July 19, 1902.J 
FOREST AND ^ STREAM. 
47 
The high front sight is, in atty Case, a drawback. Why 
cannot the manufacturers get the height m front by 
angling up to it gradually, as is done in foreign rifles, 
instead of sticking up an unsupported barn door? 
Expense, I suppose— but the few dollars extra it 
would cost would, I am sure, be gladly paid by the 
satisfied sportsman, and so many Mausers, Mannlichers, 
et al, would not be sold as now. 
Alert. 
Goncerning Thrills, 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I HAVE been very much interested in several articles 
by Didymus. He talks right. He seems to be my 
kind of a gentleman sportsman, not sporting man, 
though he may be that also. It would not be anything 
against him. I never killed an elk or moorse. but I 
trapped it some time in the northern wilds of Wiscon- 
sin in the so's and lived on the product of my gun, kill- 
ing many deer, wolves and wildcats, sometimes because 
I had to. But for genuine sport— by sport I mean 
following out the instincts of a true sportsman — give 
me a good dog and the stubble or variegated field. 
There is something grand in following and watching 
the movements of an educated dog. As you start out of 
a brisk autumn morning, your dog is away off, in the 
exuberance of his freedom. How he ranges back and 
forth, back to you and then away almost like an An- 
tonio, his bright eyes turning to you at every turn. 
Let him go. He will be all right anon, after he has 
run off the excitement of this his first outing of the 
season. You cross that rail fence, the top rail j-ust 
tinged with the first white frost. As you step carefully 
over you see Carlo rigid as one of the fence posts. As 
you very gingerly step up and gently nudge him with 
your knee or step before him and make a clean double, 
and you gather in j^our back pocket a brace of long 
bills or quail, could the satisfaction be excelled if you 
had slaughtered a lordly moose or elk? Or, say, you 
have climbed the mountain side and tracked the royal 
grouse to his lair and have made a successful bag of, 
say five out of eight or ten shots ; is not that exceedingly 
happy? You follow moose day after day, in all sorts 
of weather, and far from camp get a shot, and perhaps 
you get vour quarry. A long tote through the swales 
and brush— is it fun? Not for the undersigned. As for 
shooting deer I had just as leave for the fun of the 
thing go out in a barn yard and shoot down a calf. 
My first deer I shot in the Adirondacks— it then was 
called John Brown's tract— in 1850. We camped under 
a brush shanty about sun down at the "Old Forge"; 
and when we awakened in the morning there was a mist 
or fog hanging over the water in our front. Upon look- 
ing over the lily pads of the bayou or bay we discov- 
ered seven deer belly deep in the shallow water, I had 
m.y pick and dropped a three-year-old buck. I felt good 
of course, better than I have felt since in knocking over 
a deer. But was that sport? I can understand the en- 
thusiasm and true sporting element in President Roose- 
velt's manner in his pursuit of the cougar or California 
lion. That is game worth while, and the slaughter of 
which is a benefit to the country at large. That is all 
right for the President and Prof. Bobo and those that 
can afford it; but for an old 'un of three score and ten 
and who has seen some life, give me a breechloader and 
a good dog among the Bob Whites on the timber 
doodles. There are certain thrills— thrills I may call 
them — that come over a shooter or small game that do- 
not fit or find one of the heavier kind. I can fully ap- 
preciate Didymus' good luck in his unexpected three 
woodcock and three grouse. That was good. He had 
twelve different thrills. 
To stop a lordly grouse as he essays to climb the 
tree tops is great; and as one hears the thud, thud of 
the beating wings on the leaves, he feels a thrill, and as 
he gathers in the magnificent bird and smoothes down 
the glassy feathers of the plump breast, ere he puts it 
away in the pocket of his shooting coat there is an- 
other and very satisfactory thrill. Dou you get that 
on a deer hunt? The last deer I shot was up m War- 
ren County, N. Y., in '60— a nice buck. I had a flying 
crack at him about 4 o'clock P. M. on a January day. 
But I only paunched him too far back. I foolishly fol- 
lowed him too fast, not giving him time to lie down and 
, get stiff before I jumped him again. It was 11 o'clock 
of a moonlight night before I was able to give him the 
coup de grace, and I was twelve miles from home. I 
gralloched him and in a few minutes had his heart 
broiling, and it was good. With a withe in his nose 
or under jaw, I drew him home on the snow, through 
those old woods, through ^brush, over logs, up hill and 
down dale. Was that fun and did I thrill? Not much. 
Well, hardly. No. Didymus and I are agreed, em- 
phatically, notwithstanding Dr. Ambler's able and plaus- 
ible article. He may be one extreme while Didymus 
and Jacobstaff are the other. 
I like these talks of brother sportsmen in Forest 
AND Stream — the sportsmen's journal of the world. They 
are a kind of a bond that keeps alive and up to date 
some of lis "old 'tins" whose rifles or breechloaders 
hang upon the wall to be taken down, perhaps, no more. 
Give us some more. 
Jacobstaff. 
A Rcvolutionafy Atrok 
-Recently the Goshen News-Times, an Indiana paper, 
told its readers, as a bit of local news, that "Harry Toms, 
living near Benton. Ava'^ in town Wednesday with a 
genuine old flintlock musket bearing the date of 1807." 
Not sati.sfied with adding- that the gun was still in an 
excellent state of preservation, the paper went on to 
say that the gun was carried through the Revolutionary 
War by Harry Toms, the great-grandfather of its present 
owner. The Milford Mail noticed the paragraph and 
asked, as a matter of information, if the News-Times 
would "explain how a man could carry through the Re- 
volutionary War a musket made in 1807." It is not 
recorded what the News-Times man said when he read 
this comment, nor how he will reconcile the discrepancy 
in dates, 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Foxest and Stkkak. 
A Week on the Upper Sacramento. 
My vacations are spent in fishing, and I have enjoyed a 
very pleasant outing at La Moine, Shasta county, Cal. 
This point is in its infancy as an angling resort, but 
cannot fail to be appreciated when once visited. The 
Sacramento River is within two minutes" walk of the 
house, and Slate Creek is right at the door. Mr. CHtford 
Coggins, the genial landlord, welcomes you most heartily 
and makes you feel immediately at home. The accommo- 
dations are of the best, and here one appreciates what is 
hard to find at the majority of resorts; namely, a square 
meal after the evening fish. 
The fishing on the Sacramento River, like most West- 
ern streams is best in the morning from 7 to 10 o'clock, 
and in the evening from 4:30 vmtil dark. Through the 
heat of the day, the trout will rarely rise to a fly, they 
will frequently, however, take a spoon or spinner, but the 
average angler is satisfied with the morning and evening 
sport. Bait is never used when the flies are on. How- 
ever, I will relate a little amusing occurrence which 
greatly tickled my friend Sam. Heller and me. The sec- 
ond day after our arrival a young banker from Woodland 
alighted from the morning train, but^ by some accident his 
baggage had miscarried. Now he certainly was an ardent 
angler, "woitld sooner fish than eat," and after a brief in- 
troduction by Missotiri Tom, his guide, the banker was 
desirous of at once starting out, but he was minus his 
tackle. He was soon accommodated in this respect, and 
a careful selection of flies was added, but he .still looked 
anxious. Suddenly he exclaimed, "Have you a bug or a 
worm ? I am completely lost without my baggage." He 
evidently had bugs and worms in his valise, but Missouri 
Tom solemnly swore that he fished exclttsively with a 
fly, and was much disgusted with the banker's request. 
Unfortunately for the Woodland swain, w'e could not 
accommodate him, and he had to wait for his bug or a 
worm. He was off bright and early next morning for a 
pool two miles up the river, where he succeeded in land- 
ing some good-sized fish with his bait. 
Great sport was had by Sam. Heller and myself every 
day of our stay ; the trout averaged from a quarter of a 
pound to one and a half pounds, with an occasional sal- 
mon. 
It is a curious fact, noticed probably by most anglers, 
that no matter at what resort he may be putting up, he 
invariably conceives the idea that the fishing cannot pos- 
sibly be good so near "to home," and so he hies himself 
ofl" either one or two miles above or below, and feels that 
he has been rewarded by his forethought when he returns 
with a full creel. Still, were he to drop down to the 
stream in front of the hotel any evening, he w^ould be sur- 
prised how many fish he would pick up. Good fishing is 
to be had on the Upper Sacramento in June, July, August 
and September. Slate Creek is an ideal mountain stream 
well stocked with trout, which, however, do not average 
as large as in the river, but a good day's sport can be had 
by the angler, who is an adept at getting over bluffs, rocks, 
etc. ; the creek, however, can be easily waded in July, 
August and September, and good results had. 
The successful flies on the upper Sacramento River are 
gray-hackle (red body, silver tinsel), grizzly-king, profes- 
sor, brown-hackle (yell6w bodjO and royal-coachman. A 
good cast for evening, gray-hackle (red body), tail fly; 
professor, middle dropper, and royal-coachman, dropper, 
keeping the dropper fly a few inches out of the wmter. 
James Watt. 
San Francisco, July 8. 
Random Notes of an Angler. 
Relating to the Black Bass. 
That the black bass is the chief game fish of America 
there can be no question. 
. It is more widely diffused than any other fish, and the 
hosts of anglers who follow it almost exclusively vastly 
outnumber all the trout and salmon fishermen combined. 
Indeed, so many are there who depend on the bass for 
sport that Dr. Henshall has been led to saj^ that "The 
number *of black bass anglers at the present day may 
be' reckoned by thousands, where trout fishers are 
counted by hundreds, and salmon fishers by scores." 
It is distinctively the American game fish, being found 
in Canada and in nearly all the States of the Union, and 
its merits are now well known in Europe, it having been 
transplanted in the British Isles and in France, Ger- 
many and other continental countries. 
No matter where the angler casts his line, either in 
northern, western or southern waters, he finds the bass 
the same grand, indomitable fighter, and whether it is 
the 3 or 4-pound "small-mouthed," such as is found most 
commonly in our northern waters, or the 15 or 20- 
pound "large-mouthed" that is taken in the Gulf States, 
the sport derived from its capture before it is brought 
to creel is, in the opinion of many anglers, hardly ex- 
celled by that from any other fish. 
Both species are taken in northern waters, but the 
"large-mouth" never attains in them the great size to 
which it grows in the Gulf States. 
The small-mouthed bass which is, I believe not 
found in the South, never reaches such great weight 
as does the other, but inch for inch and pound for 
pound, it is the gamiest fish that swims. 
The black bass in the North seems to prefer small lakes 
and slowly moving streams in which the water is fairly 
clear and cool, to larger bodies of water which are 
warmer and less limpid. 
There are many thousands of lakes ranging in area 
from 20 to 100 or more acres scattered through 
the country which furnish ideal abiding places for this 
fish, and so far as my observation has gone the better 
the water is the more plucky fighters are the bass that 
inhabit them. 
A single example will sufhce to- show that this is the 
case. I was fishing in one of the small lakes which 
abound in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Its water 
was clear and free from sediment, and the bottom and 
shores were of sand and fine pebbles and gravel. It was 
as perfect a bit of water as one could ask for, and the 
bass responded to my Im-es most generou.sly. I never 
saw fish more .gamy, every one tliat was hooked being 
full of fight until the landing net was brought into 
requistion. 
Wild dashes of ten or fifteen yards was the rule, and 
every fish leaped most vigorously above the surface, and 
often two or three times in succession. 
They made a handsoine catch of fifteen fish which 
averaged about pounds in weight. Later in the 
same day we fished another pond which was well known 
for the abundance of bass it contained, and caught nine, 
which were of about the same size as the others; but 
they did not show any pluck whatever; _ they gave a 
dogged resistance to the pull of the line, it is true, bitt 
it was not the kind of a fight a bass usually puts up; 
not one of them made a run of more than 6 or 8 feet, 
and but one or two leaped above the surface of the 
water. The pond was about one-half as large as the 
other, and its water was warm and full of sediment. 
the shores and bottom were almost entirely of mud, 
and flags, lily pads and sedges were scattered abundant- 
ly through it. It was an ideal pickerel pond, but it 
was illy adapted to the black bass. 
Time and again have I had similar experiences. I 
know it will be said that the gamy fighters were "small- 
mouths," while the more sluggish ones were of'the other 
variety, but such was not the case; they were all of the 
first-named variety, there being none of the others in 
that vicinity. No, the difference in temperament was 
owing solely to the difference in the waters. 
As to Rods. 
I suppose that every bass fisherman has had "troubles 
of his own" through using unsuitable rods. I have al- 
ways contended that an angler obtains proportionally 
the best sport with the lightest rod' and tackle available 
to him. That is to say, a 5-pound trout landed with a 
four-ounce rod gives much better sport than it would 
if an eight-ounce rod were used. Times without num- 
ber have I witnessed magnificent work done with a deli- 
cate little split bamboo rod, such as an old-time fisher- 
man would declare to be too flimsy to kill a fingerling 
trout, and there are many instances recorded of the suc- 
cess which follows the use of one of these Httle rods. 
Archibald Mitchell, in discussing this topic, says: 
"During the past season a salmon was killed on a Ca- 
nadian river with a split bamboo rod 9 feet long and 
weighing only four and one-eighth ounces. The reel 
used was a plain rubber click reel with 80 yards of fine 
trout line. The fish weighed 23^ pounds, which is a 
trifle over ninety times the weight of the rod, and it was 
gaffed in exactly 27^^ minutes from the time it took 
the fly. This was accomplished on a part of the river 
where there is a strong current, and at the same place 
where half an hour has frequently been spent in kill- 
ing a fish on a regular salmon rod weighing 27 ounces, 
no heavier and no gamier than the one killed on the 
feather-weight trout rod." * ' * * The steady, never- 
let-up strain that chngs is the one that soonest discour- 
ages and tires out the fish, and it was surprising how 
soon the big salmon began to weaken under the steady 
strain of the little rod." 
But— and there always seems to be a qualification to 
every assertion one makes in relation to angling — ^al- 
though I love to use the small rod with trout, I have, 
in black bass fishing, come to using a rod of not less 
then seven ounces in weight. There is so much of real 
"rough and tumble" in a fight with one of these fish that 
a very light rod seeins to be rather a poor dependence. 
Beside this, one needs something more than a mere fly- 
rod, for when he is at a stated time fishing, with a bait 
and sinker, anon is trolling with a spinning minnow or 
spoon, and later is casting the fly, all, perhaps, within 
an hour's time, he manifestly needs a strong rod and a 
rather stiff one, and a more pliable one adapted to cast- 
ing, so that he must have all these properties in a single 
rod or carry two with him for use in a day's sport. I 
used to employ my trout fly-rods in bass fishing, but 
finding that they soon came to grief with large bass, I 
had a bamboo rod built for me which has proved per- 
fectly satisfactory. It has but one bottom piece or butt, 
bttt interchangeable to this are two second joints, one 
as pliable as that of anv fly-rod, and the other con- 
siderably stiffer, and the tips also vary in strength, one 
being suitable for fly-fishing only and the other adapted 
to bait-fishing. A fly-rod is soon ruined if it is used in 
bait-fishing and one cannot cast a fly very well with a 
stiff rod. 
Caprices ol Bass. 
Like other game fishes, the black bass is a capricious 
biter, and the angler who places his dependence on a 
single kind of line will often meet with disappointment 
and chagrin. 
All of us have seen the time when a small frog was 
the only bait that had any attractions for the dusky war- 
riors; but in a half hour's time, aye, even less, the frog 
went begging to be eaten and nothing but the helgramite 
would suit; and later on the helgramite was spurned 
with contempt, and a live minnow only would be ac- 
cepted. 
So great is its capriciousness that there are times when 
nothing seems to have any charms for it, and though 
there may be hundreds within casting distance, not one 
will respond to the angler's offerings. 
Of course not all its moods are caprices, for like many 
other fishes the bass dislikes to move about in the di- 
rect rays of the sun, and when the day is bright and no 
ripple is moving, it settles down deep in the water Avhere 
lurking in the shadow of a submerged rock or a bunch 
of weeds it remains quietly until the light becomes less 
powerful. 
Favorite Bass Flies. 
There are times when the bass, refusing any and all 
baits, Avill come to the fly. Of course, there are ang- 
lers who use nothing but the fly on any consideration, 
just the same as there are others who disdain to em- 
ploy anything but a jbaited hook, and though both 
