372 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
I I . r i-.ii I.I 11, I III i-i. 
[May 13, j899> 
break off pretty soon anyhow. Get a little stick 2in. 
long and make a half hitch or loop of your rubber band 
about it. This is now your lock, the stick lying on top 
of the lid at its edge, and the spring of the rubber hold- 
ing the lid tight shut. When you want to put in another 
trout, or still more likely, want to have a look at the trout 
you have already caught, just pull up the lid without un- 
fastening anything at all. When you let go the lid it will 
snap shut again and keep shut, and will not let your 
trout spill out, no matter how your basket hangs. If you 
want to open the basket wide to get out your fish, push 
the stick through the hole endwise, and it hangs free. 
The man who will put this simple device on his trout 
creel, instead of the old, conventional wicker loop, which 
was invented in the days of Noah and is no accotmt to- 
day, will sell creels where the old sort will not go. 
"Bait Charm/' 
Did anyone ever hear of a "bait charm"? Did anyone 
ever hear that some fishes bite after finding their bait 
by means of smell? Did anyone ever put anything on his 
bait for the purpose of "drawin' the fish" — I don't mean 
the good old system of spitting on the bait; everybody 
knows that that is a good thing, and especially good when 
the fish are not biting very well. 
I do not know just how the matter happened to come 
to my mind, but I recently bethough me of a certain odd 
character I met years ago on the banks of the old Skunk 
River, in Iowa, when I was a boy. This was an old, dried 
up, wizened, short, thin little man, who was fishing for 
a living along that stream, which was then a good ang- 
ling water. This man could always catch more fish than 
the best of us, especially of such fish as suckers, red 
horse and other fishes that bite at worms. He always 
put some sort of scent in his worm can, but would never 
tell what it was. He said he would guarantee to make a 
finished angler and perfect gentleman out of anybody 
who would give him a $5 bill, but he was not loosening 
any information for anything but cash. Tradition runs 
that a certain young man of that vicinage who had more 
wealth than sense produced the $5 and learned that bait 
scent was sometimes anise seed oil, sometimes pepper- 
mint, and I think also another ingredient, which I do 
not now recall. Only a little of this was used, a few drops 
My friend Ed. Rock, above referred to, is a black- 
smith. I believe I should have liked to be a blacksmith 
myself, for it must be nice to pound things out of iron, 
but I have never yet got to the place where I cotdd do 
all the things I wanted to. In every village there is one 
man who knows more about shooting and fishing than 
anybody else. Sometimes it is the barber, sometimes the 
minister, and sometimes the blacksmith. In the case of 
St. Charles it is the blacksmith. Ed. Rock may get his 
hands soiled a little now and then, for you can't be a 
manicure and a blacksmith too, but withal he is a good 
deal of a sportsman. He understands the habits of the 
bass, and knows about the ducks and snipe. He 
doesn't believe in shooting duck on the water, or 
jerking fish out by main force. Much of a nat- 
uralist as well as fisherman, you can always learn 
something of him during an hour on the stream. Not 
without philosophy, moreover, is he, as should be the 
case with your genuine angler. "I see folks a-sittin' and 
a-sittin' on the bank," said he, "and sometimes I won- 
der what makes a fellow like to fish, anyway. It can't be 
just the fun of catching a fish, fer Avhen you catch a fish 
you take him oft and put him on the string and don't 
make no great fuss about it, and pretty soon you forget 
it; but then you go right back to fishin' again, and keep 
on just as if you hadn't caught any fish at all. If you 
get another, it is the same thing over again. Folks keep 
on sittin' here, and they catch a few bullheads and suck- 
ers, and they put them on the string, and go on fishin' 
again. What are they looking fer, and what is it they 
expect to get? Sometimes it seems to me that a feller is 
tryin' to catch something that ain't in the river." 
Methinks there may be some truth in these sayings of 
my friend Ed. Rock. We go on fishing and fishing, and 
Avaiting and waiting, and sometimes, if we stop to think, 
the conviction might indeed come over us that we are ex- 
pecting something that "ain't in the river." 
The Ananias Fishing Ciab. 
The same friend writes me: "The Ananias Fishing 
Club, of Louisville, Ky., will leave for Lake Erie on their 
annual fishing trip about the middle of May next. This 
club is composed of some of the leading business and pro- 
fessional men of the city. There will be sixteen of the 
Connecticut's Misfortune. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
If there ever was a time when Connecticut sportsmen 
were indignant, that time is now, and the reason is the 
Governor's action in his appointments of fish and game 
commissioners. After many years of fruitless work it was 
acknowledged in 1895 that the time had come to change 
something and see if it was possible to obtain better re- 
sults. After many weeks of talk and much hard work a 
bill was favorably reported to abolish the old fish com- 
mission and create a fish and game commission. It so 
happened at that time that Gov. O. Vincent Coffin, of 
Middletown, was very much interested to further these 
interests, and he appointed three commissioners — ^James 
A. Bill, of Lyme; Hubert Williams, of Salisbury, and 
Abbott C. Collins, of Hartford. Their work was so suc- 
cessful that in 1897 Gov. Lovein A. Cooke reappointed 
the same gentlemen. For the last two years the work of 
this commission has been far in advance of our expec- 
tations. Owing to press of business Mr. Williams, much 
to our regret, was obliged to resign, but his successor, 
Dr. Knight, of Lakeville, was a most estimable gentle- 
man, and ably assisted Mr. Collins in the work. Owing 
to age and its attending infirmities Mr. Bill, of Lyme, 
became incapable of active work, but his long experience 
and service lent dignity to the commission, and we all 
regret his necessary confinement. 
But as long as Mr. Collins was on that board everj' 
one knew it would be a success. He it was who set the 
example of enforcement of the fish and game laws. He 
was the one who discarded the system of planting fry 
and substituted fingerhng fish, with results that astonished 
all. No man in any public position ever held the con- 
fidence of such portion of the public as are interested in 
these matters as he does. No man ever paved the way 
for so much to be done at so little expense as he has, and 
as a reward for himself and for the satisfaction of the 
sportsmen he is now dropped. 
Who are his successors? Mr. Bill, of Lyme, infirm 
with old age and unable to do anything, is retained. The 
immediate successor of Mr. Collins is a Mr. Solomons, 
of Norwalk, called an ardent sportsman, but by occupa- 
tion an oyster grower; one who never raised a voice in 
THE MUSCALONGE. 
From Fishing Industries. 
1:. 
in the can of worms, for its strength would scald the 
worms in short order if too much were used. I know we 
boys who in time learned this "secret" always religiously 
employed scent for our worms when we went fishing. I 
have sat by the side of this quaint old character by the 
hour, watching his sucker lines (throw lines, with a little 
twig at the edge which held a loop of line and showed 
the gentle working of the sucker at the bait) and listening 
to him discourse ex cathedra on the art of fishing. I 
remember that a part of his set lecture ran to the effect 
that "some fish bit by sight, some by scent." He classi- 
fied all the worm-biting fish in the latter category, and I 
think he also placed the pickerel there, though this is 
but a vague memory, for which I can see no foundation 
in likelihood. There be more things in heaven and earth 
than the bookmen ever get hold of. All I can say is 
that the old duffer always had a bigger_ string of fish than 
anyone else who fished along the river. I long ago 
ceased to use his "bait charm," but it seems I have not 
forgotten the man, and I would go a good way to see and 
talk with him again, for he was fuller of stories than I 
at that time suspected, since I was then perhaps only 
eight or ten years of age. 
Bass. 
Up at Fox Lake, in this State, the bass are running, 
and market fishermen have been catching forty or fifty 
a day with hook and line. The fish are just coming out 
of the deep water, but are not yet on the spawning beds. 
The spawning season will be very late this year. This I 
gather from the talk with Mr. Charles Hills, a gentleman 
who fishes in that district considerably, and with whom 
I have passed some pleasant hours in a casting contest 
in which speed, style, distance and accuracy were never 
for a moment in doubt. 
I still have no word from my friend Ed. Rock, at St. 
Charles, on the Fox River, and I infer that the bass are 
not yet running there, which is a most singular state 
of affairs, they being now three weeks past due. I should 
like to have a day with the fly in that country some time 
this summer. You can take a trolley car at St. Charles 
and spin rapidly north several miles until you strike the 
riffs below South Elgin, where later on there is good 
wading and fly-casting. This is within forty miles of Chi- 
cago. In July there should be good sport there. Yet an- 
other place which the fly-fisherman ought to keep_ in 
mind for the coming summer is the Mississippi River just 
above LaCrosse, Wis. This locality I have often men- 
tioned,, but have never personally tried. Friends tell 
me that it offers mag-ntficent sport. 
members in the party. They will make their headquarters 
on Middle Bass Island, and will have a large tug boat 
with the necessary smaller boats to take them to the 
various fishing grounds. The president of the club and 
admiral of the fleet, who takes charge of the party, is a 
veteran angler, who has had a wide experience from the 
trout of the Nipigon to the tarpon o£ southern Florida." 
Animate Oddities. 
Just now they are having a big run of "spoonbills" up 
the Ohio River. There are two sorts of spoonbills. One 
is a duck and one is a catfish. The latter is sometimes 
called the "shovel-nose cat." He is a very weird sort 
of creature that runs mostly to nose. He uses his nose as 
a shovel, and hence gets his name. The shovel-nose is a 
very obliging sort of beast, and devotes most of his 
energies to getting into nets, from which he ultimately 
appears in the Southern fish markets, minus his head 
and tail, and bearing some name or other to conceal his 
identity. 
I was once fishing in the Iowa River, about 100 miles 
above its mouth, and I caught a sort of thing which 
made me drop my rod and take to the woods. _ It was 
about 2ft. long, and tapered from front to back till it was 
only about as thick as one's thumb at the tail. Its tail had 
two blades to it, one longer than the other. Its head was 
unearthly, and its mouth was underneath its chin. All 
along its back it had a row of horny scales. It came out 
of the water in a tired, listless way, and made no reply 
when I asked it what it was. I was only a freshman 
then, and did not know that this was a shovel-nose stur- 
geon, which I take it is some sort of a survival which 
was tired of life before Adam was on earth. The fish 
offering no objection, I took it home, and three of us 
worked for a week trying to mount it so that it would 
look like something. We threw it away eventually, 
though it lingered- long with us as a sort of nightmare 
dream. E. Hough. 
480 Caxton Building, Chicago, 111. 
A Monster Shad. 
PouGHKEEPSiE, N. Y.. May I. — I inclose a slip which 
was published in our Sunday Courier, and which the 
editor tells me this morning was first published last week 
in a paper at Marlborough: "Grant Baxter, at Hampton, 
on Friday caught a shad which weighed 23lb5. and wn.? 
^ft. in length. The monster was exhibited in Frank E. 
Merritt's store at Marlborough." This is certainly, a 
"whopper." I mean the fish, of course. 
J. S. Van Cleef. 
defense of a game or fish law, or ever had any actual ex- 
perience in propagating fish. The third is by occupation 
a brewer. Now, I am not going to comment on this 
make-up; it is unnecessary. What Connecticut _ needs 
now is a fish culturist. What we do not need is this 
commission. Let the General Assembly create the for- 
mer and abolish the latter; have him elected on his merits 
by the Assembly, and thereby save the State two-thirds 
the cost of a useless commission; and let a good, compe- 
tent man carry on the work so ably begun. It is all 
n-ell enough to talk about ardent sportsmen filling these 
places, but it takes experience and pluck to obtain results. 
Results are what we want, not ardor. Let us see if our 
representatives can arise to the necessity. 
Chas W. Hall. 
'Hartford, May 8. 
Guides and Guiding* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have made many trips to Maine, always for fish, as 
I do not care to shoot large game. I do not recall a 
guide in my employ but had some "axe to grind." When 
I have lodged in camps the guide favored some friend 
who owned a specially "well kept camp." Often no_.fish 
were to be taken within miles, but the tenderfoot finds 
this out only by persistent whipping of the waters and 
the usual bluff, "Well, they are not rising to-day." My 
early visits to Maine were mostly devoted to paying board- 
for myself and guide at "well kept camps," where none 
of the guests averaged as many or as large trout as one 
may get within twenty-five miles of New York City. 
I found by experience that if I wanted fishing I must 
locate it myself. This led me to studying the country, 
getting information from loggers, sportsmen and others, 
and with guide, canoe and tent striking into the woods 
and persistently following my own route, often against 
the wishes or directions of the guide. When the guide is 
not working for a "well kept camp" he is usually hunting 
for an easy route for himself. In this way I have had the 
finest of fishing and the excitement of following often an 
unknown route, and in this way getting the full flavor of 
a woods' trip. 
There are many lakes and streams in Maine where at 
any time during open season excellent fishing can be had; 
the difficulty lies in knowing where to go. I make a prac- 
tice of learning all I can about a section which I visit, so 
that I may return to it and fish more or less familiar 
waters. My experience with guides generally is that they 
know little and care less about fishing. They are often 
