Sept, 24, i£rj&1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
249 
The " Fluttering Fly." 
Here is an interesting letter of inquiry from Mr. L. 
Fisher, of Allcntown, Pa., about the "'new method" of 
fly-casting, of which I wrote last May. Mr. Fisher 
says: 
"With the exception of few years I have been a reader 
of the Forest and Stream, beginning when it was a 
small paper started with the Parker Bros*, and drifting 
into the Forest and Stream, if 1 remember correctly. 
I saw your article in Forest and Stream, and 1 rrlvHt 
say I was completely dumbfounded, because I was a crank 
on small flies and long and light casting, but you put the 
idea so strong I did not know where I was at, and I 
must confess I am somewhat converted, if I am able to 
put it into practice. 
"The place I fish is two streams, one is a hard, stony 
bottom, with rapids, with large rocks, a good many ex- 
posed ones, with but few logs in the water, 2 to 6ft. deep. 
The other one is still water from 3 to 10ft. deep, and 
must be fished from boat, and has some large trout in 
(if you can catch them), and I should think the rapid one 
would be more suitable for your style of fishing than 
the still waters. 
"i Wish you would give rile the names of the best flies 
and the size of hooks to Use. One fly would be best I 
think. I use one and never riiofe' than two flies on a 
cast on a 6ft. leader, and jft. With bait. Are winged flies 
better than hackles? You must understand by riot fishing 
in ten years I must learn it over again, and in that time 
many changes are made. Where do you get your flies 
from? . 
"In another article I notice you have found a perfect 
fly dope for mosquitoes. I am perfectly eaten up with 
them and have Used every lotion and ointment on the 
market, but received very little good from any. Would 
you give me the recipe for the one you use? If you will 
be kind enough to answer the above, you will greatly 
oblige a brother fisherman." . 
Mr. Fisher has by this time, no doubt, read the article 
of Mr. EdWartl Taylor in the Forest And Stream of 
Sept. j$, in Which the latter describes his experience in 
the Rocky Mountains, using just the system . Of .Which 
Mr. Fisher wishes to learn more. As it was Mr. Taylor 
who was the discoverer of this way of fly-casting, and as 
he is the only man I ever saw use it except myself, afier 
he had showed me how, I will let hint speak for the 
method himself, which he does explicitly enough. As to 
the leader, I would say, make it short, 5ft. or-evan 4ft. 
will kill trout and big ones. The winged flies are best 
for a steady thing, I should think, though a hackle some- 
times raises a good fish. One thing should be ob- 
served, and that is that nearly all trout flies are tied 
with about as much wing on them as they ought to 
have. The feather wets down some, but even so, the big 
stiff feathers do not look like the wings of a drowned or 
drowning fly. Trim off the wings so they are thin and 
heat, In size it all depends on how big a big trout is 
where you are fishing. I should think No. 8 about 
right at a guess, though No. lo is Usually nearer the 
thing on most streams. 
As to the fly dope, it is all right, but I cannot give 
the formula, as it is not mine. Col. E. Crofton Fox, the 
inventor of this fly dope, is not making it for money, but 
will, I think, send the address of the druggist who puts 
it up for him. His address is Grand Rapids, Mich., and 
he is a nice man. 
As to the sort of flies to use in trout fishing, I really 
can't afford to write all that could be said on that 
subject, not for the salary I get. It would fill a book. 
In a general way, a fly with a brown wing, a fly with a 
black wing, and a fly with a white wing may be said 
to be good enough to take fish if they want to be taken. 
The coachman is my favorite for all-round fishing. 
The black gnat is good sometimes. The brown hackle 
is another safe one to tie to. On some Wisconsin 
streams the Reub. Wood is a hot favorite, but in Michi- 
gan south peninsula it isn't worth a cent. In the latter 
country the Montreal is sometimes the only thing, and 
in Wisconsin the Montreal isn't worth a cent, So it 
goes. Get a coachman, get a professor, get a brown 
hackle, get any brown-winged fly with a peacock hurl or 
a dirty yellow body — say the cowdung fly — and I should 
say you would not need feel badly equipped, even if 
the trout didn't rise. 
Bullheads at Beaver Dam. 
A few years ago, about three years I think it was, I 
remember seeing the statement that the ice had frozen 
to the ground in Beaver Dam Lake, Wisconsin, and 
that though it was against the law, the residents of that 
community wanted to go to work at once and cut, hack, 
slash, net, spear and otherwise get rid of all the bull- 
heads in that water right away, because if they didn t 
there would be a pestilence next spring when the ice 
went away and the dead fish were left along the shore. 
At the time I mildly suggested that the bullheads ought 
to be consulted about that a little, and that it might be 
well to risk them in the lakes as well as in the wagons. 
I don't know what effect my valuable advice had on the 
community, but last winter there were forty-three tons 
of dressed bullheads shipped by express out of Beaver 
Dam alone, so I think some of them must have survived 
the freeze. But now comes the fish warden, and points 
out that it is unlawful to ship these fish, and says it must 
be stopped. Again arises the cry — which I would not 
for the world suggest comes from the men who have 
made a business of shipping these fish— that the bull- 
heads, if not at once caught, skinned and shipped in 
marketable form, will breed a pestilence, etc. Yet I do 
not hear any news to lead to the belief that Beaver 
Dam is unhealthy, for to the contrary some very fine' 
looking people live there. As to the quality of the 
Beaver Dam bullhead, it is above reproach, 
Nature Got There First. 
At the fish hatchery at Ukiah, Cal., an odd thing came 
out this summer in the trout hatching, which has puzzled 
some of the experts. A lot of trout eggs came in from 
Lake Tahoe, and in the course of hatching out there 
appeared among the products of these eggs some eighty- 
odd strange fish, a pale lemon colored fish fringed with 
black, with a pink Hue alongside, and a bright metallic 
luster tn genera! coior^ion, The authorities were un- 
able to name these fish, and are holding them in a 
separate apartment, hoping that they will either turn into 
regulation trout or get themselves classified as they be- 
long. It would appear that nature has gotten in an- 
other of her mystifying ways, and has not consulted the 
authorities about it at all. Is it possible that we are to 
have a few specialties lo add to the fantail deer and the 
horn snake? The fantail deer I take to be now scientific- 
ally admitted, not only as a possibility, but as a fact, and 
I lay much unction to my own soul that I was ahead 
of the scientist on that, and guessed correctly that the 
old huntefs were correct in claiming that there was such 
an animal. As to these trout, it is as well to be meek, for 
not even an old hunter has as yet appeared who ever 
saw anything like them. I allow that science is a 
plenty good thing to have, but I recollect that they used 
to think it was wrong to play an organ in our church, 
and now they play a horn. 
Return of the Elevator Boy. 
Chicago, III.. Sept, 10. — I have earlier mentioned the 
elevator boy of this building, who sometimes used to 
collie to ask where he should go fishing or shooting, and 
whom I always liked, because of his frank manliness. 
Perhaps I have said that he was a member of the First 
Regiment. Illinois Infantry, and that, he went to the 
front with his regiment. First I heard that he was a 
corporal, and then I heard of him at Santiago. This 
morning my elevator boy, a bit thin and very brown, 
stepped off the long train \vhich brought back the First 
Regiment, or what is left of it, to Chicago. He is a 
boy ro longer, but almost a man in years, and more 
than that a man in experience. When he takes his place 
again at the throttle of our elevator, I shall surely take 
off my hat when I take my first ride with him. He was 
a sportsman to the best of his ability, and he is a soldier 
to the best of his ability, and I do not think that folks 
like us, who stayed at home, are 'quite as good as the 
boys Avho dropped their elevators and just went. To be 
sure, a good many of us felt that if we let go of the 
lever the world would not run just right. We had 
reasons, pretty good reasons sometimes, or pretty good 
excuses, for not going to the front. We had families, or 
LEAPING LANDLOCKED SALMON. 
Photo by Walter H. Blethen. 
corns, or something valid. But my elevator boy, who 
didn't get away from his lever more than two weeks 
in the year, and who couldn't have nearly all the fun 
there was in the world, and not quite all the money, why, 
he just passed by the excuses, or reasons, and went! I 
still think I could lifik this boy, or perhaps outrun him 
if chased, but now I think he is a more useful sort of 
citizen than, for instance, I am myself, and I shall lend 
him anything he wants the next time he wants to go 
shooting, and shall give him his title when I meet him 
in the morning. 
Biting. 
This week the bass are biting in great shape, but no 
one seems to care much for fishing during the shooting- 
season, which is now under full swing all over the West. 
The weather has been glorious for some days. The 
fall season of the 'lunge and pike is on, and it will pay 
a man who had poor fun in July to try the same waters 
now. E - Hough. 
1200 Boyce Building, Chicago, 111. 
Leaping 1 Landlocked Salmon* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I inclose a photograph of a leaping salmon, thinking 
that you will like to reproduce it for the Forest and 
Stream. It is a genuine instantaneous picture of a land- 
locked salmon ascending Cowyard Falls. Lake Onawa 
Stream. The fish is about a 4-pounder, taken last July 
at about medium low water. The water makes a fall 
of about 12ft. at that point. The falls are a short dis- 
tance above Sebec Lake. This lake system is a natural 
one for landlocked salmon, the fish having been found 
there from time immemorial. There are two lakes or more 
below the falls of the picture, and nine or ten lakes and 
ponds above; all naturally stocked with landlocked 
salmon. The salmon formerly ran small, the same as 
at the Skoodic waters, but restocking has been done with 
fry from Sebago Lake, and since much larger salmon 
are taken every season. The salmon begin leaping at the 
falls early in July. 
The picture is by the courtesy of Walter H. Blethen, 
of the Blethen House, Dover, Me. My friend, R. P. 
Woodman, heard of the picture when on his spring fish- 
ing trip to Sebec Lake, and told me about it. I asked 
him to get it, for I thought that you would like to re- 
produce it. Speciai,, 
Boston Fishermen. 
Boston, Sept. 16.— The rod and reel sportsmen are 
returning, and the season of 1898 is about over. Mr. 
J. H. Jones is back from his fishing trip. Making Buck- 
field, Me., his starting point, he fished the streams in 
that town, Sumner and Woodstock. He caught lots 
of rather small trout. The brooks in that section are 
excessively fished. He looked carefully for partridges, 
and in a good partridge section, where only a few years 
ago it was easy to shoot half a dozen from a wagon 
driven over a lonely road- from Sumner to Woodstock, 
he did not see a single bird. He also carefully ques- 
tioned the boys at the village, and became satisfied that 
they did not know of any partridges. But deer are 
positively plenty in that section. He saw deer paths 
in almost every direction, and actually stumbled on to 
a moose up between the Woodstock Mountains. A. 
M. Benson, of Dorchester, has returned from a success- 
ful fishing trip to the Rangeley waters. L. O. Crane, of 
Boston, could not get in at the Upper Dam camps after 
all; found too many sportsmen there waiting for the 
big trout to rise for any more to be accommodated. He 
pushed on through the Seven Pond region to Round 
Mountain. Henry Russell and Mrs. Russell, of Cam- 
bridge, have returned from the Rangeleys, where they 
had their usual good success. Harry Dutton has re- 
turned from his camps at Pleasant Island. Mr. Mark 
Hollingsworth is reported to have landed a trout ol 
4£ilhs. at the Upper Dam. Mr. Geo. L. Osgood and E. 
D. Cummings, of Brookline, have returned from a 
Rangeley fishing trip. 
Mr. C. A. Brown brings up another good fishing 
story from Monomoy or Chatham, though not equal 
to the bluefishing episode published in the Forest and 
Stream last week. A party were fishing off the Chat- 
ham Bars the other day, when Brown caught an enor- 
mous goosefish, which greatly interested everybody. 
It was a monster, with a mouth nearly as big as a 
man's hat, and this raised the suggestion as to what the 
fish could swallow. Capt. Harrington, in charge of the 
boat, volunteered a goosefish story. When he was a 
boy he was scouring the beach in that section with his 
father. They came across an enormous stranded goose- 
fish, and inside of it a handsome pair of black ducks, that 
the fish had evidently swallowed that morning. The 
Captain's theory was that the fish in swallowing the 
ducks had taken in so much air as to cause him to 
float belly up, and be stranded by the receding tide. All 
hands laughed at this story, of course, but Capt. Har- 
rington persisted, and in proof declared: "To tell the 
honest truth, we had those black ducks for dinner." 
Later some one caught a toadfish, and the little fellow, 
when turned over, showed an immensely warty belly. 
When gently tickled with a straw, it would swell almost 
to bursting and then belch the air with a grunt. This 
greatly amused pork packer Plankinton, of Chicago, who 
was on board. Ten or twelve squeteague were also taken 
on the trip, with several plaice. Agent W. A. Wilcox, 
of the U. S. Fisheries Commission, tells me that he 
remembers when Prof. Baird first brought these plaice 
over from Europe, and liberated them on our coast. 
Now they are very frequently taken at Chatham and 
Monomoy. 
The Massachusetts State police patrol boat Lexing- 
ton is finished, and went into commission to-day. She 
was designed by Wm. E. Waterhouse; is 122ft. long, and 
mounts a lib. rapid fire gun on her upper deck. Com- 
manded by Capt. Proctor, a lover of gun and line sport, 
she is designed to be a terror to fish and game poacherh 
all along the shore. She will spend a good deal of 
time in and about Buzzard's Bay. She made a trip on 
Thursday as far as Cape Ann, with Contractor Store3" 
and others interested in her construction, and Mr. John 
Fottler, and a number of ladies on board. She is pro- 
nounced a swift, beautiful boat for the purpose intended. 
Special. 
fA^New Hampshire Outing. 
Boston, Sept. 8. — Editor Forest and Stream: I have 
added to the list of "Men I Have Fished With." It 
came about this way: The 12th of August found me at 
the hospitable home of the Hon. N. R. Perkins, at Jef- 
ferson, N. H., where I was, as usual, cordially welcomed. 
His son Manasseh, with whom I had passed many happy 
days on the streams and in the woods of Coos county, 
informed me that there was a gentleman stopping at 
the Waumbek who was desirous of getting into the 
woods for a few days, and incidentally getting some 
trout fishing, and if I would take him up to John Chand- 
ler's in Dummer, it might prove agreeable for both of 
us. Of course. I fell in with the suggestion, and the 
next day I was introduced to Mr. H. Bramhall Gilbert, a 
well-known business man of New York. We seemed to 
get together at once, and the arrangements were soon 
made for the trip, and three days later we were off for 
the north country behfhd a spanking pair of cobs, 
hitched to a light top buggy, into which our duffle was 
snugly stowed. The day was a delightful one for 
driving, cool and comfortable, and a three hours' drive 
brought us to the hustling little city of Berlin, where 
we stopped for a good dinner at the Berlin House, kept 
by my old friend Marston, who, by the way, is mayor of 
the city. After dinner the cobs were on their mettle and 
we bowled along the excellent road at a good gait, and 
in a couple of hours pulled up in Chandler's door yard 
John soon came up from the river, where he had been 
tinkering one of his boats, and gave us a cordial wel- 
come, as did all connected with the establishment. I 
had told Mr. Gilbert some of John's peculiarities, and 
prepared him for the usual chaffing which John and I 
generally indulged in. I said to John that I had under- 
stood there were some good stopping places a few miles 
further on where sportsmen were well treate-d, etc., and 
he said there were such places, and that the roads were 
good and lay straight ahead. But he knew as well as 
we that our stopping place was there, and we were soon 
unloaded and provided for. Now as to the fishing, and 
it was soon decided that Hillsfield Pond was ouf best 
chance. I had been there before, and was satisfied that 
if we couldn't get trout the*e we couldn't get them any- 
where. But we were sorry to learn that a business en- 
