Nov. io, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
739 
reel, off it comes, or it would ruin the silk line. 
The writer was shown a substitute for this 
wound dummy the other day by a ieilo\V angler, 
and it is so simple, and of such apparent merit 
that it is mentioned. The empty spool was 
taken out of the reel and high-grade corks 
strung on its axle by means of a hole through 
the center of each one and a cut from center to 
rim. By squeezing the last one the spool was 
filled evenly and smoothly, the cuts being turned 
'so that no two came opposite each other. Of 
course they were cemented together, and the 
surface was then smoothed with fine abrasive, 
ready for the silk line to be wound on. 
Only one thing more need be said: Before 
the cork drum is smoothed off, its correct dia¬ 
meter should be determined on, but this is a 
simple matter when o.ir uses a line of a certain 
size and length. If there are to be changes in 
lines, the diameter of the cork should be re¬ 
duced slightly, and a dummy line employed to 
make up the required diameter when the reel is 
full. The cork is firm and even, but not hard, 
and seems to be, in this shape, a useful device. 
An Angler’s Letter to an Angler. 
Poughkeepsie; N. Y., Oct. 24 .—My dear Mr. 
IV.: Please do not think that I have forgotten 
either postal or the article in the Forest and 
Stream. Really I have been trying for the last 
three weeks to get a few minutes to write you, 
to express my appreciation of both. The 
Doctor and myself arrived in New York from 
our trip, on Aug. 8; and, by the way, I will 
mention the fact, that the hot weather was there, 
too. Pretty near laid us out. 
We had had a very successful season, and our 
catch was a good one, about 150 fish in all. We 
smoked fifty, filled up a pork barrel for one 
man, and half a pork barrel for another. I 
brought home twenty smoked fish. They are 
still in cold storage for safety’s sake. The 
Doctor’s heaviest fish .was 22 pounds. I got 
one of 23 pounds, and I had on for five or six 
minutes each, two of the biggest of fish—40 or 
50-pounders—so we all thought as they jumped, 
or rather “broached.” In one case my reel 
overran on his first rush, and he took the fly 
with him. The other one (on the second day 
after) also took the fly with him after a rush. 
The gut must have been too weak for that 
weight of a fish. Just imagine my disappoint¬ 
ment! I still wake up in the night and worry 
about my loss; but I hope to have better luck 
next time. 
In regard to the salmon taking the bait, I 
have never found the Hawks bay salmon in that 
mood; but on the Garnish, they would take a 
salmon peel freely. On the Upper Humber they 
often find snails or slugs in the stomachs 
Mr. Thomas Winter recalled to me, while we 
were dining at Dr. Bagg’s, a story of bait tak¬ 
ing which happened on the Garnish, and which 
I had almost forgotten. Mr. Winter and myself 
had gone down to the Royal Plead pool, about 
three miles from camp. We fished the pool at 
the head, where the stream came over the fall, 
and down between two high cliffs, dancing and 
foaming. The river was rather low, the water 
warm and fish very coy. We each got one, how¬ 
ever, in the early morning, and then they 
stopped taking altogether, and we stopped cast¬ 
ing. Later on in the morning I picked up my 
rod and worked down to the lower end of the 
long pool, and right down at the outlet, noticed 
that the salmon were there in force. Every 
minute they were rising tails and fins in the air 
and occasionally one would jump in a lazy 
sort of way. I began casting above them, let¬ 
ting my fly float down stream, but got no strikes. 
All flies seemed alike to those fish, who only 
appeared to be bent on having a good time. So 
I waded ashore and sat down, to watch the fuss, 
and noticed that Mr. Winter was also resting 
on his arms. Then it occurred to me that I 
would catch a salmon peel, of which there were 
plenty, and try them with a piece of the belly 
as a bait, which I did. I had a cork in my 
pocket which I split and put on the leader about 
three feet up from the bait. Casting it well out 
into the current, I let it float gently down amid 
the playing fish, and in a minute the cork 
showed that it was being violently pulled under 
and a good big fish set my reel buzzing as he 
started for the head of the pool. He only 
jumped once, but pulled like a team of oxen. 
On and on he rushed, until I had to put on 
the brake a bit, as my line was going out so 
fast that not being able to follow in the deep 
water, I became afraid that he would get all 
I had. Suddenly back jumped the rod, and I 
realized that I had lost him. 
Mr. Winter, who had been all this time watch¬ 
ing the fight, jumped to his feet and began to 
point and then to get out line. Fie made several 
casts, and I realized by the triumphal yell which 
followed that “something was doing.” Sure 
enough, he had hold of my fish (that was), and 
after playing him to a finish, landed him midway 
of the pool. Meanwhile I had reeled in, and 
found that I had all my line, except the leader. 
As Mr. Winter picked up his game, we found 
that his own fly had struck thp cork “between 
wind and water” and that that was the only hold 
that he had on the salmon, which weighed about 
15 pounds. 
This sounds like a fish story, but I assure 
you it happened just as he told it at Dr. Bagg’s 
table last spring. C. J. R. 
Anglers’ Club Contest. 
The fourth one of the series of six meetings 
arranged by the Anglers’ Club of New York, 
for the purpose of competing for trophies, was 
held on the Pool in Central Park, Nov. 1. 
Charles Stepath cast well, and but for a backlash 
on his third cast would have had a much higher 
average. As it was his first cast was the longest 
for the day. R. J. Held was unfortunate in his 
first cast, his reel overrunning, while on his 
fourth trial his line broke, and another cast was 
allowed him, according to rule. Flis best cast 
was 162F2 feet, while Milton H. Smith had 164 
for high score. The results follow: 
Five Casts.. Aver- 
<■- A -age. 
Charles Stepath.171 164% 128 165% 167 159 1-5 
Milton H. Smith... 35 84 149 164 159 118 1-5 
R. J. Held. 78 159 162% 146 155% 140 1-5 
John L. Kirk withdrew. The judges were 
Edward Farnham Todd and Perry D. Frazer; 
referee, Louis Darling. 
For the silver trophy, to be won by the best 
three casts, the highest made each contest day 
to count, with another cup to second man, the 
standing is as given below: 
Oct. 18. Oct. 25. Oct. 27. Nov. 1. 
R. J. Held.161 175 ... 162% 
Milton H. Smith.165 163 ... 164 
G. M. L. LaBranche. .162 . 154 147 
Perry D. Frazer.139 155 151 
Charles Stepath. 176 ... 171 
Robert B. Lawrence. ... 136 
Messrs. Held, Smith, LaBranche and Frazer 
have finished their fifteen casts; Stepath, ten; and 
Lawrence five. The averages of all follow, the 
two high men at close of the contest winning cups : 
R. T. Held.144 6-15 
G. M. L. LaBranche.128 14-15 
Perry D. Frazer.128 8-15 
Milton H. Smith.126 14-15 
Charles Stepath .158 7-10 
Robert B. Lawrence.116 1-5 
Using Oil on Fishing Rods. 
Frequently one reads notes relating to the 
care of fishing rods wherein it is stated that 
vaseline is a preservative that should be used 
on the rod before it is put away for the winter. 
Is this good advice or bad? It seems to the 
writer that vaseline might keep dampness out 
of the wood, but it is peculiarly penetrating, 
and if there are any cracks in the varnish the 
vaseline will find them, while it will discolor any 
windings it can soak into. The writer has 
never tried it in this way, but fancies it would 
in time get under the varnish and windings in 
places and loosen them. If, in the spring, it is 
intended to revarnish the rod, vaseline seems a 
poor holding ground for it. If there is a choice 
it would seem that raw linseed oil, used sparing¬ 
ly, would be the better preservative, but if used 
it should be entirely removed before varnishing, 
as it has a tendency to become sticky, and it 
should be kept off the ferrules with the utmost 
care, for it not only discolors them, but will 
cause trouble if it gets on to the centers or in¬ 
side the ferrules, causing them to stick so 
tightly that they cannot be removed in the usual 
way. Vaseline and brass in combination will 
produce verdigris, and the same thing applies, 
though in a lesser degree, to German silver, 
hence this is another argument against the use 
of vaseline on rods. 
There is a better substitute than vaseline in 
lard oil. I have never used it to prevent fish¬ 
ing ferrules from sticking, but know that on the 
friction joints of tent poles and canoe paddles 
it prevents sticking, and see no reason why it 
will not serve as well on rod joints. It is cleaner 
than other oils, too. Common reel or gun oil, 
and vaseline as well, pick up all the dirt that 
is in the ferrule, and if one forgets to wipe this 
off the center when the rod is unjointed, he will 
smear it on his clothing and elsewhere without 
thinking, for one overlooks small matters like 
this when in haste. 
Perhaps the surest way to prevent the sticking 
of rod ferrules is to keep them clean and free 
from gummy substances. Properly made Ger¬ 
man silver ferrules will neither work loose nor 
stick if kept clean. Generally they can be cleaned 
by rubbing with a piece of flannel and a drop 
of oil, but if not, try crude petroleum, which may 
also be rubbed over the entire rod to clean and 
polish it. Alcohol will remove varnish or 
gummed oil from the ferrules, but of course it 
should be kept away from the windings and the 
varnished wood. Use flour emery and oil only 
in the event of a ferrule becoming swollen, as 
this will cut down a center at an alarming rate, 
and while the ferrules will seem to fit snugly, 
they may be too loose, a fact that will be as¬ 
certained too late. 
Silkworm Gut. 
In the English market, and perhaps here at 
home as well, to a certain extent at least, there 
seems to be a growing demand for unstained 
silkworm gut leaders, and while custom or habit 
may induce the older anglers to still select the 
stained article, it is evident that practical knowl¬ 
edge and experimenting have resulted in con¬ 
vincing anglers that for general use the un¬ 
stained gut is equally as effective as the highly 
colored article. Some anglers of wide experi¬ 
ence assert boldly that they capture just as many 
good fish on unstained as on stained gut, and 
while most of the materials employed in im¬ 
parting color are harmless, it is believed some 
shorten the life of the gut and others deepen 
in shade instead of fading out, as others do. 
It is evident that gut stained with harmless 
solutions to a faint grayish or greenish tint may 
be considered better than the highly bleached 
article of pearly-white shade, but the number ot 
anglers who object to deeply stained gut is 
evidently increasing in proportion to the fa¬ 
cilities had for obtaining the unbleached and un¬ 
stained gut. Efforts have been made abroad 
and influence brought to bear on the gut mar¬ 
ket with a view of popularizing unbleached gut, 
the end sought of course being to increase the 
demand for the unbleached article until in time 
bleached gut would become unpopular. 
Before us is a leader that is remarkable in 
both length and staining. It has a loop in one 
end only, taking up probably ijkt inches of its 
total length, but measured from the end of the 
loop it is 6 gj4 inches in length, and was there¬ 
fore nearly or quite 6 feet long before it was 
trimmed. It came from Japan. Its caliber is 
remarkably uniform, but the staining seems 
crude and amateurish compared with the beauti¬ 
ful work of the Europeans; in fact, the staining 
is anything but uniform, and in places there is 
none at all, while elsewhere it is a dark blue, 
which shows much more plainly in clear water 
than is the case with unbleached gut. 
ROUGHING IT 
soon grows tiresome unless the food is good. Good milk 
is one item indispensable to a cheerful camp, and 
Borden’s solves the problem. Eagle Brand Condensed 
Milk and Peerless Evaporated Cream keep indefinitely, 
anywhere, and fill f'crv milk requirement. Beware of 
cheap imitations.— Adv. 
