July .28, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
I 4 I 
SPECKLED TROUT OF LEMABIN RIVER. 
Photo by A. St. J. Newberry. 
to the size of small rivers and justify their names. 
They were never known os “creeks.” 
I am sorry for the man or woman who finds 
difficulty in killing time in the country in sum¬ 
mer. With me the days fly by all too rapidly. 
A week is nothing, and we accomplish nothing 
of importance. The most important event is 
the occasional capture of an unusually large 
trout. There are big ones here. Be sure of 
that. I have reliable information of one which 
has its habitat not far away, which is said to be 
full two feet long. If so, - it will weigh 5 pounds. 
Thank of that, my boy! Drop that everlasting 
business, and come and catch him (or her). 
Even if you kill nothing, you will be happy, and 
you will be sure to catch chubs. At least, I 
always do, and must say that it is somew'hat 
disappointing to find that one has a big leather- 
mouth instead of a large, golden trout. Yet 
the so-called chub is something of a game fish. 
He rises at the fly and can put up a good fight. 
The largest I ever killed was 18 inches long; but 
I have heard of them up to 22 inches, and weigh¬ 
ing 3 pounds. When I cannot take trout, I will 
catch chubs. Theodore Gordon. 
The Record Black Sea Bass. 
Kansas City, Mo., July 20 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: Inclosed please find a clipping 
copied from the New Orleans Picayune, which 
makes the claim that Captain J. T. McDonald, 
of Pass Christian, holds the world’s record for 
“the largest black sea bass ever caught with a 
rod and line of which there is any record in 
the United States waters.” The item reads: 
“Pass Christian, Miss.—The accompanying- 
illustration gives a correct idea of the size of the 
black bass caught at this place last Wednesday 
by Captain J. T. McDonald, of Pass Christian. 
In this illustration it will be seen that the fish 
towers above its captor, and when it is stated 
that Captain McDonald measures 6 feet 2 inches 
in height and weighs 200 pounds, the magnitude 
of the gamester hanging alongside him becomes 
apparent. This fish measured 8 feet 2p> inches 
in length and weighed 440 pounds. The rod, 
reel and line in the captain’s hand is the tackle 
on which it was caught. It required over two 
hours of skillful and hard work to land the 
monster, because owing to the smallness of the 
line the greatest care had to be exercised, as 
only expert anglers are capable of doing. This 
is not only the first of its kind ever caught here, 
but is also the largest black sea bass ever caught 
with a rod and line of which there is any record 
in the United States waters.” 
I beg to call your attention to the fact that 
some three or four years ago I sent to your 
paper the measurements of a jewfish (black sea 
bass) larger than this caught by me about the 
middle of November at Tarpon, Tex. (Aransas 
Pass). The length of the fish was only 7 feet 
3 inches; but its maximum girth was 5 feet 9 
inches. Three days after it was caught it 
weighed 450 pounds. What it weighed when it 
was caught, I cannot say, for we had to send 
it some fifteen miles by sloop to Rockport to 
have it weighed. It is likely that its weight when 
caught was about 500 pounds. If the standard 
formula applies to jewfish, this is so; but perhaps 
it does not. I would like to hear about this 
from some of your readers who have both 
measured and weighed the jewfish. The length 
of mine was measured when the fish was in a 
horizontal position, and not after it was hung 
up (as such measurements are often erroneously 
made). J. A. L. Waddell. 
Fishing in the Mohawk. 
Schenectady, N. Y., July 4.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: In my last letter to you I was 
boasting that there had not been a case of song 
bird shooting this summer. But I thought it too 
good to last long. The turn came the other day 
when three Italians were arrested with robins 
and meadowlarks in their possession. They were 
fined $25 each and paid their fines. There have 
been some nice catches of pike in the river this 
summer. One was caught below the city last 
week that measured two feet from head to tail. 
Many black bass are taken but do not run very 
large. Quite a lot of sport is had below the 
State dam on the rifts catching chub; they rise 
to a .fly as good as a trout, and put up a good 
fight. They run from three-quarters to one and 
a half pounds, and are very pretty to look at, but 
are too full of bones to make good eating. 
Dorp. 
Sea Lion Hunting in New York Bay. 
While Richard O’Toole, an orderly in the 
hospital at Ellis Island, was at work yesterday 
afternoon on the roof of the hospital building, 
his eye lighted on an object on the mud flats on 
the New Jersey shore, just west of the island. A 
second and more careful observation brought him 
to the conclusion that it was a live sea lion. 
O’Toole hastened to impart his discovery to Dr. 
Long, the house surgeon. 
“We’ll get that fellow,” said the doctor, “for 
I’ll bet it is the first one ever captured, dead or 
alive, in New York Harbor.” 
Organizing an emergency expedition. Dr. Long, 
accompanied by O’Toole and another orderly, 
“Bill” Bryan, set forth in a boat after a spear 
had been manufactured. A scalpel was bound 
to the end of a long pole used by O’Toole in 
cleaning windows. The boat grounded a few 
feet from the sea lion, still flopping violently, 
and apparently unaware of the approach of the 
adventurous hunters. 
“Bill” Bryan, whose father had been a boa: 
steerer in the old whaling days, was selected to 
do the killing. Grasping the improvised harpoon 
firmly, Bryan threw it with all his strength. It 
went straight as an arrow, and imbedded itself 
firmly in the middle of the target, but the ex¬ 
pected furious death struggle was not seen. Then 
came the discovery. The supposed sea lion was 
a block of wood. The flippers that had deceived 
the hunters were pieces of planking held to the 
log by bolts. Seaweed and moss had made the 
deception complete, and even at- a distance of a 
few feet appearances were deceptive.—New York 
Evening Post. 
A Laurentian Trout. 
Our cover illustration is from a photo by 
Mr. E. N. Lawrence, of a speckled trout taken 
in the waters of the Laurentian Club’s preserves 
in Canada. The fish weighed 3 pounds 4 ounces. 
BREAKFAST IN CAMP 
is nothing without coffee, and coffee is nothing without 
Cream. Ordinary cream is out of the question nine times 
out of ten, but Borden’s Peerless Evaporated Cream 
takes its place perfectly and keeps indefinitely until 
opened. It is unsweetened and has the natural cream 
flavor and color.— Adv. 
