June 5, 1897.] [ 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
449 
FISHING IN THE SHENANDOAH. 
Did you, reader, ever fish in the SheDandoah? If so,, did 
you always find the water clear when the fishing fever was 
on you, or have you, like myself, heen often disappointed 
■with muddy water when inclination was greatest and your 
time for going most opportune? I recall a good many years 
ago, when my knowledge of that beautiful river was mote 
limited than now, of reading an amusing but not greatly 
overdrawn description, written, I thmk, by Guy Carleton, 
and given as a preface 1o one of William Mills & Sons' fish- 
ing catalogues, of what one should do who wanted to fish 
that stream; and without being now able from memory to 
recall very accurately his instructions, one was told that be- 
fore starting he must get together his bait and tackle, then 
write to a friend living on the river and get him to write at 
once the condition of the water. Most probably the reply 
would be, "Water is muddy, but possibly good fishing in a 
week if no more rains." Possessing your soul in patience as 
best you could, you wait, and in a few days get a telegram 
saying, "River clearing, come along." With promptness 
you get your things together, and just as you are ready to 
leave the house for the train another message is handed you, 
saying, "Rains above us, water very muddy." And thus it 
may continue for days or weeks. Just such experience has 
been mine and for more than one occasion ; but then one 
sometimes strikes it right, and is generally repaid for bis 
previous waiting and cussing. 
Having been unable to try the hass during the spring fish- 
ing o'her than one day in Goose Creek, off Leesburg, know- 
ing that the close season for the Shenandoah ended May 15 
(9.nd more the pity, for the bass I caught had not finished 
spawning), tackle was overhauled, bait caught, a restless 
feeling comes over me 
"And I kinder fall to wishin' ■> 
I was where the waters swfsb, 
Fer if the Lord made flshin', 
"Why, a leller orter fish." 
Thus prepared and thus feeling I wrote to my fiiecd, J. 
W. Kenner, proprietor of the Kenner House, at Rivciton, to 
write me on Saturday, the 15, the condition of the water, and 
if in condition 1 would leave on Monday, the 17th; caution- 
ing him, however, if the water was then clear, but should it 
be muddy before I started Monday to telegraph me The 
reply came Sunday that both rivers (the north and souih 
branches join there) ^were muddy and would probably 
not be clear before the end of the coming week. Such 
a report was disappointing but not unexpected. Know- 
ing that I could not get off from bu.siness engagements 
the latter part of the week, I had abandoned my trip 
for the time, when to my surprise, while at supper Monday 
night, a telegram was handed me, saying, "Pish biting; bring 
bait; come at once." Acting upon the information contained 
in the letter received the day before, other engagements had 
been made, my fishing partner also made engagements that 
would keep him from leaving, and as I never — well, hardly 
ever — let pleasure interfere with business, and being unable 
to reverse the usual order of things, as Mr, Mather, in bis 
Article XLT., tells us Mr. Fitzhugh did, 1 could not say that 
my pleasure was to practice law, my business to fish; I was 
in a quandary. A fellow-fisherman, situated as 1 then was, 
can appreciate my feelings. My wife (God bless her !) set- 
tled the question by saying, "Get ready and go, even if you 
have to make the trip by yourself. You have been talking 
about it long enough." I didn't need more encouragemtnt, 
but hustled around that night, saw a party for whom I had 
some important work on hand, got his consent to postpone it 
for a oay or two, and having my bait in a box in an ice pond 
near at hand, next morning found me prepared for a twelve- 
mile drive to Marshall, where the train was then taken for 
Riverton, at which place I arrived on time at 12:12. 
Riverton is a pretty town, mostly situated on high ground, 
just at the junction of the North and South Branches of the 
Shenandoah, the hotel recently added to and improved, kept 
by Joe K'inner, as his intimates call him, ably aided by his 
estimable wife and her sister, and by whom fishermen are 
accorded a hearty welcome, is about equally distant (6ve 
minutes' walk) from two large dams, one on each rivt-r, 
under which bass congregate, and during the spring and 
early summer fishing a great many are caught tnere. Hotel 
charges are reasonable, and many acts of courtesy are ex- 
tended for which no charge is made, but which are duly ap- 
preciated by visiting fishermen, many of whom come there 
with their wives and spend some time. Getting my dinner, 
1 soon had "limbered," to use Mr. Mather's term, a new 
Bristol steel rod, which T was anxious to christen, and made 
quick time for the dam on North River, and there found two 
fishermen who had had fairly good sport, and one of whom, 
Mr. Sanford, of Orange, had mat day caught his first bass, 
landing just as I reached the river a fine one. He was natu- 
rally a happy mortal, and forever afterward will, [ venture, 
be an enthusiastic fisherman. To my regret, however, the 
fish had ceased biting for the day, and fish as 1 did, I caught 
but three that evening. 
Knowing that the morning fishing is always the best at 
this time on this river, I was up and at it next morning by 4 
A. M. Although the early bird may get the worm, the early 
fisherman, in this instance at least, did not get the fish, for 
it was some hours afterward when other fishermen had come 
and 1 had crossed over to the mill on the opposite bank before 
I got the long withed-for strike. You know the feeling, if 
you have ever "been there." I have him sure; a good one 
from the way he fights. He is hooked some 20yds. away; 
the water is swift and he puts up a game fight. Hello! he is 
out of the water trying to shake that hoolt out, but to no use 
The rod is christened; it has acted its part well, and as I 
stand 8ft. above the water on the abuttment to the mill a 
friend gets the net under him and I have a game tighter who 
has chased a minnow once too often, and hurriedly trying 
my pocket scales I find him but a fraction under 3lbs., and 
while 1 have caught much larger my experience is that a fish 
of this size, especially if caught in swift water, will give you 
more pleasure to land, putting up a better fight than one 
twice his weight. That was the only fish caught that morn- 
ing. Alter breakfast I caught his mate. 
When dinner was over 1 tried the South Branch, which 
was not so clear, but with little success. Others that even- 
ing had excellent sport under the Nortn dam where that 
morning no fi-sh would bite. 
My time was limited, and the following morning I was 
compelled to leave. 1 was again on the river early, and 
just as 1 got my minnow in the water. Miss Brock and her 
brother appeared, both good — can I use the term — fishermen. 
Hardly had we begun before she and I each landed a bass. 
I had made arrangements for a boat to go out under the 
dam, so left them on the abuttment and anchored as close 
under the dam as the boiling waters would permit, and 
there I sat without a bite and saw, every few minutes, Jliss 
Brcck and her brother landing bass. Did I break the Com- 
mandments'? Well, I leave it for you to imagine. It was 
not long, however, before I moved closer to the other side 
and, yes- luck, do you call it — charged, and before leaving 
time 1 had safely landed four beautfes, worth to me many 
times more than the small ones I had just before seen caught, 
some of which were returned to the strearh. Mj catch for 
the trip numbered only an even dozen, but, as the boatman 
remarked: "You have the finest fish that have been caught 
here this season," I was satisfied. I had not caught as many 
as others, but my fish were larger; they fished with min- 
nows, 1 with "Mad Toms," as we call them, fish resem- 
bling the cat, but seeming to be a species by itself, which 
are found in the small streams here and which never seem to 
grow over 4 or oin. long. Put let one stick or sting you and 
his power for pain seems unlimited. To a novice he is a 
terror to put on the hook, but when you know how — well, it's 
easy. 
Just as T was about to leave my friend Brock, a brother- 
in-law of E. P. Wilkins, the genial depot agent for the 
Southern Railway at that point, brought me six nice ones, 
A FLORIDA S.»>VFISB. 
Lengtli Ufl., breadih IJgft., weight COOlbs. Taken with rod and reel by 
E. Vom Hofe, of Sew Tork, at Fort Myers, Pla. May 2, 1897. 
caught by him that morning, to add to my string. No ac- 
count of a trip to Riverton is complete without a word about 
Doc Wilkins — as his friends call him — an enthusiastic hunts- 
man, a successful fisherman, a "good fellow" in its broadest 
sense. Long may he live. 
I reached home about 1 o'clock. Of course I had to show 
my string as 1 passed through the town, and the remarks 
heard amply repaid one for getting up early and working 
late; but wait, my thoughts, as I recall that trip, have run 
away with my pen. So boil it down or cut it entire with- 
out any complaint from C. M. White, 
Warrenton, Va,, May 24. 
"Men I Have Fished With." 
What a marvelous book of biography you are building 
up, chapter by chapter, in Fokest axd STEEAii. Nothing 
you could do to perpetuate yourself and friends could be 
more opi ortune or so acceptable to all. 1 have just finished 
the perusal of the sketch of Dan Pitzhugh, which seems to 
me to be the most soul-fetching of them all It is full of 
bonhomie and brotherly sentiment. 1 am glad you did not 
omit my small part of the grayling drama. — Gliarlcs Balhch 
to Fred MaiJur. 
Black Bass Season on "Long Island. 
The Long Island black bass season named in the Long 
Island sections of the game law runs from May 30 to Dec. 
31. The general Stale season is June 15 to Dec. 31, and in 
the general law no exception is made in refert nee to Long 
Island. There is thus another conflict of provisions. Chief 
Protector Pond advises us that the general law does not 
apply to Long Island, but that the old dates. May 30 to Dec. 
31, prevail there. 
COLOR VARIATIONS IN FISHES. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I think very few anglers who fish in difi'erent waters fail 
to observe the great variation that exists in the shading and 
coloring of fishes belonging to the same species, and yet, 
with such a great army of observers, I have seen no exchange 
of opinion that calls attention to or sheds any light upon this 
subject 
After considerable thought, and with frequent changes of 
opinion, many theories, the result of ideas early and hastily 
formed, have been discarded or remodeled, as each year and 
change of locality opened some new field for observation, 
and left me much perplexed, while endeavoring to solve a 
problem that seemed to be a child of so many conditions. 
That all fishes have color markings, well defined, that fol- 
low from one generation to another, each after its own kind, 
is quite well understood ; but I have never seen any reasons 
advanced to account for the often and sometimes wonderful 
variation of color four d on fishes of the same kinds in waters 
of different localities and climate, and while this condition 
holds good with all the different fishes with which 1 am ac- 
quainted, it has been observed that some seem more suscep- 
tible to variation in color than others, and that the variation 
often goes to greater extremes from light to very dark shades, 
which often occur under different conditions. 
Well knowing that it would be impossible to take upon 
myself the task of tracing all of the many fresh-water fishes 
found in waters so widely separated, and to treat all in detail, 
I must confine these notes to a few of our game fishes. 
1 have observed the brook trout of 'New Brunswick, 
Canada, Maine, New Hampshir3 and also Massachusetts, 
and know of no fish more susceptible to greater variations 
in color markings, which vary from a beautiful shimmer of 
silver, with bright red markings, such as trout possess that 
live in very clear springs, or in streams or lakes that are very 
transparent, to the very dark color of trout found in less 
transparent waters, as occurred in some cases where 1 have 
seen specimens taken from the deep holes of a cold springy 
bog having very dark water, that were shaded a very dark 
smoky bay color mingled with bronze, and were nearly the 
color of the hig-mouth black bass of Florida. 
That this variation is not due to climate or locality seems 
apparent, because the greatest difference I have ever ob- 
served has often been found in waters that were only separ- 
ated by a short distance. I remember a trout stream in 
northern Maine, where I spent a few years of my boyhood, 
that furnishes a striking illustration of this. In the main 
stream, although the water was quite clear, it seemed dark 
compared with the waters of a small tributary brook. This 
little brook was given birth and fe^d by springs of crystal 
clearness, which burst forth from the base of too large hills 
a mile from the main stream; it flowed over a stony bottom 
of sand and pebbles, and its waters were clear as crystal. 
The trout caught in this little brook were as bright as silver, 
white those taken from the main stream were many shades 
darker. Another curious circumstance that is worth men- 
tioning is the fact that late in autumn quite large trout 
would ascend the little brook to spawn, and after spending 
some days in the clear waters of this little brook would 
bleach out, as we boys called it, ^nd become much lighter in 
color than when found in the main stream below. 
I have found that trout do not have in an extreme degree 
this faculty of varj ing in color, and I might also mention 
the pickerel found in nearly all of the northern States, as 
another fish that varies very much in color, and under con- 
ditions where locality does not seem to be a very important 
factor. To support this idea, I might cite the wonderful 
difference of color between the pickerel found in Lake 
Champlain and Lake George, which are only a short distance 
apart The fish in one shine like silver. While they are dark 
and smoky-colored in the other. As the pickerel wiU live in 
waters that are too warm for trout, we often find them in 
waters that are daik and discolored from decaying vegetable 
matter, and in such water I have often found the pickerel 
in color as daik as midnight. I have also observed that in 
small bodies of water, which perhaps were only separated 
by a narrow ridge of land, that even here also the fish varied 
greatly in coloring. 
The bass, both large and small mouth, although naturally 
much darker fish than either the trout or pickerel, seem also 
to partake of this faculty of assuming different shades of 
color in waters having a wider range or climate than either 
of the other fishes. 1 have caught them as far north as Can- 
ada, and, as in the case of the large-mouth, as far south as 
the Caloosahatchee River in Florida, and the same variation 
in coloring seemed as much in evidence in the South as in 
the North. 
Another striking feature of these many observations is the 
fact that I have never seen any fish that varied much in 
color found in the same water, except under certain condi- 
tions to which I will refer later. It is a fact worthy of no- 
tice that, in any body of water where the color of the fish 
seems to take either a light or a dark shade, this peculiarity 
affects all alike, and all tend to shade in the same way. 
This rule, while holding good in waters of small area under 
normal conditions, will not always furnish a reliable base to 
calculate from, as the following cases will show. 
In the waters of Lake Champlain, which drain a large ter- 
ritory, we find some difference in the transparency of the 
water in different sections, notably that which exists between 
the main lake and the great back bay, where the bass vary 
in color, showing a dark smoky color in one case while in 
the other the shadings of the fish show a greenish tinge, and 
as a whole are much lighter than in the other. Extremes of 
this condition are more noticeable when found in smaller 
bodies of water, as the following case will fully illustrate: I 
once lived near a small lake of very clear water, and the fish 
found in it were very brigtit. At the foot of the lake was a 
bog, the result of a dam which caused the permanent over- 
flow of a meadow. This place was overgrown with water 
weeds of various kinds, and the water in the bog was 
always dark and discolored owing to the decay of so much 
vegetable matter, and the fish taken from these waters were 
dark and smoky. Every spring the pickerel from the clear 
waters of the lake came into this bog for spawning, and after 
remaining some two or three weeks became nearly as dark as 
the fish that permanently lived there. After the spawning 
season was over and they again returned and became scat- 
tered over the main lake, they bleached out so as to resemble 
in appearance the fish that spawned in the lake, and others 
that failed to visit the bog daring spring migrations. The 
many cases already cited seem suflicient to show that these 
varymg conditions really exist, and under what circum- 
stances they are usually found. 
Many years ago when first I commenced trying to solve 
this problem, I conceived the idea that light was the most 
