412 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 23. 1903. 
stream is the Trout Falls, something like eight or ten 
miles from Sparta. One can camp out or can find ac- 
commodations at the farmhouses near Trout Falls. 
Sparta is to be reached by the C. M. & St. P. Railway, 
'this is a district which I have not heard of as being 
much patronized by Chicago anglers. 
Gone to Fox Lake. 
The following anglers are among those who left this 
afternoon for Fox Lake and adjacent waters, near Lake 
Villa, 111.; Messrs. L. Ries, C. C. Ingraham, T. Ander- 
son, E. A. Wood. William Paulsen, Chas. Oak, M. 
Wedertz, T. Ambrose, W. G. Ruskin, Chas. Lawrence, 
Dr. S. B. Friend. 
For the Neplgoa. 
Mr. W. P. Powers, of Chicago, with one or two 
friends, will go up for some of the big trout of the 
Nepigon this coming month. He ought to get plenty 
of trout and plenty of flies at the same time. Mr. 
Powers is an old trout fisherman and has had con- 
siderable experience in Wisconsin, Michigan and the 
Canadian provinces. Last summer he fished in the 
Gaspe country and was on the Grand Pabos with a 
friend of Montreal, who holds a fishing on that stream. 
Fort Tarpon. 
A party of Chicago anglers, made up of Messrs. 
William Nash, O. Von Lengerke, C. H. Lester and 
Dr. J. N. Shallenbqrger, will start in a week or ten 
days for a tarpon trip" at Aransas Pass. Mr. Delos 
Thompson, of Rensselaer, Ind., will also be one of 
the party, and there was talk that Dr. R. B. Miller 
might be on hand also for the tarpon festivities. 
Mr. J. C. Haskell, of this city, has regularly visited 
the Aransas Pass country for several years, and he 
told me this week that during his several trips he had 
taken to his own rod fifty-four tarpon. On one day 
he knew of thirteen of the fish being taken at Aransas 
Pass. The custom is to beach the fish, have a look at 
him, measure him and turn him loose again, unless a 
good specimen is required for mounting. 
Something Doing in Saginaw. 
From certain ominous indications the appearances 
are that something more is doing over Saginaw way. 
The next party of these doughty anglers to take the 
field will probably be composed of Messrs. C. E. Davis, 
W. B. Mershon, George Morley, Tom Harvey and 
James Peter. The whereabouts of the trip is not 
yet determined. There seems to be a feeling among 
the Saginaw Crowd that their favorite streams have 
been pretty hard hit this year and last. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago, 111. 
As to Pctch, Cooked ot Otherwise. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
To skin, or not to skin; that is the question; 
Whether 'tis nobler for the soul to harbor 
Thoughts of things that are, yet might be t'other- 
Wise, or fret one's fingers with the spine 
Festered with slime, and scales unknown to justice. 
To jab; to squeal— for in that messy strife 
What stings may come as knife swerves keen from aim 
And gives us paws, pitted with punctured pain! 
Excuse the metre. There's a cog loose in the poet- 
machine, and to catch the mail I haven't time to screw 
it up. 
But why, brothers, go to the trouble of skinning your 
perch, anyway? Cui bonof Just split them down the 
back, broil or fry them flesh side down, and eat them 
out of their skins as you would do a potato. Nobody 
asks you to eat the scales, and if broiled you aren't likely 
to find any to speak of after the process. 
Drop a stout log across a cradle knoll or a couple of 
rocks, and build your fire against it in the hollow on the 
lee side. Prop up' your wire broiler against the log on the 
windward side where the coals glow red, and your cook- 
ing will be a delight to a hungry man; and the cook need 
not be served personally, half-cooked, as an entree. Sir 
Sam White Baker says, "always carry a gridiron. A fry- 
ing-pan is good if you have fat, otherwise it is useless. 
With the gridiron you are independent," and Sammy's 
head was' level, even though he knew not of the Yankee 
wire oyster broiler. 
But now, here's something that I want to know. Per- 
haps Dr. Reinhart can get back at me! 
Harking back to boyhood days and disinterring from 
the dust of ages a glass tank, I've started an aquarium 
down in my laundry among the potted geraniums. 
Therein dwells a perch, yellow, caught with a hook one 
bitter cold day in April and carried five miles in a pail 
on a bicycle. Life has lost charms with him, for he will 
not eat. He scorns a buzzing fly, worms he coldly ignores 
w-ith a frigid, fishy eye at me the while. It's too early for 
small pollywogs. What, then, shall I give him? I be- 
lieve he did take a worm or two at first, but now he must 
be in love, in spite of the season. Does he want company? 
Let some fishwise ancient say. J. P. T. 
Salmon C«Itufe in America. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Mr. C. H. Barkdull, in your issue of May 9, gives me 
the unique information that "the hatching and propaga- 
tion of salmon is just like, everything else." And then he 
sneers at "unfortunate Englishmen" like Prof. Huxley, 
Francis Francis, Frank Buckland, Sir I. Gibson Maitland, 
of the Howietown hatchery, and all those specialists who, 
from time to time, have had charge of the Stormontfield 
hatcheries on the Tay in Scotland, before fish hatching 
was thought of in America ; at the late Samuel Wilmot, 
the present Professor Prince, and Mr. Livingston Stone, 
the most experienced lish culturist now living in America, 
and including the Old Angler, "who should know some- 
thing about what he has been angling for," (sic) because 
none of them have been able to make salmon culture an eco- 
nomical success either in Great Britain or in Canada. He 
fills nearly a column of your journal with platitudes about 
the enormous extent of the canning business on the 
Pacific Coast, and vast amount of capital invested in it, 
which he estimates at $100,000,000, and concludes by tell- 
ing us that he is interested in a number of fisheries in 
Alaska, and will have in operation there two hatcheries 
this season, and then he "extends a cordial invitation to 
the Old Angler, Mr. Stone, and other unfortunate fish cul- 
turists and skeptics to join us and let us teach them how 
to increase the number of some varieties of salmon, and 
at the same time decrease the numbers of others already 
too plentiful." 
Mr. B. then tells us that "out West we have the pret- 
tiest girls, the richest gold mines, the best battleships, tlie 
biggest trees and the most salmon of any country in the 
world, and zmth the assistance of Uncle Sam (the italics 
are mine) we intend to show England and the world that 
we can keep up the supply of our increasing products, 
if we have to do it artificially." All this will be very in- 
teresting to Mr. Marston, of the London Fishing Gazette, 
but I doubt that either he or the scientific skeptics he is 
opposing, will see in it anything more than the broad 
assertions without proof contained in the previous letters 
of Mr. Stone and Commissioner Babcock. 
The Old Angler, who is just entering his eighty-second 
year, regrets much that age will prevent him from accept- 
ing Mr. BarkduU's kind invitation to extend his 
knowledge of salmon culture and learn what need there is 
of hatcheries on rivers already overcrowded with fish. It 
would be a great acquisition to his present knowledge to 
learn the feat of "eating his cake and having it, too." 
Meanwhile, he sincerely hopes that all Mr. B.'s expecta- 
tions will be accomplished. The Old Angler. 
Aslsttry Park Fishing. 
New York, May 6. — T ran down to Asbury Park last 
week to see the outlook for striped bass angling for the 
coming season which opens on Decoration Day by some 
of the anglers catching a big one. The weather having 
been so propitious, all the boys are looking forward to a 
good season for big fish, such as we had in 1900 and 
1901. Last year our catch was very poor, and the only 
reason we can give is that the water was very cold dur- 
ing June. 
Our fishing is principally done at the flume, which is 
a long box-like structure about 300 feet long and 25 feet 
wide," allowing the surplus fresh water to run oflf from 
Deal Lake into the ocean. This forms a brackish pool of 
considerable extent in which a bed of skimmer clams 
have taken up their abode and from which we get most of 
our bait. The pier above the flume was greatly damaged 
by last winter's storms, so we all have to fish from the 
beach unless it shall be repaired shortly, which seems 
doubtful. I went over to the head of the flume where the 
water rushes out from the lake and found the village boys 
scrapping herring from the box, just below where the water 
tumbles over forming quite a waterfall. The herring rush 
into this box in large schools and remain there until 
dipped out by the boys with their nets. The boys stand 
on the tops of the short spikes which protrude from the 
bottom of the flume and by industriously running^ crab 
nets through the water bring up from one to six shining, 
struggling fish, and the herring are the largest I have eyer 
■seen, "the majority weighing a pound each and containing 
very nice sized roe. The boys sell these beautiful fish 
for ten cents a dozen, and are always willing to throw in 
a half dozen extra if any one objects to the price. 
One of the bad features is that the farmers of the 
vicinity bring their wagons and by using a dip net as 
large as a barrel catch these fish by the hundreds and 
thousands, both roe and milt fish. They bury one near 
each hill of corn ; this forms the richest of fertilizers and 
causes the corn to grow doubly fast. The farmers say 
that if a hill of corn is dug up the roots of corn will be 
found all intertwined into the decaying fish. This is 
probably why the herring fisheries are_ becoming poorer 
year by year. Yours for the preservation of bird, beast 
and fish. Magnum Opus. 
The Sea Trout Question. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
When a writer like Charles Hallock, who has spent 
thirty years of an active life in the study of salmon and 
trout, whose books are read by all true anglers on both 
continents, differs from an angler like Walter M. 
Brackett, whose admirable pictiires of fish have delighted 
anglers the world over, and whose experience in fishing 
all the waters of Canada and the Eastern States covers 
a still longer period, as to the species of a Salmo, and 
when one of the leading ichthyologists of America, con- 
senting to act as arbiter, pronounces them both wrong; 
when old anglers like Mr. Gregory, of Quebec. Mr. 
Manuel, of Ottawa, Mr. R. T. Morris and "I. W. B." 
range themselves on one side, and E. A. Samuels, Mr. 
Mershon and Mr. Von W. form upon the other side, your 
many readers, who are divided in opinion, must have been 
greatly edified when informed by L. F. Brown, in your 
issue of April 18, that "the question was immaterial to 
sportsmen, and of very little practical use to science." 
His brilliant suggestion in your issue of May 9, that 
a "commission of three expert North Atlantic Coast 
anglers be appointed to settle the question," shows beyond 
a doubt that he knows very little about the matter, and 
is not qualified to give an authoritative opinion. Where 
will he get any more experienced, expert or intelligent 
anglers than Messrs. Hallock, Brackett, Mershon, Morris, 
E. A. Samuels or the late Thad. Norris? AH these have 
held varying opinions both as to the habitat and habits 
of the so-cailed sea trout. His offer of fifty dollars to- 
ward the expenses of a commission shows only that 
science cannot expect much information from his pen. 
The Old Angler. 
Fishing- in a Providence Park. 
Providence, R. I., May 12.— The people of this city are 
to enjoy an opportunity for fishing seldom equalled by 
any municipality. Roger Williams' Park Lake is to be 
thrown open to the fishing public July i, 1903. For a long 
time past the fish of this park has troubled the "man with 
the rod" and at last a new superintendent of parks and 
a liberal city government are to allow the fishermen to 
realize tl^eir fopdest dreams. This pla?^ has always been 
closed to fishing except occasionally a few have been 
stolen in the night; several men and boys have been at 
different times arrested and fined the customary $20 and 
cost. Some never got caught at it. A few years ago a 
police sergeant was accused of fishing there, but it never 
was proved. 
There are some large fish in this lake of over 100 
acres, and on several occasions they haye been found 
dead on the shore. Probably died of old age. 
Two years ago Assistant Superintendent James Cos- 
tello saw a great commotion in the water, and rowing out 
to it in a skiff found a large pickerel, six pounds' weight, 
about dead by trying to swallow a sunfish which was too 
large for him. 
There are being built by a local boat builder twenty-five 
flat bottom skiffs for fishing purposes only. Superin- 
tendent Fitts is not to allow the round bottom cedar skiffs 
to be used for fishing. Almost every kind of common fish 
abound here in great numbers. Bass, pickerel, white and 
yellow perch, eels, carp, and, it is said, landlocked salmon 
have been planted there, although T never heard of any 
being caught. About 50 cents per hour will be the price 
of a boat for fishing, and no fishing from the banks and 
no pot fishermen allowed, as only a certain number of 
fish of each species can be carried away. A non-resident 
license is not required in this State. Seldom. 
fA Brook Trowt in New Jersey Salt "Water. 
Perth Amboy, N. J., May 12. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Peter Rasmussen, of this city, recently took a 
ten-inch brook trout from his fyke net at the mouth of the 
Raritan River. Where do you reckon it came from? 
J. L K. 
San Francisco Fly-Casting Club* 
Medal contests : Saturday, Contest No. 6, held at Stow 
Lake, May i ; wind, west ; weather, fair. 
Event Event Event 
No. 1, No. 2, No. 4, 
Distance, Accuracy, , Event No. 8. . Lure 
Feet. Per cent. Acc. % Del. % Net % Casting % 
C. G. Young 88.5 87.8 72.6 90.1 96.4 
H. Brown 96 84.8 87.8 88.4 88 72.9 
W. E. Brooks... 112 88 88 86.8 87.4 
G. E. Edwards... 98 85.4 91 86.8 88.10 Vi.2 
T. W. Brotliertonl25y2 88.4 92 90.10 91. o 95.8 
T. C. Kierulff.... 88 90.8 84.8 82.6 83.7 84.1 
C. R. KenniiT.... 103 91.8 90.4 95 92.8 98.1 
E. A. Tuclcer.... 110 89.4 86.4 9-3.4 89.10 
A. B. Carr 87 90.4 92.6 91.5 95.1 
G. H. Foulks.... 90 79.8 85.4 80.10 83.1 
G. W. Lane 88.4 89.2 88.9 
F. J. Lane 76 85.8 81 75 78 
Judges— Kierulff and Brooks. Referee, Mocker. Clerk, 
Bruning. 
Medal Contests : Sunday, Contest No. 7, held at Stow 
Lake, May lo; wind, west; weather, fair. 
C. G. Young 91 91 96.8 83.10 97.6 
V. M. Haight... 106 79.4 83 77.6 80.3 
W. E. Brooks... 110 91.4 92.4 86.8 89.fi 
H. Battu 115 86 92.4 83.4 87.10 97.2 
C. R. Kenniff.... 100 S9 94.5 92.6 93. S 97.5 
IT. C. Golcher... 130 90.8 94.4 88.4 91.4 
C. Huyck 89.8 
C. B. KennifF.... 130 90.4 88.4 89.2 88.9 97 
W. D. Mansfield. ... 90 89.4 94.2 91.9 95.2 
E. Everett 121 79.4 
'1\ W. Brotherton 124 88.4 89 90 89.6 92.4 
T. C. Kierulff... 94 87.7 87.4 85.10 86.7 8G.6 
G. W. Dinkelspiel 65 80.8 76.4 72.2 75.3 
A. W. Blake 101 71.4 80.4 77.6 81.11 
Mr. Mansfield, who has not taken part in the long dis- 
tance contest for the past three years, borrowed a rod 
from one of the contestants and made an exhibition cast 
of 144 feet. 
Judges — Kierulff and Brooks. Referee, C. R. Kenniff. 
Clerk, Bruning. 
Yachting Fixtures for 1903. 
Members of race committee will confer a favor by sending notice 
of errors or omissions in the following list, and also changes which 
may be made in the future. 
MAY. 
20. New Rochelle. spring regatta, New Rochelle. 
21-23-26-28-30. New York, special races, 90-footers, Glen Cove, L. I. 
Sound. 
23. New Rochelle, Y. R. A. of L. I. Sound special, New Rochelle. 
25. Royal Canadian, club, Toronto. 
SO. Royal Canadian, club, Toronto. 
30. Seawanhaka Corinthian, club. Oyster Bay. 
30. Harlem, Y. R. A. of L. 1. Sound, annual, City Island. 
30. tndian Harbor, Y. R. A. of L. 1. Sound, special, Greenwich. 
30. Bridgeport, Y. R. A. of L. T. S., special, Bridgeport. 
30. South Boston, V. R. A., open. City Point. 
30. Columbia, open, Chicago, Lake Michigan. 
30. Chicago, cruise lo Indian Harbor. 
30. Williamsburg, open, spring regatta. 
30. Atlantic, club, Sea Gate. 
30. Riverton, club, Delaware River. 
30. Toledo Y. A., Monroe Piers. 
JUNE. 
I. Atlantic, ocean race; Sea tiate around Fire Island and Morlh- 
east End Lightships back to Sea Gate. 
6. Seawanhaka Corinthian, club. Oyster Bay. 
6. Columbia, eleventh annual Michigan City race. 
6. Chicago, handicap race, L.nke Michigan. 
6. Royal Canadian, club, Toronto. 
6 Marine and Field, Y. R. A. of G. B. 
6 Knickerbocker, Y. R. A. of L. I. Sound, annual. 
8. Pavonia, open, Bayonne. 
812. New York special races, 90-footers, Sandy Hook. 
9 Atlantic, annual, Sea Ciate. 
10. Atlantic, 90-footers, Sandy Hook. 
10. South Boston, club, City Point. , , ,, 
10 12-13-15-16. Manchester, trial races for selection of challenger for 
Seawanhaka cup, Manchester Harbor. 
II. New York, fifty-seventh annual, all classes, off Sandy Hook. 
13. Chicago, special, Lake Michigan. 
13. Boston, club. South Boston. 
13. Royal Canadian, club, Toronto. 
13. Seawanhaka Corinthian, club. Oyster Bay. 
13. Larchmont, spring regatta, Larchmont. 
14. Jamaica Bay, club, Jamaica Bay. 
15. New York, Glen Cove cups, Glen Cove. 
17. Larchmont, races for 90-footers, Larchmont. 
17. Boston, Y. R. A., off Point Allcrton, open. 
17. Dorchester, open, Dorchester Bav. 
18-19. New Rochelle, club. New Rochelle. 
19. Eastern, special, open, Marblchead. 
20. Brooklyn, Y. R. A. of Gravesend Bay. 
20. Corinthian, first championship, Marblehcad. 
20. Seawanhaka Corinthian, 90-(QQters, Oyster Bay. 
20, Atlaatic, club. Sea Gate, . 
