248 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 24, 1898. 
At the Lake, 
Catahoula Lake is about twenty miles long by from 
three to five miles wide; there is a good current at the 
lower end, where Little River and several other streams 
come in, and it has a big outlet off to the southeast, 
which flows into Red River something like a hundred 
miles before it joins the father of waters. Sam rowed up 
to what he called a cabin, but which was only a 10 by 12 
open camp — better than a closed house — and we 
unpacked an hour or two before sundown. I sent Sam 
to gather firewood for cooking and for the night, while I 
prepared a supper of fried perch, taken on the Avay up; 
bacon, boiled corn and potatoes, canned baked beans, 
bread, butter, tea and coffee. The coffee was for Sam, 
for I don't drink it, and as he had no use for it when 
good tea was at hand, there was no more made on the 
trip. 
There were two sleeping places, each made of two 
boards cleated together, the head ends were raised high- 
er than the others, so that they sagged in the middle 
slightly, but not as much as a hammock does. I noted 
a hole in the bark roof, and called Sam's attention to 
it, as it was over my bed. 
"I sees de light froo de bahk; fo' shu', an' I mend dat- 
tah hole in de mawnin'. I don' 'spec' 'twill rain to-night, 
an' dat's a leetle hole at best'; no, de rain won' come to- 
night." This last remark as he looked at the sky and 
the declining sun. 
I insisted on having the roof repaired at once, but the 
old man said: "Dey's no good bahk nigh de cabin an' 
dey's bahs out in de woods." He was afraid of the woods 
at sundown, so I picked up my gun and told him to come 
along with his axe. Thus "assured he soon found a 
suitable piece of bark from a dead tree, and the roof was 
patched before daylight left us, and about midnight a 
hard rain came down that lasted until daylight, but Sam 
did not want to talk about the rain. 
A Turtle Talk. 
In the morning, after breakfast, I said to Sam: "I 
came to this lake to get a live alligator snapper to send 
north. Men tell me that they are common here, and I 
have hooks and lines especially for them. You know 
the turtle I mean, don't you?" 
"Yas, sah, I knows 'em, dey's two kin's o' snappahs; 
some's jess snappahs and de odah kin's de 'gatah snap- 
pahs. O yes, I knows de snappahs, an' I cotch 'em 
plenty, an' I t'ink de snappahs is sweetes' meat dan de 
'gatah kin'." 
I brought out three cotton lines of J4in. diameter and 
100ft. long; 300 great needle-eyed O'Shaughnessy hooks 
of Harrison's "Dublin Limerick" pattern, size 10-0, all 
attached to strong 2ft. snoods of cotton, with a 6in, piece 
of copper wire in the eye of the hook that was twisted 
into a lump so that the hook would revolve on it, as on 
a swivel. Sam had never seen such a lay-out, and re- 
marked: ''Golly, I'd like to get some o' dem hooks fo' 
big catfish, dey's de bes' I ever see." 
"Sam, if you can put me where I can get an alligator 
snapper of oblbs. or more, you shall have all these hooks 
and lines. Now get ready and we will go and catch bait" ; 
and I produced a bait-holder made for the occasion. It 
was of mesh netting made like a box without a 
lid; loops for poles floated it, and a few light leads kept 
the bottom down. When extended it was 6ft. by 4, and 
2ft. deep. This was to keep bait-fish alive until night. 
Sam looked at it, then at my rods and reels, before he 
found breath to say: "I 'clar' to goodness, you is de 
'pletes' man fo' fishin' dat I eber see." I was some 
time in figuring his " 'pletes' " into "completest," but 
that was what he meant. 
We fished, top and bottom, and caught crappies, black 
bass, perch and all the common fishes of that region; 
went to camp for dinner, and fished again until the sun 
I old us when it was time to quit. Then we put out the 
lines from shore to an anchor stone, with a baited hook 
every 3ft.,. and lying on the bottom. The sun was well 
up next morning when breakfast was over, and Sam was 
anxious to go to the lines, but I said: "No, Sam, we will 
go and fish for bait all day again, and at night will run 
the lines over and see what we have, and re-bait our 
hooks; any turtles that are there will stay there." 
We did this, and our catch was several soft-shelled 
turtles, A. ferox, which Sam declared were ''snappers," 
because of their ferocity, from which they get their speci- 
fic name, and then I knew that his classification of 
turtles differed from mine. We also took several "yel- 
low-bellied terrapins" and some catfish of 5 or 61bs. Sam 
wanted the catfish for camp, and I let him have one, and 
let the rest go free, for I don't care for a catfish that 
weighs over J41b. ; the big ones are oily and gross. The 
best panfish for me in that lake was the crappie, but 
fish were too plenty for us to dispute over. Sam could 
stuff himself with catties without protest from me. The 
big One he caught at the levee was so rank with fish 
oil that I wanted none of it, yet I am told that steaks 
from such a fish, parboiled before frying, are freed from 
their grossness; I don't doubt it, for the same is true of 
sturgeon, which, treated in that way, makes a better 
veal cutlet than ever came out of a calf. 
Sam and I discussed the snapper question for a while 
with no prospect of an agreement, and then he said: 
"Yo' ain' gwine let all dese snappahs go 'cause dey ain' 
de kin' yo' want, an' I want de big one to cook fo' yo', 
an' yo'll say he's de bes'es' tuttle yo' eveh stuck a toof 
in." 
"All right, Sam, what we catch is for our own use, if 
we want it, but I don't want to kill any animal, fish, 
bfrd or turtle unless it is- needed for food or it is my 
enemy, as a rattlesnake is. You have misunderstood me; 
take what turtles you want and let the rest go; do the 
same with the catfish, but never waste animal life by kill- 
ing more than you or your friends can get." 
Just how far this new religion penetrated Sam's brain 
is impossible to say, but the lesson may not have been 
entirely lost, for a few days later he carefully unhooked 
a big sunfish and let it go, when on previous trips he 
might have dropped it in the boat to die, and then have 
thrown it away. 
The turtle question and the hunt for an "alligator 
snapper" has been spun out so long that it must be post- 
poned for another time. 
[to be continued.] 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Record Trout. 
The Forest and Stream "big fish record" will have 
to be amended so far as it relates to the largest brook 
trout caught in the State of New York. 
Superintendent Robert Bibby, of the North Woods 
Club, formerly the Adirondack Preserve Association, 
tells me that the club waters, which have never been 
stocked with fish, so only the native brook trout are 
found therein, have this year furnished better fishing 
than for a number of seasons. From one of the ponds 
on the preserve, Frank Pond, a speckled trout of 8j41bs. 
was taken, and this I am satisfied is the largest brook 
trout, S. fontinalis, ever taken from the waters of the 
State of which there is any reliable record. I know of 
one or two trout of greater weight taken from New 
York waters, but their species are open to question. 
One that was first claimed to be a native brook trout 
proved to be a brown trout. 
The Frank Pond trout was caught by trolling, and 
not with a fly, and what a troll would produce in some 
of the Adirondack lakes which contain nothing but na- 
tive brook trout, if it were leaded and drawn at the bot- 
tom, experience only will prove conclusively. One 
small lake had the reputation of containing brook trout, 
but as no one caught them, it was rarely fished. Upon 
the representations of an old guide, that he had actu- 
ally caught brook trout from the lake through the ice, 
fishing in deep water, a friend was induced to make the 
trip to the lake in summer. He fished at or near the 
surface with fly and bait, and caught nothing, and 
finally trolled a lure at the bottom, and caught four 
large trout. In this connection I may say that I have 
heard of several very- large trout being taken in Can- 
adian lakes, and in every instance they were taken 
through "the ice in winter, by fishing with bait, which 
is, of course, during the close season. If one is really 
desirous of finding what our wilderness lakes do con- 
tain in the way of exceptionally large trout, they may 
be fished for by trolling in deep water during the open 
season; but S^lbs. will, I imagine, head the list for 
some time to come. 
Pickerel and other Fish. 
In some waters the pike, generally called pickerel, is 
considered a very desirable fish, and in others 
it is considered a nuisance or worse. It is a 
good fish in its place, but it has got out of its 
place in many instances, and excites the wrath of 
anglers. As a rule, the fish itself is not to blame for 
being found where nature never intended it should be 
found, but the biped man is responsible for interference 
with nature's plan in the distribution of fishes. Spite 
is sometimes the motive, but generally it is pure ignor- 
ance that causes man to plant pike in trout waters, and 
this habit in mankind generally seems to be growing. Wi>h 
the advent of rational fishculture and fish planting there 
sprung up a host of 'prentice hands who planted any and 
every thing in the way of fishes that could be carried 
from one body of water to another. Those whose busi- 
ness it was to plant fish made mistakes when the work 
was in its infancy, but they were not a circumstance to 
the mistakes of the men and boys who tried to follow 
in their footsteps with no knowledge whatever of cause 
and effect in fish planting. It is such a simple matter 
to plant certain of our common fishes in waters never in- 
tended for them, and such a stupendous task to undo 
the error when it is found to be an error, even if it is 
possible to undo it at all, that one should think well 
before experimenting in fish planting if the experiment 
calls for the planting of some species of fish in waters 
which never before contained them. The chief offenses 
in this line are the planting of black bass and the so- 
called pickerel in waters wholly unfitted for them, and 
where other kinds of fish would do far better and furnish 
better food and more sport. Another error, not so com- 
mon, however, is over-planting water with fish which 
are suited to the waters — in other words, planting 
more fish than the water will furnish food for to keep 
them in condition. While fish must have an abundance 
of food to be at their best for the table or sport, there 
is one solitary instance in this State of over-planting 
fish food, but this was done through a misapprehen- 
sion of existing conditions, and the plant's were not 
really made as fish "food. 
The Great Lakes whitefish were planted in a large 
lake in which only a small species of whitefish were na- 
tive, and they have multiplied until they swarm in the 
water. Netting is forbidden by law, and thus far the 
only mission of the whitefish is to furnish food for the 
adult lake trout, and to eat food that the little trout 
would consume if the whitefish were not so abundant. 
This condition of things results .in indifferent trout 
fishing at a time when the lake has vast quantities of 
trout in it, because the food is so superabundant that 
the fish sought by the angler have only to eat what is 
placed before them to become gorged, and the lures of 
the angler are lost in the multitude of similar bait 
fish which have, no fish hook trimming. 
An artist who has a summer house on the shore of 
the lake told me that he baited a. trout buoy in deep 
water, and while fishing at it he foul-hooked more 
whitefish than he caught of trout. 
However, it was not of overstocking with fish food 
that I began to write, although the instance is so ex- 
tremely rare that it is worthy of mention, but it was of 
misdirected fish planting — black bass and pike. 
As soon as pike are found, for any reason, undesir- 
able in a water, there is often a desire to plant black 
bass to get rid of the pike, and this is simply jumping 
from the frying pan to the fire, for while it may be 
possible to reduce the pike below the point of danger, it 
is a most difficult thing to similarly reduce the black 
bass. I have been interrupted in writing this note, and 
during the interruption I have received three letters ask- 
ing how to get rid of pike and black bass. Two re- 
ferred to pike alone, and one to both pike and black 
bass in the same waters. There is no way of getting 
rid of the fish except by draining the water off or by 
netting it, and to do this consent must be obtained of 
the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission. 
In previous notes I have referred to Loch Leven, in | 
Scotland, said to furnish the best trout fishing in the J 
world. This lake contains Loch Leven trout and pike, J 
but by judiciously netting the lake the trout have for.il 
years been on the increase, and the pike are kept downT 
below the danger point. Now another case comes to 
my notice, also in Great Britain, where by netting the 
pike the water has become good trout water. It required " 
four years of netting to practically exterminate the p-ikej 
and make room for trout where they were never known, 
before. During the four years 1,410 pike were netted, 
the largest fish weighing 23^41bs. This means of getting 
rid of pickerel has been tried in this country, but gen- 
erally the people who engaged in it have pronounced it 
a failure, because they have not succeeded in netting out 
all the pike in one morning before breakfast, so as toj 
have trout fishing in the afternoon. 
This is a matter that cannot be done in a hurry, for the,; 
netting must continue every season, taking the fish when 
they run into the streams and back waters to spawn, and 
keeping at it until the big fish are practically exter-j 
minated, even if it takes several years to accomplish if. 
In the end it will be far more satisfactory than to 'vaA 
trodttce black bass to kill the pike, and if the netting is* 
persisted in, trout waters infested with pike may again 
become trout waters. It has been and is done on the 
other side, where they apparently have more time to do 
the work thoroughly than we have, but there is no good 
reason why. when a water is invaded by un- 
desirable fish, other undesirable fish should be 
planted as a remedy. Recently I went to ex j , 
amine a beautiful trout lake, that is, it was once a 
trout lake, that has had planted in it pike and blacW, 
bass. The fish were dwarfed and of no account as foodj 
and furnished no sport, and the owner wished somethin 
done to make his water of value. I urged him to take! 
out the fish now in it by persistent netting, and to in 
troduce yearling or older brown trout, and this he will 
do. There are two other private ponds where a some- 
what similar condition exists, and the owners will try 
the taking Out of fish rather than the putting in to im- 
prove the fishing. A. N. Cheney. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Plenty P:'ckerel. 
Chicago, 111., Sept. 17. — Fox Lake, Wisconsin, seems 
to be about the pickereliest of all pickerely places, tc 
say nothing of its black bass. I have heard a good dea 
from this fishing water this season, and if this sort pi 
thing keeps up it will need looking into. On Wednes : 
day of this week Mr. Frank Brice, of Milwaukee. Wis. 
caught fifty-five pickerel, fishing about half the day; cast 
ing with spoon bait. His average was* around 3lbs. t< 
the fish, and 7lbs. was the biggest taken. Incidental!] 
he took five black bass. 
The editor of the Fox Lake Representative, Mr 
Hotchkiss, sends me the above information, and print 
also other spoon hook performances on this fortunati 
water. It seems that Ed. Corcoran once took ninety-sh 
pickerel there by trolling in one forenoon, and Chas 
Adams is credited with 126 pickerel in one day. Thii 
would aonear to be doing a great deal toward the laud 
able act of cleaning out these smiling savages, thougl 
personally I should hate to have to eat 126 pickerel ii 
126 days. 
It was at this place. Fox Lake, that an incident is re 
corded as odd in piscatorial matters. Going down a lit 
tie creek, two gentlemen of that neighborhood, Di 
Hitchcock and Wm. Mahoney, were much surprised t 
see a small pickerel jump into the boat, scaring thei 
dog pale in the face as • it struck him. This sort 0 
thing is not at all without precedent, and I have had i 
happen twice in the same day in a narrow ditch on th 
marsh of the old Cumberland Club, in Indiana. Whe; 
a pickerel gets scared he is the biggest fool fish eve- 
was, though not any worse than the black bass, whic 
will also jump in the same way when frightened, ari 
has very often been known to spring into a boat, 
narrated, some years ago, how this habit of the bass i 
sometimes utilized by fishermen, who stir up the fis' 
along shore at night with poles, causing them to'jum, 
into the boat in their confusion. I have seen over half 
wash* tub of bass which were taken in this way on th' 
Fox River in one night. This I state, not with th 
wish to make Dr. Hitchcock and Mr. Mahoney ashame 
of their one little lonesome pickerel, but to show ther 
that they may be able to take advantage of the jumpin, 
habits of that fish at a later time, and perhaps catc 
themselves a wash tub quite full. It ain't much use com 
ing into this office with a stor3 r about one little pickere 
though, unless it had wings, or something of that sort. 
Taking out the Carp. 
Some years ago the park commissioners of Jackso 
Park, this city, planted a number of nice, fat carp wit 
great care and firmness in the lagoon of that beautift 
park, where it was hoped they would prove a means c 
beautifying the landscape and educating the masses, wh 
might at later days stand on the bridges and watch therj 
rooting mud. The carp have more than done thei 
part of the contract, and now the ungrateful commis 
stoners have given a contract to Fish Warden Deput 
Goetter to get the carp out of there at any cost, befoi 
they eat up the marble statues and the lake front. A 
the other fishes are reported to have gone to a bettt 
land since the simple and energetic carp came in. 
Tarpon Club, of Texas, 
The latest advice from Rockport, in regard to th 
location of the palatial club house of the Tarpon Club, c 
Texas, is that the building will go up on St. Josepj 
Island, right at hand to the pass where the fishing 
to be had. This is a rather sandy site, but it is cool, an, 
well above the water, and is a spot with all the chart 
of the sea about it, for the rollers of the Gulf will corri 
in at the foot of the beach. This is a sporting projec 
which will make a lot of history in the near future, 
presume the members of this club are to be near th 
finest tarpon fishing of the world. 
