among,, these were seven of the golden trout, but their 
brilliant coloring gradually faded and they soon lost 
much of their pristine beauty. 
The return trip to Mineral King was devoid of special 
incident, and after a day’s rest there Zerah and I pre- 
pared to attempt the ascent of Sawtooth Peak that almost 
overshadowed our camp with its towering summit 13,000 
feet above the sea. , Pie and the judge had tried it last 
year, while I stayed in camp nursing a crippled knee ; but 
they failed to get above 11,000 feet, where the two Mon- 
arch lakes are situated. 
We started at 6:30, reaching the lakes at 9:30. They 
are close together, occupying two benches, one above the 
other, and are from fifteen to twenty acres each in area 
and perhaps thirty feet deep. Both contain trout, some 
of which are of several pounds’ weight, but they are 
very rarely taken, ignoring every lure. A gang of men 
were throwing in a dam to conserve the water for the 
use of the electric power company, whose plant was 8,000 
feet below. It was expected that the Kaweah River 
would furnish all the power required, but it was deemed 
advisable to provide reservoirs for exceptionally dry 
years, and these lakes, with several others, were being 
utilized. The trail up to this point was easy, having 
been improved by the company for the benefit of the pack 
mules. 
We reached the summit about noon, stopping there an 
hour. The view, while not to be compared with that of 
.Shasta, Plood or Ranier for grandeur and beauty, i.s very 
extensive. Mt. Whitney, forty miles to the east, is the 
most prominent object in sight as it towers above all 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
2BS 
Wall-Eyed Pike Fishing on the 
Susquehanna River. 
Wall-eyed pike fishing is now in full blast on the 
Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania and will continue 
so until the river freezes so solidly that it will be im- 
possible for the fisherman to get his line in the water. 
But the angler does not call the fish wall-eyed pike, 
neither does he term it pike-perch but in his love for 
the fish he has glorified it by the name of “salmon. 
In order to distinguish his favorite from the lordly fish 
in the northern waters of North America, he calls it 
“Susquehanna salmon.” So firmly is the name h^ed 
and so general is its use that if one approaches the full 
“salmon fisher” anywhere in the Susquehanna valley 
and speaks of the wall-eyed pike or pike-perch, he will 
not know what is meant; but speak of the “Susquehanna 
salmon” and his eyes light up, he becomes animated and 
will talk for hours on the glorious sport which the fish 
affords. It may seem strange to anglers elsewhere, 
but it is a fact that all along the Susquehanna River 
and its great tributaries, there are men who angle for 
little else than “Susquehanna salmon”_and who declare 
that it is the greatest fish which swims. 1 hat black 
bass are all right in every way as a game fish and trout 
are just the thing for dudes and for people who like to 
clamber along or wade little streams in the mountains, 
but for game qualities, for table use and all-around 
excellences, there is nothing to equal the “Susquehanna 
salmon,” otherwise known as wall-eyed pike, pike-perch. 
tackle ranges from a light, stiff rod to a_ pole whichi 
would hold a good-sized shark. _ His line is from htty 
to seventy-five yards long. To it he attaches a spoon 
about the size of a No. 3 Skinner. It is to the spoon 
that the fishermen pay particular attention, and opinion 
differs little, not as to its form, but as to, the rnateriaL 
Some use the ordinary tin spinner painted silver or 
copper, and a few use the ordinary spoon; but the leall 
earnest old-time “salmon’ fishermen prefer a. solid 
copper spoon, and that spoon is always kept^ shining 
as brightly as the interior of grandmother s apple: 
butter pot. The three-pronged hook is removed andl 
ill its place is hung a short snood of gut, to which is; 
fastened two small hooks, say Nos. 3 or 4. The hooks; 
are placed about two or two and one-half inches apart.. 
Occasionally one of the hooks is the three-prongedl 
hook of the spoon, but the majority of anglers dis-. 
courage its use because of the uncertainty whether its. 
use is strictly lawful, Pennsylvania forbidding the use: 
of more than three hooks. To the line about three: 
or four feet above the spoon is fastened a sinker 
heavy enough to carry the line to the bottom of the 
river, so that when the boat is rowed the lead will 
bump along from rock to rock. The lamprey eel is 
the universal bait. The upper hook is pushed 
through the head of the creature and the lower hook 
about half way down the body. Of coupe, at least one 
swivel is also used and sometimes two in order to pre- 
vent the line from twisting, for the correct method of 
fishing for wall-eyed pike in the Susquehanna River is 
by trolling. 
THE WALL-EYED PIKE— “SUSQUEHANNA SALMON.” 
From Fisheries Industries. 
Others, but Goddard, Brewer, Kaweah and many others 
were recognized. 
Like the one we were on, many of the adjacent peaks 
were shaped not unlike the tooth of a buzz-saw, only less 
high and pronounced bare storm-scarred ledges of 
granite. Unlike the mountains of the north, whose sum- 
mits from the timber line up for thousands of feet were 
covered with snow, these for the most part were per- 
factly bare, away down in the gulches there were drifts, 
and from where we stood we could look down the almost 
perpendicular face of the tooth 2,000 feet into a lake 
with snow banked all around it. The only vegetation I 
saw was a little blue flower growing out of a crevice 
within fifty feet of the top. Ten lakes were visible, all 
small and of glacial origin. In a crevice we found two 
tin buckets containing many names of those who had pre- 
ceded us, and adding our own we returned to camp. 
Two days later we visited Eagle Lake, where Dexter 
and I had caught such fine trout three years ago, but the 
march of civilization was in evidence here also. A dam 
had enlarged the lake and only two fish rewarded our 
most diligent efforts. The next day we starpd for home, 
making the trip from Mineral King to Visalia in two 
and one-half days. We were thinner than when we 
started and bronzed to almost the tint of a well-colored 
meerschaum pipe; but the flesh that remained was 
healthy and firm. Our step revived memories of the elas- 
ticity of youth, and of the lassitude that so surely fol- 
lows long years of office work not a vestige remained. 
With what feelings of satisfaction did we ride in under 
the great oaks that shade the Huntley mansion. And 
then with such appetites to sit down to the table abun- 
dantly laden with the substantial of life flanked by the 
delicious fruits and melons of Tulare, over which Madam 
H. herself presided with such exceeding grace was a 
fitting climax to our successful quest of the golden trout. 
Forked Deer. 
Carp Against Mosquitoes. 
In the Universal Fishery Journal of .Germany atten- 
tion is called to the fact that fish destroy many annoying 
insects, especially mosquitoes. In Germany the common 
carp, the crucian carp, and the red eye, are considered the 
best insect-destroying fish. The committee created to 
consider the mosquito plague at Eltville-on-theRhine asks 
for information whether the kinds of fish named are 
really destroyers of the larvse of mosquitoes on a large 
scale'. It should be observed how many larvse one fish 
eats per day; and whether other fish are as efficient in 
destroying these larvae. Above all it is important that 
such fish can live in stagnant and putrid waters, because 
in such only the mosquito larvae develop. 
The current edition of the Game Laws in Brief, sold 
everywhere, contains all the fish and game laws a sports- 
man’ ought to know. It is complete, accurate and up-to- 
date. 
and in the western part of Pennsylvania, “Jack salmon.” 
Nearly two centuries ago, according to a story told 
by the late Simon Cameron, an Englishman and a Jesuit 
priest went to one of the lakes in New York and caught 
a number of wall-eyed pike, put them in barrels of 
water, carried them laboriously to the Susquehanna 
River and planted them, there. Whether or not this 
story is true it is certain that the wall-eyed pike has 
found a congenial home in the Susquehanna River' and 
all its branches. In the early part of the last century 
they were so numerous that the writers of that time 
were very enthusiastic over the . sport which they af- 
forded. One author in writing of this fish about 1840, 
said: “There is great sport fishing in the Juniata River 
near Newport. Here, day by day, fishermen gather with 
their poles and lines and they catch the ‘salmon’ as 
fast as they can bait their hooks. The banks of the 
stream are brushy and overgrown with trees, and it 
often happens that men in pulling the fish from the 
water do so with such violence that the fish are caught 
in the branches of the trees. The fishermen are in such 
haste to continue their sport that they do not always 
take the time to clamber the trunk to secure the fish, 
but simply break the line, put on a new hook and bait 
and go on fishing. Thus it is that sometimes by the 
close of the day the trees overhanging the water look 
like Christmas trees hung with fishes.” 
All sorts of illegal fishing had a bad effect on the 
stream, so that as the years rolled on they decreased 
in number and “salmon” fishing on the Susquehanna 
became exceedingly poor. But there has been a de- 
cided change within the last few years. The State 
fishery authorities have been planting young “salmon” 
in the Susquehanna and its tributaries annually by the 
million. The consequence is that there are probably 
more wall-eyed pike in that great river to-day than 
any time within three-quarters of a century. In fact, it 
is declared, and evidently with truth, that there are 
more wall-eyed pike in the. Susquehanna now than there 
are black bass. The numbers are yearly increasing. 
The open season for wall-eyed pike in Pennsylvania 
begins on June 15, and although large numbers are 
caught during the summer months, it is not until the 
cold days, beginning with September, that the fishing 
is at its best. When the early morning mist hangs low 
on the river hiding the surrounding trees and hills and 
even the almost countless islands, the “salmon” fisher- 
man sets forth to his sport. It is then that the fishing 
is said to be best and continues to be so until after the 
sun has crimsoned the sky, risen above the horizon and 
rolled away the heavy, damp curtains of mist. Even 
when old Sol is high in the heavens, the wall-eyed pike 
will not hesitate to leave its rocky lair at the bottom 
of the river and seize the rolling, wabbly lamprey eel 
in its fierce tooth-bestrewn jaws. On lucky days the 
fisherman will find very frequently that by nightfall he 
will have from a dozen to three dozen wall-eyed pike 
ranging from two to five pounds each. 
The Susquehanna ‘‘salmon” fisherman has his own 
peculiar methods- of pursuing his favorite sport, His 
The line having been rigged, the bait properly 
adjusted, the fisherman takes his seat in the stern of the 
boat and an oarsman rows him up and down one of the 
many. great pools in the river where the water is from 
eight to twenty feet deep. He zigzags through the 
swifts and swirls and among the rocks, where the wall- 
eyed pike lie in wait for their prey. A few years agoi 
whenever a fisherman had a strike, the boatman would 
immediately put all “the beef possible” into his work. 
He would row frantically up and down the stream with 
all his strength, so that the “salmon” would be hauled 
to the surface of the water and dragged in the shortest 
possible space of time, with his mouth wide open and 
half drowned, into the boat. But conditions have 
changed. The “salmon” fisher of to-day wants to 
enjoy to the full the fierce thump, thump, thump of the 
hooked fish, and so the boatman has been drilled to row 
to the nearest eddy, where he rests on his oars and 
eagerly watches the contest between the fisherman and 
the fish. Generally the angler wins unless the sharp 
teeth of the wall-eyed pike severs the snood. 
The wall-eyed pike bites and fights different from al- 
most any other species of game fish. When he is 
hooked he does not rush furiously toward the mouth 
of the river like the striped bass, neither does he rise 
to the surface and make numerous frantic leaps into the 
air, nor does he rush all over the pool as a trout would 
do in the mountain streams. The first intimation that 
the fisherman has of a strike is a terrific jerk, which 
bends his stiff rod nearly double in an instant, and 
smashes anything but the strongest line. From that time 
to the end of the struggle the wall-eyed pike makes a 
series of tremendous jerks all downward, each fol- 
lowing the other in such rapid succession that about all 
the angler can do is to grasp his rod firmly, keep his 
thumb firmly fixed upon the reel and hold on for dear 
life. It seems as though the fish, having taken the bait, 
simply presses himself against a rock and endeavors to 
jerk the hook from his jaw by main strength and fury. 
A struggle of a good-sized wall-eyed pike will last from 
five to fifteen minutes actual time, the period between 
the jerks gradually increasing, until finally the fisher- 
man is able to reel him sullen, but still struggling, to 
the side of the boat and into the net. 
It seems scarcely worth while to tell any one anxious 
tO' try wall-eyed pike fishing in the Susquehanna where 
to go. It is good in nearly every one of the great 
pools in the main Susquehanna from the State line 
to Sunbury, and in. the north and west branches from 
end to end and up the Juniata as far as there is water 
enough to hold the fish. Possibly the favorite resorts 
are at Peach Bottom, Fite’s Eddy, Bald Friars, the 
pools for twenty miles above and below Harrisburg, 
especially at Duncannon near the mouth of the Juniata 
and Tunkhannock in Wyoming county, on the north 
branch of the Susquehanna and between Williamsport 
and Renovo on the west branch. From Newport on 
the Juniata to the mouth of that stream are all good 
places. To any one of them the sportsman angler can 
go in perfect confidence that he can find boatmen \YilL 
