friend of his who had often fished 
the Au Sable at the town of Grayling. This gentleman 
told him that one would be almost certain not to get any 
grayling within twenty-five miles of that point. He said 
it was necessary to take a boat and go down the stream, 
camping out, before one could get a look at that fish now. 
He knew of no other stream at all where it could be 
found. 
This is aU I could learn about the grayling, and I con- 
sider it a fair review of the grayling situation, in part at 
least, I do not believe that one can step in there to-day 
and get a grayling very easily. The fish seema to have 
grown suddenly much scarcer within the past two or 
three years. Of course, fishing there for either trout or 
grayling at any point near the railroad, except on a pre- 
served stream, is just what it is everywhere else. You 
find a path along the ba.nk, If you are able to get away 
from that path, on the Au Sable, on the Upper Manistee, 
on Hopkins Creek, perhaps on other streams of which I 
did not hear, you may get your grayling. But I believe 
Mr. Alexander was right when he said, "You would better 
get him pretty quick." E. HouGH. 
1206 BoYCK BuiLDiNO, Chicago. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
A Salmon Score. 
Ma, Archibald Mitchell, of Norwich, Conn., sends me 
a series of photographs taken on the Restigouche River 
in New Brunswick during the time that he was fishing 
the river this season. One of the photographs is of the 
log that rolled over Mr. John Mowat, and it seems mar- 
velous that the brave old man escaped with his life as 
one looks at the great log shown in the picture. A post- 
al card from Mr. Mowat, written on July 11, says; "I 
got to the doorstep yesterday and enjoyed it. I feel now 
that unless some complications turn up I am going 
to master this accident. I may not be able to kill an- 
other fish unless my bones come together on the spot that 
the log struck. 
"I read Forest and Stream to-day on the Cascapedia. 
It is nothing to our river. Five of the reserve party are 
now here to finish off with thirty to fifty fish. Fish are 
still running in from sea. My son shipped 150 yesterday, 
and they will run more or less until Sept, 1. Is it pos- 
sible that there will bs too many fish in the river at 
spawning time? I say it is. They tear the spawning 
beds all to piecqs, exposing the eggs." 
Mr, Mitchell sends me his salmon score, to which is 
added the score of his son, all made with one rod from 
the same canoe. The fish which most interests me is the 
one killed on June 29, as it is the one I had. It is what 
may be called a very tidy score for a single rod: 
SALMON PISHINO ON THE nESTlGOUCHE HIVEE, P. Q , CANADA, BY 
ARCHIBALD MITOHKLL, SEASON 1896. 
Salmon. Pounds. 
May 39 2 38, 23 50 
May 33 3 14, 30 6314 
Jane 3 1 2il4 24i4 
June 4 1 'Ziyi 2414 
June 8 3 21, 221^, ii4 BTJ^ 
JuQe 9 4 23,233^,21, 2b\i 96 
June 10 3 23,22, 19 .„..., .04 
June 11 3. ....... ..31, 21)^. 22 (54}^ 
June 12 «•;.,..*. ...22, 20i|, 20, 2614, 23^. 261^,24, 23.... 186 
June 13.......... r,,.. *....23, 21, a2, 14^^, 12, aai^, J40}4 
June 1... 213^ aij^ 
June 16 8 13. 1934 321,^ 
June 18 1 2114 ^134 
June 19 4.., 2034. 20>^, 19, 19....... T9 
June 20 2 23, 22}^ .... 433^g 
June 22 3 24, SIJ^, 25 80J^ 
June 23 3 38. 10. 2i 60jj 
June 24 1 25 25 
June 25 3 2534 233^.24 73 
Jane 29 1 28 28 
Total 56 Average.. 32' 5 lbs. 12)7}^ 
ARCHIBALD MirCHELL, JR. 
.Tune 24 1 223^ „ 22^ 
- - ■- - 
June 25 3 
June 27 1 
June 29 3 
2^34.22, 14. 
22^ 
13, 11, Ifi 
2a- 
43' 
Total 8 Average.. IS^lbs, 1453^ 
All taken on one rod and from one canoe. The intervening days 
were either blank days or Sundiys, and in several instances days on 
which I did not fish at all. In addition to this ten kelts were beached 
aad returned to the river, making in all seventy-four fish to the one rod. 
Salmon Fishing. 
A friend who has killed salmon in many waters in 
Europe and Canada — one of the best salmon fishermen in 
the country to-day — writes me: "I have read your criti- 
cism in Forest and Stream of the salmon fishermen in 
the syndicate letter and agree with your remark that it 
was very moderate, for I have seen and read the letter 
you refer to, and the writer shows plainly that in a num- 
ber of instances he talks of what he knows little or noth- 
ing about. For instance he says: 'I had forgotten the 
rudimentary rules of fishing. My tackle would stand per- 
haps 15 to ISibs, pull, and this I had evidently exceeded.' 
Such a statement is wrong, and for the beneQt of future 
novices should not be allowed to pass unnoticed. Some 
one should tell the writer of that statement to taka any 
compact object weighing about say 4 lbs,, and tie the end 
of his salmon line to it and then try and lift it with the 
rod. After he has tried the experiment he will be able to 
form an approximate idea of how much strain he had on 
the fish wnen his hook broke in the bend, and h? will ar- 
rive at the conclusion that it was a good deal less than 
half of I51bs. His rod must have been a very light one, 
measuring 16Jft, and weighing only 20oz. I think he or 
the printer must have made a mistake in the weight. It 
is absolutely funny to a salmon fisherman to read of using 
a large multiplying reel on a salmon rod and an E line 
for salmon casting, as it is much too light for the pur- 
pose." 
Personal. 
Daring an absence of two weeks in the Adirondacks a 
great many letters accumulated on my desk. I had 
barely time to glance at their contents when I was again 
called away, and to-day I am at home only for a few 
hours. Some of the letters require an answer in this col- 
umn, but it is a physical impossibility for me to give the 
answers at this time. Later they will all have proper 
attention. A, N. Cheney. 
Tarpon on the Florida East Coast. 
Daytona, Fla.— Tarpon fishing in the Halifax is just 
now engaging the attention of our fishermen. John Gib- 
son holds the record with a fish which weighed lOSibs. 
and measured 6ft. Sin. We do not have the fish here in 
the winter and early spring months, so tourists do not 
count tarpon in the list of fish here; but if some of the 
anglers from the North would come down here now, they 
would fiod not only good fishing, but pleasant summer 
surroundings. Coqoina. 
"Boys Together." 
GREENSBURa, Pa., Aug. 1.— I seem to have known that 
man whose picture you printed last week and did not 
spail by explaining. We must have been boys together. 
Deacon, 
