June 22, 1901.] 
with pickerel. By-laws were enacted for the protection 
of the same, and they were permitted to grow and multi- 
ply for several years. Then a fisliing company was organ- 
ized, and a large seine was purchased. Certain days in 
tach year were set apart as fishing days. Then the seine 
would he manipulated, the results divided among the 
fishers in the ratio of individual subscriptions. Thus, for 
some years, Middleburians had their sport, though I have 
been told by some who participated that other than fishing 
it would have been considered very hard work, and also 
had all the fish they could consmne at stated seasons. 
After a time rock bass were added to the supply, and 
then some one introduced a quantity of young perch and 
roach. Attempts to stock the lake with trout were frus- 
trated by the pike, who seemed to regard them as per- 
sonal perquisites, Bullheads and eels were indigenous to 
the lake. 
But the people wearied of seine fishing, and, one after 
another, they dropped out of the company, until finally 
there could not be found a force sufficient to operate the 
seine on fishing days, and the custom was abandoned. 
Meantime the various kinds of fish multiplied and in- 
creased in size, until marvelous tales were told by resi- 
dents of the vicinity of huge bass and pickerel as 'long 
as a boy," seen sporting in the waters in the summer twi- 
light. These tales found their way to Waterbury, Hart- 
ford, Danbury and New Haven, and it was not long until 
the farmer boys were asked almost daily the road to Quas- 
sapaug; residents of the lake region told their neighbors 
at the "horsc-shed class" on Sunday about the great 
strings of bass and pickerel that "two men in a livery 
rig" had taken from the pond. . 
A better fellow or truer sportsman than Milo Wilson 
never lured a 5-pound pickerel to its doom at the end of 
60 yards of grass line. He entered into the sport of 
fishing with a childHke enthusiasm that made a body 
happy to see him. To him I owe the knowledge that an 
Aberdeen hook discounts every other make for each and 
all sorts of fishing. He was not an erudite nor man of 
tlic finest social polish, but he would beat any man that 
ever came up the pike for catcliing fish. Nor was he 
above imparting this lore to his friends. Milo lived in 
Morrisania. and it was my knowdedgc of his desirable 
characteristics that led mc to his house one warm and 
sultry July evening. After a supper, such as Aunt Jane, 
liis estimable helpmate, only could prepare, augmented 
by relishes of his own raising in Iiis own little garden, 
scarce the size of a dining-room table, T. l)roached the sub- 
ject of a trip to Quassapaug and a day in the haunts of 
the pickerel and bass. Milo's face beamed like the harvest 
moon, and happiness seenied to percolate his whole being 
and enwrap him as a vesture. .Arrangements were quickly 
iiiade on the ba;sis of transportation on my part over 
against iackle and loi^agc on his part, not forgetting his 
ex-perience. 
With a fishmg irip in view, Milo's whole being was 
permeated with- the consideration of ways and means in- 
c'deut thereto, and it was not till after midnight that he 
had the requisite paiaphernaliu for two assembled and 
put in trim, and would consent to take notice of either in- 
WMTogalories or suggestions that had not fish in their con- 
ception. It takes about six hours to reach Wallace's boat 
house from the (JrMiid Central Station, allowing two hours 
for lunch in Waterbury and the six-mile drive over the 
Middlebury hills. We reached Quassapaug in the night 
and had a good,, long nap, though it seemed as if I had 
been asleep about five minutes when Milo's fingei" be- 
tween my ribs brought me face to face with life's realities. 
"Did you come up here to sleep or to fish?" queried Milo, 
who, I was surpr'sed to find, had everything in readiness 
for a start to the fishing grounds. He stoutly tnaintained 
that he had had a nap, but if so he must have done a 
powerful amount of work in his sleep, and I told him so, 
eliciting a self-complacent smile. 
It was 3 'A. M. when we had finally shipped our tackle 
and pushed oJT from the steamboat wharf. A heavy fog- 
bank rested on the water; when we sat at the oars we 
seemed immersed in, a dense cloud of smoke, and were 
obliged to shape our course instinctivelj'. By standing on 
(he anchor rest in the bow. one's head was above the 
opaqueness of the vapor, and the landmarks were dimly 
visible. So I allowed Milo the privilege (?) of rowing 
while T acted as pilot and sang out orders, "Port oar! 
Sta'board !" etc., until we finally reached the otiter fringe 
of lilypads skirting the entrance to a strip of shallow 
water, caused by an overflow, when the lake outlet was 
danuncd some years ago. I made ready to cast a spoon 
into, the lilies aiid do a bit of skittering, when Milo sug- 
gested that we act on a plan which he had formulated on 
the road to the lake. Knowing froni past experiences that 
it was always safe to take council from Milo in matters 
l<i.scalorial, I quit my preliminaries and awaited develop- 
ments. Milo unreeled a half-dozen hundred-yard lines, 
which he fa.stened at intervals to the boat's gunwale 
nearest the hlies. To each he attached an Aberdeen hook 
with gut snell, slipped a cork half-split upon each fine 4 
feet from the snell and proceeded to bait with minnows, of - 
which we had ten dozen alive in our bait can. He had 
barely tossed the first line off and turned to bait another 
when' in the faint light I saw the cork disappear. _ My 
first thought was that the Hve bait had proved sufficiently 
-strong to overcome the float. But Milo, whose eye was 
also on the line, thought otherwise, for he quit his baiting 
operations and gave it his sole attention. The line ran out 
to almost its full length, and was getting dangerously 
near the lily thicket, when Milo arrested its progress. In- 
stantly the' slack was absorbed with a jerk and the line 
whizzed through the w^ater as the fish (or whatever had 
hold of it) inscribed a lateral parabola. 
"Jiniminy Crickets, but he's a buster!" with which lucid 
observation Milo proceeded to manipulate the unknown 
and pre\'ent the line from fouling the anchor ropes. After 
five minutes' play, which in point of fact was hard work, 
Milo succeeded in landing a 6-ppund pickerel without the 
use of net or gaff. 
Meantime, in the intervals of watching Milo's sport, I 
had baited a second hook, gotten it overboard and, while 
he was disengaging his fish. I had my hands full with fish 
No. 2. With a little assistance — not of my own seeking — 
T succeeded in landing it. It was little more than half the 
size of the initial catch, but it made up in gaminess what 
was lacking in weight. 
For the next half-hour it was a nice problem to bait a 
hook and get it into the water in the intervals allowed us 
hy the pickerel, which seemed betil on getting caught. It 
FOREST AND STREAiVi. 
was not URUsual to have three fish on hook simultaneously, 
and we were compelled to ignore all preconceived notions 
in the matter of landing them. Ignoring both gaff and 
landing net, the moment a cork disappeared we simply 
exercised brute force and pttlled in hand over hand, and, 
strange to say, in a catch of 160 fish, several better than 
4 pounds in weight, we did not lose a dozen. 
Just before sunrise Milo made the depressing discovery 
that our live bait had been used up. We rowed in toward 
a rocky shore, adjusted some roach hooks, and, with 
worms for bait, caught a quantity of shiners. By careful 
handling and slipping them at once into the water bucket 
we managed to secure some dozens of a rather large bait. 
The last shiner I caught was firmly hooked, and as Milo 
had the anchor up I did not stop to take it off, but allowed 
it to drag over the edge of the boat as we rowed back to 
our former fishing grounds. Suddenly the end of the 
pole flew up, barely missing my nose, and shot overboard. 
Supposing it had caught a lilypad or snag, great was my 
surprise to see the pole shooting along the surface, ma- 
king an occasional dive. Milo backed water and we rowed 
in pursuit. Reaching over the gunwale, I caught the 
pole and with not so much as a shadow of ceremony 
swung into the boat one of the biggest rock bass I ever 
saw. < 
But now the sun shone with fierce heat, we were sated 
with fish, and, after landing a couple more pickerel, we 
rowed for the landing, Eviscerating a dozen of the larger 
pickerel and the bass, which I claimed as especially my 
own, we gave the remainder to some other fishermen and 
turned our faces homeward, well pleased with Lake Quas- 
sapaug as a fishing proposition. 
Samuel Mansfield Stone. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST* 
Bass and 'Luage. 
Chicago, 111., June 15. — The bass fishers .of Chicago are 
threatened with a frog famine to-day. Owing to some un- 
foreseen and unknown cause, the natural Indiana output 
of these speckled beauties is a shade shy this morning, and 
the tackle stores are filled with crowds of irate anglers 
who will probably be forced to depart for their customary 
fishing grounds this afternoon without the well filled frog 
ba.sket which makes a part of the Chicago bass fisher- 
man's outfit. 
Among those who leave this afternoon or evening for 
the lakes of ttpper Illinois are Mr. I. B. Belasco, his 
friend Mr. Ainsworth, Mr. Charles Lawrence, Mr. H. 
Miner, Mr. William Dubois, Mr. Charles 01k, Mr. L. 
Lowe. Dr. Friend and Mr. Alex Friend. Mr. Garrett 
takes a party of friends up to Billy Tuohy's place on 
Eagle Lake this afternoon. 
Thus far no very extraordinary fishing has turned 
up among our bass lakes. The average catch for the good 
bait-caster has not been more than six or eight bass for a 
morning's and evening's fishing. The intense heat of this 
week, followed by heavy rains, may have changed the 
fishing conditions, and perhaps we shall hear of better 
sport, although the season is now growing late fox the 
best of the fun at bait-casting for bass. ' - 
Elmer Wilkinson was at Dayton, 111., last week and 
caught eight small-mouth bass and a few pike in the Fox 
River at that point. 
The George Wheclock party, which has been located 
about eight miles from Conover, Wis., for the past ten 
days, is having good sport with bass and muscal lunge. 
Mr. Wheelock has sent down to some friends in the city 
one muscallunge weighing 22 pounds, _ which is the larg- 
est 'lunge of which I have any authentic word this spring. 
Spring Ron of White Bass. 
1 was speaking recently of the run of cisco at Lake 
Geneva, Wis., which takes place every year early in the 
month of June, attention being called to the fact that the 
Cisco run was at that time just beginning. There is an- 
other piscatorial pilgrimage which ought to be included 
in these Western spring fixtures, although I have never 
seen it mentioned in the columns of any sporting paper. 
This is the great run of white bass in the Wolf River of 
Wisconsin, a matter wdiich is entitled to con.siderable 
notice from the standpoint of the angler and the naturaUst. 
At this writing the run for this year is just over, or, 
perhaps more accurately stated, the fish are _ returning 
down the Wolf River after having made their journey to 
its head waters. 
These white bass breed in great tiumbers in Lake Michi-' 
gan, and these runs into the streams on both sides of 
Lake Michigan are not' uncommon at different points. 
At St. Joseph ihcy sometimes go into the mouth of the 
river, and ~a.t Grand Haven these big schools are also 
occasionally chronicled. The white bass of the Wolf River 
breed either In Lake Michigan or in Lake Winnebago, 
probably in the latter sheet of water, although they may 
come up in Winnebago from Lake Michigan. They arc 
the source of considerable profit to the net fishermen, who 
are so keen in their pursuit that they make abundant 
trouble for the authorities of the P'ish Commission, who 
have done all they could to restrict the injurious and 
destructive fishing for this and other fishes of Lake 
Winnebago. Each j^ear, usually about the first week in 
June, these white bass seem to congregate in one great 
bod}' at the mouth of the Wolf River, and they pass up 
above the Butte des Morts country and ascend the Wolf 
River in one enormous school. The surface of the water 
is at times broken into a myriad of ripples, the fish swim- 
ming close to the surface, in. the same manner as may 
be sometimes noticed in schools of small black bass or 
schools of croppies, or, less frequently, schools of yellow 
perch. At such times the river is absolutely alive with 
these fish. The school has been known to cover the river 
for a length of nearly twenty miles, and at any point 
within that distance one may at such times take all the 
white bass he wishes. It may be supposed that the resi- 
dents of that country hail the arrival of the white bass 
run with joy, and while the schools are passing the river 
is dotted with boats, all busy in taking the bass. At such 
times they take the artificial fly with perfect readiness 
and offer very considerable sport. The native fishermen 
usually use small minnows or piece of minnows. The 
catch is limited practically only by the patience of the 
fisher, and too or more is not an unusual take. 
These white bass should not be confused with the crop- 
489. 
pie 01: strawberry bass, which is sometimes called locally 
the silver bass or the white bass. It is in weight rarely 
over a pound and a half, and about one pound is about 
the average weight of the fish during the spring run. It 
is a gamy little fellow and very fine upon the table. I 
should classify this run, that of the cisco of L.'ike Geneva 
and that of the mooneyes, or moon-eyed shad in the river 
at Neenah, Wis., as being the three great spring pil- 
grimages among the Western fishes^ 
Tfoot. 
Some of these facts regarding the run of white bass 
were gathered the other day while in company with Mr. 
Graham H. Harris, President of the School Board, I was 
journeying with Mr. John D. McLeod, of Milwaukee, for 
a day or so on that beautiful little trout preserve of 
which I have often spoken so enthusiastically. This 
stream — the Pine River, about eighteen miles from Wau- 
paca— is controlled by Mr. B. K. Miller and Mr. McLeod, 
of Milwaukee, and is no doubt the best private trout 
water in the- State. Mr. Harris, who is an enthusiastic 
fly-fisherman, was anxious to see this stream, and Mr. 
McLeod promised him very confidently that he would 
see some good .sport. Up to that time the spring had been 
rather backward, and although some very nice takes of 
trout had been made, the fishing had been pecttliarly 
erratic. It was supposed that the spell of warm weather 
would put the trout on the feed in good shade, aiid that 
we would have the cream of the season's fishing. Con- 
trary to our expectations, however, a cold northeast wind 
continued to blow, and whether there is anything in the 
proverb about an east wind or not, we certainly had 
nothing like the trout fishing which we had a right to 
expect. From a dozen to two dozen small trout daily 
was all one rod could prodtice, and this only after the 
steadiest and most patient work at casting all day long. 
This is a fly-fishing game which these Milwaukee gentle- 
men put up and the tyro in the art of fly-casting need not 
expect to take any trout on this stream, Avhich is deep and 
clear as glass, and can be fished only from the bank. Mr. 
ITarris, who uses split bamboo rods of his own make, and 
who is a skillful fly-caster and the wielder of a very long 
line, found that the fish were timid to the last degree. 
This was not the reason for poor baskets, for the fact 
was that no good fish were rising, and only an occasional 
little fellow would turn over at some passing insect. As- 
usual, Mr. McLeod took the best basket of fish on the 
fly. He did not fish so steadily as Mr. Harris and my- 
self, being disgusted with his beauties because they would 
not do as he liked. Yet he took three nice trout in 
the morning, and in the afternoon, in the course of a few- 
moments on an utterly impossible reach of open, shallow 
water just back of the cltib house succeeded in killing 
ten handsoine trout on the fly. In order to take home a 
few trout, Mr. McLcod and I resorted to the use of cut 
bait for a little while in the afternoon, and I am ashamed 
to confess that I took over a dozen handsome trout in 
this way, whose weight exceeded all that I had killed on 
the fly. 
Mr. McLeod and the club guardian, William Wood, arc 
anxious to kill down some of these larger trout, as they 
think this improves the fly-fishing, so once in a while 
they take out some of the larger ones in the only way in 
which they can be killed — by bait-fishing. William Wood 
is still studying over the problem of keeping his trout on 
the club presein^es. As it is, this private hatchery is 
feeding about ten miles of open water above the preserves. 
One of these days Mr. Miller and Mr. McLeod will take 
up seriously the matter of fencing in their trout, and if 
they do begin it they are apt to complete the matter in a 
thorough and satisfactory manner. 
I presume one reason the trout were not rising better lay 
in the fact that they were full of this same larvje which 
William Wood called "stick bait." The stomachs of these 
trout were full of these black bits. Yet Mr. McLeod 
tells me that later in the summer and at times when the 
trout are rising most eagerly to the fly they find theit 
stomachs distended with this same sort of food, of which 
this stream has the greatest abundance, apparently at 
nearly every season of the year. 
Mr. Harris says that he has never seen a stream which 
held so large an amount of fishing water as this stream' 
in which we were fishing. Indeed, there is hardly a foot 
of it which ought not tO' be fished by the fly-fisherman. 
In many of the wild streams of Wisconsin the banks are 
hai d or rocky, so that as one goes down stream he sees- 
practically all the fish which the waters hold. Now on the 
Pine the banks are of turf and the stream undei^cuts them,_ 
leaving great caverns of an unknown extent under' Hte 
overhanging banks. It is here that the trout lie, and' if!, 
one stand on the bank he will very often pull out ;i whole 
school of them, some lust^' ones, which he would never 
have dreamed lived in such a water. The stream aver 
ages only from 20 to 30 feet in width, although there arc 
some wide and very deep holes running perhaps fi or M 
feet in water. Mr. McLeod was much disappointed tluil 
he could not show his guests any better sport, yet he lias- 
no reason in the world for feeling that way. We surely 
had fi.sh enough to eat, and we surely had the privilege of- 
catching trout if wc could, and they were stirely there to 
catch, as we could see at any minute of the day. 
By the way, there has been a little addition built to the 
lodge which Mr. Miller has on the Pine, and the littic 
cottage is now one of the most artistic woods dwellings 
which it has ever been my forttine to see. It is all made- 
of tamarack logs, and the railings of the balcony, the grille 
w^ork for the screens inside, the hat racks, tables, picture' 
frames, and indeed everything else about the place, are 
made from the native woods which grow about. A very 
handsome support for the big oak table is made out of a 
single stump, its spreading roots being nailed fast to the 
floor. Mr. McLeod is developing new artistic tastes in 
decoration every year. This spring he manufactured a 
couple of portieres out of burlap, on which he has dis- 
played his ability as an Indian artist, using the crude 
colors and the figures which one may see on the Indian 
robes. The effect is bizarre and very fetching. 
Mayor Harrison and Mr. Hempstead Washburne were to 
have fished the Pine this week with Mr. McLeod, but 
unfortunately were unable to get away. Mr. Washburne 
leaves at the close of this week for the Huron Mountain 
Club, of Michigan, where he is accompanied by his family. 
The reports regarding trout fishing this spring seem to 
show it as rather patchy, or rather tnore patchy than 
