CHICAGO AND THE WEST, 
Chicago Fly-Ciiting Club, 
Chicago, 111., Jail. 17.— The little "smoker" of the Chi- 
cago I'iy-Casting Club, which was held last evening at 
the Union Cafe, this city, proved to be a most enjoyable 
affair, and indeed, in the opinion of all present, it was 
the hnest meeting of the kind the ciub has ever had, and 
one which certainly augurs much for the usefulness and 
pleasure of the club's luture. The occasion was purely 
■informal, yet the keynote struck was just that right one, 
between too much hilarity and a too stiff and ceremonial 
observation of banquet 'laws. It is rarely one would 
pass a pleasanter evening, and rarely, too, that he could 
hit upon a company fit to teach him so much of good ang- 
ling lore, and do it in so thorough, though unpretentious, 
fashion. It is to be said of this ciub ot Western anglej'S 
that it has, after much checkered history, gotten upon a 
basis which sets it above reproach as an organization of 
sport-loving amateurs of purely unselfish and worthy 
aims. We have nothing just like this club between Chi- 
cago and San Francisco, and if New York has a similar 
body the fact is not known. 
The members sat at table at shortly after 7 -P- M., 
thirty-three rhembers and guests being present, as see the 
following list: 
J. H. Bellows. Gen. John McNulty, G. A. MuitcU, 
John Waddell, G. W. Strell. E. Hough. F. A. Feet, Ed. 
Taylor, F. B. Orr, C. H. Chadwick, Wm. Wolforth, L. F, 
Crosby, J. M. Clark. Chas. Ludlow, H. W. Pearce, J. 
W. Ostrander, G. A, Hinterlightner, J. D. Belasco, H. 
A. Newkirk, W. Morris, G. W. Salter, F. M. Smith, Dr. 
C. F. Brown. A. C. Smith. W. T. Church, E. R. Letter- 
man, Geo. Russell, C. L. Ludlow, H. G. Hascall, F. E. 
Rugg, F. E. Davis, J. A. Wood, G. H. Harper. 
The followinsr were guests of the evening: Mr. John 
Waddell, of Gmnd Rapids, Mich.; Messrs. Edwd. G. 
Taylor, J. W. Ostrander, G. A. Hinterlightner, W. Mor- 
ris, F. M. Smith, Geo. Russell, C. L. Ludlow, F. E. 
Davis, G. H. Harper and E. Hough. Mr. Waddell was 
the guest of honor, and the members could not do enough 
to show their appreciation of the many courtesie.s he 
has shown Chicago gentlemen who have at so many times 
tasted of his hospitaHty or shared his guidance on the 
good streams of the South peninsula, Mr. Waddell has 
the reputation of being the most successful trout fisherman 
of his city, more especially as concerns the rainbow trout, 
or the trout so called in that region. Those who have 
fished with him speak his name with awe as a caster of a 
deadly line, and a past master at playing a fish. 
Mr. Waddell tells me that some of the gentlemen of his 
city have formed a company and have purchased ten 
acres of ground near the Grand River, with a little pond 
inside the tract, and have fitted it up as a country club, 
for the purposes of fly-casting, trapshooting inn, etc. 
Some of the gentlemen have their shooting dogs kept out 
there, and in many ways the club promises to be most 
enjovable and -useful to its members. The name of rhe 
club' is not yet decided upon by the committee, but its 
affairs are rapidly nearing completion, and next summer 
will see rhe hustling- Grand Rapids men still better 
equipoed for enjoying life. Mr. Waddell also said that, as 
the Chicago Fly-Casting Club is to give an open tourna- 
ment next summer, the Grand Rapids men would surely 
come over in force to take a hand. 
Speeches wflh Meat lo Them, 
President Bellows at about 9 o'clock called the meet- 
ing to order, and Secretary Murrell announced that the 
executive committee had taken under advisement the 
matter of a tournament next summer, and the subject 
would come up for vote at the annual meeting the second 
Monday in February. 
"Stories" were now called for. and Messrs. Church and 
Belasco responded with humorous remarks. Mr. Wad- 
dell, of Grand Rapids, was greeted with applause when 
he arose in response to calls. He spoke of the good feel- 
ing between his people and the Chicago men, and gave 
a word of praise to the trout waters of his State. He said 
that he had long been a student and an admirer of the 
fish which was planted some years ago in his State, and 
which is commonly known as the rainbow trout. He 
thought this fish vvas the prince of all game fishes, and 
far superior to the brook trout in fighting quality. 
Mr. Waddell uttered sentiments which may seem heresy 
to the devotees of the ouananiche, that much advertised 
fish of the Northwe.st. He said that he had heard a great 
deal about the ouananiche, and he thought he would 
make just one pilgrimage to that country, catch a ouan- 
aniche or two. and then die. He was there to say that 
he was never so much disappointed in any angling ex-^ 
perience in all his life. He and his friends went into the 
Lake St. John country and took the canoe trip up the 
Mistassini. It was a beautiful casting water where they 
fished, and the prospect was pleasing. Only the ouanan- 
iche was vile. They took but a very few, small ones, and 
returned from their expensive trip full disgusted. They 
then tried the Grand Discharge waters, and here took 
some better fish, but the taste of disappointment still lin- 
gered. The fish would jump, it was true, and do it acro- 
1 atically; but after a jumping experience of a fevv mo- 
I" silts they usually quit and consented to come in with no 
very savage fight, the whole thing being over in five min- 
utes. He was satisfied that the ouananiche did not com- 
pare with his own rainbow, or Shasta, trout of the Pere 
IMarquette, and he did not care for any more ouananiche 
for his part, when he could get rainbows. 
Mr. F. B. Orr. was called upon, and introduced Mr. 
Edward Taylor, the redoubtable trout fisher of the 
Prairie River, whose "short and heavy" casting system 
has been exploited often in the?e columns of the Forest 
AND Stream. Mr. Taylor told how he happened to see a 
big trout rising at a dipping dragon fly, and from that 
got the notion of casting with a spla'^h. out of which 
he perfected his system. He .said he had studied trout for 
years. Sometimes he would see them rising when certam 
green buds were dropping into the stream. He then 
used a grizzly king and found it good. Later there would 
be a little red spider on which the trout fed, and then he 
found the red ants and hackles successful. Mr. Taylor 
gave a good talk. 
Gen. John McNuIta, author of "Forty Years With the 
Fly," w^.s met with applause as he rose to address the 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
assemblage. He saiti that there was so much to talk 
about that he only hesitated where to begin and what 
to iay. For himself, he had followed trout fishing all 
his life, beginning in lower Pennsylvania with an expert 
teacher, an old Scotchman, when he was a boy, and 
keeping it up ever since. He had made eight trips across 
the continent after trout. He had been to Alaska after 
trout. He had been to Mexico after trout. He had been 
all over the islands of Great ^-ritain after trout. There 
was no way of taking trout fit to be considered except 
the artificial Hy. Now, he said, after having seen most of 
the trout countries of the world, he had settled the fact 
in his own mind that the Michigan south peninsula was 
the finest trout region in the world. He had bought him 
a preserve of 2,000 acres up near Charlevoix, had called 
it "'Waldruh," and here he was going to plant a quarter 
of a million trout every year until he went broke. 
Gen. McNuIta said he was told up on the Brule that 
he might catch a rainbow trout, and he did so, but as soon 
as he saw it jump he knew it was not the rainbow he had 
met before — dull, heavy, logy. He told the Brule anglers 
that it was not a rainbow. He caught this same jumping 
fish on the Gunnison, and it was not the rainbow he had 
once seen. Then he went to southern California, and 
here he found his rainbow — heavy, dull, quitting the fight 
when hooked and pressed hard. He was puzzled. Later 
he went up the Sacramento until he was under the shadow 
of old Mount Shasta, and here he struck again the fish of 
the Brule, of lower ]Michigan, a fish that sprang again 
and again, that rushed and fought to the last gasp, and 
was the gamest he had ever seen. Then he knew it to 
be a variety of the Richardson's or steelhead trout. He 
found that the Government had gathered the spawn of the 
rainbow and of the Shasta trout, mixed and shipped the 
young fish all over the country indiscriminately. Thus 
it came that both the rainbow and the Shasta are to 
be found in Michigan and Wisconsin, and you could tell 
one from the other by the way they fought. 
Up in British Columbia, Gen. McNuIta said, there was 
a trout which was still more of a jumper and a fighter 
than the Shasta trout. He meant the Kamloops trout, 
found on the Thompson River and other waters. This 
was destined to a wider acquaintance yet among Amer- 
ican anglers. 
Gen. SicNulta said that in Michigan he had often heard 
of a certain very rare and beautiful trout which was 
called by local anglers the ".steelhead." He had at last 
succeeded in taking some of these fish in the Pere Mar- 
quette tributaries, and referring a specimen to Dr. Baird 
was told that it was Salvelinus aureolus, the Sunapee 
trout (Sunapee saibling?), the most beautiful of all trout. 
(This is the first instance of the taking of this fish in 
Michigan waters of which the writer has even Imown.) 
Gen. McNuIta said he had often studied the habits of 
trout in their homes. Gentlemen spoke of a trout tak- 
ing the fly as it "'came down" upon it. Such a statement 
was not accurate. The salmon takes the fly from above, 
and will hook himself. The trout takes the fly with a 
rush from about 45 degrees, not "biting"' it all, but just 
opening its mouth for the fly to enter as it strikes the fly. 
Then with a swirl the trout turns within a space of 
8 inches or a foot and goes back to the spot from which 
it ro.se, its course being like that of a belt about a wheel. 
It needs quick work to strike a trot:t before he rejects the 
artificial lure, His old preceptor told him that as soon 
as he saw a swirl in the water he must "jerk his hook 
away from the trout before the trout coidd catch it" 
"Then, if you are quick enough, you may hook your 
trout," he added. The speaker was applauded as he 
closed. 
Mr. Jas. Clark read a humorous paper 011 black bass 
fishing in upper Illinois. Messrs. Strell, Ludlow, Perce 
and Hough also spoke more or less briefty. Informal and 
interested conversation about the board went on. and Gen. 
McNuIta again was called upon. He said that in his 
studies of trout he had learned that the back color of a 
trout is merely its protective color, and this changes with 
the color of the cover and bottom. . It was astonishing 
how short a time was required for a trout to so change its 
color and to adapt itself to its new surroundings. He 
once tested this thoroughly on the Brule, taking some 
very dark trout and putting them down in live boxes over 
a light colored bottom. It took just forty minutes for 
the fish to quite change their back color. They became 
light as the local fish. 
On the other hand, the General continued, he conceived 
the side color of the trout to be its "color of attraction." 
This too was capable of change. At times a trout would 
be putting on color. Any beautiful animal is a vain 
creature, and so was a trout. When it felt the impulse to 
"lay on color," it would take just such things as would 
add to that color. He had found this rule very prac- 
tical, based upon that theory, that when you took a trout 
and noted the general hue of its side or body color, as the 
changes came on in death, you would be sure to take 
trout there with a fly whose general color resembled that 
of the trout's body color. If it turned to red, then a 
bright fly; if golden, then a golden-bodied fly, and so on. 
This impressed the members of the club as ultra, j^et the 
experienced angler who made the assertion stoutly de- 
clared that he knew the accuracy of his theory, for he 
had seen it often proved. Gen. McNuIta has spent much 
time in studying trout and bass in their native element 
with the water glass, and he says that he is sure that 
trout have means of communicating with each other. 
The inotion language of a given fish was at once acted 
upon all others of the pool. They surely watched each 
other and had a means of communication. 
Mr. Itha H. Bellow president of the club, .^poke of a 
theory he had seen advanced in the Cotemporary Review 
by a writer who contended that the lateral line so dis- 
tinctly observable in some fishes has a connection with 
an extra sense, called an "electric dermal" sense, equiva- 
lent to a sense of hearing. The article in question said 
that fishes showing this lateral line the most highly 
marked were keenest of sense and m.ost wary, seeming 
to hear or feel more acutely. 
The club meeting broke up after 11 o'clock. The 
members will next meet at the regular annual meeting in 
early February. 
Opening of the Chicago Draitaage ChaoneU 
CHtCAGO, 111., Jan. 15. — To-day at 11:08 the last earth 
was removed which prevented the waters of the Chicago 
E^AS, 2jr, 1900. 
River from flowing to the westward and southward and 
joining the Des Piaines River and the Illinois by way of 
the great drainage canal, which has been constructing for 
so many years. This cutting was made through the 
Campbell avenue levee, and the act was accompanied with 
much enthusiasm from those connected with the work. 
The opening was cut through 5 feet wide, and will soon 
be enlarged. The water flows through freely and all the 
v^'^y^ of the engineers are proving themselves out per- 
fectly. 
:3L. Louis has filed an injunction in the United States 
courts against the opening of this canal, but it is too 
late. The deed is done. It remains to be seen whether 
it will ruin the water supply of points lower down the 
Mississippi. 
To-day a tiny little catfish came up to the edge of the 
dam, and it was caught in a pail by President Bolden- 
week of the drainage board. This is the first craft to 
navigate thus high on the new waterway. What the 
future will show when this connection between Lake 
Michigan and the Father of Waters is completer and 
cleaner, no one can yet say. The water clears rapidly at 
points twenty or thirty miles below here, and it may be 
that fish will come up part way from the Illinois River, 
that "divine river" of which Pere Marquette wrote when 
he_ made the overland portage at the Chicago River 
before there was any Chicago dreamed of, or any canal 
thought necessary. 
This big canal is not yet a ship canal, but it may at one 
day be made such. As iJ: is, it will offer a good waterway 
for .small boats wishing a trip down the Illinois and 
Mississippi. 
Jan. 20. — The bear trap dam and the gates at Lockport 
have been opened, and the flow from the Chicago River 
to the southwest is discovered to be about one mile and 
a half an hour. The river is slowly cleansing itself. It 
is said here that cities below vt'ill not be injured, and 
that by the time St. Louis is reached by the flow it will 
have been aerated and purified. Should St. Louis find her 
expensive waterworks rendered useless, she would better 
come up here to Lake Michigan and have a drink on us. 
All Kentuckians are also warned. E. Hough. 
300 BovcE Building, Chicago, III. 
Fish in a Tank. 
El.mo, Kansas, Jan. 11.— Editor Forest and Stream- Here is 
something from the pen of my friend Kines, of the Geneseo, 111., 
News, which seems to me might be worthy of attention, as such 
luimoi-ous pieces always interest me and might a good many 
othevs: e. C. Jaques. 
The flooding of the depot district in Geneseo, noted in 
last week's News, was then attributed to a frozen and 
burstcd water crane. It has since been developed that a 
monstrous carp and three catfish were the cause of the di- 
lemma that puzzled the railway people. These fish had 
been sucked in by the pump at Green River and forced 
through the two miles of pipe, up into the great iron 
standpipe, and from thence had made their way down 
through the pipe leading to the crane. There they became 
involved with the valve, interrupting the working of that 
device. Consequently the water could not be shut off. 
The locality was flooded for several hundreds of yards 
around It vvas a serious circumstance, and is a pretty 
big fish story, if it is a bit unseasonable. 
Mr. I. N. Wilson, who was just now in the office speak- 
ing of the affair, says that it is his opinion that the big 
standpipe is alive with fi.sh. He thinks that the little fish 
are sucked into the pipe, and forced into the tank. There 
are probably many big fish in the tank, that eat the little 
ones as they come in from the river. 
This view is reasonable. There is little doubt that the 
imposing standpipe of the C, R. I. & P. Ry, at -GeneSeo 
is a vast aquarium.. By and by the standpipe must become 
a solid mass of fish. Then there will be no room for the 
water. Without water the great transcontinental rail- 
way line cannot run its locomotives. Without locomo- 
tives, commerce, travel and the mails must cease, all be- 
cause of the fish of Green River, which fish have been a 
source of more or less trouble to the writer of these lines 
through a good portion of his veracious career. 
The hasty reader will say, "Well, let the railway company, 
seine the fish out." But hold on! The railway company 
is amenable to the laws of the land (and water), which 
strictly forbids seining. The railway company is a law- 
abiding corporation. It does nothing illegal. It would 
prefer to erect another standpipe, rather than transgress 
the laws. 
However, if the company should grow reckless and at- 
tempt to seine out the fish, there is no doubt that States 
Attorney Graves would stretch forth the strong arm of 
the law in such case, as quickly as he would were the 
transgressor an humble citizen, found dragging Green 
River with a seine. Like death and taxes, the statuesque 
attorney is no respector of persons. 
There is only one legal method by which the fish in the 
standpipe may be removed. It is clear that they may not 
be seined out, and the law is just as rigorous respecting 
spearing. They must be caught with a hook and line. This 
is the only legal method of catching fish in the waters of 
Illinois, except in navigable streams, wherein seining is 
permissible at certain seasons tmder certain restrictions! 
The company will naturally look to its agent at Geneseo 
to perform this necessary service. 
The final issue will be, when the fish become so crowded 
in tiie standpipe that they interfere with the water supply, 
that the company will provide hooks, lines and bait, at its 
own expense, to our good friend. Station x\gent Brown, 
who will be required to sit on top of the tank between 
trains and angle for fish. From this very lofty perch he 
will angle for perch, as well as carp, catfish, bullheads, 
sunfish and the other varieties that infest the waters of 
the RiA-er Green. It is to be hoped that the fish will bite 
better for Brother Brown than they do for us^ or the 
twentieth century will be far advanced before he begins 
to make much impression upon the railway aquarium. 
It may be that the new waterman, Charley Hannon, of 
Geneseo, will have to do the fishing. Or H. R, Cross, 
the pumpman. This is a mere matter of detail. The main 
idea is to get the fish out, and there is no other le,gal way 
under the sun that the News can think of this morning, 
other than fishing them out with hook and line. 
There is one other section of the fish law framed by the 
.sparrow-slaughtering, fish-fondling Ulinois I.egislaturc- 
must be abided by. This section provides tlial fish that fall 
