Aug. 25, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
297 
From the Beaverkill. 
At last we are having real Sullivan county 
weather, cool, sunshiny days, and nights so cold 
that blankets are necessary for comfort. Day by 
day the river has dwindled in size, the water is 
clear as air and the trout are hidden away, or 
have voyaged up stream in search of cool water. 
Sport is very indifferent at this time on this 
portion of the stream, but conditions improve as 
one goes upward toward the source, and fair 
fishing can be had on some of the preserves, or 
on any free water that ijiay be found here and 
there. Some of the farmers who have sold 
outright a strip of land on both banks running 
through their properties, find that they have 
parted with their chief asset, if at any time they 
wish to sell out in toto. Who cares for a fa<rm 
through which runs a fine stream from which 
one is debarred? I should not feel that I owned 
the place at all. 1 can understand this parting 
with the river when a large compensation was 
received, but in some cases the price was very 
small. At one large house formerly patronized 
by many anglers and their families, I hear there 
are but three boarders this summer. In this in¬ 
stance parting with the fishing rights was simply 
suicidal. However, in the early part of the sea¬ 
son, when the fishing is really good, a great deal 
of free fishing can be had in the lower reaches 
of the Beaverkill. Before making arrangements . 
for board and rooms at any house, it will be 
advisable to make inquiries in regard to the ex¬ 
tent of free water in the neighborhood. Here¬ 
abouts it is three or four miles. The largest 
native trout I have seen in Sullivon county in 
eight years, was killed on a small brook near 
this place last Saturday. It was in fine condition 
and measured fourteen inches. Many brown 
trout are taken of greater size than this, but 
even in the old days, when fontinalis was in full 
possession of the region and fario was unknown, 
a native trout weighing a pound was a big fish. 
I have never been able to account for this 
satisfactorily. AH these rivers are full of trout 
food, minnows abound, and after the fish reach a 
certain size, these are necessary, I think, to con¬ 
tinue development. At least, it will be noticed 
that in some of the Maine lakes which contain 
no minnows, really big trout are never taken, 
while in the lakes near by where small fish 
swarm, enormous trout are occasionally killed. 
Many of the Maine lakes have been heavily 
stocked with smelt to provide food for the land¬ 
locked salmon which were introduced years ago. 
Of course the salmon were indigenous in some 
parts of Maine. I presume that after a forty 
pound salmon, the greatest prize which an angler 
can desire, is a ten pound brook or river trout. 
Such a fish has always been a possibility in 
Maine and I believe that brown trout of this 
size are now in existence in streams within a 
hundred and fifty miles of the city of New York. 
The record is something over nine pounds (leav¬ 
ing out the extraordinary trout found several 
years ago in a tributary of the Beaverkill. This 
fish is said to have been over three feet in length, 
but owing to its poor condition only weighed 
fifteen pounds), and anyone who has viewed the 
Beaverkill below its junction with the Willowe- 
mock, below Rockland, will agree with me that 
no water could be better fitted by nature to sup¬ 
port big'trout. This portion of the river affords 
good fishing early in the season, possibly at other 
times if one knows where the spring holes are. 
On Saturday evening I toiled vainly for an 
hour or more, but mounting a small fly, the 
chubs or fallfish came to my rescue. When one 
can see these chubs rising and try for individ¬ 
ual fish, the sport is just as good as trout fishing 
until after the chub is hooked. I imagine that I 
am casting over a fine trout and am only un¬ 
deceived by. the lubberly play of the silvery chub. 
In the end I did kill three good trout, in ad¬ 
dition to the other fish. I believe that chub con¬ 
sume a large quantity of food which should go 
toward nourishing the trout. Therefore am in 
the habti of killing the big ones; as usually 
someone can be found who is fond of eating 
them. It is poor fun to kill anything which is 
perfectly useless as food. I have given split 
winged flies a good trial this season and some¬ 
times find them killing. Occasionally they have 
a trick of spinning in the air on the back cast, 
CANANDAIGUA LAKE TROUT. 
Photo by Lou L. Smith. 
particularly if tied spent gnat fashion with wings 
laid on horizontally or almost flat on each side 
of the hook. It is quite delightful however, to 
see a big fish come up and suck in one of these 
flies in the quietest most confident way. 
What one misses most in summer is the hatch of 
natural flies. If the water becomes heated by 
the sun, this ceases almost entirely and if there 
are no natural flies, no rising trout will be seen. 
The prettiest of all sport to me is this casting 
to a fish which is quietly taking in the real flies, 
particularly if I have reason to believe that it 
is a large trout. Light and accurate casting are 
necesary and I find that two or three strands of 
very fine gut on the end of the tapered leader 
are advantageous. With this one must be careful 
in striking, not to use too much force. There are 
few habits harder to overcome than that of hard 
striking. We have all seen small fish fairly 
yanked out of the water and maybe have done 
this ourselves. The smallest possible movement 
of the rod is. required and it is not necessary 
to volley a rise with the rapidity which some 
people advocate. The action of the rod we use 
has much influence on striking, as with the old- 
fashioned willowy rod, quick action was neces¬ 
sary and a little too much force did no damage. 
With one of the powerful lightning quick split 
bamboo rods of our best makers, a light hand is 
most desirable. Too much power in the strike 
will break the fine gut or leave a fly in the mouth 
of the trout. One day when I was particularly 
clumsy, I lost three flies in this way and probably 
added considerably to the shyness of three good 
trout. I wish that a knot could be devised for 
eyed hooks that would be entirely mechanical 
in the making. With small hooks and small 
eyes it is a perfect nuisance threading the eye 
and-making the knot when the light is failing. 
Few men emjoy the strong keen sight of youth, 
yet eyed hooks have advantages over snellecl 
hooks which are bringing them into use more 
and more as years go on. As far as my knowl¬ 
edge goes, what is called the “Turtle” knot is 
simplest and best. I have no confidence in the 
Pennell jam knot unless the gut used in coarse 
enough to fill, or almost fill the eye of the hook. 
With the water low and clear as air it is 
almost as pleasant to stroll along the river with¬ 
out a rod and view all that its depths reveal. 
On Sunday afternoon I saw many interesting 
things. A fine school of large trout, for instance, 
gathered some yards out from the mouth .of a 
small cold brook. At any other time these fish 
could not have been discovered, but the sun was 
high in the heavens, making every object dis¬ 
tinctly visible. Two enormous chub were sailing 
about, but soon returned to the depths of the 
pool. Muskrats swam close along the bottom 
for long distances, disappearing beneath piles of 
brush wood or old roots without making a 
ripple or coming up for breath. What kind of 
lungs have these beasts? It seems to be possible 
for them to remain under water as long as they 
wish. If it was not for the musky odor, I fancy 
that young rats would make interesting pets. 
Young raccoons are as funny as monkeys and 
much nicer in their habits. They are cleanly 
as possible and wash all their food. A young 
woodchuck is exactly like a tiny bear and infi¬ 
nitely diverting in its ways. All these animals 
when very small have slight fear of human 
beings. They begin feding almost at once and 
are usually strong and healthy. Fear of man ap¬ 
pears to be taught to young creatures by their 
parents and not to be instinctive as was formerly 
believed. A young but fully feathered swallow 
had no fear but would take flies freely from the 
hand shortly after meeting with an accident 
which impaired its power of flight. 
Beaverkill, August, 19 6. THEODORE GORDON. 
An Old, Old Question. 
New York, Aug. 18 . —Editor Forest and 
Stream': Is fishing for salmon with bait con¬ 
sidered sportsmanlike? 
On a recent visit to Newfoundland I met an 
experienced salmon fisher, who told me that he 
had on several occasions taken fine salmon with 
bait. 
I mentioned this to anglers whom I met later 
at Salmonier. and was told that while the sal¬ 
mon would sometimes take a bait, no true sports¬ 
man would catch them in that manner. 
Is there any reason why it should not be as 
legitimate to catch salmon with bait as with a 
fly? Whidden Graham. - 
