Juty 13, ipor.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
I 
27 
Some Great Bass Fishing. 
Four Hundred and Twenty Small-Moatfaed Bass in Two 
Days at Lake Ida, Minn, 
Minnesota is credited with 10,000 lakes. Whether this 
be so or not I do not of my own knowledge knowr 
Twelve years ago I came out here from New York. 
It was in the early spring, and, after hearing of the 
fishing enjoyed around St. Paul, I naturally awaited with 
inipatience the opening of the season. And I was greatly 
disappointed when it did open, for, while I caught bass 
galore, they were of the large-mouthed variety, which, 
because of prejudice, perhaps, I do not favor. To mj' 
idea they lack the gameness of the small-mouthed hero. 
It is needless to say that I came home disappointed after 
each visit to a new lake in qugst of tire small-mouthed 
bas.s. It finally became monotonous, going here and 
there on the assurance that in such and such a lake 
would I' find the fish I was after — and not finding the 
red-eyed, small-mouthed denizen of the deep. I made 
one more back-breaking trip after this elusive fish and 
then came home and putting up my rods declared there 
were no small-mouthed bass in the State of Minnesota — 
and I was wrong, very wrong, indeed. 
Out of curiosity I would sometimes go to tKe Union 
Depot when the Monday morning trains came in and 
watch the boys stagp-er in with their strings and gunny- 
sacks of bass, pickerel and croppies — bass being in the 
lead. I saw no small-mouthed friends among the 
arrivals. 
I was bewailing tfliy fat? to Some friends who knew 
this country, and was assured that we had small-mouthed 
bass in this State, but not in the lakes near St. Paul. 
Along the line of the Great Northern Railroad, from 
Osakis up, I was promised that I could get all the 
small-mouthed bass I could desire. Skeptical as I was, I 
started, stopped, off at Alexandria, and drove to Lake 
Ida, and here I foimd them — the real, genuine, simon- 
pure article. And, like the tramp who used soap years 
ago and never used any since," I have fished no other 
lake since. I may find but a single day in a season in 
which to fish, but to Lalce Ida I go. My veracity would 
•suffer were I to relate my luck at that lake on various 
repeated occasions. The average fisherman hesitates to 
take a four hours' steam-car ride for a day or two of 
fishing, and they keep close to St. Poul. Those who do 
take the time and trouble are amply repaid. 
The small-moutlied bass put up such a fight that men 
who liaA C caught the large-mouthed fish only think they 
have honk-ed a grampus when a small-moiithed bass takes 
hold. 
The \yaters of Lake Ida are deep and cold. Weeds 
and lily-pads arc missed. Even the big-mouthed bass 
when taken in this lake fight and really make a good 
straight show at resistance before landing in the net, 
no doubt because of_the coldness of the water. 
They run large, 4-pound fish being quite common. 
I have a photograph of five fish taken there one after- 
noon by a friend weighing 263-2 pounds, three small- 
mouthed and two large-mouthed. He states that they 
"towed the boat" in two or three instances after taking 
out all the line from the reel. I once got into a school 
of these gamy fellows; they hugged the sandy bottom 
ten feet down. I remembered Black's description in 
'White Heather" of fishing for salmon with two rods, and 
having in the boat two 6-ounce rods rigged for still 
fishing, I started in with two lines in the water. It was 
a succession of strikes and the landing of the fish first 
wtJi one rod and then with the other. While playing a 
fish the second rod would demand attention, and reach- 
ing down and striking the second fish, I would hand the 
rod to the boatman, instructing him to keep the fish 
simply under control, and when I had brought my bass 
within reach of the landing-net of the guide and I would lay 
down the rod and reach back for the fish-laden one in 
the guide's hands and then play the bass until drowned, 
before which time the other line, baited with minnow 
and thrown in, would need attention; the fislr would be 
struck and the rod handed to the boatman as before. 
This fishing lasted one hour; not more than half a dozen 
fish were landed, as they were large and fought furiously, 
but for an experimental, steady hour's fishing with two 
rods it was a success, and while it lasted, highly 
exciting. ' 
The, fish were voracious, and as the minnows were 
" small they .gulped the bait without much mouthing or 
running. I ha-d already early in the day begun to throw 
my fish back, and these went "into the drink" to aflford 
sport for another dsij. 
And what prompts me to write this is that I have Just 
had a friend call who spent two days at Lake Ida and 
landed 422 bass — returning the whole catch to the water 
as fast as taken, save the few eaten by himself and 
guide. ^ 
At Alexandria are lakes in plenty, in any one of which 
can the finest fishing be had. Those who go up there 
and who keep all they catch, express home a barrel 
filled with fish before they have been away three or four 
days. After returning home and having fault found with 
them for not sending the fish cleaned and skinned ready 
for the pan these people reform and let their neighbors 
buy their fish lit tiie store when they want them in 
future. 
An hour of fishing in the mortaing, between 9 and 10, 
a couple of hours from 5 until 7 in the evening, will give 
a man in numbers all the bass he needs. If he will send 
home a barrel every other day, why, then, it is simply a 
matter of keeping everlastingh' at it, and getting there. 
The lakes of Minnesota teem with bass^ and those 
around Alexandria especially so, as to the small-mouthed 
variety, 
Those of yoit who can find the time and have the in- 
clinaation will do well to try our Minnesota bass fishing. 
It is a long way from the Bowery out here, to be sure, 
and not so handy as Greenwood or Hopatcong; yet, as 
is frequently said as tp other things and places, "it is 
' Avell worth the trip" to the man who loves bass fishing. 
Charles Cristadoro. 
St. Paul, Minn, 
The Forest and Stbbam is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication sTiouId reach th? 
latest by Monday and as much earlier as practicable. 
CHICAGO AND THE ^WEST. 
Hot Veather Hiatus. 
Chicago, III,, July 6.— As to local fishng news, there is 
not any worth mentioning, for the past week of hot 
weather has caused a hiatus in all sorts of angling plans. 
Such of our fishers as have been out this week report 
practically no sport at all. Harry Gobel was down to 
Cedar Lake, Ind., and he said that the only thing which 
had nerve enough to bite was the bullhead, and even the 
big bullheads were hidden somewhere in the shade and 
declined to come out and transact business with any kind 
of a bait. 
In the lower portion of the Wisconsin lake region there 
have been a great many anglers out, more for summer 
resort purposes than for serious fishing. Of all those who 
have visited the lower Wisconsin lakes, Mr. S. D. Thomp- 
son, of Chicago, can report perhaps the best luck. He 
has sent down to be mounted a fine specimen of the fish 
u-nially called pickerel in this part of the world — the great 
Northern pike, in reality. This fish weighed 16 pounds, 
and was taken by Mr. Thompson at Eagle Lake, in Wau- 
kesha county. Every once in a while a good fish turns 
up in these restricted and rnuch-fished waters. I did not 
hear whether this was taken in the lower lake, or mill 
pond lake, or in the deeper body of water known as Lulu 
Lake, or Schwartz's Lake, about a mile above there. I 
should rather guess that it came from the mill pond lake, 
for although that it is a good fish itself, it is very rarely 
indeed. that one is taken in Lulu Lake which does not go 
even heavier, several specimens having been taken there 
which run over 20 pounds. It is well known that there 
are some of these monsters in this little piece of water, and 
it is always a part of the ambition of the visitor to get a 
for although that is a good fish itself, it is very rarely 
taken, however, excepting through the ice in tlie winter 
time or else in the very early spring. Usually there is 
about one good big fish taken in that lake every year, 
sometimes not so many as that. Billy Tuohy has been 
fast in one or two of these big fellows, and has a choice 
assortment of fish stories to tell about the possibilities of 
Lulu Lake. 
Mr. Ambrose, of the American Book Company, came 
back from the Eagle water country of Wisconsin this 
week, with the best lot of muscallunee which is reported 
for the past two weeks. He had some very decent fish. 
Trout Season. 
The hot weather has had the effect of hatching out all 
kinds of flies, bugs and insects, not to mention the par- 
ticular brand known as the American mosquito. The 
grasshopper crop is now on, and all trout fishers know 
that the grasshopper is one of the things in animate na- 
ture which the trout is altogether unable to resist. As a 
consequence, the trout are now rising in a great many of 
the streains in lower Wisconsin. Mr. John D. McLeod, of 
Milwaukee, reports very fine sport on the Pine River a 
week ago. He did not go up this week end to fish the 
stream, as the hot weather has practically killed the 
pleasure in such fishing, but he believes that as soon as 
the temperature is low enough to enable a man to get out 
of doors he will begin to get some good sport, as the fish 
were rising freely to the grasshopper when he was last up 
there, and hence also were disposed to take* the artificial 
fly, which, of cptii^se, was the only lure employed. 
The Au Sable. 
The 8-inch law is reported to be doing wonders for the 
fishing along the Au Sable, of Michigan. I have not yet 
heard from Mr. George L. Alexander, of Grayling, Micb-, 
regarding the prospects on that .stream, but Mr. McLeod, 
of Milwaukee, is anxious to see the old Au Sable once 
more, this being one of his earlier fishing haunts. It is 
among the possibilities that if the hot weather keeps up 
and business continues nil. we may all take a run with 
Mr. Alexander on the Au Sable one of these bright days, 
It will be our deliberate purpose to tangle up with big 
rainbow trout, and no little fish need apply. It is worth 
a dollar and a quarter to see Mr. McLeod handle a big 
trout when he gets a strike. He uses a little Leonard 
rod weighing about 4 ounces, which he has had wrapped 
with silk from end to the other. With this rod Mr. Mc- 
Leod allows the fish no latitude and no mercy, but starts 
him in early in the game and keeps him coming with a su- 
preme confidence in his tackle which always gives me 
cold chills up my back to witness. 
The Fox. 
There ought to be a little fly-fishing about now along 
the shallow reaches of the Fox River, where the bass are 
now feeding upon insect food to a greater or less extent. 
The Fox is not a bad wading stream at such points as 
Clintonville, Yorkville. Dayton, etc., and although one 
could not expect to take any bass except 'early in the 
morning or quite late in the evening, he might now and 
again have a little fun, and he would certainly be able 
to keep his feet wet and cool, which is something of a 
desideratum in this sort of weather. The rock bass, crop- 
pies, etc., which now and then one meets in his fly-fishing 
for bass on this stream, are not altogether to be despised. 
Given a light fly-rod, a No. 4 coachman and a half-pound 
rock bass, just in the cool of the evening, when the 
shadows are quite black on the water across the stream, 
and one ought to be at least more happy than he is swel- 
tering in the fairly unstlpportable heat of the city. In- 
deed, fly-fishing on a stream where one has to wade is 
nearly the only kind of angling which appeals to one in this 
kind of weather. As to bait-casting for bass from a boat 
under a sky as merciless as that which has prevailed all 
over the AVest for the past seventeen days, let those 
go in for that who fancy it. It means accumulating sun- 
burn almost too swiftly for the average man, and more- 
over, it is a bootless employment, for the bass themselves 
are not taking chances of sunburn these glaring days. 
All in all, the signs do not seem to point for very good 
fishing during this torrid month of July, which under the 
best average conditions for midsummer mttst be rated the 
poorest month of the year for fishing in this latitude. The 
muscallunge season, if we may be said to have one in this 
part of the world, is now practically closed. As to bass 
fishing, of course one can go up to any one of the hun- 
dred different lakes in the pine woods of Wisconsin and 
get all the big-mouthed bass he cares for. Mr. Graham 
H. Harris, President of the School Board of Chicago, is 
still absent on his fishing trip on the Manitowish chain 
of Wisconsin. Mr. Harris is a fly-fisherman, and goes 
rather for bass than for muscallunge. He will in all 
likelihood have pretty good sport at bass. 
The Wishininne Club purposed its regular annual pil- 
grimmage to the Manitowish chain this summer, but the 
hot weather proved too much for everybody. Mr. George 
E. Cole hies him to his cottage at Spring Lake, Mich. 
Mr. W. L. Wells. Mr. C. S. Dennis and others are takmg 
up golf in the cool of the day and not risking them on 
the waters at midday. Mr. J. V. Clark, another member 
of the club, has been practically prostrated by the heat 
this week, and unable to get out of town. All in all, we 
have nothing but disaster to report in an angling way 
this week in Chicago. 
The Frog Question, 
To inake everything worse, there is such a scarcity of 
bait frogs here in Chicago. Frogs are hardly to be ob- 
tained at any kind of figure, and the local dealers are 
looking out for frog catchers who know of _ preserves 
where bait size frogs are not exhausted. This sort of 
tiling is poorly distributed in the West just now. Last 
week they had a rain of frogs in one of the St. Paul 
suburbs, where the newspapers graphically report the fall 
of a "dark green mass" composed entirely of frogs. No- 
body in Minnesota has been able to tell where these frogs 
came from, but in all probability they were taken from 
Indiana, which is the ordinary frog supply pond for this 
city, and which is this week producing almost nothing at 
all in the way of its old-time commodity. This rain of 
frogs at St. Paul happened during the prevaleiice of very 
high winds, and this Avould seem to be another illustration 
of the proverb which indicates that it "is an ill wind that 
blows nobody. any_ good." We would welcome a frog 
cyclone here iii Chicago just at the present time. 
Big Rainbows. 
I was talking with Harry Gobel, who collects rent in 
the Hartford Building, when he can get it, and who goes 
fishing when he is not trying to collect the rent. Harry 
asked me whether I knew anything about the Peshtigo 
River in Wisconsin, and. of course, I was able to tell him 
all about some big brook trout which I had seen taken 
from that stream some years ago. These big trout were 
captured by fishermen of Ellis Junction, who went by 
wagon up the Peshtigo to the mouth of Medicine Brook, 
where there is a deep hole well known as a feeding ground . 
for big trout in the warm months of the summer. The 
Peshtigo at this part of its course gets too warm for 
trout, hence these trout naturally drift in to the mouths 
of the cold lesser tributaries such as the Medicine Brook. 
I saw a market basket full of brook trout, and of these 
I think there was not one fish which would lie down flat in 
the basket without having its head or tail turned up. The 
fish Avould thus seem to run somewhere between 3 and 4 
pounds in weight. They were taken on minnow bait 
almost altogetlier, and snailed out on the bank without 
mercy. 
Mr. Gobel told me then something which had already 
come to my ears by way of vague traditional rumor re- 
garding other good fisliing points on this big river. He 
tells me that some years ago he fished the Peshtigo on 
the rapid waters which run about a mile below the falls 
of the Peshtigo. a point to be reached from Athelstane, 
Wis., by a wagon road of about fifteen miles. Mr. C. E. 
Rollins, of this city, has often spoken of these fish of the 
Peshtigo, and I believe it was Mr. Rollins who first put 
Mr, Gobel on to the point. From Mr. Gobel's descrip- 
tion there is a pool or so and a long reach of fast water, 
about a mile in all, and this is the only part of the river 
.which offers any fish at all, anywhere in that district. It 
is here that the big rainbow trout lie, and Harry told me 
that he caught a rainbow trout there which weighed 7 
pounds. This fish he took by means of a risky wade out 
in midstream, allowing his hook to float far down below 
him. When he struck Jhe fish it was so large that he 
was very much excited, and hastening ashore fell over a 
rock and cracked the bone of one of his ankles, which to 
this day shows a lump in commemoration of the struggle 
he had with the big rainbow. He finally got him otit upon 
the bank, and falling down upon him caught the fish in his 
arms and so saved it. 
Yet Mr. Gobel says that this is not the record rain- 
bow of that water by any means, but that he has known 
them to be taken weighing as much as 9 pounds. It 
should be known that the Peshtigo is a mighty water 
even this far up toward its head. Rainbows lie in the 
deep water out midstream and it is hard to get at them. 
Really a bait and a bass casting reel would be the most 
killing way of fisTjing for these big fish. Mr. Gobel tells 
me that, they are so heavy and the water is so strong that 
the usual fate of the fly-fisherman is to have his flies 
snapped off at almost the first rush of the fish. It may 
readily be seen that fly-fishing for these fighting rainbows 
in a water like this must be a sport of as keen a nature 
as can be found in any part of the country. While I 
cannot state that there is good sport at this reach of water 
at this time, the likelihood is that the Peshtigo has not 
been exhausted in its rainbow supply, and that 0"e could 
with proper care and due patience still get hold of one of 
these big fish. If he kill one anywhere near as big as 
that which Mr. Gobel took, it would pay him for a week 
of work. The native fishermen in quite a stretch of country 
round about that part of the Peshtigo are well aware of 
the excellence of the fishing there, and have hit the rain- 
bows pretty hard with their long-geared cane pole tackle. 
A Good Thing, 
In these days of extremely hot weather the avergae 
fisherman Avho has any kind of luck has a serious dis- 
appointment when he undertakes to bring his catch home 
with him. It is more than half the fun to bring home the 
products of one's sport. Nothing gives the angler more 
pleasure than to show his family and friends the fish 
which he has circumvented. A nice lot of trout laid out on 
a long, cold platter — what is a prettier sight than that, and ' 
who would rob his family of the pleasure of that sight? 
Even a nice take of bass or of croppies, or pf rock bass, is 
a pleasure if brought home in good condition — and any- 
thing in the world but a^pleasure if brought home spoiled 
or on the point of spoiling, as is only too often the case 
