180 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Peb. 20, 1897. ^: 
■«rhich hare become fastened in the mud of thebottom^ wbile 
the lower end is rocky and the holtom rough and uncertain. 
These conditions make favorable grounds for silver perch and 
catfish near the head and for bass at the middle and lower end 
of the pool. 
But to day our friend ignored utterl7 the charms of the 
Pump House Pool, and quickly submerged his minnow 
bucket in the clear waters of the pool below, changing the 
water several times as soon as the minnows began to show a 
disposition to raise a racket under the influences of the life- 
giving otygen and pure water. 
Mucb has been said and written on the subject of keeping 
tninnows alive — a desideratum hungered for by all fisher- 
inen. It takes just two things, in our judgment, to preserve 
the graceful little darlings for later immolation hy their larger 
brethren: pure, cool water and fresh air, the oxygen of tbe 
latter performibg its life-giving oiiice through the medium of 
caused the angler to "feel the fish," he sttuck firmly. Not 
too hard, for the No. 8 Clark's thread was never made for 
death-dealing blows nor the fierce strokes of amateurs. 
Quick as a flash the hooked captive started for the sunken 
ledge on the opposite side, but the steady strain of the rod 
caused him to change his purpose, and like a flash he went 
out of water. A big one surely, the heavy splash in the 
wat<ir and widening circles attested as he went down again. 
The line seemed slack and inert for a moment, and tbe fear 
sprang up that in the vigorous leap the hook had been 
shaken loose. But no, as the reel gathers in the thread there 
is resistance at the end, and again, with rapid movements, 
the fighting begins. Swift drives for the ledge and again for 
the rocks at the lower end are mingled with short, sharp 
dashes below the surface as the gatlant small mouth seeks to 
shake from his jaws the offensive hook. The water, where 
he touches the bottom and its sifted mud layer gathered by 
ON THE MAIN ELKHORN, NEAR STEADMAN'S DAM. 
Photo by Dr. W. E. Baxter. 
the former. The devices for providing these necessities arc 
various as the ingenuity of the mind, but the few common 
devices accessible to all are most in demand. 
No good fisherman will leave his minnow bucket sittiag 
on the bank in moderately warm weather while he is dab- 
bling in the pool to get a bite. In hot weather it would in- 
dicate idiocy. Nor will he place his bucket in the water top 
up and bottom down. Nor will he empty out all the warm 
water, after along walk or travel, and fill his bucket with 
water from a spring at a temperature of 50° to 55°. Much 
less will he submerge his minnow bucket, filled with water 
at moderate temperature, in water that is warmer. 
The minnow bucket should be kept always in the water, 
lying on its side or top up-stream ; the changes of water 
should be gradual and frequent during the late spring and 
early fall, when the water approximates the hot atmosphere. 
Agitation has kept thousands of minnows alivje, when still- 
ness meant sure death. When we suspect danger, even dur- 
ing the walks from pool to pool, we violently shake the 
,bucket; and traveling to the creek by train, we make it a 
duty to shake the bucket at intervals. 
Years ago, accompanied by Dr. Morris and Dick Morris, 
we started on a fishing trip to lower Elkhorn. Our minnows, 
in two buckets, were placed in a meal sack, and the latter 
slung saddle-bag fashion across the horse that Dick rode. 
The trip was on horseback over a rough road, and the creek 
five miles away. When we arrived at the creek there wasn't 
water enough in the buckets to cover the minnows. It was 
merely a mixture of froth and foam, and the minnows packed 
close as sardines. Yet, after a few minutes' submersion they 
all recovered and were lively ■as crickets. 
Another instance of the fact that it isn't the supply of 
water that always preserves minnows, but rather its condi- 
tion, occurred the past summer when I took seven buckets 
of minnows along for a fortnight's outing on the creek. 
These buckets I submerged in running water at the foot of a 
riffle, on their sides, tops up-stream, and 1ft. or more under 
the surface, the spot shaded by forest trees. I saved scarcely 
a bucket for use in the next three or four days, though the 
.dead minnows were thrown out each morning. I attributed 
the loss to the warmness of the water, and the fact that the 
hogs were rooting daily on the shoals for crawfish, helgra- 
mites, snails and mussels, keeping the creek milky with im- 
purities in its low stage. 
Jimmie Gibbons keeps his minnows the summer and win- 
ter through in a barrel in the rear of his store, freshening the 
water "when needed from the hydrant. It is a capital plan, 
and may be well followed by others. 
When Jimmie had livened his minnows with the fresh 
water of the creek, he waded diagonally across the head of 
the pool to a gravelly bar 3ft. under water, and extending 
along the bank to where a rocky shoal broke the waters at 
the lower end to form a second pool. Taking a lively steel- 
back minnow from the bucket, and inserting the point of 
the No. 2 Cincinnati bass hook upward through the lower 
lip till its barb appearing through the upper Hp denoted a 
secure fastening, he gently dropped the bait a few yards out 
in the stream, where the eddies of the riffle smoothed away 
in the deeper water. As the tremulous line, unweighted 
with sinker and unretarded by cork, followed the wander- 
ings of the minnow along the bottom, suddenly there was a 
slight twitch, as if the minnow found reason for a change of 
base; the line straightened out and steadily started down 
stream. 
Gathering up his slack, taking the rod firmly in his right 
hand While the left guarded the reel that no knot form nor 
loose end catch, the handle, he lowered the tip toward the 
water, and when the right moment seemed to press decision 
with a few gentle turns of the reel till the tightening line 
the fall leaves that have settled in drifts', becomes discolored, 
and following his rapid circles boils to the top. 
Electric thrills pulsate the nerves of the angler as mes- 
sages to tell of the battle that is more to the conception than 
the sight. The rod bends in graceful obeisance to the vault- 
ing turns and erratic sweeps of the gallant warrior, who 
seems to realize well that life trembles on the issue. 
But fight as he may, gallantly and gloriously, the skill of 
the angler and the elasticity of the rod are wearing his strength 
away; his circles are lessening, his tugs are" weaker, his 
dashes grow short with broken energy, and drawn resist- 
ingly to the top, as becomes a true warrior, he shakes his 
head in defiant despair at the captor who has wrought his 
ruin with that insignificant No. 8 cotton thread— and he a 
full pound and three-quarters small-mouth. 
It was an auspicious beginning. Stringing the bass, Gib- 
bons selected another active minnow and threw across to the 
GIBBONS AND S.1S PISH, 
edge of the sunken ledge whose outlines were visible through 
the semi-transparent water, slightly colored by a recent rain. 
This le'^lge ran diagonally down the stream, ending beneath 
the bank below, abrupt in its declivity and shaded by a row 
of sycamore and elm trees. Scarce had the minnow disap- 
peared when there was a swirling in the water, followed by 
a subsidence of the wavelets and an inactivity that brooded 
doubt, with danger. Giving time for the wary fish to swal- 
low the bait— a time that nobody can teach, but is only 
learned as the fruit of long experience aided by the prompt- 
ings of intuition — Jimmie gave the fatal blow and started the 
fight and fish. The battle was short, for the contestant was 
only a half-pounder and socn wearied of the unequal strife. 
Three more small-mouth bass were taken along this ledge 
and two among the boulders at the lower end of the pool, 
making seven splendid fish, ranging from ^Ib. to Iflbs.— all 
captured within the hour after reaching the creek. 
There was a lull in the biting and a change of locality 
suggestive. Wading close by the southern bank, whose 
covert of willow.^, alders and weeds made bank travel im- 
possible, a^id keeping out of the deeper water that threat- 
ened to inundate his boot-tops, the angler crossed the nar- 
row, exposed rocky creek bed that was covered at high tide^ 
and sought the temptations of the next pool. Slightly, 
longer, it was almost a duplicate of the first, with sub.; 
merged rocky ledge, gravelly bottom, shoaling gradually oij 
the south side, and rough rocks and boulders at the lowffl 
end, terminating at a water gap. - f 
Near the head of the pool was a tongue of land reaching 
out halfway the stream from the south bank, affording 
excellent vantage ground for casting and a good landing 
place for fish indisposed to "come out of the wet." ' 
The same good luck attended tbe angler here as in the first 
pool, and half a dozen nice fish were landed as fast as hools 
could be baited and the frisky fighters persuaded to chang^ 
their habitat. There was one spot at an angle of the ledg« 
and opposite a big rock on the bank that seemed especially 
productive. The minnow would scarcely touch this fruit- 
ful spot when his interest in life lost force through the atten- 
tions of some watchful small-mouth, eager with appetite. 
S veral good ones had been led out and away to swell the . 
growing string when the temptation of an extra-sized min- \ 
now brought to the timely strike a resistance that portended 
trouble. 
There was a lusty dash down the creek that seemed aimed 
for the water gap, 30yds. of line were unreeled ere it was 
deemed wise to check the bold ranger, and then as the line ' 
grew taut and the rod bent under the strain the bass broke i 
water in a shower of spray, "shook his jaws" (regardless of 
Dr. EUz^yl, and disappeared for further battle below the sur- 
faoe It was a grand, an exciting battle, for he promised 
upward of 21bs. to the scales. After a fight full of gallant/ 
efl'ort and fruitful in resource, his strength yielded and he 
was drawn toward the bank, and then— there was a sudden i 
parting between hook and fish, and the latter had business 
elsewhere. The big ones, you know, always get away. A 
moment later, as if in recompense for the loss, a bass of over 
lib. was landed. 
Fishing the pool downward to its lower end, bass after 
bass was added to the string. They were on their feed with 
a hunger thit seemed rapacious. Below the water gap was 
a short, rociiy pool that yielded three bass of over lib. each, 
with several of lesser weight. A touch of hunger suggested 
the noon hour, and the bank being shadv, the angler con- 
cluded to dispose of his lunch, Casting his baited hook 
well out in the creek, he set his rod with the aid of a couple 
of stones, emptied his pockets and was getting away with i 
an enticing spread, when the click of the reel sounded its 
alarm Halting in his repast, he quickly transferred the dis- 
turber to a domain of restricted liberty. The meal resumed, 
a second interruption occurred, and finding lunching in peace 
impossible, he fished with one hand and ate his mtal in sec- 
tions from thCyOther. 
The afternoon was spent in a long and rough Journey over 
a rocky path down the right bank of the creek to a longer 1 
and wider pool than had yet been visited, and in the retuin ! 
journey over the same ground back to the starting point, i 
The lower pool yielded its quota of sport, and when the der | 
clining sun In warning shadow beckoned him to the train ' 
from Elkhorn's enticing waters, there was weariness of ' 
weight to flagging footsteps in his string. Over thirty bass * 
that weighed Sllbs. was the score— truly a red-letter day! i 
Several days later, over the same ground, he caught fifteen ' 
that weighed lOilbs., all with No. 8 Clark's O N. T. thread. ' 
With the same slender line he took, several years ago, a 51b. 
bass from Lost River, near West Baden Springs, Ind. 
The bass of Elkhorn are not in average the monsters of 
the Northern waters — though 3 and 4 pounders are by no 
means rare— yet in every inch and in every ounce they are 
full of fight and pluck, and every fine of the body speaks of 
symmetry and strength and motion. 
Jimmie Gibbons is a most enthusiastic fisherman, a foe to 
seiners and dynamiters, anda warm advocateof fish protection 
and propagation. The singing of the reel is to his ear the 
sweetest of music, the leap of the bass in furious fight the 
most charming sight to his eyes, and as he talks of fish and 
fishing he will involuntarily rise from his chair and with 
that peculiar inimitable outward motion of his left arm send 
out the imaginative lure to the very spot where the wary 
bass lie in ambush. Old Sam. 
[Old Sam writes of the illustration: The camp was made 
a year cr so ago near Steadman's dam, close by the creek, 
shown slightly on the right of the picture. The party on 
the left with Derby hat irDr. Baxter, inventor of a most ex- 
cellent camping outfit in compact form for carrying by hand. 
The one on right is Zach Merritt, the cook. Next, with cap, 
is Geo. L. Payne, one of our "Kingfisher" gang; next in 
order are Jack Murphy, Jake and Lewis Cox.] 
The Silkworm Gut Supply. 
We have received from Eobert Rimsbottom tbe following 
report : 
In reporting upon the gut crop of 1896-7, I have to an- 
nounce a diminished production of the shorter lengths, 
mostly used by the American market and the Continent. 
The diminution amounts to about one-third of the crop, and 
liter in the season will have the effect of hardening prices. 
Of the ordinary kinds for the English market there is an 
average crop, but of the two extremes (finest trout and 
heaviest salmon) the supply is by no means equal to the de- 
mand, and great difficulty will be experienced in filling 
orders as the season advances, the more especially now that 
America and the Continent are taking increasingly large 
quantities. 
The quality this season is fully maintained and leaves little 
to be desired. Prices for the present remain practically un- 
changed, but an upward tendency will probably be shown 
before the earliest shipments of next season's crop. 
The Michigan Netting Law. 
Lansing, Feb. 10.— Attorney- General Maynard has just 
rendered his decision upon the subject of spearing fisb in 
Michigan: ' ' ' 
"It is unlawful for any one to catch or kill, or to attempt 
to catch or kill, in any inland lake, fish, with the exception 
of when a hook and line is used. A person found upon the 
water with a spear, net, trap, set Hue, artificial light, dyna- 
mite, powder, or any exjjlosive, that shall be deemed pnma 
facie evidence of a violation of the law, and he may on con- 
viction be fined $35 or imprisoned in jail thirty days." 
In 1893 the Legislature sought to change the law, but the 
Supreme Court decided the law as amended and passed to be 
unconstitutional, and the provisions of the old law remain in 
force. There has been some misunderstanding regarding the 
exact provisions of the law, and the Attorney-General has 
made the decision public to correct any false impression upon 
the subject. Julian. 
