March 30, 1901,] 
FOREST AMD STREAM. 
247 
Projjrietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to adverti.sc 
them in Forest and Stream. 
Notice. 
All communications intended for Forest and Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., and 
not to any individual connected with the paper. 
Faf Rocfcaway. 
i When spring revives frost-buried hopes, 
And Arctic storms have fled our shores; 
When beaming skies from fecund slopes 
Coax forth the flow'rs the bee explores; 
When swallows twit a glad return. 
And bluebirds pipe their vernal lay, 
Beyond the meadow road's brisk turn 
1 see thee rise. Far Rockaway. 
Enthroned upon a gentle swell. 
The ocean hymning at thy feet, 
Skirts into bays whose islets tell 
Of secret nooks where shore birds meet. 
From distant shores come finny tribes. 
That cleave the seas to tribute pay 
To waters mirroring thy skies — 
Thy glorious skies, Far Rockaway! 
] TTow grand was once thy countr-y 'round! 
j Thy woods and fields a dream of dreams I 
j \\'here, now. like then, can there be found 
} Such woods, and glades, and forest streams? 
' Thy meadows, though, remain as when 
[ I trod their mazes to the bay, 
; ■ In quest of hern and meadow hen. 
In hopeful days, Far Rockaway. 
Ala.s! that nature's face should hide. 
And leave no trace save mcm'ry's shade! 
The march of greed, of vice, and pride, 
Has stormed thy fields, thy swamps invade! 
Civilization's vandal hand 
Shall shroud them in the nearby day- 
May thy loss sorrow's tears command. 
From me for aye, Far Rockaway 1 
Abel Kontev. 
The Striped Bass. 
"A xWOphel is not without honor save in his own coitntry." 
This is not a story of a prophet, nor is it a prophecy. 
It but sings the praises of a noble fish, the king of the 
North Atlantic coast. I think that outside a lim-'ted circle 
of enthusiasts there is less general knowledge of the habits 
and quahties of the Roccos lineatus than any game fish of 
this part of the country. 
Everybody is familiar with the beautiful brook trout and 
the vigorous black or small-mouth bass : but the striped 
bass, or rockfish. coasts along our rocky shores iii all his 
beauty and strength, sought by comparativeh- few and 
known more as an article of food than for his sterling 
game qualities. We find in the "Natural History of the 
State of New York" and "Commission of Fish and 
Fisheries of the United States" some Interesting, if 
rather antequated. accounts of this fish, from which a few- 
brief extracts may not be out of place : 
"The striped bass occurs in all the waters of our coasts 
from Florida to New Brunswick. In the North it is 
called striped bass and in the South rockfish or rock. 
Large sea-going individuals are sometimes known as 
greenhead or squid-hound. They are not migratory, but 
are found at ah seasons along our coasts. They are 
voracious in their habits, preying upon small fish, and 
frequent the rocky shores of the bays and sounds at 
high tide in search of crabs, shrimps and squids, and 
they are said to feed upon clams and mussels, which they 
obtain by delving with their snouts. 
"The largest striped bass on record is said to have 
weighed 112 pounds. Fish taken in traps and seines fre- 
quently weigh from 35 to 60 pounds. Twenty years ago 
striped bass were taken in large numbers by heaving and 
hauling with a hand line from rocks and steep beaches 
all along the coast from the Delaware capes to Cape Cod. 
In the early days of the colonies this fish formed a prin- 
cipal source of food supply, being caught in great num- 
bers and very large. Captain John Smith saw so many 
in a river that he fancied he might have walked across on 
their backs. 
"Eight thousand fish were caught in less than a week 
by three fishing gangs from Bridgehampton in 1874. One 
man took on one set of a seine 1,672 bass, weighing 
-three and one-half tons. They breed in fresh water in 
the spring, and in the cold weather are believed to 
hibernate in the mud when left in shallow tide ponds." 
It has been my good fortune this summer for the first 
time to know of and learn a sport which lies at my door, 
and which has repaid a patient stud5^ Locating on the 
shore of Long Island Sound not many miles from New 
York city, I happened to fall in with a little coterie of 
fishermen, amateur and professional, who excited my 
interest with tales of monster fish taken trolling with rod 
and line. Although it was early in the summer, I started 
out one day to try my luck. AU. day long, until the 
rising wind became too heavy for further attempts, I 
pulled along the shores with no results, but a fisherman 
who was also out showed me a 4-pounder. 
Subsequent attempts brought fair returns in small 
fish, until one day, after a slight thunder shower, while 
pulling in rough water in a rocky cove, my wife had a 
strike which set the reel singing with that shrill note 
which sends the thrills through every nerve. Out went 
the line, until, the click happening to slip on the reel, the 
line overran and knotted, catching her thumb in the 
crank. I at once took her rod, slacked off until the 
line went free and began Avork in earnest. Meantime my 
boatman had pulled directly off shore to clear all rocks, 
and as the fish was well hooked I could feel reasonably 
sure of success. For twenty minutes he bored and surged 
about, but in this instance, probably because of the hot 
weather, made few rushes. Meanwhile the problem pre- 
?i?nted. itself tQ how \q g^ve him, q^r F^t \v^s too 
small to be of any use, and we had no gaff; but neces- 
sity suggested that we improvise a gaff by means of a 
large cod hook, luckily in my kit, lashed to the handle of 
an ancient umbrella. 
As soon as the demand for quick work with the oars 
was somewhat relaxed, Jerry deftly lashed the weapon, 
and when by a steady rise and sweep I swung our beauty 
toward the bow, a quick snatch set the hook into the 
throat and a heave brought him aboard before a flap could 
be made. He thrashed then all right, but was quickly 
quieted. The scales showed just 12 pounds and the tape 
31 inches in length and 17 inches girth. He was heavy 
and fat and as handsome a fish as swims. Then came 
days of non-success and small school bass. We knew 
that big bass were about, for they were frequently seen 
by the eel j ackers feeding in the coves at night. 
' "Why, there's one old bumper that I seen twice last 
moon ill Clam Cove that is more'n four foot long and 
mtist weigh over 50 pounds," said Jim Stone, one of the 
fraternity. "I was sheered to jab him with my spear." 
So we fished after dark and in heavy weather, in sea- 
son and out of season, with only moderate luck. Then 
came a day when weeping skies combined with a light 
fog to wrap the sea in a soft wet blanket. There was little 
wind, and the constant drizzle called for rain coats and 
rubbers. PuUing boldly out to the islands, not accessible 
It was a noble fight. The rod was a light split bam- 
boo trolling rod with a fine spring, the hook a 0000 and 
an ordinary Skinner spoon. I had about 400 feet of line. 
Bloodworms were used for bait. 
This fish weighed 13 pounds and measured 32 inches in 
length and 18 inches in girth, just I pound heavier and i 
inch each way larger than our first. 
Robert N. Curtis. 
New York City. 
STRIPED BASS. 
Nineteen pounds. Length 32 inches, girth 18 inches. 
in heavy weather; we got a few bass ofl: a sedgy point, but 
they were small and not plenty. Then we went further on 
to a lonely islet, and landed on a half -moon beach in a 
quiet cove for luncheon. Just at top of tide we again 
started, pulled around the rocky point and back into the 
cove, when "Whir-r-r!" came the magic note, and this 
time it was no sulker. He had my hook, so not a second 
was lost. 
Away went the boat for the open, dangerous rocks being 
all abottt. First one way and then another went the bull- 
dog rushes, every atom of resistance that I dared use 
being held against him, but with it all the line con- 
stantly escaped. Further and further from the shore we 
moved, until good bottom was assured, and then we 
slackened speed a bit. In a moment, nearly 200 feet away, 
a big body surged into A'iew with a foaming splash and 
again the reel sang. We began rowing slowly, as it was 
evident that he must be tired out as rapidly as possible 
or he might escape by a sudden rush or tackle parting. 
And so began a fight as fierce and stubborn as can well 
be conceived. For nearly an hour every attempt to get 
him anywhere near the boat was met by sudden rushes 
and powerful tugs, which kept the nerves on edge for 
fear of accident. 
We towed him and he towed us nearly two miles. Then 
inch by inch I began to recover line, until he was within 
40 feet. Here he balked and nothing could induce liim 
to come closer. My arms w^ere getting tired with the 
constant strain of the pole spring kept full on. I made a 
bold try and raised him so wc could see that his mouth 
was open. Then the wonder grew why he didn't drown- 
but not he. 
Inch by inch he came in. until he was only about 10 
feet from the boat under water astern. Then I set to 
"pumping" him. raising my rod at full spring as high as 
my arms would go, then letting him settle. This is 
ntoderately severe on both man and beast. As my wife 
was wild with apprehension over the constant chance of a 
breakaway and as I detected just a shade less ambition in 
the captive. I determined to make one strong attempt to 
bring him to gaff. » 
Standing up and slowly but strongly lifting him. I got a 
chance to swing hirn to the boatman, who gaffed him 
nearly. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Black Bass as Butchers. 
A CORRESPONDENT writes to Forest and Stream as 
follows: "I have been a reader of your paper, off and 
on, for more than twenty-five years, and am an ardent ad- 
vocate of the black bass as a game fish, a fish for the 
multitudes, and have caught him in all legitimate ways 
in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Hamp- 
shii-e and Maine. I have watched them early and late, 
and I know they are game, pugnacious, etc.; but I have 
heard so many stories about the black bass being regular 
"saw bellies,' ripping pickerel fore and aft and letting 
out their entrails as easily as if the pickerel were in a 
vise, and the bass took his time to hack and cut away 
as he chose with those terrible fins of his, that I have 
lost sleep trying to think how it was done, unless on the 
Christian Science principle of thought. Will you tell 
us in Forest .and Stream if there is any record of a 
black bass cutting a pickerel open in the way it has been 
credited with doing?" 
Perhaps the easiest way to answer this would be to 
say, "No," and stop; but perhaps I ought to explain 
why I say no. 
More than one man has told me that a black bass 
could rip a pickerel open with its dorsal spines, and 
they had seen such circumstantial evidence of it that it 
could not be questioned. One case always stands out 
conspicuously in my mind, for the man saw the bass do 
the ••^lashingj'and later caught the pickerel on his baited 
hook with its entrails hanging out. 
The reason I say no is because I have tried it myself 
by holding a pike in one hand and trying to cut its belly 
open with the spines of a black bass held in the other 
hand, and this is something any man can try for himself 
when he can secure the two fishes. A black bass will 
fight a pickerel or pike by darting under it repeatedly, 
and after one or two such attacks the pike seems to 
realize that it cannot cope with the bass, but the only 
marks that I have seen made by the dorsal of the bass 
is a red line across the belly of the pike, as though the 
blood had settled there, but the skin was not broken. 
In the case of tlie man who caught the pickerel after the 
bass had practically disemboweled it. cross examination 
developed that he did not actually see the cutting done. 
He did see the bass dash at the pickerel repeatedly and 
later believed that he caught the identical pickerel as 
described. Some 3'ears ago. after seemg a black bass 
charge into a school of yellow perch of large size and 
charge several times. I caught some of the perch with 
the blood red line on the belly, as though the hne had been 
made by the dorsal fin of the bass. I still think this 
was a fact, but I cannot give positive evidence of it. Be- 
fore and after I caught in the same lake yellow perch 
with a similar blood line on the belly, and charged it to 
the black bass, though it may have been done in the 
ordinary course of securing a meal; but I never have seen 
or known of a bass cutting another open, and am con- 
^•inced from the experiment mentioned that it is a 
physical impossibility, lor the dorsal fin of a black bass 
to do the act with which it is charged. It requires a 
.sharp knife and some force to slit the belly of a pickerel 
in eviscerating it, and the spines in the dorsal of a bass 
will not do the trick. 
Trout Fry at Sportsmen's Show* 
One of the tanks at the sportsmen's show in Madison 
Square Garden contained 10,000 brook trout fry, and I 
considered it one of the best exhibits in the fish tanks, 
and yet it attracted far less attention generally than the 
larger fish in the other tanks. On several occasions I 
watched the people as they passed along the line of 
tanks. The first tank contained brook trotit four years 
old (one man. by the way, who was explaining to a 
friend about the kinds of fish, Ipoked at the brook trout 
and said they were rainbow trout, and the descriptive 
card was wrong. What explanation he offered when 
he came to the rainbows I did not hear), and they would 
hold the attention of the people, but the fry in the next 
tank evoked scarcely more than a glance. They were 
well distributed through the water, and were strong and 
in good condition, so that I did not discover a single 
dead one in five days. Those which had completely 
absorbed the yolk sac ".swanr up" and displayed them- 
selves to best advantage, and those which still had traces 
of the sac hung to the bottom, so that the characteristics 
of the fish at this age were plainly marked, and once in 
a while a fisherman apparently w'ould stop long enough 
to examine them, while the great majority moved on 
to bigger fish. In planting fish it is necessary to plant 
more of fry than older, such as fingerlings or yearlings, 
and this exhibit showed just what fry were, and how they 
conducted themselves. In the next tank were yearling 
trout, and the contrast was marked, though they were 
not the largest of yearlings. If the people Who receive 
trout for planting would take the trouble to plant fry 
where they should be planted, good results would be 
obtained; but too often they are turned into a stream at 
the point most convenient to reach instead of taking 
them to the very source of the stream it is desired to 
stock, and all the labor savers naturally ask for finger- 
ling fish, and it is impossible for lack of water and food 
to rear all fry to fingerlings. 
Planting Fry. 
Fry are often sent out just before the yolk sac is com- 
pletely absorbed, and sometimes an applicant objects to 
this, thinking it injurious to the fish to be sent out in 
this condition, while the reverse is true, and if it were 
possible all fry wouI4 be sent to the waters for which they 
are destined before the sac is entirely gone, as the young 
hvsh feed throj^gh the jncjuth m part before th§ sag i^ 
