April 8, i8g9.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
269 
give anything like a guess about the coming season; 
they see the stream by day and can hit the answer 
aboltt right if they rifiie the frequency of rises for the 
early spring insects, (or some of the stone flies and midges 
hatch from midwii4« r until May, and are often seen 
on the snow in t/.!.l davs. But let two visitors see th;*. 
stream on diflferenl 'us and one may report the trout a? 
plentiful while «ie ,.,il,er did not see a rise. Some one 
has said: "It fi never safe to prophesy unless you 
know." ... 
The market for tn /ok trout in New York City is a 
short one for hvy.' fales, although some are sold all 
through the opMi M.'son. Many persons confine _ their 
orders to the fii^l '-Mtnight of the season, for no city in 
the world has such a wealth of excellent fish as New 
York. Salmon from the Provinces and the west coast; 
red-snapper, pompano and the best fishes from the Gulf 
"of Mexico, as well as the coast and river fishes near 
home. Shad soon rival the trout and they are hardly 
within reach of moderate purses before the mackerel 
come and drop shad prices, and so it goes through the 
range of sheepshead, bluefishi Spajiish mackerel and an 
embarrassment of riches. 
Yet I estimate that New York City takes so tons of 
brook trout in a season at retail prices of 25 cents per lb. 
for wild Canadian to 75 cents for Long Islands, and $1.00 
for trout sold alive from the tanks. 
Here is another chip on my shoulder, and in a pre- 
vious article I have intimated a lildng for kicking up a 
row and leaving other fellows to fight it out. Throwing 
off my coat, stripping to the buff, with only shoes and 
trousers, I put up my "dukes" and say: It has been tne 
fashion for half a century to decry "liver-fed trout as 
inferior. I deny the allegation in the teeth of the alle- 
gator. Witness the paragraph above. See the prices paid 
for Long Island trout, which are mainly from private 
ponds and are mostly "liver-fed." and what the sbm. 
black Canadian wild trout bring. The New York epi- 
cure will pay the price for the fat pond-fed trout because 
he knows that they are best. -r i_- r 1-' 
Now I "ahsk" you, in all seriousness, if a bit of call a 
liver and bacon is not a dainty breakfast dish for a man. 
occasionally? If so, whv should it not be good food for 
a trout, as good as any fish diet, which trout of over two 
ounces relish, or. as good as grubs and insects? <Jt 
course we prefer the liver of the calf to that of the cow, 
and require a bit of bacon to flavor it because we are 
given to flavoring our foods, but I once broiled a rutted 
o^rouse over coals and ate it without even salt, and it was 
good, because I was hungry. The trout needs no fried 
bacon with its liver, but it thrives without that epi- 
curean adjunct. On the slabs in Fulton Market one may 
pick out the Long Island trout by their aldeTinanic belUes 
and amber-colored sides, and these are the fish that bring 
the prices. Of course, other pond-fed trout from Massa- 
chusetts and Rhode Island may be labeled _ Long Island 
trout." but that does not affect the question In New 
York market all small clams are "little necks, small 
oysters are "blue points," large oysters are ^saddle 
rocks," and all asparagus is labeled Oyster Bay. 
I will confess that my estimate of the tons of brook 
trout sent to New York City is a mere guess based upon 
the statement of one breeder that he sent six tons of trout 
to that market in one year, and, no matter if the great 
demand for this fish is over in a few weeks every high- 
class hotel, cafe or restaurant must keep them on their 
bill of fare, in season. 1 . 
If fifty tons seems a large amount for one big city,_let 
me say that the city named is a great distributing point. 
\ large dealer gets contracts to supply steamship lines 
and summer hotels. Say he has a contract with the great 
Saratoga hotels to furnish a certain number of pounds o, 
trout and other fish each week during their respective 
seasons. The hotel man has his contract, and when some 
local fisherman offers him some pounds of trout he_ Iws 
no use tor them. The trout are then shipped to Wew 
York to the dealer who may possibly send them back 
to some Saratoga hotel. The hotel man cannot depend 
on getting a definite number of pounds of trout fron-i 
local fishermen and consequently does not care to deal 
with them. A country merchant can buy axes cheaper m 
New York City than he can in Cohoes where they ars 
made, because his freights will be more from the small 
town. ' , ' _ I ^ A i 
On Long Island. 
Year by year there is less fishing for the public on 
this island which once had more trout streams flowing 
from it than any territory of equal size that I ever knew. 
The Borough of Brooklyn, now part of New York City, 
has extended its system of water-works along the soitUi 
shore of the island and has turned the trout streams into 
reservoirs which get warm in summer and therefore havu 
no trout in them. One exception is Massapequa Lake, 
which still has trout, although a city reservoir. Here one 
must get a permit to fish, if he can, and permits are so 
freely given that the lake is overfished after the first 
week. A dozen years ago when it was the private prop- 
erty of Mr. William Floyd- Jones, there was good trout- 
ing there, if one had an invitation from its generous 
owner. * 
South side streams, which have not been taken by the 
city, have mostly been posted, and in some of them an 
angler can purchase the privilege of fishing, but the 
streams on the western half of the island are not as 
plenty as before the water-works invasion. At Yaphank 
there is a fair trout stream called by two names, the 
"Conetquot" and. "Carman's" River. ■ 
On the north side there is Mill Creek, floA-ing into 
Oyster Bay. near Locust Valley, where some trout are 
taken, and from there to Smithtown, where the Nisse- 
quoge River flows into the Sound, there is no trouting 
to speak of. On the Nissequoge the fishing is from boats, 
and some good trout are always taken there early in the 
season, but by the middle of May but few are to be had. 
Otfaef Parts of New Yoffe. 
It is not worth while to go to the Adirondack? until the 
ice is off the lakes, which is usually from the first to the 
middle of May. There are good streams in all the 
counties noith of the New York Central Railroad to 
Monroe Couiitji-, in the Catskills, and west of th§ Hudson 
Kjyer counties, between Albany Roeklan^ itountles, 
including Otsego, Delaware and Sullivan, which are 
back from the river. In the.vv'estern part of the State there 
are many good trout streams along the southern tier of 
counties where streams head, which flow north into Lake 
Ontario and others that flow south into Pennsylvania. 
New Jersey. 
There are a few good tro-Ut streams in this State, in 
the northern part, above Mercer and Middlesex counties, 
but most of them are posted. Men who know of the best 
streams in this State, or hint that they do, are chary 
of giving information about them. Years ago I took 
some trout in Sussex County, in company with that 
thorough sportsman, the late Theodore Morford. of New- 
ton, but that was long ago, and it is reported that the 
streams that we fished are not so prolific of trout as 
then. 
Pennsylvania. 
Even the wonderful Pine Creek does not yield the 
trout that it did in the Nessmukian era, when his "Dah- 
whoopl" echoed among the pines and the old wood- 
craftsman cut an alder and murdered trout by enticing 
them with salt pork, a trout's eye or fin, or whatever 
came handy, for while he was full of poetry it was not 
of the kind that stirs the heart of the fly-fisher. I used 
to give him lectures on this subject, but they never got 
beyond the whiskers, on his ears. Still Pine Creek is a 
fair trout stream to-day, as Eastern trout streams go; it 
rises back of Wellsboro, Tioga County, flows through a 
sparsely settled country and drops into the west branch 
of the Susquehanna River, near Williamsport, in Ly- 
coming county. 
Most of the streams in the east, above Easton, are 
excellent for trout, whether flowing east into the Dela- 
ware or into the east branch of the' Susquehanna, and 
back of Stroudsburg, near the Delaware Water Gap. I 
have had excellent trouting; see sketch of Hon. James 
Geddes, Forest and Stre.ui, Oct. 30, 1897. 
All down those parallel ranges of mountains, east and 
west of the Alleghenys, there are good trout streams 
which extend into West Virginia and Maryland. 
In the South. 
There are some good trout streams along the Blue 
Ridge, in Frederick county, Md., down along this range 
through Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Ten- 
nessee, and even to the streams in Northeast Georgia, 
which form the head of the Chattahoochee River. This is 
the southern limit of 5". fontinalis on this continent. 
The rivers of the Southern States are very prolific of 
pike, bass, perch, crappie and other good fish, their 
warmer waters producing fish food in great quantities. 
To balance this Nature gave to those rivers great gars, 
and "grindles" or "dogfish," Arnia, to keep down the 
surplus. As man now attends to this business there is no 
longer any use for the uneatable gars and their fellows 
and they should be exterminated. 
Few of the Southern States have Fish Commissions or 
pay any attention to the fishes as sources of food. Florida 
has awakened to her needs and has appointed two Fish 
Commissioners, both of whom arc well-known men ot 
acknowledged ability and would be efficient if the State 
would give them the means to do something, but up to 
date they have not an appropriation and are paying their 
own postage. Florida has seen its green turtle disap- 
pearing, its fisheries, which once were a great source of 
revenue, diminishing for want of propagation and pro- 
tection, and has so far awakened from its lethargy as to 
authorize the appointment of Fish Commissioners witli- 
out money to investigate the needs of the State. Thirty 
years ago, when fish culture was an experiment. Legis- 
latures proceeded with caution and made small appro- 
priations. That day is gone by and Florida should place 
$10,000 in the hands of its Fish Commission to enable it 
to examine its waters, botli_ fluviatile and marine, and de- 
cide what should be done to benefit the people. The out- 
lay would not come back this year; ^or next, but it would 
be a most excellent investment. 
It is singular how tardy the South has been Iji the 
matter of fishculture. The rivers which once supplied a 
profusion of shad for home consumption are now being 
netted for the last shad to the great Northern markets. 
Will they wait until the fish are so nearly extinct" that- 
the rivers will not furnish enough breeding fish? 
The past quarter of a century has seen a revolution in 
quick transportation which has enabled Southern waters 
to supply the great markets of the North. This exchanges 
fish for cash, but when the fish are gone that ends the 
exchange. 
Southern people are apathetic on this question, because 
fish food has always been plenty, but they have seen the 
buffalo and the wild-pigeon go before the rapacity of man 
until the races are practically extinct. The green turtle 
is threatened with extinction in Florida because the 
beach-combers, and others hunt their eggs for food. 
This should be stopped at once. 
The idea that fish culture is merely an adjunct to the 
sportsman should be combatted everywhere, Of course, 
when fishes which the angler seeks are made plentiful he 
is entitled to take his share, but the main thingds to in- 
crease all valuable fish and to destroy others, since- we 
have upset Nature's balance by killing only such species 
as we consume; and protection should go hand im haul 
with propagation. 
I have fished in many parts ot the South, and have seen 
the net fishermen throw back useless fish to live and de- 
vour better ones. : They need to be instructed in th!.j 
matter, but. lest I be accused of saying that only 
Southern fishermen need this lesson, I will refer to 
Forest and Stream of Jan. 7, 1899, page 13. where 1 
say the same thing of men in South Bay, N. Y.. fisher- 
men who threw seventy-one dogfish, the salt-water 
cousin of the shark, overboard because it was too much 
trouble to even knock them on the head. .A.11 net fish- 
ermen need to be educated in matters that are of vital 
interest to themselves, Tfiey never look beyond the re- 
.sults of the day or the seasoiu As a class the fresh-water 
market fishermen are ignorant of everything which con- 
cerns their business except where to get fish to-day and 
where to .sell them at the best price. Their motto seems 
to be: "Eat. drink and be merry, for to-morrow ye 
^|e." Thfv tliiuH thfjt the supply of fi?h inexhaustible 
and have no idea that each fish has come from an egg and 
passed through daily perils for years before it met 'i.s 
fate at their hands. 
While Northern sportsmen go South in great num- 
bers to catch the worthless tarpon of Florida and to take 
the black bass and other fishes, they also go North to the 
salmon rivers of Canada and New Brunswick. Very few 
Southern anglers go North for sport. Most men like 
to go away from home for sport with rod and gun. 
A funny instance of this once happened. I was living on 
Long Island, and had an invitation from a friend to spend 
a week at his home in Warren county, N. Y., and shoot 
ruft'ed grouse, squirrels and rabbits. I did so and three 
years later a man with a gun on Long Island asked me. 
where he could find some good grouse, squirrel and 
rabbit shooting, and, in the talk we had it developed the 
fact that he came from Warren county to look for good 
shooting! I could tell him nothing, for I had never 
looked for game about home, although some rabbits 
bred in my garden each year, and a few gray sqtiirrel.s 
scolded me once in a while when I intruded on their do- 
main, but I never thought of using a gun on Long 
Island. 
None of this relates to fishin' time, but you know 
how talk on any subject runs. A few of us start in *o 
discuss the proper flies, dressed on the regulation hooks 
for certain waters and then some fellow remarks that 
"Peter went a-fishin', and that if we had been fortunate 
enough to have been tliere at that time we might hart 
been among the chosen ones," and then some other fel- 
low asks: "What became of St. Paul?" The merchant 
from Minnesota moves his ears forward at the name and 
says; "There's mighty good pickerel in the lakes back 
of St. Paul, and if you boys will come up there next 
season we'll have a good time; I'll see to the bait." 
"Now, speakin' o' bait," said a traveler, "there's no 
bait for a dawg like a badger an' it takes an all-firel 
good un to pull one out of his bar'l, 'less he hooks him 
right." 
"Speaking of hooking," said a man with a bundle of 
trout and bass rods, "I like small hooks and a little hook 
will ." Here I have to leave the car and lost the rest 
of it but it shows how a stray thought will lead one from 
the main trail. 
But fishin' time has come, and this week I hope to 
take a few Long Island trout and legally eat them in that 
part of New York City which is on Long Island and j.s 
officially known as the Borough of Brooklyn, while those 
who live across the East River must sneak their Long 
Island catches to their homes and eat them in fear oi* 
game wardens until April 16. Verily our law-makers 
sometimes do queer things. 
Fishing and other Philosophy. 
Charlestown, N. H., March 31. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I enclose you, for "The Game Laws in Brief," 
copies of the various acts passed by our last Legislature, 
some of them are good, some superfluous, and one, in 
part, decidedly objectionable. I refer to the one which 
opens the lower half of the State to trout fishing on 
April I. The part of it, which closes the season, in the 
brooks of the same section, on Aug. i, instead of Sept. 
I, is all right, for the brooks in this section are nearly 
dried up by that date ; but three months' stream fishing 
is enough for anybody, and to-day every stream is frozen 
up solid, and the snow in the woods is 3ft. deep. Last 
year the boys who went out at daylight on May i got a 
few half-starved, hungry trout, but I did not hear of 
another one for a fortnight, and the only success I had 
myself was 011 May 14, when after a warm rain, which 
raised the brooks, 1 got a dozen nice ones, of which I 
wrote you at the time. This new law was got through 
before I knew of it, by a lot of impatient "sooners" down 
at Nashua, and other towns on the south line of the 
State, where there is a warm "pocket" covering a dozen 
or twenty towns in the lower Merrimac Valley. It gives 
them a chance about one year in four, to "go a-fishin'," 
as soon as their Massachusetts neighbors, but the date 
for opening, of April i, is too early for any part of Massa- 
chusetts, except the tidal streams on Cape Cod. It simply 
opens the streams in the Connecticut Valley to the Ver- 
mont anglers, a month earlier than they can fish in their 
own State, and though, as I said, there is only about one 
year in four when they can take advantage of it, it throws 
us out of line with our sister States in the same latitude, 
Maine and Vermont, to fit the caprices of a few hungry 
men on the Massachusetts. It is the third time in 
twenty years, that those men have played the same game, 
and twice, the common sense of the experienced anglers 
of the State has put the opening- day back to May i again 
and that is two weeks too early in average seasons, and I 
speak from sixty years' experience, from Canada_ to 
Massachusetts. 
I have been greatly amused by the "weather prophets" 
this winter, especially with those who go by the "goose 
bone." About a month ago I read the account of a man 
down in Tennessee, who, it was said, predicted a hard 
winter, because he had killed eighteen geese, and their 
breast bones were all perfectly transparent, which was a 
sure sign. Last week I saw an extract from a prophesy 
in the New York Sun of last October, quoting a man 
who had killed a goose whose breast bone was entirely 
white, and not transparent at all, and this was also a "sure 
sign of a hard winter." "Who shall decide when doctors 
disagree?" It is wonderful how people of average com- 
mon sense cling to these old superstitions. In aU my 
long life among the woods and waters, I never saw any 
difference in the muskrat houses, and the thick corn 
husks are simply the result of a warm, wet summer, and 
no evidence toward the coming winter, whose weather 
matters nothing to an ear of Indian corn, which cannot 
be frozen, and is only affected by temperature when put 
in a "popper." 
I do not wish to interfere in any of Fred Mathers dis- 
cussions, which he says, he starts for the fun of standing 
back and seeing some other fellow do the "scrapping," 
ljut I was struck by the way in which Mr. Wade "got oft' 
the track" in his letter a shoi't time since, in which he 
said that "the alligator took no care of its young, and 
therefore could not transmit the fear of man to the pro- 
geny," or words to that effect. Education of the young 
was not thf? questior} und^;- disctission, it wfa.s \h.e. transt 
