7o 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Tan. 25. igoi, 
three geese on one of the marshes in the sound. They 
were obliged to break their way through the ice to an air 
bole, where they had good shooting. These were the 
only fortunate members of that club. All the ponds and 
most of the coves in the marshes were frozen over. 
On Tuesday everything was shut tight by thin ice. ex- 
cept portions of the open sound. There was thus no 
shooting. 
Wednesday was a lay day. when duck shooting is for- 
bidden, and on Thursday the pond opened to some ex- 
tent, but very few ducks put in an appearance. 
Friday was an ideal duck shooting day. with a strong 
northwest wind and a cloudy sky, but there were still 
fewer ducks, and the geese scarcely moved at all. The 
score for that day for eight men was only twenty-eight 
birds, and for the whole week only 224 birds, or an aver- 
age of four birds per day per man. 
WlLDFOWLER. 
Jan. 19. 
Canadian Non-Residence Licenses. 
Montreal. P. Q— Editor Forest and Stream: I notice 
in my Forest and Stream of Jan. 18 that there are a 
couple of errors which I trust you will permit me to cor- 
rect. In your editorial on the proposed Maine license 
you say, "The Canadian Provincial laws, which set up 
barriers against Americans as aliens." Now the Canadian 
Provincial laws set up no barriers against Americans as 
aliens. A sportsman from the States has precisely the 
same privileges in any one of the Provinces of Canada as 
are enjoyed by a Canadian sportsman from any ether 
Province. When a Provincial tax is put on a non-resident 
sportsman it applies equally to the British subject and the 
alien. 
Another error which I should like to point out is con- 
tained in the speech which Hon. Charles E. Oak made 
before the last meeting of the Alaine Sportsmen's Fish and 
Game Association. Mr. Oak is reported to have said : 
"We are cited to the fact that the Provinces of Canada 
exact a fee for hunting, and that they still flourish. This 
is true, gentlemen, and it is also true that they exact a 
fee for fishing as well." 
While Mr. Oak's statement is true as regards most 
of the Canadian Provinces, it is not true of the great 
Province of Ontario. In Ontario no fishing license is 
exacted, provided the fisTierman be accompanied by an 
Ontario guide. The only exception to this is the local 
license which has to be taken out to fish the Nepigon. 
ToRONTONIAN. 
<§> 
"American Duck Shooting/' 
The man who secures a copy of the superb volume. 
"American Duck Shooting." which ha- just been issued 
from the Forest and Stream press, will get a good run 
for his money. In the first place, or the second place, one 
might perhaps better say. the volume itself is a large and 
important one. numbering nearly 650 pages, illustrated 
with eight full-page views, two dozen general illustra- 
tions, fifty-eight pictures of birds and fifty vignettes in- 
serted in the text. The binding, press work and me- 
chanical details are beautifully done, so that the book it- 
self is not only important in subject matter, but also a 
superb piece of work. 
In the next place, that is to sav the first place, the 
author, Mr. George Bird Grinnell. has given to the text 
not only a painstaking care, but a breadth of experience 
and scope of information which may not be found in any 
book hitherto published on the not unusual theme of 
wildfowl and wildfowl shooting. As much as this might 
be expected from a writer of Mr. Grinnell's attainments, 
yet the result remains surprising in its grasp and finality. 
The especial excellence of the work is its breadth and 
catholicity. Heretofore we have had books on w-ildfowl 
which embodied the experience of one man or of a few r 
men. or which described more especially one section of 
the country, or a few such sections. All "these books were 
interestmg and valuable in their way and in their time, yet 
it is not too much to say that they are supplanted, and 
.satisfactorily supplanted, by this conclusive volume, which 
is the last offering of the Forest and Stream press to the 
discriminating sportsman public. This is the last word on 
wildfowl shooting, and it deals not only with the past, 
not only with the days of abundance, but with the times 
of lessening numbers in wild game, and with the condi- 
tions of to-day. It may be considered, indeed, the only 
up-to-date production in this line. 
It is a difficult thing to produce a book which shall 
appeal alike to the naturalist and to the sportsman, and 
customarily the attempt causes the one or the other to 
suffer. For "American Duck Shooting" it is to be said 
that the scientific information, while ample, is handled 
in such a" popular and easily understood way. that it can- 
not affright the most timid. Upon the other hand, the 
methods of shooting, the habits of the game, and the best 
manner in w-hich to encompass the capture of the game, 
are more fully treated than may be found in any other 
work which at present comes to mind. The descriptions 
of the different forms of wildfowl shooting cover all sec- 
tions of the country, from one ocean to the other, includ- 
ing the West, the Middle West and the Far West, as well 
as the Eastern 'long shore shooting and the forms of the 
art as practiced in the Southern regions. The writer 
does not pretend to limit himself to his own personal ex- 
periences, and in this he shows a wisdom not evinced by 
all writers on sporting topics. He has availed himself 
Without stint of the treasures long garnered up in the 
pages of the Forest and Stream, and the result of this, 
with his own wide researches afield, have enabled him to 
fffcr the public an amount of solid yet well-digested in- 
formation, such as I take it is not paralleled in any pub- 
lication on a kindred theme. One.wou'd apply that quality 
to the book — that it is desirable for the amount of infor- 
mation which it contain--. The pictures are especially 
elaborate and valuable. Here the most ignorant can find 
and recognize the likeness of every cluck he ever saw. and 
he may, by turning over these pages, find the name, de- 
scription and personal habits of that duck which every 
shooter has. at one time or another, killed— whose name 
h,« could, not tell. As much may he said for the mem>.rs 
of the goose family and the swans. The individual as 
well as the general habits of the familv and species are 
given careful treatment, so that one has no difficulty in 
recognizing all his old acquaintances and in making addi- 
tional friends among the wildfowl. 
The pictures which accompany the text are not in- 
tended simply to amplify the text.' but to add to it and to 
serve the purpose of actual instruction. This applies more 
especially to the portraits of the birds. The general illus- 
trations of batteries, short ing boats, etc., come in the 
nature of useful information. Lastly, the shooting stories, 
genuine, out-and-out stories of hot corners and big bags, 
are abundant, written as the shooter loves to see it set 
down. All the details of the wildfowler's arts and strata- 
gems are specified, and it must be a poor reader indeed 
who cannot learn somewhat from this, be he young or 
old hi the ancient game of fowling. 
There is one reflection, and one of sadness, left after 
turning the pages of this book, and it is that the old 
day of plenty of American wildfowl has passed away for- 
ever. The history of the Platte, the Arkansas and other 
streams is fresh in the minds of Western and Eastern 
shooters. Our abundance has departed, perhaps never to 
return. If it is ever to return, then certainly it must be 
through an observation of the wise counsel with which the 
book concludes : "To bring back the ducks in their old- 
t'me abundance, the gunners must agree — 
''To stop spring shooting ; 
"Limit the size of hags for a day and a season : 
"Stop the sale of game." 
These doctrines are announced not in the form of dog- 
ma, or even of mere personal belief, but are supported by 
careful investigation and an even and fair process of 
reasoning, such as best apneal not only to the sportsman, 
but also to the student and scientific man. to all of which 
classifications Mr. Grinnell has surely long been entitled. 
It is questionable whether the Forest and. Stream Publish- 
ing Company has ever put out a book of greater accom- 
plishment than the one at hand. 
EL Hough. 
Haitfokd Building, Chicago. Ill 
— — 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
The Striped Bass. 
Rockfish, or Roccus linealus (Blocb). 
The striped bass is abundant on the Atlantic coast of 
the Un'ted States from Maine to Florida, and ascends all 
rivers in the spring to spawn. (This run has broken 
stripes.) It is an important game and food fish, and at- 
tains a weight of 30 to 90 pounds. There is no better 
panacea for the ills of man than the gentle health-giving 
pastime of angling. It brings him close in touch with 
Mother Nature, consequently he becomes a good citizen 
and undoubtedly lives longer than his neighbor, who 
chains himself to business and its cares, and won't take an 
occasional day's outing with rod and reel. 
The striped bass (Roccus lincatus) is very properly 
classed at the head of the great varieties of salt-water 
fish, taken on hook and line. In the estimation of many 
anglers it is placed at the highest point of all fish angled 
for. It certainly possesses many attributes which other 
fish lack. It is a noble, handsome fish, a hard, courageous 
fighter, and its epicurean tastes and changing habits make-, 
it one of the most inexplicable fish found in our local 
waters, with which anglers have to deal. The flounder 
fishermen are quite certain of making a catch in their sea- 
son, fishermen after bluefish generally catch a mess, and 
when the weakfish are running it is not only a question of 
catching those spotted beauties, but how many will each 
tide yield? 
This is not the case with the striped bass. They must 
be hunted and followed from one ground to another. 
They must be coaxed and lured with endless varieties of 
bait, and thus the angler starting out after these peculiar 
fish knows before he makes his first cast that his chances 
for making a good score are not in his favor. Should 
it be his good fortune to display a half-dozen good-sized 
bass, after his day's fishing, he feels proud of the 
achievement. 
When a big bass is hooked and landed nowadays in 
these waters, and a 12 or 15 pound fish is considered a 
"big fellow." it not alone creates excitement among 
angling circles, which no other fishing feat can accom- 
plish, but the metropolitan newspapers devote consider- 
able space to its capture and illustrate both the fish and 
captor. 
In former years striped bass were more plenty than 
now. Their scarcity is attributed to several reasons, 
among them' the pollution of waters, the increase of 
marine navigation, the illegal setting and hauling of nets, 
and the wanton capture and possession of undersized fish, 
called by local anglers "baby bass." signifying fish under 
8 inches long, the size prescribed by law. 
When these obstacles are removed or eradicated by 
sensible legislation, and the laws strictly enforced, then 
in a measure, and not until then, can anglers look for- 
ward to good sport with these kings of fishes. 
Anglers having the good of their favorite pastime at 
heart should band themselves together, and insist that 
our law framers should go further than merely to issue 
a lot of printed matter, they should enforce the laws to 
the very letter. 
The habits and tastes of the striped bass are very differ- 
ent from the general run of fish. They are rightly called 
"the epicures of fishdom." Their appetites are as change- 
able as the winds. They are not always found dining at the 
same grounds. They are freaky, appearing and vanish- 
ing as quickly as April showers. To-day they may be 
nosing around the shores of Staten Island ; to-morrow. 
Liberty Island and vicmity will have a visit from them ; 
then they rush away for a trip up the North or East 
rivers. Then the waters of Jamaica Bay may afford good 
fishing for them, then the following days they will appear- 
in Gr-avesejid Bay, when bv common consent it would 
seem, they vanish, 110 one knows whither, probably out 
into the fjf^p j us ' ;,s [fe *§ not fhev may he 
sulking under some big rocks w r ithin an oar's length of 
your boat, refusing to be coaxed out of the wet. It is 
therefore by their ever-roaming disposition and dainty 
appetites they have become classed the uncertain fish, coy 
and hard to please, for in their tastes they are as 
changeable as in their travels. 
One day they seek one kind of food, and the next they 
must have a change of diet. Perhaps they may take a 
sand worm to-day, but to-morrow you must offer them a 
wriggling blood worm, then in turn they must be coaxed 
and lured with calico crab, shedders, shrimp, or perchance 
a piece of the white part of mackerel belly. To the aver- 
age reader this may seem strange, but it is nevertheless 
true, which experience and practice will conclusively 
prove. They are intelligent enough to know where these 
various baits are natural to the ground, which perhaps 
accounts to a certain degree for their disposition to fol- 
low those different grounds searching for the particular 
kinds of food found there. 
They love best the rocky places, and wherever rocky 
ledges, "niggger heads" or pieces of loose broken rock 
abound; there they will be likely to be found, nosing and 
rooting about, turning the stones over with their tough 
ridged snouts in quest of worms, crabs and other 
Crustacea. 
If you will examine the snout of the striped bass, yon 
will observe a stout ridge of muscle, similar to that of a 
pig. Nature has provided this leathery substance for the 
purpose of rooting in the sand and to turn the stones over 
while they look for choice morsels of food which they 
know are concealed there. 
The smaller bass are quite as voracious as the bigger 
fish and as dainty. A bass of 10 inches is frequently 
known to swallow a very large hook in their hungry en- 
deavor to crowd down a big piece of crab baited on the 
hook for a big fish. The big bass would strike and hook 
himself. It is presumed that the smaller fish suck the bait 
in hook and all and the big bass comes along gives it a 
fierce quick grab, which is called the "strike." There is 
no mistaking the strike from a bass. 
Outfits and Tackle. 
Fishing outfits melt the dollars. Particularly so when 
purchasing striped bass tackle. The better sport with 
bass is in the fall season, when the days and nights are 
cool, and then it becomes necessary to dress with more 
care than in the summer, when the winds blow warmer. 
A lined mackintosh jacket that will cost $5, pair of hip 
ventilated rubber boots, from $5 to $10. used for surf 
fishing ; a pair of mackintosh mitts, $1 ; soft hat or cap. $2. 
and a pair of overalls. $1. fits you for any weather. The 
best rods cost money. A good rod can be purchased for 
$12. If you are an amateur you can get along with a 
cheaper grade until yon become more experienced. Five 
dollars will, in some shops, procure a good enough rod for 
all ordinary uses. Calcutta bamboo, well made, is popu- 
lar with some, but greenheart rods, one or two piece, are 
preferred by the majority of anglers. All ash makes too 
heavy a stick, but a lancewood tip and ash butt makes a 
really serviceable rod. 
A casting rod should be 8 feet long, weight from 16 to 
18 ounces. For still-fishing a lighter rod, and for trolling 
a rod as light as 10 ounces can be used. 
Striped bass are almost as shy as brook trout, and they 
know considerable, too. The rig should be clean, the 
leader and line fine and strong, and the hooks sharp. 
Great care should be exercised when selecting leaders, 
which should be three and four lengths, and three and 
four ply. The first two for shore and still fishing, and 
the latter for trolling. The very best is the cheapest un- 
der all conditions. Some fine fish have been lost through 
parting of a cheap, inferior leader. Soak when you wish 
to strengthen them. 
The line should not necessarily be large, and should be 
of l'nen. Strength is the prime question, not size. The 
Cuttyhunk brand is the most popular line, and the most 
generally used. Three hundred feet should be the length, 
and the size from a nine to eighteen thread, special, ac- 
cording to the style of fishing followed. 
A properly equipped tackle case should contain sinkers 
of various sizes to be used according to the current's 
strength. Do not use heavy lead when a light sinker will 
answer, and perhaps be better adapted to the tideway. 
There are a variety of reels, brass, rubber and nickel, or 
German silver, all rubber and wood. They cost all the 
way from $1 to $50. For our local fishing, a rubber and 
German silver, multiplying click reel, to hold 300 feet of 
line, can be purchased for $10. The beginner can get" a 
fair reel for $5. 
In casting from shore the bait should be thrown out as 
far as possible, and with such skill that little if any splash 
in the water is created. When once hooked, a fair-sized 
bass will fight to the last inch, and if any slack is per- 
il 1 itted the chances for saving the fish are slight. 
There are no set rules for making the cast. 
From close observation of multitudes of salt-water 
anglers the waiter concludes that each man has a style 
peculiarly his own. The main thing is to get the bait out 
as far and as noiselessly as possible without danger or dis- 
comfort to those who are immediately about you. 
The general rule, however, is to reel the lead up to 
about one foot of the rod's tip, grasp the butt of the rod 
with the right hand, the thumb pressed lightly on the 
reel's spool, while the left arm, with the forearm ex- 
tended, firmly grasps the rod above the reel. 
Stand squarely upon your feet, the right foot slightly 
advanced. 
Now swing the rod over, and above the right shoulder, 
until the tip reaches the proper angle, which is detected 
by its balance, and when all is in readiness give it a sharp 
swing, by describing a half-circle, and let the lead shoot 
out. A slight pressure of the thumb prevents the line 
from over-running, and as the leaden sinker reaches the 
water, the rapid run of the line should be instantly 
checked. 
When a heavy lead is used, a woolen thumb stall is 
worn to prevent blistering. In reeling in the line after the 
cast, see to it that it is laid as evenly as possible upon the 
spool, otherwise when a repetition of the cast is made 
kinks or snarls are apt to form in the line, which annoy- 
ing state of affairs js to he studiously a, voided, 
Seaaoni and Bait. 
The season for striped bass fishing in the waters uf and 
adjacent to Curat*!* N«w York, i? suppose^ to op«t fft 
