July 20, 1901.] 
47 
duced a bass weighing 7 pounds 10 ounces. The large- 
mouth black bass grows to a greater size than the small- 
mouth, and in Southern waters the former attains its 
greatest weight. 
Hudson Shad Fishermen. 
In commenting upon the shad fishermen of the Hudson 
River I tried to be very conservative and state facts, un- 
colored by any possible prejudice, and therefore it was 
with pleasure that I received a letter soon after Forest 
AN0 Stream came from the press from a gentleman 
who is familiar with the shad fishing of the Hudson, and 
who has been a close observer of the shad fishermen for 
many years, and who speaks by the book when he speaks 
of fish and game legislation and the fisheries of the 
Hudson River, As the letter is personal I shall not use 
the writer's name: 
"I have read with much interest your article in this 
week's Fokest and Stream relating to shad fishermen 
on the river, and it seems to me you draw the lines very 
mildly in regard to them. For the last thirty or forty 
years it has seemed to me that the shad fishermen of the^ 
Hudson River constituted a special variety of the genus* 
liorao, for the reason that they never commended any- 
thing and have grumbled at everything. When the 
shad have been plenty, and they obtained high prices, the}'' 
grumbled because they were not more abundant at the 
same prices. When an effort was made to close the 
river for one or two days that the fish might go upon 
the spawning grounds they grumbled because they 
claimed that it interfered with their natural and inherent 
rights. When the fish were small, as they were a num- 
ber of years ago, they grumbled because they were not 
larger. When, as was the case two or three years ago, 
the catch was somewhat limited and the prices were 
high, they grumbled and abused the State and the United 
States because the supply was not larger at the same 
prices. 
"When, as was the case this year, the catch was enor- 
mous and the fish were large, they grumbled because 
they could not get the same prices that they did when 
the fish were scarce. I can give several more cases in 
which they grumbled, but it is enough to say that they 
were born grumblers and have imposed on nature. 
"Twenty or thirty years ago I considered myself fortu- 
nate if I could get a shad for my supper table which 
would weigh 4 pounds, but during the past year I have 
been able to get all that I wanted weighing from 5 to 7 
pounds each. There was one taken near the close of 
the season this year, nearly opposite this city, weighing 
5 pounds, and two or three years ago I saw one also 
taken opposite this city which weighed plump 10 pounds, 
and if I had seen it in time to secure it I would have 
sent it to you as one of the results of stocking and 
protection, so far as the shad are concerned, in this 
river. 
"Perhaps T should add that among the grounds for 
grumbling is one made by the shad fishermen to the 
effect that closing the river for a couple of days inter- 
feres with the catch of shad, and as they may not live 
until another year to benefit by their method of protec- 
tion they prefer to catch all the shad there are in the 
Hudson even though the entire crop be exterminated. 
"Since writing the above it has occurred to me that 
one or two facts within my personal knowledge might be 
of interest. About the year 1853 I was at Milford, on 
the Delaware River, when the first substantial catch of 
shad was made. They numbered about sixty, and twenty 
of these weighed 6 pounds each or upward, one of which 
we had on our supper table. 
"My grandfather used to live in New Jersey, eighteen 
miles from Lambertville, and in the twenties and thirties 
it was the custom for him and his neighbors to go to 
Lambertville every spring and each would bring home 
a load of shad, enough for one or two barrels, which 
were salted down for winter use. He frequently told 
me during his hfetime that quite a large proportion of 
the shad which he obtained in this way weighed from 
6 to 9 pounds each, 8-pounders being a very common 
size. This indicates to me what under proper protec- 
tion and restocking we may expect in the near future." 
What my correspondent says of the practice of his 
grandfather and neighbors on the Delaware was formerly 
true on the upper Hudson River. Before the building of 
the Troy dam, about 1825, shad ran up the river to 
Baker's Falls, more than forty miles above Troy, and 
less than three miles from where I am writing. The 
shad could not get above the falls, and the farmers from 
far and near gathered to secure shad for salting for home 
consumption. T have talked with one man who resorted 
annually to Baker's Falls to secure shad for salting, and 
female relatives in my own family have told me of the 
practice as they knew of it.. In our own day shad have 
been cut off by dams from ascending the Delaware 
River, and when fishways were built in the dams the shad 
again ascended to former spawning grounds. This I 
learned from a visit to the dams that stopped the shad 
for a time and from a visit to the upper river, from which 
they were for a time cut oft'. Capt. Finder, who fishes 
at Catskill, told me that he had never taken a shad of 
10 pounds in his nets, but on the Smithtown River, on 
Long Island, it is claimed that shad have been taken up 
to 14 pounds, and the employees of the Forest, Fish and 
Game Commission have, when taking eggs, found shad 
ill the nets weighing 12 pounds. 
Trout in Champlain Canal. 
The Champlain canal is fed by the Glens Falls feeder 
at Fort Edward, the water for the feeder leaving the 
Hudson at the Feeder dam, about two miles above Glens 
Falls. This spring there was a break in the feeder and 
the water was drawn off to make repairs, leaving but a 
little water in the ditch, at intervals where there were 
low places. An officer of the Glens Falls Cement Works 
sent boys in the feeder near the works catching fish of 
some kind, and upon investigating he found the fish 
were brook trout, about 7 or 8 inches long, all about the 
same length. I was asked if I had planted trout in the 
canal, but, of course, T had not, and now the question 
is, where did they come fr6m? There are trout streams 
flowing into the "Hudson above the feeder, but none are 
tributary to the canal itself, and the only solution I can 
offer is that the trout worked down from above and 
lound theif way into the canal— but wtiy? is the question. 
What should cause the trout to leave cool, clear water 
streams and make their way into the muddy water of a 
canal? I confess I doubted the correctness of the identi- 
fication of the fish, but when assured from several sources 
tliat the fish were "speckled trout" I could only accept 
the statements of those who saw the fish, contrary as it 
was to the known habits of the brook trout to frequent 
the waters of the State canal. A. N. Cheney. 
Maine Fishings 
Boston, July 13. — Trout and landlocked salmon fish- 
ing in New England waters is rather poor. At the 
Rangeleys a few fish are bein.g taken, but the best of 
the season is over. \ railroad magnate fished two days 
on Lake Mooselucmaguntic last week and caught only 
one little trout. At Richardson Lake the fishing is no 
better. At the LTpper Dam very little is being done, 
with the veteran anglers waiting for the late fly-fishing. 
At Moosehead there is a little fly-fishing, but generally 
the guests are interested in some other sports. But bass 
fishing in many of the ponds in Maine is good. J. Parker 
Whitney came out from his camps at Mosquito Brook, 
Richardson Lake, and stopped at Andover for a couple 
of weeks, to escape the worst of the black flies. He tried 
the black bass fishing at Roxbury Pond, with good suc- 
cess. Very good strings of bass have lately been taken 
at the Winthrop and Belgrade ponds. 
July I the law was oft' on white perch at the ponds in 
the section of Winthrop. Readfield and Monmouth, 
Me., as Avell as the waters in the section of Bangor. The 
anglers have been on the alert, and some good strings 
are reported. The perch will take the artificial fly on or 
ne.ir the surface, while they yield readily to still-fishing 
with worm.s or other bait. Trolling with a Rangeley 
spinner is also proving a good way to take the big ones. 
The fish and game commissioners have made a rule that 
only 25 perch shall be allowed to any angler on a single 
day. White perch fishing is not new in the State of 
Maine, by any means. About thirty-five years ago there 
was a White Ferch .A.ssociation at Water\'ille, Me., and 
this association had an annual meet and dinner, usually 
at one of the better white perch ponds at Smithfield, 
Rome or Belgrade. Editor Ephriam Maxham, of the 
Waterville M.ail. was one of the earlier anglers for white 
perch, and a great lover of the sport. His score, and 
that of the rest of the Association, was almost religiously 
kept. A kindlier soul never followed in the footsteps 
of Izaak Walton, but he has long since taken his depar- 
ture to the land of the blessed. But the Maine Fish and 
Game Commission is taking an interest in the stocking 
of other waters in the State with white perch, and is 
pleased with its success. 
Boston, July 15. — New England sportsmen have been 
interested in the published accounts of the excursion and 
meeting of the Maine Sportsmen's Fish and Game Asso- 
ciation, at Kineo. Moosehead Lake, last week. It was 
one of the best attended meetings the Association has ever 
held. All the political fish and game protectors were 
there, and there is no doubt that a good deal of the power 
that influences fish and game legislation was present. The 
members and guests present numbered nearly 100. includ- 
ing the Fish and Game Commissioners. ex-Governor 
Powers and other notables and new^spaper editors from 
all parts of the State. The feature of the meeting was 
the address of Commissioner Carleton. He threshed over 
considerable old straw concerning the repeal of the Sep- 
tember deer law ; the causes which led to its enaction and 
repeal. He remarked that the Commission did not regret 
its repeal, since the timber land owners desired it. He 
read the following clipping from the editorial columns 
of a leading Maine agricultural paper: 
According to the present outlook there will be a strong effort 
made to abolish the Fish and Game Commission in the next session 
of the Legislature. The feeling against this branch of our State 
Government has been steadily rising during the past two years, and 
now the opposition has become sufificiently strong to show it.^ 
hand. The destruction of crops by deer through the northern 
section of Maine is largely responsible for this condition of 
affairs. When men are obliged to watch these anirnals tramping 
down and eating their grain, and do not dare to raise a hand in 
defense of their property, it is easy to see that a change of some 
kind is bound to come. This is not Ireland, and city sportsmen 
are not English landlords. It looks very much as though some of 
our sporting gentry would have to give up their soft snaps and 
give tlie farmers a chance. The country boy also wants a chance 
to once more use his cotton twine and bended pin in catching 
trout. We are inclined to think that che farmer will have an 
inning in the near future. 
In his reply, Mr. Carleton said that the above item 
clearly outlined the wish and purpose of those who would 
see all laws 'for the protection of fish and game repealed, 
and a return to the days of the boy with his twine line 
and bended pin. While he admitted that deer may have 
damaged crops to a limited extent, he also dwelt upon 
the great advantages everybody in the State was deriving 
from the influx of sportsmen and summer tourists. To 
the fact of the actual presence of fish and game this 
sum.mer business is largely due. The farmer's son with his 
pin hook and the crust hunter have had their innings. 
They formerly had them till nearly every head of game 
was destroyed and the fish in our streams nearly ex- 
hausted. Times have changed. 
"We are inclined to think," says the writer of the article 
in the agricultural paper, "that the farmer will have 
his inning in the near future." 
"Now, while this is the veriest rot, demagogism and 
rant," said Mr. Carleton, "it has its influence, and helps 
to create and foster a feeling of antagonism to our fish 
and game laws, and to meet and overcome this should 
be our first dtity. 
"A Maine farmer once rented a hilly, rocky pasture to a 
ladies' golf club from New York, for a big price. The 
farmer's servant, scandalized by the sight of tall, athletic 
girls in scarlet coats, armed with iron hoofed clubs, re- 
ported to the farmer that 'Them girls in the pasture scare 
our cows.' 
'"The fanner scratched his head. 'Hir-ram,' came the 
leisurely answer, 'times has changed since we was young. 
Used ter be the cows scared the girls.' 
"The writer of this article is like Hiram. He doesn't 
luiderstand that times have changed since the boy with 
the pin hook and the farmer had their innings." 
The other speeches were mainly congratulatory. The 
subject of the attitude of the State toward her guides was 
ably handled. The guide law has grown in popularity 
fve'r since its enaction^ Tt^e sport5roan and tourist i?5 
always welcome to the great interior fish and game pre- 
serve of Maine. 
Mr. George Loud and Bert H^anson, of Boston, have 
just returned from a three weeks' fishing trip to Bonnie 
River, N. B. They had good sport, taking all the fish 
they wanted. Mr. and Mrs. L. O. Crane, of Boston, are 
.still at the Megantic preserve. Before they left the Upper 
Dam Mrs. Crane took a salmon of 3 pounds 13 ounces. 
Mr. Crane writes that the fishing at Big Island Pond is 
improving. Some fine catches are being made. "We 
took seventy-six fine trout after supper the other night 
at L. Pond, all on the fly. Mrs. Crane took thirty-six, 
giving me a hard lead the most of the tirrie. All of that 
catch was returned alive to the water, since We had all 
the trout in the camp larder than could be used." This 
is one of tlie best of rirlcs thoroughly followed at the Me^ 
gantic preserve, "No fish shall be killed not wanted for 
food," and Mr. Crane is one of the first to live up to it. 
The newspapers are full of reports of brook trout being 
taken in the White Mountain region. The recent rains 
have kept the streams up to a good fisliing height, and 
great strings are reported. It is the same old story. The 
summer tourist, with his dollar and a half fish rod, takes 
175 fingerlings in a day's fishing. What brook in the 
world can stand up against such fishing? The last reports 
from Kineo, Moosehead Lake, say that the fly-fishing is 
improving. Ex-Mayor Edwin U. Curtis and Mrs. Curtis, 
of Boston, have been fly-fishing there. Mrs. Curtis has 
had good sport, taking twenty-six trout at one outing. 
Winthrop M. Pitman, of Boston, fishing in the vicinity of 
Kearsarge, North Conway. N. H,, returned with a string 
of T25 trout, the result of one day's fishing. W. O. 
Perkins, of Boston, has been fishing the main streatn of 
the Pemigewasset and has taken some large trout. From 
Attean camps. Jackraan, Me., come reports of very good 
fly-fishing. Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Lawton, of Boston, are 
making some good catches there. 
Still better reports arc coming of the white perch fishing 
at the ponds in the vicinity of Bangor. Me. Swett's Pond 
is a favorite resort, one fisherman taking fifty-six perch 
in an hour. The black bass fishing is also good. From 
Belgrade ponds the reports of black bass fishing are ex- 
cellent. Bait-fishing with minnows, frogs and grasshoppers 
is the rule. Still something is being done with the fly. 
Dr. W. H. Norcross, of Lewiston, landed a bass weighing 
5J''2 poimds at Sabatis Pond Thursday. The citizens in 
the vicinity of Sabatis Pond have asked the Fish Com- 
missioners to restrict the number of fish to ten bass and 
twenty-five perch in a da}'. At Lake Pennesseewassee, 
Norway, Me., the bass fishing is reported good. Supt. E. 
L. Lovejoy, of the Portland & Rumford Falls Railway, 
took two fine bass there Saturday, fishing from Free- 
land Howe's camp. Still, there is some white perch fish- 
ing near Boston, for those who know how to find it. Mr. 
J. H. Jones caught a couple of good ones from a pond in 
'Waltham the other day. Special, 
Rainbow Trout in the Appalachians 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have just been passing around among the summer 
guests of Sapphire the very charming runes of your occa- 
sional correspondent, Mr. H. Stewart, who rusticates at 
Highlands, twenty miles away, and owns a large forested 
area in that part of Macon county. They were printed in 
Forest and Stream some three years ago. about the time 
you publislied my "Words for- Buncombe." and I have 
kept them ever since — as I keep the Commandments. They 
are certainly imbued with the fine sentiments which in- 
spires John Eurroughs, whose desciple I am rapidly be- 
coming, despite an innate proclivity to hunt and shoot. I 
am no longer, let me say, a wanton destroyer of the 
beautiful in nature, but when I go forth it is to admire 
and not exterminate, though I confess that I do enjoy 
fly-fishing for trout, or any other variety of fish, for that 
matter. The use of bait in ponds or lakes involves still- 
fishing, which does not interest me. whereas fly-fishing 
enhances the sport, as I seek it, from start to finish. In 
no manner is the poetry of motion more strikingly illus- 
trated from the first cast of the line to the final flop in 
the basket or boat. It is all motion! 
Yesterday, at the mouth of Nixey Creek, which feeds 
the Sapphire Lake, I had the good fortune to take tiwo 
trout which weighed a pound apiece with a coachman 
fly. sold by Abbey & Imbrie years ago. an exploit which 
astonished the craft, for it has been the impression here 
that the trout of the lakes would not take artificial flies. 
So you see I have a feather in my cap, although it is a 
\\'hite one. 
The trout here are certainly astonishers for size and 
numbers. It is hard to convince outsiders that 5". sal- 
vclivuSj the speckled beauties of the Atlantic side, and 
of song, are found in these mountains ; and "j-et the high 
regions of the entire Appalachian range are full of them. 
The stream fishing here at Sapphire and in its immediate 
vicinity is hardly surpassed in New England or the 
Adirondacks, while both the mountain and rainbow trout 
have been introduced into the artificial lakes, which are 
formed hy draining the caiions. The Toxaway Hotel and 
Land Company, which OAvns some 27,000 acres of forest 
adjoining the Biltmore estate, limits its guests to count 
and weight, but ever}' fisherman is sure to basket his 
quota of twentj', and often includes specimens which 
scale 2 poimds. 
But if the mountain trout are remarkable, much more 
are the rainbow trout which have been introduced into 
Fairfield Lake, from a plant obtained in Handy, Vt., in 
1897, and propagated at the company's fish hatchery on 
the Horsepasture at Sapphire. Fairfield Lake is an arti- 
ficial body of water two miles long and forty feet deep in 
places, in four years these rainbow trout have grown 
from fry to nearly 4 pounds in weight. Manager J. F. 
Hays recently took one of 45 ounces in weight; John C. 
Eads. of Macon, Ga., one of 3 pounds 14 ounces, and 
Elliott Miller, of Now York, one of 3 pounds 12 ounces. 
Dr. Richard Whitehead, Instructor at Chapel Hill N. C. 
has also taken very large fish. All mentioned were on 
light rods with flies or bait. There is no doubt that the 
rainbow trout thrive better here than in their Rocky 
Mountain habitat. They have quieter water. Thej' do not 
have to stem mountain torrents perpetually. The insect 
food of Fairfield Lake is in greater variety, There are 
crawfisti, hdgrainites an^ lizards, but no ipiniiows; 
