June 6, 1903.] 
Lake Michigan waters. You have to ride about twen- 
ty-five miles over a wretched road, but the fishing there 
a few weeks ago was worth the trip, some trout bemg 
taken which went to a pound atid a half. 
The Poffc and the Bass. 
There are many reasons why the American hog 
should have a place emblazoned upon the national coat 
of arms. The more I think it over the more I believe 
the hog is not fully appreciated. Nobody and nothing 
around a camp is more useful than the hog, when 
properly prepared, and especially if it is a. hshernian s 
camp, there may be divers uses for his porkship. INow 
here is Mr. Joseph H. Hunter, the patent lawyer, of 
Washington, D. C, who was out at Garfield lagoon 
last Saturday, enjoying the bait-casting contest ot the 
Chicago Club. Mr. Hunter says that some of the 
finest bass fishing in the country is to be had on the 
Potomac and Susquehanna rivers. He thinks he is one 
of the few bait-casters who go out of the city ^ot 
Washington, but says that he has sometimes splendid 
sport bait-casting for small-mouth bass. He uses a 
three-inch strip of pork rind and hooks it on the out- 
side of one shoulder or corner, so that it whirls around 
in the water. He prefers this to frog or minnow. 
The bass, according to his story, lie out under the wil- 
lows, or on the shady side of rocks, and when he casts 
his frog bait into the right spot it never travels more 
than two or three feet before the bass gets it, if he 
wants it. It is much like fly-casting. Mr. Hunter says 
that he has frequently caught twenty-five small-mouth 
bass of one and a half to four pounds in this manner 
during a day's fishing. He insists that a section of the 
American hog thus prepared, is better than any patent 
or natural bait which can be devised, and he ought to 
know, for he is a patent lawyer. 
For the Anglers. 
Hints may have been gathered from time to time in 
these columns of the extent of the Chicago angling 
traffic. Such dimensions does it attain that at least 
three of the leading railroads running north annually 
make special schedules on its account. The Chicago, 
Milwaukee and St. Paul trains touch the lower part 
of the Fox Lake country, and their schedule is ar- 
ranged specially for the convenience of the week-end 
anglers to those nearby resorts. The Wisconsin Cen- 
tral Railroad touches the Lake Villa country, more 
especially, this being on the eastern side of the lake 
district The Chicago & Northwestern, beginning to- 
morrow and thereafter until June 27, will put on a 
special Pullman, running to the muscallunge and bass 
country, the end of the run bemg at Watersraeet, Mich- 
igan This train leaves Chicago at five o clock and 
reaches Watersmeet at 6 o'clock in the morning, bun- 
dav^ It leaves Watersmeet at 9 o'clock m the evening, 
Sundays, and reaches Chicago 9:45 the next mornmg. 
Special schedules are made also on the Gogebic and 
other points by the Northwestern. That the railroads 
are wise in making up this accommodating service lor 
the public is well proved by looking _ at any ot the 
week-end trains going north out of Chicago. 
Ch'cago Fly-Castiog Cbb, 
Following are the scores made by the Chicago Fly- 
Casting Club at the last weekly competitions: 
Acc'y & Del'cy, Eait-Castinff, 
Per Cent. Per Cent. 
L H Bellows •••;93 ^.^o 
H. G. Hasca .... 92 2-3 97 .5-10 
N. C. IT est oil q,. o-iQ 
G. A. Hinterleitner % 2-10 
John Hohni&nn •• i- qr, 0.-10 
E. R. Letterman 
E. L. Mason • 3 S 97 3-10 
F. N. Peet .... 95<5-a S|diu 
C- B- Robinson ■•• •• gg g.^Q 
r. b- bmitn. .•••••••-••-*♦»••» 98 5-10 
K"ser • •• 93 g.^g 
Noyes " 
Winning scores : Distance and accuracy, Peet and Has- 
call ; bait-casting, Hascall. 
Illinois Fish Law. 
Interesting features of the new Illinois fish law are: 
Confining of the legal mesh of nets to one and a hall 
inches square; making a pemtentiary offense of the 
use of dynamite or drugs in fishing; enforcing the de- 
struction of any gar fish taken in a net, the taker be- 
ing guilty if he does not destroy such gar fish; piovid- 
ini a penalty for the use of spear on any fish except 
German carp (most excellent good ); a bluff at the 
enforcement of the old fish way law for dams on 
streams and rivers; the appointment of "ve hsh war- 
dens, under salary; making ofcceij of the fish com- 
mission all sheriffs, deputy sheriffs and constables, 
establishing length limit on black bass at eleven inches, 
making it a misdemeanor to use seine without con- 
sent of owner of land on which seine or ne taken 
making it unlawful to fish within 400 feet of any dam 
from April 15 to June iS; making it unlawful to use a 
trot or set line on any inland lake; making it obliga- 
tory to label packages containing fish in shipment, and 
to describe same. It is forbidden specifically to kill 
in any way except by hook and line, bass, pike, pickerel 
or wall-eyed pike. It is forbidden to kill any fish 
whatever by means of nets, in any waters, from April 
IS to June I, nothing in this section applying, how- 
ever to Lake Michigan. . 
As to the spearing of carp, which seems to be al- 
lowable under this act, it is not so much to be taken 
as a sign of regeneracy on the part of the illinois 
State Fish Commission as an assistance to market 
fishermen who make an idustry of selling carp We 
are the great carp garden of the world. While we 
recognize that there is such a thing as a game fish we 
do this without prejudice to our own riglits, which 
rights appear to be more especially concerned with 
[he rearing and selling of the leather-back nuisance 
which has ruined our Western streams. Tons of these 
fish are marketed by seining companies, who opera e 
under the theoretical supervision of the illinois btate 
Fish Commission. That their operations destroy quan- 
FOREST A ND STREAM. 
titles of game fish cannot be denied. That we do not 
seem now able to remedy this matter is another fact 
which, apparently, cannc^t be denied. I doubt if there 
is a fish commission in America which has actually in- 
creased fish life to a greater extent, in proportion to 
its resources, that that of Illinois. The semmg out and 
replanting of small fishes taken from cut-off bayous 
and sloughs is the most practical form of fish planting 
ever devised. It is one of the pities of the tinie that 
such splendid work should have been offset by the 
mistake, intentional or otherwise, which resulted from 
the general introduction of German carp. 
Odd Angling Incident. 
An odd incident happened last week to _my friend 
Antoine, when he was fishing in the Prairie River. 
He saw a rise at his fly and struck, apparently hook- 
ing and certainly playing and landing a nice trout 
Inspection proved that some one else had had hold ot 
the fish before. It had a bait hook and snell fast in its 
mouth, and Mr. Antoine's fly, instead of hooking the 
fish, had fastened in the loop of the snell, thus hold- 
ing the fish firmly enough to kill it. I never heard 
of an incident exactly similar. 
The "Waushara County Streams. 
So far as I can learn, my own solitary trip up in 
Waushara county. Wis., around Wautoma, was about 
as fortunate as any, and the Saginaw men admit that 
their average was not as good as that which we made 
at Wautoma. Arthur Bean and myself took m our 
broken week's fishing 121 trout in all. These fish were 
not all over 8 inches, but I think were practically all 
over the 7-inch limit, and certainly we kept no little 
yearlings, as is the case with a great many fishermen 
who go in there, according to the story of my com- 
panion. . 
At Wautoma we seem to have blundered mto a very 
interesting piece of country and one which is worth 
remembering. We saw a great number of gray squir- 
rels as we rode about through the country, and the 
woods were quite full of nests. I was told that the 
squirrel shooting is very fine there in its proper sea- 
son, and also advised that a great many ruffed grouse 
are to be found there scattered along m the covers 
which lie separated by the farming lands. There are 
some woodcock along the boggy streams. _ I saw one 
fine fellow one morning, and also a jacksmpe or two. 
Rabbits are very numerous. When one remembers 
that this is all along a river which offers an occasional 
rainbow trout and which, a little lower down, affords 
good fly-fishing for small-mouth black bass, I thmk he 
will agree that the district is worth remembering.^ I 
should not forget to say that a good many praine 
chickens are killed in there in the opening week of 
every shooting season. _ 
More directly in point, however, is the trout hsh- 
ing, which I took pleasure in investigating during my 
short stop at Wautoma. Of course, on the snowy 
Thursday we remained indoors, but on the following 
morning Arthur and I hitched up for a trip to the Mc- 
Cann River, of which I had heard so much at one time 
or another. I found this was only a seven-mile drive 
from Wautoma. As to this McCann River, a prettier 
trout stream never lay out of doors. It reminds me 
very much of the Little Manistee River of Michigan. 
It is big enough to carry a splendid head of trout, 
and, moreover, its banks are not thickly covered, _ so 
that one can easily wade the stream and cast a fairly 
decent line. The bottom is harder than in most of 
the other streams in that district which we fished. 
The typical stream in this part of Wisconsin m some 
way resembles the sand bottom streams of southern 
Michigan, though it seems to me these Wisconsm 
streams are more difficult to wade than those of Michi- 
gan, very crooked, rather narrow, and with deep holes 
shelving under the banks, the bottom being made of 
loose and shifting sand, not always safe to tackle with 
anything but caution. The McCann River was the 
prettiest of these streams which we saw, and was more 
than comfortable for fishing. It needed only one thing, 
that is to say, trout. Residents tell me that eight or 
ten years ago people came from all over the country 
to fish the McCann. They seem to have fished it out. 
I hear that it is a little warmer stream than most of the 
other brooks of that vicinity, and for that reason it 
seems to have been chosen by the rainbow trout rather 
than the brook trout. At the point where we struck it, 
it held very few trout, as I proved by careful wading. 
We fished two or three miles of this stream with result 
of only two or three rises, a most disappointing experi- 
ence on so beautiful a river. At the bridge, where we 
first turned out there was a swift, deep hole, and here 
Arthur tried the worm, with the result of a couple of 
slow, dull strikes and two rainbow trout, one of which 
weighed something like three-quarters of a pound. 
Disgusted, we pulled up and followed the stream down 
to the first mill dam. Here we found the residents 
spearing suckers, the party having already two or 
three bushels of suckers. In this part of the river 1 
saw quite a number of rainbow trout, some of them 
weighing, I should think, between i and 2 pounds, but 
none of them offering to rise. The miller told me that 
earlier in the spring he very frequently saw large 
numbers of trout below the dam, but admitted that 
they were not so numerous as they- once were. We 
heard of .numerous good-sized trout being speared m 
this stream, in weights of 3, 4 and 5 pounds. These 
were all rainbow trout. 
It is too bad that the McCann River cannot be 
properly stocked and preserved. If it were possible to 
make a preserved stream out of it, it would be one 
of the loveliest trouting waters that ever lay out of 
doors. I don't doubt that we had rather an indecisive 
experience on it, and presume other fishermen might 
be luckier at a later date. Indeed, I hear of one party 
who fished above us and who were reported to have 
taken 17 trout which weighed 35 pounds. This I ac- 
cept with a large-sized grain of salt, as I do not be- 
lieve the fish were rising in the McCann River on that 
^^By noon we had had enough of it, and hence started 
449 
home, resolved to fish our little stream, Straw Creek 
(I called this "Strauss Creek" in an earlier letter, but 
it should be spelled "Straw." The creek mentioned as 
Morris Creek is properly to be called Marr's Creek). 
On our way in from the McCann we crossed the little 
stream known as Lunch Creek, which at that point ran 
winding through a very pretty meadow, which came 
close to the roadside. I suggested that here was a 
chance to cast a good line. Art was rather reticent, 
and said that Lunch Creek was no good, and that it had 
been fished out badly last year. None the less, as we 
had but two or three fish at this time of the day, we 
decided to tie up for a moment and give this stream 
something of a trial. A. storm was coming up, a heavy 
wind was blowing, and the sky was leaden and over- 
cast. None the less, the little meadow and the crooked 
black stream formed such pleasant invitation that I 
began to fish just as though I intended to catch trout 
I was using a new fishing rod, which pleased me all 
the way through, and as to fly, the McGinty, the same 
which I found so killing in Michigan last summer, and 
a fly which, so far as I know, had never been used in 
the State of Wisconsin. This combination seemed to 
work. I was laying out a long line and fishing up 
stream, when all at once, on a 30 or 40-foot cast, I 
felt a sharp tug, and hooked a beautiful trout of about 
10 inches. I thought this was a mere fluke and sup- 
posed I should not catch any more fish, but presently 
I heard a shout from my companion a little way down 
stream, and saw him hold up a handsome trout. "Half 
pounder!" he cried to me, and presently he had m 
another one of equal size. As for myself, this gave me 
confidence, and I began to go up stream, taking what 
advantage I could of the heavy wind. The result was 
one of the most beautiful pieces of sport that I ever 
ran against in my checkered career. It seemed as if 
every trout in that stream had come up from the cav- 
erns, which extended under the meadow banks, and 
was now feeding in raid stream. They ate the Mc- 
Ginty fly, with its black and yellow body, and liked 
it so thoroughly that they tore the wings off of three 
of my new flies before I had worked the stream more 
than a few hundred yards. I put my trout m a pocket 
of my shooting coat, until finally they became too 
numerous, and I called Art to bring up my creel His 
eyes stuck out when he saw my pockets. I had hardly 
a fish which would weigh less than half a pound, and 
I had a dozen or more of them before I quit. 
As I worked up stream I met an old German farmer 
coming down, plunking a lead sinker and a bunch of 
worms into every choice hole along the stream. He 
had a cane pole so long that he could not carry it, but 
dragged it along from one hole to the other. As he 
stood fishing one hole in the crooked stream, I made a 
long cast into the hole. In an instant there was a flash 
and a splash. It took the old man some time to realize 
that I was connected with a trout so far away. I had 
hardly landed the trout before the old man was into 
the hole to see if he could not catch another. He 
showed me 5 trout which he had picked up on his way 
down the stream. I did not think it worth while to 
work over the water which he had visited. ■ Presently 
the air grew colder, the wind changing, and the trout 
were off their feed. 
We struck Straw Creek before long, and here, as 1 
stood watching him, my friend Art picked out 8 or 
10 handsome trout, 2 or 3 of them rainbows. VVe had 
oa trout when we struck the hotel that night. At first 
we carried these trout in my creel, but the small^ creel 
would not hald the 25, so we put them into Art s big 
bass basket. They told us such a basket had not been 
brought into Wautoma in the last nine years, and 1 
fancy it will be a long time before such another one is 
made It was siniplv the weather and the McGinty. 
As to Lunch Creek, it is fished nearly every day, and 
was fished after our trip there by bait fishermen in 
considerable numbers. When we came to clean up our 
trout so that I could send a few of them home, we 
found that 20 of them weighed io?4 pounds, certainly 
a most handsome basket of fish to make thus by 
chance and under conditions apparently most unfavor- 
able. 
The following morning we got the other side of the 
picture There was a cold, drizzling ram which did 
not let up all day long. None the less. Art and I went 
out once more, this time trying Straw Creek, on the 
scene of our earlier encounters. This time the trout 
simply refused to come. As I waded the stream I 
saw scores and hundreds of trout darting from under 
the logs, but none out in mid stream waiting for edible 
things to come along. The drizzle kept up all the 
time, until Art was drenched to the skin. My light 
rubber poncho, brought along for such an emergency, 
kept my shoulders dry and my spirits up until about 
■5 o'clock in the afternoon, when we mglonously went 
home with scarce half a dozen trout between us. 
Just to show a change, the next day came off clear, 
with a cold northwest wind, which is the sign of clear- 
ing weather in this part of the United States. I was 
half frozen during the night, and it was so raw, cold 
and windy that we concluded it was utterly useless to 
go fishing. In the afternoon, however, I got restless 
and asked Art to drive me out to some sort of stream 
so that I could stretch a line once more. He took me 
three miles to the lower reaches of this same Straw 
Creek, where there was a little meadow fishing. He 
told me that there were not many trout, but that I 
would have room to cast a fly; and as long as one can 
cast a fly he doesn't care whether he can catch anything 
or not. Left alone. I found myself on a quiet stream, 
with occasional riffles, an occasional piece of hard bot- 
tom and numerous deep holes shelving back under the 
banks. Reminding myself of the doings of the con- 
quering McGinty, I mounted that fly again, but the 
trout would none of it. There was a tiny light-winged 
gnat about the size of a mosquito upon the water, and 
searching through my fly-book, I found an English 
fly with red body and mallard wings tied on 12 or 14 
hook. T mounted this and began to fish up stream, dry 
fly-fashion. Wading into the lower end of a hole as 
quietly as I could, I would flick this fly here and there 
over the pool, more especially at what I guessed to be 
