380 
FOREST AND STREAM 
July, 1920 
A CAMP CLOTHES DRYER 
A VERY useful little article to have 
about camp is a clothes dryer, and 
considering the simple way in which it 
can be constructed it would seem that no 
camper would be without one. Just as 
soon as my tent is up and the kettle 
boiling on the fire I look around among 
the scrub trees surrounding my camp 
and cut two thin poles of about three- 
quarter inch in thickness and which have 
a proper arrangement of branches to suit 
my purpose. These I trim in such a man- 
ner that they will have a forked crotch 
on their tops and about the same dis- 
tance from their ends — their length being 
j:ark&/ Ca/v/' C/artfas 
about four feet. I also arrange for a 
notch or branch-butt, about in the middle 
of each. I then sharpen their ends and 
stick them in the ground back of the fire 
about five feet apart. Into the two 
crotches at their tops I lay a one-half 
inch rod, also cut in the woods, and 
another one on the half-way notches. 
This completes the arrangement and I 
then have a very handy place to hang 
any garment that needs drying. As the 
frame is constructed of green wood there 
is no donger of it burning even when 
placed very near the fire. 
P. P. Avery. 
KINGFISH BAIT 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
YY7TLL you please tell me what would 
make a good bait for kingfish and 
croakers, and also if a fish swallows or 
eats poison will it affect the meat? 
A Reader. 
r T y HE best possible bait for the true 
■* kingfish — Menticirrus nebulosus — is 
first the bloodworm, next the shedder 
crab and then the squid. The latter 
should be skinned before using, os it 
makes a perfectly white and very at- 
tractive bait and is one of the best of 
baits for croakers. Crabs are also good 
for the latter fish. Some fish seem to be 
peculiarly affected by any poisoning sub- 
stance which they may absorb and very 
severe cases of ptomaine poisoning have 
arisen from eating bluefish suspected of 
having been affected by what they had 
eaten. Crabs and oysters are well known 
to be susceptible to such infection and 
lobsters taken from copper ledges in the 
depths of the sea are looked upon with 
aversion by the fishermen. However, 
there may be more of superstition than 
real fact about many of the well accepted 
statements of laymen regarding such 
matters. [Editors.] 
AN EFFICIENT CAMPFIRE 
M OST campfire appliances that are 
recommended to the woodsman are 
rather bulky arrangements to manage in 
the pack. I have designed one that re- 
quires but a single frame to carry and 
when set up in camp will make a very 
efficient fire place. 
The frame or grate measures 20" by 
24" and is made of two equal parts of 
3/16" wire framework. Cross wires of 
5/32", set 1" apart, should be securely 
bent around the frame at each end. A 
better job can be made if the joints are 
brazed. It can be made to fold at the 
middle, thus reducing the size for carry- 
ing, but the hinges must be set so that 
when the frame is opened they will hold 
straight. When setting it up, first scoop 
out a hollow in the ground as shown in 
cut and place the grate over the hole on 
four stones of even size. By this ar- 
rangement a much greater draft is in 
duced and an ideal cooking fire produced 
in a much shorter length of time than is 
usually required to produce the desired 
bed of coals. The front of the fireplace 
should face toward the northwest. 
P. P. Avery. 
AS TO TYING FLIES 
T HE height of bliss attained by the 
man who can build his own fly-rod 
is vouchsafed to very few of this 
earth. The man who can build both a 
fly-rod and the fly to go upon it is one 
of a still smaller circle. Yet one im- 
agines that there be many anglers who 
can learn to build flies, even if they can- 
not buihrfly-rods. A Certain Person has 
conceived the notion that she can learn 
to tie flies, and I rather fancy that I 
could learn to do as much myself in the 
course of a dozen years or so. Be all 
that as it may, we did tie flies at Lossie’s 
place on the Prairie, and tied flies which 
proved equal to killing trout. Nothing 
in our books quite covered the bill for 
these dark-bodied and light-winged flies 
which we saw the trout were taking. 
Whereupon Madame executed upon a No. 
10 hook a peacock body, a hackle cut 
from a squirrel’s tail and wings made 
from the shoulder feathers of a widgeon. 
Perhaps the squirrel tail did it, for this 
sort of hackle moves most beautifully in 
the water. At any rate we found this 
fly to be about as good a killer as 
the squirrel hackle, over green or dark 
body, no wings at all being used except- 
ing the squirrel tail, to be a killing form 
of fly for trout. Such a fly is very “live” 
in the water, and when handled properly 
by the rod, creeps and crawls about in 
a most fascinating manner. 
A friend of mine, bringing up the 
question of small flies and modest ties, 
says that he has found that trout which 
have been planted in a stream are always 
more notional regarding the flies than 
are the native trout in a wild stream 
which has not been stocked. I think the 
experience of others will bear him out 
in this assertion. In the Thunder 
Bay streams of Michigan we found flies 
like the Jungle-cock, grasshopper, Par- 
machene-belle, etc., to be good killers. On 
the prairie one would fish a long time 
before he would kill a trout on any one 
of these, and probably this is the experi- 
