88 
Proprietors of fishing and hunting resorts will find it profitable 
to advertise them in Forest and Steeam. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Minnows for Baft. 
For years the use of nets for taking minnows to be 
used as bait has opened the door for abuses of various 
kinds. The law in force up to 1899 permitted the use 
of a minnow net 40ft. long and 4ft. in depth, with ropes 
at either end not exceeding 30ft. in length. It was 
especially provided that minnow nets should not be used 
in streams inhabited by trout, but if the truth could be 
loiown it would show beyond peradventui-e that quantities 
of trortt (I was about to write tons) were taken every 
year in nets. One man in particular, so far as I can learn, 
never even pretended to fish with hook and Hne, and I 
doubt if he owned a hook or a line used in angling, but he 
netted and sold bait fish and often had trout for sale, and 
generallj'- they were large fish. I was morally sure that 
every trout was netted, and I tried again and again to 
prove it. It may seem to be an easy matter to catch such 
a man and convict him of illegal fishing, but one knows 
far more about it after making the effort. His neigh- 
bors were wilHug to aid in convicting him if their action 
could be hidden from him, but they said frankly if it 
should come to him that they had furnished evidence 
against him their barns would probably be struck by 
lightning some dark night when there was no lightning in 
the sky. For two years I had an officer watching this 
man, and he suspected it but did not know it positively] 
but finally he caught him, and when we faced each other in 
court, if black looks and muttered curses were dangerous 
I might have been sent to the hospital. The strong arm of 
the law got the man to the door of the jail, where he 
could ponder on the accommodations furnished inside, and 
then a smart lawyer and his construction of the law, to 
which the justice assente'd, saved the fellow. He had been 
so near to the dead line and smart lawyers are so ex- 
pensive that it cost the man his nerve, or he no longer 
trusted his cunning, for he ceased his business altogether 
and no longer had either bait or trout for sale. His 
arrest did the business as thoroughly as a conviction 
would have done, and that was all that was desired. 
When that man went out of the bait-fish business the trout 
fishing in the stream near which he lived improved won- 
derfully, and anglers caught big trout by fair fishing as 
they had not done before in years. 
^ The rules of the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commis- 
sion provide that gill nets shall not be used, and in one 
lake it was found that a score of gill nets were operated 
to take bait fish. It was necessary to amend the minnow 
net law to make it more binding. I am not prepared to 
say that the law passed last winter is a perfect law, but 
if enforced it will stop much fishing that never was in- 
tended to come under the head of fishing for minnow.s. 
Section 145 of the Fisheries, Game and Forest Law, as 
amended by Chapter 701 of the Laws of 1899, provides 
that "In all waters, except creeks and brooks, and waters 
inhabited by trout, minnows for bait may be taken with a 
net not more than 6ft. in length or diameter, without a 
license; in all waters, except waters inhabited by trout, 
they may be taken with any net if the owner thereof shall 
have first obtained from the Commissioners a license to 
catch minnows therewith. Such a license can only be 
granted upon payment of a license fee of $1 and the execu- 
tion of a bond by the owner of the net, to be approved by 
the same Commissioners, conditioned for the payment 
to the people of the State of $100 if the holder thereof 
during the time for which the license is granted." There 
are men who can be trusted to take minnows for bait with 
a net, but I am also sorry to say that there are many 
more who cannot be trusted with a net unless there is a 
bond to insure that the net will be used only for the 
purpose for which it is intended to be used. For some 
kinds of fishing bait fish are a necessity, and I am in 
doubt if, under the bond and license clause, it was 
necessary to use the words "in all waters except waters 
inhabited by trout," for in large waters inhabited by lake 
trout, minnows are not found where there is any likelihood 
of trout being taken in a minnow net. If the law was 
made to read brook trout, it would open many lakes to 
minnow net fishing which are now closed by a strict 
intei-pretation of the law. 
The Application. 
A person who desires to make application for a minnow 
net license must send to the Fisheries, Game and Forest 
Commission at Albany for a blank and fill it out. The 
applicant specifies the kind of net to be used, its size and 
the wa.ters where situated, in which the net will be used. 
Also : "I hcreb3r state that said water in which I desire to 
use nets is about miles long and empties into ; 
that the same is not inhabited by trout of any kind ; that 
I have not been convicted of illegal fishing within the past 
year; that I have accounted for all net license tags here- 
tofore furnished me with licenses that have expired, and 
tbat T bave reported all fish caught under said expired 
licenses." 
This declaration the applicant swears to, and pro- 
cures the signature of two men who i-ecommend the 
granting of the application. 
The Bond. 
With the application a bond must be furnished by three 
bondsmen, who bind themselves in the penal sum of $100, 
etc. "The condition of this obligation is such, that if the 
above bounden — — does not violate or attempt to 
violate any of the provisions of the Fisheries, Game and 
Forest Law of the State of New York relating to the 
protection of fish, and shall return to the water alive and 
without unnecessary injury all black bass, Oswego bass, 
%yhitefish. pickerel, pike and mascalonge caught in the net 
licensed in pursuance hereof, and shall faithfully observe 
all of the rules and regulations of the Board of "Fisheries, 
Game and Forest, so far as the same are applicable to or 
made a part of the conditions of the license given him bv 
said Board of Fisheries, Game and Forest, then this obli- 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
gation to be- void, otherwise to be and remain in full force 
and virtue." It may be seen that this bond is practically 
the bond given by licensed commercial fishermen, with 
the addition of certain fish which must be restored alive 
to the water, and with reference to the law under which 
the license is granted. 
"The Liceoise. 
The application being satisfactory to the Board of Com- 
missioners, a license is issued to the applicant, which gives 
the number of the license and the number of the tag which 
must be attached to the net, and says to whom the license 
is issued, residence, etc., the kind of net and where it is to 
be used, and the kinds of fish it can be used for : "But in 
no case shall this license be construed as authorizing the 
use of nets for the purpose of catching brook or California 
trout, black bass, Oswego bass or mascalonge, and no 
fishing shall be done in violation of the rules and regula- 
tion of this Board, which are hereto annexed and made 
a part thereof." 
The rules and regulations number seventeen, and pro- 
vide, among other things, that a license is not transfer- 
able, and if a licensed net is used by other than the licensee 
it shall be deemed forfeited; all licenses granted during 
the year will expire on the 31st day of December follow- 
ing; and the Chief Fish, Game and Forest Protector may, 
at any time, in his discretion, revoke any license after no- 
tice to the licensee of charges made against him ; licensed 
nets shall be set, drawn or used only between sunrise and 
sunset, and no net shall remain in the water after sunset 
unless raising it is prevented by the weather. Any person 
holding a license, who shall forfeit the same by reason of 
being hereafter convicted of illegal fishing, or who shall 
violate any of the rules, shall not thereafter be granted 
another license within one year. The metal tag with num- 
ber of license issued to each licensee shall be attached to 
the net when in use, in such a manner that it will be on top 
of or above the Avater, and in plain sight at all times. The 
licensee must exhibit his license when required to any 
fish and game protector and forester, or to any peace 
ofiker of the State, or to any person designated by the 
Board of Fisheries, Game and Forest. 
Kipling; Spooned his Salmon. 
My note about Kipling having taken Pacific salmon with 
the fly, and the suspicious admission that a spoon was 
lost later in the game, went over to England in Forest and 
Steeam and caught the eye of Mr. Marston, the editor 
of the Fishing Gazette, who clipped it for republica- 
tion in his paper, but first sent it to Mr. Kipling for any 
reply he might choose to make. Mr. Marston writes me 
and sends galley proof of my note with Kipling's answer, 
appended as folloAVS : 
"Having often heard salmon anglers who have fished 
the rivers of the Pacific coast of North America say that 
fly was no use, we sent Mr. Cheney's note 1,0 Mr. Rudyard 
Kipling, and his reply shows that anglers who want to 
sup with or on a Pacific coast salmon must have a long 
spoon. He says: 
" 'Dear Mr. Marston : In the language of the immortal 
Jorrocks, "Spoon I Spoon I Spoon !" "Fly" is a slip of 
the rod. Those brutes won't rise to it. 
" T return the cutting. Sincerely, 
" 'Rudyard KipLing. 
" 'To R. B. Marston, Esq.' " 
Mr. Kipling having admitted that it was with a spoon, 
not a fly, that he killed Pacific salmon, the question, has 
the Pacific salmon ever been taken with the fly? is now up 
to some other angler. I have searched through some of 
Admiral Beardslee's lettets, hoping to find what he said 
about this matter, writing me from Alaska, but I cannot 
find that he confesses to the fly, and yet something of this 
kind lingers in my memory. 
The Forest and Stream of July 22 has just arrived, and 
I find in it the note of Mr. Henry C. Beadleston, and for 
the first time I have a doubt about the Pacific salmon 
being made to rise to a fly when properly presented, and 
the doubt arises because I know that Mr. Wells is a suc- 
cessful .salmon fisherman on Canadian rivers, and pre- 
sented his fly to the fish as is done in Canadian waters. 
It was upon this that I had banked that the Pacific salmon 
would rise to the fly, "When a salmon fly is offered to 
Atlantic salmon it is not presented as a trout fly, for in- 
stance, is presented to trout. The current draws the fly 
continually down stream, just beneath the surface, and the 
constant motion of the rod in the angler's hands draws the 
fly up stream, producing a succession of short flights up 
and down stream on the part of the fly, causing the 
hackle's wings, etc., to open and shut, giving the fly the 
appearance of something alive; and why a Pacific salmon 
that will take a spoon will not take the fly, silver doctor 
for example, or dusty miller with silver body, that is as 
much a live thing as a spoon trolled through the water, 
I have not been able to understand, but the experience of 
Mr. Wells shakes my faith, heretofore strong in theory. 
Last year I cast all one forenoon on the Restigouche 
without a rise, using silver doctor and Jack Scott. At noon 
an old resident on the river and a man familiar with sal- 
mon fishing in that particular water asked me what I 
had been using, and when I told him, he said the Durham 
ranger was the fly for that water. In the afternoon I used 
a Durham ranger, and had two rises and killed two sal- 
mon, and my friend attributed my success entirely to the 
fly, but I did not, and in my own mind was positive 
that I would have got the fish had I continued to use 
either the silver doctor or Jack Scott. The conditions 
changed between forenoon and afternoon, and it was the 
change in the water and not in the fly that brought me to 
fish, to my way of thinking. For days the water had been 
falling, and was very clear, and though we could see big 
fish in the pools, they would not notice a fly. In the 
morning of that day referred to it began to rain, a slight 
drizzling rain, and soon after noon the water came up just 
a trifle, and a fog settled over the river. Then it was 
that the fish began to move, and I had my rises and I hap- 
pened to have a ranger on my leader. I would not be 
ungenerous enough to tell the old gentleman, who was a 
firm believer in the Durham ranger, that I believed I 
would have had the rises to a Mitchels, dusty miller or 
some other fly, although I thought so. For the same 
reason I have believed that when salmon are fresh run and 
on the rise they arc not particular as to the name of 
the fly if it is property presented, and that Pacific salmoa 
[July 29, 1899. 
would prove no exception. I say I have believed, for | 
Mr. Wells' trial may well cause me not to be too cock \ 
sure, when belief is confronted by practice. i 
Eels. 
Mr. Wm. A. Wheeler writes me from East Templeton, 
Mass. : _ "Your article in Fokest and Stream seems to 
substantiate the theory that all eels breed in salt water, and 
what I will say does not imply that I wish to criticise 
this theory adversely. In this town is an artificial pond 
tributary to the Connecticut River, shut off from the con- 
necting streams by eight dams. This pond is the most 
productive water for eels that I ever heard of, and their 
size is remarkable. There is no place in this vicinity 
where a body of water so soon restocks itself with fish as 
this; two seasons being sufficient to bring back the most 
excellent fishing for pouts and pickerel. 
"The pond is not over fifty acres in extent, with a very 
muddy bottom, and it has been my good fortune to be 
present twice in the last twenty years when the water 
was drawn off for repairs to the dam. The quantity of 
eels taken on each occasion was enormous in comparison 
to the size of the pond — hundreds and hundreds of pounds 
being taken, and not one less than 2lbs. in weight, and the 
majority weighing 4 and slbs. The last time the pond 
was drawn I saw one Frenchman with a sugar barrel and 
a large washtub full of these large eels, and I think that 
not one would weigh less than 4lbs. He salted them for 
winter use. Can it be possible that all these were barren 
eels? One shop, which is now gone, had lots of trouble 
every winter with eels getting in the iron wheels, eight 
or ten frequently being taken out at one time. It was al- 
ways in January or February that the eels clogged the 
wheels. Were these females going to the sea to spawn? 
We find lots of small eels 8 or loin. long below the dams j' 
in summer, but never catch any in the ponds. The size of , 
the eels here is the more remarkable when compared with | 
those seen in the city markets." I 
What Mr. Wheeler states is not inconsistent with the 
belief that all breeding eels breed only in salt water; in 1 
fact, what he says supports that belief. The pond evi- 
dently furnishes an abundance of rich fish food, and the 
eels grow rapidly and to great size, as any species of fish ' 
will do under similar circumstances (the late Max von 1 
dem Borne, one of the most distinguished of German fish 
breeders, told me that a pike (Lucius lucius) which he 1 
hatched artificially in one of his ponds escaped into a 
pond containing black bass fry, and in eight months from 
the time the pike was hatched it attained a length of lyin. 
and weighed 2lbs.). It does not follow because the eels in 
Mr. Wheeler's pond are of great size that they are barren, 
but rather the breeding instinct has not moved them to 
repair to salt water. The eels caught in the mill wheels 
are beyond doubt those which are seeking salt water to 
breed. That elvers are found below the dams shows that 
a supply of young eels is coming up from the sea con- 
stantly to grow fat and large on the rich pasturage 
furnished by the pond. 
In looking for Count Von dem Borne's letter giviflg the 
exact weight and length of the pike, for I think it was a 1 
fraction over 2lbs. and a fraction over I7in., I found a 
letter dated Sept. 7, 1887, referring to eels, although I have 
not yet found the pike letter. Of eels he wrote nearly ; 
twelve years ago: "In Germany we believe that eels 
spawn in salt water only. The male eel will not leave the 
mouth of the river, while the female will go far up to the 
sources. The eel is not a native in the Danube, and the ' 
German Fisheries Association made great efforts to intro- 
duce the fish. For some years we have placed millions of 
fry of eels, all females, in the upper parts of the river, and 1 
this year we have sent from 10,000 to 20,000 mature males 
from Hamburg, out of the estuary of the Elbe to the 
mouth of the Danube on the Black Sea, and in consequence 
of our conviction that the fish spawns only in salt water." 
Count Von dem Borne made a close study of the habits 
of the eel, and I presume I could find other personal 
letters from him on the subject if I had the time to search i 
for them, but in his published works he arrived at the 
same conclusions that I gave in Forest and Stream of 
July I, quoting from other authorities, but I had for- 
gotten all about the Danube experiment until I found the, 
letter this evening. 
I noticed in one of the daily papers of quite recent date 
that an eel had been caught in a net in Senaca Lake, New 
York, that was 13ft. long. It seems that this lake has had ■ 
its sea serpent in former years, and now the flshcrmen 
think they have caught it in an eel of 13ft. Perhaps some . 
Forest and Steeam reader will tell what there is to the , 
story. The fishennan is alleged to have been George , 
Sorner, living on the shore of Pine Bay, seventeen miles 
south of Geneva. 
Otiananlche^ 
The article in current issue of Forest and Stream on ( 
the ouananiche, by Noah Palmer, has afforded me con- ; 
siderable satisfaction in the reading, in one particular, at 
least, although I cannot agree with him in all his con- , 
elusions. The reputation of the tackle smashing, high 1 
jumping, deep diving ouananiche had been made known 
to me before my first visit to Lake St. John, and thought- 
lessly, perhaps, I went to the scene prepared as I would 
be to catch any game fish, and without a surplus of rods 
to be smashed, leaders to be broken and flies to be lost. 
That I did not lose a fish, break a rod, leaders, line or 
fly, I put down to the fact that I had not encountered the 
tackle smashing variety of ouananiche, but I was loath 
to confess that I had not smashed rods, etc., and lost a 
good proportion of fish hooked. As Mr. Palmer confesses 
to having killed such fish as he hooked, it makes it easier ^ 
for me to say what I have. When I say I did not lose a 
fish that I hooked I refer to fish hooked in fly-fishing, for I 
did troll in the lake near the Island House, and did lose a ' 
number, as I deserved to do, for using a spoon. 1 
The only bit of tackle that I broke was two flies at the ' 
upper pool of the Metabetchouan, on another visit. Twice 
I hooked ouananiche on the upper fly of my cast, and the 
fish broke off the point of a fly below in dragging it about 
in the pool. Altogether I considered myself extremely 
fortunate in not mixing up with the kind of ouananiche 
that causes disaster, famine and pestilence. The fish that 
I did catch were game fish, and about that there is not the • 
least doubt in my mind, Avhether I caught them in the * 
rough water at the foot of the Grande Decharge, in the 
lake at the Island House, or in the pools of the Meta- 1 
