FOREST AND STREAM. 
293 
tl^ American eagle was wrong if he had any such thought. 
At the last annual dinner of the London Fly-Fishers, one 
of the speakers was Sir Thomas Wardle, and he spoke 
of two friends who were fishing with him on one occa- 
sion, referring to one as follows: "The other friend was 
a distinguished literary man, a learned professor in Baroda 
College, who had been very hospitable to me in India. 
Some years ago he was asked to go to India on Govern- 
ment service, to report on the silk industry of Bengal, 
and other subjects. He was sent into the jungles of 
Western Bengal to visit a missionary, the Rev. George 
Campbell, of Manbhum, interested in silk culture, and he 
suggested to that gentleman that it would be a very good 
thing if longer length of the silkworm gut were obtain- 
able. Two years afterward the missionary sent him a 
collection of gut which absolutely astonished him. From 
two species of silkworms, Antherecc mylitta (the Tussar 
silkworm) and Philosamia ricini (the Erin silkworm of 
Assam), there were lengths of 15ft. to 21ft. [Hear, hear.] 
I have arranged the specimens in a little book and will 
be pleased to present them to the club." [Cheers.] 
No wonder they said "Hear, hear" and cheered when 
Sir Thomas presented silkworm gut from 15 to 21ft. long. 
He further said that since his visit to India they had given 
considerable attention to the gut question, and were pro- 
ducing good gut of over 2ft. in length, instead of ift. 
as formerly. If London had not had a Fly-Fishers' Club 
those specimens of gut might have gone elsewhere, and 
New York fly-fishers do not know what they are missing 
every year by not having a dub that such things could 
l:ie given to. 
Pacific; Salmon. 
A letter has come to me on the subject of Pacific salmon 
taking the fly from Cheneyville, La., written by Mr. J. 
Kobert Mead, and I am obliged to him for the informa- 
tion in the letter, and also for making known to me that 
there is such a place on the map as Cheneyville. He 
says ; 
■'I have just finished reading your article in F'orest and 
Stream of Sept. 2 on Pacific salmon and artificial fly, and 
am moved to write you in regard to it. I resided in 
Portland, Ore., for five years, and while there caught my 
share of salmon at Williamette Falls, near Oregon City, 
also a few in the Clackamas River, all of which were taken 
with the spoon. Judge Green and myself tried all manner 
of spoons, and finally had some made to order, which we 
found very successful. Blade of spoon 2^2in., nickel 
plated, hammered. Triple hooks of extra strength with 
bright red and white feathers. I have known salmon to 
open their mouths (after being hooked) and bend the 
ordinary hooks almost straight. Would naturally sup- 
pose from the fact that red and white feathers are the 
best on spoons, that they would take a fly composed of 
those colors. I have personal knowledge of salmon taking 
the fly in the Clackamas River. One occasion I witnessed, 
and the other I was present, but was not an eye witness. 
The first was a fresh run Chinook salmon a little over 
3lbs. in weight, and was caught half a mile below the 
dam near the mouth of the stream. The salmon rose 
twice, but was finally hooked foul back of the head. 
The other was caught thirty-odd miles up, the river, and 
was fairly hooked in the mouth. Both fish were taken 
by Sidney Smith, then of Oregon City, but now of 
Portland, with a fly about 2-0 in size, known as the Mead. 
I have the honor to be the originator of the fly, and 
have found it a killer on all trout I have taken in Oregon 
and Washington. I am willing to go on record as making 
the statement that the Chinook salmon of the Columbia 
River and its tributaries have taken, and will take, the 
artificial fly under favorable conditions. In one day at 
Williamette Falls I killed twelve salmon with spoon that 
weighed I32^1bs. Wherever I have used the word sal- 
mon, I mean the royal Chinook of the Columbia River. 
As many as twenty-seven small salmon, 5 to 61bs. each, 
have been taken with steelhead roe for bait." 
As to feathers on spoon, I have long held the opinion 
that it made little difference whether the spoon had 
feathers or not. The first spoon made had no feathers 
and many modern spoons have none. It is the flashing 
of the metal in the water which attracts the fish, although 
the bright feathers may add to the attractiveness of the 
spoon. The Mead fly I have been familiar with since it 
was first made, and then I declared that it looked like 
the larva of the May fly in the water. 
A. N. Cheney, 
Success with Bass Ponds. 
Perhaps some of your readers may be interested in 
the success of breeding black bass in a small way. 
Some years ago I had about three acres of bog land, 
in which there were some spring holes dredged out. 
The land on three sides was high, hard ground; on the 
fourth side I dug a ditch about 3ft. wide, and down to the 
solid ground of the pond, building uo a wall on each 
side with the tough bogs and with the grass side out. 
The whole width of the bank was about T5ft. With the 
sand dug from the pond, T commenced at the end of the 
ditch, where it joined thf hard ground, and filled the 
ditch to the surface. This drove the soft mud and 
water before the sand, and as some of the mud remained 
they together formed a mortar, so that when the ditch 
was filled throughout this part was very hard. .Although 
the muskrats have made many attempts to work through 
it they have not succeeded so far. 
For an outlet I sunk a 6in. iron pipe lengthwise well 
down to the bottom of the pond, and at the inside end 
T made an upright box about 2ft. by ?.h.. sunk well into 
the sand at the bottom of the pond, and about 2ft. higher 
tlian the bank, with cover and lock. Into this were put 
two screens of fine wire in summer, and in winter one of 
wire and one of solid wood, with J-^in. holes bored into 
i>. This was to prevent the muskrats from gnawinsr 
ihrouerh the wire screen. Back of the box and around 
the pipe we filkd with broken gla^s before pounding 
the earth in placp. At the end of this box and oonnsite 
the nipp was a srtnare hole in the box about .lin. bv 5ln. 
The depth of water in ponds is from 2 to 8ft There is 
more orJesR p-ra^s. with water lilies, in the .^hallow water, 
wh'ch rrives food and shelter to the young fish. 
In thp winter T put in nine yearling small-mouthed 
bass, The second year they snawned. but did not in- 
crca?e ver/ fgst .as tljp pnncipa! food they had was a 
quantity of grass pike that had come in from the creek 
through the outlet while the pond was being built. To 
remedy this lack of food in the pond, we drew a net 
about twice a week in the bay, where we caught killies, 
silversides and shrimp. The killies and shrimp bred, and 
some of the killies are now in, the pond. The silversides 
could not live long in the fresh water, and were soon 
eaten by the bass. In about three years I found that this 
small pond was overstocked and did not afford food for 
the fish. I then built another pond of about nine acres 
in the same way as the first pond. This pond was open 
to the bay from fall until the following May. When the 
oiitlet was closed off by a dam we found that perch, 
pout, sunfish and alewives had run into the pond 
through the outlet and had remained there. After con- 
structing the two ponds, I found th.it the bass would not 
leave the small pond, although the large pond had plenty 
of food. I caught about fifty of the largest fish and trans- 
ferred them to the large pond, but found they returned 
almost at once, often as soon as they were placed in the 
water, near the connecting water. The only way to pre- 
vent this was to put up a screen between the two ponds 
and transfer them again. The next spring I counted 
thirty-one beds, and now have good fishing, and both 
ponds are well stocked with bass from fingerlings to 
fish of 2Hlbs. The perch and pout and sunfish are 
of all sizes, but the alewives after breeding thousands 
the first year, and fewer the second and third, have now 
entirely disappeared. These ponds being fed entirely 
by springs and without inlet, most of the food, consists 
of young sunfish, perch and killies, and the fish must be 
bred in the pond. 
I believe that fish become attached to localities, as we 
always find them near the same place. One that we call 
the old bachelor can always be found alone under the 
roots of a certain tree, and if we feed him he never misses 
a meal. E. D. Ward,, 
Long Issland. 
Fishing Up and Down the Potomac. 
Hunting , Creek. 
Half a dozen miles west of Alexandria a small stream 
takes its rise, called Back Lick Run, and after flowing 
some distance eastwardly receives a tributary from the 
north called Turkey Cock Run ; the resulting stream is 
Cameron Run. A little later into this, from the north, 
comes Holmes' Run, rather the larger of the two, and 
below their junction the stream is Hunting Creek, almost 
as puzzling to the stranger as a London thoroughfare with 
its half-dozen names, Hunting Creek empties into a wide 
shallow cove in the Potomac, that is a tidewater marsh 
just south of Alexandria. 
The upper lip of this cove is a little promontory, called 
Jones' Point, on which stands a Government lighthouse, 
which is the southern corner of the great square forming 
the District. 
About this country cluster associations of the immortal 
George, Mt. Vernon lying close by on the south, and 
Washington's highway crossing the run. The Mt. Vernon 
Electric Road crosses the upper end of the marsh on a 
long trestle, and some fishing has been done aloout its 
piles from the wagon way of this bridge, which has been 
lately removed. The upper runs, which must be waded, 
are well stocked with the large white chub, and legend has 
it, once had trout, which is, however, unlikely, as the 
waters are warm always, easily muddied by freshets and 
do not carry the appearance of trout streams. 
On the occasion of our last visit, a little while ago, we 
went down the night before to the lighthouse, the keeper 
of which is a boat builder, and engaged a couple of skiffs, 
which were to be at the Electric bridge early the next 
morning, as we_ desired to avoid the long paddle up the 
cove covered with the heavy moss. 
We spent the evening about the shores of the Point, but 
it was ebb tide and the water too shallow inside the line of 
moss and spatterdocks to shelter anything but sunfish and 
the two perches. We caught some dozens of the little 
fellows with No. 12 flies, and did not expe'et better with so 
little room on a shore so much used. 
When we came on the first car the nfeixt nioriiiiig the 
skiffs were waiting at the bridge, and we set out at 
once, first threading the piles of the long trestle, hoping to 
pick from their shallows a good rock or black bass, as we 
had been told they were often secured here with bait. The 
wind was high, which interfered sadly with the manage- 
ment of the boats and with the cast, but by anchoring to 
the piles we succeeded in covering the water to our satis- 
faction, but if there were any fish there they made no 
sign. The weather had driven them too deep for the fly, 
or they were not hungry ; at any rate, we found none. 
Among the causes which interfere with fly-fishing, and 
which some experience leads to conviction is serious 
enough to warrant a closer study than seems to have been 
given, is barometric pressure. Common expressions found 
in all extended accounts of trout fishing are that the fish 
were "on the feed," or "not feeding," to account for 
good or ill luck with surface lures. 
Of course the same thing happens with the bass, and 
there are times when they seem to be ravenous, and often 
times when they do not. Thunder is generally believed 
to send them to the bottom of the deeps, but some one 
makes a catch while the thunders roll, and straightway 
announces it's good weather for fishing. Som.etimes a 
silent shower sends them scuttling, and between showers 
the lake will be alive with breaks. There is no fixed hour 
for their feeding, though where the flies are plenty they 
are usually lively, and the cold, east wind which is sup- 
posed to be fatal for fly-fishing may do no more than 
drive the insects to the shelter of the bushes, and the 
fish leave the surface when the bugs do, 
A little swell in the river before a freshet and before the 
water becomes turbid will make them suddenly leave off 
rising. At other times they_ come and go, for no apparent 
reason to the angler, who is the victim of a puzzled dis- 
appointment over what he considers their vagaries. People 
of nervous temperament are susceptible to atmospheric 
conditions and changes, and it is not only the nerves of 
pain in a corn that gives notice of a storm. Sometimes 
the subject "feels like a rag." 
The water too responds to the pressure of the air, and a 
falling barometer may be enough to make the fish uneasy. 
Of course it is not suggested that one may ever carry a 
pocket aneroid, and consulting it at the water side decide 
it is useless to wet a line to-day. For one reason, that a 
single observation carries no intelligence; if it stood at 
28, that might be high, if it had been a few minutes 
before at 27.90, or low if it had stood at 28.10. 
A series of observations are, of course, necessary, not 
only as to pressures, but as to the conduct of the fish, but 
that there is some relation, so far as surface fishing is 
concerned, there is no doubt, at least in the mind of the 
writer, who for ten years has believed this without being 
able to get any closer to a demonsti'ation. It is one of 
those comfortable theories to which one may be devoted 
without fear of being disturbed, for opposition is so easily 
dismissed as ignorant prejudice. 
The channel winds about through tht itiartih, wl"iich is 
filled with wild oats, moss, sedge, the little yellow water 
lily, the nelumbium and the marsh mallow, the latter with 
great flaring white or pink bells with scarlet centers, that 
we fondly believe furnish the gummmy confection that 
travels under the name, but that for years has been 
nothing but flour, sugar and gum arable. 
It was a report of big bass which took us here, and we 
avoided the perch and chub, the sunfish and roach Avith 
which the stream is filled. It is a long pull up the creek to 
the head of navigation, but we are out for the day, and 
resolve to do it well. Every grass pud and moss bed, 
every sandy riffle and log of wood, every bunch of brush 
and overhanging willow is faithfully tried and a fly 
dropped at the door by way of invitation as temptingly u.'^ 
we know how, but all to no account. A yellow perch 
sometimes trails the fly for 20ft., and then on the retrieve 
makes a mad rush as if he feared he would miss his 
lunch, but they do not fasten often. The long-eared sun- 
fish are more sudden and generally take it at once or not 
at all, but our flies are too large for them, and we do not 
take many. We have a good inany runs and get some 
bass, but while they are outside the limits of the law, they 
are not the kind we are after, and go back with the rest. 
We do not even raise a pike, which must be plenty here, 
but the heat is reason enough why they should not show, 
and they are probably deep in the shadow of the grasses. 
Up the creek we go and down again, without a sign of 
the big fellows we are here for. Once more down in the 
cove, we skirt the lower shore toward Hell's Hole, long a 
famous place for rock and perch, but far too deep for the 
fly. The southern point is low-lying, swampy ground, and 
an effort had been made long ago to reclairfi it, but the 
dikes were not substantial enough and the tides make in 
and out through the breaks. The whole swamp is locally 
known as the Dikes, and we follow the tide through, into 
the old ditches, and find a good many fish in the pools, but 
the water is too_ shallow and warm and the pools too smail 
to expect anything of any account. Coming out at a lower 
J)reak we find several parties of fishermen outside in the 
wide mouth of the little run which empties into the diked 
marsh. This cove is deep, with great beds of wankapins. 
The great rhizomes of this lily are sometimes exposed on 
the streets of Washington as an insect destroyer, under 
the name of Walker Pin roots. The origin of the name 
Wankapin is obscure; probably to distinguish this little 
yellow water lily from the large white nelumbium, called 
the water chinquapin whose acorn-shaped nut much 
resembles the common chinquapin of these woods. 
In and out we worked among these beds, but far out 
the water was too milky for the fly. and well in too shal- 
low, so we had to be content with a rush or two, that 
might have been the 5-pounder we sought, but we will 
never know. It was growing tiresome and the tide was 
going out as we beat back and tried to paddle through the 
moss across the mouth of the bay to the lighthouse. It is 
nearly a mile and a half, and with wind and tide against 
us we did not make over a mile an hour. It was a long 
day of hard work, and not a fish to carry home, but not 
without its pleasant recollections. The sunfish alone are 
enough to keep a fly-fisherman from getting lonesome. 
There are four species in the Potomac, though differences 
in waters and age give the impression of many more. The 
larger ones here are called bream, though a very different 
fish from the English bream. Ours is game, and first rate 
in the pan, while Palmer Hackle says of the other ("Hints 
on Angling," p. 149): "When you have succeeded in 
getting him out o£ the water be careful not to handle 
him, as he possesses a most filthy hide ; but get the hook 
out of him in the quickest and best way yoU can. If he' 
be alive and uninjured throw him in again ; if not, either 
leave him on the bank for hawks and polecats or throw 
him into the first pig sty you happen to pass." He 
evidently regarded them as some people do cucumbers. 
Yet they do furnish both sport and meat to many fisher- 
men, and not to boys alone, as the bream grows beyond a 
boy's size, reaching 2oIbs. Henry Talbott. 
Pacific Salmon and the Fly* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Upon my return from the North I found-your issue of 
Aug. 26, and have read therein Podgers' contribution 
upon the question raised by Mr. A. N. Cheney and dis- 
cussed by Henry P. Wells, as to whether the Pacific 
salmon can be taken with a fly, and in which Podgers 
submits his experiences. His story is certainly interest- 
mg to all fishermen, but did he catch any salmon in the 
Navarro River? That is the question, I am satisfied that 
he thinks he did, but I believe that he was taking steel- 
head trout, and not salmon. The writer has never fished 
the _ Navarro River, but has fished in the estuaries of 
similar coast streams to the north and south of the 
Navarro, and believes that he is familiar with the fish 
that run in these waters. 
The steelhead (Salmo gairdneri) is the most common 
of all the Quinnaf Salmon (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha) . 
The salmon of California does appear for a very limited 
time in the Navarro River late in November or during 
De'-ember, according to the season. 
The steelhead trout, which is known to more people 
as salmon, enters the estuaries of all the coast 
streams as early as September, and is found in all the 
streams during the winter months. The steelhead is a 
large salmon-like fish, running in weight from a few 
pounds to 2olbs. The Quinnat salmon that enters Mad, 
Eel, Matole and Navarro rivers average 2olbs, in weight.' 
The run of Quinnat salmon in Eel River greatly exceeds 
the run in any other California coast stream, save the 
Sacram-ento. Their tuo io the Navarro is insicnificautj 
