812 
[June 28, 1902. 
car service shows the dimensions which the north-bound 
week-end angling traffic amounts to nowadays. 
The Chicago & Northwestern Railway also have a 
sporting service of a similar nature between Chicago 
and Gogebic, cn Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday of 
■each week, beginning June 28. The Northwestern train 
leaves Chicago at 5 P. M., reaches Watersmeet at 6 A. M., 
and Gogebic at 6:40 A. M. The through sleeper leaves 
Watersmeet for Chicago on Sunday only, at 9:15 P. M.„ 
reaching Chicago at 9 :4s- Monday morning. 
Taking the above railway accommodations in connec- 
tion with the growing luxury of our Western summer 
resorts, we may point with pride to our angling facili- 
ties in this part of the world. 
Fly Dop*. 
Mr. Oswald von Lengerke. with his friend Charles 
Lester, start July 8 for the Nepigon. Mr. Von Len- 
gerke asks me if I can give him a recipe for the famous 
Pox fly dope, 'which he thinks he is going to need in 
the North Shore country. Unluckily. I have misplaced 
this formula, though it has been printed a couple of 
times hi the Forest and Stream. The best I can do is 
•to refer Mr. Von Lengerke to Col. E. Crofton Fox. of 
'Grand Rapids, Mich., who has probably wished a dozen 
rimes that he never invented this fly dope, since he does 
not sell it, and only suffers himself to be persecuted by 
his good friends. Good trout fishing and good fly dope 
will be the portion of these gentlemen if they make their 
Nepigon trip as they plan it in detail. 
His Vacatior, 
Mr. A. Hirth is to be the guest to-morrow, and longer, 
if necessary, of Mr. F, E. Coyne, Postmaster of Chicago, 
at Mr. Coyne's summer cottage on a near-by Wiscon- 
sin lake. Mr. Hirth to-day was making preparations 
for this event, and had at last accounts secured his fish- 
ing lunch for to-morrow, which consisted of two bottles 
of beer and _ a package of chocolate creams ; rather an 
unique combination, but one against which we ought not 
to prouounc'e censure, since I imagine but few of us 
could pTO'aounce as to its virtues or its evils. 
Carp 
Most of our good bass waters in this part of the coun- 
try are infested with that beastly nuisance, the German 
carp. In few localities has this fish gained greater size 
than in the Fox Lake waters. There is shown at Otto 
Muercke's place a mounted carp taken in Fox Lake 
which observers declare must have weighed seventy 
pounds._ It is a foot or so in depth of body, and many 
inches in thickness at the shoulder. Specimens of this 
hoggish fish have been taken weighing 48, 50 and 52 
pounds in the Fox Lake waters, if reports .come to hand 
correctly. There is no doubt that it has done very much 
to ruin the angling in the Fox Lake Chain and in the 
Fox River itself. It may be seen from the above we'ghts 
that it seems pretty well able to hold its own. 
Two Days at the " Woodpile." 
The "Wcodpile"' is the somewhat uneuphonious name 
possessed by the beautiful little lodge of Mr. B. K. Miller, 
of Mihvaukee, and his friend, Mr. John D. McLeod. This, 
as I need not tell earlier readers of the Forest and 
■Stream, is situated on their preserved stream, the Pine, 
which is in the same district above described along the 
mew branch of the Northwestern Road, and reached now 
via Wild Rose station. They once used to go in at 
Waupaca, but it is enly a five-mile drive from Wild Ro-:e, 
whereas it is about e'ghtcen miles from Waupaca. It 
should he remembered that this is not open fishing. As 
to its excellence, there is no stream in the State of Wis- 
consin, open or closed, which approaches this one in the 
unvarying excellence of its trout fishing, and its great 
1 atural adaptability to support a fine stock of tr.ut. 
Someth ng of the facts mentioned above I learned on a 
mp in acceptance of the kind invitations of the owners 
of the Pine preserve to join them on the stream. Mr. 
Miller, at the time of the invitation, was up himself, and 
Mr. McLecd was to go in later. Of course, business kept 
rue from gcing until still later. It was 11 o'clock at night, 
and twenty-four hours after I was due, before I finally 
arrived at the "Woodpile." My reception was a bit mys- 
terious. Not a sound was heard, not even a funeral note, 
when my driver and I pulled up at the door. F'nding 
the latter unlocked, I went 'n. The door of Mr. Miller's 
room was open, and the bed held no occupant. 
"Perhaps they are up to the farmhouse," said the 
driver, '"or maybe they are out fishing." 
There was no reason for them to be at the farmhouse, 
and their rods hanging on the wall showed that they were 
not out fishing. I knocked at the door of Mr. McLecd's 
room and got no answer. Opening it, I observed that gen- 
tleman wrapped in peaceful slumher. We might have car- 
ried off the whole outfit, "Woodpile" and all, and he would 
have hecn none the wiser. Therefore I dismissed the 
driver, and in the morning surprised Mr. McLeod by 
telling h'm that he had company. 
Mr. Miller's absence was explained by Mr. McLeod. 
who said that his friend had received news from Milwau- 
kee that his business block was on fire, in which was 
the superb law library of Miller, Noyes & Miller, and 
that the library in all probability was quite destroyed. It 
is very pleasant to be able to add that the loss was not 
quite so serious as was dreaded, and that the library and 
records are reported safe. 
After sending out proper inquiries to- learn of matters 
at Milwaukee. Mr. McLeod and I, thus abandoned on the 
stream; turned ourselves to its resources as best we might. 
The day was warm, with a light wind, and just sufficiently 
overcast to offer good fishing. We started late, but I soon 
saw that the fishing was to be good. When lunch hour 
came I had a nice little start toward a basket of trout. I 
was using small and dark flies, Cahill. Carleton and the 
1 ke, tied on No. 12's, and I had small trout rising con- 
tinually, being obliged to put a great many of these back 
into the stream. At lunch Mr. McLeod advised me to try 
nothing smaller than a No. 6 fly. William Wood, the 
veteran keeper of this stream, went out with me after 
luncheon, and then we had as beautiful a bit of trout 
fishing as often falls to the lot of man. William seconded 
Mr, McLeod' 5 advice. 
How to Catch Them, 
"Your flies are too small," said h^ vv Let me fix you 
up one." 
He rigged on a big No. 6 silver-doctor and then we 
began to do business. I had always known the Pine ta 
be a good stream, and had never failed to make a basket 
there, but something seems to have happened to the 
stream this year. All the trout seem to have grown to 
double the size they were last year. In truth, I never had 
an idea, much as I admired the stream, that it Was .any 
such a trout water as it proved to be on this day-.. They 
began to come and kept on /coining. An eight-inch trout 
was a rarity, and a seven-ihehe'r we, put back ifito the 
water. Of ten-inch trout We had in. abtmd'ance, one ovet 
sixteen inches, and a lot in the One- foot neighborhood. I 
had Mr. Miller's hig- bass 'creel, a fifteen-pound basket, 
and we took that into camp that flight level full of troiit. 
During the day I retained only twenty-six trout, but Mr. 
Miller said it Was lite biggest average of trout he had 
ever seen taken on the stream,. , We had a lot of good 
rights, and naturally lost same fish, though none of them 
so large as the biggpst one I brought in. The trout rose 
beautifully, ami they were great, thick, fat felows. full 
of flaming reds and orange colors, such as fairly set the- 
pools afire when a big trout breaks for the fly. It was 
truly a grand day on the stream. 
William Wood gave me a few lessons in the art of 
trout fishing as we went along — lessons which I think 
would be of value to many a trout fisherman who thinks 
he is something of an angler. 1 let him take fny rod. l\ 
powerful 6j/2-oimce tool, and I saw at once that his method 
of fishing was different from my own. I had been Using 
a long line, lett'ng the fly sweep diagonally across the" cur- 
rent, and allowing it, more or less by reason of .the" length 
of the cast, to sulk at times a little" below the surface 
of the water, William used, a shorter lifie arid kept 
his flies always on the top of the. Wafer. 
"You want to make a ripple always with your flies on 
the surface." said he, "and you want to keep them mov- 
ing. A trout Will always run after a fly if it thinks it is 
going to get away. If you allow it to sweep down across 
the clifreht and then let it rest suddenly for a moment, 
the trout has a chance to size it up. If you keep it going, 
covered up to some extent by its own ripple on the surface 
of the water, the trout does not know exactly what it is, 
and he just takes a fly at it in order to find out." 
William is a trifle more strenuous in his notions of 
striking trcut than I am myself. He parted two or three 
leaders, and lost several of our precious silver-doctors, 
until at last he gave me the rod and told me he would 
fish no more. "I have to have a strong leader when I 
fish," said he. "If I see a trout, moving anywhere near 
the fly, I strike, and strike plenty hard." 
This I believe is practically the only fault in William's 
fish ng, although he does not make any boasts cf being a 
fly-fisherman. As a matter of fact, he can always go out 
and catch a basket of trout, even when others are failing. 
He thinks Mr. Miller and myself are not careful enough 
to keep the fly on top of the water. For this kind of 
fishing one does not want too heavy a rod, nor tro long a 
line. At least, when the trout are rising, as we found 
them, one can walk directly down on them and take them 
at comparatively short range. That is not to say that 
one cannot take them at long range or with the sunken 
fly, but after being cut with William and try'ng his 
system, I thought part of our success was due to, his own 
instructions. 
Trjot and R.i'n. 
On the following morning Mr. McLeod felt a trifle in- 
disposed, and as the weather looked threatening, he said 
he did not care to go out for the time. He wanted to 
take heme seme trout With him this time, however, and 
asked me to catch him i\ basketful if 1 could. This morn- 
ing was warm and threatening with black clouds gather- 
ing in the sky. Acting on William's advice, I went down 
stream, well toward the end of the preserve, and fished a 
water where a rod had not been in this season, unless it 
had been Mr. Miller's on cue or Iwo days at most. T was 
alone this time, and what a pretty t'me 1 did have, with 
those trout! Pushing my way through the forest into a 
little open glade, where a bit of grass bank lined the 
stream. I just dropped the fly cut of sight over the grassy 
edge. There was a double flash quick as lightning, and 
the tip of the rod wa-; jerked suddenly downward. I 
hooked one fish of the double rise, a beauty of over half a 
pound. Then I did the trick directly ever again, and 
was lucky enough to land his mate. Then I began to 
work down the grassy bank of the stream, cast'ng short 
in order to avoid the bushes back of inc. In brief, I took 
six noble trout in this little bend, one of them nearly 
three-quarters of a pound, and all cf them over ten inches. 
I found the fish equally obliging a'S I went on down 
stream, and soon the basket began to get heavy. 
Do not believe tho-e who ted you that trout will not 
rise while it is thundering. There was a thunderstorm 
•coming apace back cf me. but the clcser it got the more 
avid the trout seemed for th? fly. The conditions were 
simply perfect, and I lacked only a companion to make 
the sport ideal. When at last the rain caught me my 
basket was full. The storm itself broke with a perfect 
torrent of rain, and although I made a bough house with 
my hunting knife and sheltered myself as well as I could 
back of a clump of alders, I was drenched to the skin." 
That made no difference whatever, for when at length 1 
got into the club house I had tweuty-two grand trout to 
add to those we already had in the ice house. 
We lay indoors and read and chatted until at last, about 
4 o'clock, the storm broke away. Mr. McLeod then said 
he cculd not think of going home without at least having 
one more bout with the trout. He went down stream a 
little way. and William took me up stream into the woods, 
on a reach which I had never loved particularly, but which 
he told me had more trout than I thought. We found 
the sweet little Pine very angry and disturbed, and run- 
ning nearly bank full. This freshet, so far from disturb- 
ing the fishing, was the best thing in the world for it. All 
the big trout in the river seemed to be out moving around, 
and we began to take them one after another, as quickly 
as we struck the stream. William knew all the good 
places, and under his coaching our basket soon began to 
get heavy once more, the trout running here also fat, lusty 
and big as they had below. 
A Big One. 
One incident of our afternoon's fishing I thlnfe.i shall 
remember forever, jt Was so, very beautiful and ViVid. I 
had believed the fish were feeding on the edge of the 
baf en the shallow sides of the bends, and was working 
along among the aldei-s the Wind drifting nfy flies a little" bit 
further out toward midstream than I Wished thehi td larld. 
One cast Was thus blown aside nearly a doled feet, and as! 
the fly struck We saw ft silddeH rush and a great trput cut 
the Water from the edge df the alders, di'feetjy" fof lM 
fly-. We could see his dorsal fm sticking .out of thg WateT 
like a shark's fts hi jfiade his, furl. The fill was iieafly as 
wide fts bhe's four fingers: A startled exclamation broke 
fforri W,illiairi jis J, Struck at the rush. There was nothing 
fastened, and the line went back of me into the grass. We 
stood quiet for a couple of minutes or so before I ventured 
another cast. This time the fly landed in very nearly the 
same place. At once there came a rush from the opposite 
side of the stream, out of the deep water, and we saw 
the fish break the water into a deep swirl as he struck a 
second time. This time I just felt something touch the 
fly, but it might have been the passing of the line over 
the fish's shoulder, William thought I struck too Slowly, 
and declared that had he been holding the rod something 
would have been doing; I did not think the big trout 
really had the fly in his mouth at all. t At any rate, we 
missed him, and although we east as nicely as We kfleW 
how thereafter, we could not false him again. William 
said it was the biggest trout he bad seen thi§ spring, and 
he placed, its Weight .sonieWhefe betWeeh two and three 
poUhds. My. biggest fish upon the day prevtdus Was about 
a pound aiid .ft quarter: This one Which. We saw Was 
apparently twice as large. Ahy angler khoWs .that a 
trout looks mucli bigger out of the Water than it does in 
the water, contrary to the ordinarily accepted belief. 
We grieved over the loss of this big one, but neverthe- 
less worked on down through the woods toward the club 
house, not with very much time to spare, and yet not 
hurrying unduly, for we knew we were taking all the 
trout we needed. 
"How many do you think you have in the basket?" said 
William, when we got back to the club house. 
"About a dozen," I replied. 
He smiled. When we counted them out we had just 
twenty-two. Mr. McLeod, who had not been gone as 
long as ourselves, turned out an equal number from his 
creel, after his universal fashion of taking more trout 
than anybody else on the stream in the same amount of 
fishing. Thus it may be seen that we had to two rods 
about ninety trout, and I must say that never in all my 
fishing have I seen so grand an average gotten together 
on any stream in the West. Of course c ur trout in this 
country do not run as heavy as those of Maine or Canada, 
but I have been fishing for these small fellows for many 
years and never have taken as good a basket as the above 
in any of my trips. 
While going up 10 the. lodge Oh this trip I met Mr. G. 
A. Buck-staff,, of Qshkosivaud his. friend, Mr. Hooper. 
Mr. B'tickstaff stepped at Benjamin's, but remained oliiv 
for one day, so that I did not leant what suiicSss lie had 
on the Wlr'tc. Mr. Hooper Went in at Inglesidc, a little 
cross roads station some Way out from Wi d Rose, where 
he did bait-fishihg. He came down cn the train with 
us when We came out, and said that he t ok thirty hand- 
some trcut. His part of the stream cott'd not. be fVm 1 
with the fly. A resident at Ingleside caught fl'nete'eh 
fish in one day. In short, all along that gouHtr|' tH'elV 
body seemed to be having good luck" fthd a good tittle. 
Willam Wocds, ho'ptes I Will come up next fall and help 
him with his hatching operations on the Pine'. I wonder 
if Mr, Miller and Mr. McLeod realize how splendid a pos- 
session they have in this little stream? It has certainly 
afforded de'ight to more than one city person on more 
than one occas : on. E. Hough, 
Hartford JJuilding, Chicago, 111, 4 1 
Anting: Near New ¥brL 
The neW ; s that bluefish tt&vte fesegtiij to bite in nearby 
.waters will be hailed With delight .by all salt water, anglers 
in this vicinity-. The first bluefish to be taken 't\\te sea- 
son were caught last week, but. they are already being 
brought in hi large numbers and are of good size. The 
fi.sn are in large school's off Rockaway and Manhattan 
Beach, and some largfc catches have been made here. 
boat bringing in about fifty last Friday, tftjs R$n weigh- 
ing over 6 pounds each. Bluensh hti\"e also begun to 
bite at Fire Island Inlet, where some large fish have 
been taken. At Ijottg Beach a few have been caught, 
but they have not yet appeared in any numbers here-. 
Weakfivshing is better now than it has been at ahY 
time this season, although the storm of Saturday spoiled 
the fishing for a few days. The fishing ill Jamaica Bay 
is at its best. Catches of fifty Weakhsh in three or four 
hours' fishing are not rare, The bay is full of weak- 
fish, and anyone can get a mess at Broad Channel, The 
Rauut, Goose Creek, or at any other of the fishing sta- 
tions. ^ The same is true of the Staten Island waters*, 
At Gilford's Station, weakfishing has been good for 
some time, and at South Beach some big ones have been 
taken. 
Fluke are biting freely, but they are not yet as numer- 
ous as they should be at this season. Some large ones 
have been caught in the Rockaway Inlet and in Jamaica 
Bay. At Queenswater and Long Beach they are plenti- 
ful. Surf casting for young sharks and kingfish has 
been earned on at Long Beach, and some fish have been 
taken in this manner. 
Passengers on the fishing banks steamers have brought 
in large catches of sea bass, blackfish and ling and some 
fluke. ^ G. F. Diehi,, 
A Stray Line with Something: on It. 
Cherry Hill, Pa., June 16,— Editor Forest and 
Stream: While fishing for pike in Lake Erie, off Con- 
neaut Harbor, last week, one of our party, upon reeling 
in his line, found he had a stray line on his hook, and 
from the stray one was taken a good-sized blue pike. 
The line had for a sinker a ten-ounce iron burr, so I think 
the fish was safely anchored^ A shade darker was all 
Ihe difference we could *ee from the rest of the catch 
• * • - E. R. L 
