4lO 
FOREST AND STl 
LMaV 93, 1897. 
faithful friend. I last met Mr. ritzhugh in Detroit, in 
1888, when we met by appoinlment at a meeliDg of the 
American Fisheries Society, and how we did fish in the hotel 
that night! The old stories were retold, and we renewed 
our youth with memories of the past. He told of a priest 
tvho fished with him occasionally, and whom I had seen 
in the woods, retiring at Ihe proper hours to tell his beads, 
tod then joining us with a smiling face, brim full of good 
nature to ask what we thought of the fishing prospect. 
Some careless remark of mine about our not following the 
good example of our clerical friend caused Dan to say : 
"Speak for yourself, my boy. All men do not perform 
tbeir devotions" in public, and only for your happening to 
stumble on the reverend gentleman and seeing him telling 
his beads, you would never have known that he did it. 
i^Teither do you know what 1 may do in that line; but as for 
you, I think you incline more to the jovial creed of the 
sporting monk of Tountain's Abbey, wh.o said: 
" 'Little I reok of the matin-bell, 
But drown its toll with iny claDging horn; 
And the only beads I love to tell 
Are the beads of the dew that hang on the thorn'." 
Hon. Herschel Whitaker, President of the Michigan Fish 
Commission, wrote me that Mr. Fitzhugh died on June 26, 
1896, and that he attended his funeral, adding: "He was one 
of nature's noblemen, a true sportsman, a brave spirit, with 
a heart as gentle as a woman's." Asking Mr. Whitaker to 
get me a picture of my old friend, he replied that Mr. Fitz- 
hugh would never sit for a photograph, but that Mr. E. A. 
Cooley, of Bay City, had one that was worked up from a 
snap shot, taken by a young amateur, of a group among 
whom Mr. Fitzhugh was sitting. This picture Mr. Cooley 
sent and is here used. 
Mr. Fitzhugh was born in. Livingston county, N. Y., in 
1823, and consequently was seventy years old when he died. 
He was a strong, healthy man, barring occasional attacks of 
gout, which, when the}' came on in the woods, rendered him 
helpless, and then Len Jewell has actually carried him on 
his back over twenty miles through the woods when £0 
afflicted. He went to Bay City in 1847 and built a house, 
and went 1o New York city three years later, but in 1870 
made Bay City his permanent residence. He left a wife, but 
no children. 
Len Jewell is dead. Looking down the line of men I 
have fished with it is only an odd one or two who are left. 
A letter from a lifelong friend, just received, makes this 
statement:: "A man makes no friends after he reaches fifty 
years, only acquaintances." This is a new and philosoph- 
ical view of life that is worth recording, for some personal 
experiences in recent years seem to bear it out. 
Fked Mather. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Big Fishing for Big Fish. 
Chicago. 111., May 1.— Mr. W. F. Souther, of this city, 
hands me the following letter from a friend of his who has 
been down in Lower California fishing for jewfish. He says 
the jewfish peculiar to the Gulf of California differs slightly 
from the Pacific Ocean fish bearing the same name. Mr. 
Souther says, with apologetic intent in regard to the story, 
that 6,5001bs. of fish in two or three hours does sound a 
trifle tall, but that it is unquestionably true. The letter 
reads as below ; 
"Toi'BKA, Kas. — My Dear WiUtam: I know that one of 
your favorite pastimes is with the rod and line, and having 
just returned from a trip to Guaymas, in the State of Sonora, 
Mexico, where we spent several days fisbing, thought pos- 
sibly you would be interested in my account of our sport. 
Guaymas, as you know, is situated on Guaymas Bay, on tLe 
Gulf of California. It is a quaint old Mexican town, nobody- 
knows how old, as it was an Indian village long before its 
discovery by white men. We left the Clearing House dock 
about 5 o'clock in the morning, being towed by a small tug 
in two yawls to a point about ten miles from the city and 
directly under Cape Haro lighthouse. Our party consisted 
of eight Americans, all prominently known in railway 
circles, and an equal number of natives — Mexicans and 
Yaqui Indians — who composed the crew of the tug and 
acted as guides and oarsmen. 
' 'We reached the fishing grounds about 8 o'clock and lost 
no time in getting to work. During the months of Novem- 
ber, December, .January and February, a fish, called bj^ the 
natives ioHoaha (which was interpreted to us as sea bass) 
comes into the feeding grounds of Guaymas Bay, and it does 
not require much of an effort to catch a good-sized boat load. 
We had an abundance of lines, about half the thickness of 
ordinary clothes-line, with a hook about 8 or lOin. in length, 
and which was attached to the line with about 12in. of heavy 
well chain. This latter precaution is taken to prevent the 
sharks, which are quite numerous and frequently caught, 
from biting the lines in two. For bait we used the arm of 
an octopus, or devil fish, or a small fish which is called there 
tie dulce, or "sweet mouth." This latter fish weighs from 
1 to Slbs., and is put on the hook right under the back fin 
and allowed to swim as usual. The fish are found in very 
deep water, and we frequently had out over 100ft. of line. 
On the day in question the fish must have been very hungry, 
for we no sooner got our lines to the bottom than we had 
hooked a 100 pounder, and what fun it was hauling them in I 
It requires quite a strong man to haul a 100 pound fish from 
100ft. of water, and we soon found out that the salt water, 
heavy lines and strong fish cut our hands unmercifully, and 
the writer was laid up for several days afterward with pretty 
sore bands. After getting the fish to the top of the water, 
we hauled them alongside of the boat, and then had to knock 
them in the head several times with a short, heavy ironwood 
club to stun them before we could get them into the boat. 
After fishing about an hour our two boats were loaded with 
fish to the gunwales. 
"We rowed ashore and unloaded the fish on the bank and 
started afresh, and inside of another hour succeeded in re- 
filling the boats, catching in all sixty-five fish, averaging a 
little over lOOlbs. each. After we had refilled the boats we 
were pretty well tired out, and all went ashore for the pur- 
pose of eating our lunch and clt aning the fish. The water 
was about 30ft. deep along shore, but clear as crystal, and 
we caught lots of starfish and lobsters with our small har- 
poons. The big fish were so plsntiful that we actually 
caught three of them hooked in the side,«, they having run 
into the hooks. We lost a good many lines, as the fish are 
pretty strong, especially when first caught; but after we get 
them near the surface the air bag comes out of their mouths, 
atd after that there is no danger of losing your fish, as it. 
floats around on top of the water, and never goes to the bot- 
tom again. The most amusing feature of the day was wheu 
one of our party got his hook caught on the 3001b. anchor, 
which he pulled to the top amid shouts of laughter from the 
whole party. He was quite a heavy man, and the exertion 
made him puff' lustily. Every time tie would stop pulling 
he would see the line start for the bottom at a rapid rate, 
and he must have thought he had caught a whale. He fin- 
ally succeeded in getting the anchor to the top, and I won't 
tell you what he said. You can guess. 
"1 am not much of a fisherman, as you know, but have 
made several trips to Guaymas, and always go fishing there, 
as it is no trouble to fill yo'ur boats in no time, and I am in- 
formed that Agassiz, the eminent naturalist, on a trip 
through the Gulf of California, said that it is the largest and 
best unfished body of water on the globe. They catch in- 
numerable varieties of fish there and it is well worth a trip 
there, but it does not require an expert to be successful. In 
our country it requires; brains to be a successful fisherman, 
while there it requires only strength and tough hands. 
When we returned ashore we were told by everyone that 
our catch was the largest that had ever been made by a single 
party— but still I wasn't happy. Between you and me I en- 
joyed vastly more our over Sunday trips on the C , M & St. 
P. R. R. to Dslavan and Eagle Lake, Wisconsin, and httle 
as 1 know of 'scientific' fishing, I believe I'd rather c.itch 
half a dozen of the 3 and 31b. bass we caught last summer at 
Kansasville than 100 of the biggest tortoabas that ever swam 
ia the Gulf of California. McC." 
The Thornapple River for Bass. 
May 15. — Mr. R. P. Alden. of Saginaw, Mich,; is good 
enough to add a bit of further information about the Thorn- 
apple River of the South Peninsula as a bass stream. It 
comes in the nature of the usual advice of to day, "You 
ought to have been here about ten years ago," or "You'll 
find it a little better over in the next couaty," which fisher- 
men of this region have become accustomed to hearing when 
they go out fishing anywhere. I hope we shall hear of better 
enforcement of the laws in the Thornapple country, so that 
we shall see this good stream as it always should be. Mr. 
Alden says : 
I see you mention the Thornapple River as a good stream 
for small mouth bass There was a time when the Thorn- 
apple was alive with them, but of late years ihey are nearly 
run out. The law protecting the black bass is not enforced, 
as the fish are taken in every manner the year round. Spear- 
ing and netting has done its work. In i860 I was born in 
the village of Alaska, seventeen miles southeast of Grand 
Rapids and on the bank of the Thornapple River, and I lived 
there for twenty-five years. I have fished and liunted its 
entire length, and will say that if the laws were enforced 
this would be the angler's paradise for the small mouth bass. 
I never tried the fly, but with natural bait one can to-day 
get good fishing there. 
The Prairie River for Trout. 
Mr. W. H. Comstock, of this city, is beginning to be 
trou'iled with the trout fever at this time o' year, and this 
week came up to the Forest and Stream oflice to ask 
where he could go to get some good trout fishing, nearby in 
Wisconsin, all fly-casting of course, for he does not care for 
any other kind. This was a hard question to answer, for I 
really do not know a single stream in Wisconsin where good 
fly fishing can be depended upon. There are trout in many 
streams of Wiscon,sin, but the most trout are in the worst 
streams. The Paint and the Pine and the Fence all offer 
good fly fishing once in a while. The Little Oconto is about 
the best of any of the streams of upper Wisconsin which do 
not run into Lake Superior (the best trout fishing is in the 
streams which empty into that lake). I told Mr.^ Comstock 
that he would be apt to find about as good fishing of his 
sort in the white River, near Princeton, as in any stream I 
personally knew anything about, but that he would probably 
find the Prairie River, near Merrill, Wis., still better, if he 
cared to take a sevenieen mile stage ridd (no man deserves 
trout nowadays who is not willing to ride further than that 
by stage). The Prairie River was for a long, time stocked 
by the State, and the fact was not generally known, the 
rwer being practically covered up for some years. Trout 
weighing up to 4 and 5!bs. were taken from it for the 
World's Fair. Since then the stream has been fished by a 
good many anglers, some of whom were careful not to give 
the snap away. I can't say what the stream will offer this 
season, but it ought to be about the best place in that State, 
all things considered. 
I shall be vastly obliged to friends in Wisconsin and the 
South Peninsula of Michigan if they will be kind enough to 
give me the names of good waters for trout or bass. About 
mis time of year a whole lot of people come in here and 
want to know where to go. I will not send anybody any 
but the right kind of people, so don't be afraid to tell where 
the good fishing is for the friends of Forest akd Stream. 
Chicago Fiy-Casting Clult>. 
The Chicago Fly-Casting Cliib has begun its season casting 
tournaments, and held its first meet May 8 at one of the city 
parks, with the following results. The first column shows 
distance of fly-casting, the second and third the percentages 
and the fourtn the bait-casting distance ; 
Long Distance and Accuracy and Bait- 
Distance. Accdracy. Delicacy. Casting. 
I, H. Bellows 7JJ 9S% lO^^ 963^ 
L.F.Crosby. .... .... . Ti^i 
B. W Goodsell 85 9 9<>}^ 8?\ 
E. D. Letterman ....... , .. .... Si^^ 
C. A. Lippincott 8. 89I5 71% 79 
O. G. Ludlow U% 78^5 
E. B.Miller .... 
a A. Murrell 72 19 77^ 9.3^ 
H. A. Newkirk. .. SVi, ti-i^e. 
F. N. Peet 79 86is Sb% 
G. W. Strell .... 80»5 
J. E. Strong 79 8;5, 84^, 
Holders of medals: Long distance fly, B. W. Goodsell; 
distance and accuracy, I H. I5ellows; accuracy and delicacy, 
B. W. Goodsell; bait casting, Itha H. BeUows. 
B Hough. 
1S06 BoYCK Building, Chicago. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Kentucky Fish Abundant. 
Mayfield, Ky., May 8. — Never before were there so 
many fish in the small streams in western Kentucky. Last 
week a party of five spent the day on Clark's River, and in a 
few hours landed seventy-five nice trout. Now this may be 
a small catch for some waters, but it is extraordinarily large- 
f or Clark's River. 
We fished just below a mill dam,jwhere the water was not 
more than Sit. deep. 
I suppose the backwater from the Ohio has supplied the 
creek with its unusual amount of fine fish. Hayseed. 
Fish Feeding. 
It is my belief that during the next few years the mat- 
ter of feeding young and adult fish will command the at- 
tention of public and private flsli breeders in this country 
to a greater extent than it has during any period in the 
past since artificial fish propagation has been practiced. It 
is natural that this sliould be so, aa other branches of the 
work have occupied the attention of fishculturists until 
these branches having been perfected, as you may say, 
the problem of how best to rear the young and old fish in 
confinement, economically and in healtii remains to be 
solved. Not that the rearing of young fish to yearlings, or 
older, has not been practiced for years past, and has occu- 
pied the time and thought of fish Ijreeders, but now it 
would seem as though they were concentrating their 
thought upon the discovery of the best and cheapest me- 
tliod of rearing and feeding fish fry, and maintaining 
stock fish. 
Fish breeders in Europe have apparently devoted more 
time to solving this problem than the fish breeders in 
America, and this is explainable when we understand that 
their operations have been conducted on a small scale 
comparatively; for while they hatch thousands of fish in 
Europe we hatch them by millions in this country, or I 
might even say, by the hundreds of millions. Naturally 
under such conditions, while we have been perfecting 
plans for hatching fish on such a large scale, we have not 
devoted much time to the matter of rearing the fry after 
they are hatched. Within the past few days I liave re- 
ceived several letters, which refer to the subject of feeding 
or rearing fish. One from Mr. Thomas Ford, Manor Fish- 
ery, Caistor, Lincolnshire, England, I quote from as fol- 
lows: "For the last three or four years I have been 
feeding my trout from the fry stage up to my 121b8. fish 
on a new system, at present used only by myself 
and the results are most excellent. It is a perfectly natural 
food, and I have wholly discarded chopped liver and horse- 
flesh. My fry have had no chopped liver for quite ten 
years. This will probably be news to you. This year my 
yearlings run up to 9in., and I sold a good lot from 4 to 
- <Sin., quite equal to tlie Scotch two-year-olds, and I got a 
good price for them, of course. 1 had smaller yearlings from 
smaller fish running from 3 to Gin. The last 500 yearlings, 
fano, I sent out were all from 4 to 8in., with the 9in. trout 
picked out for future breeders." We have no trouble to 
rear yearlings of Din. in length on this side of the water, 
but it is not done on natural food. At the Cold Spring 
Harbor Station of the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commis- 
sion, and in the rearing ponds of the Rosapeague Club, 
near Smithtown, L. I., I have seen 9in. yearlings a-plenty, 
though neither are fed entirely on natural food. The lat- 
ter are not fed on liver, but they are fed on beef hearts and 
salt water minnows (mummys). 
Last year at the meeting of the American Fisheries So- 
ciety at Battery Park Aquarium, New York, fish feeding 
was discussed at length, and the method of William Thomp- 
son, of Warren, Ind., was referred to, not entirely with the 
seriousness which it deserved. Mr. Thompson feeds his 
fish on meal of some sort, but the process of preparing his 
fish food has never been made public. Corn meal, cooked 
and mixed with chopped liver, is a fish food that has been 
tried by the State and by private breeders. I n fact, I now 
recall a letter from a private breeder received a month or 
so ago on this very subject. The writer is Mr. H. Seymour 
Buckley, of Odessa, N. Y. He said: "I notice a discus- 
sion in the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 
in regard to trout food in which ia mentioned the Page 
method of feeding mush. I have been in this business 
only three years, but I have used the mush and liver dur- 
ing that time and consider it a very good and economical 
food. I also use blood with this- mush. I rear only brook 
trout, and they take this food readily and thrive upon it. 
Fish fed upon this food can _ be eaten at any time without 
changing the food, as there is no bad flavor from it in the 
flesh of the trout like that of liver- fed fish. In fact the 
fish fed on mush and liver are superior to wild trout. I 
am supported in this statement by all who have eaten my 
fish. I have had no experience witli other foods so I will 
not say that this heads the list, but I do know that it pro- 
duces a fish whose flavor cannot be beaten." But I have 
wandered from Mr. Thompson. It is one thing to rear 
brook trout or salmon and quite another to rear shad or 
whitefish fry. The United States Fish Commission in its 
shad pond in Washington does rear shad fry from spring 
until fall, but does not feed the fry, as they subsist on the 
food generated by the plant life in the pond. Mr. Thomp- 
son writes me that by his method of feeding he rears 
wlritefish to from to Sin. in length. This is a system of 
feeding artificial food, and he tells me he has furnished his 
food to the United States Fish Commission to rear 1,000,000 
whitefish to June 1. If this is successful, it will be a long, 
long stride in the direction of solving the food problem so 
far as the delicate whitefish is concerned. 
While I have been writing, a letter has come to me 
which has a bearing on this subject. 
When the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission recom- 
mended in its report for 1895, that in the future no plants 
of German carp should be made in waters containing other 
fisli, because it was no better than the common sucker, 
and instead of being a vegetarian, as was heralded when 
introduced from Europe, it had been convicted of spawn- 
eating; a New York newspaper commented upon the 
recommendation as unwise, and said that the carp had 
not been convicted of spawn-eating, or words to that 
effect. The letter just received is from a member of one 
of the best known private clubs in this country, and he is 
chairman of the hatchery committee of the club. 
lie says: "Years ago, acting on the advice of the U. S. 
Fish Commissioners, the club stocked a lake with carp on 
the assumption that they would provide food for the black 
bass, with which the lake was stocked. * * * The 
black bass has deteriorated. Some years ago the fair run 
was from | to l^lbs., with an occasional big one. I have 
raised and turned into the lake some thousands of black 
bass fry about Sin. long, yet the catch has proven smaller 
and smaller, now running about 8in., and a pound fish 
is the exception. There used to he shoals of mirmows in 
the lake; these have entirely vanished, and last sum- 
mer I did not see them at all. We were troubled by 
the numbers of yellow perch and pickerel. To see a pick- 
erel now is an event, while the number of perch have 
wonderfully fallen off. I lay all this primarily to the 
