878 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 7, 1904. 
The lake abounds in several different kinds of fish. 
Lake trout, landlocked salmon, the native brook trout, 
locally called squaretails, and German brown trout are 
all frequently taken, but the "lakers" more than out- 
number all the others together, and, taken from the 
cold, pure water of this lake, are a most excellent fish. 
Mr Carter sent the boat along with vigorous strokes 
' and we soon threw over the anchor about 40 rods above 
the camp near the rocks, where the cook had his luck 
the night before. We sat here some fifteen or twenty 
minutes without getting a bite. Mr. Carter then sug- 
gested that we move up to the inlet, which we did, 
We had hardly gotten our anchor out here when I had 
a strike, and pulled into the boat a small laker of about 
2 pounds weight. Bert soon had a bite, but he said he 
did not give the fish quite time enough, and when he 
got it to the top of the water lost it. I succeeded m 
landing another laker, the mate to my first one, and 
'Bert had more bad luck, losing two good fish, f trJinge- 
ly enough Mr. Carter did not get a strike As a lull 
followed in the biting and it was getting late, we de- 
cided to go in for the night. We found the camp we 1 
arranged for the night accommodation of guests with 
movable partitions and as good and clean beds as 
one has at home. 
At V^o the alarm clock sounded, and after a lunch 
of doughnuts and coffee, eaten around the kitchen stove 
we put forth on the pond and through the drifting mist 
started for the inlet. It could not have seemed colder 
on a Januarv morning, and sweaters, overcoats and 
gloves were greatly in demand. A half hour of sitting 
as still as we could in our shivering condition without 
result easily persuaded us to take a trip down the pond, 
so that we might get warm if nothing more, liach one 
accordingly arranged his live bait as a spinner tor 
trolling, and let out his line. After a number of trips 
up and down the pond, in which we took turns at the 
oars I became convinced that I had something on 
my line, and began to reel in. As there appeared to be 
no life on the end, I concluded the hook must be atoul 
a bunch of weeds, and Bert, who had not yet gotten 
a fish, said he hoped it was weeds. It proved, however, 
to be a small laker we had dragged around until com- 
pletely drowned. As we neared the camp on the way_ 
in to breakfast Mr. Carter had a good strike and reeled 
in a nice laker of about 4 pounds. 
As fortune had not thus far smiled on us we dis- 
cussed at breakfast a change from the places we had 
already tried, and Mr. Carter suggested that we go 
out in deeper water near the center of the lake, where 
he knew there was a deep reef, to which we might 
anchor.- He said he had never fished there, but had 
always wanted to try the place, for he believed if any 
. fish were taken there they would be large ones. We 
agreed to this, and after breakfast Mr. Carter rowed 
us down the pond, and after some maneuvering located 
us over the reef. The wind was quite strong from the 
north, but had been blowing the past few days from 
the south. Bert still held down the stern seat, which 
was toward the north, and now certainly had his m- 
nino-s We began to get fish almost at once, ihey 
seemed to be working along the reef toward the south 
with the wind. They would take Berts hook first, 
Mr. Carter's next and mine last, and Bert got by far 
the greater number of strikes. . 
We had taken half a dozen or more good fish when 
Bert, after striking hard, exclaimed: "Boys, I've got a 
big one." He jumped to his feet, and as he started to 
reel up the tip of the steel rod shot into the water 
with a snap. For fully a minute the fish sulked on the 
bottom. Then Bert began slowly to reel up, playing 
it from time to time. He carefully led it up to the 
side of the boat, when Mr. Carter, getting his fingers 
in its gills, for he will not use a gaff, lifted it m. It 
was a handsome laker, and weighed a little oyer 6 
pounds. Soon after this, while drawing up my line, I 
saw in the clear water following up the bait a fish 
which, somehow from its size and movements, reminded 
me of an approaching freight train. I quickly let out 
my line again, and was rejoiced to see it move ofiE at a 
good pace. It went out about 100 feet, when the fish 
stopped to swallow the bait. I gave it plenty of time 
and then struck. It made a rush directly toward the 
boat, and in my haste to keep the line tight it got oyer 
the handle of the reel; so I dropped the pole and pulled 
in hand over hand for dear life. The fish came up close 
to the side of the boat, popped from the water like a 
cork from a bottle, and by its own momentum fairly 
landed itself in the boat. For fear it would continue 
its flight upward I hurriedly struck it on the head. We 
could°not determine whether this fish intended to put 
up a hand to hand fight, or whether it was a case of 
suicide. It was a long-bodied laker and tipped the 
scales at just 8 pounds. 
About II o'clock the biting stopped, and we decided 
to go in for dinner. Just as we were sitting down_ to 
the table we heard, out by the pier, a great shouting 
among some boys who were staying at the camp. Mr. 
Carter ran out and we followed him. One of the boys 
appeared to be flat down on his stomach near the end 
of the floating pier, which was covered with two or 
three inches of water. Mr. Carter carefully reached 
under the boy and pulled out a fish of surprising size, 
a German brown trout which weighed 8f/2 pounds. _ The 
boy said he was casting off the end of the pier in 
about 2 feet of water, for fun, when this fish seized his 
bait. He led it into the shallow water which covered 
the pier, v/hen the hook pulled out. The boy was game, 
however, and threw himself flat down on the fish and 
held it until Mr. Carter came to the rescue. Mr. Carter 
^aid he was sure he had seen this same fish a number of 
times about the pier, where probably it came to get the 
dead minnows thrown out of his bait pail. 
We finished our dinner without any more excitement, 
and as the wind had gone down Bert and Mr. Carter 
decided to try deep trolling for a time, while I, with a 
boy to row me, started for the salmon ground, for I 
was very anxious to get a salmon or two, though it 
was rather early in the season for them. I put out a 
Bacon spinner on 100 yards of line, and the first time 
over felt a vigorous pull. Instantly a succession of leaps 
from the water showed me that I had the much desired 
prize. True to its race and traditions, it was a brave 
h'ttle fighter, but it w^s liopked securely a^d was soon 
lifted into the boat. My pocket scales gave its weight 
as 3 pounds — not much of a salmon, to be sure, but 
large enough to give the thrill which no other fish can. 
We turned the boat and went back over our course. 
As the spinner reached what seemed the very same 
place there was another strike, followed by the charac- 
teristic leaps, and I soon had another salmon in the 
boat, though a little smaller than the first. After this 
we trolled over the same ground a number of times, but , 
v/ithout success, 'so decided to join Mr. Carter and Bert. 
We found they had had no luck with the deep water 
troll; and were pulling for our old stand over the reef. 
We followed, and both boats were anchored as near as 
possible to our position of the forenoon. We waited 
patiently a couple of hours without a strike, and then, 
getting uneasy, began to move about. During the after- 
noon we got three rather small lakers, and at about 5 
o'clock decided to "call it quits," as we wished to get 
an early start on our drive home. The cook was faith- 
ful to his instructions, and we found our early supper 
waiting for us. While we were eating he got our fish 
from the ice-house, washed them and laid them out on 
a piece of sacking before doing them up. Though we 
had no very large ones, to our eyes they were a hand- 
some sight — nineteen lakers and two salmon, which we 
estimated to weigh at least 50 pounds. About half 
past six we left the camp, giving Mr. Carter most sin- 
cere assurances that we would come again. We felt, 
i.s the boys say, that we had been used white, and that 
we could not recommend Carter's camp too strongly 
to our friends. We saw enough of him to know that 
he cannot do enough for his patrons. He furnishes 
everything — entertainment, boats, bait and even tackle 
if one needs it at the very low rate of $1.50 per day. 
He is willing to get up morning after morning at 3 
o'clock, and will row the boat from sunrise to sunset. 
His patience seems never to be exhausted, and he is 
always as smooth and even as the lake can be on a mid- 
summer eve, unless, as I have intimated, the "pot- 
hunter" invades his territory. He is, in short, a true 
son of the old Izaak. 
We reached home a little before 11 o'clock, tired, but 
well pleased with our entire trip. In the morning our 
fish lay in state for a short time in the hotel office, 
where they were admired by the fraternity. 
I have above described Caspian Lake as a beautiful 
sheet of water. It is to me an unusually attractive 
place, and as evidence that it has been always admired 
and appreciated I find on one of the earliest maps its 
name given as "Beautiful Lake." The sportsman who 
goes there for a day's fishing, however small his catch, 
will not consider his time wasted or his trip a failure, 
and if he comes as a summer vacationist with his family 
he will find beside this pearl in the hills a most de- 
lightful community, made up of the cottagers and camp- 
ers. The fishing is always good enough to be interest- 
ing, and if one tires of holding the rod or troll line 
he can swing the golf stick instead. Whatever one may 
do there his spirits cannot fail to respond to those sur- 
roundings and his physical nature to the always cooj 
and health-giving atmosphere. By day the laugh of 
the loon comes to one from over the water, and at night 
the old owl will awaken the echoes from the eastern 
hillside, always to be answered by the scarcely dis- 
tinguishable hoots of fishermen and boatmen on the 
lake. Nunc Pro Tunc. 
Hyde Park, Vt. 
Fish and Fishing. 
Where to Get the Early Troot. 
I AM frequently importuned by letter and interviewed 
in Quebec by visiting anglers or by those who are on 
the lookout for a trip to the northern woods, as to the 
itiost favoi-able localities where open spring trout fishing 
is to be found. The opening of the trout season is fixed 
by the laws of the Dominion of Canada for the ist of 
May, and in some seasons I have had fly-fishing on that 
day in Lake Beauport and other waters in about the lati- 
tude of Quebec, which is the same as that of the northern 
part of Maine. There is reason to believe, however, that 
this year the ice will not leave Lake Beauport before the 
8th or loth of May, and it will be some days later before 
the fishing is good. This fishing is open, as also is that 
in Lake St. Charles. Both lakes are about fourteen miles 
from Quebec, and must be reached over country roads, 
which, though rather hilly, are otherwise in fair condi- 
tion. The fish are not large, nor yet particularly plen- 
tiful, but what the proficient angler will like about them 
is that they are educated and shy and not to be taken in 
the crude manner that suffices for the unsophisticated fish 
of more northern waters. Larger fish are to be taken as 
early as those of Lakes Beauport and St. Charles, in 
Lake St. Joseph, which is reached by rail from Quebec 
at a distance of twenty-four miles from the city. Some 
of these trout run to two and three pounds weight 
apiece, though the majority are smaller. The best fish- 
ing for trout in this lake is had within the first few days 
after the disappearance of the ice, though later in the 
season there is also fair bass fishing to be had in another 
part of the lake, which is some ten miles in length, and 
extremely picturesque. 
Judging from letters which have passed through my 
hands, there appears to be an erroneous impression 
abroad to the effect that almost the entire fishing and 
hunting territory north of Quebec is in private hands or 
leased to clubs, and that very little is available to the 
general public. This is a mistake. In the vicinity of 
Riviere-a-Pierre, fifty-eight miles from Quebec, on the 
line of the Quebec and Lake St. John Railway, in the 
neighborhood of Mequick, a few miles further on, and 
along the upper waters of the Batiscan River which hugs 
the line of the railway for so many miles, there are many 
free waters in which excellent trout fishing is to be 
found. 
Nor must Lake Edward be forgotten in this connection. 
The reputation of this lake and the size of its trout rival 
those of the far-famed Nepigon, and the fishing is vir- 
tually free, being at the disposal of the only hostelry at 
which visitors can stop there, or which can furnish camps, 
and leased to it by the government in order that some of 
the best fishing in the country should be available to th,t 
general angling community which has no claim upon any 
other specially preserved Canadian waters. 
Under the same control are a number of other lakes 
reached by easy portages and canoe routes and also some 
good river fishing. Present prospects are that this fish- 
ing should be good this year by the third week of May. 
I he railway people tell me that many members of differ- 
ent clubs along the line of their road intend going to 
their preserves about the middle of the month. I doubt 
if they will find the fiy-fishing good before about the 20th 
or 24th of May. 
Nepigon Tront. 
It is gratifying to learn from the report of Overseer 
McKirdy, now in my hands, that the fishing on the Nepi- 
gon River last year was fully up to the average, 
both in size and quantity. The river was well patrolled, 
and two new camping places opened to relieve the August 
congestion. A beneficial result is expected to follow the 
extensive work which has been done in the way of clear- 
ing the river of pike and suckers. Thousands of these 
pests were destroyed last year, and still more radical 
measures are suggested. While much may be done to- 
ward reducing the number of the spawn destroyers and 
devourers of young trout in the river itself, I believe 
it will be found necessary also to undertake the work on 
a very large scale in Lake Nepigon, whence they con- 
stantly descend into the stream. 
Mr. McKirdy furnishes a very interesting contribution 
to the discussion, always to the fore, of the relative 
merits of fly and bait-fishing. Many of the leading 
sportsmen who visit the Nepigon have long expressed the 
very reasonable desire that only fly-fishing should be per- 
mitted in so magnificent a river. On the other hand, 
there are bait fishermen who cry out that the larger fish 
will not take the fly, and that if they had to depend upon 
fiy-fishing for their catch it would contain only small fish. 
In order to sustain his contention that an expert fly- 
fisherman can take just as good fish in the Nepigon as 
the bait-fisherman, Mr. McKirdy quotes the record for 
last season in the river of Mr. Henry Bristol, of New 
York, who caught with the fly one fish of 7 pounds, one 
of 7J4, one of 6j4, three of 6 pounds each, two of 5^ and 
two of S%- 
Surely, as he says, fishing such as this should be good 
enough to satisfy anybody! E. T. D. Chambers. 
Bass Casting in Nebraska. 
Regardless of what the weather may be just now, 
the ideal season for outing and angling is coming on 
apace. By the time another month rolls by many Omaha 
sportsmen will be wading the mountain streams for 
trout or specking the blue waters of the Minnesota 
lakes with their minnows and frogs for bass. Of course, 
there are many ardent followers of old Izaak who have 
neither the time nor the money for extended pleasure 
trips, and this class must content themselves with 
frequent short trips to nearby waters, down on the 
Nisthna, up at Ericson, over at Manawa and out at 
Cut-off, for their excitement with the wary and gamy 
bass, waiting for the blessed vacation days before ven- 
turing up to Lake Washington and the northern lakes. 
Just now I wish to chat upon the modern modes of 
fishing, bait and fly casting for black bass, the king, I 
think, of all game fish, and certainly the species we 
oftenest pursue and know the most about out here. 
The feeding grounds of the big mouth are commonly 
found among the moss , beds, the splatter-dock and 
shallow weedy places along the shores of our tule- 
bordered lakes, while his more symmetrical and grace- 
ful cousin, the small-mouth, haunts the deep holes, 
under shelving rocks, around old stumps and half~ 
whelmed logs, where there is shade and cold water 
all through the summer days. They are also to be 
found largely in the Missouri, Niobrara, Birdwood and 
Loup, where they thrive better than their cavern- 
mouthed congeners, and always give you a better fight. 
Well, I will not say that either, for I have always found 
the Lake Washington big-mouth about as rangtanker- 
ous a fellow to handle, when once the barb has stricken 
deep, as is his slenderer relation. Many authorities, 
however, give unqualifiedly the preference to the latter, 
and such men as Myron Learned, George Entreken or 
Dr. Sherraden would rather hook one small-mouth than 
a half dozen of the big fellows. In the streams the 
small-mouths frequent much, the swiftest rapids, or the 
swirling pools formed invariably below abrupt turns in 
such streams as the Niobrara, and it is the handling of 
them in such waters that makes the fight seem the 
harder and more exciting. 
In fishing on the lakes it is almost imperative that 
you use a boat, as the shores are generally of such a 
character as to preclude wading. But along the streams 
it is different, excepting the old Missouri, where, owing 
to the roily nature of the water, bassing is seldom at- 
tempted. But along all the lesser rivulets wading is 
always practical, and even were it not, the likely spots 
can almost always be reached by even an indifferent 
caster. In casting from a boat the one mode at Lake 
Washington, while the fish are on their feeding grounds, 
and where they are to be almost wholly found through 
the early summer days, you must use the utmost cau- 
tion. Old Micropterus is vigilant, and once frighten 
him by undue floundering about in your boat,_ as you 
make ready for active operations, or loud talking, and 
you might as well move on to some other likely spot. 
When once within reach of a seductive looking cove 
or hole in moss, lily pads, or adjacent to sunken tree- 
top, you must make your cast as quietly and as deli- 
cately as possible, to avoid alarming the wary fish lying 
in wait for his morning or evening meal. 
A black bass is one of the most alert of all our game 
fishes. He is suspicious, contrary and sullen, always 
cn the qui vive for trouble, and consequently getting his 
full share of it, but sees more valor in running away 
from mysterious sounds and sights than he does in re- 
maining to give battle or investigation. Corner him 
and he will fight like a rat. But he is one ©f the most 
difficult of fish to fool. 
The late Judge Charlie Ogden was a skillful caster 
and a most successful angler, and many's th? time 
