^0 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April ii, igai. 
The fishing is done either at the mouth of the pool or 
-on the back waters from large rowboats. The boats are 
anchored in the, middle of the pool away from the main 
current, and the fly is cast toward the shore into the 
•outer edge of the eddy. This water moves so fast that 
the line and flies are carried out straight and will follow 
in the circle. At the best fishing time of the day it is 
not uncommon to see from twelve to fourteen boats with 
men in thern casting at one time. The first time one is 
in the pool it is necessary to pay close attention as to 
your position, for if you do not you may be taken into 
the foam and upset, as one man was this year. I saw 
another man with a lady nearly taken under in the same 
way. At the lower end the same danger can be found in 
being carried down the rapids. This happened the last 
day I fished to a lady and gentleman. How they got 
through without upsetting is more than I can understand. 
The color and size of fly appear to make little difference. 
I saw them used from No. ro or 12 hoops to 00, which 
are large enough for bluefish. The Whitney dragon is 
used by some with much success. This is tied on double 
•nought hook with gray wings and I think a cor^ body. 
Opinions differ much as to color. 
( One of the, oldest and best fishermen told me he con- 
sidered the Queen, white-tipped Montreal and Silver 
Doctor the three best flies. The next day another of the 
©Idfef men told me he never used a Silver Doctor. One 
day, while talking about flies, an expert said he would 
like to see the man that fished in the pool with a Par- 
machenee belle. My first five trout, and one weighed s A 
pounds, were taken on this fly. 
All the men agree on the white-tipped Montreal as one 
of the best; after this Montreals, Queen, Silver Doctor 
and Parmachenee belle; beside these a general assortment 
of the standard flies tied on two or more sizes of hook. 
All my fish were taken -on Parmachenee belle, white- 
tipped Montreal, Meehan and Silver Doctor. In Septem- 
ber, which is one of the best months for fishing, from 
4 P. m. to 6:30 P, M. an afternoon in this pool will show 
more big fish than it is possible to imagine, I believe, 
in any other place. At such a time I have seen fish from 
two to seven and eight pounds jumping all over the 
pool, under your boat and over your flies, and no one will 
be able to hook them; they are playing and not feeding, 
and presently one will be hooked, and if a large one, the 
man that has him will have the rest of his evening taken 
up with the fight; the light tackle and strong current 
make it impossible to hurry him, and if he is hurried he 
is in danger of tearing out. 
I cannot make up my mind why these fish take the flv. 
unless it is because it irratates them or that they are at 
play. All the fish I took had an empty stomach. They 
appear as though they do not want it. One day there 
were four large trout under my boat, and I tried" every- 
thing to tempt them. I cast far ahead in the current and 
let my flies sink to about six feet, and thev passed directly 
over their heads, but they would not" look at them 
When the trout are in this condition of mind it is almost 
useless to cast for them, but you never can tell how soon 
they will start to rise> and this is what keeps all the men 
on edge, and all want to be on hand when they come, 
as you might lose your only chance and perhaps hook a 
fish that will keep you at work the rest of the afternoon 
The scenery at the Rangeley Lakes is about the finest 
that I have seen m the State of Maine, and the air most 
invigorating, with pure, cold water. To me, for a man 
that is tired out from overwork and requires a good rest 
and wants sport without hard work, it certainly is an 
ideal spot. F. B G 
Early New England Fishing. 
Boston April S ._The early opening of Sebago and 
some of the other Maine trout and salmon waters has 
taken the fishermen by surprise, and very few have 
started. The weafher has been cold, and other lakes and 
ponds expected to follow in clearing have declined to 
% if \u i e ^ b £ rn ' at this writing, is still ice-bound. 
But the local fishermen are ready. Orders for verv 
strong lmes have come from that section to Boston 
tackle dealers The desire is for lines that will stand 
a strain of at least twenty pounds. Two lines were for- 
warded Saturday that tested a strain of 28 pounds before 
parting Sebattus Pond is clear of ice, and some good 
salmon have been taken. Lewiston and Auburn fisher- 
men are heading that way. Tunk Pond, near Bangor is 
dear of ice, and Dr. Heber Bishop has reports of good 
salmon taken. He starts for that pond, with a Boston 
party early next week. The ice at Clearwater Pond 
lZl F % mmS t &n ( Me - V promises to P Ia >' the fishermen a 
trick. Reports, from there yesterday say that the ice is 
already broken up around the shores, and that the smelts 
are runnmg up the streams. This means that the salmon 
will be- atter them the moment the ice is out Her" 
°s m ? n S e . trouble - T he law makes it legal to fish in 
about a I Maine waters as soon as the ice is out exceS 
in Franklin and Oxford counties. Clearwater Pond is £ 
Franklin county. A party of well known Boston sports- 
Thl T V C k mP tllCre i com ,P leted a few months 
ago. The members say that they fully expect that the 
!?lE! ° Ut and ^t e fish , i , n& aI1 over be ^e the first 
of May this year They will ask the Maine Legislature 
to put their pond on the list of waters legal as soon 
the ice is out Portland fishermen have landed a few good 
salmon at Sebago and the news has started one or twS 
aa°d startel A fr, P ' ^?<*> packed his k? t 
hi/ S?b r ago d lan A dl 0 ?ks F ° Ster *™ ^ ^ the 
Boston fishermen who went to the preserves on the 
cape and elsewhere April 1 have not >et returned any 
good trout catches. One party at least found a lot of 
cold weather and few trout 
Boston, April 6-Fishing i s very slow, spite of the 
early opening of the waters in this State and the lakes 
and ponds nearer the sea coast in Maine Fishing has 
been "mighty poor" at the trout preserves on the Cape 
?n B a the /r th ? 10rC - Plent y of c ° Id weather and pierc- 
ing wmds have been experienced. Along the North Shore 
and m Essex county little has been done in the way 
of full creels The truth of the matter is that it is too 
early, with the weather cold. Three Boston tmut en-" 
thusiasts tramped the streams all through BillerS and 
adjoining towns last week "without a bite " They are 
tforoughly disgusted. In tfew Hampshire trout fiifng 
affairs are not much better. Young Master Hemmehway 
caught a number of trout from the brooks about Nashua 
last week, however, but they all had to be put back, hot- 
being large enough to clear the law. 
Nothing has been done yet at the Bangor salmon pool, 
though the season opened April t. The first Penobscot 
salmon of the season was taken in the weirs at Verona, 
near Buckspoft, Friday. It weighed 20 pounds, and was 
sold to Boston parties for $25. It will be served at a 
club dinner early this week. The ice still hangs in rriOst 
of the Maine and New Hampshire lakes and ponds, with 
no further sighs of breaking up. Colder weather has 
retarded progress, A fine salmon of about four pounds 
weight was sent to a Boston gentleman' Friday, from 
Bristol, N. H. It came from Newfound Lake, though 
the lake is not yet reported open for fishirig> Reporrs 
from Sebago Lake, Me., continue to tell bl cold weather 
and little done in the Way Of salmon catches., £ach night 
the mercury has been down to freezing and below, while 
in the daytime the wind has blown a gale most of the 
time, making fishing impossible. One letter savs that 
the s'melts are running up the streams to spawn, and that 
as soon as they begin to return the salmon will be after 
them. Then the fishing should begin, 
Boston, Mass., April 7— The first salmon of the season 
at the Bangor pool was taken yesterday. It Weighs 20 
pounds. 
Boston, April 7.— Lake Auburn, Me., fully cleared of 
ice yesterday, fourteen days earlier than last year, and 
the earliest clearing of which there is any authentic rec- 
ord. In 1834 that lake is said to have cleared April 14, 
but this year is eight days ahead of that record. I have 
a record for twelve years as follows: In 1890, April 26; 
1891, April 27: 1892, April 21: 1893. May 5; T894, Aoril , 
24; 1895, April 23; 1896, April 25; 1897. April 26; 1898. 
April 18; 1899, April 30; 1900, April 26; 1901. April 20) 
1902, April 6. The season is now open for landlocked 
salmon in what Commissioner H. 0. Stanley considers 
one of the best lakes for those gamy fish in Maine. He 
is sure that there are more and larger salmon there than 
in almost any other waters. Some record breakers have 
been taken in seasons past. This year, a great deal of 
preparation has been made. One local fisherman is said 
tohave on hand . $12 worth of different sorts of bait. 
Still, the weather is cold, and fishing will be under diffi- 
culties. ^ Special 1 . 
CHICAGO AND f He WEST. 
Early Fishing. 
Chicago. 111.. April 5. — The earliest bass water in this 
part of the country is Cedar Lake, in the upper part of 
Indiana. The ice is out of this lake now. and a party 
of more than a dozen Chicago anglers will leave to-day 
for a try at the early bass in that somewhat famous water. 
Mr. H. English will be leader of these early fishers. They 
will probably get some bass. 
Postmaster F, E. Coyne, of the city of Chicago, was 
duck hunting at Fox Lake the end of last week, and did 
some fishing on the same trip. He caught several bass 
while in the act of fishing for pike. 
Mr. H. M. Van Hoesen leaves to-day for Round Lake. 
111., and goes equipped for some fishing, that water also 
being ooen. 
Mr. P. D. Paulsen, of this citv, goes to Fox Lake this 
evening, and thinks that he will find some bass fishing 
there in the channel of the river, or up in the Grass Lake 
precincts. 
Mr. W. F. Brabrook, owner of a hotel on Bass Lake, 
Ind., told me the other day that the ice was out of that 
water, and that he had made arrangements with several 
Chicago gentlemen for a bass fishing trip within the next 
few days. They ought to find the bass out in the shallow 
waters in good numbers, 
o Illinois allows this early bass fishing, and so does In- 
diana. It is to a great extent spawning-ground fishing, 
but I presume one need not get himself altogether dis- 
liked by calling attention to this fact. Every fellow has 
to be his own judge about these matters when the law 
does not act as judge for him. .y" 
Hook "Wounds, 
I was much interested in reading in last week's issue 
of Forest and Stream Mr. Levison's comment on hook 
wounds. Mr. Levison is entirely right in his description 
of the difficulty of extracting a hook which has been 
buried above the barb, as I can testify from fresh per- 
sonal experiences. Within the week I was experimenting 
— and. by the way. with my new fly-rod — with my friend 
Mr. J. D. McLeod, of Milwaukee. In some way. as he 
attempted to pass under my rod, which was over my 
shoulder, he managed to bury one of the fly-hooks over 
the barb in the tip of his ear. It was the slightest twitch 
m the world, but the hook went in almost to the feather?. 
Very calmly he told me to come and "pull it out," and 
I tried to pull it out. but do my best I could not remove 
the hook the way it had gone in. and saw that I was 
causing Mr. McLeod a great deal of pain. I then cut 
off the snell of the hook and called to Mr. Harris, an- 
other friend who was near by. The latter had a knife 
with a sharp blade, which he keeps for emergencies of 
this sort, and between us all we managed to get out the 
hook. Taking hold of the shank. I held the hook tight, 
and Mr. Harris did the necessary surgery. It seemed 
as though he would surely cut the ear entirely off of Mr. 
McLeod's head, and at One time I thought he purposed 
so removing the ear, and taking it into the house with 
mm. there to extract the hook at his leisure. There was 
much effusion of blood, and Mr. McLeod very patiently 
remarked that we must be making a cut very nearly a 
foot long in the side of his head. At last the knife blade 
cut through the cuticle, down along the side of the hook 
and with a little twitch I drew the hook into the knife 
wound and so removed it. It. was an operation painful 
to the sufferer, and none too pleasant for those who per- 
formed jt. We could not get at the hook very well to 
remove it in the proper way, and hence the unnecessary 
nam and bloodshed, all of which Mr. McLeod underwent 
like the gentleman he is. 
On the very next day, as it happened, I had a similar 
. accident myself. At that time I was a mile away from 
my. assistance, t and in some unknown way managed t0 
get a fly-hook, sunk over the barb in the third finfef of 
my right hand,. It was heir the end of. the finger, and 
at first. I thought that I could easily pull the hook Out, 
but although I used what I know to be a considerable 
amount of strength, I simply raised ,up the skin from 
the finger and did not start the hook backward one iota- 
This, of course, was painful, and moreover, bootless. I 
learned that the human skin is as tough as rawhide, much 
stronger than leather, and quite capable of retaining a 
hook which has been sunk through the skin and ovef 
the barb. Fearing that I might break the barb off tnt 
hook, and unable to cut it out with my knife by using my 
left hand, I. started for the house, a walk of about a 
mile; Here I met Mr. McLeod and explained to him that 
it was his turn to operate. 
'Well, we'll, do this thing right, thjs time,''- said fie. 
"The way to do is, to trjm all the feathers off the hook, 
then poke it, out th tough the skin, and pull the shank 
through the hole." , 
With this I quite agreed, but when we came to femdW 
the feathers irom the hook, we fourid thai they .were 
put on there tightly, and that th't pressure on the hook- 
was awkward to the liookee. Therefore, we took the 
hand close Up to the edge of the table, and, having a 
solid support, cut off the feathers and scraped the shellac, 
etc., from the shank of the hook without any ihe0tt= 
vemence to the patient. Then, with the bate fingers fof 
we had no pliers of any kind. I simply turned the hook 
under the skin and pushed the point out through \s 
-VI r. Levison says, this requires a considerable amount d* 
lorce, the skin being very much tougher than ohe would 
suppose However, the point of the hook came through 
so that the barb showed, and it seemed to be a simple rriat- 
II i£ U l \{ he . r * st ft the hook through, the elasticity of 
the skin allowing the. shank .to coine oh through After 
die hook was removed I .stuck the finger into a glass full 
of witch haxel, whete it was allowed to remain for per 
with 3 fe 5 r i,mtes i ? hen 1 tied * u p iB 5 As 
5*0 sa T section, put on my glove, and from that 
finder Mr M T ?< * wherc % ho °k had gone into tlk 
llf 2Li l ¥ c , Le ° d ' s ? ar - whic h jtfc also treated with 
the witch hazel, healed altnOst-as quickly. 
to null ^tu 1 I 3 ' d °"' t try to ^ ut out a h °ok or 
to pull ,< ol ,t Put the free end against a solid support if 
j 0" [ t an . cut off the feathers gently -and then poke the 
hook around and out It hurts very little, and if treated 
with the witch hazel or some similar lotion will prob- 
ably give no trouble at all. Mr. Harris regretted very 
much that he_ was not there to cut the hook out of my 
finger with Ins knife, but he did make one suggestion 
frnn \Tf lb f r ' ng ^^' ,1!ch is that & cuttin * the father* 
10m a fly-hook- m this way, one should not begin at the 
a,l of he hook but at the head. A fly is finifhed with 
he knots a 11 at the head of the hook. Remove the shel lac 
iK-re cut free the binding silk, and most of the feathets 
u-ll drop free at once, and the rest is simple. The shank 
o the hook ought to be well cleaned before it Is pufled 
mo & tlT^ i* " better , to di P a knife P blade 
ZL a \ at •'• and t0 ,mil1ef se the wound and the im- 
bedded hook in hot water, if possible, before the irort U 
drawn through the flesh, . v c uic iron 15 
Mr. Harris has been obliged two or three times to enf 
hooks from ins fingers and Mr. McLeod f tell" me that 
lie once cut one out of his own finger, t presume firtot 
every fisherman has had a similar fxperience Tt is £ 
nL • 1 ) .t The , acci dent is not a very serious one 
Prodded the wound is in a part of the body so that he 
vicftm can readily get at the hook. The ear the chm 
the cheek, the right hand, or any part of the body om 
convenient sight or touch are the worst places in which 
one could have a wound of this sort. piaces . in wh,ch 
Prepared Pork Rind f 
™°fiTcem' er a s r ialties ; ■ ; r,,e pr J« °* s w t Ii 
one's fiLer" Tl d • ? h Lt ,s chea P er *»" dirtying 
cme s angers. They are highly ornamented with strins nf 
red worsted, wh.ch are pulled through after the fashion 
Hartford Building, Chicago, lit. E ' HoUGH - 
;San Francisco Fly-Casting Club. 
1 M ED ^ L c?° nte f S ; Ser ^ s I9 ° 2 ' Saturday, contest No. 2. 
held at. Stow Lake, March 29. Wind, west; weather] 
Event Event 
No. 1, No. 2, 
lfistance, Accuracy, 
Acc. % 
Event No. 8.- 
Del. X 
Net< 
88 
89 
79.2 
83.7 
80.10 
84.11 
95 
83.4 
89.2 
79.8 
80.10 
80.3 
88.4 
77.6 
82.11 
98 
80.10 
88.5 
S3. 8 
82.6 
88.1 
90.8 
75 
82.10 
97 
75.10 
86.5 
85 
60.10 
72.11 
88 
77.6 
82.9 
Event 
No. 4, 
Lure 
Casting 
65.9 
72.1 
87.6 
E. A. Mocker... 98 85.8 
H. Battu S5 89,4 
G, C. Edwards.. 99 91.4 
W. E. Brooks... 98 93 
H. E, Skinner.. .. 88 
H, C. Golcher...l22 91.8 
T. Brorherton...l06 94.8 
T. C. Kierulff.. 80 83.4 
P J Tormey 76 73.8 
Reed 96 90.8 
J Lawrence 73.4 
\V D Mansfield, . 91. S 
Judges, Golcher. and Reed; referee, Kierulff; clerk 
\Vilson. 
95.1 
93.8 
All communications intended for Fors»t»and Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Pnbjishinj Q<j„ a^d, 
tt?t tt! *?y iodividtt*! coneec*^ ^ta. the 1ff»% 
