112 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Aug. 6, 1898. 
they proposed to fish, and had anchored their boat, one 
of them would throw a small coin into the water for the 
purpose of bringing: good luck. This act would be 
repeated whenever they changed locations or captured 
an uncommonly big trout. They had very good success 
in fishing, but it is difficult to see how in this en- 
lightened age a person could be found who would believe 
the coins had anything to do with it. This strange per- 
formance brings to mind an Eastern practice mentioned 
by a famous historian, who says that at Cape Mussendom, 
at the entrance to the Persian gulf, the Indians, when they 
pass the promontory, throw cocoanuts, fruits or flowers 
into the sea, to secure a propitious voyage. 
In conclusion it will be appropriate to quote the words 
of one who has for more than a score of years enjoyed 
annual expeditions in the Adirondacks and met with 
gratifying success in angling for speckled beauties: "You 
will have the best luck catching trout when they are 
biting well. The best times to fish for them are early in 
the morning, early in the evening, and just before a 
warm rain." W. E. Wolcott. 
Utica, N. Y., July 11. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
rsr „i 
Record Bass. 
Chicago. 111., July 30. — We have a certain interest in 
the West in the record weight of black bass taken each 
season. I believe that J. B. H. and mvself. in our 
earlier Forest and Stream camps around Mukwonago, 
Wis., caught about as heavy an average of bass as any 
of which I have ever heard among my friends. This oc- 
•curred because we got into a bit of water which was so 
difficult of access that it had hardly been fished for years. 
In one string of thirteen fish, which J. B. H. caught one 
afternoon, we had four fish which weighed over .slbs. 
each, one which weighed over 61bs., and none that 
weighed under 3lbs. These were all big-mouth bass. 
At our camp Mr. B. Waters, of the Forest and Stream 
staff, once caught ten bass one afternoon, of remarkable 
weight*, which T do not now recall distinctly, but I 
think he had two that weighed over 61bs. each and 
several over 4lbs, each, with almost no small ones. At 
another time Mr. Waters caught in oitr neighborhood a 
bass weighing 61bs. 2 oz.. dividing- the Natchaug Silk 
Company's season prize for the heaviest large-mouth 
bass. On the year following that, a young man bv name 
of Ben Bugbee. who was camping - with J. B. H. and 
mvself. caught a big-mouth bass which weighed 6?41bs. 
in Chicago two days after it was taken. We thought Ben 
was certain of first prize that year sure, but I remember 
he was knocked out by a hass which was t"iken on the 
St. Clair Flats which "weighed over 7lbs. T think that 
before this summer the record of the St. Clair Flats fox 
small-mouth bass, and indeed I think the record of the 
rnunrrv, was 7lbs. 2 oz. This record -o longer stands. 
<~>n Friday. Julv 22. in the North Channel St. Clair 
Flats, Mr. Dan Davies, of Detroit, caught with rod and 
ree 1 a small-mouth black bass weighing 81bs. It was 
SM^iri. long, and had a bust measurement of T7^in. 
The witnesses of the taking of the fish and its measure- 
ments and weight are Mr. Thomas Neal and Mr. H. A. 
Avery, deputy warden. Tt will be a long time before a 
larger bass than this is taken in this part of the country. 
Trout in Montana. 
The Rod and Gun Club of Helena. Mont., has been 
active in its attempts to maintain the good fishing in 
streams adiacent to that city. The club will receive 300.- 
000 trout from the Fish Commission to be deposited in 
the several streams. 
The trout fishing in the neighborhood of Helena has 
been better this year than for some time, and many 
grayling have also been taken. The anglers look for- 
ward to yet better sport in the future, and believe that 
+he general tendency in protective matters is for the 
better. The grouse crop is also reported to be good 
and the general outlook promising. 
About Baiting. 
A correspondent sends in the following comment: 
"In your issue of July 23 I notice an article bv W. H. 
F. on "minnow casting for bass. He says catfish min- 
nows are preferable on account of the toughness of their 
hide. If he will get some yellow fin minnows, run the 
hook through the mouth, out the gills, then turn the 
hook so as to pierce the minnow in about the center, I 
think he will be better satisfied." 
Nature seems to have endowed the minnow with two 
tough places made purposely for the insertion of the 
hook, one at the lios and one directly under the back 
fin. An old angler from New York first showed me how 
to put a minnow on a hook as the above correspondent 
describes, except that instead of piercing the body of 
the minnow he passed the point out through the tough 
skin under the back fin. Baiting a minnow in this way 
kills the minnow, of course, and a bait so nut on a 
hook is more suitable for crappies, perch, rock bass, etc., 
than for black bass. A minnow so baited has a whirling 
motion in the water which is more apt to attract a pick- 
erel than a black bass. A minnow baited through the 
lips is. of course, presented to the bass in a more 
natural manner, and is more ant to be taken. Tt is also 
more apt to tear away from the hook, and less apt to 
hook the fish which strikes at it. In all my fishing in 
the West I have never known any one to use any sort of 
catfish for bait. I am told that small perch make a good 
bass bait, but have never tried it. Billv Tuohv. of Eagle, 
Wisconsin, tells me that in the winter fishing through the 
ice a black bass will pass bv half a dozen minnow baiN 
and take a perch bait in preference. I have heard it said 
by another angler that in using perch bait in casting for 
bass the perch ought to be scaled, but I should not re- 
gard this as essential. Of course, the bait would be 
killed after a few casts, and the scaling could then be 
done, if one cared to paint the lily. 
Texas Tarpon. 
The tarpon fishing at Aransas Pass. Texas, has been 
fai r during the month of July. General Wade Hampton 
and party, including Miss' Hampton, Hon. A- W, Hous- 
ton and his son, enjoyed good sport in the week ending 
July 20. General Hampton took eleven tarpon and 
his daughter eight. Mr. Houston caught fifteen and his 
son twenty-one. Nothing startling m weights came 
out. 
Michigan Streams. 
Mr. W. B. Mershon writes me regarding the sport on 
the club stream, Kinne Creek, Mich.: "I do not know 
of a stream in the world that is fished as hard as Kinne 
Creek. One of the boys was up last Monday and got 
twenty-nine nice fish. This is pretty good so late in 
the season, after the thousands of fish that have been 
taken out of the little stream this year." 
Mr. Mershon was invited to take a day on the famous 
Fontinalis stream, preserved by the Fontinalis Club, in 
the upper part of the lower peninsula, and I easily agree 
with him in his remark that this is an "ideal stream," 
for it was my good fortune to be a guest there a few 
years ago. He says: "I had good luck at the Fontin- 
alis stream, though it was the hottest day I ever spent 
on a trout stream, and I was unfamiliar with the holes. 
A man starting at the upper end of the stream, and fish- 
ing hard for two days could not cover it all, I got 
thirty-nine nice trout." 
Records. 
I remember seeing printed some years ago in the In- 
formation Wanted columns of Forest and Stream the 
statement that the record distance of fly-rod casting was 
io6%ft. Since that time all these casting records have 
gone glimmering, Mr. Leonard at New York and Mr. 
Mansfield at San Francisco fairly doubling what was 
once considered a good stiff cast with the fly. I have 
before me last week's records of the Fly-Casting Club, 
and I notice that Mr. Bellows cast 114ft., Mr. Hascal 
Tiift., Mr. Peet 113ft., Mr. Goodsell 109ft. Out of five 
entries in that event the lowest record was that of Mr. 
Ludlow, 105ft. At an earlier club event Mr. Peet, with a 
favorable wind, cast 125ft., crowding Mr. Mansfield very 
close in open air work. These club records are not 
properly to be called records, since they were not made 
in open competition, but they are interesting as show- 
ing the development of certain possibilities of the rod 
in later days. 
E. Hough. 
1200 Boyce Building, Chicago, 111. 
Central New York. 
Ithaca, N. Y. — The best day's catch that the writer 
has thus far learned of the present season consisted of 
forty good-sized trout, the catch having been made near 
Slaterville. this county. Some spirited s'port ought to 
be had on the streams found in the neighborhood of the 
villages here indicated. At the source of Fall Creek, not 
far from Peruville, a goodly supply of trout is said to 
abound. Many large-sized trout have been taken from 
this stream. At McLean, six miles south of Cortland, is 
a well-known trout stream, and about now delightful 
sport may probably be had there by those who know a 
thing or two concerning the ways of the fish. At Har- 
ford Mills flow some inviting brooks. At Slaterville, 
Speedsville. Candor, Enfield and Cortland trout streams 
are in evidence, and yield, when trout are in the mood, 
decidedly handsome results. 
In lower Fall Creek, just removed from the city limits, 
a number of exceptionally fine creels of bass were taken, 
the first of the season. One party took in a few hours' 
angling ten bass that averaged ij/^lbs. each. Later on 
bass anglers move out into the deeper and wider waters 
of Cayuga Lake. Perch and pickerel fishing has been 
disappointing at the Ithaca end of Cayuga Lake this 
year. Old fishermen hold that the enormous supply of 
carp now congesting the southern extremity of the 
lake, the Ithaca Inlet, and streams contributary thereto, 
is responsible for the pronounced scarcity of the various 
well-known fish formerly inhabiting these waters. 
Some very large specimens of carp have been taken by 
local fishermen. A 22lb. carp gave an angler a noble 
battle the other day. Many devotees of the sport enjoy 
taking these big carp on a light fly-casting outfit. These 
fish, perhaps by virtue of some peculiar effect or in- 
fluence imparted by the cool, invigorating waters of the 
lake, exhibit some remarkably exhilarating game quali- 
ties, giving, when hooked, a finish fight of a most des- 
perate and" fiery character. It is a rather common sight 
at certain hours of the day, usuallv late afternoon ana 
early morning, to observe on the inlet here hundreds of 
carp, many of them veritable leviathans, breaking the 
surface of the water times without number, working in 
well described circles in one instance, and again 
moving directly up or down the stream. These 
fish, regardless of their gamy fighting habits, are already 
regarded as a nuisance. They are mud wallowers, as 
tasteless as the traditional baked sawdust, and a menace 
to the angling resources of any body of water they may 
chance to inhabit. They increase in numbers very rapid- 
ly, and in respect to the occupancy of such a big body of 
water as Cayuga Lake they are practically beyond the 
power of extermination. The carp problem is certainly 
a most difficult one for local anglers to dispose of. 
At Farley's and Union Springs, along the east shore of 
Cayuga Lake, plentv of satisfying perch fishing may 
be enjoyed, and perch and pickerel fishing at Canoga, 
directly opposite Union Springs. M. Chill. 
Maine's Fishing and Hunting 1 . 
Boston, Aug. 1. — Fishing in the Maine lakes has 
again been remarkably good for nearly all of the month 
of July. A year ago it was considered that July broke 
the record for fishing in that month, out this year has 
been nearly as good. Since the rains and wet weather 
the fishing has seemed to improve. Moosehead reports 
are good, with plenty of fish in the big iron pan, where 
the scores are counted and weighed. At the Rangeleys 
better fishing has never been recorded the season through 
to date. Of. late the fishing has been especially fine at 
the Big Lake. Mooselucmaguntic. Some remarkably 
good catches are reported at the Birches, including trout 
from 3 to 7lbs. A blueback is reported to have been 
taken recently by trolling; something almost unheard of, 
these fish only "appearing for a short time in the fall 
when they run up the streams to spawn. Lately there 
comes a complaint of the small size of the bass taken 
at the Belgrade ponds, fish up to 3lbs. being rare. 
The reports mention a multitude of deer seen at nearly 
all the fishing resorts, and great hunting is expected this 
fall. A Moosehead hunter and guide has recently re- 
turned from an extended trip, and reports 400 deer 
counted while absent. A party visiting the Richardson 
ponds, from the Upper Dam, last week, reports seeing 
twenty deer while on the trip. Again the farmers of the 
back settlements are complaining of crops injured by 
deer. Pleasure seekers, driving through the country, 
not many miles from the cities even, are frequently re- 
warded by the sight of deer quietly feeding in the fields 
or by the roadside. Teams do not seem- to alarm them 
much, and frequently they will allow carriages to ap- 
proach within a few rods. 
Concerning moose and caribou the reports are much 
less encouraging. A gentleman returning from a trip 
to Moosehead and the West Branch last week — an excel- 
lent moose section — says that he saw no moose and very 
few tracks or signs. 
Special. 
Mullet, Tarpon and Porpoise. 
In his address on the fishery interests of the Florida 
East Coast, Mr. Geo. W. Scorie told the Tampa Fishery 
Congress of the relations existing between the mullet 
and tarpon supply. He said: 
I beg leave to ask any of those who do not agree 
with me in regard to the spawning of the mullet, whether . 
they have ever visited the Atlantic Coast between Mel- 
bourne and Canaveral light? My theory is that the mul- 
let do not spawn in the river, but away from the inlet, 
and my assertion is based upon the fact that among 
660,000 caught and handled in my fish house from May 
15 to Nov. 1, not one mullet was seen which had thrown 
its spawn; but at the same time during the latter part 
of May and again at this very present time at my fishery 
at Canaveral Bight, I receive information that large 
schools are daily passing insore, all indicating that they 
have spawned. Canaveral Bight is the great spawning 
ground of the East Coast. Millions of mullet have passed 
there within the past week; and besides, the spawn is 
found all along the shore. Therefore, when enthusiastic 
hotel managers and others persuaded our legislators to . 
formulate laws so as to protect the mullet to give food 
to the tarpon, that they may be kept in good condition 
from one season to another, to be used as an advertising 
medium for those liking the sport of catching tarpon 
during two or three months of the year, you will not 
wonder that it is under great difficulties that enterprise 
has to forge ahead here in Florida. 
One hundred and sixty-five tarpon and thirty-seven 
sharks were caught and killed in my pound in three 
weeks at Canaveral Bight. In one tarpon cut open were 
found thirty-eight large and seventy-two small mullet. 
In one shark were found 182 mullet; in a school of drum 
fish caught and gutted for market, the smallest weighing 
albs., the largest I7lbs., six fish were picked out and 
gutted, and found to contain seventy-three mullet, an 
average of twelve mullet to the drumfish; that, with 300, 
and you have 3,600 mullet, or thirty barrels, at a com- 
mercial value of $100, that the drumfish destroyed. 
In the lagoon last summer a large school of porpoises 
destroyed more mullet than were caught by the fisher- 
men. You, familiar with the fishing of the St. Law- 
rence River, know that at this time the Canadian Gov- 
ernment is considering a way to kill the porpoise, must it 
not therefore occur to your mind that some remedv must 
be found for the protection of the mullet other than the 
fishermen, especially so when you consider that no 
mullet caught on the East Coast between Nov. 15 and 
Jan. 15 showed spawn. Still wise men passed a law stop- 
ping fishing when the fish were through spawning; 
further, the spawning is all done outside the river. The 
fish come into the river to feed, and also run for the 
inlet to get away from the shark, tarpon, etc., and when- 
ever heavy rains freshen the fiver they go for the inlets 
to get into their natural water — the salt waters of the 
ocean. 
In Upper Vermont. 
Greensboro, Vt., July 30. — The campers on the shores 
of Caspian Lake, and visiting fishermen from neighbor- 
ing towns, have had great luck during the past week. 
Dr. Carl Perkins, of St. Johnsbury, and B. Greenman, of 
Hardwick, captured a I3^1b. lake trout one day last 
week, breaking the record of the season. Saturday, O. 
S. Cogswell, of St. Johnsbury, captured a 61b. lake trout 
in the same lake. Fishing is good in ail the lakes in this 
part of the State. The lakes and streams are remarkably 
low, owing to the protracted drought. Brook trout are 
found in the dark pools, especially under the waterfalls 
so numerous in this part of the State. Local fishermen 
say they bite best when grasshoppers are used as bait, 
although the campers and boarders, as the visiting fish- 1 
ermen are called, use a variety of flies successfully. 
Minnows are used mostly for the lake trout. Black bass 
are found in some of the ponds. Bullheads, yellow 
perch, sunfish and pickerel satisfy the small boys, and 
are caught in nearly all of the streams and ponds. 
"What Flies Shall he Use? 
Grand Rapids, Mich., July 25. — Editor Forest and 
Stream ■' I take the liberty to write to you with regard to 
fly-fishing for bass. I have a cottage on a lake about 
six miles long, which is connected with Lake Michigan \ 
by a channel. There are many bass in this lake, both 1 
large and small-mouth. We also have many white 
or silver bass in the lake. I have done considerable 
experimenting with the fly. but have been 'unable to take 
any fish by this method. I understand through Chicago 
friends that nearly all the bass fishing in Wisconsin is. 
done with the fly, with satisfactory results. I have never 
yet met a fisherman in this State that claimed to catch I 
black bass with the fly to any extent in lake water. I« 
have done fly-fishing for trout in all the principal! 
streams in the lower peninsula, with most satisfactory, 
results, but I cannot get the bass. If you can furnish me, 
or refer me to some authority on fly-fishing for bass I 
would be very much obliged to you. A. S. A. 
