SS2 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
New England Rods:. 
Boston, April 21— The ice is out of Sebago Lake, Me., 
and this opens the season for landlocked salmon fishing, 
although that is the first of the trout or salmon lakes to 
clear. The ice went out of the big bay on the i6th, and 
the whole lake was clear "the next day. This clearing was 
eight days earlier than last year, when the ice went out 
the 24th. In 1898 it cleared April 19. Four of the mem- 
bers of the Sebago Club and invited guests left Boston 
Wednesday for Sebago. In the party are Messrs. H. S: 
Fisher, W.'T. Farley, W. B. Saul and H. L. Chatman. 
They are to be gone til) Monday, and expect great salmon 
fishing. A number of Portland fishermen will be on 
hand, and Lewiston and Auburn anglers have had their - 
tackle ready for some time. It is altogether likely that 
Sebago will be thoroughly fished this year. While the 
fishing is slow there the reward is great when one 
catches a salmon. Fish up to 8 and 10 pounds are com- 
mon, while landlocked salmon of over 30 pounds have 
been found there ; probably the largest of the species in 
the world. Hence the name, Salrno sebago. It is a curious 
fact that the fish have been there for time immemorial. 
It is thought that the lake was once accessible to salmon 
frorh the sea, and that they may have been shut off from 
the salt water by some changes in the outlet, and hence 
become landlocked. 
If the. clearing of Sebago is to be taken as an indication 
of the clearing of the Rangeleys and Moosehead, Maine 
fishing will be early. Moosehead cleared last year May 8 
and the Rangeleys the 9th and loth. Eight days earlier 
than last year would be at a very early date in May, and 
much earlier than the average, which is not earlier than 
the I2th or 13th at the Rangeleys and the 9th or loth at 
Moosehead. All will depend on the weather, however. 
As warm weather as has been experienced for a couple of 
days would clear all these lakes by the first day of May. 
Several good strings of trout were brought up from the 
Cape Friday morning. These trout were not caught on 
Sunday, but on Patriots' Day, when there is no law 
against fishing. It is worth noting that the attempt to 
repeal the law against shooting and fishing on Sunday in 
this State is making no headway, but the Legislative 
Committee . has lately heard the argument of the two 
clergymen, one contending for the repeal nf the bill, and 
the other as earnestly urging that the sanctity of the 
Sabbath be sustained. The clergyman urging the repeal 
of the special Sunday shooting and fishing law is termed 
a populist by his colleagues, but he believes that the Sun- 
day law cannot be enforced against the rich and in- 
fluential, and hence he would have no obstruction put in 
the way of the people who have to labor all the rest of 
the week. 
Spring shooting along the coast of Delaw^are has been 
indulged in by Boston sportsmen lately. Mr. Harry B. 
Moore and Dr. French, both great lovers of the rod and 
gun, have just returned from two weeks of snipe shooting 
near the Delaware Breakwater, at Milton, Del. They 
found snipe shooting all that could be asked. The beach, 
stretching for many miles, with intervening marshes,, 
makes an ideal snipe ground. Mr. Moore says, however, 
that the hardest bird he ever attempted to bring to bag is 
the Wilson snipe. "He goes every way and quicker than 
lightning." The hunters greatly enjoyed the outing, but 
say that one must be prepared to put up with local 
thriftlessness and neglect. Nature has done everything 
for the country, but every hotel is afflicted with an old 
black mammy for cook. .She does everything in the same 
old shiftless manner, and fried or done in hog grease. The 
finest sweet potatoes in the world are right at hand, but 
they taste altogether too much of rancid lard. While they 
were there the shad season was on, and they enjoyed the 
shad fishing. Some beautiful roe shad were taken, and 
sold six for $1. Mr. Moore sent some of them to his 
friends here, in the vicinity of Boston. They had one or 
two cooked fresh from the water, but alas ! they were fried 
in the same hog's fat. Hunters who visit that part of the 
country may expect to live on the fat of the land, but not 
the bounties that nature has provided. 
BosTONj April 23. — At this writing the ice still lingers in 
Winnepesaukee, Sunapee, Newfound and the other New 
Hampshire trout and salmon lakes. Lake Auburn, Me., 
is not yet reported clear, though the departure of the ice 
is hourly expected. Other Maine waters may be late, 
although Sebago cleared eight days earlier than last year. 
It is suggested that the nearness of Sebago to the sea 
caused the relatively earlier clearing, compared with other 
New England waters, the winter having been light at the 
seaboard, but exceedingly severe a few hundred miles 
inland. Neither is Cobbosseecontee nor Winthrop Lake 
clear of ice. Still, the weather has actually been hot 
for three or four days, and such weather continued will 
greatly hasten the opening of the fishing season. A great 
deal of interest centers about the clearing of the Rangelej^s 
and Moosehead. For the edification of the readers of the 
Forest and Stream the annual departure of the ice from 
the Rangeleys may be noted for the past eighteen years. 
The figures are copied from Forest and Stream files : 
In 1882 they cleared May 12 ; 1883, May 14 ; 1884, May 
13; i88s, May 15; 1886, May 3; 1887, May 16; 1888, May 
21, 1889, April 30; 1890, May 9; 1891, May 10; 1892, May 
4; 1893, May 20; 1894, May 2; 1895, May' 7; 1896, May 9; 
j8q7, May 12; 1898;- May i; 1899, May. 9. Moosehead is 
pretty sure to be clear about a couple of .days. before' the 
Rangeleys. . •, ■. 
Some of the Boston, fishermen made the best of the 19th, 
Patriots' Day. The weather was fine and warm, and good 
strings of trout would have been made but for too. much 
snow water. A party of four went on the night train 
Wednesday, and were early at a brook not far from 
Biddeford, Me. They got no trout. The streams were 
swollen to full banks and very roily. Mr. J. H. Jones, 
with Mrs. Jones and "the boy," who is to be a fisherman, 
went up to a camp' some of the marketmen own on the 
Concord River, The water was high,' besides it was next 
to impossible 'to get' shiners for., pickerel, bait. They got 
no fish, but did catch a monster turtle weighing 30 pounds. 
Mr. Wesley C, Hemmenway and his son fished a stream 
very near the city of Nashua N. H., only a part of the 
day. Mr. Hemmenway got six good trout and the son 
three, besides throwing back a good many small ones. A 
lover of good tackle himself. Mr. Hemmenway delights 
in making presents to his fishing friends of old, worn-out 
hooks and bits of string. These lie will put in some con- 
spicuous place, labeled "His outfit," "His tackle," or some 
other catch words. The night after his fishing on Patriots' 
Day he received by mail a hook and line. The hook wa.s 
.one made for a peculiar purpose ; not a hairpin, but useful 
to hang paper on ; the line, a piece of wrapping twine. The 
whole was labeled "Your tackle." He thinks he knows 
where it came from. Mr. G. A. Valentine, with some 
friends, fished a stream in Connecticut, not far fronn 
Bridgeport, the other day. The weather was fine and the 
water clear. Asked how many trout, they only answered, 
"The brook was fine; nice holes: clear, rocky bottom. We 
had a nice lunch on the shore. We got home safely." 
Speciau 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Tfout. 
Chicago, 111., April 21.— Mr. Edward G. Taylor, of 
the "Taylor system," came in this morning to see if I 
was going up to the Prairie River this spring to have a 
try for some of the trout we left there last year. I expect 
I am, or at least I said I was. Nothing like making prom- 
ises to yourself and friends, you know. 
The Brule is tipped to be good this year on points 
accessible from Lake Vieux Desert. Guides there say 
thev get big ones — 2 and 3 pounds. 
Mr. Fred Peet, of the Chicago Fly-Casting Club, is 
getting ready to head a party to the Perc Marquette, in 
Michigan, about May ri. He wanted to know if I was 
going along, and I told him of course I was. I can just 
as well promise him as anybody else. It ought to be 
good over there, too, this spring. 
As yet none of our anglers have been out for trout. It 
is still too early and too cold in our trout cotmtry. The 
first week in May is early enough for Wisconsin, though 
the law is off April 15. The two weeks in the middle 
of May are the best. May i is opening day in Michigan, 
and that is usually late enough there to mean fair sport. 
Bass. 
The bass are running now at Cedar Lake, the earUest 
of our bass waters about Chicago, Some more fisher- 
men are going down to try Cedar Lake to-morrow. It 
is too early. Give the bass a chance to spawn. 
Spcariog. 
The run of bass on the spawning grounds has begun 
on Minnetonka and White Bear lakes, near Minneapolis. 
Minn. Deputies have made several arrests on White 
Bear of spearers who could not resist the temptation to 
go out jacking for bass. Andrew Esklund, a foreign 
born citizen, who thinks this ought , to be the land ot 
the free, was fined $10 for being too fluent with the 
spear. Otto and John Johnson, of the same locality, 
were also fined for spearing, or getting ready to spear. 
In Wisconsin a great many violations of the law are 
reported bv men detected spearing. Fox Lake, Wis., 
has been afflicted by these gentry. What witli the bait 
casters wHo go out on the spawning beds and spearers 
who do the same thing, the wonder is that' our bass sup- 
ply holds out even as well as it does. 
Swat the setting hen. Soak her in the neck. She ha.s 
no business to be' setting. A bas the hen., as we say m 
Chicago. Down with her. Let no hen guilty of setting, 
be she bass or game bird, be allowed to escape. 
Fish Maps. 
.^gent Beutner. of the Minnesota Fish and Game Com- 
mission, has prepared a good set of charts showing the 
districts in that State where diflerent varieties of fish 
may be found in greatest abundance. He is prepared 
to 'tell an angler where to go for trout, for bass, for 
rauscallurige, etc.. and will furnish tins information to 
inquirers: His charts are prepared after long labor by 
the deputy wardens, and he thinks them reliable. 
Improremenl in Fly-Ffshing. 
I believe we are coming to a day of improvement itt 
our American fly-fishmg methods— that is to say. im- 
provement 'over the old-time cast-down-stream-and-drag- 
it-across-the-wav, which sometimes takes trout, and which 
is the usual form in which fly-casting is precticed by the 
average man. I am sometimes amused by the com- 
ments which appear now and then on the "Taylor sys- 
tem," which is really only an independent discovery. AVith 
local variations and improvements of the old dry fly art. 
Some men have known all about it for years.; others 
pooh-pooh at it. Some can't work it, and others think 
no one else ever did. Yet those who read of it, even 
those, methinks, who know all about it and have fished 
that way for years, none the less go out and try it a little 
in secret. This is improvement. It is not enough to 
slam a fly on the water and rag it through after any fash- 
ion, trusting to innocence on the part of trout to yield 
a basket to the angler. As our streams become more 
fished, we need niore and more skill, and it seems that 
in due time we shall have it. ^ ^ , .,, , 
For instance, I hear again from Mr. J. O. AverilL the 
fly-fisher from Japan,' whose very able article on Japan-' 
ese fly-fishing was printed in these columns more than 
a year ago. Mr. Averill has come back tO' New York to 
live, and he writes me as below this week: 
"I ana-sending you a 'fly' made on the Japanese priii- 
ciple by Farlow, of London, to my order. I found this 
most taking when worked in the 'live insect' style. Its 
bushy hackle and cork body give it excellent flotation, 
and It resembles an insect of our Japanese streams very 
closely in color; but also, I believe, presents about the 
average color effect of numerous insects about most 
streams. I- wish you would give this fly a trial when you 
go off on your next fishing trip. Use it m the 'Taylor 
system' and I think you'll, find it taking. - . 
"I have been' able thus far since my return to this 
country , to get only 'the next best,' viz., reading about 
sport arid ' planning ^xpediti0i?s for the future, I have 
made Several'- (ment-alf) trips wdth you' ,ahd -done great 
execution with my Japanese 'snaggling.' Perhaps some 
day this dream will come true. 
"I ache at this season to be off to the streams. It is 
the 'old spring fret' of the Anglo-Saxon when the 'red 
gods' call. I wish I could be off with you to some 
Alichigan stream; but never mind, I'll read about it." 
One of these days Mt- AveriU and Mr. Taylor m\\at 
meet and have it out about the . 'sj'Stems,' As to a trip 
on the Michigan waters, I shall be very happjf to firorfi'^' 
i,se I\Ir, .A.veril] to go. 
Capt. Jas, W. Steele, late of the armj', and an old-time 
Westerner, who has had his eves and his wits about him 
in his wanderings (he is a Chicago man now, by the 
way), has written the text of the beautiful booklet put out 
bv the Burlington road, which is entitled "Colorado." 
Many books might be written on this delightful theme, 
but we may imagine none could be more truthful and 
graceful than this, bv a keen lover of the mountains and 
streams. Not all railroad literature is of much account, 
Init this is good. „ 
E, HotTCH. 
300 BovcE Building, Chicago, 111. 
Trout Ponds. 
rWe Vierc sive a chapter from tlie trout breeding section of 
"Modern Fishculturc in Fresh and Salt Water," by Fred Mather.] 
Ponds. 
The first thing to be considered is the intention of 
the owner and what he wishes to do with his pond or 
ponds. He may want as large a pond as possible in 
which trout will feed themselves and afford him fish- 
ing for himself and friends, or to market some trout 
each spring. He may wish to have a hatchery and 
rearing ponds to stock his main pond with, or to have 
a series of ponds in which to grow trout on artificial 
food. , . , , , . 
There are several ways in which trout may be culti- 
vated, dependent upon the extent and character of the 
water and the inclination of the owner as to the amount 
of time he cares to devote to it, and the expense which 
he is willing to incur in beginning, which, as in most 
other affairs, bears some relation to the prospective re^ 
suits. With proper facilities, intelligent fishculture will 
prove as remunerative as any of the minor industries of 
the farm, such as bee and poultry keeping, but it is only 
very rare and exceptional places where it can be made-' 
a separate and distinct business which would warrant a 
person in devoting his whole time to it. 
Where the spring rises upon a farm and flows some 
distance through it, wnth some fall and space to make 
ponds, the conditions are most favorable. It is very 
difficult to give directions for making trout ponds 
which will be applicable to all places, but it is safe to 
say that the very worst location and form for them is 
in a ravine where they are made by a series of dams 
thrown across. Such an arrangement is sure to come 
to grief, sooner or later, and if the dams are so strongly 
made as to resist an unusual flood from suddenly melted 
snow, or heavy rains, then the leaves and other riff- 
raff will clog the screens until the increased pressure 
carries them away and the fish have a chance to escape. 
The smaller the trout the more difficult it is to confine 
them, not only on account of their ability to escape 
through a small opening, but in consequence of their 
desire to continually seek that opening — a desire which 
is intense during their first year of life, but which de- 
creases until it is so much diminished that large fish of 
say three-quarters of a pound can hardly be driven from 
deep water. ^ ' 
If only one pond is contemplated in which th« fish 
are to be placed to seek their own food and care for 
themselves, then it may be made as large as the stream 
which supplies it will admit of— that it. is must not he 
so large that the water will get above 70 degrees Fahr., in 
the bottom of the pond. Depth will give coolness, or if 
there are springs in the bottom the fish will congregate 
there at the hottest times, while the warmer water at 
the surface and shallow edge is favorable for the produc- 
tion of insect life for their food.' The stream above 
can be covered Avith gravel as a spawning ground, and . 
the voung will have a chance to escape being devoured 
by the larger fish by keeping in the shallows. 
A pond of this kind was made at West" Bloomfield, 
N. Y., on the farm of Mr. Stephen H. Ainsworth, a 
gentleman who was among the first to engage in trout 
culture in New York, beginning about the year 1858. 
He had a marshy spot of ground, _ formed by rnany 
small springs, whose united currents in the dryest times 
made a stream scarcely larger than a lead pencil ; and 
digging this out he made a pond 50 x 100 feet, which 
was 16 feet deep, and covered over, where he raised 
many fish under great difflculties. In a dry season the 
supply barely equaled the evaporation, and no water 
passed from the pond; and on several occasions he lost 
his largest fish from the heat, until, in the year 1871, 
he removed the trout and substituted black bass. 'Yet 
he had accomplished enough to be an authority upon 
trout culture in that day, and is now quoted to snow 
what can be done with little means, although I should 
never advise any one with only his facilities to make 
an attempt at trout raising. And the point to which at- 
tention should be directed is the ratio of depth to surface 
in his pond; if he had exposed more surface to the 
weather, or made his pond less deep, he probably w^ould 
never have kept a trout through the first 'summer. In 
cases of a rise in the temperature the large fish are the 
first to suffer. 
Large Single Ponds. 
It is difficult to give directions which will'be suitable 
for all places, but I will repeat that a dam in a ravine 
is the worst form. In such a place it seems better to 
make a small dam, and lead the water from it into- ponds 
at the side of the ravine, and let the floods go down the 
old channel. My own ponds, at Honeoye Falls, Monroe 
county, New York, were made in a piece of low, flat 
land, with a plow and i:oad scraper,- using the earth, 
.gravel, etc., taken out to fill up around the ' popds 
Afterward. they, wp.re <inighed, w,^h .pick and shovel, and a 
dry stone wall was laid' around them merely to hold the 
banks, but they were small, only 60 by 15 feet and 5 feet 
deep. The first one built was laid in cement, but was 
no better than the others. In some places there is muck 
enough to pay for the digging in manure; but if the water 
can be kep^t off. such ponds are not expensive. Here is 
the cost of one of mine of the dimensions above given: 
