May II, igoi.] 
FOHest and stream. 
369 
The Rod and the Pole. 
Ocular corroboration of oft repeated statements of 
the natives of that region was afforded me on a bright 
May day. 
"Ther's trouts in thet 'ere brook, ef ye know whar to 
fin' 'em," was what I had been told by the farmer lads 
in the vicinity. 
The brook, a typical New England stream, skirted 
what is known as "The Old Plain." occupying the bound- 
ary between the townships of Middlebury and Oxford, 
Conn. Tradition had it that the Pomperaug and 
Wangaum Indians utilized this as their burying ground 
in pre-Pilgrim days; the spade Of the ditch and well dig- 
ger bore out the legend in the curious primitive fiirtt 
arrowheads, hatchets and other articles usually buried 
with the dead brave for use in the hunting grounds be- 
yond the big divide, that they often brought to light. 
Emerging from the dark fastnesses of the "Derry 
Woods," the stream leaped into the sun-lit meadows with 
rippling songs of gladness. There were places in the 
rocky pasture where one could step across it without ef- 
fort, and here the waters were deep and dark, cutting 
broad sluices underneath the banks, ideal lurking places 
for the wary trout. But though I had often inspected 
these places with critical eye, naught but shiners, with 
an occasional sucker, rewarded my search. 
On the day in question, however, I was walking 
through a meadov/, where the brook fretted and com- 
plained over the pebbles of a broad shallow. A loud 
splashing arrested my attention and, lokking toward 
the stream, I discovered the cause of the commotion in 
the presence of as fine a fourteen-ounce trout as ever 
tickled the visual nerves of an enthusiatic fisherman. The 
big fellow was making a sort of semi-portage over the 
shallows: every few seconds he would reach a point 
where the depth o'f water was insufficient to maintain 
his verticality and he would flounder and flop, sending 
showers of spray high into the air for the sun to weave 
rainbows with. Though enough of a sportsman to re- 
frain from taking a mean advantage of the fish, I must 
confess to a strong temptation to have a bit of fun with 
him. 
During the late season of protracted aquaousness, 
when Jupiter Pluvius seemed to have mislaid his rain-' 
stopper, I had oft-recurring visions of that embarrassed 
trout in the sunny Yankee meadow brook; finally they 
Ijecame irresistible and I yielded. One morning when 
the milkmen were monopolizing city traffic a rubber 
clad mortal might have been, seen to take an elevated 
train at Eighty- first street and Columbus avenue, ham- 
pered with a fishing kit. That was I. At I55th street 
I took a train on the Northern Railway for Brewster, 
where by the skin of m.y teeth and a forty-rod run I man- 
aged to get hold of the hand-rail of the last car of a train 
on the New England Division of the Consolidated Road. 
The ride of seventy-five miles, getting a "rig" at Oat- 
man's livery at Southford and a four-mile ride in the 
rain over roads heaved by frost with frequent sloughs 
and hummocks, was all quite strenuous but uninter- 
esting. 
Once more I stand by the brookside in the "Old 
Plain" meadow and I realize the effect of varying condi- 
tions. The picture engraved upon the tablets of inner 
consciousness and the one which I now behold are as 
dissimilar as night and da}^. In place of a grassy, flow- 
ery mead, bordered by the limpid waters of a tnerrily 
singing streamlet, glistening in the soft warm • light of 
a May-day sun. is a brown, soggy, cheerless field, 
through which roars a chocolate colored torrent that 
escapes its bounds at the base of the field, spreading out 
into a broad, muddy pond, a background of leaden 
cloud and the ever present drenching rain. 
It is depressing to the last degree, but I speedily corne 
to my senses and, remembering that I am not out in 
quest of nature's beauties (speckled ones instead), un- 
limber rod and line, adjust an imitation fly, whose colors 
rival nature's most extravagant efforts, and make a 
cast. For a half hour I devote myself wi.h most con- 
scientious assiduity but unavalingly to the sport (?). I 
substitute a beetle for tlic fly and am in the act of dis- 
carding bcth in favor of an embryo frog, when I chance 
to glance up stream. I am confronted by a spectacle 
that, while most interesting, is confoundedly exasperat- 
ing. A scion of indigenous habitat, aged about twelve 
years; he stands in rubber boots whose tops threaten 
to bisect him: a coat evidently a relic of a remo'e ances- 
tor and a slouch hat. This is the boy. An alder pole, 
short, knotty and crooked, with two yards of common 
twine tied at the smaller end. This the outfit. A forked 
willow Slick with upward of a dozen of the finest trout I 
have ever seen. This is his "luck" and my aggravation. 
Even while indulging my astonishment I was further 
tantalized by seeing another fine trout of a pound weight 
come thrashing out of the muddy torrent at the end of 
that homely tackle. 
"Hello!" I ventured. 
"HeUo yeou!" was the response. 
"You've had fine luck." 
"Nuthin extry: jest cum eout," and with this he 
landed another magnificent fish. 
"What yeou got?" he queried as he removed the trout. 
For the sake of appearances I was momentarily glad 
that a well-filled lunch box gave my fish bag a corpulent 
aspect: but it ser\'ed no purpose, however, for, without 
waiting for an answer, the boy walked up and demanded 
a view of results. I could conjure up no valid reason 
for refusing his demand and was compelled to admit the 
truth. 
"Whachye bait with, them things?" as he caught sight 
of a fly and bug hanging to my bag buttin. "Huh! 
"Taint no wonder't yeou don't ketch nuthin; theyn't 
no flies ner bugs 'raoun' this time o' year," and with a 
look of mingled pity and disgust he turned to his fishing. 
[ ventured to inquire what sort of bait he employed 
and received the laconic reply, "Wums." 
Following a few more ineffectual casts, during which 
time my companion landed several handsome fish, I cast 
my self-confidence to the winds (and rain), swallowed 
my pride and humbly asked the youngster if he would 
sell me a few "wums." He spurned the cash but gener- 
ously offered to share his supply of bait, a portion of 
which I accepted. 
Looking up after some minutes' futile fishing, I found 
my boy regarding me with an expression in which dis- 
gust and sympathy seemed struggling for a mastery. 
"What is it?" T asked. 
Shak-.ng his head in a deprecating manner the boy 
walked close up to me and looked at me quizzically for 
a few seconds, then this: "Does things float up-stream? 
Gosh ter mity I I never seen sech er fule." 
I asked him to explain, both nettled and amused by 
his strictures on my intelligence. 
"Yeou was fishin' up stream, wa'nt ye?" 
I admitied that such was the case. 
"Wal, yeou was hitchin' yer hair flies an' leather bugs 
THE BAREFOOT BOY. 
Courtesy of Wm. Mills & Son. 
an' then ther wum all on 'em right up stream agin the 
water, wa'nt yeou?" 
Again I w^as forced to admit the correctness of his 
deductions, and ventured to demand what of it. 
"What on't! Wal, if yeou aint the alfii-edest t'ick- 
skull I ever seen then I'll, give up. Trouts knows a 
whole lot, trouts does, a dum sight more'n sum folks 
(giving me a significant look), an' when a trout sees a 
fly er a wum a-comin' up stream he gits leary an' 
wouldn't tech 'em in a month er Sundays. Theys got 
some sense, '.routs hez." 
During the recital of this homely proposition upon 
gravity, a great light dawned upon me. Of course it was 
MORE OF THE SORT. 
Courtesy of Wm. Mills & Son. 
contrary to the natural order of things for a fly, worm 
or other seductive fish tid-bit to swim against the cur- 
rent of a stream, and I had wholly ignored this fact while 
wondering why the trout did not respond to my over- 
tures. 
"Jest flip yer hook out back o' thet bog an' foller it 
along down," advised my instructor. 
Humbly I followed instructions, and ere the hook had 
floated ten feet down the current there was a swish, a 
tug at the line and the next instant I landed a splendid, 
fifteen-ouce trout. That was the beginning of a fine run 
of luck, no less than eleven following my initial catch 
in quick succession, Samuel Mansfied Stone. 
Nets Are Nuisances. 
Sauk Centre, Minn., April 23.— While out looking for 
coon sign on a fresh snow one day early this spring I 
wandered off about six miles from home and came to the 
outlet of Long Lake into Lily Lake, a ver^^ slow current 
six feet deep. There I saw a string of lilypads that 
reached straight across the run. They proved to be the 
floats of a gill net. I gave it a "jank" (it was a Nor- 
wegian net), and the answer came back that it was loaded. 
How to get it out was the next thing. The cord was 
tied to a willow on the other side, a distance of 40 feet. 
I had a gun with me. The first shot cut the cord and 
tore that willow right out by the roots. Then I pulled 
the net out. And such a mess. They were twisted in all 
shapes; I didn't stop to untwist them either. I would 
take one by the middle, then with my knife I would 
start at his head and slit the twine to his tail, then roll 
him back into the water. There were nine pickerel and 
twelve pike, all alive but three, and some nice ones, too. 
After getting them out I doubled the net up in 4-foot 
loops, then cut each loop and pitched the whole thing out 
into the middle. I then went back into the woods, sat 
down and waited two hours. No one came. I took two 
fish (thought I was entitled to them) and went home. 
The next day I went back; the net had been pulled out on 
shore, but no one in sight v. 
New England Waters. 
Boston, May 4. — ^The Rangsleys are clear, Moosehead 
was clear Thursday, morning, May 2, nine days earlier 
than last year. In the forenoon Capt. F. C. Barker tele- 
graphed that the ice was breaking up and would be out of 
Mooselucmaguntic before night. This clearing was ten 
days earlier than last year. Richardson Lake was clear a 
day or two before, and Rangeley ^ake has since cleared. 
This opens the season at the Rangeleys and Moosehead. 
and many fishermen have already gone to these resorts. I 
Great catches are expected, though much will depend upon 
the weather, especially since the titjie is so early. 
A number of Boston lovers of the angle have gone to 
Lake Cobbosseecontee, in Maine. T. Ralph Parrs and 
wife, A. W. Wheeler and wife, of Arlington, and John 
Robinson and wife, of Hallo well, are at that lake on a 
fishing trip, Some catches are reported, including sev- 
eral salmon, to Lewiston, Auburn and Augusta fishermen 
But there comes a good deal of complaint about "too many 
smelt," and that the trout and salmon decline to bite, be- 
cause too well fed with smelt. Indeed, every fish caught 
seems to be gorged with these little smelt. Now the 
same is- true of the early fishing at the Rangeleys, at 
Sebago and at all the lakes that arc stocked with smelt, 
for salmon food. Still Cobbosseecontee sportsmen are 
objecting to the smelt, and suggest that the law protect- 
ing smelt at spawning time be repealed, in order that the 
supply be diminished, and hence the anglers be able to 
take trout at. every turn. 
Good reports are coming from Clearwater Pond, Farm- 
ington. Me. There is a Boston party there consisting of 
Dr. Heber Bishop, W. S. Hinman, C. F. Perry, Fred E. 
Whiting, J. M. Grovner, Jr., and G. F. Andrews. Mr. 
Llinman had the good fortune to take the first fish of any 
size for the season at those waters — a trout of 5^ pounds. 
Mr. Whiting has caught a salmon weighing 5 pounds. 
Both fish are good ones for that lake, and especially so 
when it is remembered that .salmon have been in there 
but a few years. 
Stream fishing has not yet been very satisfactory in 
Maine. Reports all mention streams full to overflowing, 
the result of the continued rains. A few days of dry 
weather will certainly be followed with good results. 
High water is always favorable to good catches of trout in 
New England streams, but the angler must wait till the 
water begins to fall. A Bennington, Vt., report says that 
the legal open season on trout began there May i, and 
though the streams are still very high the fishermen are 
looking for good catches as soon as the water begins to 
fall. Reports exactly the same come from the New 
Hampshire streams. Richard O. Harding and C. F Dan- 
forth are looking toward Dan Hole Pond, N. H., for 
salmon fishing. They will be off as soon as business per- 
mits. It will be remembered that Mr. Danforth took a 
salmon there last year that weighed over 14 pounds. He 
and Harding are satisfied that there are more of the same 
sort there. Doubtless Fish and Game Commissioner Nat 
Wentworth will fish there with them. Fishing is still slow 
at Lake Auburn, Me., for which cold weather and con- 
tinued rains are supposed to be to blame. 
BosTQN, May 6.— The New England fishing season 
has certainly started with unusual interest, it we are to 
beHeve the newspaper reports. These reports are numer- 
ous and long-drawn-out, and bristle with adjectives con- 
cerning what is going to be done in the wav of catches, 
or what was done last year. A large number of sports- 
men have gone to the hundred and one resorts north and 
east of the Hub, but not many catches are yet reported. 
The fact is that the season is yet very early, the water 
is high, and most of the Maine and New Hampshire lakes 
and ponds are alive with smelt. These smelt have just 
returned from spawning, up the brooks and inlets, and a 
great many of them are dead and dying. The trout and 
salmon only have to float under them, as they rise to 
the surface, to gorge themselves to overflowing. A fish- 
erman writes of a small salmon he finally succeeded in 
getting at Sebago Wednesday. He shook more than 
twenty little smelt out of the salmon's mouth and throat. 
The angler says that it is a wonder the fish bite at all. 
but he was tempted to "fight a Rangelev spinner." 
Catches have been slim at Sebago for several' days. 
A Wolfsboro, New Hampshire, special says that there 
has been great fiishing at that point of late. A salmon 
weighing eight pounds was taken right off the Hobb-is- 
Inn wharf on Tuesday. The fish was photographed and 
sent to Boston, where it is shown in the window of a 
railway office. At the same point twenty-seven pounds 
of trout and salmon were taken by a fisherman in one 
and a half hours. The largest fish weighed ten and one- 
half pounds. A Boston sportsman is also having great 
luck at the same place. Lake Winnipisaukee has been 
fairly alive with fishermen at Alton Bay and Lake Shore 
Park, and hundreds of pounds of trout and salmon are 
reported taken. Of course the lakers predominate, but 
landlocked salmon are showing up well. At Laconia 
Capt. T. R. Tarrant, Richard McGee and L. P. Bennett, 
of Boston, have made a string of twenty-five pounds of 
trout and salmon in only a few hours' fishing. A Weirs 
dispatch says that the trout and salmon season there is 
surpassing all previous records. Good reports are com- 
ing from Newfound Lake. Fish Commissioner Nat. 
Wentworth and Frank L. Hughes, who have been attend- 
ing to the restocking and hatching works at Bristol, have 
also landed several good trout and salmon with the rod 
and reel They have over 1,700,000 fry in the tanks, to 
be distributed in Newfound and adjacent waters as soon 
as sufficiently grown. C. W. Cplburn, J. C. Stott and 
Frank L. Fames are some of the Massachusetts sports- 
men who have been having fair luck at Newfound At 
the head of the lake H. H. Clark, C. C. Cushman. H. E. 
Buckmmster, and Samuel Wax, Boston: Mr. and Mrs. 
T. J_ McDonald, Lowell: F. H. Bayard, Maplewood: A. 
L. Dame, Methuen; J. D. Morehouse, Lawrence, have 
been fiishmg for several days. They write of fierce winds 
and cold weather, but of fish biting well when it is possi- 
ble to be out. 
At the Big Bangor, Me., salmon pool the fishermen 
have been having better sport of late. A report of Sat- 
urday says that over twenty fish have been taken for the 
week,_ weighing from seventeen to twenty-seven pounds 
The ice is out of Sebec Lake. Me., and Scoodic. though 
a little late, compared with the clearing of other Maine 
waters. Great fishing is expected there. Reports from 
Grand Lake mention cold weather and high winds, con- 
