§70 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 4, 1902. 
mid ^iv^t ^isf(mg. 
Proprietors of fishing' resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them m Foksst and Stkkak. 
Fish and^ Fishing, 
An Interesting Trout Stofy. 
One day last week Mr. George Hart, of Waterbury, 
was trolling for trout with a long line in the deep water 
portion of Lake des Passes, where the big fish lie deep 
and do not take the fly. Feeling a strike and knowing 
by his sense of touch that only a small fish was at his 
lure, he took no trouble to hook it, being after larger 
quarry. Peter Curtness, his Indian, was siowly paddling 
out of a bay at the time, and Mr. Hart purposely avoided 
taking any trouble to prevent the slackening of his line. 
When it finally straightened out again, however, there 
was quite a different fee! at the butt end of the rod, and 
Mr. Hart told Peter that the little fish which he had 
hooked in the bay had certainly grown considerably 
while the line was slack. After the customary struggle 
which a big trout puts up, the fish was finally brought 
up close enough to the canoe for Peter to take into the 
net. There were two fishes, in fact, a big one and a 
little one. The little one was fast to the hook, and the 
big one, when Peter reached down to net them, had hold 
of the other in its mouth. He released the hold at sight 
of the net, but was taken in with the other, just the 
same; and the remarkable circumstance was explained 
by the fact that the line above the hook, during the period 
that it remained slack, had become firmly caught around 
the root of one of his pectoral fins. The small trout 
was not far short of a pound in weight, yet it was not 
considered too large a mouthful by the otjier, which was 
a little over three pounds. It was not until the net was 
being placed under him that the big hungry fish released 
his grip of the little cousin upon whom he had resolved 
to make his dinner — a grip which he had strenuously 
maintained during the whole of the time that the angler 
had been forcibly urging him toward the canoe. 
The Voracity of Small Troot. 
A splendid camping trip was that of which four Ameri- 
cans formed' part, a few days ago. It was headed by 
Mr. Gaspard LeMoine, of Quebec, who has lately re- 
turned from a tour of the world, with Mrs. LeMoine. 
The latter, accompanied hy her sister, Miss Revell, of 
Philadelphia, and by Miss Chamberlain, from the same 
place, took part in the recent adventure, and so did Mr. 
J. Lockwood, a banker of San Antonio, Texas. From 
Lake St. John they drove southward over many miles of 
villainous roads, until Lac de la Belle Riviere was 
reached. This they crossed in canoes, and then took 
ag-ain to vehicles and drove to the River aux Ecorces, 
which they ascended for many miles in canoes, making, 
on foot, no less than fourteen portages, in order to avoid 
the heavy falls and rapids of this turbulent stream. Final- 
ly Lake aux Ecorces was reached, and here the party 
enjoyed the finest trout fishing of their lives. The lake 
and part of the river are well within the boundaries of 
the Laurentides National Park, and like the grand lake, 
Jacques Cartier, have seldom been fished by white men. 
In the clear waters in which they did a part of their fish- 
ing, they had excellent opportunities of observing the 
habits of the fish which were attracted by their lures. 
It is not surprising that thej^ should have found them 
particularly wild and untutored. One of the party re- 
lates that some of the smaller fish which they caught and 
returned to the water, came back immediately to the same 
fly, at which they had but so recently risen, and went 
through the performance of being caught and returned 
to the water, two, and even three times in rapid suc- 
cession. To me the story is not at all surprising, for 
several years ago, when fishing some almost virgin trout 
waters north of Lake St. John, with Colonel Haggard, 
we distinctly saw many of the fish which we took from 
our hooks and placed uninjured in the water, return to 
the fly which concealed the barbed steel upon which they 
had, btit just before, impaled themselves. 
Rapid Growth of Salmon. 
Reference has already been made in these columns to 
the rapid growth of salmon in the sea, but a few very 
recent instances which have come under my notice in the 
reports of some of the fishery authorities on the other 
side of the Atlantic, are more remarkable than anything 
I had previously found on the subject. Kelts, which 
were marked and liberated in the Avon, on the 3d of 
February last, were found to have completely recuper- 
ated in eight and a half weeks, and to have returned as 
fine, fresh run salmon, by April 2. Still more wonderful 
is the record of a male kelt caught at Castle Council on 
the 24th of February last by S. C. Vansittart. It was 
forty inches long and weighed 19 pounds. It was marked 
with one of the labels specially prepared by the Agricul- 
tural Department of Ireland, bearing the number D. 1502, 
and returned to the water. On the 26th of the month of 
March following, the same fish was netted at O'Brien's 
Bridge, five miles above Castle Connell, and was then a 
clean fish, its weight having increased in the intervening 
month and two daj's from 19 to 33 pounds. The story 
would seem to be almost incredible, but the weight of 
the fish is declared to have been verified by the bill of 
sale, while there can scarcely be any doubt as to its 
identity, and the label is described as having been al- 
most buried in the fat at the base of the fin to which it 
was attached. 
Crass Stapidity. " " " 
Picking up a French-Canadian newspaper printed in 
Quebec, I read to-day a most absurd attack upon the 
Restigouche Salmon Club. The writer laments the fact 
that there is no room for the village of Metapedia to 
grow, since almost all the property in the place belongs 
to wealthy Americans, who enjoy such a monopoly there, 
that placards all over the place announce that fishing for 
salmon is prohibited in their waters. There is no ex- 
aggeration in saying th^t the scor^ or t^yo of niem^ers 
of the Restigouche Salmon Club and their guests, who 
annually visit their club house and salmon pools, expend 
ten times more money at Metapedia than could be made 
out of their lands and waters combined, if they were in 
the hands of farmers or others, and employed for agri- 
cultural and commercial fishery purposes. Five dollars 
per pound would be a very low estimate of the price 
which their salmon cost to the members of the Resti- 
gouche Salmon Club, and much of this money is spent 
among the people of the place, to whom the fish would 
not be worth, for commercial purposes, more than about 
five, or at the most, ten cents per pound. 
Riparian Owners' Association. 
Much of the good sport enjoyed during the past sum- 
mer on the Restigouche and its tributaries is undoubtedly 
due to the good work accomplished hy the Riparian 
Owners' Association, which employs and looks after the 
men who guard the pools and assesses the various clubs 
and private individuals fishing the rivers and forming 
part of the association, for their share of the co,st. It 
was well known that many of the net fishermen in the' 
mouth of the river failed to observe the law requiring 
them to raise their nets from Saturday evening till Mon- 
day morning, in order to permit a reasonable number of 
fish to enter the river. It was impossible for the officers 
to keep track of all the nets over such ah immense ex- 
panse of water as the estuary of the Restigouche, ten to 
twelve miles in extent, and the fishermen well knew this, 
and were in the habit of watching the movements of the 
officers, raising the nets before they made their appear- 
ance, and lowering them as soon as their backs were 
turned. The association, rtais j'ear, very wisely increased 
the representation on the committee of mangement. of 
Canadians having influence with the Department of Fish- 
eries, and, in consequence, were successful in securing 
the loan of a steam launch for the use of the officers at 
the mouth of the river, who were thus enabled to enforce 
the law. The committee was also fortuntc enough to 
have the size of the government hatchery net, in the 
estuary of the river, reduced. If the same conditions can 
be made to prevail for a few more years, there is no 
doubt that the angling in the Restigouche and its tribu- 
taries, excellent as it now is, will be still further im- 
proved. E. T. D. Ch,a.mbers. 
Thomas B. Stewart. 
Boston, Sept. 29. — Thomas B. Stewart, who died at 
the Upper Dam Friday. Sept. 26, was an angler by gift 
of nature. Genial and kind of heart, he met other anglers 
with the spirit of love and gentleness. Not only was he 
a lover of fishing, but of its surroundings. For more 
than twenty seasons- he had fished the Pool at Upper 
Dam, his chosen spot. To die there was his choice; to 
die in touch with his angling friends, where he could 
see their faces, and with his last glance behold the glint 
■ oi the Pool, with anglers covered. In his last moments 
he was casting the fly. His arm made the motions as 
he lay breathing his last, "I've got a good one!" he 
gently whispered. "Now, I must be careful," and his 
arm tightened as it held the imaginary rod. "I'll give 
him line; not try to land him too soon. Oh, he's gone!'" 
THOMAS B. STEWART. 
He sunk back on his pillows, and soon life had departed. 
He died as he lived; an angler to the last. Every rod 
was put up on Saturday. Not a boat was on the pool. 
A clergyman was present and simple "funeral services 
were ' held, close by the roar of the everlasting waters. 
Volunteer pallbearers took his body to Bemis. All the 
old-time anglers who happened to be at the Dam went 
do'wn with the funeral party: Messrs. Parish, Reese, 
Morgan, Way, Osgood, Bearse, Howe, Nicholson, and 
others. At Bemis they bid their last farewell to all that 
was mortal of their long-time angling friend, Thomas B. 
Stewart. Sadly they went back to the Upper Dam 
Mr. Freelan Howe, of Norway, Me., recently landed 
a salmon at the Middle Dam that. was 29 inches long, 
with a girth of 18 inches, and weighed loK pounds. 
He was caught on a No. 6 hook, fitted with a coach- 
man fly, ' ^PIEOTAL. 
Looking'''Back. ^ 
YoNKERS, N. Y., Sept. 25. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
You kindly sent us all an invitation to give an account 
of our experience in our outings of both fishing and 
shooting. Now, as the trout fishing is over for year 
1902, we can take a little pleasure in relating and talk- 
ing about the good time we have had. In the trout sea- 
son of 1901 I caught in the streams in and near the city 
of Yonkers 150 trout. In the season of '02 I took but 
68 in about the same amount of time spent on the streams. 
The greatest number taken in one day in '01 was 16 fish ; 
the greatest number taken in one day in '02 was li fish, 
one of them 11 inches long, and none less than 7 inches'. 
I think the reason of the falling off in the past season 
may safely be blamed to the low water in the streams. 
During the months of July_ and August there was very 
little water in the brooks; in fact, in some places in 
the streams there was none at all. In one stream known 
as Sunny Brook, last year I took quite a number -of fish. 
This season I fished it three times and only took four 
fish. The brook at the head of the Yonkers reservoir 
has afforded the best fishing to me this season; this is 
the smallest in this part of the county, but I have taken 
some good fish from it this summer. Another stream 
known as the Front Sprain, near St. Andrews' golf 
grounds, I took from it Aug. 29, in about two hours' 
fishing, one fish 10 inches long, one 9 inches, one 8}4 
and one 7, which, I think, was doing fairly well for this 
part of the countiy. You cannot fish any of these 
streams with the fly, as they are small and grown up 
with brush and briers to that extent that in some places 
you have some trouble to get your hook into the water, 
but the fish are there. Now, I think I hear some of 
you expert fly-fishermen say that is no way to fish, but. 
gentlemen, it's good enough for me, and it don't cost a 
week's salary to get there, and the fish like the worm 
and I like the fish as well as the fishing. 
Tone. 
Fishing: at Toms River. 
Nevv York. Sept. 2g.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Knowing as I do the difficulty many people experience 
in knowing just where and when to go to catch certain 
kinds of fish at this season of the year without utilizing 
considerable purse and more time in reaching a positive 
uncertainty, I think that a bit of reliable information on 
the subject may prove very good news to many who 
haven't; a "fish" ticker in their office. 
At Toms River, on Friday, I met the enthusiastic 
game warden of Monmouth County, who had dropped 
off there to catch some fish between trains, and I would 
like to say right here that the word enthusiastic is a trifle 
weak when applied to this natural born "fish jerker," for 
though it was raining "cats and dogs," he didn't hesi- 
tate a moment getting into "hip rubbers" and rain coat 
and pushed off right by the Riverside Hotel and began 
to cast for pickerel. I left for Forked River at the same 
time (4:10), confessing a warm admiration for this man 
of business and fish. Two and a quarters hours later I 
passed througlLToms River on my return to New York, 
and to my surprise the wet and smiling Mr. Ackerman 
boarded the train with twenty to thirty fine pickerel, all 
caught within a ciuarter of a mile of the bridge. 
Wliile in Toms River I learned that just before this 
storm they had been taking striped bass down below 
there of unusual weight, and that as soon as the tides 
became normal they will be in the channel again, and 
are caught .all through October. Your friends can be 
ad^dsed correctly as to all these conditions by Mr. Geo. 
C. Van Hise, as to the pickerel fishing there. I would 
say, I have seen, I have tasted and I know. 
T. E. B. 
"Washingiion Ahgflefs. 
Washington, D. C, Sept. 22.— Major H. A. Hall, re- 
cently returned from Lake George, New York, reports 
excellent bass fishing in the lake during the season just 
closed. His best fish, and probably the largest taken 
in the lake this past summer, was caught Sept. 6, still- 
fishing, fine line, single gut leader, large helgramite for 
bait. The reel was on the hum for half an hour. Result: 
Female, small-mouthed black bass, 23 inches long, 18 
inches girth, weight 6 pounds, 5 ounces. The Major 
says it was one of the hvehest and exciting pieces of 
sport he has ever had. 
Mr, J. E. Watkins has just returned from Eastport, 
Me., where he had most excellent fishing for pollock and 
haddock, using rod and reel, squid or herring heads for 
bait. He says the pollock are as game as bluefish and 
furnished very good sport. At one time two fish of 8 
and 10 po\mds each took his son's line and gave him all 
the fight he could handle. Bon. 
S«sq«ehanna Bass. 
Sayre, Pa. — Bass .fishing at Wyalusing on the Susque- 
hanna River is at present, to use the phrase of the market 
reporter, in "prime condition." 
Some very large-sized black bass have been taken from 
these waters during the past fortnight, and, barring 
heavy rains, the excellence of the sport should continue 
for some time to come. 
Bass are biting freely at various points on Cayuga Lake 
at this writing. At Esty's, a short distance from Ithaca, 
the fishing is said to be exceptionally good. At Canoga 
and Cayuga village, bass and muscallonge and pickerel 
are being taken in plenty. M. Chill. 
Maine Fish and Game* 
South Waterford, Me., Sept. 22. — I have had good 
sport in the lakes around here the past two months, catch- 
ing a large number of black bass and a few salmon. Deer 
are quite plenty this year, also ruffed grouse. 
W. R. H. 
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York, not any tndiTi4t^l ^paected with the pape^. 
