JXTLY 19, I902J 
FOREST AND STREAM 
49 
ago by Mrs. Wheeler, of this city. A gentleman who 
came from that country to-day told me that Mrs. 
Wheeler not only caught this fish, but stood a very fair 
chance of capturing its ' mate. After taking the 42- 
pounder she was worn out, tired and a little frightened, 
which is natural for a woman to be after a fight with a 
fish of this size. She went ashore on the island in Little 
St. Germaine to rest for a while, but presently went out 
in the boat again. While trolling past the place where 
she struck the big fish, she had another very heavy 
strike. Frightened and weak she dropped the rod in the 
boat, where it was picked up by the guide, who_. with 
no one to row him, played the fish for a few minutes, 
until it finally broke away. It is thought to be the mate 
of the fish which Mrs. Whaler took, it being an old tra- 
dition among asglers that these fish lie in pairs. 
The water is reported roily at Turtle Lake at the pres- 
ent time, and the muscallunge fishing is not thought to 
be good there. The Manitowish waters offer very good 
fishing when the dams leave the lakes and streams in 
their normal condition. 
Tarpon. 
Mr. C. H. Fargo, of this city, is back from a pleasant 
trip to the tarpon country of Aranzas Pass, Texas. He 
says he never sa\v such tarpon fishing as he experienced 
in all his life or heard of .it. Everyone was catching 
fish, one gentleman landing 'thirteen tarpon in one day. 
Mr. Fargo himself killed four handsome fish, playing a 
good many others which he turned loose, not wishing 
to go ashore and beach the fish, as is the custom at 
Aranzas Pass. One morning a fleet of fifteen boats 
started out from the club. They struck into a school 
of tarpon and four rods had on fish at the same time, the 
four fish springing into the air at almost the sarne mo- 
ment. This would seem to be an unusual scene in tar- 
pon angling-. All this tarpon fishing in Texas is done 
by trolling and not by still fishing, as is the case in 
Florida. Mr. Fargo says that he was advised that the 
best tarpon fishing had not begun at the time of his 
visit, which was about June 8. 
Grayling. 
Mr. W. B. Mershon, Mr. Watts Humphreys, Mr. C. 
H. Davis, and perhaps one or two other of the angling 
contingent of Saginaw, Mich., propose a trip for gray- 
ling some time in the present month and ask me to 
join them. If it be a possible thing I must certainly ac- 
cept this invitation, for it has never been my fortune to 
see a live grayling east of the Rocky Mountains. We 
think we know where we can catch two or three on a 
certain remote stream in the southern peninsula of 
Michigan. It will be a long and hard trip with a great 
many mosquitoes in it, but if the Saginaw crowd start 
out after grayling, they are mighty apt to have gray- 
ling in the game bag when they come back home. 1 
do not know the exact location of the stream which it 
is intended to visit. 
Gaylord Club of Wisconsin. 
Gaylord Club had the misfortune to lose their hand- 
some club house by fire last fall, and the new structure 
s not yet completed, so that the patronage of the club 
members has been much less than usual. There are sev- 
eral up' there this week, however, and they are having 
splendid sport. The branches of the Pike have been boun- 
t'fully stocked by the private hatcheries of this club, 
and the average weight of the fish is now fully four times 
as heavy as it was when I last fished those waters. The 
members of this club get good fly-fishing for bass in the 
lakes now and again. 
Chicago Fly-Casting Club. 
Bad weather caused the postponement of the June 
events of Chicago Fly-Casting Club to July 12. There 
will be two entries for each event on that day. The 
regular event scheduled for July 12 is postponed to Aug. 
9. Matters in this club are reported pleasant and flour- 
ishing. 
A Fighting Pike. 
My friend, Mr. Albert Bruning, and I started out for 
a little quiet paddle along the shores of an arm of Lake 
Minnetonka one day last week. We didn't have a great 
deal of use for any fish, but we thought we would enjoy 
two or three for the table if we had good luck. Good 
luck is a very necessary fixture when you go fishing 
in Lake Minnetonka, for that water is hammered so 
hard that it takes a genius to catch more than a half 
dozen fish in a day, in the average fishing. We started 
in under the bridge at Black Lake and passed up the 
right-hand shore of that lake directly on the course 
where actuallj^ thousands of boats go every month, this 
being within half a mile of the boat livery at Spring 
Park. Mr. Bruning was rowing and I was seeing what 
I could do with a spoon hook and frog. We got into the 
lake a little way when all at once, as I looked about, 
I noticed a heavy swirl in the water and felt a strike 
on the line. The fish we at once saw was a good one, 
but we fancied we had lost him, for he went directly 
to the bottom in ftie weeds, and although I put a heavy 
strain on him, I could not start him for quite a while. 
We were now at the edge of a bar, with perhaps 30 or 
40 feet of water out to the right in the middle of the 
lake. Bruning started out for the deep water, and we 
described an arc of a circle on the fish. At last, putting 
on a strain as great as I thought the rod and line would 
stand, we were gratified to see him come out slowly to- 
■\vard us. It was not so much weeds as fish which was 
making the strain on the tackle. All at once the old 
fellow jumped, and we saw a Great Northern pike, 
short, stock}'' and A^ery heavy. We guessed his weight 
at TO to 15 pounds, "wet weight," as the saj-ing goes. 
It was only a pike, in fact, only what is usually called 
pickerel, but he was the fightingist fish I have had on 
the rod in many a day, and, indeed, I have killed many 
muscallunge which did not compare with him in stub- 
bornness and agility. I presume we fought him for 20 
minutes before we could do anything with him. He was 
so heavy that I could not lift both his gills out of the 
water at the same time, and so could not do much to- 
^rd smothering him. We were fishing^ in a little Mul- 
lins "Get There" boat which sits low in the water, made 
for a duck boat. The fish could whirl this boat around 
whenever he liked, and for a time it was a question 
which party had the other. At last the old fellow began 
to tire so that I could draw him alongside. Then he 
would take a look at the boat, give it a whack with his 
tail, which sounded like hitting a wash boiler with a 
club, and dive 20 or 30 feet straight down. The rod 
would gradually bring him up again and then he would 
take another flirt, splashing water all over us. It was 
quite a session that we had with him. At last I got him 
alongside, perhaps for the tenth time, and we tried un- 
successfully to poke him into a landing net, there be- 
ing no pistol in the boat. This sort of thing set him afire 
once more. Once more he came alongside and I told 
Bruning to slip his hand under the fish and lift him into 
the boat. Three attempts at this failed, and it seemed as 
though the life never would go out of this old warrior's 
soul. At last Bruning, slowly and quietl^^', passed his 
hand under, at the same time grasping the back of 
the fish with his other hand, and so with a lucky lift 
got him inboard, where he threatened to smash every- 
thing. A few taps on the head with the club settled him 
at last. We found this fish weighed more than we could 
weigh on our little lo-pound pocket scale. \ye esti- 
mated its weight was about 12 pounds, it certainly be- 
ing more than 10 pounds. Not a very heavy fish, but 
one of the gamiest ones that I ever saw of any species. 
We thought we were about 25 minutes getting him into 
the boat. The rod was a split bamboo bass rod of splen- 
did quality and quite as game as the fish. 
Th)s fish was taken in waters which are fished over 
daily by scores of rods. No one can tell how many 
hundreds of boats have passed over his lurking place 
along the bar of Black Lake. Truly there are as good 
fish in the seas as ever have been caught. 
How Big Does Muscallunge Grow? 
I saw the statement on Jordan and Evermann's recent- 
ly published book, "American Food and Game Fishes," 
that the muscallunge sometimes reaches a length of 8 
feet and a weight of 100 pounds. I should think an 
8-foot muscallunge, if there ever was such a fish, would 
weigh a great deal more than any 100 pounds. I have 
never heard from Mr. Nevins, supermtendent of the 
Wisconsin Fish Commission, who caught the 102-pound 
muscallunge in Lake Minocqua, what were the measure- 
ments of the fish, if they were taken. Should this come 
to Mr. Nevins' eye, will he please advise the readers of 
Forest and Stream what the measurements of this 
monster muscallunge were? This is the biggest fish 
which has ever been taken in any part of the West, so 
far as known. It has before been stated that this fish 
was returned to the water and is still there — one of the 
fishes which are quite as good as any which have been 
caught. 
About Rain Coats. 
To-day I started out to make myself a rain coat for 
fishing purposes, not being able to find anything in the 
market which just suited m£. At a rubber store I found 
some light rubber cloth such as is used in camera work 
by photographers. It is apparently silk, water-proofed. 
The cost was only 35 cents a yard, and I got three yards. 
Then I had a tailor cut my three yards of stuff' in the 
middle and sew the edges together with a lap seam, 
all except a hole in the middle big enough for one's 
head to go through. At the edges of this hole the 
seams were reinforced with pieces of cloth set in. The 
material cost me $1.05 and the labor 20 cents. My rain 
coat weighs just 18 ounces and will cover me well 
enough, whether standing in the water in a stream or 
sitting on a boat seat. 
By the way, I had a chance to try the coat this very 
afternoon. I was going out to meet Fred Peet over at 
Jefferson Park in order to try a fly-rod. It had been 
raining all the afternoon and the seats of the street 
cars were very wet. I had put my rain coat in my 
pocket, thinking we might need it at the park. Enter 
now a tall and scornful young lady with plenty good 
clothes. Seeing that she looked longingly at the seat, 
I accosted her to the effect that her clothes cost about 
$1,100, and were not good enough for her at that, but 
if she wished to sit down, I had a little arrangement 
which I always carried with me for just such cases. I 
spread my new poncho on the seat, the lady sat down, 
and for two miles never said a word to me. That was 
just one mile beyond where I wanted to go. I was 
scared to ask her to let me have the coat again. Thus 
one may see that there are advantages and disadvan- 
tages in the ownership of a hand-made poncho of which 
one is very proud. 
Trying the Rod. 
By the way, as to the fly-rod, I got a box of half a 
dozen from New York this morning. None of these 
suited me but one, and that I held out, returning the 
others at once. Fred Peet and I tried this rod this 
evening. It weighs 4fi ounces, is 9 feet i inch long and 
is a shore daisy. This is not so much a casting rod or 
a tournament rod as it is a fishing rod. It goes into 
my battery at once. 
Meat Rod. 
Mr. Peet brought out to the little park lagoon this 
evening another rod, which I think was about the home- 
liest thing in the way of a fishing rod I ever did see. It 
was wound with cane and leather and things at the hand 
grasp, had a foot and a half of wood above the hand 
grasp, and then went into split bambo. It had a con- 
tinual wrapping from one end to the other in diamond 
pattern. The whole thing, I imagine, must have weighed 
7^ to 8 ounces. It was a fright. Fred tried my new 
rod for a while, and we both agreed it was probably 
the best one ever made in the whole wide world. Then 
he modestly asked me to try his rod. I smiled in a 
lofty sort of way and took hold of the outfit. It was 
rigged with a D line, good and heavy. I began to cast 
with it. 
"How will you trade rods right now?" I asked him. 
"Not for a hundred dollars." said he, 
"I don't blame you/' said I. 
Xlus rod, was made by an amateur, or s^^emi-amateur, 
over in Michigan, who builds a few each winter for 
his friends at a moderate cost. The builder himself 
is an angler, and I must say that in this rod he has built 
a fishing rod. It will almost cast by itself and will drive 
a line directly into the wind. Short line or long line, 
it lays it straight and is capable of any amount of deli- 
cacy in handling its flies. This is not a choke-bore rod. 
I should call it a good old-fashioned, plain, homely, 
cylinder-bore fly-rod, the kind that brings the meat into 
camp. I don't know how I am going to get it away 
from Fred Peet, but I think I shall have to have it 
somehow. There is nothing like having plenty of fly- 
rods in the family in case anything should go wrong. 
I am afraid to count up how many I have beside this 
new one I got to-day, and this one of Fred Feet's, which 
I am going to have some day. 
Bound for the Coast. 
By the way, several of the Chicago boys will start 
out in a few weeks now for the fly-casting tournament 
at San Francisco. These Chicago folks want to sample 
the trout fishing on the Pacific Coast. Mr. Peet, for in- 
stance, is anxious to go up into the Puget Sound coun- 
try, of which we read so much. He is a stranger there, 
and I wish some good, honest angler of that locahty 
would send me his name and address if he is wilhng to 
receive Mr. Feet's call sometime in August and to di- 
rect Mr. Peet to some good fishing out hi that part 
of the world. He will stop at Seattle on his way back, 
and any Seattle sportsman can confer a favor on me by 
doing a kindness to this Chicago angler. 
• - Good Gut. 
In spite of the longest kind of a pocket book and the 
greatest kind of care, it is sometimes difficult to get a 
first-rate article of gut for leader making. Neither is 
it always possible to get perfect leaders out of the stock 
in trade. The best leaders I have ever seen were those 
tied bj' the gentleman above mentioned, Mr. Peet, and 
he got his gut from a firm in San Francisco. He has 
promised to bring me two or three hanks when he 
comes back from the shore. Then — after I have traded 
him out of his homely old fly-rod — I think I shall be 
pretty near ready to do some business with the trout 
and bass. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford BorLDiNG, Chicago, lU. 
Angling: Neat New Yoi-k. 
Salt-water angling in local waters has been poor for 
the past week or more, but reports from the fishing waters 
show that there has been marked improvement within the" 
past few days. The weal<fish have again begun to bite, and 
good catches are reported from most of the waters. ' In 
Jamaica Bay, where many anglers were disappointed last 
v;eek, the weakfishing is now good, while the bay is full 
of fluke. Sea bass are also being caught in satisfactory 
numbers. 
The Staten Island waters, too, are yielding good re- 
sults. The weakfishing at Gifford's continues excellent; 
hardly a boat returns Avithout a good catch of the fish. 
At South Beach weakfish and fluke are being taken in 
goodly numbers. 
At Sheepshead Bay, L. I., where the weakfishing has 
been very backAvard this season, there is now good fishing. 
Good catches of w^eakfish are made in the bay of? 
E.itchie's Point, while in the Rockaway Inlet the fluke are 
plentiful. The outside waters reached from this place 
are good points for deep-sea fishing. 
Weakfishing at Long Beach, L. I., is unsatisfactory at 
present, but great catches of sea bass and porgies are 
made here. These fish are caught by the hundreds, but 
only a few weakfish are taken. Some kingfish are being 
caught in the surf. 
Deep-sea fishing is at its best just now. The boats 
running to the Fishing Banks bring in large catches of 
sea bass and fluke, and enormous numbers of ling. 
Some bluefish have been caught and a few striped bass, 
but neither of these fine fish are yet biting in any num- 
bers in the local waters. G. F, Diehl. 
"Where to Get "Wild Celefy. 
Mr. R. B. White, of Water Lily, N. C, on Currituck 
Sound, writes : "If any of your friends should want wild 
celery seed, I shall thank you if you will direct them to 
me. I have beeen advertising in the Forest and Stream 
to the effect that I can now supply this seed. My father, 
Joseph B. White, shipped to the Tolleston Club, of Chi- 
cago, a few bushels of wild celery seed to-day. He has 
also shipped seed to Lac du Flambeau, Wis., and to 
Denver, Colo." E. Hough. 
Potomac Bass. 
Passing through Point of Rocks, Potomac River, on 
Monday, July 7, I saw a fisherman who had caught a fine 
string of a dozen or more black bass. The river was 
rather muddy on account of the recent heavy rains. At 
Harper's Ferry the same condition prevailed, but I saw no 
bass. The fish at Point of Rocks were about eight to ten 
inches long, and I am informed that larger ones are scarce 
in that part of the stream. T. H. B. 
A Coney Island Tuttle. 
Jacob Smyth, of Lake Street, Coney Island, while fish- 
ing for weakfish at the Old Iron Pier last Sunday, caught 
a turtle that weighed 413 pounds. 
Peanttt Gtowing in Minjat«te. 
Those who hjave never seen peanuts growing, will he 
interested in the experiment. The ground should be light, 
soil well manured with fresh manure from the stable. Dig 
a space say about two feet square and six inches deep. 
Prepare the nuts as follows : Select good firm, full shells ; 
cut a small piece from the shell away from the end having 
a small fibre attached; soak them a. day or two in water, 
and then plant them about s'fK in a hill two or three inches 
a^art and covfer -vvith soil to a depth of drtfe or two inche^^ 
