Sept. 22, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
459 
All the fish laws of the United States and Can¬ 
ada, revised to date and now in force, are given 
in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
A Daybreak Fishing Trip to Romer 
Shoals Beacon. 
It was exceedingly hot that Saturday forenoon 
in July, but there was consolation in the fact that 
at 12 o’clock we should lay down our bread win¬ 
ning implements until the following Monday 
morning going in pursuit of our favorite pas¬ 
time, viz., hunting the weakfish. 
Twelve o’clock sharp we are off and en route; 
map out our campaign speculating as to weather 
conditions. 
Our journey is not a long one. Arriving at 
the club house only a short time is consumed 
in getting into the coolest of fishing clothes, and 
with fishing outfit complete we are ready for the 
hunt. 
It has sudenly grown dark and a rumhling 
in the sky, growing nearer and nearer, denotes 
an approaching thunder storm. Boom ! Bang !! 
Bing!!! and the storm has burst with a down¬ 
pour of rain that made fishing uncomfortable, if 
not quite out of the question. There was no 
remedy. The ardor of a week’s growth ; all we 
had worked so hard for that hot Saturday fore¬ 
noon, also the anticipation which is no small 
factor in a fisherman’s life, was suddenly chilled 
to the freezing point as the storm continued with 
unabated fury. Someone said "pokef.” Suiting 
the action to the word two tables are filled with 
players, but the games lack interest, the stakes 
being small, the minds elsewhere. The rain con¬ 
tinues to fall, and poker it is before and after 
supper until bedtime. 
We are booked until Monday morning and our 
weather prophet assured us that we would have 
a fair day before that time. So good nights are 
exchanged and such of us as have no nerves are 
soon asleep. True to the prophecy the storm 
was over before daybreak the following morning. 
We are up and lose no time in getting the 
launch ready and are soon skimming over a sea 
upon which a slight ripple is discernible, a mild 
southerly wind making the run absolutely perfect. 
We have decided to .fish at "Old Romer” this 
time, and find on arrival there that the distance 
has been covered in a little less than the hour’s 
allotted time for the trip. We are anchored so 
as to swing into the eddy formed by the tide 
around the foundation of the lighthouse, requir¬ 
ing only a stern line to keep the launch broad¬ 
side on, but the light in the tower still flashes, 
the inference being that the keeper has dropped 
into a doze after his long night’s vigil. 
We can see from the illumination at the hori¬ 
zon that Old Sol will soon poke his head up, so 
no moment is lost in getting the jackets off the 
shedder crab and our rods ready. We are 
tempted to call the keeper of the lighthouse; do 
so, get a respoiise and a line, and are now ready 
for business. Two of us try floats with traveler 
attachments, while a third fishes on the bottom, 
making our casts in one, two, three order. It 
is not a long wait, the two floats having reached 
the outer edge of the eddy when they disanpear 
almost in unison, while the man with the bottom 
rig is also struggling with a fish. Imt only two 
of the three fish hooked come to the landing net. 
1 hey are beauties, the pair weighing 8 r /j pounds. 
For the next hour the excitement runs high as 
fish after fish finds its way to the ice box of the 
launch. Many are the jibes exchanged among 
ourselves at the landing or otherwise of a big 
one. The keeper of the lighthouse has also en¬ 
tered into the spirit of the thing, forgetting that 
he has had no breakfast (any more than our¬ 
selves), and is apparently glued to the rail of 
the light, a solitary witness of our sport so far 
as we know. 
But hark! what sound is that? Surely it is 
the puff-puff of a motor boat. Yes, not only one 
but a whole fleet are almost within hailing dis¬ 
tance. It’s time for 11s to be off. Our catch is 
at once lined up and we find that there are 
twenty-two in number, not a fish among them of 
less than 2 1 /2 pounds in weight. 
The keeper of the lighthouse is signalled; two 
large weakfish and a bottle of something at¬ 
tached to the line, he so kindly gave us, and is 
now hauling in, and with thanks and good by, 
we are off for home. It is a pleasant run home, 
not so speedy as in coming, for we are bucking 
the tide, yet we are able to reach the club house 
for 9 o'clock breakfast. While the club mem¬ 
bers and guests of a near-by hotel are viewing 
the catch, asking unheard of and unanswerable 
questions, we steal away to the club rooms for 
a quiet smoke. It has grown hot, too hot to try 
again the fish near at hand, so we are keeping 
in the shade of the trees on the lawn in front of 
the club house sipping our punches and letting 
the other guys worry. Thus it goes on until 
dinner time, after which we are out in the launch 
for a short run, but no rods this time, as our 
early morning's fishing has been all we care to 
crowd in one day; furthermore the small game 
near at hand is. hardly worth the powder. 
Monday momma- we are awake to the fact that 
it is "Labor Day,” though our calendar tells us 
it is July 10, and again we are at our various 
vocations in quest of the almighty dollar, look¬ 
ing forward to another visit to “Old Romer” in 
the near future. Oscar. 
Culture of the Montana Grayling. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
^ In response to the inquiry of Mr. Theodore 
Gordon and your editorial comment, in Forest 
and Stream of Sept. 8 . concerning grayling 
culture, I beg to say that up to the present sea¬ 
son there have been distributed from the U. S. 
Fisheries Station at Bozeman, Mont., more than 
five millions of grayling eggs, 'and fifteen 
millions of fry. fingerlings and adults, as per the 
following tabulation from the annual reports of 
the U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 
from 1898, the first year of the experiment to 
1904, the last published report: 
Fry and Adults and 
Esjgs. Finger ings. Yearlings. 
3 89S.. 1,500,000 . 
1899 . 380,000 4,567,000 
1900 . 814,000 2,449,718 10,000 
1901 . 390.000 1,453,461 11,721 
1902 .1,455.000 1,130,333 18,000 
1903 . 645,000 974,114 368 
1904 . 494X00 2,692,200 225 
• 4,178,000 14,766,826 40,314 
The eggs were shipped to a number of U. S. 
fisheries stations and to various State hatcheries, 
where they arrived in good condition and were 
successfully hatched. Whether the “flower of 
fishes" has become permanently established in 
any eastern waters, I am not prepared to say. 
though 1 know of no good reason why it should 
not thrive in any swift, gravelly stream where 
the brook trout exists. It is now up to any 
one who is cognizant of the existence of the 
grayling in any SLate except Montana, to report 
the fact to Forest and Stream. 
Among the Bureau of Fisheries stations sup¬ 
plied with grayling eggs are those in Vermont. 
New Hampshire, Maine. Missouri, Mich gan, 
Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado and Oregon; and the 
State hatcheries of New York, Rhode Island, 
Wisconsin, Michigan, Wyoming, Utah and Cali¬ 
fornia. 
Most of the adult grayling distributed were 
sent to the various National Expositions for the 
exhibits of the Bureau of Fisheries. It is 
worthy of note that at the St. Louis Exposition 
the grayling and whitefish of the Great Lakes 
withstood the Mississippi River water longer 
than any other fresh-water fish. The fry and 
fingerlings were distributed in the waters of 
Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Wash¬ 
ington. 
I11 Montana, from time immemorial, the gray¬ 
ling has lived in accord with the native red- 
throat trout and the Rocky Mountain whitefish, 
and since their introduction with the steelhead, 
rainbow and eastern brook trouts. I saw the 
creel of a lady angler last week that contained 
all of these species except the rainbow 'trout; 
they were caught in Bridger Creek near the 
Bozeman Fisheries Station. 
James A. Henshall, 
U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. 
b' ZEMAN, Montana 
Fish and Fishing. 
Cod Fish Taking the Fly. 
When a friend of mine, who is a particularly 
keen fisherman, Mr. S. I . Green, deputy post- 
office inspector of Quebec, was recently on the 
north shore of the gulf, and was asked by Mr. 
Napoleon Co-mean of Godbout why he did not 
take his rod and catch codfish from the beach 
with his flies, he thought at first that Mr. Comeau 
was simply trying to amuse himself at his ex¬ 
pense. So would most other fishermen have 
thought, too, under similar circumstances. But 
the sage of Godbout soon gave it to be under¬ 
stood that there was no joke in his remark, and 
Mr. Green went a-fishing with his fly-rod and 
tackle and artificial flies, to try to catch cod, not, 
it must be confessed, with any very great degree 
of confidence, hut rather more in the light of a 
very doubtful experiment than anything else. The 
experiment was a successful one. however, and 
for a time the fun was fast and furious. 1 he 
•fish would only rise during the rising tide, and 
then they took the flies ravenously, close in to 
the shore. Nor did it appear to make much 
difference what the fly was. Fishing with two 
different flies, Mr. Green often had a fish on 
each, and after dark he fished with a wdiite moth 
with almost equal success. As a rule, Mr. Green 
left his line to be carried about in the water 
some time by the first fish to take a fly, until 
the second fly was taken by another fish. The 
fish were none of them very large, and in fact 
it would have been surprising to have seen large 
cod coming in so close to shore for food. Most 
of them averaged from sixteen to twenty inches 
long. But they made up in numbers for what 
they lacked in size, and in one evening’s fishing, 
Mr, Green landed over seventy codfish, all taken 
on the fly. 
I have often heard of salmon fishermen, when 
sport was dull, or when they had nothing to do 
for a time at the mouth of a river, hiring a boat 
and going a few miles out to sea with some cod 
fishermen to catch codfish with bait, hut this is 
the first time that I have positively known of a 
successful fishing for codfish at the month of a 
salmon river, with a trout rod, cast and flies. 
Commercial Cod Fishing. 
Latest reports from Newfoundland are to the 
effect that this year’s cod-fishery promises poorly 
and the prospects are against the situation im¬ 
proving during the remainder of the season. 1 he 
catch on the south coast is very short. On the 
east coast the showing is better. Off the Labra¬ 
dor coast it is much behind the average, nor have 
the banks yielded as rich a harvest as usual. 
