^12 
■whom the mounted fish was intended, but I believe he is a 
hotel keeper in Walton. In September, while at East Wind- 
ham, N. T., I was talking to some acquaintances about fish- 
ing and shooting, and mentioned having seen the large trout. 
Mr. Jerome Campbell told me he had been in Walton shortly 
before, and had seen the mounted specimen ; and he also 
told me that a larger one, weighings I think, over 121b3., had 
been caught afterward by a carpenter who, having dug up 
some worms while digging post holes, thought he would try 
his luck fishing before going home. He tied a hook to his 
plumb line, and baitiuc: with a couple of worms caught the 
big trout. This latter fisti, I believe, was not mounted. Mr. 
Campbell told me that everybody in Walton was talking 
about the two big trout, and therefore you will probably be 
able to locate the persons interested and get a reliable state- 
ment and the exact weight of the two fish referred to." 
The names of people were given in the letter for me to 
write to, but as I am going to Walton very soon I prefer to 
wait and investigate personally on the spot. Having heard 
ttiat some salmon of about the weight given had been caught 
in the upper Delaware, I wrote to my correspondent asking 
if the mounted fish were not a salmon. He replied: 
"The mounted .fish to which I referred in my previous let- 
ter was certainly not a salmon, as it showed all the charac- 
teristic markings and spots of the brook trout, which had 
been touched up by the taxidermist. The fish was very 
broad and deep for its length, and the young man who had 
it said it was very fat when caught. When you go to Wal- 
ton you will be able to locate the fish and get positive infor- 
mation in regard to its weight, also in regard to the heavier 
trout, which I was informed was also caught there." " 
Twelve pounds is rather large for a brook trout in New 
York waters, but the Fobest and Stream record has put 
me on the track of a larger one. I am not ready to spring 
all the facts on an unsuspecting public yet, for I am going to 
the lake where this bigger one came from when the season 
opens. At present it is sufficient to say that the lake is in 
the Adirondacks, or rather pond, for it is not large enough 
to be called a lake. I have known of some large trout being 
taken from it, and they were called brown trout. It is a 
planted pond, and all the trout so far caught have been 
large. The gentleman who planted it supposed he planted 
brown trout, as that is what he applied for. 1 went to it one 
year just after the ice was out, but caught nothing. Lately I 
heard of the "whopper" from the same p„nd. After my 
visit to the pond I was inclined to question the species of 
the fish, because of a photograph of a catch which showed 
marks which indicated that the fish might be brook trout; 
and a friend sent me a specimen, weighing about 3|lbs. 
dressed, which he said was like the other fish in the pond. 
The fish I received was a brook trout {foniinalis), and not a 
brown trout at all. Later I found thai my friend had not 
seen the fish before it was sent to me. It "was dehvered at 
his house, and the man who caught it said it came from the 
pond, so he telephoned from his office to have it packed and 
sent to me. From this it will be seen that there is doubt 
about the species of trout in the pond; possibly the one can 
of fry planted may have contained both brook and brown 
trout, l3ut that question my friend and I propose to settle the 
coming spring. One thing, however, is certain : a trout came 
from there which weighed 131bs. 3oz., and the man who 
caught it and his ■wife will both swear to the weight. 
Another one weighed lllbs. 7oz., and another one 71bs. 4oz. 
Naturally I aminclimd to believe that the larger fish are 
brown trout, but nothing will determine that positively until 
an investigation is made to find what the pond contains. 
The man who caught the fish of 131bs. 3oz. says that in the 
fall of 1896 he saw eleven trout in the stream in one pool, and 
that he thinks one of them would weigh over 201bs. That 
fish is there yet, and it is the one my friend and I are going 
there to cultivate if possible. Personally I will be satisfied 
with one of 7lbs., but I wish my friend to add the biggest 
one to the Forest and Stream record as his catch; or, better 
still, have his wife add it as her catch, and I hope it may 
weigh over 201bs. A. N. Cheney. 
FISHERMAN'S LUCK. 
Uncle William, one of old Virginia's big-hearted, joUy- 
dispositioned gentlemen of the old school, ■was out walking 
one Sunday afternoon in earlv June. For companions he 
had two younger men, who, like himself, were disciples of 
Izaak Walton. The day was perfect; soft breezes from the 
south gently swaj^ed the newly-leaved boughs of grove and 
hedge, the emerald green of the pasture was liberally 
sprinkled with the bright yellow of the dandelion blossom, 
and the ear was pleased with the hum of busy bees and soft 
cooing of the turtledove, intermingled with the twittering 
song of birds. 
•Under these conditions it was not to be wondered at that 
the footsteps of our three friends followed the natural incli- 
nation of the fisherman's mind and led them to the banks of 
a small stream, on either side of which was a natural grove. 
In the rich loam under the forest trees myriads of wild 
flowers were in bloom. Gathering flowers, watching the 
antics of an occasonal squirrel or feathered denizen of the 
forest, these Sabbath strollers were enjoying themselves as 
only lovers of nature can under snch circumstances. 
As they paused beside 1 he stream a school of minnows 
darling through the water caused them to forget the sacred- 
ness of the day and aroused in their minds the passion of 
their favorite sport. 
Instinctively reaching back into his hip pocket. Uncle 
William drew forth a small line with hook attached, the 
others soon found pole and bait, and Uncle William, forget- 
ful of all else but his favorite pastime, was soon engaged in 
extracting the hungry minnows from the stream. 
All but the larger ones, which were 3 or 4in. in length, 
were returned to their n'dtive element About a half dozen 
of the largest minnows Uncle William concluded to take 
home with him. 
As the sun sank near the horizon the angling was quit, and 
then arose the question as to how to get those fish home 
without attracting the attention of inquisitive eyes and gos- 
siping tongues. The value of the fish was no consideration 
for taking them home, but Uncle William knew they would 
please his invalid boy, B, suggested tieing together the four 
- corners of a handkerchief, placing the fish inside and then 
inserting flowers, so it would look to the observer that Uncle 
William was taking home some wild flowers with the roots 
attached for the purpose of transplanting. This plan was 
adopted, and proved all right until the party was nearly 
home. Passing through the town, many acquaintances who 
were on their way to church complimented Uncle William 
on his beautiful flowers. They were within a block of home, 
and were congrat'ulating each other on the successful ruse 
for concealing the fish, when Mrs. K., a great lover of flow- 
FORfiST AND STREAM, 
ers, spied them passing her residence. Calling Uncle Wil- 
liam, Mrs. K. aFked what kind of flowers he had. "Ohl 
just some wild flowers," replied the old gentleman. "But 
let me see them!" insisted IMrs. K., reaching out her hand. 
With some misgivings. Uncle handed over the flowers. 
"Oh! ohl aren't they beautiful! How lovely they do smell! 
I will just take two or three for — owl oh! mercy, goodness!" 
screamed the good lady, as one of the fish flopped out into 
her hand. The shrill, feminine screams of course brought 
the rest of the family and several neighbors, who smiled very 
audibly as Uncle William gathered up the fish and flowers 
from where they had been strewn by the frightened lady. 
The next morning, when Uncle William went up to the 
office, the fish story had preceded him, and it took a goodly 
number of cigars to satisfy the boys. John C. Briggs, 
A Home-Made Rod. 
Philadelphia, V&..—Ediiar Forest and Stream: "For ac- 
count of whom it may concern" I want to tell those of your 
many readers who are interested in the capture of the wily 
bass of a most remarkable rod with which I di.d nearly all 
of my fishing last September in the waters of the upper Del- 
aware. The original creation was the product of the fertile 
brain and skillful hands of that best of boatmen and fisher- 
men, Jlillard F. Hauser. He has used one for two years 
past, and last autumn, on our first day out, he presented one 
to me, which with, I fear, father a pitying air I decided to 
try, so that he would not feel hurt; the result being that for 
the nest four weeks I discarded my cherished split-bamboos 
and dagama woods, and fished altogether with my latest 
acquisition. 
As Hauser explained it to me, the method which he pur- 
sues in the manufacture of his rods is this: He procures the 
best pieces of Calcutta bamboo (the kind with the brown 
markings) which he can obtain, selecting one about 11 to 
13ft. long and about l^in. in diameter at the butt. Tliis he 
seasons on racks up against his kitchen ceifing for from four 
to six months. He then takes it down and gives it, at such 
intervals as may be necessary for perfect drying, three coats 
of fine coach body varnish. He then proceeds to wrap the 
rod over its entire length with best quality of black patent 
thread, of which it requires about l,aOOyds, for a rod. This 
is followed by three or four more coats of outside varnish, 
each one of which is allowed to dry thoroughly before the 
next one is applied. The tip, guides and reel bands are put 
on in the usual way and their wrappings varnished, and the 
rod is done. 
This method of treatment seems to work a radical change 
in the nature of the bamboo. It produces a rod which is 
elastic to a degree which will almost permit one to throw a 
fly with it, and it cannot be broken. I have seen Hauser 
with one of these rods and without a sinker cast a helgramite 
or stone catfish over 100ft., manipulating it as he would a 
fly rod, and I found no difiiculty in casting from 80 to 90ft. 
The tip can be doubled back upon the butt with the absolute 
certainty that no fracture will result, and one can strike a 
fish as with a steel spring. Don't ask me why all this is. I 
don't know. I am simply giving results for which I do not 
pretend to account. The only objection to which I can see 
such a rod is open is its liability to take a "set," but this can 
be readily straightened out by bending it back with the 
hands. 
Of course it does not lend itself readily to transportation 
by train, but where one is on the river from day to day, and 
the general method of locomotion is by boat, the length is 
no great inconvenience. 
To the scoffer who "don't believe it" I can only say one 
thing, viz., try it. 
.. I use the same fine line, leader, and carefully adjusted reel 
as hitherto. 
As much of the fishing in the upper Delaware is done by 
"drifting," that is to say, by dropping slowly down through 
one of the long eddies, witti your minnow or cattish 50 to 
75ft. astern, and as on many occasions you will find that at 
the time that you want to strike your fish he is double that 
distance away, inasmuch as on seizing the bait they run up 
stream like a flash, it can be readily seen that a rod must 
have backbone to overcome the resistance of the water upon 
such a length of line. Many and many a time, despite the 
most careful handling, have my fine rods given way at the 
ferrules under the strain of striking a hea-vy fish under such 
circumstances, but I have never seen these rods suffer in any 
way. 
Should any one of your readers care to experiment in this 
direction I should be pleased to have his experience. 
Wadleigh Brooke. 
Some More I<arge Fish Records. 
Cincinnati. — Editor Forest and Stream: I have spent 
a good deal of my time the last ten years fishing; 
generally having a month in the spring and a month 
each fall on Kinnikinnick Creek, a stream in Lewis county, 
Ky., fishing fof bass and pike; and I generally have fairly 
good success. In the fall of 1895 I caught a large-mouth 
black bass that weighed 5|lbs., and, being the largest one I 
had ever seen, I was very proud of it. But on Oct. 4, 1896, 
I caught on rod a large-mouth bass that weighed 8i-lbs. and 
was 32fin, long, and 7lin, from back to belly. When I 
first weighed it I thouglil the scales must be wrong, so I sent 
it to Vanceburg, Ky., and it weighed S^lbs. there, and four 
responsible men saw it weighed; I then sent it to Cincinnati 
and wrote them to show it to everybody and to weigh it. It 
weighed 8jlbs. the third day after I caught it. I also 
caught quite a nice lot of pike: one Slbs., two 61bs., one 
8lbs., one lOlbs., one lllbs. Oct. 23 I caught three: one 
61bs., one Slbs. and one lOlbs. 
The oldest inhabitants of Kinney say that the 61b. bass 
was the largest that they had ever heard of before 1 caught 
the 8ilb. one. Geo. C. Walker. 
The Adventures of a Mess of Minnows. 
Wheeling, W. Va., March 3.— Last October, while bass 
fishing in the South Branch of the Potomac with a party of 
Wheeling and Washington gentlemen, we had our bait 
buckets carried away by a freshet. The water was very 
high and muddy for several days. When it fell we had a 
fruitless search for our bait. 
In January one of the family with whom we had boarded 
saw through the clear ice one of our buckets, which he knew 
by the initials C. E. H. painted on it. Cutting through the 
ice, he fished it up and found all the minnows alive, in spite 
of their crowded quarters and rough and muddy journey. 
Is this a hard living for miimows from 3 to 4in. long? 
A. G. H. 
[MAltOH 13, 1897." 
■ — -^^ y _ 
Pennsylvania Trouting. 
Patterson, Pa. — Editor Forest and Stream: As the trout 
season is approaching, a word from our section may be of 
interest to some of your readers. The streams of Jilniata 
county have been nearly depleted by illegal fishing. Long 
before the season opens our streams are fished, and some 
vandals use fulminating caps and fuse, and destroy all the 
fish, little and big, in the holes where they use the explosive. 
Mr, Wells and I went fishing in Big Eun, and only caught 
ten trout in a day's fishing. We were told by a young man 
we met that a party had taken out 150 trout by the use of 
explosives a few days before. 
Licking Creek, which used to be one of the finest trout 
streams in our county, is fished in season and out of season 
by trout hogs, who sell their trout to hotels. They are not 
particular as to how they are caught, or the size of 'the trout. 
Unless some measures are taken to prevent this wanton de- 
struction, in a very few years there will be no trout in our 
streams. 
But notwithstanding the scarcity of trout the trout brag- 
gart is still in evidence. I have in my mind one who, like 
Abou Ben Adam, leads all the rest. In the following dog- 
gerel I have parodied the poem to describe his propensity; 
as I have left his last name blank, it may apply to others 
affected in the same manner: 
Abou Ben , may his^tribe die out, 
Awoke one night after he had been for trout; 
And there traced on the wall, to his surprise, 
Were name.s of men who had told trout lies. 
He saw their lies recorded, saw the size 
Of trout they had caught with worms and flies; 
He saw their measures taken good and strong, 
None less than fifteen, many eighteen inches long. 
He waited patiently to see whose catch was best, 
And lo! Ben 's led all the rest, 
Sancho Panza, 
Anglers* Association of Onondaga. 
At the eighth annual meeting of the Anglers' Association 
of Onondaga, in Syracuse, last week, the committee in charge 
of ordering fish fry for the waters of this county reported 
that they had made requisition upon the State Commission- 
ers in the name of the Association for the following: 500,000 
pike fry for Seneca Eiver; 500,000 pike fry for Oneida River; 
5.000 trout, fingerlings, for Onondaga Creek; 1,000 black 
bass, yearlings, tor Oneida River. 
W. S. MacGregor, WiUiam Everson and M. J. French 
were appointed a nominating committee to name candidates 
for officers for the ensuing year and reported the follow- 
ing: D. H. Bruce for president; Henry Loftie for vice- 
president; J. E. Bierhardt for secretary, and Charles H. 
Mowry for treasurer; for members of the executive commit- 
tee: L. A Stevenson, M. H. Schwartz and W. S. Mac- 
Gregor. The candidates were unanimously elected, 
It was resolved that the name shall hereafter be "The 
Anglers Association of Onondaga," thus dropping the 
apostrophe from the name and changing it from the 
"Anglers' Association of Onondaga of Syracuse, N. Y." 
The meeting resolved, after a spirited discussion, to in- 
dorse the bill now before the Legislature providing for 
special legislation for Oneida Lake in connection with the 
continuance there of a State hatchery and a bill providing 
for a bounty for the capture of nets illegally used in fishiug. 
The following committee was appointed to have charge of 
the arrangements for the fly- casting tourney to be held in the 
spring: Walter S. MacGregor, C. W. Smith, George B. 
Wood, Charles H. Mowry and W. S. Barnum. 
Gov. Morton's Bass. 
Editor Foi'est and Stream: 
In your issue of Feb. 37 Mr, A. N, Cheney refers to a 
large-mouthed black bass taken from a pond on the premises 
belonging to Governor Morton, and which weighed 241bs. 
Mr. Cheney is very justly regarded as authority in all mat- 
ters relating to fish, and unless the error in regard to this 
fish is corrected, the statement made by Mr. Cheney will 
very naturally be regarded as authentic, although the story 
is aiven by him simply for what it is worth. 
It is enough to say that those who then were in the se- 
cret, and which has now become an open one, all admit that 
this fish did weigh 241bs,, but it happened to be a striped 
bass which had probably just been taken with a net from 
the Hudson River. It was photographed at the time and 
some of the photographs are still extant. 
If I am correctly informed, the fish in question was never 
exhibited to Governor Morton, but a report was simply made 
to him that in drawing oif his pond this fish was found, and 
that it was a large-mouthed black bass. 
So far as I have been able to ascertaui, no large-mouthed 
black bass have ever been taken in this county or in Ulster 
county exceeding from 8 to 91bs. in weight. One was taken 
in Lake Mahopac some four or five years ago which was re- 
ported to weigh between 18 and ISlbs., but this weight has. 
never been verified. J. S. Van Clbep. 
PouGHKEEPSiE, March 8. 
Trout Fishing Conditions and Fish.. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The following may be of some slight interest to your 
readers : 
The season was the last of May, 1896. Lakes east of 
Moosehead. Weather cold and raw, high winds^ small 
chance for fly-fishing. Twenty-two fish caught, smallest 
weighed nearly 3lbs. Three only were caught on ordinary 
trout flies, the rest by trolhng. Method used, a strong 
leader over two large black bass flies, and either small spoon 
or very small minnow strung on a large hook same way as 
when casting for bass. Two lines made up in this style 
simply with flies of different kinds, one with sinker, the other 
a surface line. By these measures my guide and myself 
were enabled to capture the fish. 
The photograph I send is of the four larger ones, weights 
61bs., 51^1 bs., 4flbs., 4lbs. ; all handsome fish and good fighters; 
none taken on the spoon, several on;the minnow. The rest 
struck the large bass files well, as they were fairly deeply 
sunk. Casting the small flies over the same ground seemed 
to bear alone poor results. Cause was in all probability 
cold, windy weather and no natural flies on the surface. 
All fish taken were fierce biters. F. M. Johnson. 
Mr. Conroy's Removal. 
Mk. Thomas J. Conkot has removed his fishing tackle 
establishment from Broadway to No. 28 John street. 
