July 9, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
has lately taken two trout from the pool weighing 5 and 
4^1bs. respectively. T. B. Stewart continues to fish 
there, generally returning his fish to the water. He is 
last credited with trout of 4 and 3!/;>lbs. 
Great brook and stream fishing is reported from the 
section around Plymouth, N. H., and even into the 
White Mountain region. Strings of twenty to fifty trout 
are common in the section around the Pemigewasset 
River. The brooks around Mt. Prospect are reported 
good, with great fishing at the Lost River Cascades. 
Mr. L. Dana Chapman, corresponding secretary of 
the Megantic Club, is at the preserve for over the 
Fourth. Six deer were seen at one time by guests at the 
Mountain View House, Rangeley Lake, last week. 
Special. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Lapse of the 'Lunge Season. 
Chicago, 111., July 2. — The earlier part of this sum- 
mer in this part of the country was exceptionally pleas- 
ant and favorable to angling, much beyond the average 
season, but within the past two weeks the weather has 
turned off very warm over a great part of the West, and 
this has brought to a sudden end the good fishing which 
was reported for so many waters. The shallows have 
become too hot for the bass, and they have taken to the 
deep water, to He around and think things over with 
nature deliberation before they take any business action 
in regard to bait or fly or spoon. From nOw on they 
will not come out to make very good sport, except to- 
ward evening. I should think that the :fiy would be 
a capital thing to try just about now for bass, that is to 
say. in the evening after sundown. The "sand fly" made 
its appearance here this week in thousands, called out by 
the sudden hot wave, and I have always noticed that 
when the sand fly is. on here the weather has been warm 
enough up in Wisconsin to start the drakes to rising, 
and on such occasions I have met very nice success 
with the artificial fly. If all goes well, I may have some- 
thing to report about this within the next week or so, as 
J. B. H. and I have about concluded to take next week 
for our tenth annual camp on the lake which we dis- 
covered so long ago. 
The hot weather has been especially obvious in the 
lapse of the 'lunge season. No one reports any muscal- 
lunge any more, and I do not doubt that the guides are 
busy explaining that the ''bloom is on the water, so they 
won't bite." The truth is that the 'lunge are now 
shedding their teeth, and do not want to bite, as has of 
late been so often pointed out in Forest and Stream. 
I have just been talking with Mr. R. B. Organ, who, with 
Mr. C. S. Wilcox, of this city, fished for over two weeks 
just past at Kabekona Camp,, in Minnesota. He says 
that they two trolled faithfully for over a week and 
never got the first sign of a strike. He saw one mus- 
callunge, taken by Mrs. W. P. Mussey, which fish weigh- 
ed I4lbs., but this fish was in very bad condition. Its 
sides showed big patches of scaleless hide, and it was 
slimy and ill-looking. Examination of the mouth showed 
that the gums were very red and inflamed, and most of 
the teeth were missing, while those which remained 
were loose. It was not a fish to seek long or ardently 
after, and Mr. Organ said he did not care to fish for 
muscallunge after June, for he thought they were not 
then fit for sport, until the cool fall weather found them 
again in good fettle. A gentleman angling at the same 
point caught one of 23lbs. ; but it too was "mangy" and 
in bad condition. Had it been prime it would have 
weighed 381bs., in all likelihood, in the opinion of those 
who saw it. On the other hand another 'lunge was 
taken which was bright and cleaner. The "shedding 
season" does not seem to be uniform as to date. No one 
at these now well-known waters had any fortune worth 
mentioning with the 'lunge last week, though Mrs. 
Mussey was lucky enough to hook one very heavy fish, 
which broke once and seemed a grand one. She played 
it three-quarters of a» hour, and was tired out, so that 
she handed the rod to Mr. Mussey. The latter worked 
the fish for quite as long, fearing to .risk the line, which 
was a light bass line. The fish at length got into the 
weeds and broke away. Messrs. Organ and Wilcox went 
over into one of the bass lakes and in a little while caught 
their limit of fifty bass. They took no more than 50, and 
used but three out of the lot, putting all the others back 
into the water. Mr. Organ says it is no fun to catch 
bass so easily as that, and he would rather go to the 
old Kankakee, where it takes a little more work. 
Other Waters. 
Ten days ago the bass fishing in the Miltona waters 
of Minnesota was very fine. Capt. and Mrs. J. H, Waite 
landed eighty-eight bass in three hours and fifteen min- 
utes, and other parties also reported very nice sport. 
Mr. Carrington Phelps, who has spent tlie winter at 
the old homestead at North Colebrook, Conn., passed 
west this week, and will this summer keep bachelor 
quarters on the high bluff at Phelps Park, Lake Minne- 
tonka. Methinks many a big pickerel would do well to 
Lie himself out of that vicinity, lest he fall foul of Mr. 
Phelps and his deadly spoon, which the same I have 
seen in action. 
Mr. Ernest McGaffey and mother have left the city for 
a few days to escape the heated term. Thej' go to Long 
Lake, 111., and will be pleasantly located. Mr. Mc- 
Gaffey is a poet, author of "Poems of the Rod and Gun," 
and of many other good things on many lines of thought. 
He is not only a lover of outdoor things, but proficient 
in the sports of the field, so that he writes most under- 
standingly as well as feelingly. 
I have word that the State Fish and Game Com- 
mission has seized a trunk shipped from Kabekona 
Camp, with about 23olbs. of fish in it. I cannot learn 
the name of the man shipping the fish, nor any further 
particulars, but I am inclined to think, from certain 
features connected with the item, that this may be a 
case of something similar to the one mentioned in last 
week's Forest and Stream, of an alleged angler ship 
ping fish to the St. Paul market. There are all sorts of 
tricks going on among the game dealers to get the 
stuff into their fences, and this may be one of them, 
X Navigable Stream, 
It seems that Willow River, of Wiaconsin, has been 
adjudged "navigable" by the courts. This lets all the. 
public into this famous trout preserve. I recall that 
once when I was a small boy at school I heard of a cer- 
tain stupid scholar who tried to read the sentence "The 
river was navigable for boats to the city of — " The boy 
read it as follows: "The river is navigable for boots 
to the city of — " The Willow is a trout stream, and not 
a waterway. Perhaps the learned judge meant only to 
say,that it was navigable for boots. 
At this time of the season I would recommend a try 
of the Fox River with the fly for bass, at points near 
Clin'tonville and Elgin. These warm evenings should 
show a little fun there. 
Prospects. 
While I believe that the present season has been above 
the average in the general excellence of the angling, I 
have heard of but very few large fish, nothing over 32II3S., 
I think, in 'lunge, and not over s^lbs. for bass. We may 
later hear of heavier fish than these. Ten days ago this 
part of the country was flooded with heavy rains, which 
sent the rivers out of their banks for many miles in 
certain sections. This June rise came too late, to be of 
much service in the spring run, but I believe that high 
water even so late as the last week in June is very 
beneficial to the angling, especially as regards the en- 
suing year, as it gives the young fish a wider refuge in 
the extended shallows, and affords a wider feeding 
ground for the grown fish, which also are better able 
to work up higher iff; the streams, 
Tries Again. 
Mr. Fred N. Peet, captain of the Chicago Fly-Casting 
Club, told me last week that he would go over again to 
the Pere Marquette River in Michigan South Peninsula, 
for another try at the big rainbow, on the 4th of July. 
While I do not hear positively that he has started, I pre- 
sume that such is the case, and that duly he will return 
with some startling stories of that storied stream. He 
goes over to take lesso'ns in' fly-fishing of Mr. John Wad- 
dell, of Grand Rapids, who has a few tilings up his 
sleeve about rainbow trout which are not set down in 
the casting records. < 
Good Dope. 
I have found at last the perfect fly dope, and it isn't 
on the market either, so far as I know. It is the personal 
discovery and compilation of Col. E. Crofton Fox, of 
Grand Rapids, who has been making it for some time, 
and who has the formula as his own personal informa- 
tion, which I do not feel at liberty to make known, 
though perhaps the Grand Rapids drug stores supply the 
article to Col. Fox's friends. I tried this dope on the 
Boardman River (and also on myself), and found it 
pleasant and effective, driving away the mosquitoes at 
once it was used. It is equally good for black fly, and for 
chigres and a thousand other biting and boring and un- 
pleasant bugs, which Col. Fox discovered down in Cen- 
tral America, and against which he had hitherto found 
no protection. It cures the wound of all such pests, and 
it is a joy forever. It, smells so good that I leave the 
cork out of the bottle in my desk, to play I am in camp. 
I shall try some more of it on my lily-white hands this 
week. 
The New System of Fly-Fishing. 
From the San Francisco, Cal., Daily Report, I take the 
following comment on my late article in Forest and 
Stream about a new way to cast the fly for big trout: 
"In Forest and Stream^ of May 28 Mr. Hough gives 
a new theory of fly-fishing, suggested by the experience 
of Edward Taylor on Prairie River, Wisconsin. It is 
a good story, and the gist of it is that this business 
of dropping the fly softly is all rot — that a Pig trout is a 
wary old boy who can't be fooled into believing that a 
drowning fly or any other insect will float across a 
stream and then begin to float up. So Mr. Taylor whips 
around a likely spot until the water is in a foam, and 
the lazy, gorged trout gets mad and snaps at the annoy- 
ing bug that is disturbing his rest and quiet. Well, Mr. 
Hough was converted to this view by results, he says, 
and now he will be glad to know that so well known a 
sportsman as W. J. Golcher agrees with him. 
" 'Do you know, I think there's something in it,' said 
Mr. Golcher this morning in talking to Frank Maskey 
and the writer. T have never been able to see what a 
trout can imagine a spoon to be. Now, up on the Van 
Deuzen River, in Humboldt county, near Trinity line, 
there are hundreds of pools that are full of landlocked 
salmon. There was one pool there one morning that I 
could see, as the light came in through the trees, was 
just full of salmon. Theh I cast the spoon. One would 
rise and look at it sluggishly. Another would rise. at 
the next cast, and so on. Finally— biff! there was a rush 
and a splash and a strike, three.; or four >violent turns, 
and away went the line. So it was with other pools. I'm 
satisfied that those fish were not hungry, and they did 
not know or care what the spoon was. They simply 
knew it had no place in that pool, that it was disturbing 
their rest, and it made them angry, so they "Tabbed it 
to get it out of the way.' " 
I fished in this way while on the Boardman last week 
with Mr. Harry Widdicomb, and I could not see but 
what I had about as good luck as anybody else had 
there at that time with the fly. Mr. Widdicomb is, an old 
trout angler, and a very successful one, and he said he 
thought it was a good thing to make a lot of fuss some- 
times when you wanted to raise a big fish. He said it 
didn't scare a trout to plunk a worm at him, if he 
wanted the worm, especially if the trout couldn't see 
what made the stir. Col. Fox did not think this way 
would do with old and shy rainbow trout, which would 
-run at seeing the faintest ripple of a fly. Mr. Widdicomb 
and f discussed the matter as we fished along side by 
side, and more than once, after I had deliberately whip- 
ped along the side of a log or bank, making all the 
fuss possible with the fly, we saw a trout rush out and 
lake the fly in plain sight, thus proving, at least in some 
cases, that the method was a success. _ I took no very 
good trout on that stream, but then neither did anybody 
else. I should certainly pin my faith to the method as 
earlier described, if I wanted to get big trout on that Of 
any other stream, though I am aware that this a very 
rank heresy in the light of old and orthodox flyfishing. 
The position I take is that the world moves, and very 
often we change our belief in that which was once 
thought inviolably true. 
Proved It. 
Speaking of my trip on the Prairie River and the 
story I wrote about it in the Forest and Stream, I 
should like to adduce a little proof of the accuracy of 
the newspaper man's habits of speech. I said in the 
story that I had hooked and for a time played a trout 
which I thought was a big one — about 2lbs., I think 1 
said it seemed to weigh. This trout escaped by the 
parting of the leader; getting away with a fly or so into 
the bargain. Well, I came away from that country, but 
the man I was. fishing with remained for several days 
more, and now he has just, come into my office and told 
me that they caught my trout up there after I left. It 
was a man from Dudley's place that got him, and my 
imoression is he caught him on a worm, but I hope, 
not. The important part is that the trout weighed 
i54lbs. dressed. He had my leader and flies still fast to 
him, and was in the same pool. This is the. only instance 
I ever knew where a big fish got away without shrink- 
age when brought to hook, and I trust u will add pres- 
tige to the craft of newspaper men as well as the craft 
of anglers. But really I think the scales were wrong 
and that the fish I was playing must have weighed at 
least 4lbs. ! 
Wisconsin Sooners. 
Chicago, III., June 18.— Mr. G. A. Buckstaff, of Osh- 
kosh. Wis., who was Speaker of the House at the last 
session of the Wisconsin Legislature, who appointed 
the committees on fish and game for that body, and who 
has been distinguished in many ways in the Wisconsin 
fight for good game laws and their observance, writes 
me as below, a letter which I would rather not print for 
some reasons, but which ought to go to the public: 
"The Union Club, Oshkosh, Wis., June 15, '1898.— Mr. 
E. Hough: Your issue ,of June 11 has a letter from 
Fay L. Buck giving an account of bass caught by a Mr 
Cathiart, of Sidell, 111. Mr. Buck has the date wrong. 
Messrs. Herron and Cathiart appear registered on Mr. 
Buck's hotel register as being there May 14, eleven days 
before the law allows catching of black bass in Wiscon- 
sin. Their catch is also written in the back of the re- 
gister and date given as May 14. It is also written (evi- 
dently by one of the parties) on one of the cottage doors 
as May 14, and the catch given. I was at Mr. Buck's 
resort four days, beginning the morning of May 26, and 
neither of these gentlemen was there at that time. 
"These are the kind of men that will bring a hardship 
on all non-resident fishermen. Wisconsin will soon de- 
mand a license for fishing that will be almost prohibitive 
on non-residents. Mr. Buck, too, knew of this law- 
breaking, and the parties were assisted in getting their 
fish out of the State in a trunk, thus violating another 
clause of our law. Tell the Sidell men to send us notice 
the next time they come, and we will have the sheriff or 
game warden meet them. G. A. Buckstaff." 
Mr. Buckstaff adds that he has evidence enough to 
convict the two Sidell men if they ever come back to the 
State. The inference from these unfortunate facts is 
easy and obvious. No angler and no hotel keeper ought 
to break the law. Anglers want to be free to go into 
any State as they wish. Hotel keepers want them to 
come again. If Fay Buck, for any cause, has been 
tangled up in this matter — though we have not heard 
his side of it yet — I shall surely write him and tell him 
not to allow any guest to break any State law. And I 
don't think he will. It isn't business to allow that sort of 
thing. _ The time for the old days and old ways is gone. 
At Kabekona Camp, Minn., last week, Mrs. Dr. Froth- . 
ingham, of Chicago?' killed a muscallunge weighing i81bs. 
Mrs. Ben Bingham was so lucky as to get one weighing 
32lbs., tjie record fish of the season so far for any rod. 
and said to be the record lunge for any woman angler. 
Mr. J. M. Oliver and his friend, also of this city, caught 
a number of lunge averaging iSlbs. in weight. Messrs. 
R. B. Organ and C. S. Wilcox, of this city, left 
Wednesday night for the same point, and should meet 
good sport. Mr. Wilcox was at the camp last season 
and had good luck. 
The Sunfish Club. 
When I was up at Delavan Lake, Wis., last summer, I 
noted the big camp of a party of merry anglers who sailed 
under the name of the Sunfish Club, of Freeport, 111. It 
seems that the Sunfish members got frightened by the 
too great abundance a,nd exuberance of the famous 
summer girl of Delavan Lake, and resolved never to go 
there again when the latter named product was at its 
greatest profusion. This summer the club made its regu- 
lar annual camping trip very much earlier, and has 
arrived home again at Freeport after encountering only 
nominal dangers on this account. They had very good 
fishing in Delavan Lake, where they have been making 
pilgrimages for many years. Their fears in regard to the 
summer girl are by no means groundless, for it is not 
safe for unprotected gentlemen to camp in that vicinity 
at the height of the season. 
E. Hough. 
1206 Boyce Building, Chicago, III. 
A River Tragedy, 
Grand Tower, 111. — Two days ago a half-grown boy 
at Grand Tower, 111., took a boat some one had left un- 
locked at the river side, and went out on the river. Away 
out in mid-stream he somehow fell out of the boat. 
There was a few seconds of desperate struggle to regain 
the boat, and then the relentless water closed over a 
drowning body, and left no mark except an empty 
boat and a boy's old hat drifting idly down the swift 
current. An hour later there was a woman on the river 
bank with two terrified little ones clinging to her skirts 
as she walked up and down along the water's edge wring- 
ing her hands in such agony as none but a mother can 
ever feel. The writer earnestly hopes it mav never fall 
to his lot to witness such fearful agony again. Moral: 
Spare no pains to teach^ our boys the careful and skill- 
ful use of boats and firearms, and never trust them 
alone with either until they have shown themselves pro- 
ficient and careful in handling- them, 
O. H. Hampton. 
