April i6, 1904.] 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
S17 
pectant fisherman, hand steady and nerves tense, feels 
that the cruel hook has gone home, and that his skill 
is now to be put to the test, of all these I can tell you 
naught. To know them as they are you must see and 
feel their subtle charm. 
Life is pleasant under leafy boughs; but at times the 
sun hides his face, the rains descend, the lightning 
flies from peak to peak, things get wet, gnats and 
mosquitoes make living a sore trial, teamsters forget 
their promises and railroads are distant, and walking 
footsore and wearing, but we go afishing and complain 
not. Wm. Walters Champion. 
WlLLIAMSPORT, Pa. 
Salmon Fishing. 
There is a keen delight in catching a salmon, especially 
Ihe first one, and the experience never palls. Each fish 
has an individuality of its own; and no two act alike. 
Some are bright, sprightly fellows, who take out line 
freely, 1st you see them often, keep going from start to 
finish, and fulfil every requirement, of a well-bred fish; 
while others are sulky brutes, who may rush away when 
ihey first feel the hook, but soon plunge into deep water, 
and there chug away at the bottom until one's patience is 
nearly exhausted. Some days they are greedy and take 
anything that is thrown where they can see it; again they 
lie almost motionless, perhaps a dozen or two together, 
not rising even to look at the fly, or if they do take any 
notice, come up lazily, apparently size up the feathered 
monstrosity and reach the conclusion that it is not in their 
line. This is sheer perversity on their part, and most an- 
noying. As the guides say, they could make a fly, they 
have seen so many. 
Just above tidewater on the St. John (Gaspe) there is 
a pool much frequented by salmon — the Whirlpool — not 
often fished, but seldom failing when cast over. The 
water is not deep, and huge fish are always in sight. One 
day we^were going up the river after trout, though not 
averse to a salmon if it came our way. A little chap, 
t ight or ten years old, was in the party, equipped with a 
cast-ofif trout rod, a rickety reel, with only a few yards 
of line, and a frayed fairy fly at the end of it. When 
we reached the Whirlpool the salmon were -there, as usual, 
and in such a position that we could put the fly right 
over them with every cast. They were evidently in a 
very finicky mood, for though we almost exhausted the 
fly book for them, trying Jock-Scott, Durham-ranger, 
silver-doctor, and several others, they calmly ignored our 
best endeavor. The little fellow, meanwhile, was whip- 
ping the water a few feet from shore with his old 
fairy, when a salmon darted in, seized the fly, made a 
quick rush -away and took all the line, leaving the young- 
ster gaping with astonishment. That was the only 
sjdmon that rose that day for anybod}^ 
A year or two afterward I was again on the St. John, 
with no license for salmon, but free to catch trout in 
tidewater under no compliment to anybody. My brother, 
who had not been in these regions before, had never seen 
a salmon alive, but was very anxious to do so. We had 
not come across a salmon in tidewater, and on the last 
afternoon of our stay were chatting with the guardian, 
and asked if we could not go up to the Whirlpool on the 
quiet and have a try for "a fish, but this grizzled old salt, 
who after years of voyaging had settled down in his de- 
clining days into the dignified and not strenuous occu- 
pation of a river policeman, would not hear of it. At 
last, however, he consented to allow us to go up in the 
canoe if we left our rods behind; we could see the fish,- 
but to catch them was out of the question. Our canoe- 
man was an old hand at the business, and as we poled up 
the river was not too complimentary to the guardian, 
who, he thought, need not have been so very particular. 
We were soon at the coveted spot, where, sure enough, 
twenty or thirty salmon were swimming about. We 
w'atched them with ill-concealed longing for an hour or 
so, when our guide said he guessed he would find a way 
to circumvent the old whaler. 
We had no rods, but flies were available, and the guide 
had a cod line in his pocket, ten or fifteen fathoms of it. 
From the thicket near by, he cut a sapin pole, ten or 
twelve feet long, leaving a crotch at the top. Then tying 
a large fly to the cod line he whirled it deftly in the air, 
dropping it nearly over a salmon and letting the line rest 
in the crotch of the sapling. It was then easy to work 
the fly on the water. After several casts a salmon actu- 
ally took the fly, hooked himself securel}'-, and after a 
few minutes of never-to-be-forgotten battle, was dragged 
to shore by main strength, killed with a club, and hid 
under brush in an ice cold spring, whence we extricated 
him on our homeward journey next morning. This was 
not exactly sportsmanlike, but we wanted the fish, and 
everybody is a bit of a poacher, once in a while. 
It is the dream of almost every fisherman to catch a 
salmon, but most of them are under the impression that 
it is a tremendously expensive Operation. So it is under 
ordinary conditions, but it is possible to have good sport 
on water that is free or nearly so. All streams are free 
as far as the tide reaches, subject only to the permission 
of the owner of the adjoining lands, if one fishes from the 
shore. In most of the Canadian waters there is free or 
unleased water for some distance above the tide. This is 
the case on the Restigouche, one of the very best salmon 
rivers in the world. Most of the Restigouche, with its 
tributaries, the Matapedia, Causapscal, Upsalquitch, and 
other smaller streams, are controlled by the Restigouche 
Salmon Club, an association composed of millionaires 
mostly, who come in palace cars, and live in luxury at 
the club house at Matapedia. Five dollars a pound would 
be a low average for the fish caught by these gentlemen. 
Fun can be had for less money. 
The club limits run out a few acres below the Mata- 
pedia bridge of the I. C. R. Between that and tidewater 
is a stretch of six or seven miles, some of which is leased 
to private parties, but a good many excellent pools may 
be fished for a dollar a day, or without any fees what- 
ever. Every salmon that goes to any of the rivers above- 
named passes through these waters, and if one is prepared 
to stay a week or two at the right time, late in May, and 
up to the middle of July, according to the season, he may 
be reasonably sure of several salmon. Most fishermen 
stay in Campbellton, N. B., going up the river on an early 
accommodation train, both good and cheap boar^ can be 
h^d in the vicinity flat lands. 
The fishing is from canoes, and the two guides that are 
necessary get from $3 to $4 a day, inckiding the craft, 
which is of birch bark of the Gaspe variety, as the pad- 
dlers are red or white in color. 
One morning on the train from Campbellton I got into 
conversation with two gentlemen — one from Ottawa, the 
other from St. John, N. B. — neither of whom had ever 
cast a fly over salmon. The Ottawa man was well 
equipped, but the Blue Nose had an old trout rod, that 
had been kicking around Murphy's Hotel at Dalhousie 
for years, a common reel, with cogs so worn that the line 
would not serve, and a line to match, so rotten that one 
could break it easily in the fingers. It is usually con- 
sidered that with a good rod and reel a test of eight 
pounds for the leader and line is sufficient, but the line in 
question would not stand half that strain. I told the St. 
John man that he was wasting his time in going after 
salmon with that outfit, but the sequel proved I knew 
nothing about it, and that luck is often with the tender- 
foot. 
I went out that morning with a farmer, Delaney by 
name, who was an excellent canoeman, but when noon 
came we had not even a rise to comfort us after many 
hours of casting. Sitting on Delaney's porch after din- 
ner, on a hill overlooking a wide stretch of water, we 
watched our friends of the morning fishing on the oppo- 
site side of the Restigouche. After a while one of them 
was seen to raise a fish. The anchor being lifted, a 
struggle began which took the canoe over several miles 
of water. Nearly two hours the fight lasted, the climax 
being reached when we saw the fish gaffed on a shallow 
bar only a few yards from our shore. 
We ran down to see the result, and found that our St. 
John man, with his rotten outfit, had actually landed a 
iorty-pound salmon, and you have to see a fish of that 
weight to realize what a huge monster he is. The fish 
was almost dead when he was gaffed, and had hardly 
.'-trength enough left to kick when he was flung on the 
shore. The amateur was fortunate in having as his 
guides Indians of great experience, who realized exactly 
v/hat had to be done, coached the man with the rod every 
minute and actualij^ played the fish with the canoe. It 
was the largest of the season. But don't take this as a 
precedent. It is always safer to have good tackle. 
C. W. Young. 
CoMAU, Ont., March, 1904. 
Adirondack Trout. 
The ice in the northern lakes still remains intact and 
three feet or more in thickness. Even with continuous 
warm weather from now on, it will probably not go out 
until nearly the first of May. Throughout most of the 
wilderness region the ground is covered with four feet 
of snow and this is not likely to disappear until about the 
second week in May or later. Anglers usually expect to 
have the best trout fishing in the Adirondack lakes im- 
mediately after the ice leaves them, but in the rivers and 
smaller streams the finest sport conies later, when the 
speckled beauties are active on the rifts. 
Trout may be taken on and after next Saturday, April 
i6, but fishermen who frequent the Aditondacks or Cen- 
tral New York — where there is still considerable snow 
left and the streams are all greatly swollen — will not have 
much angling for some time to come. The conditions 
this spring are very different from what they were a year 
ago. Last spring the snow and ice in this part of the 
State had nearly all disappeared by the middle of April, 
and the trout were ready to bite as soon as the law per- 
mitted the angler to go out, and good trout fishing was 
had in the Adirondack lakes about as early as in the 
waters of Central New York. But the spring of 1903 
was a remarkable one in many ways and its like may not 
be experienced again for many years. 
Veteran anglers predict that the coming season will be 
excellent for lake fishing, basing their forecast on the old 
time belief that trout are not able to obtain as much food 
during a long and severe winter as during an open one, 
and consequently when spring opens they are ready to 
jump at almost any lure which is offered them. If there 
is any foundation for this theory the trout ought to have 
pretty good appetites by this time, for the winter of 
1903-04 was one of almost unprecedented severity. 
As a rule, the fishing in the streams of the Adirondack 
region appears to be deteriorating, and without more ef- 
fective measures to protect the trout, or to restock the 
waters, it will not be many years before the angler will 
have to look elsewhere for his sport. The main trouble 
comes from the wholesale slaughter of infant trout in the 
small brooks by amateur anglers who are more ambitious 
to tell a big story^ about the large number of fish they 
have captured within a few hours than to respect the law, 
or by men fishing to supply the tables of hotels and board- 
ing houses, and whose employers are not scrupulous about 
having the fish measure at least six inches in length. It 
is unfortunate that the law in regard to the size of trout 
that can be taken is not more closely observed, but it is 
not easy to enforce it, with the present number of State 
game protectors. Many people believe that if special 
game protectors were given the same right of search, 
without a warrant, which the State protectors have, a far 
better observance of the law might be secured. 
Sportsmen familiar with the Adirondacks are firmly of 
the opinion that the mosf effective way to improve the 
trout fishing would be to prohibit all angling in the small 
streams, for a term of years at least. This would give 
the little trout a chance to grow, and as soon as they at- 
tained to six or eight inches in length they would run 
down to the lakes or large streams to which such brooks 
are tributary, and thus restock them by the natural 
process. It is believed that such a move would be pro- 
ductive of far more satisfactory results than could be 
obtained by artificial stocking, even though all the fish 
hatcheries in the State were devoted exclusively to rear- 
ing trout to replenish Adirondack waters. 
A lamentable circumstance in connection with the 
Adirondack trout waters is that many of the larger lakes 
and streams are becoming filled with black bass. Of 
course, these are game fish and fiiany anglers enjoy catch- 
ing them, but as speckled trout can not long exist in the 
same waters, their introduction in the Adirondacks will 
be deplored by hundreds of anglers who prefer trout fish- 
ing to any other because of the gentle art. The reason 
for the disappearance of trout from waters inhabited by- 
bass lies in the fact that the latter not only devour the 
eggs of the trout, but they prey on the young. There is 
no way of ridding a lake or stream of bass when they 
once become thoroughly established, and consequently it 
is safe to say that trout fishing is already ruined in scores 
of Adirondack waters which were formerly alive with the 
speckled beauties. W. E. Wolcott. 
Utica, N. y., April 9. 
An Amateur Fisherman. 
John Piper had been selling goods in northern New 
York for twenty years or more, and during all that time 
the "old man Brown" had never taken a day off for a 
vacation of any kind. 
One day he said to him, for about the twentieth time, 
"Brown, I want you to go fishing with me." 
"Veil, I know noting about dot feeching und I have 
no time to .spare avay from my beesness," replied the 
old man promptly. 
"Yes, I know all about business. Have been ham- 
mering away at it ever since I was born. But we'll 
be dead one of these days and the chances are it will 
be too hot to fish after that. Besides, Brown, I don't 
believe that you were ever out in a row boat; there's 
some fun in that." 
"Row boat, veil, mebbe not, but I was out by dot 
sea und dot vas row boat enough for me, und don't 
you forget it." 
"Now, Brown, we have talked this matter over a 
good many times, and this is the time I am going to 
have my way about it. I've got a steamer trunk here 
and it's well filled with every kind of fishing tackle 
you ever heard of, reels and rods and— 
"Veil, veil, dot's all right, but you see I can't go 
und leave der beesness, dere's dot bread und der cakes 
und der biscuit to go out und I can't go this time. 
'Tvould never do to leave der boys to do all this work 
midout me. They couldn't start dose vagons in time 
midout me." 
_ "Well, suppose the wagons didn't start on schedule 
time. You are about seventy years old, and you've got 
money enough to tide you over if you never send out 
another wagon in your life." 
The old man's eyes twinkled as he nodded his head 
complacently. "Veil, I guess dot's so, Meester Piper, 
und I vill take some beer und some schnapps und ve vill 
have vot you fellows call vun lark." 
"All right. Brown, shake, but suppose you don't take 
the beer and schnapps, there's plenty of everything at 
the Harbor." 
The following day found them both at Sackett's Har- 
bor. More than a dozen men shook hands with Brown 
and said they were glad to see him out. 
"Quveer how the folks all know me, I don't know 
nobody," he said, reflectively. 
After they boarded the boat and while they were get- 
ting the tackle in shape, Mr. Piper said: "Now, Mr. 
Brown, when you get a fish on your hook keep your 
line taut. Don't give the fish any slack or he'll get 
away from you." 
Everybody was very quiet for a few minutes when 
BroAvn had a strike and a beautiful black bass jumped 
out of the water forty feet away. Very much excited 
Brown started to reel the fish in when the handle of 
the reel slipped from his fingers and the fish pulled out 
twenty feet more of the line. 
"Veil, veil, veil, dot beats me. We don't have no 
feech dot shump dot way in Germany. Dot black bass 
he must be a Yankee feech." 
By this time he had the reel under control, when the 
bass made another leap out of the water. 
"Veil, I think if you got dot boat close to dot 
feech he vill shump into der boat." 
Alas for human hope. Another leap of the fish tore 
it from the hook and the line was reeled in with nothing 
at the end but an empty hook and sinker. 
"Veil, veil, veil, veil, how do you suppose dot feech 
got away? I keep him cooming right along pretty 
quvick, und now he's gone. Veil, veil, when you think 
I got anoder von like dot? Veil, you have vun on your 
line, too. Huh! und dere he cooms out of der water. 
See how dot pole bends. I think dot feech'U break 
dot pole. Huh! und dere he shumps again, und now 
he's by the boat." 
Sure enough, the oarsman had the landing net under 
the fish, which soon laid in the fish box, his struggles 
about over. 
"Veil, I think I like this feeching pretty good ven 
you've caught 'em, but dose meech don't seem to bite 
me. I don't see vy I don't get some feech myself." 
At that instant a fish took his hook, and the fun began 
again. 
"Veil, I bet dot fellow don't got avay this time," 
and he began to turn the handle of the reel as fast as 
possible. 
"Hold on, there. Brown, don't reel so fast — give him 
a little more time or you will lose him." 
"Veil, how is dot? You say, reel him in. Don't 
give him some slack. Keep your line taut, but don't 
reel so fast. Dot's a good deal for a man to think of 
at one time with a feech shumping at der oder end of 
der line. Good gracious! he's a big one. See him 
shump." 
As he spoke a four-pound bass leaped frotii the 
water, showing his entire size. Fortune this time fav- 
ored the amateur, and the fish was landed without 
further trouble. 
"Veil, veil, veil, I think dot feech is more again as 
big as yours," and Brown looked complacently at his 
catch, but while he is gazing another adventure was 
going on which had not yet caught the German's eye. 
Happening to look up he saw that Mr. Piper had 
another fish in tow. 
"Veil, I don't think dot's fair. You got dot feech 
on your hook und say noting to me. How you expect 
I'm going to see the fun und learn der beesness if you 
keep all dese things to yourself?" 
In the meantime the oarsman had thrown Brown's 
line in the water, and in the midst of his expostula- 
tions another fish seized his hook and away he fl^^ 
