6 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
\Jvhv6, igOT. 
to proove better than the first operations had indicated, 
for neither of us had a single strike in all that time. We 
had covered all the best ground in the lake proper, and 
the question arose as to whether we should run down 
the outlet and fish the river or go through a cut, just 
large enough to permit the passage of a boat, into Clear 
Pond, a little gem of a lake lying west of Rainbow and 
separated from it by a strip of land only 15 or 20 feet 
wide, through which the cut had been made. The de- 
cision finally reached was in favor of Clear Pond, and I 
do not believe that any one of us has ever regretted it, 
As soon as the boat cleared the ditch our lines were run 
out and my minnow, hitherto undisturbed, had gotten 
hardly ten yards from the boat when he was struck 
viciously and the light rod I was using had about all the 
strain it could stand for the next five minutes, and when 
it was finally allowed to straighten out, Frank had a 
3j^_-pound beauty in the landing net, and I could not 
resist fhe inclination tp remark, with a side glance at 
Avery, that it did seem to be rather a poor day. A 
fresh minnow was hooked on, lines run out and we were 
soon at work again,' and during the next hour Avery 
landed two and I had two strikes and failed to hook 
either of them. 
By this time it was past noon, and in spite of the 
breakfast we had stowed away at seven, thoughts of lunch 
began to manifest themselves, and we put ashore under 
sonie large pines, discussed the contents of the hamper 
which had been prepared for us, and then threw ourselves 
down on the soft pine needles, and for an hour enjoyed 
an idleness which only like conditions and surroundings 
make possible. But the possibilities contained in the clear 
waters of the lake spread so temptingly before us called 
us back to action, and our traps were soon snugged away, 
the boat again on the water and every nerve, a few min- 
utes before so perfectly relaxed, now on the alert for a 
Strike. The next hour brought three fine fish into the 
boat, one coming to Avery and two falling victims to their 
liking for live bait. Then came, a period of, as Frank 
remarked, "just fishing," and we began to feel that our 
day's sport was over, and although we had as fine a 
catch as one could wish for, the longing for just one more 
was present, and we decided to try the ground opposite 
the mouth of the ditch, where Avery had taken his first 
fish, and, that failing us, to cross back to Rainbow and 
fish over the likely places on our way to the hotel. Avery 
reeled in his line as we started and examined his phantom 
with' the greatest care before again consigning it to the 
water, while I had Frank pick out the liveliest minnow 
from the pail and put it on my hook in the most tempting 
way possible, and, thoroughly prepared for whatever might 
come, we drew near the opening and waited, with every 
faculty alert, as the slow movement of the boat drew 
our lines closer to the spot where we hoped the game 
might be lurking. On and on, closer and closer, now in 
the exact place, then over it and drawing quietly away, 
but no spiteful snap was signaled over either line, but the 
looks of inquiry that were exchanged were quickly inter- 
preted and Frank was^told to try it again. So swinging 
well out into the lake, we turned back over the same 
ground and again settled down in eager expectancy. Once 
more the bait nears the opening, then is drawn silently 
by, and Avery turns to me and in a somewhat dejected 
tone remarks, "I guess it's all up. Let's reel in and get 
into the other lake," so quickly acquiescing. I began taking 
in my line, when a quick movement which fairly makes the 
boat lurch informs me, even without Avery's shout of 
"I've got him," what had happened. And judging from 
the way his slender rod was bending and his line whizzing 
through the water, the "him" in the case was something 
that would do one's eyes good to look upon. Avery, after 
the first burst of excitement, settled down in his grim, 
cool way and brought all his skill to bear on the task 
before him, but try as he would he could not keep the 
fish from getting a little further away with each lunge. I 
had noticed, earlier in the day, a snag which came just 
even with the surface of the water, lying pretty well 
inshore, and felt that the fish was so near it that he was 
bending every effort to get into it, and said to Avery, "If 
you don't stop him he will get fouled on that snag,'| 
but he replied, "Nonsense; he isn't within 30 feet of it," 
"Well," I answered, "perhaps not, but if he was on my 
line I would want him a good deal further away, and what 
is more, I would put my tackle to the test to get him 
there, too." 
At this time the fish was sulking almost directly astern 
of the boat, but, in response to a little urging, he con- 
cluded to move, and having made up his mind he went at it 
right heartily, darting like lightning shoreward, then 
stopped suddenly and remained quiet, and all that Avery 
could do did not budge him. Avery looked at me with a 
bit of an anxious expression, and I remarked, as if in an- 
swer to an unspoken question, "Old man, your 30 feet 
was, I am afraid, not far enough. It looks to me as if 
your, jig was up," and by the expression of Frank's face 
I could see that he agreed with me. And, in fact, after 
a few more vain efforts, Avery reluctantly came to our 
way of thinking, and told Frank to back the boat while 
he reeled in his line, and in a few minutes the fact was 
demonstrated to us that the tackle was firmly fouled well 
down at the bottom in 10 or 12 feet of water. Then 
Avery, usually calm, lost his serenity, said a few emphatic, 
but repeatable, words and was about to smash something 
with a vicious pull, when Frank stopped him with, "Don't 
do that. Your fish may not be lost after all. Let's in- 
vestigate a bit before giving up." We looked at him in 
astonishment, for having already discovered that the 
snag on the surface was an end of a limb attached to a 
good sized tree that lay in a water-logged condition on 
the' bottom of the lake, there seemed nothing to do but to 
br^k away and go home. Frank, however, was serious, 
and moving the boat so it rested above the point where the 
line was fast, he leaned over the lee side where the water 
was still and began peering into it. After a bit he 
straightened up, turned to us and said, The fish is there 
and Mr. Avery has, by trying to start him, pulled the 
line, which seems to be fouled around several small 
branches so hard that his nose is drawn tightly up agamst 
on^ of them, and he has no leeway at all and can't move." 
"Well," said Avery, who had not calmed down to any 
appreclake extent, "what of it? He is 10 feet under 
water, fastened to a tree that weighs a ton, and we are not 
particularly well supplied with either diving bells or der- 
ricks, and there is nothing left but to break the line and 
let him hang there until he tears himself loose or dies." 
"]Let us have a try at him at any rate," Frank replied, 
and Avery, yielding rather to my appeal than to any hope 
of success, consented. Frank then, after cautioning him 
tb keep his line taut, turned the boat until it lay directly 
over the trunk of the tree, the bow resting over the point 
where the fish was tangled in the top, and the stern point- 
ing back toward the butt. He took one oar, stuck it down 
on the lee side, caught the end in a crotch and told Avery 
to hold the handle with his disengaged hand, so that its 
center rested against the gunwale, and, acting as a lever, 
kept the boat from being driven out of its position over the 
trunk of the submerged tree by the breeze, which for an 
hour past had been growing fresher and harder. At the 
same time I was delegated to hold fast to a limb that 
stuck up near the surface, opposite my position in the 
stern, and prevent the boat from turning on Avery's oar. 
This all arranged, Frank got out^a half-inch rope about 
twenty-fiA^e feet long, which he carried as an anchor line, 
took it and the remaining oar, went up in the bow and 
began operations. Looping the middle of the line over the 
end of the oar blade he stretched himself over the 
bow, resting on his stomach, and began prodding about in 
the water with the oar, holding it with his right hand and 
hanging on to the rope with the other, so it would not 
slip off the end of the blade. We waited as patiently as 
possible, hanging on to the oar and the limb respectively 
with grim determination, and after about five minutes 
heard Frank give a satisfied grunt, and saw him straighten 
up and draw the oar inboard with the remark, "I've got 
it." We both exclaimed, almost in a breath, "Got what? 
The fish ?" but he answered in his exasperatingly deliberate 
way, "No, the tree." _ At this Avery began to show signs 
of breaking out again, but he was cut .short by Frank 
telling him to draw up his oar and move carefully into the 
bow, taking care meantime to keep his line good and 
tight. Frank then took the plate he had vacated midships, 
gathered up the ends of the anchor line and began hauling 
on them. The first effect was to draw the boat forward 
and downward, but after a bit the tendency changed, and 
we, who were all eyes, saw the tree, trunk, branches and 
all, begin to slowly rise toward the surface. The ropes 
were drawn up on the side of the boat opposite to that on 
which I was gripping my limb, and ,as the tree began to 
stir I was requested to take hold with both hands and lift. 
And lift I did, for the fact began to dawn on me that there 
were some things about fishing that I had yet to learn, and 
that in Frank I had a particularly blight and competent 
instructor. This raising process did not last long, how- 
ever, for we soon reached the limit and could not stir it 
another inch. So Frank made his ropes fast to the gun- 
wale, told me to hang on to the limb, and, putting out the 
oars, began pulling the boat, stern foremost, shoreward. 
I say 'began" advisedly, for it seemed for a time that it 
was to be nothing but begin, as we had not apparently 
raised the tree so it was clear of the bottom, but after a 
bit his powerful strokes began to tell, and the boat and 
tree moved, slowly and laboriously it is true, yet moved 
shoreward. This, of course, could not continue long, for 
the water shoaled gradually as we progressed, and soon 
Frank, pretty well winded with his exertions, dropped the 
oars and leaned over to see what change had been pro- 
duced in the situation, and his satisfied look as he straight- 
ened up was full of encouragement, and I think it gave 
new strength to my arm, which had been getting pretty 
tired by reason of my long and steady pull at the limb I 
was yet hanging to. After a moment's rest Frank re- 
leased the rope from the branch to which it had been 
fast, using an oar for that purpose, moved the boat for- 
ward until the bow was again over the point where the 
line was fast, stationed Avery with his oar lever on the 
middle thwart, had me grip a new branch, and then be- 
took himself to prodding around in the water again with 
the rope looped over the blade of the remaining oar and 
his body hanging over the bow of the boat as before. 
Pretty soon the oar was drawn up and carefully shoved 
back into the boat, and then we sat and waited to see what 
Frank was doing with his hands, but realizing, both from 
the way his body was contorting and from the vigorous 
grunts that emanated from his direction, that he Avas busy. 
Avery and I must have been pretty well stiffened up, he 
hanging to the oar with one hand and to his rod with the 
other, and I grasping the branch with both mine, but the 
proceedings had gotten to a point where such things were 
entirely overlooked, and we were both waiting with the 
utmost interest, and wondering what Frank's next move 
would be, when we heard a dull, snapping noise and saw 
him turn himself over and back into the boat with sort of 
a compound convolution movement, and hold up a piece of 
tree top about three feet long, the larger end almost 
fringed where it had been twisted off, and hanging from 
its center was the trout. 
It hardly seems necessary to say more, but it will do no 
harm to record the fact that no thought was given to tired 
muscles, that no regret was expressed because of our per- 
formance, or rather Frank's, having used up so much 
time that we could not fish on the homeward way, that 
the day with its incidents was one of the most enjoyable 
and will be one of the longest to be remembered of any 
that was ever given to such sport, and that the trout that 
Frank saved tipped the scales at exactly 5J4 iwunds. 
The Rainbow Trout in Michigran* 
Saginaw, East Side, Mich.-^The law that applies to 
the Au Sable and its tributaries is a grand one. It 
naakes your basket look slim, though beautiful. I have 
just had three days on the North Branch, We got fish 
enough, but not many. Yesterday afternoon, my friend, 
W. A. Avery, of Detroit, pleaded for us to stop the 
wagon as we were on our way to the car, so he could^ 
try a nice looking stream that we were passing. He" 
jumped out and with a No. 6 Cahill made a cast and 
hooked and fought until I got it into the net a big 
rainbow trout, 4.% pounds, 23 inches long and 5% deep. 
It was a magnificent fish, and I thijak probably as large 
a one as has been taken with a fly in any Michigan 
waters, I do not mean but what a great many larger 
rainbow trout than this have been taken, _ but they 
usually have been taken with some sort of bait at night. 
W. B. Mershon. 
The FoMST AKD St«»am is pat to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publicatioii should reach us at the 
latest by Monday and as miach earlier la pnctjeable. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Flopping ot Trout. 
Yesterday I was talking .with an old gentleui,an who 
is an inveterate fisherman and asked of his success in 
imgling this year. He fishes the trout brooks far and 
near from his home, always with worm bait, and I am 
told that he will to-day struggle through thick alder 
growth with the enthusiasm and energy of a boy in his 
teens. He said: "The brush is so thick on Sproat Brook 
nowadays that 3'ou have to stick your pole in through 
any liole you can find, and I have to let 'em swallow it 
pretty well down before I yank, and then I can handle 
'em, generally; but the other day I lost three and only 
saved one — a good lo-inch trout. I ought to have had 
one fish that I lost, and it was surely a pound trout or 
better. The hook came out because I did not give him 
time enough to swallow it way down, but I landed the 
trout all of four feet from the edge of the water, and 
there he was flopping all right, and the bank was not 
sloping, so I thought I had him sure, though the brush 
was so thick that I could not get to him in a minute, and 
he kept flopping, flopping, flopping, straight as a gun bar- 
rel toward the water, and into it, before I could put a 
hand on him. If the brush had not tangled me all up I 
could have saved him." 
Did any boy or man ever know a trout under similar 
circumstances to flop away from the water? Did any 
one eyer know of a trout (or any other fish, for that 
matter) that was thrown on the bank, be it far or near 
from the water, that it did not flop toward the water by 
the most direct route? There is never an insant's hesita- 
tion as to the direction in which the water is to be 
found, and unless the fish falls into a depression from 
which it cannot flop, it will generally get back' into its 
native element unless the fisherman is quicker than the 
fish. The remark of the old man about the flopping of 
the trout caused me to tliink about the times, as a boy, 
that I have thrown trout out on the bank and the thought 
gave rise to the quesions I have asked. 
The brain of fishes is exceedingly small, and consists 
of the enlargement of the extremity of tlie spinal marrow, 
and in a pike the proportionate weight of brain as com- 
pared to body is as i to 1,300. I never have seen it 
figured as to a trout, but as I look back to some trout 
that have flopped away from me into the water after I 
thought them reduced to possession — I mean to my pos- 
sesion — it would appear from their generalship in escap- 
ing that their brain as compared to body, proportionately, 
is as 1.300 to I, or just the reverse of the pike. 
Running of Elvers, 
A year or two ago I wrote an article for Forest and 
Stream on the common eel, and it was after reprinted 
in one of the reports of the Forest, Fish and Game Com- 
mission, and it has been the means of bringing a number 
of letters to me, asking for further information about 
the eel. Some of the queries I could answer and some 
I could not, and I began to ask some questions on my 
own account. What I wi.sh particularly to know is the 
exact time that elvers run up any given stream, and the 
duration of the run, and this information I have not been 
able to obtain thus far. In a general way I know the 
elvers run up from the sea in the spring, but I have no 
memorandum of the exact time in any particular stream. 
A friend very kindly sent me a newspaper clipping lately 
with the date line Belleville, N. J., June iS, which states : 
"The Passaic River on both sides this afternoon was 
fringed by a continuous ribbon of young eels, which were 
so thick that many were forced upon the banks." 
This infbrmation, I must confess, was a little startling 
to me, for it was the first intimation I have ever received 
that the elvers ran up on both banks of a stream at the 
same time. I saw one run of elvers, but saw it only from 
one side of the stream, and T never dreamed that there 
could be a similar rtin on the other side, and of course 
never investigated. For years I have been gathering all 
sorts of information about eels, and this evening I looked 
over a stack of clippings and memoranda, and nowhere 
is there a suggestion that elvers run up both banks of a 
stream at the same time, and if this is true of all streams 
it simply doubles the enonnous run of elvers, as it has 
been estimated from one bank alone. The duration of the 
run of elvers is another thing about which we know 
little positively from anything which has been printed. 
One item, which I cut from the Christian World, says : 
"The elvers have been seen to travel along the bank of a 
river in a continuous band, or eel rope, which has been 
known to glide upward for fifteen days together." This 
is the only reference I have ever found given in days of 
the length of the run of elvers, and without knowing 
why, I have always had a feeling that this period of 
time was not well established: The elvers when they run 
are about four inches long, and they make a solid ribbon in 
the water along the shore, and if they do run for fifteen 
days and one out of a hundred survives, and grows to a 
foot in length, the total number would seem to be suffi- 
cient to fill our fresh-water streams and ponds, which 
they select for temporary abiding places, so full that there 
would be no room for anything else. Possibly some one 
on the Passaic or elsewhere can give through Forest and 
Stream deiinite information as to the length of time the 
elvers do run, and confirm the statement that during the 
run they are foimd in the water on both sides of the 
stream they are ascending. 
Striped Bass. 
Some years ago when the matter of providling a close 
season in the Hudson River for striped bass (Roccus 
lineatus) was agitated, there was a diversity of opinion 
as to the exact spawning season of this fish in the river 
and all sorts of conflicting evidence on this subject was 
presented, and all presented in good faith, apparently. 
Last winter the question came up again, when it was 
proposed to amend the law, and I had considerable corre- 
spondence with law makers and anglers who were inter- 
ested in protecting the bass during the spawning_ period. 
Not only the spawning season was under discussion, but 
the place of spawning and the age when the fish first 
spawned. The present law protects the striped bass in 
the Hudson from net fishing from April 30 to July 30, and 
it also provides that no striped bass under 8 inches in 
length shall be taken. Last week I spent part of a day at 
