226 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May, 1919 
HINTS ON FISHING 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
1 HAVE been a reader of the good old 
Forest and Stream for a number of 
years and sure do enjoy reading the fish- 
ing notes that appear in it each month. 
In the January number I i-ead M. S. B.’s 
article who asked for some of the other 
fishermen to give their experience in 
fishing. Fishing is my favorite sport 
and I spend most of my spare time on 
the lakes or streams. Trout, black bass 
and pike are my favorite fish, but the 
bass are the boys I like to fish for and I 
most always get my share of them. I 
am no fish hog as fifteen is the limit of 
one day’s catch and I have never taken 
over that number in one day, not because 
I couldn’t catch more but fifteen bass is 
enough for any person in one day’s catch. 
Our lakes in Minnesota have a good sup- 
ply of fish of most every variety. I am 
a strong believer in shore fishing I 
and do most of my fishing from the ) 
shore. I use every kind of bait I 
can get hold of. Flies, wabblers and 
spinners of different makes, live bait 
such as frogs, minnows, soft shell 
crabs and crickets, and when bass 
are not taking live bait or flies, or 
spinners, I try dandelion blossoms 
and milk weed blossoms. I have 
caught a nice string of bass with 
these tw’o blossoms but these I use 
in the heat of the day when the fish 
are jumping, as they are light and 
hard to cast but put on a couple of 
split buck shot and try it the next 
time you go fishing and find the bass 
are jumping and will not take any 
other bait you may offer and see for 
your self. In cleaning my catches I 
always notice what they have been 
feding on and in that way it has 
helped me a great deal in giving 
them what they will take. Last sea- 
son I caught a dozen or more bass 
that would w'eigh lbs. and better 
the opening of the season. I caught 
one black bass that weighed 7% ibs., 
24 inches in length and 19 inches in 
girth at Dean’s Lake, Minn., 35 miles 
northwest of Minneapolis on a No. 
2 Shannon Coaxer, which I think is a 
good surface bait. But when my friend 
asked me for a mess of fish and I am 
fish hungry myself I most always use 
frogs. Will write again if any one would 
like to read my experience in bass fishing. 
W. A. Morton, Minneapolis, Minn, 
as the Mississippi Rivers. I suppose that 
we will stay here for the duration of our 
“Nacht am Rhine.” There are many wild 
ducks on the river and many rabbits and 
deer in the hills and forests around here, 
which only makes me homesick for we 
are not allowed to hunt here. As this is 
all the news I know I will close with a 
promise to pay you a visit when we get 
back to the good old U. S. A. 
CoRP. Joseph A. Blettner, 
Army of Occupation, Germany. 
A BOOK PLATE 
To the Editor of Forest and Stre^am: 
AM taking the liberty of enclosing 
herewith print of a book plate which 
I had made, using as the lower panel 
two cuts from one of your old publica- 
tions; feeling that you might perhaps 
be interested in seeing some of your old 
work reproduced along different lines 
whiff and off he went like a wild dog 
down by the creek, sometimes in the 
water and sometimes on the gravel. In 
his haste he lost the track but picked 
it up again a little ways down the creek. 
He did better this time than before, and 
trailed old Mr. ’Coon down the creek a 
little farther and then off towards the 
swamp about a mile away, yelling all 
the time as if he was killing the ’coon or 
the ’coon was killing him, but we knew 
as long as all that noise was kept up our 
dog was very much alive. Finally he 
treed him in an old sink hole which was 
about ten feet deep and very hard to get 
out of because you had to pull yourself 
up by small bushes growing along the 
sides. As we had taken a ’possum from 
this hole about a week before there was 
no hesitation on our part about going 
down, so down we went, and just as we 
went down the show started. Hardly 
had we touched the ground when the dog 
brought out a skunk and a lively 
tustle followed in which we were all 
christened night hunters for the sim- 
ple reason that we couldn’t get out 
fast enough. In the scramble to get 
out we lost the only lantern we had 
and no one would go back for it, so 
we started discarding all the clothes 
we could spare. 
Somehow or other our dog had lost 
the ’coon track and had taken the 
skunk’s which ended what promised 
to be a fine night. • 
A. J. Allensworth, Mich. 
An Outdoor Man’s Book Plate 
and that the book plate may perhaps 
help you or some of your friends in de- 
signing one for yourselves, I remain, 
W. P. Patterson, Virginia. 
JACK RABBITS FOR HUNTING 
To the Editor of 
Forest and Stream : 
T he question of Jack Rabbits and 
Belgian hares for country stock- 
ing purposes has been called to my 
attention. The local raisers of Bel- 
gian hares advise me that when 
these rabbits are turned loose in the 
country they invariably die. Such 
being the case, it would be useless 
to w'aste money stocking these rab- 
bits for hunting purposes. Can you 
advise me of any species of large 
rabbits that wdll propagate when turned 
out in the country and increase in num- 
bers for sporting purposes? 
0. M. La Rue, Flemington, N. J. 
FROM GERMAN SOIL 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
Y our welcome letter of the 15th of 
Nov. was received with pleasure. I 
am glad to hear that my letter with the 
eleven Francs in \vas received on Nov. 
11th because that was a day that the 
whole world enjoyed. I have received 
two copies of the good old Forest and 
Stream since I received your letter, and 
I have had great pleasure in reading 
them and I hope that I will receive my 
April copy soon. I know of nothing 
else in the line of news just now, except 
that we are only about 50 ft. from the 
Rhine River now, with only a railroad 
and street separating. The Rhine is 
about as wide as the Ohio and as deep 
A FINE NIGHT SPOILED 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
O NE night in October, 1917, we were 
going to try out a pup we had been 
training all that summer and of which 
we expected a fine hunting dog; a ’coon 
dog was what we wanted. 
We invited four friends out from 
Clarksville to go with us and out they 
came with a “green one” who promised us 
great fun that night, so we went down to 
Dry creek, which is the best ’coon 
ground in the neighborhood and turned 
our dog loose near the creek. At first 
“Sport” (the dog) didn’t catch on and 
for the first half hour we did most of the 
hunting, but finally found ’coon tracks 
in the mud by the creek where he had 
been hunting frogs for his supper, so we 
called the dog and let him get a good 
DEFINITION OF SPORTSMAN 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
I N the March number there was an 
article defining “sportsman” as ap- 
plied in this country. 
I think any person who is a lover of 
nature and her children. One who en- 
joys hunting, fishing etc., for the pleas- 
ure of matching his skill against their 
instincts and natural cunning, and not 
for the sake of killing. One who in- 
sits on fair play, respects our game 
laws and helps protect our friends of 
the forests and streams is entitled to 
the term “sportsman.” 
If the killing of a swan, stag, eagle, 
seal and salmon was the qualification in 
the past in Scotland, anyone could boast 
the title if he had the price, while many 
a true sportsman would be left out. 
C. S. Paul, Iowa. 
