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FOREST AND STHEAk. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST 
Movements of Western Anglers. 
Chicago^ 111., May 27— One of our most widely ex- 
perienced anglers is General McNulta, whose angling 
lore covers the territory from muscalunge to salmon, and 
from tarpon to trout. Gen. McNulta starts this week 
with his friend, Mr. Thomas A. Murdock, of Reid. 
Murdock & Co., for a salmon fishing sojourn on Mr. 
Murdock's preserve on the York River, Gaspe Basin. Mr. 
Murdock has fifty miles on the York, some of which he 
owns in fee. . The prospects appear good for these two 
gentlemen. 
Mr. E. F. Selz. of Selz, Schwab & Co., piloted by Mr. 
J. E. Strong, of the same house, start to-night for Dud- 
ley Post-Office, on the Prairie River, via Merrill, Wis. 
They should hit this lovely stream just about right now, 
and I predict for them a very pleasant outing indeed. I 
understand that Mr. Strong will spend a couple of 
weeks there. 
Messrs. O. von Lengerke, C. H, Lester, Walter Dupee 
and their friends, Messrs. Cole and Tichenor, returned 
to-day from a very successful bass fishing trip at Ocorio- 
mowoc Chain, Wis., where they averaged something like 
sixty bass a day to each boat, the party dividing up, two in 
each boat. I saw Mr. Von Lengerke this morning, and he 
seemed very brown and happy. He said the bass ran in 
weight from ij^ to 4]/i\hs., and were taken by casting 
minnow. Some of the time they bit very fast, the best 
oi the sport being for about an hour each day. The 
bass were all big-mouths. 
Mr. W. P. Mussey and wife left last Sunday for Kabbe- 
kona Camp, Minn., and were met at Brainer by Mr. H. G. 
McCartney, owner of the camp, who was just coming out. 
It was then Tuesday afternoon, and neither Mr. Mussey 
nor Mr. McCartney was happy, for it seems there has 
been a change of time in the railroad north of St. Paul, 
by which the passenger train on this branch is laid off, 
necessitating a lay-over of twenty-four hours. This means 
serious inconvenience to those visiting tlais famous place, 
and Mr. McCartney was very much troubled, and is still 
seeking the remedy, in hope that the railroad will restore 
the original time table, which made it jjossible to leave 
here Qne night and reach the camp the following night. 
Still, if one is going into the wilderness, he ought not to 
expect to get there all at one jump. I imagine that the 
anglers will continue to go into the Woman Lake Chain 
in spite of the enforced lay-over. 
Dr. McDonald and Mr. J. E. Callahan are still at 
Kabbekbna Camp, and I presume by this time may be 
having sport. Mr. McCartney reports the water still 
very cold at the time he left, and the bass not biting 
very freely. He did not fish very much himself, and 
caught but one muscallunge, which weighed 2olbs. 
Regarding this fish, Mr. McCartney tells a smgular 
story. It was a very thick, fat fish, and of extraordinary 
vitality. Having no better means' of killing it, the boat- 
man stuck the blade of his knife through its head. In- 
stead of quieting the fish, the effect was quite the re- 
verse, for after a time it began to thrash about m the 
boat, and seemed on the point of getting out. The guide 
again thrust his knife blade through the head of the fish, 
remarking that he supposed that would find it. They 
then piled clothing and packages on the fish to hold it 
from jumping out of the boat. An hour and a half 
later, when they took the fish out at the hotel veranda, it 
was my no means dead, but had strength to spring up and 
turn completely over from its position on the boards. I 
presume the cool weather had something to do with it, but 
I have never heard of a muscallunge living so long out 
of water. ■ , r 
Col. J. S. Cooper, of this city, has received from 
Grand Rapids, Minn., a tracing made upon a large piece 
of paper from a muscallunge, which is reported to have 
Aveighed 461bs. This is a very unusual weight for this 
region, and quite surpasses any I have .seen reported for 
many years. The figures, however, are not supported, and 
no details are available concerning the matter. 
Apropos of the matter of muscallunge weights, I must 
add the testimonv of Mr. J. Garrard, of Frontenac, Mmn., 
who writes "me, "You should not call m question the 
weights reported of muscallunge, as you once did of a 
fish taken in the Mississippi River at the mouth of Crow 
River, of 6slbs. ^' ■ ■ • , ^ ^. a,. 
"That one taken near Pittsburg measured Sit. bin. ihe 
weight was not given, but could not have been less than 
75lbs. , . , 
"Reports of early .settler-S; give weight of one taken m 
Lake Pepiiie %t |61bs. Witft-'iSole through the gills, rest- 
ing on slioulders of two men, the tail dragged the 
ground. . , 
"The hunters and lumbermen m the Wisconsin woods 
speak.^ familiarly of their being as big as a man. 
"The rough-backed sturgeon (lately written about by 
you), is a favorite article of- food, and is largely used 
as a smoked fish. The weights go as high as iiolbs. m 
Lake Pepin." ' r , i 1. 1.1 
I am to-day in receipt of a letter from the redoubtable 
Fred Mather, who is adding to his varied experiences by 
acting as Superintendent of Mr. H. C. Pierce, Cedar 
Lsland Lode, at Brule River, Wis. It would seem that Mr. 
Mather is getting around to the scenes of his earlier days, 
and I am rejoiced to discover that he has escaped from 
the enervating atmosphere of the East, and has come into 
a region where "the best is like the worst." 
Messrs. Fred Peet, Harry Hascall and their friend, 
who, I understand, is sometimes called "Stonewall" Chad- 
wick, will start within ten days for another trip to the 
trout waters north of Grand Rapids, chiefly the Pere 
Marquette. They ought to meet the sport just about 
right, as the season has been late in Michigan thus far, 
as indeed it has been all over this portion of the West. 
Aroand Grand Rapids. 
I passed a few days at Grand Rapids. Mich., this week, 
engao-ed in business only. Knowing what would be the 
result if I rnet John Waddell, Harry Widdicomb or any 
others of the fly-fishing contingent of that sportful city, I 
consistently dodged them all, for I did not have time to 
go fishing, and had hedged against my weakness by not 
even taking my fly-book or rod along with me. Yet, one 
dav at lunch at the Peninsula Club, I fell into a perfect 
nest of Anglers, including both the gentlemetl above 
named, whom I had been dodging, with Mr. C. L. Lock- 
wood, general passenger agent of the G. R. & 1. Railroad 
(whose very fish plates smell of trout) ; Mr. W. R. Shel- 
by of the same road, with Messrs. Maddox, Bundy and 
others there present, each of whom had a fish story as 
long as your arm, and each of whom also was ready to 
go fishing again. 
"Come along with me," said Mr. Widdicomb, "I am 
just going up to the Boardman again, and I want to 
show you what we can do up there." "Just you wait over 
until Saturday," said Mr. Waddell, "for I am going up 
again, and I want to show you the Pere Marquette. You 
don't need any rod, waders, flies or anything else; we've 
got them all waiting for you. You mustn't go away with- 
out a trout fish." It takes a good deal of nerve to break 
away from invitations like these, especially when a fel- 
low is rather weak on the trout side anyhow, but I could 
not go. and so had to content myself listening to the re- 
ports of the good times all these other folk had had. 
Messrs. Shelby, Barnhardt and Widdicomb were just 
back with well-developed cases of Boardman sunburn. 
They found the water pretty full in some sections of the 
river, but they got about 150 trout, some very nice ones 
indeed. 
Mr. John Waddell, the rainbow fiend of the South 
Peninsula, reported good sport on his trip of a few days 
preceding on the Pere Marquette. Mr. Waddell' s heaviest 
fish on this occasion was li^lbs. He bemoaned the cruel 
fate which called him away just as the rainbows w^ere 
jumping in the evening. He tells me that the best time 
of dav is just before dark. Mr. Waddell promises me a 
complete refutation of the entire Taylor system of cast- 
ing. His own style of fishing is quite different, and he 
catches a great iiiany trout yearly, and is cojivinced that 
he could not do this so regularly if his own system were 
not pretty near correct. Mr. Waddell is a great believer 
in the doctrine of persistence, and believes that a good 
many trout fishers fail because of fishing the water too 
fast." Mr. Bundy, who was of our circle, and who, by 
the way, tells me he was a college classmate of the Editor 
of Forest and Stream in the days of auld lang syne at. 
Amherst, reported that his trip on the Au Sable, Avith 
his friends, Messrs. McKay and White, was a complete 
success. They caught about 120 trout one day, and had 
all the sport they cared for. Mr. Bundy told me, what I 
had never known, that the Au Sable can be waded and 
fished for a great part of the way. I always thought 
it necessary to use boats on that stream, and indeed it is 
the custom' to take boats at Grayling and run down some 
miles before fishing. There are a number of camps and 
club houses along the stream nowadays, so it is not neces- 
sary to take a tent. The Au Sable continues its grand 
record as a trout stream, and some fine rainbows are taken 
there. The warden work on the Au Sable is reported 
to be very efficient, and indeed it would seem to be highly 
desirable that something be done to preserve this splendid 
water. Mr. Bundy told Us of one Detroit party who 
fished the Au Sable, who ate fish as they liked in camp, 
and who took home with them to Detroit, 1.800 trout. 
This would seem sufficiently horrible. Not quite so good 
was the record of a party who took out 1,100 trout from 
the same stream last year. Such fishing as this will 
ruin any trout stream that we have. 
T learn that the Pere Marquette River is being fished 
very hard this spring, and is being robbed of hundreds of 
fingerling trout, which ought to be returned when caught.. 
From all reports the Michigan streams arc keeping up 
very well. The Boardman is as good this year as usual, 
though it has not been stocked for some time. This 
stream I should expect to be better later in the .summer, 
more especially for big rainbows. 
It takes big waters for big fish, as most fishers know, 
and as we discussed these matters in general conclave 
that day, it was determined that in some cases tliere can 
be too many trout in a stream to make the fishing good. 
The Rapid" River of Michigan was cited as a stream 
where verv few large trout are ever taken, though it is 
full of small -sized ones. It seems to be one of the neces- 
sities of nature sometimes that fish don't get half enough 
to eat, though they live along apparently not unhappily for 
years and years. Big feed nieans big fish, and a strejim 
'can be eaten out as well as fished out, though customarily 
in these days the latter situation is more apt to trouble 
us than the former. 
The Grayling are Not Gone. 
The common supposition is that the grayling is extinct, 
and this is perilously near the truth, though not ab- 
solutelv true. It is a good fortnight which allows one to 
chronicle a flight of wild pigeons and a basket of grayling. 
Yet at Grand Rapids I learned that there had come to 
town from Luther, Mich., a nice take of trout, with which 
were included twelve grayling. All the fish were taken 
on the Pine River. It has been known for some time that 
one might once in a while take a grayling on this stream 
It is a good trout stream, though very apt to get high and 
roily in case of rain. It is a trifle difiicult to fish, and 
this fact perhaps has preserved the grayling, Mr. Bundy 
said he heard of grayling along the Au Sable, and 
thought one could be safe on a trip of a week or so to take 
several grajding in the tributaries of Au Sable. 
The Map'le River, once a magnificent grayling stream 
has not reported any grayling for some time, so far as I 
know. The Maple River is reported prime just now 
^°CoL°E. Crofton Fox, one of the Grand Rapids fly-cast- 
ing enthusiasts, is not doing any fishing this spring. Col. 
Fox has bought some zinc mines down m Missouri, and 
is chained to business. I regret to report this lapse on 
the part of so thorough a sportsman. 
In the Grayling Days, 
At Grand Rapids I had a short talk with Mr. J. H. P. 
Hughart general manager of the G R. & I. Railroad, who 
is an ardent and skillful angler, as well as a thorough- 
going railroad man. Mr. Hughart showed me four qtiarts 
of flies which he had just received from his favorite 
maker in Scotland, and which he purposed employing 
at an early date along the Michigan streams. Mr. Hug- 
hart may perhaps be called an old settler m Grand 
Rapids as he eame there along in 1874. Naturally, he 
<joon became infatuated with the magnificent grayling 
fishing which prevailed in those days in most of the 
Michigan streams, and he sent back to his olA friend, 
Thad Norris, to come out and have a fish with him. They 
started in pretty well toward the head of the Manistee 
River, where they heard that a party of trappers had 
gone down with the boats before them. This last was 
true, but the trappers had gone during the high water of 
the spring, and the clearings' they had made in "brushing 
out" was several feet above the heads of the party who 
tried later in the year. This was in the fall of 1876, and 
Mr, Hughart and his friend were nine days in getting 
down a paltry bit of the river. Then they hit upon such 
grayling fishing as will never be known upon earth again. 
They could anchor their boats in any pool and catch all 
they cared to, doubles and trebles more often than singles, 
until finally old Thad Norris quit in disgust, saying that 
a tenderfoot could catch more fish than an expert. 
Official Trout Trip. 
In the city Ihey have theater parties, in the country 
trolley parties, and in Michigan they have trout parties, as 
witness the fly-casting tournament of last year at Grand 
Rapids, when the railroads took everybody out on a grand 
tour of the trout waters. This year it was the Detroit 
and Mackinac Railway which took a notion to celebrate 
by giving a trout party, and the function assumed some- 
thing of an official nature. The personnel of the party 
was composed of Messrs. J. D. Hawks, president and 
general manager of the Detroit and Mackinac; C. W. 
Luce, general superintendent of the same road; T. G. 
Winnett, general freight and passenger agent, and D. J. 
Casey, chief engineer. These may be called the hosts 
of the occasion, the trip being into some of the trout 
country touched by the D. & M. Others of the party 
were Messrs. C. L. Lockwood, general passenger agent 
of the Grand Rapids and Indiana; H. F. Moeller, gen- 
eral passenger agent of the Flint and Pere Marquette 
Railway; E. H. Hughes, assistant general passenger agent 
of the Grand Trunk Railroad ; these closing the list of the 
railroad men proper. Associated with them were Messrs. 
Clark and Yates, of Detroit, and State Warden Harry W. 
Loveday, of Chicago, who went along with Mr. Hughes, 
with one or two other friends, who joined the party at 
points up the road. There were three cars, each marked 
special and private, which carried this party, and the ob- 
jective point was near Hale Creek and Smith Creek, two 
lovely meadow streams about fifty miles north of Bay 
City, and ten miles or so from Tawas City. Here the 
party remained three days, coming out early this week. 
They took about 500 trout, and a ripping good time in 
spite of the mosquitoes, which were new and hungry. I 
saw Mr. Hughes on his return, and his hands were badly ^ 
swollen from the bites he had received, he having for- 
gotten his bottle of fly dope. The trout of these two 
streams do not run so very large, but are very brilliantly 
marked. Every man in the party was satisfied with the 
sport he had, and willing to vote that an official trout trip 
can be made a distinguished success. 
• Mr. C. L. Lockwood, general passenger agent of the 
G. R. & I., who was with the above party, tells me regret- 
fully that he fears it will be his last trip for some time, it 
being his fortune to be a lover of trout fishing, but obliged 
to take care of a business which in the spring and sum- 
mer is much concerned with others who are lovers of 
trout fishing. I can see only one possible objection to_ 
livin_g in Grand Rapids, which is a very delightful city of 
itself, and that is that I might have to get tangled up 
with some sort of work there, and be obliged to look on 
at the people who came through merrily bound for the 
trout country just beyond. To live in Grand Rapids an<l 
not go fishing would be to die unblessed. 
I wanted to see a business man in Grand Rapids, and 
called four times, but found his desk shut and finally 
learned from the office boy that he had gone fishing and 
left no word when he would come back. I called on 
another gentleman, Mr. D. H. Armstrong, and he ex- 
plained to me that he must soon be going, as he had an 
engagement with a friend to go fishing that afternoon. 
The pickerel arc now running in the Grand River, and 1 
saw a number of fishermen along that stream who were 
casting and trolling. There is trout fishing too, within a 
dozen miles of Grand Rapids, but everybody goes further 
away from home than that for trout. 
Lingering Touch. 
Mr. H. English, of Von Lengerke & Antoine, of this 
city, came back from Long Lake, tipper Illinois, one day 
this week with a fine lot of bass and a lolb. pickerel. Into 
the mouth of the latter he had carefully inserted his hand 
in order to get a good hold on the fish when landing it. 
His fingers look as though they had gone through a coffee 
mill, though- it is. only the lingering touch of the pickerel. 
Drowned while Seining. 
An odd bit of protective work comes to light near Wat- 
scka. 111. Nearly a month afCf'sevefaL men went out 
fishing, on Sunday, and one of them was drowned. It 
appeared later that the party were seining, which was 
illegal. .President Nat H. Cohen, of the Fish Commis- 
sion, got word of this, and sent a deputy, who arrested 
all the others who had been in the seining party. Surely 
these men ought to feel that they would not care^to use a 
seine again. 
480 Caxton Building, Chicago, DL 
E. Hough. 
In Comment. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I must say something. Next after Fred Mather and 
Robinson and Hastings, the best thing I have seen is Mr. 
Rogers' story in your last issue. T have laughed until the 
water closed my eves. Rogers with his pole and his "ma- 
genta sky-blue moth with a pink tail." Well, well, and 
a 2-pounder. No wonder he considers himself "a trout 
killer." But really such things as these make your paper, 
and I can appreciate all of his article. I know, and what 
old brook fisher does not, of the ten thousand limbs and 
leaves back of him on a trout brook. I would like to 
take Rogers hy the hand, look into those eyes of his — 
they must be ioUy ones— and say "Good for you." 
I miss the Major (Fred Mather), I hope he is having 
good success in old Wisconsin, Many a good day 1 have 
put m there in that old Badger State. I trapped there 
two years, and then game was abundant, deer in plenty. 
