170 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 2?, 1897. 
fets in the bunks on the Rainbow, but for choice I would 
have preferred them. How's that, Eell?" 
"Well, yes, the crickets are larger and they sing; like 
y6u, I prefer the insect life of the barn, but tastes differ." 
"Benny," said I, "to-morrow we will have breakfast and 
be fresh for the fishing by the time you could get yourself 
dressed and down at the Albany dock, and it gives us a 
good start. You talk as though you are sorry you came, 
and if so I'm sorry also." 
This had its effect, and there was no more grumbling. 
He realized what a nuisance a grumbler is, and he and 
Bell sang, and we told stories of more or less probability 
and went to sleep. In the morning, as we stepped outside 
our hotel, there was Port Tyler frying a lot of perch and 
Hver herring. "I've got some gill nets down the crick," 
he said, "and I walked down the railroad, an' seein' your 
boat I took it and went down an' got some fish, for I ain't 
breakfasted yet, I see by the boat that ye hadn't been 
ia-fishin' yet, and thought I might as well fry enough for all 
hands. An' there's Benny too, four on ye; well! if ther' 
ain't fish enough for all I'll go get some more. Why, 
Benny, I thought you'd got enough of the island creek on 
the last trip; goin' to try the fishin, hey?" 
"Yea, 1 think I'm better at fishing than at shooting; but 
hold on! You've walked about four miles and then been 
down the creek after fish and cooked 'em; you sit down to 
breakfast and Bell and I will go to the nets and get more 
fish; he says he knows how to get them out of the net." 
While they were gone we laid out our rations and break- 
fasted. We had calculated on hot coffee, but not hot fish, 
and on a chill March morning they were welcome. A little 
Bong sparrow warbled a melody from the willows, and we 
listened as it sang again and again. "It makes me feel bad 
now when I hear that bird," said Porter. "They used to 
sound cheerful like, an' I was allers glad to hear 'em, but 
since last week they make me solemn, somehow, an' I 
wish they wouldn't sing." No one made an inquiry, and 
after a pause the old man continued: "It was this way: 
When my nets are out in the spring I allers bring my gun 
along to pick up an odd duck or two or a muskrat, as long 
as their fur is in good condition. Well, I was a-rowin' 
down the crick, keepin' close to one side or the other so's 
to see around a bend afore anything sees me, an' I see a 
muskrat on a stump a-sittin' there an' a-cleanin' his face 
with his paws, jus' like there wasn't a gun within ten mile. 
He was a-kickin' in the mnd afore he heard the gun gooli, 
an' I rowed down an' reached him with an oar an' brought 
him in, washed him an' started on, when I see somethin' 
else a-kickin' in the mud under a willow beyond the 
stump. It was a little bird, and it had been in range of 
my shot, and there it was on its back, an' a-flutterin' its 
little wings in the mud. I lifted it on the blade of the oar 
and brought it to me, but there was blood in its nostrils, 
an' it died in my hand; it was one o' them pretty little 
•ingers." No remark was made, and he added: "Con- 
found it! I wish I'd let that muskrat go; his fur wasn't any 
good, anyhow." 
After the boys came back and had breakfasted we saw 
Porter lift his nets. He had three gill-nets across the 
creek, and took out several hundred "herring" (as the river 
ale wife is there called), some perch, bullheads and two eels. 
These astonished me, as I had no idea that an eel could be 
caught in a gill-net, and his were of 2yin. mesh, made for 
the head of the herring; but Porter called my attention to 
meshes which were coated with eel slime where the fish 
had slipped through, "But," said he, "these eels have been 
a-fiUin' up on angleworms durin' this high water, an' 
they're a leetle too stout to slip through easily, an' proba- 
bly they ain't been in the net long. P'raps I'd a -got them 
other fellers if I'd a-been here a few minutes after they 
struck the net. Now these eels, they work along a gill- 
net to feed on the fishes that get caught in it, an' some- 
times they get h'isted into the boat jes' like them two 
fellers, but mostly they eats the belly out of a herrin' or a 
shad an' leaves the rest. Now here's a herrin' all gone 
but his head and his upper parts. The eels seem to like 
the innards best, an' they'll spile a dozen herrin' in pickin' 
out the ch'ice parts, when I'd thank 'em to finish up one 
fish afore tacklin' another." 
After this lecture on the habits of eels by a past master 
in fishology, while he removed the fish and left his nets to 
work for another day, we left him and went on. We 
fished from bank and boat, with both worm and minnow, 
and took a goodly lot of yellow perch, bullheads (catfish), 
and a few pickerel. It is the unexpected that always hap- 
{)ens, and Benny Van Voast, the poorest fisherman in the 
ot — one who did not know how to put a minnow on a 
hook, nor how to cast it after it was put on for him — ^took 
the biggest fish of the day, a pickerel of 4lbs., which was 
lib. above any fish taken by the other pirates. I say 
"pirates," because we were all on that piratical trip to salt 
water the previous summer, and we had a right to the title. 
As we rowed our boat back up the creek Shaw's attention 
was attracted by three gangs of poles, three poles in each, 
set with a noticeable regularity. " What are the poles for?' ' 
he asked. 
"They're put out there to fasten boats to," answered 
Benny. 
In an evil moment I was prompted to correct this false 
statement, or rather to enlighten Benny. That's my very 
weak point — the hope of enlightening the masses. They 
have never arisen in force and demanded enlightenment 
from me, and that's where they have missed it. I have 
tried to force knowledge upon them, and that's my failing. 
Benny had explained why the stakes were placed there. 
I did not know enough to keep my positive knowledge to 
myself, so I said, "No, Benny, those poles hold fyke nets 
in place; the two nearest together are the wings and the 
apex of the triangle is the bag of the fyke, or 'hoop net,' as 
some call it." 
"Who sets that kind of net in the creek," asked Shaw, in 
a careless manner, 
"They belong to Mr. Tobias Teller," said I. "He lives 
up here on one of the Teller farms, is a bachelor, but puts 
in his nets to get fish for his own servants as well as for 
the family of his brother, Mr. Jacob Teller, father of our 
friend Col. David, and it gives him fish in a fresher — " 
"What!" exclaimed Shaw. "You don't say that these 
trap nets belong to Tobi' Teller! Turn around! We've got 
to see to them an' take 'em up, if we have to send all the 
fish we get out of 'em up to the almshouse." And, against 
my protest, I showed Shaw which pole to lift and how to 
untie the trap-cord and empty the fish into the boat. It 
was well that there were only three nets, or we would have 
been swamped with the weight of fish; but he emptied them 
all, and then tied to each bag-stake a card on which was 
written: 
"This net was emptied by Billy Shaw, aided and abetted 
by * * *, members of the Society for the Preservation 
of Cruelty to Animals, for fear these fish might die in your 
net. If Mr. Tobias Teller will call on Mr. Shaw at his place 
of business he will receive all the satisfaction which he 
may get." 
The load of fish from the nets, in addition to what we 
had, was a heavy pull after we struck the current in the 
river, but we reached Albany in time to send messenger 
boys with presents to every one we could think of, and left 
a lot to the man who took care of the boat. Mr. Tobias 
Teller dropped into Shaw's next day, as Benny expected 
he would, and there he saw a placard on which was 
painted: 
"Fresh herring from the Teller farm. 
Perch from Teller's fyke. 
,^ Bullheads skinned d la Popskinny. 
Order quickly if you wish Tobias. 
Tobi or not Tobi, that's the question!" 
As he read it four of the pirates who had cruised Long 
Island Sound with the Jolly Ro^er at the fore, and who 
had lately extended their operations to the peaceful Pop- 
skinny, appeared from an ambush in an adjoining room, 
and gravely shaking hands with the old gentleman, asked 
in turn: "How's the fishing down your way, Mr. Teller?" 
He bore the indignity like a Christian martyr and re- 
plied: "The fishing has been very good until yesterday. 
We have had enough for our families and farm hands as 
well as some to spare for the neighbors, but the fish must 
have deserted us, for the fykes were empty last night. But 
I just dropped in to eat a few oysters, and if you'll join me 
it will be a great pleasure. Waiter! five dozen raw and a 
bottle of Sauterne to begin with. By the way, boys, the 
next time you go down the creek on a fishing trip let me 
know and I'll join you, and if you don't get enough to suit 
j^ou we'll raise the fykes." 
"Not for me," said Benny, "I wouldn't eat a fish that 
came out of a net. I don't eat many fish, but those taken 
on myown line always have a flavor above all others." 
This sentiment met with a hearty commendation from the 
other three, yet in the ' Song of Fairies" we read: 
"Stolen sweets are always sweeter; 
Stolen kisses much completer; 
Stolen looks are nice i a chapels; 
Stolen, stolen be your apples." 
Feed Mather. 
"FOREST AND STREAM'S" BIG FISH 
RECORD. 
A Provisional List of Big Fish of Various Species, 
Supposed to be the Largest of their 
Respective Kinds Captured or 
Possessed In America. 
Salmon {Salmo salar), 541 bs.— Killed with fly in 
Cascapedia River by ex-President Arthur. 
Small-mouth Black Bass, 1 Olbs.— Caught in 
Round Pond, Warren county, N. Y.. by Nathaniel Parker, 
of Glens Falls, N. Y- Caught with rod and reel. The fish 
was 35Jin. long and 19in. in circumference. I put this flgh 
first, as it was exhibited in public, and I weighed and meas- 
ured it. 
Reuben Seelye, town of Queensbury, N. Y., claims to 
have caught a small-mouth black bass in Glen Lake, Warren 
county, which weighed llilbs., 25in. long and 21in. in cir- 
cumference. Several people saw this fleh, and in my opin- 
ion, after an exhaustive inquiry, there can be no question 
about the weight provided the scales were accur^-te, and the 
measurements of the bass stem to confirm the weight; but it 
was not weighed in public, as was Parker's fish. 
Large-mouth Black Bass.— In the autumn of 
1896, while I was making a call upon Gov. IForton in the 
Executive Chamber at Albany, he asked if he had ever told 
me about the big black bass captured in his lake at his 
country seat, Ellerslie, on the Hudson. I had not heard of 
the fish, and the Governor said that seven or eight years aso, 
soon after he bought Ellerslie, he had the lake on the prop- 
erty drawn down to clean it and find out what kinds of fish 
it contained. The chief capture was a large mouth black 
bass weighing 241bs., and the Governor asked if I had ever 
heard of a fish of the species so large, and I said I never had 
from the waters of this State, although I believed that 
Florida waters had produced the large-mouth bass equaling 
or exceeding the Ellerslie fish In weight. He said 
I was not alone in never having heard of a 
black bass so large as 241bs. from New York 
waters, because (and he laughed hearitly) he had 
told the story a good man. times to different people and 
none of them had heard of the hke, and had evtn asked if 
he was sure of the weight of the fish. Mr. Walter C, 
Witherbee, who was present, told the Governor that he was 
entitled to the master degree as a fisherman, but he saw the 
point of the joke at once, and replied that he witnessed the 
weighing of the fish, and there was nothing fishy about the 
story except the fish, and when it was first placed before 
him he was prepared to believe most anything about its 
weight, as it was so large. The lake at Ellerslie has been in 
existence for more than 100 years, but Gov. Morton has no 
idea how the bass got into it, nor can I even guess when 
asked to do so. Last summer 1 noticed that the lake at 
Ellerslie was rich in fish food — particularly-so,-— and prob- 
ably the bass had little, if anything, to do but wax fat and 
large. 1 told the Governor that I should have to' put his big 
black bass in the Fokest and Stream big fish records, and 
1 was particularly obliged to him, for I had no record of 
big black bass of the lurge-mouth species until he furnished 
one that would stand at the head for years to come. 
Mascalonge, with hook and fine, 474^lbs., caught in 
St. Lawrence River by John B. Spafford, Jr., and Capt. 
James Millward. The late Dr. Elisha Sterling, of Cleve- 
land, O., speared a mascalonge in Sandusky Bay that 
weighed 801bs. 
Brook Trout (Salvelinus foniinalis). — The employees of 
the Maine Fish Commission netted a trout in Rangelty 
stream that weighed 18lbs. and returned it to the water 
after weighing it. 
1 am aware that a trout of great weight was recorded-in 
this journal as having been caught by an angler in the 
Rangeley Lakes, but I was there that season and an investi- 
gation convinced me that the fish weighed only between 9 
and lOlbs. The weight of thd I31bs. fish is authentic, as I 
got it from Commissioner Stanley. 
Mr. Charles Hallock has written of a IGlbs. trout from the 
Nipigon River, and I told in Forest And Stream what I 
knew of the claim for a 20lbs. trout caugnt in the Wayaga- 
mack Lake in Canada. 
New York State never equaled the Maine and Canadian 
waters in the size of their brook trotit. The largest fish taken 
with hook and line of which I have record was a trout of 
7ilbs., caught in a lake in the town of Moriah, Essex county, 
in 1895. Previous to that the largest record brook trout was 
one found in a djing condition in Loon Lake, in the Adiron- 
dacks. The fish is now mounted in the Loon Lake House, 
and when found was credited in the newspapers with a 
weight of 6ilbs. I saw the fish this season, and was told by 
Mr. Stevens, of the Loon Lake Hotel, that the trout weighed 
a little more than the weight given in the newspapers. This 
is now of no importance, for this fall a trout was found dead 
in Loon Lake with a hole eaten in the side of its head, as 
though done by a mink or other animal, which when placed 
on the scales weighed full 81bs. The fish is being mounted 
and will be placed in the Loon Lake House. This is the 
largest trout of which 1 have knowledge ever caught or found 
in the waters of New York State. 
Lake Trout {Salmlmm mamaycush). — The largest 
trout of this f pedes ever reported to me as having been 
caught In the waters of New Yoik was a fish of 5311)8. 
caught in Lake Kush-a-qua. I have no information as to 
who caught the fish, although I tried to get some details of 
the capture while at the lake last summer. While it was 
admitted that such a fish was takeo from the lake, I could 
not even learn the name of its captor. 
Striped Bass or rockfish {Roccas linmtus). — The 
largest fish of this species taken with rod and rtel of which I 
have record is 641bs., caught by W. R. Renwick, of the Cut- 
tyhunk Club. 
Pike, commonly called pickerel {Lucius lucias).— 85]bs., 
caught in Lake Le Bouef, Erie county, Pennsylvania, by 
Charles Phelps. 
Yellow Perch or ringed perch {Perca americana). — 
51b8., caught by Pick Squires in Schroon Luke, N. Y. 
While these fishes may not be in all cases record Ssh, they 
will serve as starting points to correct the records. 
A. N. Cheney. 
Pike-Perch in New Jersey. 
The stocking of streams and ponds with pike-perch fry by 
the New Jersey Fish and Game Commission has proved a 
success in at least two instances. 
The fry were received from the Pennsylvania hatchery at 
Corey on May 12, 1896, and about noon of the same day 
50,000 were placed in Cedar Brook, opposite the Lehigh 
Valley depot at South Plainfleld, about three miles east of 
New Market Pond, into which the stream empties. An- 
other lot of 50,000 was placed in a small brook thret-quar- 
ters of a mile from toe pond at Lakeside, a settlement one 
mile south of Metuchen. As soon as liberated, the squirm- 
ing little transparent bodies, with their prominent, bead-like 
ejes, much resembling tadpoles in size, darted here and 
there, finally seeking shelter under the edges of stones and 
pebbles on the sandy bottom. 
The brook being inaccessible for the greater part of its 
length on account of the thick underbrush and briers, the 
growth of the fry was not noticed until Sept. 18, four 
months later, when, upon my stepping upon a piece of over- 
hanging bank near the junction of the brook and pond, a 
number of fi^^h 5 or 6in. in length darted from beneath to 
the opposite fide, their dark, irregular markings, and olive 
colored sides being plainly visible in the clear, transparent 
water, which also undoubtedly slightly magnified their size 
Bv stamping along the edge of the brook many other pike- 
perch were driven from their hiding places. 
The only other fish in this lake at that time were seventy- 
three Oswego bass, measuring from 9 tolSin., placed in the 
lake a few months previous to the pike-perch, and innumer- 
able dace and other bait fish, all other fish having been lost 
two }^ear8 previous by the breaking of the dam, a permanent 
dam having since been built and the lake refilled by its many 
springs and streams, 
A few weeks later a trip was made to Cedar Brook in com- 
pany with Thomas Lindabury, yard-ma%ter of the Lehigh 
road at South Plainfield, and many pike-perch were driven 
from beneath the banks of that stream, all showing the 
same growth as their kin at Lakeside. 
One million fry of the pike-perch were planted by the 
Commission in different lakes and streams of the State on 
that date, May 13. Wild Honey. 
Potomac Bass Fisbing. 
There will be no fishing for bass in the Potomac River 
and its tributaries hereafter above the Little Falls between 
April 15 and .Tune 1 of each year, and the fish cannot be 
taken at any time other than by means of a hook and line or 
a dip net. The use of the trot or out-line, by which the fish 
supply in the upper Potomac has been almost decimated in 
the past, will be also illegal hereafter. The penalty for 
breaking any of these regulations will be imprisonment for 
not more than six months or a fine net exceediog $800. or 
both fine and imprisonment. This applaudable result is'due 
to the recently organized District of Columbia Game and 
Fish Protective Association, of which Commandi r Robley D. 
Evans, of the navy, is president, anu wnose memhership com- 
prises the leading gentlemen sportsmen in Washington as 
well as in the f urrounding States. 
When the Associa ion was formed the States of Virginia 
and Maryland had already passed laws containing the pro- 
visions enumerated in tbe opening lines of this article. To 
become optrative, however, it was necessary for West Vir- 
ginia to adopt the same law. 
The executive committee of the local association, which 
consists of fifti en well-known spor smen, took immediate 
steps to secure the recjuiaite action by the Legislature of 
West Virginia, and at a meeting held last Monday night 
delegated Dr. Geo. W. Massamore, a member of the Associ- 
ation, chiet deputy game warden of Maryland, and secretary 
and treasurer of the Maryland State Game and Fish Protect- 
ive Association, to proceed to Charleston and urge the pas- 
sage of the bill. Dr. Massamore was courteously provided 
with strong letters to members of the West Virginia Legis- 
lature by Senators Elkins, Faulkner, Gorman and other in- 
fiuential gentlemen, and when he reached the West Virginia 
capital he found the bill sleeping in a Senate committee. He 
was received with pleasant welcome by the legislators, and 
out of courtesy to him the bill was taken up out of its regu- 
lar order and quickly passed through both houses. Dr. 
Massamore had an interview with Gov. MeCorkle, who is 
an ardent sportsman, and it is regarded as certain that he 
will sign the bill. 
