Dec si, 1904.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
a USB 
666 
with something about the royal fighters he takes such 
keen delight in encountering. 
Strength of Salt "#ater Game fish* 
The Captain is quite right in his statement concerning 
the stubborn gaminess and strength of many of the salt 
water species compared with those qualities in fresh- 
water fish, such as trout, black bass, etc.; for, taking 
them pound for pound, there is a vast difference between 
them, and the illustration he uses of the capture of an 
8-pound trout with the fly in the Rangeleys, using tackle 
so light that it would be instantly destroyed by the mad 
rush of the bluefish, is an apt one; and he is right, also, 
in his statement that "This question of game in fish de- 
pends a good deal on tackle; as I have proved on many 
occasions. Of these an incident comes fresh to memory 
which will serve as a good example. I was fishing for 
trout in a small lake on Prince Edward Island; the fish 
were so abundant that at almost every cast I rose and 
hooked a pair. An interesting fact about that lake Is 
that the trout in the upper end, which is surrounded 
mostly by, a cedar swamp, are dark colored, with dirty 
gray abdomens, and the inside of their mouths is almost 
invariably black or very dark. I have always found 
those fish sluggish to a degree, coming to the fly in the 
most indolent manner conceivable, and offering no play 
whatever when they felt the barb of the hook, and com- 
ing to the landing-net with hardly a struggle. But at the 
other end of the lake the fish were bright and full_ of life, 
and when they came to the fly they sometimes, in their 
eagerness, jumped above the surface of the water. In 
fishing for those spotted beauties, which averaged nearly 
a pound in weight, I have always used the lightest tackle 
available, for I hold that the lighter the tackle the keener 
the sport the angler enjoys. Now as I ros; and hooked 
those beautiful fish and played theni, with my supple rod, 
they were as gamy and as plucky fighters as any trout of 
similar size I ever landed. My rod was so light, that for 
a short time they darted about almost as if the thin cast- 
ing line was no "restraint to them, and sometimes several 
minutes elapsed before they were encompassed by the 
landing-net. With this tackle they were in every sense 
game fish; but mark the difference. Within a very few 
rods from, the point from which I was casting there were 
two lads of perhaps a dozen years of age who, armed 
with huge sapling poles, coarse lines and hooks, baited 
with a bunch of angleworms, were fishing for the trout 
which were giving me such great sport, At every 
cast of the bait they made the poles splash in the water, 
but that did not appear to frighten the fish, for they 
seized the bait as soon as it touched the surface. But 
when the lads lifted those heavy poles by an effort that 
taxed their whole strength, they did not dally with 
the trout to give them play, but jerked them high in the 
air ^nd into the bushes behind them as ignominiously as 
if they were bull pout or. suckers. If those trout had any 
ganiuiess, the lads jerked it out of them in the most 
summary manner possible. But even with the same tackle 
the degree of gaminess in trout varies with the condition 
of the water. It is possible that the 8-pound trout that 
Captain Mallory mentions may have been hooked in still, 
deep water, in which case it would not have put up as 
stubborn a fight as it would have in the quick water 
beiow the Upper Dam, for example. With light tackle 
in that water so large a fish would give the angler all he 
Would want to attend to; his struggle would not be a 
brilliant one, measured by the electric energy of a grilse 
or bluefish, net leap above the water like a black bass, 
but he Would fight doggedly and with the -strength a trout 
of his size must possess, and the skill of the angler and 
fidelity of his tackle Would be thoroughly tested before 
the fish would be saved. I never had the pleasure of 
killing an 8-pound trout in that pool, which is full of 
whirling eddies and tortuous currents ; but I once hooked 
and landed a beauty there that weighed 7^/2 pounds, and 
when the fight was ended I felt as if I had conquered a 
game fish such as any angler might be proud to possess. 
Yes, the lighter the tackle the more intense the en- 
joyment the angler feels. In former days an 8-ounce 
rod was considered a, mere, wand, but that weight was 
cut down to six ounces, and it has descended to four 
ounces and even lighter, and when large fish are hooked 
it requires no small, degree of skill on the part of the 
angler who uses such delicate tackle to land his prize. 
Degrees of Gaminess in Fish. 
Now, while Mr. Mallory's statement is true that "game 
in fish depends a good deal upon the tackle," it may be 
somewhat qualified, for a great deal depends on the fish 
themselves. For example, the so-called "sea trout' which 
in May and early June hover about the estuaries of the 
rivers on the Canadian coast in pursuit of the myriads 
of smelts which ascend those streams for the purpose of 
spawning, in the bright, sparkling water of the bay they 
rise to the fly or bait with avidity, and when hooked 
they put up a fight such as only fish which has 
sojourned in salt water can wage. They are strong and 
vigorous, make runs of considerable length, and some- 
times leap clear of the water; they are then game fish, 
and in every sense gamy. 
Trout Lose their Gaminess. 
But in a month or two after they have ascended the 
rivers and remained in the pools, the water of which has 
become low and heated, they come to the fly in the most 
perfunctory way. and no matter how large the pool may 
be they make no long runs when hooked, and never rise 
to' the surface until they are drawn to it by the tension 
of the rod, and when they are landed they almost have 
the appearance of being glad to "come in out of the 
wet," so insignificant is the struggle they make, and that 
on precisely the same tackle as that used with them in 
the salt water. 
Characteristics of the Salmon Vary. 
The salmon, fresh-run from the ocean, clad in his sil- 
very armor, if hooked in one of the lower pools of the 
river, is the grandest fighter with such tackle as is or- 
dinarily used in angling for this superb fish, that can be 
named With few exceptions there is no comparison in 
that respect between it and other fish that is taken with 
rod and reel. The wild, fierce runs he : makes are like 
those of no other species, and so great is the celerity oi 
bis movements, lie seems to he in a dogen places m the 
pool at once, and in the air almost as much as in the 
water : He puts up the best fight that can be made in 
the narrow confines of the pool in which he is. obliged 
to struggle; give him the breadth and depth of water 
such as the striped bass inhabits, and how would the 
struggles Of the tWb fish compare? 
Yes, it is a glorious battle the salmon wages in that 
lower pool, but allow him to ascend the river and remain 
until midsummer in one of the upper pools and then rise, 
hook, and play him, and that with precisely the same 
tackle that would be employed with him at the beginning 
of the season, and what a change has come over him! 
The fiery dash, the wild rushes and wonderful leaping 
powers have left him, and he has become a slow-moving, 
indolent creature with apparently very little of the vigor 
left that he possessed when just in from the sea, and if 
you succeed in rising him, something of much more diffi- 
cult performance than it was in the early season, and 
play him with the same tackle you would then have used, 
you will find he is far from being the gamy fish you 
expected to take. Of course, he is always a stubborn, 
dogged fighter, but the natural vivacity of his spirits 
seems to leave him after a long residence in fresh water, 
and, although reluctantly he comes to the gaff in much 
less time than he would have done when clad in the 
silvery sheen of the salt water sojourner. So that the 
game qualities of fish do not always depend on the 
strength of the tackle. 
Bluefish with Rod and Reel. 
There are some fish, particularly those which Hvt per- 
manently in salt water, which are always gamy, no mat- 
ter what the tackle may be. The bluefish, for example, is 
a hard fighter, and an exceedingly powerful one, too; 
more powerful, pound for pound, than are almost any 
other species that can be named. Those who have stood 
on the seashore whirling in the air above their heads 
the heavy leaded hook which was covered with an eel 
skin for bait, until sufficient momentum was obtained, 
and then cast the lure far out into the sea. and then haul- 
ing the strong line In rapidly, hand over hand, until 
it was seized by one of the most voracious fishes that 
swims, can certify whether or not it is a strong and 
plucky fighter. Sinewy arms and hard, tough hands are 
required to land a 15-pounder. and there is sometimes a 
doubt in the fisherman's mind whether the bluefish will 
come ashore or he will be pulled into the water. One 
can conceive of hardly any more primitive or rough 
tackle than that which is thus used in this method of 
fishing. With the same tackle trolled behind a sailboat 
in a fair breeze, one also finds great and exhilarating 
sport, an eight or ten-pound fish being about as much as 
the ordinary man, unless his hands are covered with 
woolen mittens or gloves, cares to haul in. _ Both these 
methods of fishing are in no sense scientific, but the 
fish are as gamy as they would be if the most elaborate 
outfit were employed. But with rod and reel, as Captain 
Mallory truly states, the bluefish is one of the most gamy 
of the finny tribe. 
My first experience in this method of angling occurred 
in the early sixties, when I was invited by Mr. Charles 
Lovett, who was for a great many years chief clerk in 
the office of the Secretary of State, Massachusetts, to 
join him in an outing, with bait-rod, line and reel, among 
the bluefish at Marion, Mass. I had taken many a good 
fish long before that time by trolling, and was anxious 
to enjoy the new sensation which my friend described 
in glowing terms, and very gladly accepted his invita- 
tion. We left Boston for Marion on the afternoon of the 
next day, and spent the night at the residence of a 
friend of Mr. Lovett, who had entertained the genial old 
gentleman on other similar occasions. After breakfast 
on the following morning our boatman appeared carrying 
in his hand a minnow pail well filled with large "mum- 
mychugs," some of them being over four inches in length, 
and soon we were aboard our boat and speeding with a 
fair wind to a submerged bar about two miles from the 
shore, from the edge of which the water deepened 
rapidly, and when a flood tide was running there was a 
current of considerable speed swirling by the edge of the 
shoal. When the anchor was dropped and the sail 
furled, our hooks, which were strong ones, similar to 
those now used in fishing for tautog, were baited, each 
with a good sized minnow, and we "threw in" and 
awaited the coming of the bluefish. 
Our rods were strong lancewood affairs; our lines, 
which were of heavy linen, braided, were about one hun- 
dred vards in length, and our leaders, to which the 
hooks were affixed, were made of piano wire, the power- 
ful jaws and sharp-cutting teeth of the bluefish rendering 
the use of any other gaging entirely futile. 
A Grand Old Angler. 
Mr. Lovett, who was a man of large physique, his 
weight being about three hundred pounds, occupied the 
middle seat of our boat. I took a position in the stern, 
and the boatman, who had his hand-line along with the 
expectation of pulling up a porgie, or "scup," as it is 
called in those waters, took his place in the bow. 
. What a glorious morning that was in early July ! 
There was just breeze enough to make a light ripple on 
the water, such as all anglers delight to see, and the pure 
ozone of the sea air, the blue sky and interesting fish 
stories that .my friend . regaled me with — he was distin- 
guished as a brilliant conversationalist and raconteur — 
all combined to make that occasion a most enjoyable one. 
Early in the season the bluefish is a bottom feeder 
seeking its prey low down in the water, but in July it 
changes its habits and becomes a surface feeder, preying 
upon menhaden, herring, mackerel, in fact, upon most 
species inferior to it in size which range near the surface 
of the water. With this fact in mind, we attached a 
float to our lines so that the bait might be kept up near 
the surface, and enough length of line was drawn from 
our reels to permit the bait and float to be carried by the 
tide several rods from the boat. The minnows were 
hooked through the back just below the dorsal fin, which 
method Of impaling is not fatal, but permits them to 
swim about almost as freely as if they were unencum- 
bered. Ever and anon our rods were lifted, and the line 
recovered or drawn in, in order that the bait might be 
ken in motion, for your predatory bluefish always comes 
quickest to, or darts" in pursuit of, the moving lure. 
An hour elapsed before either Mr. Lovett or myself go£ 
"a strike," but our colored boatman, who was a well- 
known character to anglers in those waters, had in his 
tub near the bow a dozen or more floundering, jumping, 
flapping scup, which he had inveigled out of the depths 
with his hand-line and bait of clams. 
Slicks. 
"Ah, they're coming now 1" exclaimed my friend, point- 
ing to several patches of oily scum floating on the water 
a few rods from the boat. "There's half a dozen 'slicks/ 
at least, that shows the bluefish are feeding close at 
hand." 
"Slicks," I would say here en passant, are composed of 
an oily fluid which the bluefish occasionally emits when 
it is gorging its prey. 
"Keep your bait well in motion," he added, moving 
his rod vigorously, "and my word for it you will feel a—" 
He did not finish the sentence, for at that moment his 
reel gave a loud, discordant scream, and at the same 
time I felt a tug at my own line which was almost strong 
enough to pull the tip of my rod beneath the surface &i 
the water. 
The predatory marine fishes, be they bluefish, striped! 
bass, or the squeteague. have a rushing method of seiz- 
ing the bait quite different from that of the trout, black 
bass, and others that live in fresh water. They seize the 
bait, particularly the bluefish, in a most savage manner, 
and when old Temnodon takes hold, you receive notice at 
once that he "means business." 
Mr. Lovett's fish was darting about in close proximity 
to mine, and I began to fear that the two would come 
together and foul our lines ; but, fortunately for me, my 
fish took a quick and savage run away from the boat on 
the port side, and I forced every ounce of strain I dared 
to put on my rod to keep him there. 
The runs of the bluefish, which are sometimes quite 
lengthy, thirty or more yards of line being taken from 
the reel in a single run, are made as rapidly as are those 
of the grilse, but the fish is stronger, even, than is a 
salmon of its own weight. In fact, there are few salt- 
water game fishes that possess his strength and stubborn- 
ness. The striped bass is as quick as he and will take out 
as long a line in one of his mad runs, but his form is not 
as robust, and his spread of fins is not as broad as is 
those of the bluefish. and he, therefore, cannot wage as 
fierce a battle as can the other. 
The tautog has a more robust form than either, but 
his fight against the rod lacks all the brilliancy of the 
others' ; strong and stubborn he is, and full of crafty ex- 
pedients to free himself from the hook. He is a power- 
ful but not a lively fighter. 
Mr. Lovett's fish was evidently a large one, for it 
seemed as if it would shake his rod to tatters, so wildly 
did it dart about. 
"Hi, but he's a good one!" exclaimed the old gentle- 
man, rising to his feet and bracing his back against the 
mast. "He's a good one, and I'm in luck if he does not 
carry away my line !" 
I glanced at his reel and saw that the spool was be- 
coming alarmingly small, and knew that unless the fish 
changed its course the whole line would soon be ex- 
hausted. I was busily engaged with my own fish, which, 
although it had been hooked nearly ten minutes, showed 
no signs of yielding, but kept up its wild runs in every 
direction. But now and then I had an opportunity to 
glance at my friend, and I was glad to see that he was 
rapidlv making his big multiplying reel perform its 
allotted work, the bluefish had turned and was coming 
toward the boat, and the line was saved. 
My rod was a heavy one, and I dare say that I put the 
most severe strain on it that it would stand, much more, 
probably, than I would nowadays; but at that time I 
had learned to play my fish only with the rod, instead of 
on the reel, as I have done in later years. But notwith- 
standing my most strenuous efforts it was fully a quarter 
of an hour before the huge dip-net which our boatman 
had brought along encompassed the glistening prize, and 
as he was lifted into the boat and killed, I confess I was 
not sorry the struggle was ended, for the strain on my 
wrists had been a continuous one without any let up, and 
it was as severe as it was prolonged. 
A few minutes later my friend's fish was lifted into the 
boat, when the portly old gentleman, uttering a sigh of 
relief, resumed his seat, and wiping the perspiration from 
his forehead, exclaimed: "That's a grand fish, and he 
gave me all I wanted to attend to." Our prizes were 
weighed, and we found that the fish Mr. Lovett had taken 
weighed seven and a half pounds, and mine was a pound 
lighter than his. . ' 
"Mr. Samuels," he exclaimed, reaching to the luncheon 
hamper that was just behind him. "that's the kind of fish- 
ing I like! But you remember what the Governor of 
North Carolina said to the Governor of South Carolina?" 
"I do," I replied, and we participated. 
A H«gh Average. 
Our score that day was eleven bluefish, of which one 
of us took four and the other seven. The combined 
weight of our catch, exclusive of the "scup" the boat- 
man had hauled up, was fifty-two pounds. 
One may find such sport nowadays with rod and reel 
among the bluefish, which are always gamy in the highest 
degree, no matter what tackle you use with them ; but 
I doubt very much if you will take eleven fish that will 
score as high an average as did those which fell to us on 
that beautiful summer day. 
Old Arms. 
Boston, Mass., Dec. 14.— Editor Forest and Stream. 
In the illustrated article, page 274, issue October 1, I 
would suggest a correction or two. 
No 13 is not the first breechloader used by the United 
States Army. It never was made at Harper's Ferry 
Arsenal. In fact, no arms ever were manufactured in the 
arsenal. The arms made by the Government were fabri- 
cated in the armory. This gun, the "Hall," was not 
manufactured by the United States Government, but for 
them on an island up the river. The date of the patent 
is not T838, but May 21, 1811. The caliber was never .55; 
was .535. . 
We. all make mistakes in describing arms, but there are 
too many in "this particular case to pass unnoticed. 
_j Edward "N, Bate§, 
