Tan. 25. 1902.) 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
71 
April, with what is known as the spring run of bass. 
Some have been taken during the first weeks of that 
month. 
After a few weeks' intercession the summer or school 
1>a« appear, and after these follow the fall run of bass, 
which take the hook until December. 
These seasons and runs, however, are governed largely 
by the state of the weather and various other causes. The 
conditions most favorable for successful bass fishing are 
cloudy days and dark nights, when the water is disturbed 
and roilly. Big bass rarely touch the most attractive lure 
when the water is clear and smooth. This conclusion has 
been drawn from actual experience while fishing from 
shore at Liberty Island. One night, when the moon was 
shining brightly, and the water was smooth and clear, the 
writer fishing there, had indifferent success, and so it 
proved on other bright nights. On the other hand, one 
night the wind howled, and the tain fell in torrents, while 
all about was utter darkness, except the flickering of our 
irght lamps. The water was turbulent, and the shore was 
being pounded by the waves. It was necessary to he 
wrapped in oil skins. We could not see where to cast 
our hait, so we just let the sinker go straight out to fall 
where it would. On the last of the ebb tide we got eleven 
fine bass, the smallest weighing 3V2 pounds, and the larg- 
est 10 pounds. We lost some others, as we could not see 
well how to land the fish. While they did bite, the sport 
was full of keen enjoyment, as their strike was fierce and 
furious, partaking of the nature of the night and storm. 
Our subsequent experience proves that n*ght fishing 
is the most productive for fish, and they seem to be the 
bigger kind, who perhaps are allowed to go out alone 
o' nights. 
When the surf pounds the shore, thickening the waters 
and turning over the various Crustacea upon which the 
bass feed, they forsake their fair weather hiding places 
to seek food along the rocky ledges, and under these con- 
ditions you will be able to pick them up, as they are bound 
to take the baited hook. 
Different Baits. 
Some anglers claim that striped bass like as bait first, 
the blood worm, then the sand worm, "shedder" crab, 
shrimp and "shedder" lobster, in their order named. 
That's all very good so far as it goes. It sounds nice, but 
is it sensible? Admitting these peculiar fish have par- 
ticular tastes, they do not have a set menu for their guid- 
ance. After an experience covering a number of years, in 
which the writer has carefully studied the habits and habi- 
tat of striped bass, and comparing this experience with the 
experience of numerous brother fishermen, the natural 
deduction is that it depends largely on the formation of the 
grounds fished to prove the likes or dislikes regarding 
the taste of the bas& for any particular kind of bait, and 
the most successful angler is he who. familiar with the 
natural product of any particular spot, uses the bait which 
is found there. 
If calico crab, then that will prove the most taking 
lure. Should the shores yield a crop of blood worms, that 
bait will entice the greatest number of fish. If shrimp 
are found in plenty, use shrimp, and if sand worms are 
dug from the soil, use the latter when they are found, and 
so on with all varieties of bait. 
Striped bass are rovers of the sea. They know where 
these creatures thrive, and they seek them in their hiding 
places just the same as the birds of the air visit a rice 
field for rice, a pea field for peas, or a buckwheat patch 
for the grain they know will be found in each particular 
place. 
Shad roe is capital bass bait, particularly for surf fish- 
ing. Cut the roe into small pieces about 2 inches square 
and tie up in thin muslin or gauze bags, when it is ready 
to be tied on the hook with exceedingly fine linen thread. 
The roe of the shad can be preserved all summer by 
tying a string loosely around the pair of them (they 
must not be broken a particle), and suspended in a large- 
mouthed glass jar. when melted tallow is poured over 
them until the jar is filled, which must then be tightly 
corked. Keep in a cold cellar, and when the fall bass come 
in you will have fresh shad roe to offer them, of which 
they are exceedingly fond. 
An angler relating his experience, says : 'T tried at 
Riverdale. on the Hudson, one fine morning : my tackle 
was of superior quality, and the best of bait that could be 
purchased. I did not get a strike. I tried the same 
place under other conditions of the weather two days 
after, when the weather was foggy, drizzly and altogether 
inclement. I baited with two large blood worms, made my 
cast, laid down my rod and waited. Soon the reel com- 
menced to click, the fish was on. but my carelessness lost 
the prize. Reeling in and rebaiting the almost bare 
hook. I made a cast into the eddy and had a fierce strike 
immediately. It took me more than fifteen minutes to 
land a fine bass. I got six more on that tide and stopped. 
I conclude that the finest weather does not always yield 
the finest fish or fishing so far as taking a number of 
fish is concerned." * 
Bass Fishing Grounds. 
For twenty-five cents Libert}' Island is reached hourly 
from the Battery. The fishing there is from the landing 
on the ebb tide. On the west side of the island the fish- 
ing is best from the beach. Sandy Hook possesses some 
excellent spots. Here it is necessary to cast the bait just 
outside the breakers, about 100 feet. Since the Gov- 
ernment reservations is there, not every one is permitted 
to fish along the beach. 
Along the New Jersey coast from the Hook to Barne- 
gat, particularh' at Ocean Beach and South Elberon. 
striped bass are taken surf fishing, from 2 to 20 pounds, 
and sometimes they exceed the latter weight. For trolling 
or still-fishing from small boats, the shores of Staten 
Island abound with many fishing points — New Dorp, 
South Beach. Gifford's. Eltingville. Huguenot. Annadale. 
Princess Bay. and Tottenville. particularly in the fall. 
At Gifford's fish the sods on the outer beach, about 20 
feet from the shore, placing the bait by casting upon the 
sods in 2 feet of water, always on the flood tide. 
"The Pot." about one-quarter mile distant from Liberty 
Island, affords good fishing. Trolling about Robbin's 
Reef around Sunken Island, along the shores of Staten 
Island from the ''Dumb Beacon" to "The Willows," and 
from there down as far as Sailors' Snug Harbor, and re- 
turning from "The Crib," in, out einU around the "Nigger 
Heads," which dot the Jersev shore, generally yields some 
fish. 
"The Sods," off Fitzgerald's, and Gifford's, S. I., are 
noted good grounds. Many fine bass have been taken 
from the rocks along the shores of Eltingville. Usually 
some fine catches are made from the fishing points located 
between 125th and 155th streets, North River. Numerous 
bass have been caught from the piers at Whitehall street, 
where permission must be obtained, and along the walls 
of the battery, between the bath houses, plenty of bass 
are caught from small boats. 
A place considered by some as among the best is near 
Buckwheat Island, in Staten Island Sound, within easy 
reach. A small creek there running in from the shore is 
a spot where bass are almost always found. The 
"Hedges." in the Raritan River, above the bridge at Perth 
Amboy. are good. A few bass are taken in the Railway 
River at Treinley. In former years fishing was good at 
the long bridge of the Central Railroad over Newark Bay, 
but it has deteriorated very much. Hell Gate was once 
famous for striped bass. There are some fine fish to be 
had there now by trolling. If not familiar with the cur- 
rents and eddies, which rush and whirl over and about 
the rocks, it is advisable to have a hoatman. Some good 
fish are taken in Bowery Bay. also Jamaica Bay, piers at 
Coney Island. Gravesend Bay affords good fishing. 
Along the "Diker" some fairly good fish are caught by 
trolling. Some fishermen content themselves fishing from 
the pier on the Brooklyn side of the Bridge. It is true 
that during the season one or two large fish are caught 
there. As a rule, however, they do not get many over 2 
pounds. It is acknowledged the smaller fish caught there 
have an oily flavor from the polluted waters. 
Striped bass fishing nowadays is not what it was some 
years ago. Anglers attribute this to the net fishermen, 
the pollution of the waters from various causes, and the 
increase of navigation. 
Along the Hudson River, at Fort Washington, Yon- 
kers. Tarrytown and Ossining. anglers who are familiar 
with the fishing points in the vicinity of those places, 
sometimes have good luck. On the Sound, at Stamford 
and New Rochelle. where trolling is followed, if you have 
a good boatman, you will be apt to strike some fine speci- 
mens of striped bass. 
The writer has, in this short story of his favorite of all . 
the game fish that swim in salt waters, endeavored to 
point out the best and easiest way of obtaining the best 
results when starting out to capture him. 
These lines have been written as the writer would talk 
to brother fishermen, particularly the young beginner, and 
it is hoped they will prove of some benefit to that class 
at least, and of interest to the older hands at the business. 
Theodore Biedinger. 
New York. Oty 
Fish and Fishing. 
Cousin Trout or Chivin. 
Chuck-a-luck inquires in your issue of the 4th inst. 
respecting the identity of the chivin. mentioned by 
Thoreau in his "Maine Woods," as associated with the 
brook trout of the upper west branch of the Penobscot : 
and. doubtless misled by the common application to it of 
the name of cousin trout, inquiries if it is not a stib- 
species of Corcgomts, thus assuming "that they have the 
adipose dorsal fin which would relate them to the trout." 
The fish in question is neither a Corcgonus, nor yet has 
it an adipose fin or any other legitimate claim to relation- 
ship to the trout, not even as a cousin. It is no more 
of a trout than the bass, which, however, passes for a 
trout in some of the Southern States, and no moce en- 
titled to the name of cousin trout than a pike-perch is to 
that of salmon. Chuck-a-luck' s last guess at the identity 
of the fish is his best. Yes, Thoreau's chivin is a 
cyprinoid, and not far removed from the variety known 
in Connecticut woods as dace. The dace belongs to the 
genus Lcuciscus, and is in fact one of its chief types. 
This is not. apparently, however, the particular fish de- 
scribed by Thoreau. 
In the passage quoted by Chuck-a-luck from "The 
Maine Woods." the famous hermit of Walden calls it the 
silver roach. Your correspondent well remarks that "the 
nomenclature of that early period cannot always be de- 
pended upon to identify specimens." and to this may be 
added the statement that vernacular names are often, in 
all periods, extremely misleading. So in order to arrive 
at the identity of this particular fish of Thoreau's, we 
drop for the present his names "chivin, silvery roaches, 
cousin trout or what not," and examine the scientific 
title applied to it. which he gives as Lcucisci pulchclli. 
It is useful to bear in mind that "The Maine Woods" 
was written in 1846. and interesting to recall the fact 
that Horace Greeley paid $25 to the author for the manu- 
script of a good portion of it. sending him another $25 
later on. when he sold it for $75 to the Union Magazine, 
which printed it in 1848. The dates are important, be- 
cause it was in 1839. or seven years before Thoreau 
wrote his description of the fish, that Storer, in his 
"Fishes of Massachusetts," applied the term Lcuciscus 
pulchcllus to the fish now known in various parts of the 
United States and Canada as the fall fish, silver chub, 
chivin, cousin trout, wind fish, corporal, gudgeon and 
ouitouche — the latter being a French-Canadian spelling 
of the Indian name. Gunther calls the American chub 
Lcuciscus corporalis, Jordan and Gilbert in 1883 wrote it 
Scmotilus bullaris, under which name I described the fish 
in 1896 in "The Ouananiche and Its Canadian Environ- 
ment." In their recent elaborate "Catalogue of the 
Fishes of North America." Jordan and Evermann adopt 
Mitchill's nomenclature Scmotilus corporalis. Gunther, 
it is true, applies the name Lcuciscus pulchcllus indis- 
criminately to the North American fall fish (or chub) 
and the dace or. roach, but when Thoreau called it the 
silver roach. I have no doubt that he simply employed the 
vernacular name of what is usually known as the chub, 
especially as he knew the value of the scientific title used 
by him. It may interest Chuck-a-luck to know that one 
of the Southern chubs has been named by Dr. Jordan 
Scmotilus atroinactilatus thorcauianus, in honor of the 
New England naturalist and poet, who was "the first to 
say a good word for the study of cyprinida;." and who 
once remarked. "I am the wiser in respect to all knowl- 
edge and the better qualified for all fortunes for knowing 
that tlwro js ^ minnow in, the brook, McthinM I have 
need even of his sympathy and to be his fellow in a 
degree. I would know even the number of their fin 
rays, and how many scales compose the lateral line.' 
The poet had not much need of the flesh of the fish, which 
he described as a chub and found to taste "like brown 
paper, salted." Canon Kingsley's account of the flesh of 
the English chub is even more forcible. "You may make 
a most accurate imitation of him," he says, "by taking one 
of Palmer's patent candles, wick and all, stuffing it with 
needles and split bristles, and then stewing the same im 
ditch water." I well remember a very different appre- 
ciation of the flesh of the American chub from the pen 
of our lamented friend, A. N. Cheney, which appeared! 
in the columns of Forest and Stream only a few yeav-- 
ago. Mr. Cheney, like many another American angler,, 
found that the chub was not bad eating at all wher* 
taken out of cool water, and well cooked immediately 
afterward. 
I quite agree with Chuck-a-luck that "as they grow 
heavy and take bait, it is well enough for anglers to be- 
come acquainted with them." They not only take bait, 
but in northern waters take the fly as well, and in parts 
of Labrador, as well as in the St. Maurice and Lake St. 
John districts of Canada, they are a veritable nuisance to 
the trout fisherman, who must keep his flies very actively 
in motion if he does not wish them to be seized by the 
chub or ouitouche (pronounced wcetoosh). The chub is 
less active in taking the fly than the trout, and usually 
sucks it in under the water. When hooked, it puts up at 
first a very stout fight, but takes less time to exhaust 
than a trout of equal size. Its flesh is often used as a 1 
bait for other fish in Canada. Both there and in Maine 
it attains a very large size, often being taken up to five 
and six pounds in we : ght. When trout are scarce or sin 
about rising, very fair sport may often be had by north- 
ern anglers in fly-fishing for the Lcucisci pulchclli of 
Thoreau. 
The origin of the name chivin. applied by him to the 
chub. is. perahps. interesting enough to be recorded here. 
In France they call the chub echevin, or alderman, be- 
cause of its generous proportions, and hence the contrac- 
tion chev-in or chivin. E. T. D. Chambers. 
Maine Ice Fishing. 
Boston, Jan. 18. — Again there is trouble in Maine con- 
cerning ice fishing. The general, or old law, permits fish- 
ing through the ice on and after Feb, 1 for trout and 
landlocked salmon, but includes inhabitants of the State 
only, and the fish so taken for use in their own homes. 
Pickerel and perch are included, of course, and on most 
of the lakes and ponds fishing for pickerel is allowed at 
all times. Attention has been drawn to this pickerel 
fishing, however, and special laws have been passed con- 
cerning some lakes and ponds, not so much for the pro- 
tection of the pickerel as to save the landlocked salmon 
and trout, it having been found to be impossible to save 
the latter fish, if pickerel fishing is allowed during close 
time. Much legislation has been had, and the power 
has been given the Commissioners of late years to close 
any and all waters to any and all fishing. A good many 
lakes, ponds and streams have been closed by edict of 
the Commissioners. But it transpires that it is almost 
impossible to know what waters are closed to winter 
fishing, and what waters are not. A special law has been 
passed concerning a number of ponds in Oxford county. 
This special law of 1901 reads: "Ice fishing is per- 
mitted, in accordance with the general law. in the fol- 
lowing named lakes and ponds, situated wholly or partly 
in Oxford county," including four ponds in Hiram, five 
ponds in Denmark, eight ponds in Fryeburg. a number in 
Brownfield, Porter and other towns, making twenty-five 
or thirty ponds in all. Now the question arises. Does 
the above language close all the above waters to pickerel 
and other fishing, or imply that such fishing is prohibited 
till after Feb. r. Formerly pickerel, perch and other fish, 
except landlocked salmon and trout, were allowed to 
be taken in some of the above ponds at least. The trou- 
ble seems to have come from careless legislation, or 
edict of the Commissioners, having closed certain lakes 
and ponds and opened certain others. The individual 
who proposes to fish for pickerel in Maine waters before 
Feb. 1. when the general law comes in force, or even for 
trout and landlocked salmon in certain waters after that 
date, will need a special digest of the Maine fish and game 
laws. Even the advice of the Commissioners is not 
always certain. The question recently arose as to the 
legality of fishing in Taylor Pond, in Auburn. A young 
man wrote Mr. Carleton, and received reply that the pond 
was not closed, according to the published game and fish 
laws. This somewhat alarmed certain citizens who had 
taken a good deal of interest in restocking that pond, 
These people again applied to the Fish and Game Com- 
missioners' office with the following result : 
"Dear Sir — Referring to your communication of the 
13th. relative to fishing in Taylor Pond, Androscoggin 
county, I beg to say that the misunderstanding in re- 
gard to the law on this pond arises from the fact that 
rules and regulations, closing it absolutely to ice fishing, 
were adopted by the Commissioners after the book of 
laws was published, hence the reason this law does not 
appear therein." 
In a copy of Rules and Regulations will be found the 
following : 
"Section 1. — In addition to the general law of the Stale 
relating to fishing, it shall be unlawful to fish for, take or 
catch any kind of fish in Taylor Pond in Auburn, in the 
County of Androscoggin, from Oct. 1 to the time the ice 
is substantially out of said pond the following spring. 
"Sec. 2. — These rules and regulations shall take effect 
Oct. 1. A. D. 1901. and continue in force for years there- 
after." 
It seems that Mr. Carleton had overlooked these rules 
and regulations. It is also true that a great deal of confu- 
sion exists concerning fishing on certain waters in Pis- 
cataquis county. Special laws were passed concerning 
several of these lakes and ponds : one concerning Boyd 
Lake, in 1901. would seem to apply the general law to all 
the other lakes and ponds, not specially provided for. 
The Rangeleys and the contingent lakes and ponds are 
considered to be closed to all ice fishing at all times, while 
Moosehead is open to ice fishing for trout and land- 
lucked salmon under the general law, commencing Feb. 1, 
Concerning the '|a,ke§ iVU.d, pwd* in Androscoggin and 
