May io, 1902.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
369 
ing, or at least keeping in mind for that trip which you 
are going to take after a while. 
"In the early days Saginaw anglers used to frequent the 
streams around Farwell," says he. "There the first trout 
were planted in Michigan over thirty years ago. Now, 
probably more go to Baldwin than anywhere else. Bald- 
win Creek and the numerous branches of the Pere Mar- 
quette River are attractive spots for the trout fisherman. 
Brook trout as well as that gamy fighter, the rainbow 
trout, are to be found in the Pere Marquette. North 
of Baldwin many streams are reached by the old West 
Michigan division of the Pere Marquette. One of the 
nearest and best is the Little Manistee, formerly a grand 
grayling stream; now, not a grayling is to be found in 
it. ' Three miles west of Baldwin is the famous Pere 
Marquette Club, many members of which are residents of 
Saginaw. The Kinne Creek Club, as it is more familiarly 
known, is second to none in the United States, and is 
almost as well known as the famous Ristigouche Club of 
salmon .anglers in eastern Quebec. 
"There are also numerous fine trout streams reached 
by the D. & M. in the Alpena and Tawas districts ; prob- 
ably the grandest stream in Michigan, the Au Sable, lies 
in the pathway of the M. C. R. R. One can leave here on 
the sleeper at night and be on that stream at daylight next 
morning. It was formerly a grayling stream; now a 
grayling is rarely found in its waters, but instead is the 
grand fontinalis and magnificent rainbow, both planted 
fish and not native to the stream. The rainbow trout is 
not much of a fighter when taken away from its native 
haunts of the Pacific coast, in the majority of streams, but 
in two of Michigan's streams, the Pere Marquette and 
the Au Sable, it seems to show the full vigor of its native 
environment, and often attains a weight of seven or eight 
pounds. 
"The Michigan Central crosses the Au Sable at Gray- 
ling. West of Grayling the headwaters of the Manistee 
river are reached. This stream is a poor trout stream, 
not naturally gifted to ever be a good trout stream, but 
it is an ideal grayling stream, and a few of these magnifi- 
cent fish are still to be found; very few, just enough, if 
they were left alone, to, in the course of a few years, prob- 
ably restock it. It is to be regretted that the effort made 
at the last session of the Legislature to have the upper 
waters of the Manistee set apart as an unfished stream 
for a period of three years for the purpose of protecting 
the grayling, failed of passage. It probably is too late 
now to save this grand fish from total extinction, but it 
is to be hoped that the next session of the Legislature 
will try and remedy the mistake made by its predeces- 
sors, and not let the grayling go the way of the huffalo, 
the wild pigeon and the wild turkey. 
"The Fontinalis Club, numbering among its members 
some of Saginaw's residents, is on a magnificent fishing 
stream, reached from Vanderbilt; the club house is of the 
log cabin type. A fish hatchery is maintained on the 
club preserve. 
"The Sturgeon, Black, Pine and Pigeon are all good 
trout streams of this northern Michigan district." 
Among the Saginaw gentlemen to start to-day or yes- 
terday for the trout streams are the following: B. W. 
McCausland and Alfred Norris left Wednesday for the 
Au Sable; Thomas Whittier and R. S. Campbell will go 
to the same stream. A party comprising judge E. L. 
Beach, J. P, Sheridan, V. Kindler and J. N. Dietz will 
go in a few days to some place to be decided on later. 
Ed. Robinson. A. F. Cook and Al. Burwitz go to the 
south branch of the Au' Sable. R. J. Birney and Andrew 
Scott are booked for the main Au Sable River. 
Among the other trout anglers who will make an early 
start are Major Farnham Lyon, George B. Morley, 
Thomas A. Harvey, W. B. Mershon, C. H. Davis, J. B. 
Peter, R. Crofoot. George Grant, E. P. Stone, W. R. 
Morse, Ralph Loveland. Thomas Kerr, V. Goddard, Ira 
Bowers, G. M. Stark, Edward McCarty. Postmaster 
W. C. Linton, Prosecuting Attorney John F. O'Keefe, 
Thomas L. Kerr, Emil F. Achard and Edward M. Dennis 
are also northbound. The latter party of five go to Valen- 
tine Station, thence take wagon across to a camp on the 
head of the Black River. Of all the spots which I see 
mentioned as the objectives of these Michigan or Chicago 
parties, I should rather have a look at this Black River. 
I got a quiet tip a couple of years ago that if a fellow 
wanted a grayling real bad, so bad that he had to have 
him, he might do worse than get over into this very same 
Black River country. 
The First Trout. 
Valentine reminds one of the Indian River and Mullet 
Lake country of the upper end of the peninsula. While 
at a canoe camp on the latter body of water some years 
ago. I made a special trip to a small and horribly brushy 
stream called locally Nigger Creek, which I remember as 
being everything that a trout stream ought to be, and 
simply the most impossible place that ever tantalized the 
soul of a man who wanted to cast a fly or even to plunk 
a comfortable worm. There is a tradition that Nigger 
Creek was one of the first streams planted with trout by 
the State Commission many years ago. There are trout 
in it to-day, for the very good reason that it is so over- 
grown with brush and so utterly and unredeemably lost in 
big cedar swamps that the trout can not by any means be 
gotten out of it. 
It was somewhat to my surprise, while talking with 
Mayor Harrison, of Chicago, this week — himself known 
to he a skillful and widely traveled fly-fisherman — to 
hear him say that the first brook trout he ever caught 
in all his life was taken some twenty years or so ago in 
this same dirty, crooked, overgrown little Nigger Creek. 
He was a young man then, and was stopping at some re- 
sort near by, where he got his direction perhaps 
much as I did later to Nigger Creek. He saw some good 
trout in the creek, just as I did, and he tried, just as I did 
many years later, to get his hook down between the 
logs and brush to where it could touch water. He felt 
a tug, gave a jerk, and landed a trout. His first one, up in 
the top of a cedar tree. Thence it fell to earth, dropping 
far down below a cedar windfall, and rolling itself into 
a black cinder in the ashes which underlay the windfall. 
Thence it was dug out, washed and gloated over by its 
captor. "I was alone," said Mayor Harrison, smiling 
happily at the thought of his first trout, "all alone there 
in the woods, but I gave a yell that you might have heard 
clear to Mullet Lake. I thought that trout was the pret- 
tiest thing that ever grew on earth." 
That was in the grayling days, and the beginner in 
Nigger Creek was to know very many happy days on the 
well-stocked streams of Michigan, where he had years of 
sport with grayling and their successors, the brook trout. 
I suppose every man remembers his first trout as vividly 
as does Chicago's Mayor. My own was caught far down 
in New Mexico, upon an Apache reservation where I cer- 
tainly had no right to be at that time, though the sport 
of taking trout made us forget all about Apaches and 
everything else. I know I yelled when I caught my first 
one. I reckon everybody does. 
La Crosse. 
Don't overlook La Crosse, Wis., this summer in your 
plans. This pleasant little city, as I have often men- 
tioned, is a very convenient point to touch when one is 
after some of that splendid bass fishing on the Mississippi 
River, as well as perhaps some of the best woodcock 
shooting to be had in the West. Neither should one for- 
get the La Crosse River, especially in its course near to 
the town of Sparta. Some eight or ten miles northeast of 
the latter point are the falls of the La Crosse, prettily 
named the Trout Falls, where rumor- hath it a goodly fish 
may now and again be taken. The run is said to be on 
now, and the trout may be seen leaping at the falls. 
For Wisconsin. 
For Wisconsin remember the Prairie for May, the On- 
tonagon near Watersmeet for June, the upper Brule for 
July, and above all the Peshtigo for August. The latter 
stream, if rightly worked, will yield some of the best rain- 
bow fishing to be had in the West. It is not so good early 
in the summer. 
The returns from the Prairie this week are not of the 
best. Charlie Antoine reports that the low, bright stage 
of water still prevails, the fish not showing much activity 
in fly taking as yet, though he took some good ones lower 
down the river than the place 'of catching forty-five re- 
ported one day last week. I sent Mr. Brazelle, of the 
Board of Education, up there yesterday, and to-day sent 
Mr. W. T. Davis, Chicago representative of the Kansas 
City Star, to the same place. The latter says he is "all 
played out," and "just must get out into the woods." 
We've all been that way. The Prairie will fix him up. 
Bass Season Beginning. 
May 3. — Some returns are in from fishermen who have 
been out trying for the bass in different waters adjacent 
to Chicago, and the general opinion is that the late 
warm rain and the present spell of bright, warm weather 
will start the bass moving pretty soon, though as yet 
nothing much is doing. A few fish have been taken at 
Cedar Lake, Ind., and the report is that the bass are 
nearly done spawning in that water, though this seems 
hardly possible. At Bass Lake, further south in Indiana, 
some fair fish were taken this week. Mr. Bellows, men- 
tioned as having tried that water, fished in a gale of 
wind, yet managed to land four fine bass, each over three 
pound's, one of 4%, and one of pounds; certainly a 
very good average. 
To the north here, in the Fox Lake chain, better luck 
is expected for this coming week than has been had 
yet by anybody. Mr. C. S. Lawrence, of this city, went 
up there, to the much-fished Lake Villa region, and tried 
Cedar Lake, the pond-like sheet of water right up against 
the railway track there, and was lucky enough to kill 
a nine pound pickerel. He had a strike from the mate 
of the fish, also, but it broke away. He thought it quite 
as good a fish as the one he landed. 
W. H. English is going fishing himself this week, but 
at this date has not decided just where to go. Among 
others who will leave to-morrow for a trip to some one 
or other of our bass waters are C. S. Lawrence, Fred 
Peet, Frank Smith, John Nasher and Tom Watters. 
Sick. 
Mr. E. R. Letterman, so long secretary of the Chicago 
Fly-Casting Club, is sick in bed with inflammatory 
rheumatism, certainly a bad thing for a fly-fisherman to 
have, especially at this season of the year, when the 
streams are so inviting to the wader. 
The Evergreen. 
Charlie Antoine is going to retire from business next 
week and go fishing for the rest of the spring. His last 
plan is to go to Parish, Wis., next week, then to drop 
down to Antigo, and go inland, thence thirty-two miles 
to the headwaters of the Evergreen, which he thinks 
ought to be good this spring. It may be remembered 
that mention was made of this stream last year in these 
columns as one offering very good trout fishing; which 
is to say, trout fishing with the fly. 
How to Disjoint a Rod. 
If upon the trout stream or elsewhere the ferrules of 
your brand new rod, the rod dearer to you than the apple 
of your eye, the rod for which you paid $30 coin of the 
realm, become stuck solid together, then let not your heart 
be troubled. There are all ways of doing things. For in- 
stance, my own new rod became thus fastened in the 
first and second joints, upon the Prairie River. We tried 
to gull it apart, each and every one of us, using an amount 
of strength which would have torn a more poorly built 
fabric quite to pieces. Do our best, we could not start 
the ferrules. I do not know what caused the joints to 
stick in this way. The rod went together with smooth- 
ness and precision, then we took it out to practice in the 
evening. It might have been the dampness of the air. it 
might have been some caked oil upon the ferrule, but 
whatever the reason was we could not get these two joints 
apart. The rod stood thus for two days, and I thought I 
should have on my hands the problem of how in the 
world to get it home. It is only in such cases as this that 
we realize how limited are the spaces in civilized life. 
Take a rod disjointed and in three pieces, and you can 
carry it anywhere. Add one of those pieces to another 
and there is no place that you can take it whatever. It 
will not go into a sleeping car, you cannot get it into a 
carriage, you cannot send it by express, and, in fact, you 
have to sit up all night with it and mourn over it all day. 
Nonetheless do not despair. My friend is somewhat curi- 
ous in tackle learning, and counseled me to take heart in 
regard to the situation, ''We'll get it apart somehow," 
said he. Mrs. Cone suggested kerosene, and although 
this seemed unwisdom, we grasped at it as the last chance. 
A little of this universal liquid was carefully placed in 
around the top of the recalcitrant lower ferrule. Then 
we set the rod up in the corner of the room to dry out 
over night. In the morning of the next day, when we 
had to go home, the rod was apparently tight as ever, yet 
with one good straight, determined pull, pop ! it came 
apart, and all was saved. If you meet with similar acci- 
dent, take.your time, do not twist the rod. and if you can- 
not get it apart by heating the lower ferrule, as we did, or 
by a strong pull, then try kerosene and a night in the dry 
air, and then a straight, strong pull in the morning. 
As to Tying Flies. 
The height of bliss attained by the man who can build 
his own fly-rod is vouchsafed to very few of this earth. 
The man who can build both a fly-rod and the fly to go 
upon it is one of a still smaller circle. Yet one imagines 
that there be many anglers who can learn to build flies, 
even if they cannot build fly-rods. A Certain Person 
has conceived the notion that she can learn to tie flies, and 
I rather fancy that I could learn to do as much myself in 
the course of a dozen years or so. Be all that as it may, 
we did tie flies at Lossie's place on the Prairie, and tied 
flies which proved equal to killing trout. Nothing in our 
books quite covered the bill for these dark-bodied and 
light-winged flies which we saw the trout were taking. 
Whereupon madame executed upon a No. 10 hook a pea- 
cock body, a hackle cut from a squirrel's tail and wings 
made from the shoulder feathers of a widgeon. Perhaps 
the squirrel tail did it, for this sort of hackle moves most 
beautifully in the water. At any rate we found this fly 
to be about as good a killer as we had. Cow-dung and 
grizzly-king also did a turn. For myself, I joyed very 
much in a would-be Cahill fly, with a body made of fuzzy 
wool, with curious hackles and with wings which are not 
writ down in the canons of the handicraft. If one have 
ambitions in the fly-tying line, let him cherish them, for 
they are of all ambitions most easily capable of gratifica- 
tion. Moreover, there is no pleasure quite so keen as that 
of killing a trout upon a fly which you have made with 
your own fair hands. 
Small Hooks. 
We discovered with unmistakable benefit on the Prairie 
that small flies are the ones which do the killing. In fact, 
the small hooks have come to stay in this part of the 
world. On a wild stream the No. 6 hook is all right, 
and it may *be dressed bright and gaudy. Fish such a 
stream a dozen years and you will do better to drop down 
to a No. 8. Fish it another dozen years and you will 
do better to drop down to a No. 12 or 14. Hooks Nos. 
12 or 14 are the most popular ones now in the southern 
peninsula in the more fished streams, and I think our 
tackle dealers would do well to lay in larger stocks of 
these sizes in preference to the 6's and 8's which constitute 
the bulk of their stock in trade. 
If one will examine his flies not only in the show case, 
but also in the water, he may learn several things. In the 
first place he will find that nearly all the trout flies are 
hackled too heavily and are built with wings containing 
too much feather. A fly which in the hand looks pretty 
and concise will, when placed in the water, take on the 
fashion of a dried apple, and increase to mayhap twice 
its original size. The hackles will expand, the wings will 
fluff out, and the whole thing will take on the ways of a 
door mat rather than of a bug. You will do well to 
carry with you a pair of scissors, wherewith to trim off 
wings and hackles. You will perhaps do better if you in- 
sist upon having smaller flies, or failing to obtain these, 
learn to tie them yourself. 
Mr. E. G. Taylor, a trout fisherman of experience, 
states that he has found the squirrel hackle, over green 
or dark body, no wings at all being used excepting the 
squirrel tail, to be a killing form of fly for trout. Such 
a fly is very "live" in the water, and when handled prop- 
erly by the rod, creeps and crawls about in most fas- 
cinating manner. 
A friend of mine, bringing up the question of small 
flies and modest ties, says that he has found that trout 
which have been planted in a stream are always more 
notional regarding the flies than are the native trout in a 
wild stream which has not been stocked. I think the 
experience of others Will bear him out in this assertion. 
In the Thunder Bay streams of Michigan we found flies 
like the jungle-cock, grasshopper, Parmachene-belle, etc., 
to be good killers. On the Prairie one would fish a long 
time before he would kill a trout on any one of these, 
and probably this is the experience of a great many 
streams which have been steadily planted and also 
steadily fished. The little Pine River, Messrs. 
Miller and McLeod's preserved stream in Wis- 
consin, which I have so often mentioned, is, I think, some- 
thing of an anomaly. The small and dark flies do not 
seem to work there, and the No. 6 hook with such flies as 
silver-doctor, grizzly-king, etc., seems to be most desirable 
there. It is only fair to say, however, that the smaller 
flies, such as 12 and 14, have not been tried out there so 
thoroughly. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago, 111. 
The Pennsylvania Ttout Limit* 
Clearfield, Pa., May 3— Editor Forest and Stream: 
I notice in this week's issue of Forest and Stream a 
communication signed by M. Chill, in which he gives 
an account of Charles Northrup having caught on April 
29 150 trout in ten hours on Shrader's Creek, Pa. Mr. 
Northrup might do well to look at the act of Assembly 
passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature and approved May 
29, 1901, which prohibits any one person from catching 
in any one day more than fifty trout, and which must not 
be less than six inches m length. The penalty for viola- 
tion of this law is ten dollars for each fish captured over 
and above fifty. If this statement of Mr. Chill be cor- 
rect, Mr. Northrup is indebted to the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania, or the Fish Commissioners, rather, in the 
neat sum of $1,000, and I desire to call the attention of the 
Fish Commissioners to this letter. I like to fish for trout 
myself, have had something to do with fish and game 
protection in Pennsylvania, but I believe in obeying the 
law. It is up to Mr- Northrup to explain something about 
this great catch, ■ Frank G. Harris 
