December, 1921 
555 
FOREST AND STREAM 
FISHING IN CALIFORNIA 
Dear Forest and Stream : 
I N your October number there is a short 
' article by Chas. Dillon regarding what 
Ihe calls “Hemet Lake” California. All 
that he says is very true, but he hasn’t 
told it all, in fact he overlooked the most 
important part. This lake is really a res- 
ervoir made by an irrigation company, 
by impounding the waters that flow down 
from the San Jacinto mountains to form 
what is locally known as Strawberry 
Creek and the “South Fork.” These 
waters were the property of the Com- 
monwealth of California and no man had 
to pay a red cent to fish in them. Before 
the advent of this dam at Hemet, an hour 
or two spent fishing would furnish a nice 
basket of rainbow trout running up to fif- 
teen or sixteen inches in length. 
Early in July, 1920, a party of us drove 
from Los Angeles up to the Hawthorne 
trail. Here Chas. S. Van Horn and I 
left the party and hiked over the range 
and down a thousand feet of the worst 
going I ever encountered, to the creek 
bed, reaching the water about 2.00 P. M. 
After getting our wind, we rigged up 
and started down, fishing the pools as we 
went. 
You will notice I said pools, for there 
■was not over two or three inches (miner’s 
inches) of water flowing down the creek, 
where once there was a fine stream. 
It was an ideal day for fly fishing and 
seemed to be “big trout day.” The big 
•fellows would come up and knock the 
little ones out of the way. Fishing was 
mot easy, however, for the water was 
crystal clear. If we showed ourselves or 
’made a false move, it was a case of 
imove on. 
By 4.30 or 5.00 o’clock we had our 
’baskets well filled with trout running 
mp to 12 y 2 inches, and but very few 
lunder 6 or 7 inches. Ninety-two trout 
.all told. The best catch made on those 
waters all season, and we used flies ex- 
clusively. No Salmon Eggs. Perhaps 
some brother angler wil say, “Fish 
Hogs.” No ! Brother, if you had taken 
(that heartbreaking hike and still had en- 
ergy enough left to catch a fly, you 
would have done just what we did. We 
were within the law, we took out the 
larger fish, and what with the hot 
weather, the lack of water, snakes and 
racoons there would not have been many 
fish left in a month. 
Hemet Reservoir, and these dried-up 
streams are just another example of 
what the Power and Irrigation compa- 
nies are doing to the trout streams of 
California. They are not even satisfied 
with taking the water from the streams, 
but they want to put a fence around the 
earth and make people pay for the privi- 
lege of fishing, whether they catch any- 
thing or not. 
The next time Mr. Dillon goes to 
Southern California and wants to fish in 
an artificial lake let him drive out to 
Rainbow Ranch, which is located in Mill 
Creek Canon about two hours’ drive 
from Los Angeles. Here Mr. Leigh 
Garnsey has established a trout hatchery 
with large pools full of the, huskiest, 
ihardest fighting trout ever raised in cap- 
tivity. You can fish there any day in 
the year without even a state fishing 
license and you pay for all trout over 6 
inches in length and keep all the small 
ones free. Or at least those were the 
rules in 1920. Mr. Garnsey is a gentle- 
man, a good sportsman and will treat 
visitors right. No Salmon Eggs or bait 
fishing is allowed at Rainbow Ranch. 
E. Hoag, California. 
SPOTTED SEA-TROUT 
FISHING 
Dear Forest and Stream : 
A FISH-LADENED boat was draw- 
ing into the dock at Vero. 
“How’d he catch ’em?” asked a lanky 
Florida cracker of his companion. 
“Just fastened a line and cork to that 
long pole of his’n, baited up with shrimp 
and slapped the darn thing all over the 
river. Never seen noth’in like it. More 
fuss he made in the water the faster the 
big un’s jumped on his line.” 
Not such a lie as it seems. I remem- 
ber trolling all day, scarcely getting a 
fish; finally a spinster of no tender years 
appeared in a flat-bottomed skiff; pro- 
ducing a long pole, she went through the 
above performance, landing three five- 
pounders in a jiffy. 
Again, when I first plugged for these 
fish, my brother sportsman got ten strikes 
to my one. 
Our tackle was identical to a degree. 
Why should this be, I wondered, noting 
everything he did. 
I changed my method of retrieving 
the plug from the old way to a series 
of quick downward movements which 
slapped the line along the surface with 
a whiplike crack. Immediately I received 
a strike; others followed; I had discov- 
ered the secret. 
What does this mean? 
Why are fish attracted by surface dis- 
turbance and noise? 
“Be quiet, and go a-angling,” says 
Izaak Walton. 
This must be a reversal of the time- 
worn theory. 
It is, as vibrations are produced which 
excite the fish; presumably they think a 
school of mullet or other food fish are 
causing the disturbance, or perhaps other 
large fish are feeding on such a school, 
and they madly rush in to get part of 
the spoils. 
At any rate, I have observed them 
come from a considerable distance, fol- 
low up the line and invariably take the 
plug when it confronts them. 
This type of fishing for spotted weak- 
fish or spotted trout, as they are some- 
times called, is delightful, particularly 
along the palm-covered banks of the 
Indian River, where you may cast from 
the cocana rocks or any of the numerous 
piers and docks. However, I prefer to 
wade. 
Here the fish run large; I have caught 
them up to twelve pounds, and saw one 
landed at Merril’s Grove on Merritt’s 
Island that weighed nearly fourteen. A 
twenty-two pound specimen was taken 
in the nets at Vero last winter. 
Titusville to Vero seems to be the best 
section, particularly around Cocoa, where 
there is little netting done. Casting 
from the bridges at Cocoa, Melburn, Se- 
bastian and Vero should not be over- 
looked. 
You are liable to hook into a channel 
bass or snook at any time, as they both 
take a plug. Unfortunately, the level 
winding reels of to-day are entirely too 
small to handle the large sizes of these 
fish, as they do not hold enough line. 
In my opinion, it is about time for the 
manufacturers to wake up and place a 
larger level-winding reel on the market. 
Spotted trout are occasionally caught 
as far north as New York, but are 
more plentiful as you go south. I have 
taken them in the Gulf of Mexico, but 
have found them much smaller than 
those of the Indian River. 
Trolling seems to be the popular 
method up to the present time, but you 
do not get the big fish you do plugging, 
even if you troll with five hundred feet 
of line; the large fish are scared away 
by the noise of the motorboat and very 
seldom get within radius of the lure. 
Still, I have seen large catches made 
trolling, but the fish are generally small 
— about a pound. What’s the fun catch- 
ing such small fish in this manner? Even 
a ten-pounder is liable to be drowned out 
before the boat is stopped and you have 
the fun of reeling in a half-dead fish. 
The trout strikes hard and breaks all 
over the surface, which fact sends the 
blood surging through the veins of every 
true sportsman who gets one on. 
The best season is in the fall up to 
January, although large buck fish are 
caught singly on warm days throughout 
the entire winter. At other times they 
run in pairs or schools. After May they 
become more numerous, but are not 
much sought after, as they become 
wormy as the hot weather approaches. 
They are warm-weather fish and bite 
best when the sun is hot; eleven o’clock 
to three is the best time. You seldom 
get a fish in the shade of the bank. On 
cool and windy days they will be found 
in protected coves of the lee shore. 
If you go south this winter be sure to 
