June is, igoi.] 
FOREST AND STREAlvi. 
46© 
:CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
MoscalluQge Fisting, 
The muscallunge began to rise to some extent this 
week. Further catches are reported from the lakes im- 
mediately adjacent to Minocqua, Wis., Charlie Lester 
having taken several very nice fish besides those reported 
last week. A gentleman just back from Squirrel Lake 
says that no big fish had been taken there, although two 
ladies had been lucky enough to land two fish, of 17 
and 18 pounds respectively. Mayor Harrison, of Chi- 
cago, took a number of muscallunge, but none of them 
heavier than 11 pounds. 
Mr. George K. Wheelock, with his friends, Ex-Super- 
intendent of Streets Redmond, Dr. Dunham and Mr. 
McDonald, with ladies, are this week at Conover, Wis., 
and they send down word that they are having very good 
luck both with muscallunge and bass. 
A strong tip comes from an experienced muscallunge 
fisherman who is well acquainted with the Wisconsin' 
waters that about the best lake in the Manitowish chain 
to try for muscallunge is Boulder Lake. There is an- 
other little lake between Wildcat and Rice, which has no 
name, but is also a good muscallunge lake. These mat- 
ters are worth remembering. 
Good Tips for Bass. 
For tliose who wish to get good bass fishing in upper 
Wisconsin it is good counsel to keep in mind Fish Trap 
Lake and Sand Lake, both of which were at one time 
known as muscallunge waters, but which still retain their 
reputation as good waters for tilack bass. 
I offer as a good tip for someone who wants to go 
fly-fi.shing for bass, the Fox River, at Dayton, III, which, 
if I remejnher correctly, is reached by the C, B. & Q. 
this week with a complete and variegated assortment of 
trout flies. Mr. Bartlett is an enthusiastic fly-fisherman 
and he owns in New Mexico a splendid trout stream 
thirty miles in length, which crosses his big ranch ground, 
the latter embracing 175,000 acres. By the way, can some 
kiiid reader of Forest and Stream advise Mr. Bart- 
lett where he can obtain a few adult specimen of ruffed 
grouse for stocking purposes? He wants very much to 
introduce this breed in New Mexico. 
Speaking of these birds reminds me that, contrary to 
our earlier ideas on such matters, we found the ruffed 
grouse in considerable numbers along the Two Medicine 
River on the Blackfoot reservation of Montana. We 
saw also in that locality numbers of the big blue grouse, 
and also the sharp-tailed grouse, together with what we 
took to be the genuine pinnated grouse or old-time 
prairie chicken. Higher up in the mountains we also 
saw the "fool hen." The blue grouse we saw in heavy 
pine timber, and also on the high ridges of considerable 
altitude. The prairie chickens were sometimes near the 
aspen thickets and sometimes out on the open plains. 
He Wanted Jost a Do2;en. 
A man who was going trout fishing stepped into a 
sporting goods store this .morning. He had decided to 
go trout fishing on .Saturday and needed jiist a few flies, 
merely as a matter of form, to take along with him. He 
had a box full of flies at home— probably fifty dozen in 
al]_of difiFerent patterns, but his friends who had fished 
on the same stream earlier this week had written him 
that the grizzly-king and coachman divided the honors. 
The man was not sure that his grizzly-kings were all as 
good as they might be, and his coachmans were nearly 
all 8s or los, whereas number 6 was reported to be a 
betier size for the good fish in this water. As a matter 
of form, then, he decided to get about a dozen more flies, 
that when once a brand new collection of trout i^ies is 
spread before an enthusiastic fly-fisherman, the salesman 
does not even have to press the button. 
Twenty-five And. 
President Nat H. Cohen, of the Illinois Fish Com- 
mission, is like charity which begins at home. He 
fives at Urbana, and has just caused five of his fellow- 
citizens to make appearance in court on the charge of 
illegal fishing. Each man was fined $25 and costs. 
Report of State Fish Commission. 
The annual report rjf .the State Fish Commission of 
Illinois contains some very interesting reading. It takes 
up among others one question which has always been 
of the greatest interest to those who haVe undertaken 
to enforce the State game laws. In the old days we used 
to arrest a game dealer who had prairie chickens in his 
possession out of season. "True," the dealer would say, 
"I have prairie chickens, but they were killed in Dakota, 
so what are you going to do about it?" Since those 
early days there have been three or four strong State 
decisions maintaining the position that game cannot be 
held during the close season, no matter where it -was 
taken originally. The report of the Fish Commission- 
may be seen to cover practically the same ground. It 
goes on to state: 
The general impression had ground among the Commission men 
that any fish shipped from outside of the State to the Chicago 
market, whether of under size or not, could be legally handled. As 
a result that point has been hoUy contested by the Chicago fish 
dealers, and the abuse has descended of course to fish shipped m 
from all portions of our State, and it could not be accurately 
determined whether they were fish from Illinois or from States 
where it has been found consistent with the law to have perrnitted 
the sale of fish from other States. ' The ruling of the Commission 
has been backed by good legal advice that the State of Illmois 
through its Legislature had the right to say what should be legally 
railroad, the point being near -Ottawa. Mr. Elmer Wil- 
kinson, of this city, three weeks ago caught 32 small 
fnoulh bass at this point, the fish averaging 2 pounds in 
weight. 
I sugge.st as something worth looking into the water 
known as' Wawasee Lake, on the Baltimore & Ohio rail- 
road, about 100 miles east of Chicago. This lake is 
located on the divide between the Kankakee and Lake 
Michigan regions, upon the summit of the great terminal 
moraine which lies at the foot of Lake Michigan. It is 
300 feet above Lake Michigan, is nine miles long and two 
miles wide, and in places 80 feet in depth. It is said 
that this lake sometimes offers very decent bass fishing, 
and as it seems to be a new one to most Chicago anglers, 
I hope someone will try it out and report his success. 
Cisco at Lake Geneva. 
Lake Geneva, Wis., has the unique reputation of being 
the only lake hereabouts in which there is an annual run 
of Cisco. Much has been written at different times in 
the angling columns of Forest and Stream regarding 
this peculiar phenomenon of this particular water. An- 
nually, 'some time early in the month of June, there 
comes this great run of cisco feeding at the surface of 
the lake. They can then be taken in untold numbers and 
rise beautifully to the fly. Mr. L. C. Kunze, who is just 
back from Lake Geneva (by the way, with a very nice 
string of bass and, pickerel), reports that this week the 
Cisco are just beginning to jump and that in about a week 
the full run of the fish will be on. Then there may be 
seen the familiar spectacle of the surface of the lake 
dotted with boats all busily engaged at the exciting sport 
of taking these little fish. The run lasts about a week or 
ten days, ordinarily, and then the fish retire again to 
deep water, and nothing is heard of them until the fol- 
lowing spring. 
Out-Bound. 
Mr. James A. Patton and a party of several friends, all 
of Evanston, 111., leave this week for the Manitowish 
chain of Wisconsin for muscallunge. 
Thus far there have been but few parties out on the 
' famous Fifield chain of Wisconsin, but the Wisconsin 
Central line reports that quite an exodus Avill take place 
at the end of this week for Fifield and the Mason chain. 
One party of eight gentlemen, under the leadership of 
Mr. Otis, are outfitting to-day in preparation for a trip 
to Fifield. They- ought to strike the muscallunge about 
right. 
Mr. WiOr ^- Bartlett, of thi§ start? for (^glmio 
perhaps half each of grizzly-king and coachman. Really 
he would not get another fly more than that; because 
he had plenty of flies already, and what is the use of 
getting a lot of things one does not need? 
The salesman, polite and obliging, brought out upon 
the counter the long boxes containing the latest millinery 
in trout flies. "Well, perhaps I can take a dozen and a 
half in all," said the man to himself, as he tumbled among 
the brightly painted attractions. "Maybe I might as 
well make it a couple of dozen. I'll tell you what I'll 
do; I'll take a half-dozen each of the grizzly-king, coach- 
man number 8, coachman number 6 and Seth-Green. 
No, make it a dozen grizzly-king. They may come to 
that fly strong, and I may run out. 
"Now, what is this new Lady-Martha with a white 
wing, black body and red tail? Looks as if that might 
be good to have along, too. I'll take a half-dozen — no, 
make it a dozen. A half dozen one way or the other 
don't make any difference. On the whole, I think I'll 
have another half-dozen of the Seth-Greens, as these are 
tied very prettily. Yes, as you say, this new Wickham's- 
fancy is a good' fly. I'll have a half-dozen — no, make it 
a dozen. I'll bet I'll do business with that fly. What 
do we say about the Parmachenee-belle? Well, I hear all 
kinds of stories about that. Never caught a thing on that 
fly in my life, but everybody else says it's the only thing 
a fellow ought to have. Give me a dozen of those, just 
for luck. And this thing with the little red wing and 
peacock body- — what do you call that? Well, give me a 
dozen of 'em. It looks a killer or else I'm no good 
judge, I'll take three or four professors — ^I mean a dozen 
professors. They are good sometimes. And now that I 
think of it, my friend told me that last year the silver- 
doctor was the only thing worth a cent on that stream. 
I believe I will have to take a few silver-doctors along- 
Now this firefly-coachman wing has a fine red body — if 
I'm an}-^ judge of a fly that surely ought to do some 
trading with them along in the afternoon, especially if 
the light is getting a little dim. 
"Now, about leaders. Of course I've got thousands 
of them, but probably they'll break. It's best not to take 
any chances about it. I ought to have some drawn gut 
leaders, anyhow— a half dozen — no, I mean a dozen. 
Well, make it three dozen while 3^ou are at it, and give 
me the best gut in the house. Now, tie these all up. 
I've got to go to lunch, but I'll be back in about a half 
hour and we'll pick out some more." 
"I sold one gentleman sixty dozen trout flies in one 
hour yesterday," said the salesman, bland and. unrufifled, 
I5 W?ll S^quaintecJ -^Wk h«man weakness:, He know.g 
offered for sale witHin Tifer own borders. Whenever under size 
fish have been found in the possession of the dealer, when not 
oflfered for sale, they were confiscated and turned over to the 
Chicago charitable institutions. This met with some opposition at 
first, but we are pleased to say that the better classes of dealers 
in Chicago have become convinced of the correctness of the 
opposition, and as a rule now refuse to receive consignments of 
fish smaller than allowed by law, and if such consignments are 
received and found to be mixed with larger fish and not detected 
until after receipt, were voltmtarily turned over to our wardens 
for disposition named. While all parts of the State were well sup- 
plied with shipments of fish from various markets, they are, many 
of them, too small to be legally offered for sale, and it has required 
a great deal of time and patience to enforce the law in these 
instances and yet not work hardships. Our wardens have been 
instructed, when such fish are found in the possession of dealers, 
to notify them that they are too small, obtain the name of the 
shipper and notify him also of the infraction of the law. This for 
the first offense. If the offense is repeated, then in every instance 
to prosecute. Fish smaller than those avithorized by law that 
can be offered for sale are not wanted in the markets; they are 
not in any sense desirable, and are known among fishermen as 
trash. The dealers themselves admit that there is no profit in 
handling them. The last session of the Legislature enacted laws 
compelling shippers to label their barrels or boxes, such label 
expressing kind of fish, from whom and to whom. This has 
given us an opportunity of tracing al ways I he shipper of small 
fish. The clause mentioned makes both the shipper and transporta- 
tion company liable, 
The State Commission seems to fee! itself put upon the 
defensive, and no doubt it has felt some criticism of its 
work as viewed from the standpoint of the sportsman. 
The following paragraph shows the position of the 
Commission: 
A great hue and cry is raised ahout the immense damage the 
seine does on the Illinois River. I think that we can safely assert 
that more harm is wrought by the injudicious use of hook and 
line in the river itself than by the seine. Wc have given this 
matter especial attention, and note that more fish of less than 
prescribed market size are brought in and oft'ered for sale by the 
anglers than by the fishermen who use seines of proper mesh. 
We have, at various times, seen hundreds of small bass and 
crappie taken by an angler in a day's fishing near the dams, and 
many of them were thrown away as too small to use, or after being 
kept on a string all daj; they were either dead or injured to such 
an extent as to make it useless to put them back ir^ the water. 
There is no limit tc the size of fish that can be taken" with Jiook 
and line, but there should be. _ 
The Fish Comm.issioners conceive it to be their duty to under- 
take to protect the fish for the angler, but not for him alone, and 
do not believe it to be incumbent on them to destroy a great 
industry to gratify personal plea^sure. 
The time will come in this State, as it has already ui older 
countries, when the waters will have to produce their full share 
of food, as a matter of public economy, and there will always be, 
as now. a necessity for the use of some means of taking the fish 
when of sufiicience size for use, and to do it we know of no other 
appliance better than the seine, but that of course to be used under 
proper restraint. 
We are informed that another eiffort will he made during the 
next session of the Legislature to enact a law to prevent the use 
of the seine. The matter sliould be very* carefully considered and 
(he fgcjlll t]iproughly ganvas3e4 liefor^ legislation is eii^^t^^^ ^ip^ 
