Feb. s, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Ill 
A moment of silence fluttered .over the Gai'den; even 
the "gramophone" had ceased to torture that truly pa- 
thetic song, "Massa's in the Cold, Cold, Ground," and 
I asked the veteran, H. L. Leonard, to give us a moose- 
call on a rolled programme. He did, and several moose 
hunters declared it to be the best they ever heard. Mr. 
Leonard used to live in Maine, and could and can yet 
call moose with the best of them. 
The switch, or "Prichard style" of casting came on. 
(In honoring Harry they should not have put a "t" in 
his name; but that is a minor thing.) This cast is well 
known in England under different names. It is the most 
valuable cast for an angler, because it docs not need 
that he shall swing his line behind him more than 20ft. 
But we have proceeded on the old lines, and have not 
yet got beyond the old rules that a line must be "re- 
trieved." There should be no class for "switch casting." 
A man should be allowed to get his line out in any 
way that he can do it best, without restriction. If the 
object of fly-casting tournaments is to develop practical 
fly-casting, then let a man use the best method; if_ it 
be to retrieve his line and throw it as far behind him 
as he does in front of him, then the shooting of the line 
should be barred. But why should a line be retrieved 
when a switch cast will send the fly where it is needed? 
The only reply that seems possible to this question 
is the conservative one of: "That is the way we used 
to do it." Now, when we are fishing we do the best 
we can; we retrieve or vi'e make the switch, or "hoop- 
snake cast" — and it is the best cast in the business. What 
matter, as long as we get the fly there? 
And now comes the question of a man holding the 
butt of his rod in his sleeve. In a class open to all who 
have never cast over 96ft. Mr. Brandeth cast 94, which 
would have won first, but a protest was entered that he 
held the butt of his rod inside his sleeve, and there was 
much arguing as to the regularity of such casting. The 
judges were not agreed, and it was left to the referee, 
who ruled that the cast was not regular. I did not agree 
with him, for these reasons;' Other men have cast in 
this way, and there was no protest. In actual fishing 
many men hold the butt of the rod in that manner, and 
if it helps a man, let him do it in order to get his best 
record. Thomas B. Mills said that he could only cast 
in this way. because his wrist is weak, and added: "I 
only put the end of the butt in my cuf¥, while Brandeth 
had it up his sleeve to the elbow." Mr. Mills said it 
only helped in picking a long line from the water, while 
Mr. Cooper Hewitt thought it helped on the forward 
cast. It is certain that there is no rule against the prac- 
tice, and I don't think there should be one, although 
Mr. Devine, the referee in this case, said: "If you allow 
that, you might allow a man to hold the butt by a strap 
on his arm." It surely helps a man with a weak wrist, 
and enables him to cast against powerful men like Reu- 
ben Leonard. 
Our English friends at first discredited our records, 
until Reuben Wood and Thomas B. Mills went across 
the damp spot wliich separates us, and cast in their 
tournaments, and then they claimed that we used rods 
that were made especially for casting, and which 'were 
good for nothing else. Messrs. Hewitt, Hawes and 
Leonard each used several rods, and surely the contest 
on the afternoon of Jan. 21, where "the rod must not 
exceed 40Z. in weight," in which the record was: Leon- 
ard 92ft. 6in., Hewitt 90, Hawes 88.6, Bellows 81, and 
Goodsell 76ft., cannot be called rods especially made 
and good for nothing else. Many men call a 40Z. rod 
a toy, and it was wonderful work for toys. The next 
dav Leonard cast loift. 6in. with a 502, rod. 
The wind-up of the tournament was grand. Six en- 
tries of the best distance casters, with Leonard to come 
last, in the hope that he would beat all records with a. 
single-handed rod, and he did. When about half of his 
allotted five minutes was gone he made the tremendous 
cast of i2oft.. and the enthusiasm was great. Men chee.fed 
and shook hands with him and with each other. The 
world's record was beaten! The rod with which be did 
this was lift. 7in. long and weighed lo^oz. I saw it 
weighed and measured. 
Speaking of rods, I have several, the lightest bemg a 
split-bamboo of 6oz.; but my favorite is one loft. gin., 
weighing loj^oz., and that is heavier than many stronger 
men use to-day. FREd Mather. 
Boston Winter Sports. 
Boston.— The little red flags are in order, and pick- 
erel fishing has taken a fresh start. In the first place 
there has been some glorious pickerel weather for Jan- 
uary; the sun bright, with a south wind, enough to make 
any country boy hate to chop wood or go to school. 
But little snow on the ice in this State has made it easy 
to reach the pickerel grounds, and on some ponds the 
boys have taken their skates along and taken up the 
time in graceful curves while waiting for the little flags 
to fall. Live bait has been at a premium in the vicinity 
of many of the best pickerel ponds, while here in Boston 
they have been hard to get at any price, either because 
the usual quantity was not preserved in the fall or be- 
cause of an extra demand. Oren Smith and W. H. Clark 
bought a whole bucket of shiners the next day on a pond 
up in New Hampshire, but the morning they started 
they found their bait all dead. They went with the dead 
bait, however, and returned with a dozen good pickereL 
They believe that they could have easily doubled the 
number with live bait. The Sudbury River, the Charles 
River and the Concord River each have been consider- 
ably fished for pickerel of late, with some good strings. 
Mr. Oscar Hosmer, with Mr. Doane, of Newton Center, 
are getting interested in pickerel fishing, and with some 
new rigging they win try the Charles and some of the 
ponds near at hand. Mr. W. J. Donovan has just re- 
turned from a trip to Winnepesaukee and the pickerel 
ponds in that vicinity. He had good weather and plenty 
of pickerel. The ponds in the vicinity of Templeton 
are being well fished. A Boston fisherman was up there 
the other day and caught a fish I3in. long, his only fish 
for the day. It had a square tail and red spots. The 
fishermen called it a dace, but he was careful to conceal it 
under some brush, so that the other fishermen on the 
pond should not see it. He savs that the fishnvas nearly 
dead when taken from the hv^k: no good would have 
come from putting it back into the water. It is fair to 
presume that a great many trout are thus destroyed by 
this ice fishing, though it is illegal to catch them. They 
get upon pickerel hooks baited with live bait, and very 
honest is the fisherman who will return them to the 
water, especially if they are killed in being taken. 
Mr. Walter L. Hill has just returned from his winter 
shooting trip to the home of the Rage'ed Island Club, 
Currituck Sound. In the shooting party were also Mr. 
C. A. Woodward, of Norfolk, and Mr. Leroy Davis, 
president of the club. They shot for several days, get- 
ting canvasbacks and plenty of other ducks. Mr. Hill 
thinks that the Currituck Sound shooting has improved 
under the better protection including the "rest days," 
when nobody shoots, giving the birds time to gather! 
On the rest" days they went across the Sound over to 
Creed, Va., for quafl shooting. Mr. Hfll says that the 
shooting was the finest he ever dreamed of. It seems 
that the section has been under special legal protection 
for some time, and that the close time is just off; doubt- 
less one reason fof the extra good shooting. Mr. Hill 
shot a swan, his first one, at the club preserve, and taking 
in his success with quail over two excellent dogs he is 
greatly pleased with his trip. Speciai.. 
Sundowners in Maine. 
On the afternoon of Aug. 23, 1897, four members ol 
the Sundown Fishing Club left New York bound for 
eastern Maine. Together they had fished the streams 
of Sullivan county. New York; the lakes of the Dead 
River country in Maine, and the Peribonca River in 
the Lake St. John region of Canada, and the Belle River 
country, also in Canada. They had camped out and gone 
through all the experiences of rainy weather and black 
flies, and had traveled many miles all for the hopes of 
one day finding a place where trout were plentiful 
and of good sizes. Some months previously one of 
Maine's guides had been communicated with regarding 
the prospects of sport, and in every an.swer he had said 
that he could promise good fishing. "But do not come 
until late in August, on account of black flies." As we 
had all had experience with those pests, we impatiently 
waited through the summer at our several homes, over- 
hauling dozens of times our rods and flies, and all the 
impedimenta that an angler treasures, always hoping that 
a day will come when he can close his roll-top desk 
with a snap and once more seek the woods loved so 
well by all. 
After a night spent in Boston, the next day found us 
journeying through Maine to Bangor; there we changed 
cars to the Bangor & Aroostook R. R., going through 
many miles of forest. Our intention had been to leave 
the train at Norcross, but the conductor told us that 
by continuing with him about a mile further we could 
find good accommodations at Grifiith Camp, at North 
Twin Dam. So there • we were dropped at about 5 P. M. 
W'e found good beds and bountifully supplied tables, 
and after a well-served supper it was a pleasure to smoke 
the pipe of peace befort the large log fire in the office, 
to listen to Griffith's stories of the quantities of moose, 
caribou, deer and bears that were roaming the woods, 
only waiting to be shot as soon as October should some. 
Not many fish stories were told, although Griffith did 
say he thought some good fishing might be had up near 
Mt. Katahdin; and we four Waltonians had thoughts 
in our minds that perhaps we were in for our usual ex- 
perience of being told we were either a month too early 
or two weeks too soon for the best fishing. So we turned 
in, not any too confident of finding the 2lb. fontinalis 
that we had always fished for, but never brought to net. 
On the morning of Aug. 25, after we had got into our 
beloved old camping togs, our guides (five of them), 
headed by Ingsley Daisy, appeared and said they were 
ready to load canvas and camping truck on the little 
launch Gypsey, which had been chartered to take us 
through North Twin and Panadumcook lakes to the west 
branch of the Penobscot. The sail was a lovely one, par- 
ticularlv so to the four of us who had left the heat and 
noise of New York only twenty-four hours before, to 
find ourselves enjoying the fresh, cool, bracing air and 
the prospect of the wooded shores, and away in the 
distance old Mt. Katahdin raising his granite head above 
it all. After luncheon at the end of the first carry on 
the Penobscot, evening found us paddling our canoes up 
to Indian Joe Francis's camp at Debsconeag. We were 
welcomed by Joe and 40,000,000 mosquitoes, rather more 
than less, jfoe says the mosquitoes come on snowshoes 
in the spring and go away the same way about Christ- 
mas. Pie has many marvelous moose and fish stories 
to tell, and has told them so many times that now he 
believes them himself. The evening of Aug. 26 found 
us in camp at the mouth of the Sourdnahunk stream. 
Good balsam beds had been boughed down in our tents, 
a fine supper had been enjoyed (and, by the way, brother 
angler, if you should ever go up Norcross way and 
fully appreciate a good cook, try to secure Charley Priest, 
who can cook trout to the nicest kind of a turn), and g 
P. M. found use buttoned into our sleeping bags and 
snuggled down for a comfortable sleep, many miles away 
from railroads and civilization, and too far away from 
our creditors for them to bother us. 
Next day we had early breakfast, for a long carry was 
to be made up stream, where our permanent camp was 
to be. Everything was to be toted, so i^ meant an all- 
day carry for the guides. We sports trudged along the 
tote road through the grandest of \voods imaginable, see- 
uig an occasional deer, but hearing no sound except 
the stream and the chattering red squirrels, who resented 
our visit to their homes. About three miles up stream 
is a lumber dam, and under that dam are deep pools 
with many trout in them — broad-shouldered, square- 
tailed fellows, 14 to i8in. long, that lie there in ranks, 
beaded up stream, in water as clear as crystal and as cold 
as springs can make it. Of course, rods had to be put 
together here, leaders put on and the old reliable Beaver- 
kill & Wickham.'s fancy fly tried for a first cast. And 
what a pleasure that first cast was; it seemed as if the 
trout had been hungry for just that cast of flies all their 
lives, and had only just found them. You could see them 
rush for them two or three at a time; every cast secured 
a fish, and a fine one. I will not say how many we killed 
that afternoon. You would call tlie report fishy, and 
brother anglers would be envious. We reeled up after 
two or three hours of perfect sport, and found, on arriv- 
ing at the end of the carry, that our men had made us 
a fine camp and that dinner was ready, which was fol- 
lowed by a trout supper at night that would have made 
old Epicurus wish he were alive again. 
Here we were in the heart of Maine's beautiful wilder- 
ness, about a quarter of a mile from two of the prettiest 
lakes that lie out of doors — Dacey Pond and Rocky 
Pond. Lots were drawn very early next morning to 
find who should fish, which pond. To my tent-mate 
and myself fell the lot of Rocky Pond, Canoes were 
shouldered by our guides, and a tramp of a quarter of a 
mile through the woods brought us to Rocky Pond just 
at daybreak. Imagine a lake three-quarters of a mile 
long by about one-quarter wide, deep and clear, with gran- 
ite and gravel bottom; surround it all with a dense forest, 
with Mt. Katahdin in the background as guardian or 
sentinel, and you have it. But, best of all, imagine trout 
breaking everywhere over the lake. — not little fellow^, 
such as you are only too glad to bring to creel along 
Sullivan county's Beaverkill, or on the Neversink and 
other Catskill streams, but big fellows, ilb. to aj/albs., and 
all good fighters, fish that give your rods all that they 
can do to kill; and any quantity of them, so many, in 
fact, that one stops fishing after a while, so as not to 
kill for the mere sake of numbers. Such a morning 
comes to very few anglers. I know it never had come 
to me before. On our return to camp we found that 
the others had had fine sport at Dacey Pond, killing not 
so many trout as we did, but bringing in larger fish 
from 1% to 2^ and 3lbs. Dacey Pond fish are larger 
:ind fewer than those caught in Rocky Pond. 
We had a full week of this, with no rainy day to break 
the charm, fishing early morning and evening, loafing 
and looking at the deer during the middle of the day. 
Then we turned our faces homeward with regret, feeling 
that after three years' wandering we had at last come 
upon a veritable fisherman's paradise. Everything was 
as the guides told us it Avould be. They promised us 
fine fishing and gave it to us. The weather was perfect 
all the time. No one in camp grumbled a bit. The food 
was all that could be desired, and the guides were hard- 
working, willing and capable men who earned what was 
paid them. Ed York, Ingsley Daisv. Charles Priest. 
Jack Hath away and Alvah Reed can be found at Norcross 
or Medway. Me., and the man who engages them as 
guides will be pleased with them. New York saw us 
again after about two weeks* outing, more than satisfied 
with our trip, and certain that there is a place where any 
fair angler can catch more large trout than he will know 
what to do with; and he will lay up a stock of good 
health that will more than repay him for the expense. 
We found the Beaverkill & Wickham fancy fly the most 
killing. I hope that 1898 may see me again allow- 
ing my line to fail in the pleasant places about Rocky 
Pond, with the same pleasant companions, and that oner 
more we may each fish and talk and smoke together is 
the earnest wish of one of the Bt<; 4 Sundowneks. 
An Appeal to Correspondents. 
The following extract is irom an editorial which re- 
cently appeared in the New York Sun; 
■'Strange as it may appear to the uninitiated, it is in 
small streams where the water is clear that the long cast 
is necessary. The angler who moves along the banks 
of a stream, keeping close to the water, is bound to come 
home with an empty basket. Trout are as wary as snipe, 
and the sight of a fisherman or any other man sends 
them to cover with lightning-like rapidity. The cunning 
and artistic angler always stands away back from the 
stream and casts a long line, which must fall upon the 
water as gently as a hair from a lady's locks." 
I have been a close reader of Forest and Stream for 
many years, and am one of those cranks who read every- 
thing written about angling. I have even followed the 
iridescent scintillations of that genius who wore out the 
English language in describing the fishing of the North 
Shore; but I have never read anything about trout 
anglers standing rods away from some small stream and 
casting their flies over the intervening shrubs, trees or 
whatever it may be, so that the fly may alight upon the 
water without the trout seeing the oiigler. Why is it 
we do not have some descriptions of this styie of fishing? 
1 call upon contributors to Forest and Stream to shed 
some light upon this important matter. A few illustra- 
tions thrown in, showing how the angler aoes it, would 
add greatly to the value of the contributions. 
Aberdeen. 
St. Louis, Mo. 
American Fisheries Society. 
Cape Vincent, N. Y., Jan. 24. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Will you kindly permit me to use the columns 
of your valuable paper to correct a mistake which I made 
in a contribution sent to the Florida Fisheries Congress. 
The article stated that the American Fishculturists' 
Association (now the American Fisheries Society) was 
organized in the year 1871. This is a mistake. The asso- 
ciation was organized Dec. 20, 1870, at a meeting held in 
New York city, and on Jan. 20, 1871, the secretary issued 
the first official publication of the association, being a cir- 
cular letter addressed to fishculturists and fishermen, ask- 
ing them to assist Prof. Agassiz in the preparation of his 
projected work on the American salmonidae by sending 
him specimens of live fish to study and to make drawings 
from. The first annual meeting of the association was 
held at Albany, Feb. 7, 1872. 
Dr. Edmunds, then Fish Commissioner of Vermont, 
and the writer are, I think, the only persons now living 
who attended the meeting of organization held in New 
York in 1870. Livingston Stone. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each weeJi on 
Tuesday. Correspondence intended for puhlieation 
should reach us at the latest hy Monday, and as much 
earlier as practicable, • 
