May 20, 1899.] 
forkst and stream. 
S91 
I paid his bill— the goods to be packed for transporta- 
tion. 
Well, all things considered, I finally got my outfit 
within reasonable limits, and when I shook off the dust 
of New York from iny feet, I already felt an exhilara- 
ting sensation, as an angler should, and I really pitied 
people in New York who were not anglers, and the trout 
lazying away their time in fancied security in deep pools 
under gently swaying alders 'way off, where I was going, 
and I could hear the running brooks finding their way 
to the sea, and I dreamed of trout. 
In due time I reached my friend the Sport in the land 
of trout. I shall not tell where this land is, for no sports- 
man gives away his pools. He may be in all other things 
truthful and confiding, but as to the place where he gets 
his trout he will give points in lying to Ananias or a 
discount in silence to a deaf mute. 
The Sport was a real sportsman and not an amateur. He 
had got wet in every river and brook, and in every lake, 
within a radius of sixty miles, and had deeply studied the 
haunts and ways of the salmon and the trout, and had 
been scratched by every overhanging bush and brier 
in the country. I longed to show him my outfit, and 
after the first welcome was over I asked him if he had 
ever studied entymology, for if he hadn't he was about 
to begin. I showed him my fish pole (rod) and my fly- 
book; he said the rod was all right and my flies well 
selected, and pointing to my magenta-colored sky-blue 
moth with the pink tail he said, "By Jove! ■ you have 
been very fortunate in that one. You have got there a 
sure killer." That was the exact language of my friend 
in New York. I told the Sport I had selected that one 
myself, because I knew that its bite was fatal to trout. 
He said, "Likely enough, especially when dead." I did 
not understand this remark very well, but as time was 
short I did not press my inquiries. I showed him my 
boots. He asked whether I was going to wade in them. 
I told him "No, that I was only going to wear them!" 
At last the day came on which I was to show the stuff 
I was made of. My friend the Sport did not look very 
well dressed when we started off. His boots were high 
up, quite to his hips, muddy in spots, and there was an 
evident, not to say an obtrusive, patch in the seat of his 
trousers, which became conspicuous from time 'to time 
under his bob-tail monkey jacket, as he stalked along. 
His wide-awake hat was hopeless — ornamented with flics 
of various kinds, and pulled into any shape that sun 
or rain had made convenient. My thought was that he 
would certainly scare the trout, and I wondered whether 
I ought not to go alone. Never shall I forget the ex- 
citement I felt when, with the assistance of the Sport, 
I put niy rod together and adjusted the reel and ran 
on my line, and fastened the leader, and then my first 
fly — the sure killer, magenta, sky blue and pink, and 
never did warrior hear the cry to arms with greater 
joy than I heard the quiet, subdued voice of the Sport 
saying, "Cast your fly into that pool, I'll not fish just 
yet, I'll wait till I get you started." "Cast your fly into 
that pool" was much like saying to me "Cast your bread 
upon the waters," or "Bring me a mountain from the 
moon," or "I'll thank j^ou for a piece of that sun spot." 
It was not that the pool was so far off, for it was not 
2oft. away, and I had been told how I ought to do it; 
but my leader was so crinkly and got curled up so easily 
that, though it was well soaked before I began, I could 
not get it out a foot from the shore. I grew hot and 
desperate, and finally tried a back cast, swinging every- 
thing high: up and back at the same time, and then I 
got a bite. I had caught the upper branch of an alder 
that swung gracefully over the edge of the brook miles 
away until I had caught it, and then I found it was near 
to. I climbed on to a rock near the alder and reached 
forward, and grasped a lower branch, and was pullmg it 
toward me, as T had read such things are done, when 
my foot slipped, my rod dropped and my reel, getting 
unfastened, fell into the dark water under the rock, un- 
winding itself as it sunk to the bottom. 
I sat down to consider the situation. From the posi- 
tion of my fly in the top of the alder, I was evidently 
catching birds; from the position of my reel at the bot- 
tom of the pool I was after fish — a long way after them, 
it is true, but after them — and all between the two ex- 
tremes was tangled line around rubber boots and fish 
pole rod. It seemed hopeless. But after study I went 
to the bird's nest end of my line, and after breaking 
through all sorts of underbrush and climbing up and 
down everj^thing and getting into mud and gurry till 
my rubber boots were plastered, and slipping over, boots 
and all, in the slippery mud and water of the bank, I 
rescued my magenta, sky blue pink-tail sure killer. I 
then took off all my clothes, dove for my reel and re- 
covered that; dressed again and began anew my prepara- 
tions for casting into that pool. 
I had never till that day associated bird's nesting and 
trout catching together, but experience, that great 
teacher, soon taught me that if I could not see my fly 
drop into the pool, I might be sure of finding it either 
tip a tree or in the seat of my trousers. At times I 
really forgot whether I was after birds or trout. Trout 
fishers are philosophers. The Sport sat on the pebbly 
strand and noiselessly laughed and cried by turns at my 
efforts, advising, assisting, it is true, but utterly indiffer- 
ent to my sufferings. 
I grew tired at last of that pool and of that alder. 
Your true angler always expects to get a fish in some 
other pool, and I was no exception to the general rule. 
I told the Sport I thought I would try my luck else- - 
where, and sat down beside him quite exhausted with 
my efforts. He said, "But you have not cast into that 
pool yet where the trout are; you have only been around 
the edges, and hardly that." I said, "There is not a 
trout in that pool, and there never has been one; I have 
been into every tree within a mile of it. and I ought to 
know." He took up his fish pole as I said this, and 
first looking behind him, gradually threw toward the 
pool; the click of the reel at every new cast showed he 
was paying out more line. _ It was good to see him as he 
swayed his rod over his right shoulder only a little out 
of perpendicular, and then with a sway forward away 
would go the line, gradually unfolding, and then the 
leader also gradually unfolding, and while you were 
wondering about the fly, down would drop noiselessly 
into the middle of the pool, the bit of silk and feather, 
which, on touching the water, became alive and strug- 
gling for life as you know by its hasty mbvcment across 
the water. No wonder the trout could not stand it. 
Nobody could. Of a sudden I saw a streak of light, 
the rod stiff in the air a little over his right shoulder 
and bent nearly double, and the Sport standing like a 
statue, waiting the next move of the trout, for that there 
was a trout I had no doubt; a whirr, whirr of the reel, 
and then a click, click of the reel, then a splash and a 
jump, a break out of water, and a whirr, whirr of the 
reel, followed by the click, click. I got so excited I 
could only walk the strand and wonder why he didn't 
haul him in. Patiently, noiselessly, now shortening 
his line, now letting it run, the Sport hardly moved from 
his place till I heard the sudden and continuous click, 
click, and the hne got shorter and shorter, and at last 
an open-mouthed trout came toward us, the Sport draw- 
ing back slowljr nearer and nearer where I stood, and 
then with a quick turn of the rod, brought the fish to 
his side, and next ran hina up the pebbles of the shore. 
I thought when the fish was working the way it was 
that it must be as big as a halibut, and I was surprised 
when I found that a trout weighing a pound and a half 
could make such a row. 
I immediately became pos.scssed with a passion for 
trying it again, and the Sport at once acceded, waded in 
with me nearer to the pool, and patiently directed my 
movements. All of a sudden I became blinded and had 
my fish pole nearly wrenched out of my hand, as the 
Sport said to me in a low voice, "You've got him — 
hold your rod up; hold your rod up, I say! Don't let 
the tip down, hold it up!" My rod would not stay up; 
I could not get it to stay up. It bent and bent, and the 
point would sway from side to side, and my line be- 
gan to go off in spite of me. "Hold your rod up; give 
him the butt;, don't let the line slack; reel in; keep the 
pressure on him steadily all the time. Let him take the 
line off the reel; now wind in — slowly — let go again; he's 
a buster. Hold your rod up — up, I say; keep the pressure 
steady and strong all the time, that's what tires him.'' 
Well, that's what was tiring me. After the first five min- 
utes I began to hope that the fish would get off, but 
then I got ni}-^ second wind, and a most intense interest 
and excitement possessed me. I wanted to see that 
fish, but he was sulking somewhere at the bottom of the 
pool. I thought of taking my line over my shoulder and 
walking ashore, pulling the fish after me; but I was 
afraid of the Sport, who had now resumed his place on 
the pebbly beach, and was watching the fray, calling out 
in a low voice from time to time. "That's better! Keep 
your rod up; up, I say; don't let him get any slack any- 
where; there he breaks! That's good! Reel him in 
toward me, gently- — gently, plenty of time; don't let him 
get round that snag. There he goes, round the snag." 
I said to the Sport, "Do you mean to tell me I have 
been catching a snag all this time?" But the Sport had 
no answer; he had walked into the water and come out 
with the snag in his hand, which he threw ashore, so I 
could not reach it again, saying, "He's on still; good; 
it was close, but he's well hooked; take it easy, keep your 
rod up — up, I say! Now swing hmi in, swing him along; 
shorten line, not too fast; lots of fight in him if he sees 
you or gets into shoal water. Gently, swing him toward 
me; I'll gaff him — or here's your new net, must land him 
with your brand new tackle from New York. Gently, 
gently — so; hold your rod up! Here you are, my 
beauty!" A swish, a passing of the net under a beauti- 
ful thing in the water, and I was on the beach in front 
of my spoils. I immediately began to sing, "Lo, the Con- 
<}uering Hero Comes!" The Sport said I was a good 
singer, but that trout were unappreciative, and then I 
threw myself on my hands and knees, letting my fish 
pole lie where it would on the strand, while I examined 
this my first victim of misplaced confidence. 
I counted the spots on him — he was so plump and 
beautiful and cool, as if he had been living in an ice chest. 
I was surprised to find he was not bigger. I certainly 
thought he must weigh a ton, and the singular part of it 
is that he seemed to me to grow smaller and smaller as 
I remembered the size I thought him when I had not 
seen him, and the size he was when I did see him. That's 
why we always lose our largest fish! The Sport said 
I had done nobly, and then and there he dubbed me 
the Trout Killer. I took that trout home with me and 
weighed him. I held the scales myself. He weighed just 
2lbs. and loz. My education was finished. I had learned 
in one day the two great virtues of an angler — -patience 
and lying in weight. Henry M. Rogers. 
The Salt Water League. 
New York, May 9. — Editor Forest and. Stream: I am 
now satisfied that the objects of the League of Salt- 
Water Fishermen will meet with success. There are 
hundreds of fishermen 'yx and about New York who 
would take an interest, if it were well put before them, 
and I must say that we are mjjking great strides in that 
direction. There are some who will say, why deprive the 
net_ fishermen of their daily bread? But no such thing 
is liable to happen, and we wish it well understood too, 
as this League wishes to do nobody an injustice. But 
we shall stick to our rights and furthermore get the 
best that can be got in the way of justice to fishermen 
who toil all day, as I myself have to do for a living. But 
I want a little outing now and then, to drive dull care 
away, and so do a great many others. And like myself, 
they go off on little trips to the fishing grounds (which 
nowadays are very hard to find). But as we all know, 
and we have a number of proofs of it, net fishermen 
care naught for the laws of the State, but destroy every- 
thing and anything in the line of fish that may chance 
to come into their nets. We also have a number of 
proofs of the pollution of the waters, which matter is 
being brought before the proper authorities, and I am 
sure it will be looked after and stopped. 
Now, as to the part of the people who say that we 
are depriving the net fishermen of a living. Take, for 
instance, Jamaica Bay. which was a great place for the 
netters in late years. But a law of 1898 compelled them 
to stop it, and this is in fact the only place where fish- 
ing is allowed on every day of the year. The cry was 
that they were going to starve if stopped; but what 
what has happened there instead? They are buying or 
building small boats for the money they used in former 
years for their nets, and the consequence is that in some 
places they cannot accommodate their patrons. This is 
just and only because the fish are there now in plenty. 
Wherever fish are to be caught, there you will find 
fishermen. And let me tell you, the proprietors of 
fishing resorts are looking to us now to keep up the 
good work. But that is not all. They are stumbling over 
one another to become one of the delegates of that 
particular section to help us in every way; for they say 
it is the best thing that happened. The netters are being 
taught what is right, and at last they approve of it. 
Now, again you take law No. 139, 1898, Mr. Rudolph 
Hoffman, the game protector, one of the new board of 
directors, has this to say: "Last year he had destroyed 
twenty-four nets, two fykes and one pound, and now, so 
far this year, he has failed to find one. He is a hustler. 
They stopped, for they fear him, and the result is that 
the fishermen are catching more fish there, as the re- 
ports show. It is the same all over, and by the end of 
the year they will be pleased to have us pass the bill 
which we will present to the Legislature. 
Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, Hon. Grover Cleveland 
and others have accepted honorary membership in this 
League, and in their letters to us, they promise to help 
us in every way possible. We are arranging for a series 
of mass meetings in and about New York to enroll and 
enlighten those who do not readily understand where 
we are at. Due notice will be sent you of our next one. 
I am now very busy appointing delegates to the various as- 
sembly districts, who will have the power .to appoint 
two assistants to help them, and organize their own 
branches before the fall. Following is a list of those 
appointed thus far, as branches. 
No. 1. Wrn. Rocber, office 329 Eighth avenue. 
No. 2. Frank A. Owen.s, office 11 Atlantic avenue, Brooklyn.* 
No. 3. Joseph Bins, office, 705 Greenwich street. 
No. 4. Fuch's, office 22 Delancey street. , 
No. 5. Thos Reilly, office, 209 West 107th street. 
No. 6. Col. Jas. P. Milliken, office, SlVz West Thirtieth street. 
No. 7. Alfred Rogers, office, 276 East Tenth street. 
No. 8. A, H. Baer, office, 350 East Fifty-first street. 
No. 9. A Baywood, office, 2094 Third avenue. 
No. 10. Wm. Bjur, office, Eldret Dock, Hammels Station, Rock- 
away Beach. 
No. 11. J. F. Marslers, office, 55 CoUrt street, Brooklyn. 
No. 12. J. F. Marsters, office, 800 Broadway, Brooklyn, 
No. 13. Capt. F. Baerem, oftice, Whitestone, L. I. 
No. 14. C. S. Crane, office, 1160 Broadway. 
No. 15. Cornelias, office, 251 Washington street, Brooklyn. 
No. 16. H. Taxtcr, office 315 West 116th street. 
No. 17. Jos. Steiner, office, 309 Broadway. 
No. 18. Chas. Fuller, office, Broad Channel, L. I. 
No. 19. M. Fitzgerald, office. Great Kills, Staten Island. 
No. 20. Hon. Dan O'Reily, office, 28 Fourth place, Brooklyn. 
No. 21. Sam Howard, office,- 302 West Fifty-second street. 
No. 22. Rudolph Hoffman, office, 3156 Third avenue. 
No. 23. M. S. Newcorn, office 110 Park Row. 
No. 24. Dan A. Nesbitt, office 376 Amsterdam avenue. 
No. 25. G. Kissinger, Jr., office, 270 West Nineteenth street. 
No. 26. J. Lewin, office, 121 Chambers street. 
No. 27. J. Lewin, office 103 Reade street. 
No. 28. G. P. Morosini, Jr., office, Riverdale, N. Y. 
No. 29. Adolph Minck, office, 55 Beaver street, Brooklyn. 
No. .30. J. Franz, office, 1782 First avenue. 
No. 31. .Sam Nordenschild, office, Madison Square, N. Y. P. O. 
No. 32. F. Padding, 60 West Eighteenth street. 
No. 33. John Lefferts, 86 East, Third street. 
No. 34. Isaac Smith, office, Princes' Bay, S. I. 
Others will be appointed later on. Please impress it on 
the readers that we want fishermen and friends to help us 
by becoming members, a very small cost, indeed. 
T. BiEDiNGER, President. 
Canadian Fishing Season Open. 
Quebec, May 13.— Never has the oldest inhabitant in 
this north country of short springs experienced such a 
sudden leap from winter to summer as we have had here 
within the past few days. We have seen 6ft. of snow dis- 
appear in some exposed localities in as many days. Sev- 
eral days before the last of the snow had left the city 
streets the thermometer was registering nearly 85 degrees 
in the shade. The buds on the trees are quickly develop- 
ing into full leaf, though there are still good quantities 
of snow, and will be for weeks to come, on the isite of 
the more sheltered of the city's winter dumping grounds. 
Of course, the rapid advance of the season has brought 
on the opening of the angling waters much earlier than 
was anticipated. The heat of the sun rapidly thawed the 
snow upon the icy covering of the lakes, and under the 
pressure and influence of so much water the ice has 
rotted and disappeared almost everywhere. On Lake 
Seaport and other waters in the neighborhood of the 
city, the ice went down in the middle of last week. 
Nearly a week ago some good fish were taken with bait 
in Lake Beauport, and yesterday several rises at flies 
were reported. On Monday last^ the same day that the 
ice is reported to have left Moosehead Lake, it disappeared 
from Lake Edward. This is fully a week earlier than an- 
ticipated. A message received here this morning reports 
that the large trout of Lake Edward have commenced to 
take quite freely. The same news comes from Lake St. 
Joseph. In all these waters the angling is usually good 
almost as soon as the ice disappears. The Messrs. Mr.- 
Cormick, of Florida, have already taken up their sum- 
mer headquarters at the Laurentides House, Lake Ed- 
ward, whence they will make angling excursions during 
the summer to various surrounding waters. A number of 
New England fishermen are expected at Lake Edward 
next week. A few local knights of the angle went up on 
Thursday to their preserves, on the limits of the Lauren- 
tides and Stadacond clubs, but so far no reports have 
been received from them. Several American members 
of the Triton Fish and Game Club are due here this 
afternoon on their way a-fishing, having been wired to 
some days ago, as soon as the ice went out. 
The Kenogami Fish and Game Club, which was only 
formed last year, and which secured some of the best 
of the waters between Lake St. John and Chicontimi, 
has erected a comfortable club house on Lake Long and 
looks forward to a fine season's sport It is expected that 
its membership will fill up very rapidly, many of the 
shares having been already taken up by Quebecers. Capt. 
W^urtele. of this citJ^ has been elected president in place 
of Mr. Savard, M. P., of Chicontimi, whose parliamen- 
tary duties tie him down a good deal to Ottawa. 
I am expecting to hear almost daily that the ice has 
gone from Lake St. John. The snow upon its surface 
had melted several days ago. There will undoubtedly be 
