FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 7, 1906. 
18 
invaded the marshes, is in itself evidence against 
the belief. Such fish as bass and pike find great 
food in young carp, and, as the latter are won¬ 
derfully ' prolific, there is furnished an inex¬ 
haustible food supply. Experiments have shown 
that game k fish multiply with the increase of carp 
in fresh flowing water, such as Lake St. Clair. 
Seining Increases Carp. 
“But the seining of carp in Lake St. Clair 
does not reduce the carp, but multiplies them. 
They are principally aught in the spawning sea¬ 
son, when they run in large schools, and are de¬ 
posited in the ponds. Here the females deposit 
their spawn and the confined males are always 
on hand to fertilize it. A few weeks later the 
little carp in 'huge swarms pass through the 
gates of the ponds into the open lakes and join 
in the destruction of vegetation. 
“Investigation has shown that a very slight 
percentage of the spawn develops in the open 
water, where other fish are constantly interfering 
and the elements have a sweep, while the per¬ 
centage is exceedingly large in the confined 
waters. It is therefore clear that the present 
scheme is enormously increasing the quantity of 
carp in the lake. 
“Carp are almost entirely vegetarians. They 
live on the roots, branches and leaves of celery, 
rice, reeds, and brushes. The spawn of other 
fish has rarely been found in their stomachs. 
Their mouth is not adapted to the catching of 
live minnows. No angler would think of bait¬ 
ing minnows to catch a carp. In Europe dough 
is principally used. 
“The carp fishermen spread their net, with an 
inch and a half square mesh and ranging in 
length from 80 to 120 rods, over a great area of 
shallow water and drag in whatever is in the 
area. Unless they strike a school of carp, they 
will drag in ten times more native fish than they 
will carp. These fish are gilled or rubbed by 
the net or squeezed when the draw is made and 
it is safe to say that not one-half survive. It 
is a common sight along the shore to see them 
floating on the surface. It is also a common 
thing to catch bass and pike that bear the 
mutilation of the net. 
Conceal the Destruction. 
“After every haul, one or two of the fishermen 
go along the beach and gather up the dead fish 
and bury them in the beach to conceal the de¬ 
struction that is going on. There must be 
thousands of graves along the shore all the way 
from Huron Point to Tucker’s Creek—graves 
containing the remnants of the finest game fish 
that ever darted in the waters of North America. 
This wholesale, reckless slaughter, legalized by 
the State in the name of protection to be 
slaughtered, should arouse the resentment of 
every sportsman in Michigan, if there be any 
still living. It seems incredible that such a 
condition should be tolerated, much less legal¬ 
ized and encouraged by a fish and game com¬ 
mission which is supposed to labor for the pre¬ 
servation of the native fish. 
“The average bass caught in the seine at this 
season is full of spawn. The pressure of the net 
and of the cumbersome carp squeeze out of it 
the spawn, destroying not only the ova, but the 
fish itself. No female bass can survive the 
treatment. 
“If the female bass has succeeded in deposit¬ 
ing the spawn between hauls and the male is 
on the nest to protect it, the next drag gathers 
him in and, if he survives, he will never stop 
running until he has got miles into deep water, 
and the spawn is left unprotected if it has not 
already been swept away by the net. No carp 
will dare to approach a bass nest if the male 
is there to attack him. 
“There would be less harm done if the seining 
were only allowed outside of the spawning sea¬ 
son of bass, pike, perch and pickerel. But this 
the carp fishers will not entertain, for the rea¬ 
son that the catches would be smaller. It is 
therefore likely that no such proposition would 
be considered, as the two or three men who 
have a monopoly of the business seem to have 
enough pull to get anything they wish. 
“If the people of Michigan, and particularly 
those in the region of Lake St. Clair, have no 
further interest in maintaining the game fish that 
have made the lake famous, then my appeal will 
be in vain. If, however, they would preserve 
what nature so abundantly provided, they should 
cry out against the slaughter which is being 
enacted in order to make fortunes for a favored 
few. Every man in Michigan in whom lives the 
spirit of the true sportsman should aid in forc¬ 
ing the fish and game commission to put a stop 
to this outrage.” 
The Durham Ranger. 
Neversink, Sullivan County, N. Y., June 3.— 
I pity the man who can read the Durham Ranger 
without a slight quickening of the heart beats. 
It could only be written by a good sportsman and 
salmon fisher. It illustrates the belief of many 
experienced salmon anglers that the salmon takes 
the fly in anger. He is enraged into taking it. 
One of the men who had fished the rivers of 
New Brunswick for nearly half a century was 
strong on this point. He would describe how, 
lying behind a rock, he would watch his friend’s 
fly and see the great fish come up. eyes glaring, 
mouth open, and gills flaming. It is an old, 
old question. Why does the salmon take the fly 
in fresh water, or for what does he take it? I 
clipped this poem, in all probability, from the 
Fishing Gazette fifteen or twenty years ago. 
Theodor Gordon. 
THE DURHAM RANGER. 
A TALE OF THE USK. 
A salmon swam out of the Severn Sea, 
Hey! he was bright and shiny! 
And a flood from the Usk came rolling down, 
Foam flakes tossed on a torrent brown. 
From Beecon Mountain to Newport town, 
Where the fresh wave met the briny. 
He sniffed the freshet that met the tide. 
Hey! for the shining river! 
Hey! for the deep and rock-strewn pool; 
Hey! for the shade of the willows cool; 
Hey for the leap, like a lad from school. 
While the sun-shafts round him quiver. 
He rested for a while in a pool at Usk, 
Hey! for the cute old stayer! 
Four Major-Generals cast their flies; 
Then three Colonels—he wouldn't rise; 
And he gazed with an air of calm surprise 
At the fly of a common Major. 
The sun blazed hot as he pushed up-stream, 
Hey! on for Aberg’enny, 
But he paused on the way. and he rested long; 
For his head was aching, his liver wrong, 
His temper ditto, his words were strong, 
And not only strong, but many. 
Flickering and dancing dawn the tide, 
Hey! for the Durham Ranger! 
Danced and flickered before his eyes; 
Wavered, and trembled, and passed him by; 
Then again, and a shade more nigh, 
Hey! but he’s now in danger. 
Flickering and dancing, black and red; 
Hey! and he muttered, “Dash it. 
Whatever the dickens is this I see? 
Is it stomach, or liver, or can it be 
The coming on of a bad D. T.? 
If it comes again, I'll smash it.’’ 
Flickering and dancing down once more— 
Hey! what a splash and a flounder! 
Into him! hah! and he feels the sting. 
Into him! hah! and the reel doth sing; 
Drops the point, as he makes his spring, 
Hey! for the twenty-pounder! 
Down he bores in the deep, dark pool, 
Hey! for the sharp rocks in it! 
Bends the greenheart. and strains the line; 
Yielding he comes, till we see him shine. 
Steady, now, steady! Now then! He’s mine! 
Half an hour — less a minute. 
MORAL. 
Don’t walk all day in a blazing sun. 
Hey! for if you do there’s danger! 
Don’t use those words that are known as “strong,” 
But take a pill if your liver’s wrong. 
Your angry passions pray ne’er let rise; 
Don’t jump at conclusions like fish at flies; 
Don't be in a hurry—keep calm and cool; 
And in hot, bright days on an open pool, 
Hey! for the Durham Ranger! 
Harry L. 
Rainbow Trout in Switzerland. 
A correspondent writes from Valais: “Rain¬ 
bow trout have been put out in. a small lake at 
Montana, Canton Valais, Switzerland. The 
waters are well stocked with minnows, and suc¬ 
cess is anticipated.” 
Fish and Fishing. 
Some Big Pike. 
A twenty pound pike was caught the other 
day in Lake St. John by a farmer of the locality, 
who was fishing with bait for ouananiche. It 
is somewhat surprising that the ouananiche 
should thrive as they do in this great lake, which 
contains so many of its natural enemies. The 
circumstance can probably be explained by the 
fact that the fresh-water salmon is usually too 
smart for its big- neighbors. It is quite quick 
enough to get out of the way of both pike and 
burbot or loche. The latter are very plentiful 
in Lake St. John, and the natives take them in 
great quantities in winter with night lines; many 
specimens exceeding two feet in length. Un¬ 
like the pike in this lake, the cusk, burbot or 
loche remain at the bottom. The pike, on the 
other hand are often found in the same locality 
with ouananiche. While trolling for ouananiche 
opposite the Island House some years ago, we 
each hooked a pike of about thirteen pounds 
weight, and played them until we brought them 
to the net with our trout rods. I remember 
how fortunate we considered ourselves to have 
had so deep a net as we did with us, for a 
thirteen pound pike is a pretty good length. 
Of course, even on a trout rod, these big fish 
give nothing like the sport that is afforded by 
a trout or ouananiche of half the size, but their 
first few rushes and lunges after experiencing 
the tension of the line are exceedingly strong 
in the cold water of our northern lakes and 
rivers. After that, it is of course a question of 
mere dead weight. 
These pike must grow to an enormous size 
in Lake St. John, and in some of the rivers 
flowing into it. I have seen one of nearly forty 
pounds taken out of the lake itself, and Mr. E. 
J. Myers, of New York, has recorded one of 
47 pounds taken by him in Lake Tschotagama. 
It measured 52 inches in length. Mr. William 
Hayes claims one killed in the same lake, weigh¬ 
ing 49 pounds. Tschotagama is a kind of semi¬ 
inland bay of the Peribonca River, nine miles 
long and sixty miles or three days’ journey 
from Lake St. John. It is difficult to persuade 
some people that the big fish above mentioned, 
are not maskinonge instead of the true pike, 
but I have never yet seen the maskinonge in 
Lake St. John and the Peribonca respectively, 
both of which weighed between thirty and forty 
pounds, and both of which were easily identified 
as Esox Indus, both by the markings of their 
bodies and the scales upon the side of the head. 
There are apparently bigger pike in these 
waters than any that have been caught, and I 
remember to have seen one which a companion 
brought up on his line close to our canoe, in 
the Peribonca River, only to lose the next 
moment, which seemed to dwarf in length the 
canoe itself. But this, as already explained, is 
a story of the fish that got away! 
Lake St. John and Lake Tschotagama are 
not the only waters hereabouts which offer 
great opportunities to the big pike fisherman. 
In a marshy lagoon off the western side of the 
Peribonca, about two days’ journey or a little 
more from Lake St. John, my companion and 
I once took many of the fish running from 
five to twelve pounds each in the space of about 
two hours, securing a strike at the spoon at 
almost every turn of the little lake. There is 
another such lake, appropriately called Lac a 
Brocket, on the road from the Ashuapmouch- 
ouan to Lac-a-Jim, where the same experience 
may be had and even larger fish secured. 
Big Pike-Perch Too. 
Very often in these northern waters, large 
pike-perch (Stizostedium vitreum ) takes the troll 
thrown out for pike, and while the resistance 
which they offer to the angler, though vigor¬ 
ous, is short-lived like that of Esox luclus, its 
flesh is infinitely better than that of the common 
pike, and to the camper who has been several 
days in the woods, affords an agreeable change 
from the rich, red meat of the trout, resembling 
rather closely the clear white flakiness of the 
haddock or cod. 
