June 23, igoo,} 
FOREST , AND , STREAM. 
491 
all along the banks of the stream, and no one knows how 
man3^ trout we passed over continual^. In one hole I 
counted a dozen, and of these three would have gone over 
4 pounds each, I should think. One fellow lay under a 
bog on the bottom, with his tail just showing in a little 
circular hole. He stayed there for two hours, and at 
last I cut a pole and poked him up, in more than 10 feet 
of water. He ran out, and astonished me by his size, and 
after him came a lot of trout as big as the big suckers 
which we now and then saw lying in these deep holes. It 
is these big ones which try the tackle of the anglers when 
the trout are rising strong, or in the evening when the sky 
has grown more dull. Wood knows all these big trout 
by name, and indeed I think he hates to see an angler put 
a trout in his basket, for he has raised all these beauties 
and loves them dearly. 
Trout Eccentricities* 
On the day previous Wood and I had seen a big trout in 
a little washed-out sand hole, and missed him when he 
rose. We saw him again to-day, but he did not rise. At 
the next bend we also saw for the second day a smaller 
trout, which we tried long to raise, but which would not 
move from the exact spot where he had been apparently 
steadily lying for over twenty-four hours. It was while 
trying for this little fellow that I got my biggest fish. 
Back of the little trout was a deep, black hole, with a log 
at the bottom, perhaps 6 or 8 feet of depth. As I kept 
casting over the sullen little fish, my fly went over and 
into the deep water, and sank down toward the bottom. 
We both saw a slow, deliberate surge from the depths be- 
low, and a big trout lazily ate my fly, with no apparent 
emotion, and not a very great interest in the subsequent 
proceedings. I hooked him fair, and he had a good show 
in that pool, but offered no fight, and we presently took 
him into custody. It may be the little fellow was afraid 
to get back any further toward that water for fear of a 
violent death at the hands of a cannibal. 
Another incident showed some of the varieties of life on 
a trout stream. Wood and I were at a fine long pool, and 
I here got a savage strike and played for some time a 
fish of near a pound in weight, which escaped by stick- 
ing its nose against the edge of a deep bog. I _ cast 
again, far down this pool, and got a great rise, which I 
struck so keenlv as to part my leader. 
"My, I'll bet he's scared !" said Wood. "He went under 
that bank a-flying." 
"Yes, and he'll weigh over a pound, too," said 1. So we 
bemoaned this as hard luck, and went on down, As 
we got opposite the point where the trout had risen, I 
happened to hear a splash, and saw an upturned side. 
'Again there was a splash further up, and at once I saw 
that this was done by a fish that was fast to the bottom. 
Investrigation showed that our lost trout had hooked 
himself foul in the grass, with the loose fly of the leader,, 
and was hence a captive in the worst sort of a situation. 
To make this short, we cut a forked stick, reached down, 
twisted it into the leader, and lifted out trout, leader, flies 
and all The fish is a very nice one, and I wish I might 
say it weighed a pound. Probably its exertions had cut 
down its weight. It was not over half a pound ! This was 
the big one that did and did not get away. 
In the Evening. 
On the evening of the last day I had the best fishing of 
the trip. On the reach below the big rapids the trout 
were rising in fine shape. I killed two grand ones in the 
full boil of the rapids, all by myself, Wood having gone 
home, and then I worked on below to where the fun was 
going on. It was casting of about 45 feet, and at every 
cast I would raise a trout. Twice I landed doubles, and 
once half my double. Here I rapidly made amends for the 
slower work of the bright mid-day hours, and I filled my 
basket, as I said, with twenty-four fish, and went back to 
the lodge willing to go home. My fish in most cases had 
to be turned up, head and tail, to get them in the basket. 
Not all were so large, but more than three-quarters were. 
It was rare to take one so small as 7 inches, though once 
in a while a little fellow would get hooked and have to go 
back with a sbre jaw. 
It was these big trout which made my thumb su delight; 
fully sore. They took a No. 6 coachman and* a No. S 
white-miller; for by this time I had hung up quite all the 
silver-doctors I had with me. It was at this time that 
one might have made a good catch of trout, for I left 
while the rise was at its best. As it was, it was sundown 
when I got to the lodge. Mr. McLeod could not break 
away, and fished late in the moonlight, catching his best 
trout then. We had a beautiful drive in by moonlight to 
Waupaca, arriving in that city a little after r o'clock 111 
the morning. An hour's sleep and we took the 3 :30 A. M. 
train south, and so home for the next mornmg. When 
the moonlight is not so tempting, it is the custom to leave 
the lodge early in the evening, and to reach Waupaca 
. about 10 o'clock or so. 
As a trout fishing trip, in which there were more trout 
than explanations, I must say this was the best one i 
ever had. I have served time in running all over Wis- 
consin after open streams, and I have walked the paths 
that other fellows have made there. Sometimes I have 
caught trout, and a good many times I haven t. This 
' time I did. They were there, lots of them, and big ones. 
What the stream might show at a better fishing time mav 
be guessed from, the fact that Mr. Miller one time landed 
three trout at one cast, not one of which went under a 
pound, and one of which weighed a pound and three- 
quarters. A pound trout is no curiosity on that streani ; 
and by this is meant a trout that really weighs a pound, 
not looks as though it might. ■ There is a vast difference m 
those items. All in all. if Mr. Mdler does not get to 
taldng too much interest in politiqal economy or foreign 
travel, fic^urely qught to get many years of de ight out ot 
this possession of his. He enjoys it thoroughly. : What 
TOod fortune to own such a water and to be able, also to 
.ee the lands of the earth! Mr. Miller has two or.three 
times been around the world, and has traveled thoroughly 
in Asia, Africa. North and South America Japan, etc. 
He says he has not yet found a trout stream for which he 
wishes to trade this controlled by himself and Mr. Mc- 
Leod. 
Problems, 
Mr, Miller does not give thought to the details o£ the 
management, Mr.. -McLeod taking that upon his shoulders. 
The only thing in the whole world which troubles Mr, 
Miller is how to get a landing net handle long enough to 
reach down from the bank to your fishj and short enough 
not to be clumsy while one is casting. The present net 
used there has a light handle about 2 feet long. The 
net is carried with the handle down, and is attached, by 
a loop on the net bow, to a button sewed on the back 
of the collar. This keeps the net from tangling in the 
grass, etc, and keeps it out of the way. It leaves the 
handle too .short to reach down a very high bank. Mr. 
Miller thinks he will eventually perfect an umbrella spring 
extension handle, which will be light, strong and compact, 
and easily set with one hand and a foot while one is hold- 
ing his fish. 
Neither gentleman likes the tin leader box for wetting 
leaders: so Mr. McLeod invented one of his own — a 
morocco book, with flannel leaves, backed with rubber. 
This goes in the pocket nicely, and does not wet the 
coat. 
William Wood, the quiet, silent, skillful manager of the 
hatchery and the watchman of the stream— the latter no 
light task in that community — is exactly the man for that 
place, and has been of great value to the stream. He too 
has his problems. All the brains of the entire management 
have been racked to invent a way in which the trout can 
be kept at home and prevented from running up stream- 
into the open waters. A screen clogs up, or is carried 
out by floods, or is a failure from any one of a hundred 
reasons which have been discovered by those who have 
tried to fence in their trout. Mr. Miller thinks that a 
wheel might be constructed which would run by the force 
of the water, automatically freeing itself of leaves, debris, 
etc., when left unattended. This wheel he thinks could 
be made to run true and close enough to the sides arid 
bottom of its gateway to keep trout from getting past it. 
Mr. McLeod thinks the main trouble would be to prevent 
the frost from throwing it out of true. The least obstruc- 
tion or stoppage would mean an overflo\v from the 
dammed water, which, of course, must be avoided. 
I have promised to ask Mr. A. N. Cheney to bring his 
wide experience to bear upon this wheel or screen prob- 
lem from three friends, and this I am sure I hope he will 
do. Perhaps also Mr. Brown, of the Kinne Creek Club, of 
Michigan, can tell how this can be done. He laid out 
the hatchery of that club. The problem at Kinne Creek is 
to keep the trout from running down stream. Here it is 
to keep them from running up. There is no glory in 
planting trout to run off up stream and be killed by men 
who spear on the spawning beds. I hope very much we 
shall hear from everybody who has a theory or an ex- 
perience about this. 
• Yet another problem which Mr. Wood has asked to have 
solved for him is how to take the spawn from the big 
3 or 4 pound trout. He gets most of his eggs from the 
' i-pound fish, and says the big ones fight so hard he is 
afraid of injuring them. Is there any way of preventing 
this ? Here I am sure Mr. Cheney can give the remedy. 
Mr. Wood says that he has had to learn all he knows 
about trout hatching on his own account, as he has not 
read or been able to get much help from others in the 
same line of work. I am sure Mr. Cheney will tell him 
what books to use, and add tips from his own tip-book 
which will be of great value. 
Natural Trout Food. 
One discovery Mr. Wood made which is of interest. 
He found his troughs drifted full of little sticks of v/ood., 
at which his baby trout nibbled eagerly. He broke open 
the supposed sticks, and found each to be the case_ of a 
big grub or worm. Breaking up these things, he found 
his trout eagerly eating them. Then he discarded liver and 
the like, and fed on these larvs. He had no dead baby 
trout after that, and this last year he raised nearly the 
entire hatch, whereas last year he lost half. Not all 
streams furnish such abundance, but this tip may be worth 
something on some other stream. 
This water has none of the watercress pest, but it is 
full of feed. I noticed no inoss beds, and bttt little grass 
as vet. The bottom is for the most part sandy. The 
temperature is about 45 degrees. I never saw a stream so 
perfectly clear 
How to Clean Trout. 
You learn something every trip, you know. Now, I had 
always thought that the thing to do in cleaning trout was 
Lo take your thumb nail and scrape out clean all that black 
blood along the spine which you see left after removing 
the gills and entrails. Both Mr. Miller and Mr. McLeod 
protested at this, and said that a trout will keep very 
much better if this is left in. They tell me that to 
scrape this out tends to soften the fish and start the 
ribs. There may be two schools as to this. I have been in 
the habit of carefully cleaning this black substance all 
out hefore packing my trout. I can only say that I never 
before brought home so nice a lot of trout, or in such 
perfect condition, and all these were left as my friends 
suggested, the gills and entrails being removed and the 
fish dried— not washed at all— and the back bone being 
left unscraped. 
If you eat trout you cannot be sick. I was feeling none 
too well when I left. Both Mr. McLeod and I agreed on 
the train going out of Milwaukee that it was hard to get 
away, and that maj'be we ought not to go, for the world 
would be left in a bad situation with both of us gone. Yet 
to-day, after living on trout for a week. I fret not my 
soul about anything. It is much owing, I doubt not. to 
this ALiddin cask. I must advise the Saginaw-Kinne 
■ Creek contingent to forthwith have one of these trout 
• freezers made for their car, which is not complete with- 
out" it. No doubt Mr. McLeod will tell them how to 
make the freezer. I must not forget to add that it is 
constructed of inch-thick staves, very strong and solid. It 
• has a tap to let off the water. Last, and in some ways pest 
of all, it has a heavy, strong, hinged lid. which closes tight 
and locks with a padlock. You have handles to the 
cask, and you put it in the baggage car, You put the key in 
your pocket. Of course, no one would take a trout from 
a basket, yet I have known a basket of trout to shrink 
mysteriously. Thev don't shrink in the McLeod trout 
freezer. By the use of this little refrigerator one can 
absolutely bring his trout home and have them ser\'ed 
as fine and fresh as they were on the stream. The full 
trout flavor is preserved. Most city folk who eat trout 
that have been brought home to them — at who knows how 
much pains and care — do not get the real trout taste. I 
can testify that in this way you do get it. 
Mr. Miller is back at his office reading law, political! 
econom_y, for amusement this week, and Mr. McLeod is. 
again at his managerial desk at the telephone cornpany, 
and all of us are taking care of the world once more- 
There are dark hints that we shall meet again. I do not 
hope ever to have a pleasanter trout trip, or under 
pleasanter associations. And isn't it odd?— every time 
you go on a trout stream you learn something. 
The Alderman's Fish. 
Alderman John Powers, of this city, had a lot of fish 
shipped to him by some friends who are up in Wisconsin- 
fishing this week. The fish got through all right as far 
as Milwaukee, where they were met by Warden Tracy, of 
that city. The warden found that the boxes of fish were 
over weight, so he stopped them. This caused compli- 
cations little short of international, and the alderman 
threatened to take out Requisition papers for Mr. Tracy 
and have him brought to Chicago to be hung. Since then 
some of the fish have come through to Chicago, and 
white-winged peace once more broods over Johnny- 
Powers' ward. 
Westem Angler in the East. 
CHIC.A.GO, 111., June 16.— Mr. W. L. Shepard, one of our 
prominent Chicago sportsmen, is just back from a long 
vacation in Canada, where, as the guest of Mr. C. P, 
Frame, of New York, he enjoyed the privileges of those 
two great angling clubs, the Laurentian and the St. 
Maurice. Mr. Shepard met Mr. W, H. Parker, manager 
of the Laurentian Club, and Mr. John Allen, who serves in 
similar capacity at the St. Maurice. He fished thoroughly 
all the waters adjacent to both these clubs and had ex- 
tremely good success with the trout, both in the lakes' and 
in the streams. He found it hard to say where the 
sport was best, but speaks lovingly of the big mountain 
lakes about the St. Maurice Club. He saw the whole 
Northern method of fishing from the canoe, and did most 
of his fishing on the lakes, casting from the canoe in to- 
ward the. shore, much as we fish for bass in this country. 
He says the sport was a revelation to him., and declares 
that no Chicago man has any idea what trout fishing is 
until he has gone into that Canadian country. Lac le 
Peche, Wayagamac Lake, the St. Maurice River and 
scores of other lakes which are not shown on the maps, he 
says, surpass the wildest angling dreams he ever enter- 
tained. He caught trout in any quantity, ranging in the 
neighborhood of 2 or 3 pounds in weight, and fish of yi 
or ^ of a pound, such as we consider large ones out here, 
they ordinarily put back into the water in that region. 
He found the Montreal, Jock-Scott, Parmachenee-belle 
and silver-doctor the best flies, with now and then the 
hackles. The Jock-Scott caught 75 per cent, of the fish 
most of the time. 
The record trout for that district is 7^ pounds — this, of 
course, the regular brook trout. Mr. Shepard ' did not 
equal the record, but he killed one 454-potmd fish under 
circumstances which came pretty near tying the record 
so far as total weight at a single cast is concerned. Fish- 
ing in a heavy pool below a dam, he struck a great trout 
which carried him out for a long fight. Suddenly he felt 
another heavy jar on the line, and a moment later two 
fish jumped into the air together. He was sure that he 
could not land both, and doubted much if he wou!d land 
anything, for the ne.xt moment his hand fly was taken by 
a third trout. He played them until part of his tackle 
gave way, but landed the first fish, which weighed 4^ 
pounds. Now, to put a finish upon this exciting little 
angling episode, came the strangest part of it all. His 
host, Mr. Frame, who was fishing at the next bend, not 
very long after that killed a handsome trout which was 
found to weigh 354 pounds. This fish had Mr. Shepard's 
Parmachenee-belle in its jaw and was taken only a short 
time after it broke away from Mr. Shepard. Hence that 
gentleman may be sure that he had 714 pounds of fighting 
trout on some of the time, and perhaps 3 pounds or so 
more than that for part id f the time. He says he did not 
know Avhether he had the fish or they had him. Mr. 
Shepard speaks in the most unstinted praise of the sport, 
the country and the men of that delightful angl'ng region, 
which is better known in the East than it is in this part 
of the world. He says he will not rest until he has had 
his friends go fishing up in Canada, where the trout grow 
big and the air is cool, and men grow young again. 
Neepeenauk Clufa Open to Public. 
One of the famous ducking clubs carried on by Chicago 
sportsmen was once the Neepeenauk Club on Puckawa 
Lakcj Wis., where at one time splendid shooting could 
be had. In time the members began to enjoy the fine 
fishing, of the adjoining waters, and the club \vas well 
patronized during the summer season by families of the 
members. A decision of the Wisconsin courts restricted 
the preserve rights of this club, and the shooting finally 
fell away. Now I learn that the club house and grounds 
have been leased by the former superintendent, Samuel 
W. Stimson. and the place will be run as a sporting re- 
sort, both for shooters and fishers in season. Thi=; place 
IS reached by the Wisconsin Central to Montello, Wis., or 
by the Northwestern road to Princeton. There are tele- 
phone connections with Montello. This a good tip for 
those wanting bass fishing this summer. 
Good Rainbow Water. 
About ten years ago the Peshtigo River, of Wiscon- 
sin, was planted with rainbow trout, and these fish have 
taken very kindly to that big and bold water. The last 
two or three years .Splendid catches have been made of 
rainbows by those who understood the game. The place 
to go in is at Athelstane, on the Milwaukee & St. Paul 
road, going thence a ten-mile drive to the Roaring Rapids 
of the Peshtigo. Another famous place is at the mouth 
of the Medicine Brook, where both rainbows and brook 
trout are taken of 3 or a pounds weight. Ten years ago 
I saw brook trout which were taken at this point, and 
there were half a dozen of them, each longer than a 
market basket of the common splint pattern, and I should 
think there were specimens which weighed over 3 or 4 
