Oct. i8, 1902.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
S18 
'V. _ 
Liceosf Law in WtECoctin. 
Whether we like the license law or not it seems to be 
doing business, at least in a resident license form, in some 
of our Western States. Dodge Goimty, Wis., has this year 
issued 1,037 licenses. There were about 300 more licenses 
issued in this county last year by this date than dur ng the 
present season, but even so, the number is large enough 
to give some idea of the numbers of shooters who go out 
each fall. 
The Tennessee Meal Dog. 
I must thank Mr. Samuel B. Dow, of Tennessee, for 
an invitation to go down and get acquainted with him and 
his meat dog. That is my kind of a bird dog, and I 
don't care who knows it. As to quail shooting, it is going 
to be pretty' nearly the only kind of field shooting avail- 
able for folks in this part of the world, and I cordially 
agree with Mr. Dow that there is no prettier form of 
field sport in the world than that of shooting good quail 
over good dogs and in a good country, such as he de- 
scribes. 
Chicago Mao Gets His Moose« 
Mr. T. W. Robinson, of the Illinois Steel Co., Ch'cago, 
whom I earlier mentioned as having gone to New Bruns- 
wick after a moose, has returned, and returned success- 
ful. He got a large moose with a good pair of antlers, 
and says that bye and bye he is going to tell all about it. 
He went in with Jack Moore in the new moose country 
wh'ch Adam and Jack and I discovered last winter. 
From all accounts there cont nues to be abundance of 
big game in New Brunswick, thanks to the law and the 
enforcement thereof. The following letter is from Mr. W. 
H. Allen, one of the New Brunswick guides, who writes 
under date of Oct. 6: 
"My party that has just returned was composed of Mr. 
Wm. H. Moses and wife, of Tilton, N. H., and Dr. Fuller, 
of Boston, and Dr. Tuttle, of Waverly, Mass. They were 
only 18 days, including going in and coming out of 
the woods. Dr. Tuttle shot a moose and deer, as did also 
Mrs. Moses, while Mr. Moses shot his moose. Dr. Fuller 
did not shoot his moose, as he was not wanting one, un- 
less of very large spread of antlers. He saw several good 
shots, but heads did not suit him. Moose are very abun- 
dant in New Brunswick this year. Our game is on the 
increase, and this I think is due tO' our very strict laws 
well enforced. I am very glad to notice such an increase 
in our moose, caribou and deer." > 
I have not heard from Adam Moore, and do not know 
what success Mr. Weed and he had in the Nictor coun- 
try. It is not likely that we will hear of Uncle Henry 
Braithwaite until some time in December, but it is not 
difficult to guess that Uncle Henry will be doing business 
up near the headwaters of the Miramichi. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago, III. 
The Easy "Way, 
It's easy enough to go shooting and bring down 
your birds with a lead pencil and be neither sore in bodj^ 
nor leg weary by the operation. 
Charles Cristadoro. 
— ® — 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Fokest and Stkxau. 
Lake Champlain^s Big Fish. 
TicoNDEROGA, N. Y., Eagle Lake, Oct. 8— Editor Forest 
and Stream: The past season at Eagle Lake has been 
one full of glorious victories for the wielders of the 
pliant rod seeking the gigantic northern pike or the 
big small-mouthed bass that abound in the crystal waters 
of this gem in the land ot Natty Bumpo, Israel Putnam 
and the famous ranger, Rogers. One of the earliest ar- 
rivals at Hotailing's Hotel was Mr. E. Runge, a mem- 
ber of a great New York art firm, who passes his win- 
ters in China going about in a house-boat looking after 
his purchases of vases and pottery from the staid, con- 
ventional Chinese merchants. He can tell and does tell 
many a well-founded story about the splendid hunting 
and fishing of that strange country, where deer and 
pheasants can be flushed or jumped from the palm 
th'ckets near any coolie's hut as easily as we in the 
States stir up squirrels about farmhouses. But let Mr. 
R. tell your readers about that and many other things, 
including brook trout fishing in the mountains of Japan! 
Well, this gentleman and his two sons were diligent for 
several days after arrival in July without marked suc- 
cess. Finally Mr. R. took two large cane poles sent to 
him by Mr. Alexander Weed, president of the Eagle 
Lake Improvement Co., and betook himself to the placid 
precincts of Moore's Bay, at the head of our four-inile 
lake. A crawfish did the trick so effectually that our 
worthy friend from Hong-iKong was soon fast to some- 
thing very like a whale, as he expressed it, which towed 
his light skiff all o.ver the bay for a while and finally 
almost pulled the stout cane from his hands. The end 
had to come, as it generally does in such cases, when 
there is no reel, and a sad but plucky angler went home 
for sympathy and dinner. He was out again that after- 
noon; and up hy my lodge by Fox Island, his wife 
finally succeeded in landing a g-pound pike in fine condi- 
tion, He kept on after the fish during the season until 
late in August he captured alone, without a net, a 17- 
pound pike, the record fish there, with a live bait on a 
rod, last season. 
William Garfield guided Miss Carpenter to a pike well 
cond tioned and 37 inches long, and later on aided Mrs. 
Carlos C. Alden to land one 2 inches longer. Mr. Weed, 
in front of his camp on Prospect Point, "spooned" out 
a 15-pounder right before my eyes one morning, and it 
was served, cut in steaks, to his friends for several days. 
The record bass was caught from a boat by a ten-year-old 
boy. Master Kuhn, from Cincinnati, on the Sunken 
Island, guided by Mr, Hotailing, late in August, and 
weighed 4 pounds ;q ounces. A farmer n^med Cheeney 
put a little bass on a set line, or rather hand-line, near 
the bridge, and finally landed a pike that weighed, after 
being out of the water for six hours, 15 pounds, on 
Mrs. Moore's scales. 
All these captures fall far behind your correspondent's 
experience Sept. 17, when he went forth from Arden 
Lodge with a small copper spoon and a heavy double 
gun at about 10 A. M. on that eventful day. His little 
blue batteau 9 feet long stood like an azure bonnet on 
the still water as he carefully embarked for fish or fowl, 
as fortune should kindly direct. The line was scarcely 
payed out to 50 feet when something seized the lure. 
He gave the usual motion sufficient to set the hook, for 
he was fishing with a fine hand-line and the game showed 
his weight and seemed inclined to move off independent- 
ly. Just then a catastrophe occurred. The line had be- 
come decayed in spite of the fisherman's care, and broke 
off near his hand, and away went the fish without hav- 
ing once showed himself above the surface. Nothing 
daunted, your correspondent then climbed the cliff to 
his lodge and secured an old-fashioned kidney spoon, to 
which he had lately attached a triplet of huge hooks 
and feathered all with the plumage of one of his Plym- 
outh Rock chickens, who disputed their morning corn 
with a covey of nice ruffed grouse, being tamed and fed 
for future sport. With this new lure the batteau moved 
out again, over the same place, when, lo! another 
strike and a harder one! This time the striker stayed 
with him and swam slowly toward the boat, running 
very deep as he aproached. There was not a breath of 
wind, and after a few rushes and careful recoilings of the 
slender trout line the little craft had been towed pretty 
well out toward Fox Island, and the angler called loudly 
for some one to row out and get a motion on his boat 
to help drown the monster pike which was rushing 
around and under him or floating gently near the sur- 
face just under his hand, the spoon and hooks all being 
outside his huge mouth. An attempt to take in the 
fish by seizing it around the throat, resulted in an awful 
plunge, covering the boatman with water to the waist. 
Then, as the big pirate swam off toward the island and 
its grass, a sudden resolution came to shoot him with 
the 12 bore gun. This was dismissed, as likely to cut 
the line and lose all. Both fish and man were now be- 
coming exhausted from their half-hour tussle, when a 
new element of interest came upon the stage. It was the 
first fish hooked, who followed its mate to the boat, and 
began throwing somersaults in its efforts to dislodge 
the copper spoon and a bit of attached line about 50 
feet long. The spoon could not be seen, and this showed 
that he was liooked deep. After several trials of this 
kind, old No. i stopped his eflforts, and the water was 
covered with pickerel grass cut off by the struggles of 
the pair. A little speed is given to the frail craft with a 
paddle held in one hand, while a vigilant eye is kept 
on the line, always kept as taut as possible and never 
once allowed to get slack for the world. The old man 
of the lake is dragged and coaxed up from the bottom 
once more, and as he comes under the little low stern 
a quick reach and a firm grip in the eye sockets brings 
the beautiful, gleaming fig^hter into the canoe, where 
he remains as quiet as a mouse. Fearful of a sudden 
struggle, which experience told him must soon come, 
your writer carefully paddled to the shore with one hand, 
where, gathering up line and card, he rushed up the 
bank, never letting go of his prey, and said: "Well, my 
dear, here I am." It gives me pleasure to say that I 
carefully outlined that noble fish on a paper and have 
the drawing at my office in New York. It was in 
splendid condition, but hid had no breakfast or any 
food at all for some timie, although the lake was alive 
with shiners at that place. Its head was remarkably 
small for a fish that was actually 35 inches from nose to 
tail tip, and measured just 14^ inches around its waist, 
or rather, shoulders. I regret that I had no scales, but, 
perhaps, you can apply the very correct rule for ascer- 
taining weights of this kind of game lately published in 
Forest a.nd Stream, which I have mislaid, and give me 
the approximate weight. Reel work is all right, but for 
sport give me the old-fashioned way of taking big pike 
that I learned in Champlain when a boy. I was out for 
a dinner that morning and had no time for frills. 
Peter Flint. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
On the Albany River. 
The Forest and Stream news bureau seems to be 
working fairly well this fall. All my "customers" who 
have gone to Minnesota and Dakota have come back 
pleased, and I have just stated that Mr. Robinson liked 
ins moose tip. Recently I had an inquiry from Mr. Sam 
J. Ryan, of Appleton, Wis., who wanted to find out about 
the Albany River, north of Lake Superior, with a view 
to a canoe trip next year. If you don't see what you 
want in the Forest and Stream, ask for it and we will 
get it for you. Here is the answer to Mr. Ryan's in- 
quiry, written by Mr. W. O. Watson, who lives all the 
w;ay out in Charlottesville, Va., and writes as folIoAvs : 
"Ten or fifteen Albany River Indians come down to 
Nepigon every summer to do the tourist work there, and 
Mr. McKirdy, or the Hudson Bay factor there, can get 
Mr. Ryan all the information he wants from them. They 
told me great tales about the trout fishing in the Albany. 
Said no white men ever fished it. They said it took 
them twenty days to come from the Albany section to 
Nepigon by canoe, and they estimated that they traveled 
fifteen miles per day. Their account of the fishing and 
the country interested me greatly." 
I thank Mr. Watson very sincerely for his volunteered 
advice. The Forest and Stream family might be a very 
much worse one. 
MuEcalbnge at Last. 
The muscallunge have been very backward this season 
and not very many good catches have been reported. I 
have just seen a photograph, however, which is calculated 
to make one's hair stand up straight — twenty-six muscal- 
lunge, many of them beautiful, clean handsomely marked 
.fi-.sh, and none less than ten pounds, These fish were 
caught by Train Master Hart, of Wausau, Wis. ; H. H 
Ober, ageot of C., M. ^ §t. f. Ry., Pr, H. ?ink, 
of Indianapolis, on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 20 and 21. 
in Tomahawk Lake, Wis., on the C, M. & St. P. R. R. 
Wm. Williams and Bert Hill were the gu des who had 
out the above gentlemen. The take is said to be the 
finest cne ever seen on that famous water, which has this 
year turned out better fish than any other lake in Wiscon- 
sin. This is the wafer where the State Fish Commission 
catches its breeders for the muscallunge hatchery in the 
springt'me. The weights of these fishes were as below, re- 
spectively: 12, t8, 24, 15, 26, 20, 20, 18, 22, 15, 12 ,12, 10, 
10, 10, 18, 22, 12, 30, 24, 18, IS, 13, 12, 15 and 17 pounds. 
Now, who says we have no muscallunge in the West? 
The above was certainly a grand score for two rods in two 
days. The catch has stirred up a great deal of excite- 
ment along the St. Paitl road, and a great many anglers 
have gene into that country during the past week. The 
fishing is reported to be better now than it has been since 
spring, and indeed it is probably much better than it has 
been at any time during the year. 
Bait-Casting. 
Mr. PL W. Tucker, of Philadelphia. Pa., writes as be- 
low, regarding the art of casting as is done in the West : 
"TThrough reading your articles in the Forest and 
Stream, I have become familiar with the scores made and 
general excellence displayed in bait-casting by the mem- 
bers of the Chicago Fly-Cast ng Club, and as I take an 
interest in bait-casting, my desire to gain information on . 
the subject encourages me to request information upon 
some points. I should like to know the most popular 
length of rods used by the experts, make and cal.ber, or 
number, of line, and whether an overhead cast, as in fly- 
casting, is permissible, or whether contestants are con- 
fined to the movement in casting diagonally across the 
body from right to left, as represented in Henshall's book 
on the black bass?" 
In the Chicago style of bait-casting the rod used is light, 
stiff and short. Our bait-rods have grown shorter and 
shorter here for six or eight years. The experts rarely 
use rods longer than seven feet, some going as low as 
six feet. The reel is of the quadruple multiplier sort, of 
the best makes and the line is the finest of the braided 
silk lines manufactured. That is to sav. this line is used 
in the bait-casting competitions, though it is too delicate 
to use in actual fishing. As seen in the tournament com- 
petitions, the bait-casting is all done overhead, not with 
the full arm sweep, as taught by Dr. Henshall in his 
book. This full-arm style of bait-casting is obsolete, in 
this part of the country to-day among the experts. The 
latter claim that they can keep a bait better on the line 
with the overhead cast. In actual fish ng the overhead 
cast, although sometimes practical, is often awkward and 
unnecessary. Some of the club casters do not restrict 
themselves to overhead casting in actual fishing, but this 
ifc the style used in contests. 
Afa iut Fly-Rods. 
The little controversy on weight and characteristics of 
fly-rods goes merrilj^ on in the Fishing Gazette of Lon- 
don. Several English firms offer their opinions upon 
fl.v-rods in general, and the American fly-rods in particu- 
lar. A good deal of the matter advanced is tommyrot, 
but there are some good things among the others. I 
notice that Mr. A. MacDonald has something pretty sen- 
sible to say, that it to say, it seems sensible to me. be- 
cause it is a good deal to my own way of thinking in re- 
gard to chokebore fly-rods : 
"It is really marvelous," he says, "on going the round 
of a tackle-maker's shop, to find so many ill-propor- 
tioned rods. Nearly all have the whippy point and stiff 
butt. A few have weak center pieces, but, alas! how 
very few have the graceful, steady, and, for their size, 
strong swing, which impresses the manipulator with 
their power, and imparts confidence in their use. Some 
are rods (large even to sixteen feet) with practically no 
power, and more adapted for flicking flies off a horse's 
ear than for angling. I do not include in this category, 
I need hardb' say, rods of the Hardy, Castleconnell, 
etc., make. But some such rods are made by tackle- 
makers well up in the trade, and priced as high as 40s. 
or more. Personally, I make all my own rods, and pre- 
fer them to most makes, not because I have made them, 
but simply because with careful testing as I go along I 
am able to retain the proper power in conjunction with 
the necessary resiliency which is so difficult to obtain 
in ordinary priced rods. One is apt, if not careful when 
making a rod, to go beyond the point where the proper 
power or backbone is to be found. 'Once this is done 
nothing satisfactory can be made w th the lengths. The 
only remedy is to shorten the lengdis and start a smaller 
rod. When constructing a rod the butt should be fully 
utilized. Some makes I have handled, it is no exagger- 
ation to say, would fish better with the center and point 
only. The butt appeared as if meant for something to 
hold on to and not as a v'brating part of the rod. These 
rods are very easily broken. Their defects are more felt 
in the 'Land o' Cakes' than in sunny England where 
fine wrater and dry fly-fishing is the rule, and where 
'point woi'k' is more used. 
''Hi're, in loved 'Auld Scotia.' in the brawling moun- 
tain stream now running noisily through a narrow gorge, 
now opening out a wide pool with sullen circling waters, 
wet fly-fishing is more suited. The banks are often pre- 
cipitous, or heavily wooded, and overhead casting is 
impossible. 'Switching' is necessary, and when a wide 
pool has to be covered then comes in the rod with the 
strong swing to the hand, which imparts an impetus to 
the line sufficient to carr}' the flies well over the stream." 
So much may be said without committing oneself to 
the absurd weights which Englishmen seem to think nec- 
essary in their flj^-rods. I should not myself care to use 
one of these heavy English rods, but I shou'd like to 
see some American rod maker disabuse himself of this 
too-much-backbone idea and get back to making rods 
wh-ch do work of casting a line by themselves and not 
by the muscles of the angler. 
If one will conceive his flj^-rod to be made of elastic 
bands front and back, he can get a notion of its action 
in handling the line. When he begins to pitch his rod 
forward he may suppose all these rubber bands on the 
front of his rod to stretch, and then to begin to ccr- 
tract again, ars the rod goes forward writh the motion 
from the wrist up. This contraction from butt to tin 
of the rod brings the tip forwfird m4. carries the liw' 
