Aug. i8, 1900.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
127 
Wells has fished, but I am satisfied that the Ristigouche 
current does not require a vibrated rod to make the fly 
attractive. In fact, Mr. Wells says later in his book, 
speaking of the vibration of the rod: "This is the usual 
and perhaps the most effective method of displaying the 
.salmon fly. Some, however, allow the current to swing 
the fly steadily through its orbit, omitting altogether to 
vibrate the tip, while others impart a rapid quiver to the 
rod, both of which methods are at times successful. In- 
deed, when a particular fish has been located, upon the 
capture of which the angler has set his heart, all these 
methods may be tried in succession with profit." 
If we all thought alike it would be a monotonous world, 
and I doubt not that Mr. Wells' advice is good, but I 
do not know of any angler on the Ristigouche more suc- 
cessful than Mr. Ayer for the water he has to fish, and 
if permitting the fly to swing steadily through, its orbit 
will do the business. Why vibrate the rod? It proves 
nothing that I had more rises after I ceased to vibrate the 
rod than I did before, but such was the case — but there are 
risers and risers. 
Kelt with Eggs. 
This year Mr. Mitchell beached a well rounded kelt in 
June, a female, and as his canoe man tailed it to remove 
the fly, about 100 eggs came from the fish. They ap- 
peared to be perfect eggs of good color and healthy, and 
came from the fish as easily as at spawning time in the 
fall, when the females are ripe for egg taking. For some 
reason these eggs had been carried over from last fall, 
when she probably deposited the bulk of her eggs on the 
spawning bed, possibly far up the river. 
Trout that are spawned artificially in a hatchery pond 
will return again and again to the spawning race if the 
men do not get all the eggs at the first or second handling. 
If only a very few ripe eggs remain, the fish will run up 
into the spawning race after she has been stripped by the 
spawn taker, but this salmon was apparently going down 
to sea with free eggs more than seven months after the 
regular spawning season. This was mentioned in a 
group of salmon fishermen, and several similar incidents 
■Were mentioned as coming under the observation of those 
then present. , 
Mr, Mitchell's Score. 
The writing of these notes was begun on the Risti- 
gouche River and left unfinished for lack of time to 
complete them. They were added to in New York, Cale- 
donia, Syracuse, Lake George and elsewhere, always un- 
der most unfavorable circumstances for wriiing. The 
first sheets are somewhat worn from being carried in my 
bag twice pretty well over the State during the past month, 
and tn-n.ght I determined to finish them before I started 
o morrow on another journey of ten days. Mr. Mitchell's 
IcLter, from which 1 quote, followed me from place to 
p'ace, to be finally deposited with the unfinished notes. 
He says: "I only arrived home to-day (July 7), having 
stretched a point and remained a w'eek longer on the 
river than was my original intention. The fishing was 
good at times after you left, and at other times it was 
dull. 
"I finished up with thirty-one salmon and one grilse. 
Weight of all, 603 pounds. Leaving out all under 20 
pounds, I had twenty fish as follows: 241-^, 22, 22, 22, 20, 
22i^, 23, 20^, 24, 20, 23^/4 20^, 21^, 225^, 28, 24^, 22^, 
24^/^. 245^—456 pounds." 
A Woman's Score. 
One morning, as we passed down river over the Daw- 
son waters, where Billy Florence fished so many years, 
Mrs. John Reid was fast to a fish, and was about to bring 
him to gaff — in fact, after our canoes had passed, one of 
our men, looking back, saw the fish taken incO Mrs. Reid's 
canoe. On the following Sunday, when we called at the 
Dawsons', Mrs. Reid told us that that fish weighed 35^^ 
pounds, and the same day she killed one of 25!/^ pounds, 
and a day or two later she killed one of 343^2 pounds, and 
at that time the men at Dawson's had not equaled her 
big fish. In the same pool young Mott, son of Jordan 
L, Mott, Jr., last year killed a salmon of 43 pounds, and 
the single-hooked fly came away as the fish was gaffed, 
and then it was discovered that the barb was gone, so 
that the young man was extremely fortunate to have saved 
his fish. 
Rescuing Salmon Fry. 
The Alford water at a proper fishing stage has a wide 
bed of gravel on the left bank. This gravel bed, the 
bottom of the stream in high water, grows wider and 
wider as the water recedes. At first there are several 
pools in the gravel, but as the water gets lower there is 
but one, and eventually this dries up. Every spring there 
will be a quantity of salmon fry in these pools in the 
gravel, and ultimately they gather in the last remaining 
pool, which is at that time a considerable distance from 
the river. Mr, Mitchell has been in the habit of rescuing 
the fry and placing them in the stream, and he does it in 
the summer. When the pool, which maintains the same 
level as the river, gets small, he digs a hole in the lowest 
part of it and in this hole he sinks a bucket, the top level 
with the bottom of the pool, Wednesday the pool became 
dry, and the salmon fry gathered in the bucket and were 
carried to the river and liberated. Often I have wondered 
how many similar places there may be on the river where 
salmon fry are left to perish for the lack of some one to 
do as Mr. Mitchell has done for a number of years, and I 
haA'e wondered how many young salmon were utterly 
lost during the many, many years before Mr. Mitchell 
began his work of rescue. There are minnows in the 
pools also, but the young salmon may be distinguished by 
the fatter fin back of the dorsal, which is peculiar to the 
salmon family. _ It would be well worth the while of 
anglers up the river to see if there is not rescue work of 
this sort to be done nearer to the head waters of the 
Ristigouche than the Alford water. 
Salmon in New York. 
Within a year or so I printed a letter in Forest and 
Stream from an old resident on Salmon River, N. Y.. in 
relation to the salmon in that stream in the early days the 
letter being procured for me by Excise Commissioner 
Lyman. Last year salmon returned to Salmon River, and 
the Legi.slature made an appropriation for the purpose of 
ponstructing fishways iq the stream that salmon may reach 
spawning grounds in the head waters, and it is there that I 
am going to-morrow to see about the construction of the 
fishways. Hon. T. M, Costello tells me that the salmon 
come into the river about Sept. i. 
A. N. Cheney. 
Fishing in Lake Keuka, 
Lake Keuka is one of the many gems of water adorn- 
ing the central part of New York State. It is a celebrated 
water for great lake trout and black bass. It also con- 
tains pickerel, very large perch, etc. There are also some 
rainbow or California trout in the lake, but how few or 
how many we cannot say, as those we have taken have 
always been caught when fishing for black bass with live 
minnows. 
We shall not attempt to give details of all the good 
fishing grounds of Lake Keuka; it is a large sheet of 
water, about twenty-eight miles long. We shall simply 
note the parts which we have always fished and where we 
have always been rew^arded with good catches. As will 
be seen by our map of the lake (which is from memory) 
it is Y-shaped; the two arms are known as the East and 
West branches. 
The king fish of Lake Keuka is the great lake trout, or 
togue; it is sometimes called salmon trout by the natives 
around the lake. Without doubt, the best grounds for 
these fish is in the deep water which lies below the 
Bluff, and reaches as far down as the little point jutting 
out below the Grove Springs Hotel. It also runs up 
into the East Branch for about a mile and into the West 
Branch for a quarter to half a mile. We have marked 
this ground on the map thus: 
This deep water runs from 60 to nearly 200 feet. About 
half a mile below the Bluff Point are some cold springs in 
Bbanohyiub 
AMMANDSPX 
Fishing 
Lake keum 
about 60 feet of water. The springs are rather difficult to 
locate, but if the angler can do so he can always be sure 
of getting some of these fish. 
The local fishermen use regular clothes lines for lake 
trout fishing, weighted with nearly 2 pounds of lead to 
carry the end to the bottom. This cumbersome tackle is 
absolutely unnecessary. We use an ordinary stiff bait 
rod with a bass reel, having on it 400 to 600 feet of 
copper wire, gauge about 30. This line will run straight 
to the bottom from the reel, without any sinker what- 
ever, although to insure the line being kept taut, and also 
free from kinks, we use an ounce sinker. This copper line 
is strong enough to handle the biggest trout that will be 
found in Lake Keuka. 
There are two different ways of fishing for lake trout — 
first, with live bait 6 or 8 inches long on a Seth-Green 
gang; with this bait we let out line sufficient to carry it 
down to Avhere the trout are on the feed : this depth your 
guide can tell you, as they keep in close touch with the 
trout throughout the season. The second way is tO' use 
a spoon — a wabbler, not a spinner. These wabblers should 
be about the size of Skinner's No. 9. They should have a 
good swivel fastened on one end and a strong single hook 
soldered on the other. Lake trout will take silver, copper 
1 and brass spoons, nor do they show much particular choice 
for any or either. When really hungry, they will strike 
at anything moving. On one occasion we opened a lake 
trout and found in its stomach an old corncob. Now what 
spoon the fish took this for we have never been able to 
decide. 
Slow trolling always gives the best results for lake trout. 
As a black bass water Lake Keuka has no peer. The 
bass are very plentiful and run large, averaging 2 and 3 
pounds. The ground which we always fish for bass, and 
which we believe to be the best in the lake, is the western 
rocky shore from the Urbana Wine Cellar up to Branch- 
ville, which is at the end of the West Branch ; then again 
on the eastern shore of the West branch, from Branchville 
down to the Bluff. 
We have marked these bass grounds thus: xxxxxxx. 
Our best catches have been made b}' trolling, using the 
following baits: ist. A No. 2 silver casting spoon 
(Skinner's), with a live minnow. 2d. The following flies 
surmounted, by a No, 3 silver spooo (Skinner's) : The 
Delaware-belle, silver-doctor (a regular salmon fly) anH 
the black-princess. We have also made some good catches 
with ordinary fly-casting, using regular bass flies, but the 
fish taken this way at the surface run much smaller than 
those taken by trolling in deeper water nearer the bottom. 
As we have previously stated, rainbow trout are an un- 
known quantity in Lake Keuka. Those that we caught 
were probably in water from 20 to 40 feet deep on the 
edge and outside of the bass limit. We have marked their 
water thus : 00000000. The only bait that we have evar 
taken them on in Lake Keuka has been minnows, and the 
largest specimen scaled nearly 5 pounds. 
For those who are fond of dallying with the little long 
noses — pickerel — Lake Keuka offers some good grounds 
on the eastern shore. Starting from the little point jut- 
ting out just below the Grove Springs Hotel, it is good 
pickerel ground all the way up to the point about a mile 
above the hotel, and then all ov«r the little bay beyond tie 
point. 
We have marked their ground thus : — . 
The best bait to use for these little fellows is a No, 2 
brass Sldnner casting spoon with a little piece of white 
belly from another fish on the hook as bait. 
One of the best table fish, and as gamy a fish as any 
angler wishes to have playing on his rod, is the large 
perch of 2 to 3 pounds, which are quite plentiful in Lake 
Keuka. They will be found both on the bass and pickerel 
grounds. 
Gibson's is about the best spot to stop on the lake for 
the fishermen, as the best fishing lies all along in front 
of the hotel, and further, one can secure good and reliable 
guides there. 
To reach Keuka Lake the best route is to take the Dela- 
ware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad to Bath, which is 
six or seven miles from the lake. From Bath the angler 
can take either the Bath & Hammondsport Railroad to 
Hammondsport, or take a carriage and have an hoards 
delightful country driving. From Hammondsport 
steamers leave regularly, calling at all the hotels and 
principal points all the way up to Penn Yan, at the head 
of the East Branch. Any angler spending a few days 
fishing the waters of Lake Keuka will be sure to be well 
rewarded and return perfectly satisfied, with a determina- 
tion to try again his skill against the plucky, finny tribe *i 
this queen of waters. J. Churchward. 
Aug 6 
Trouting in California. 
Good results are being realized at the present time by 
anglers who are visiting the mountain streams of Cali- 
fornia, but the grandest stream as yet visited by tJte 
writer is the Truckee River. The accommodations 
afforded sportsmen by the Southern Pacific Company 
cannot be excelled. Take San Francisco as a center; by 
leaving on the 6 P. M. train the angler reaches the 
Truckee River the follow'ing morning, and, if he so de- 
sires, can be on the stream at 7:30. 
There are several hotels along the route, but the prin- 
cipal and best stopping place for anglers at present is 
Boca, a few miles from the State line. Good fishing may 
be had at almost anj' point on the Truckee. Boca has itis 
admirers, the Union Mills its admirers, Floriston its ad' 
mirers, Verdi, also, its admirers. When the new hotel 
which is now in process of erection at Floriston is finished, 
it will be well patronized, especially during the months of 
July, August and September. 
The Truckee River is well stocked and well looked 
after, and great credit is due to the California Fish Com- 
mission for the admirable manner in which they look to 
the interests of the anglers in protecting the fishes during 
the fall and early spring, when so much illegal fishing 
is being carried on by the natives on the different sections 
of this stream. Quite a number of arrests were made this 
spring, and the offenders were heavily fined. 
The San Francisco anglers who visit this stream year 
after year have each their respective haunts where the 
trout hide. For instance, Geary's Flat is known to all 
anglers, and is well whipped in the latter part of July 
and the first week in August. Wells' Riffle is another 
equally prolific stretch. Butler's Salmon Roe Pool is also 
well known. All sportsmen who want good trout fishing 
should not fail to visit this stream, the angler's para- 
dise, in California and Nevada. 
In fishing on this river, it is well to be provided with a 
pair of gum boots, leather soled and hob-nailed. A great 
many, however, discard the gum boots and use a pair of 
trout shoes well nailed. The rocks and boulders, which 
are very plentiful, are quite slippery, and at certain times 
of the season covered with a greenish moss, which makes 
the foothold anything but secure. In fording the Truckee, 
which can be done at several points between Truckee and 
Reno, it is well to be supplied with a wading stick. It is 
of great assistance, and never in your way if tied to your 
button hole and allowed to float in front of 3'-ou while 
fishing down stream or when Stamding in mid-stream. 
The market fisherman is a very necessary adjunct to the 
average angler who visits' the Truckee River for the first 
time. If unsuccessful the first few days and he wants 
to send home a mess of trout to his friends, he simply 
pays 25 cents per pound for 15 or 20 pounds, ships them 
to the city and no one is a bit the wiser, except, perhaps, 
an angler or two who have to resort to similar methods 
and must necessarily keep mum. 
The rainbow trout take a spoon readily in the middle 
of the day, when they will not look at a fly, however 
artistically placed before them. A Mr. LaForge, who 
was a resident of Boca for a number of years, was the 
most successful spoon fisher on the Truckee. He in- 
vented a spinner which is used now by a majority of the 
spoon fishermen, and it is known as the LaForge spin- 
ner. It does excellent work, and can be had only at Boca. 
In spoon fishing on the Truckee it is well to «se a 
moderately stiff split-bamboo 7-ounce rod. and for fly- 
fishing a 5^2 or 6-ounce rod. The best flies are the 
coachman, royal-coachman, red-ant, red-spinner, grizzly- 
king, professor, queen-of-the-waters, caddis. March- 
brown, jungle-cock-wing, brown-hackle, red-body and 
gray-hackle, yellow-body, tied on Nos. 10 and ic hoc^s 
for morning and mid-day fishing, and Nos. 6 8 and 10 fof 
evening fishing. ^ A large, gaudy-colored fly, just at dusk, 
allowed to sink, is a great laller. 
* 70 many of the readers of this ys^Jviable pfipef, 3 WOT^ 
