TROITIXG OX THE SOUTH SIDE. 
BY GEXIO C. SCOTT. 
“You, who the sweets of roral life hare known, 
Despise the ungrateful hurry of the town;”— 
On Long Island's trout streams, by ■outbern shore, 
May undisturbed the finny tribes explore. 
“ 'Tis not flora books alone thoughts pleasures flow— 
They are but aqueducts which serve to bring 
The stream direct (meandering else, but slow), 
A 8 first it wells from the Pierian spring; 
But who would taste it pure, at times must fling 
His books aside, and turn to Nature's page, 
Open alike to peasant, prince, and king. 
To men untaught, as well as learned sage." 
The trouting season has arrived. The real trouting 
season never arrives until the fish are good for the table; 
and they do not become a table luxury until the warmth 
of a genial season has furnished varied food on which 
they thrive and cleanse themselves from the clay and 
woody taste and winter’s morbid state. 
I made my first trouting excursion for this year, last 
weak, and I never saw trout play more generously. 
They fought it out to the last, and each one appeared 
determined to part my tackle, or die, rather than be 
landed. I did not take many, but the largest one made 
the two pound scale kick the beam. The day was besu- 
tiful, just movement enough of the air to deliver the fly 
gently upon the rippling surface of the stream without 
requiring an effort on our part, and frequently the trout 
met the fly and fastened to it several inches above the 
water, when the play of a pound trout afforded excel- 
lent sport. We saved none which did not weigh plump 
three-quarters of a pound, and returned to the water all 
fish under that weight, and our excellent assistant, Hugh 
Montgomery, of South Oysb r Bay, kept count of over 
thirty trout which we returned as soon as landed and 
found to be light weight. As soon as I hooked them 
and found by the weakness of the play that they were 
not up to the standard weight, I made short work of 
their play; but when one fastened which was large 
enough to try my tackle, I gave him his time and per- 
mitted him to fairly exhaust himself at exercising his 
numerous efforts of escape, now by hopping out of the 
water, then plunging to rub the hook out on the bottom 
of the stream, then failing, I let him endeavor to run 
away from the difiiculty; but after all efforts proved 
abortive, and he permitted himself to be brought nearer 
and yet nearer to the shore, his last struggle to prevent 
being dipped up with the landing net, was so earnest, 
that he became dazed and nearly swooned as we took 
him out of the wet. 
That South Oyster Bay is the true paradise for New 
York anglers, has long been known. It is not alone 
that the trout are so gamey, or so ready to rise to the fly, 
nor that their average run is so excellent in size, nor the 
beauty of the surrounding landscape and the brigh^nesa 
of the sky are so enchanting; but all these combine to 
render the angling most fascinating. Then, too, the 
late Vandewater Hotel is kept by Mr. Robt. T. Macum- 
ber, so that nothing is left for lovers of field sports to 
desire. His table is equal to that which was, until re- 
, cently, kept by Chas Snedicor, at the South Side Club, 
The beds are superior to any that we have ever seen at 
a resort for angling or shootin'g. The furniture is 
mostly real rosewood — no black-walnut imitatiorf — and 
the best upholstered that we have ever seen at a hotel. 
Then again, Mr. Macumber keeps swift-stepping horses 
for the benefit of his guests in being conveyed to the 
trout streams in the vicinity, and a very excellent turn- 
out. He IS eminently qualified for keeping a first-class 
hotel. His charges are moderate, attention first-class, 
and I feel it a pleasing duty to inform lovers of field 
sports, and gentlemen who wish to drive the thirty 
miles to South Oyster Bay, over excellent roads, for a 
delightful day’s entertainment, that they will find Ma- 
cumber’s Hotel, a place w'here a man may “enjoy Lis 
ease at his inn,” and all that is implied in that hacknied 
sentence, by the true epicure. 
On my arrival at South Oyster Bay. I felt like apos- 
trophising in the words of Buchanan Read : 
“0»ce more into the open air, 
Once more beneath the summer skies. 
To fields and woods, and waters fair, 
I come for all w hich toil denies.” 
Yes, brother anglers, it is bequeathed to us to really 
enjoy nature in the open air. The gentle wand is not 
hard to wield; but of what avail is passive beauty 
which does not call forth some exercise? To drive 
hither and yon over dusty roads is unsatisfying; or to 
carry a gun and follow the dogs over hedges, ditches, 
and through quagmire, in summer weather, is too 
fatiguing for the student, merchant, or any person con. 
fined to city pursuits for a livelihood; but either of them 
may wield a light trout rod, or seated in a boat, may 
enjoy the Bay and estuary fishings for striped bass, 
sheepshead, weakfish (nqeteague), king-fish, and numer- 
ous other table luxuries belonging to the finny tribes 
which enliven the saline waters thousands of acres with- 
in the radius of ten miles from the City Hall of New 
York. That is, if New York has a City Hall. 
“We love the angler's quiet lot, 
HU meditative art. 
He never is, but always to be blest, 
Hope reigns supreme in the angler’s breast.” 
The angler never roams in the worldly wiles beyond 
the schoolboy days of the rainbow vacations. Hope 
always reigns supreme in his breast. He may be mak- 
ing out a brief like William C. Barrett, but occasion- 
ally the light breaks in upon his brown study, and he 
thinks of the waters, of the serene landscape, the songs 
of birds: and it refreshes him even in his arduous toil. 
Or like Judge Beebe, who may be nerving himself up 
to try a hard case before a favorite judge that will be- 
lieve all his statements and his references, and while 
perplexed as to the way to dodge the truth, the light of 
angling breaks in upon him, and so calms his soul, that 
he calls his elient to him and advises a settlement. 
There is nothing equal to pursuing the angler’s art, for 
educating a person to become a disciple of patience, 
and to so adjust the balances of his judgment and im- 
agination, as that he will perceive truth through all ne- 
farious obscurations. 
We are now stepping upon the threshold of general 
fishing. It is admissible now to begin to angle for 
spring-spawning fishes. The sqeteague and black-fish 
{tau(og), come in first. When the dogberry blossoms, 
black -fish bite, and you may look for the weakfish. Next 
comes the sheepshead, about the middle of June. Like 
the trout, early in spring, he is not so succulent and 
gam^, or so large, as toward August; but he affords 
good sport alwa3's where he may be taken with rod and 
reel, and single hook baited with shedder crab. Next 
comes the king-fish, a species of barbel, which visits 
our estuaries early in July and seeks sandy-bottomed 
channels, and sometimes sandy edilies; and again I have 
found them abundant in quiet stretches between islands, 
like the Pea Patch, near the Shingles, between Canarsie 
and Rockaway. 
Jamaica Bay is a great luxury to anglers of Brooklyn 
and New York, who cannot afford the time from the 
demands of business, necessary to enjoy the fishings for 
striped bass of the waters of the Island Clubs. The 
club houses of Basque Island, Cuttyhunk, anf West 
Island, are usually opened on th" Fourth of July; but 
this season they are to be opeped earlier. 
Of inland fishings, the best to which the public is in- 
vited fora small initiation fee, is Blooming Grove Park. 
Here, the great fires which injured many of the forests 
in Pike Co., Pa., and scared the bears of the Knob be- 
longing to the Association, have not injured the excel- 
lent trouting of the creeks, nor the pickerel or black- 
bass fishings of the lakes within the vast preserve. 
As the only indepeu'lent way for nine-tenths of the 
anglers and gunners, to obtain sport, is to join some 
sportsmen’s association, we recommend to them Bloom- 
ing Grove Park as the first association in point of impoit- 
ance, of any in America. It contains over twelve 
thousand acres of land, paid for, besides nearly twenty 
thousand acres adjacent to the park, which is turned in 
for the protection from poaching deer and trout which 
the wardens of Blooming Grove afford. Let persons 
who can afford to spend a few weeks this summer and 
autumn, join Blooming Grove Park Association. It is 
convenient to the bolder cities, being only six hours by 
Erie railroad from New York. At Lackawaxen, the 
accomplished hotel-keeper has carriages in attendance 
to convey passengers to the Park. 
To those who regard, as the writer does, striped bass 
angling as the best water sport next to fly-fishing for 
trout or salmon, my advice is to apply for admission to 
Basque Island Association. The association is self-sus- 
taining, and the angler may there enjoy all the comforts 
of a first-class hotel, and have angling to his heart’s 
content, without the scourges of mosquitoes or black 
flies, or any other annoyance; and to the contrary, the 
angler inflates his lungs with the refreshing sea-breezes, 
and retains such a robust state of health as enables him 
to enjoy the excellent table fare of that incomparable 
island retreat. To conclude: 
“Away to the brook, 
All yonr tackle oat-loak, 
Hore'i a day that is worth a year’s wishing; 
See that all things be right. 
For 'twould be a spite 
To want tools when a man goes a flshisg.” 
The Leech Cup. 
HELD BT eXPT. JOHX BODIKE. 
(See page 148.) 
The Ksxxard House at Cleveland, Ohio, will be 
the head-quarters of the delegates attending the Na- 
tional. Tile house is perfect iu its appointments, noth- 
ing picayune about its m-.nagement. The judicious lib- 
erality of the proprietors has won favor from all trav- 
ellers, and to help the National, they have lowered 
tiieir charges to delegates. We intend no puff, but 
speak of the hotel because we have tried it and have 
found it complete in its apartments, attendance and 
table. We hope to meet our friends there, and are sure 
that those who take our recommendation will endorse it 
cheerfully. 
