June 30, 1900,3 
609 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Western Anglers. 
CSiCAGOj III,, June 23. — A considerable party of Chicago 
folk start this week for State Line, Wis., where they will 
be gone for six weeks, on a season of fishing, loafing and 
general enjoyment. The personnel of this party is as be- 
low : Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Rollo, Messrs. G. H. Schuman, 
William Upham, W, N. Shaw, Robert Shaw and C. B. 
Jacobs. 
Another nice little party to go north is that of Mr. 
Byron E. Veatch and his friend, Mr. Peacock, who with 
two or three friends and their families start to-day for the 
muscalkinge lakes near Fifield, Wis., on the Wisconsin 
Central line. 
Justice Shiras, of the United States Supreme Court, 
Washington, outfitted in Chicago yesterday for a trout 
fishing trip. He goes to the Huron Mountain Club, near 
Lake Superior, of which club he is a member. Judge 
Shiras is a grand specimen of the American citizen and 
American angler. 
Mr. W. F. Bechtel, of this city, left early in the week 
for the Woman's Lake country in Minnesota, after bass 
and tnuscallunge. 
Mr. C. D. Bertolet leaves this week for Plum Lake, Rice 
Lake and adjoining waters of Wisconsin, via the Mil- 
waukee & St. Paul road. He will have good sport in all 
likelihood. 
Mr. H. A. De Windt, of this city, leaves this afternoon 
for a few days at Eagle Lake, Waukesha county, Wis. 
Mr. F. A. B. Smith, of this city, has left for a few days' 
fishing in the Trout Lake region of Wisconsin, going in 
by way of Woodruff. 
-^Mr. J. M. Dickinson, of Chicago, has left for a' try at 
the muscallunge of the Plum Lake waters. 
Mr. Schumacher and some friends of the city have left 
for Dunbar, Wis., going in to the Gaylord Club. 
Mr. Charles T. Yerkes, the street car magnate, of this 
city, outfitted heavily here this week for a Rocky Moun- 
tain trip. He goes to A. S. Trude's ranch, south of the 
Yellowstone Park, where he should have good fishing. 
Prof. Judson, of the Chicago University, with a party of 
several friends, starts next week for a tour of the Nepigon 
country, where they will see what scientific attainments 
can do in the matter of deluding big trout. Mr. Eckles, 
brother of ex-Comptroller Eckles, is of the party. 
Mr. Itha H. Bellows, ex-president of the Chicago Fly- 
Casting Club, has returned from his fishing trip to the 
Rangeley Lakes, Maine, and is telling all sorts of scary 
stories to his friends in this city. He reports a very 
pleasant time. 
Mr. F. N. Peet, of the Chicago Fly-Casting Club, pro- 
poses an early trout fishing trip to Michigan, in the Grand 
Traverse region. 
Mr. Charles Lawrence, of this city, starts this afternoon 
for a bass trip in Wisconsin. 
Mr. Harry Miner, of this city, one of our best .known 
and most skillful bait-casters, leaves again to-day for a 
bass trip to the lakes east of the Fox River, at Mukwanago 
and Burlington. Mr. Mner has been having good fortune 
in that section lately. 
Mr. E. C. Robinson, of this city, starts for a few days' 
bass fishing to-day, going to Burlington, Wis. 
Mr. H. G. Hascal, of the Chicago Fly-Casting Club, 
leaves to-day for a bass trip in Wisconsin, probably going 
in at Burlington. ' 
Mr. E. R. Letterman, also .of the Chicago Fly-Casting 
Club, leaves to-day for a bass trip for a few days' dura- 
tion in lower Wisconsin. 
Mr. L. F. Crosby, of the John A. Colby Furniture Com- 
pany, Chicago, one of our very well-known and skillful 
bass fishermen, starts to-day for two weeks' vacation, and 
will put in his time on the bass lakes of Tishagon and 
Wabassee, east of the Fox River, Mr. Crosby is well 
acquainted on those waters, and is very fond of them, so 
no doubt his vacation will fall in pleasant places. 
Mr. J. A. Gammon returned this week from a good 
bass trip at Burlington, Wis., his party bringing in forty 
bass of very good weight. 
Dr. T. Henry Ryan, of this city, returned this week 
from a pleasant and successful fishing trip at Lake Villa. 
Mr. Chas H. Lester, of this citj', and Mr. Bradley 
Young, of Oconomowoc, Wis., leave to-day for another 
fishing trip at Sand Lake, Wis., via Hayward, where they 
hope to duplicate the good muscallunge fishing of a 
month ago. 
Mr. H. E. Rice, of this city, is back from a four days 
trip near Lake ViUa, where he had very good sport with 
the fish. 
In their last week's trip, Mr. H, H. Miner and W. D. 
La Parle, of this city, brought in thirty-three fine bass 
from Tishagon Lake, Wis. 
Mention has been made once or twice above of Lakes 
Tishagon, Wabassee, etc. These lakes are very well worth 
watching by Chicago bass fishermen. They are about 
eighty miles north of Chicago, and less than twenty miles 
from' Milwaukee. They are all tributary to the wonderful 
Fox River system, which feeds all that lower lake re- 
gion of Wisconsin. For many years I used to go to 
Mulcwonago, Wis., for my bass fishing, but from that 
place we always went west, into the Waukesha county 
lakes. Had we gone across the river, and southeast of 
Mukwonago, or had we gone northeast from Burlington, 
we would have struck these lakes, which probably offer 
better fishing to-day than those west of the Wisconsin 
Central R. R., since they are less known and less really 
accessible. Tishagon Lake is a hard water to fish, with 
plenty of weedy bars, but with plenty of big bass. Wa- 
bassee Lake, a few miles east of there, is a small, clear 
lake, with plenty of bass, though the fish here run small 
and light of color. In this latter lake they are full of 
fight and fine to eat. Just east of this lake is Wind Lake, 
once a grand bass water, but reduced by draining. North- 
east of that is Muskego Lake, a bigger water, but one 
which has also been restricted by big drainage operations. 
These lakes have only been exploited by Chicago bait- 
casters for a comparatively short time, and have ap- 
parently been unknown or overlooked by our fishermen. 
It is from these waters that the best catches of bass 
reported this spring have been coming in. This country 
is best reached from Burlington, Wis., on the Wisconsin 
Central R. R., thence bv team northeast, along the Fox 
River, and east of the Big Bend of that stream, which 
swings out far to the east of Honey Creek. Any one 
going in there within a few weeks now ought to have 
some fun: It takes a long line and a quick strike in 
those clear waters. 1 understand that some of our fly- 
fishermen are going to give that district a trial this 
week. :^ ijfci 
Vigilant Warden at Milwaukee. 
Some of our Chicago anglers have recently been regis- 
tering heavy kicks against the too great vigilance of a 
Milwaukee fish warden who has been seizing and selling 
the boxes of fish sent or brought out of that State by 
Chicago fishermen. The latest party to be victimized by 
this sleepless warden was one composed of R. J. Mc^ 
Donaldj Aid. John Smulski and wife, Jos, Hanraddy and 
wife, and Geo. K. Wheelock and wife, all of this city. 
Those good folk were bringing out a nice lot of pike, 
bass, etc., and fondly dreamed that there would be several 
fish dinners when they got home. Imagine their surprise 
to find when they reached Chicago that their boxes of 
fish had tarried at Milwaukee. Aid. Smulski, of Chicago, 
telegraphed to Aid. McCoy, of Milwaukee, and asked him 
why this was thus. Aid. McCoy, of Milwaukee, replied 
to one of the party to-day that the warden had sold these 
fish, and that the Chicago gentlemen could get them 
back if they would pay the market price for them. This 
they declined to do. They state that the warden seized 
their boxes of fish under the technicality that they were 
not labeled so that the warden could tell the number and 
weight of the fish contained therein. The Chicago parties 
claim they did not have more than the legal weight — 20 
pounds to each person, or two fish. 
It was this same Milwaukee warden who caused Aid. 
Powers, of this city, trouble about getting his fish through. 
The latter had to send up the price of the fish, $2.50, be- 
fore he could get them released. 
It is stated that the fish shipments of the Sand Lake 
party, earlier noted in these columns, were this week 
Slopped at Milwaukee by the same warden, who does a 
thriving business in selling the confiscated fish. There is 
only one thing to be said about this, which is that if the 
warden is keeping within the law in seizing these fish, he 
is doing his duty, and should not be condemned. If he 
is making the law the cloak of a petty persecution, or 
making unjust seizures, then he ought to be corrected. 
Doing Pretty Well, 
Friend Hotchkiss, up at Fox Lake, Wis., seems to be 
doing pretty well with the fish story industry in his neck 
of woods. This week he states that the best bass of the 
week were two taken by Frank Brice, one of which 
weighed 6 pounds, the other 5 pounds 5 ounces. He 
adds to this the following pickerel story: 
"Jimcrow Nelson caught a pickerel yesterday with- 
out hook, line, bait or cash. The screw on the steamer 
struck the fish and knocked him unconscious. Jim felt 
the blow, stopped the steamer and picked iip the fish 
before it came to, and brought him down town in triumph. 
It was a dandy, and weighed 12^4 pounds." 
Gone Again. 
Mr. B. K. Miller, Jr., and Mr. John D. McLeod, of 
Milwaukee, my hosts of the very pleasant trout trip a week 
ago, left yesterday for another visit to their beautiful 
stream at Waupaca. Mr. McLeod says that if the late 
rains have extended as far north as Waupaca they will 
take seventy-five trout to the rod each day on their Avater. 
This is the best trout stream I know of in the State of 
Wisconsin. 
Mexican Tarpon Reel, 
Mr. Fred M. Stephenson, of Menominee, Mich., is just 
back from his coffee plantation in old Mexico, some- 
what sun-browned and as usual full of good spirits and 
good stories. Mr. Stephenson brings with him a curious 
example of native Mexican metal work, in the shape of a 
tarpon reel, which he had constructed for him by a 
Mexican. He paid $75 in Mexican money for this reel, 
and it is worth nearly that much for old metal. It i- 
about 6 inches across the barrel and would weigh several 
pounds. The handle is big enough for a windlass, and the 
drag would snub a mustang. When this reel is in opera- 
tion it sounds like the gentle purr of a Kansas cyclone. 
It was hammered out of brass by the native smith, and is 
a curious object as compared with our delicate American 
reels. Mr. Stephenson is very proud of this object of 
vertu, and in all likelihood l"t will last him all his life. 
In Glory. 
Mr. Horace Kephart, of the Mercantile Library, St. 
Louis, goes every week down the river a little way into a 
piece of country of his own, which he has discovered, and 
in which he constitutes the only Crusoe. He writes of it 
thus : "To-morrow afternoon I am going down the river 
on the Cherokee to spend a week alone in fairyland. 'Kep'.s 
Hollow,' as the boys call it, is in the heart of God's own 
wilderness, though only fifty miles from town. The 
countrv for many miles around is a waste of flinty hills, 
densely timbered, uninhabited. A blue spring bursts out 
of the rock right where I'll pitch the pup-tent. Every 
bird, bug, tree, shrub, flower, fruit and nut indigenous 
to the Ozarks is there, and they all know me. Squirrels, 
coons, woodchucks, foxes, turkeys, deer and wolves, on 
the uplands ; waterfowl along the river in season ; basf: 
and crappie in the creek. What more could a fellow want? 
You needn't pray for me in the next seven days. I'll be in 
glory." 
How to Bring TrootlHomc. 
Now. we have all read about and heard about how to 
take care of trout so that they can be brought home in 
good condition. We have all tried all sorts of ways — 
moss, grass, separate paper parcels, raw cotton parcels, 
etc. I have tried all these with more or less success, and 
at last I thought I had learned from the Saginaw Crowd 
of Michigan the last wrinkle, in their tin-lined basket 
covered with felt and provided with an ice chamber. 
This latter I have used with excellent success, but now 
I must say it is to be called obsolete as compared with the 
device perfected by these Milwaukee gentlemen. 
Thev told me not to trouble about my fish, for that they 
would' come home safe and sound. Then, as the wagon 
drove up for us, I saw them put on behind two casks, each 
about 3 feet or so tall, and 18 inches across the top, taper- 
ing slightly to the bottom, like an ice cream freezer. 
Inside this cask was a tin cylinder, with a tight lid, again 
like the ice cream freezer. Packed around this inner ves- 
sel was ice, to the top of the cask. The trout were inside 
the inner freezer. They were wiped dry before going in, 
and they never touched the ice from start to finish of their 
journey. This cask goes home each trip with Mr._ Mc- 
Leod and Mr. Miller, and it delivers trout to their friends 
ten days after they are caught, as hard and solid as the 
day when they were taken. 
I tried my fish basket this spring. I was afraid its 
little tank, holding two or three quarts of ice, would not 
keep my fish, so I put in ice, all over the fish. They were 
edible, but they were not at their best, being, bn the 
contrary, soft, slimy and not hard and firm. You can 
never buy a real trout at a fish market, for they are all 
shipped on ice, and a trout ought never to touch the ice. 
He ought never to be frozen, hut he ought to be as 
cold as can be, and as dry as when he first rolled in the 
grass. That was how my trout came home — for these 
generous hosts insisted I should have one of the casks 
and more than half the trout. To-day is Thursday, and 
trout taken from the cask to-day were as perfect as though 
fresh caught, though really four days old. 
The cook who performs the next to the last offices for a 
brook trout should be instructed never to wash it. Take 
the trout from the cask— for this is really the only way 
worth mentioning of taking care of trout — clean out now 
that black line from along the back bone, dry the trout 
on a clean linen rag, and fry it with or without cracker 
dust or cornmeal, as you prefer. 
In the Lake Region of Wisconsin. 
A friend of mine, of this city, a very much prized 
friend, too, this past week showed his wisdom by leaving 
town and going fishing. He went with others of his 
friends to Big Sand Lake, Wis., and from that point he 
writes under date of June 7 as follows : 
"T wrote you on Saturday that I should go 'a-fishmg,' 
and here I am, quartered in one of the many cottages of 
the Eagle River Shooting and Fishing Qub. We arrived 
on Sunday evening, after a ride of twenty-two miles in 
the woods, the road bordering several beautiful lakes, 
thence up Long Lake, through the outlet and up Big Sand 
Lake to its head, eight miles, to this paradise of sportsmen. 
"The club members are principally Chicago men, and 
of the 'salt of the earth' species. They never were known 
to look back. Lot's wife, you remember, did. Those 
who, with guests, are present are: Messrs. S. Simons, 
Frank Blair, Charles Andrews, D. B. Lewis, Harry A. 
Sullivan, M, H. Wagger, Charies D. Dunann, Leo. Turner, 
C. B. Dicks, H. M. Hamline, C. E. Felton, and there are 
others — Me, Too & Co. 
"But you don't give a cent about memberships or 
guests. You want information about the catch. Big Sand 
Lake is a beautiful body of water surrounded by rolling 
timber land, which separates it wholly from some of the 
many other small lakes in this part of this high-license 
State. It is full of fish— pickerel, pike, bass, muscalonge 
and small fry. A rule of the party—unwritten, of course 
—is that no one' shall fish to exceed two hours each day. 
and that rule has been very closely observed. Another 
is that certain members may "sit up' until 10:45 P. M. 
Those who have been favored most were Mr. Andrews, 
who took a 22-pound muscalonge. As he is Deputy 
County Treasurer of Cook- county, and worthy Samuel 
B. Raymond was not present: he set the pace. Then fol- 
lowed Mr. Dunann, with one of 17 pounds, and Felton 
next day caught one— to his thinking of at least a hundred ; 
but bless his imagination for the balance, the scales indi- 
cated but x6. Where the other 84 pounds went to no one 
knows. One day Dicks and Hamline caught sixty-nme 
large pike in one and one-quarter hours; Wagger and 
Dunann twenty-two, weighing 59 pounds, in two and one- 
half hours, and others made large catches of bass and 
pike, with a few large pickerel, within the time limit. The 
bass are found near the club houses, the pike near the 
shore, and the muscalonge on or near the sand bars m the 
middle of the lake. When it was found that the musca- 
longe were on or near their spawning beds, it was voted 
•no more of that' until later in the season, hence the three 
above noted catches have concluded that sport, 
"This part of Wisconsin, Forest county, is fairly dotted 
with small lakes— hundreds in number. The woodman 
has largely felled the forest trees, but the second growth 
makes excellent cover and food for the thousand deer 
which are bred therein. Every evening since our arrival 
one has come to the lake to bathe and drmk, not more than 
70 yards from our cottages, staying many mmutes; and 
last week, we are informed, three beauties came and made 
companions with the hor.ses for a time, then drank of our 
waters and walked back to the bush. But what will be 
their fate in November? My wish would be the Rip Van 
Winkle toast— 'May they live long and prosper.' ^^^^^ 
Things that Trout Do. 
It is odd enough things which one sometimes sees on 
a trout 'Stream.. Thus, I have had three days of trout 
fishing this spring, and on each one of the days a singular 
instance occurred, which still remains as a clear mental 
picture One time on the Little Wolf, just as Mr. Hawks 
and Buck, the lodge keeper, were callmg me to come up 
out of the stream to join them at lunch, I got a strike 
from a nice trout of more than a half-pound weight, which 
came out from under a stump at the edge of the bank. 
Between me and the fish there extended a long cedar snag, 
which was about 1 foot or 18 inches above the 
water From the side of the snag reached out many sharp 
stubs," against which I was sure the line would get 
fouled, so that I did not think my chances to save the 
trout were very good. "If I just had you on this side 
of the snag," thought I, "I could get you all right. As 
if in answer to the thought, the trout made a run and a 
leap and flung himself clear over the log out into the 
open stream, where later I brought him safely to net 
As it happened, Buck saw the trout .lust as he jumped, and 
thought he had taken my fly while in the air. The whole 
instance made a very pretty little scene, and one which 1 
think will not be soon forgotten. 
Every one has seen trout jumping at flies and insects, 
and perhans has noticed them leao at butterflies or dragon 
flies. This last bug game is not so ea.sy for them to 
catch, and. in fact, T never saw a trout actually catch a 
butterfly but once, and that wa-; this spring. I saw the 
butterfly— a big red and black fellow— crossing the stream 
