232 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. 23, 1913. 
were surprised by the vigor and gameness shown 
by them in this lake. Most of them, while on 
the hook, would leave the water—unusual with 
pickerel—from one to four times, after the man¬ 
ner of a bass, more noticeably when brought near 
the boat, and their strength is prodigious, re¬ 
quiring the most reliable tackle to bring them to 
gaff. A very few made no fight whatever; just 
set their caudal fin “hard-a-port,” and suffered 
themselves to be reeled in like a bent stick. All 
such cravens were at once knocked on the head 
for their lack of spirit. 
Crossing over to the west shore to a long 
point reaching out into the lake, which shut off 
the view of the upper water from our camp, I 
skirted along the rushes for half a mile, with¬ 
out taking a fish, then crossed back and dropped 
into a quiet little bay, dotted here and there with 
patches of lilvpads, which looked so inviting for 
a cast that I stopped the boat about sixty feet 
away and dropped a frog within three feet of 
a broad lily leaf glistening in the rain. In¬ 
stantly there was a swirl in the water, and after 
a sharp, fierce fight I lifted about a 4^2-pound 
large-mouthed bass over the side of the boat. 
Fishing leisurely back to opposite “long point,” 
I took five more of the same kind of bass, but 
no piclcerel. Here is about the narrowest part 
of the lake, it being something less than half 
a mile in width. 
Nearly straight across from the point comes 
in from the back hills a little stream of most 
delicious, clear, cold water, cold almost as ice, 
and so clear that it looked white contrasted with 
its green setting of mosses and ferns, and 
spruces and cedars. A few rods of clean, sandy 
beach afford a good landing place, and it is 
one of the few spots at which a landing can 
be made on account of the overhanging trees and 
bushes that lap the water around nearly the 
entire shore line. 
Pulling the boat up on the land near the 
mouth, I drank from the stream till I had to 
shake out a reef in my pants, and always after, 
when passing, I made a point to stop and drink 
of its crystal waters. 
A noticeable feature of the little streams 
Bowing into these lakes is the entire absence of 
any fish life in them, which may be accounted 
for perhaps by their low temperature and the 
shifting nature of the sandy bottoms. Some of 
the larger ones, however, abound in trout, and 
Cedar River, which flows into Intermediate River 
from the east just above Bellaire, excellent trout 
and fair grayling fishing may be had by the 
angler who has the pluck in him to toil and 
“sweat full sore” through the almost impene¬ 
trable tangle of brush and swamp to get to the 
good places. Under the leaning trunk of a tree 
hard by the little stream, and out of the drip 
of the rain drops through the boughs overhead, 
I kicked the cramps out of my legs and ate my 
lunch in solitary but satisfied silence. 
Taking a parting drink of the sweet, cold 
water—I could scarcely get enough of it—I re¬ 
luctantly headed the boat for camp, and leisurely 
floating and fishing along, arrived at the island 
about 6 p. M., taking on the way down five more 
long-faces and a small-mouthed bass. 
The weights of the bass run from two and 
one-half to near five pounds. The big pickerel 
weighed eight and one-half pounds, the others 
all the way down to three pounds; altogether 
a fine day’s sport despite the rain. 
The pure loveliness of the string of bass 
put the boys in such excellent humor that a 
movement in force up the lake was at once de- 
determined on for the morrow, and supper over 
and pipes lighted, the camp yarns were cut short 
for an early turn in and turn out in the morn¬ 
ing. The vociferous snore of the camp boy and 
Sullivan County, N. Y., Aug. 10. —Editor 
Forest and Stream: The prolonged drouths and 
high temperatures, which have been so common 
during recent summers, have not been favorable 
to fly-fishing for trout, but the great army of 
anglers is constantly growing, and a large pro¬ 
portion seek their pleasure in fresh water rather 
than in salt. Therefore, it might be well to take 
stock of all opportunities that present themselves 
and consider what may be done without great 
expenditure of time or money near home. We 
wish to catch fish, always have yearned to do so, 
ever since we can remember, and even chubs and 
“sunnies” are better than nothing. 
As a matter of fact there is no lack of good 
fish, if one knows where to find them, and uses 
his brains in their pursuit. Even the fly-fisher 
may find sport with other fish than trout. In 
looking over the field one sees that there are 
many opportunities for sport which have been 
neglected. Wherever we have traveled in the 
States east of the Mississippi River, we have 
found fishing that was worth while. For the 
most part we have carried only a fly-rod with 
its tackle, and were not prepared for bait-fishing, 
Vet we have had sport in localities where we 
least expected it. 
At a health resort in Michigan we stumbled 
upon excellent black bass, pike and pickerel fish¬ 
ing, and crossing the lake to -Wisconsin we found 
innumerable lakes and streams well stocked with 
game fish. One is astonished when one realizes 
how much sport is to be had within a few hours 
by rail of New York city in streams and lakes 
which we have ignored, or of which we have 
had a poor opinion. We believe that all preda¬ 
tory fish will take an artificial fly, if it is the 
right sort and properly presented, and where 
large game fish can be killed on ily tackle better 
sport is had than by any other method. But we 
have bait-fishing near at hand which requires 
skill and patience and is very exciting at times. 
We have a poor opinion of the carp, which is 
regarded in many places as a nuisance and pest, 
yet this fish, which thrives everywhere and at¬ 
tains to great size, may afford interesting sport. 
It is a powerful fish and when large requires 
quiet and careful fishing. It has the reputation 
abroad of caution and wisdom, and we can guar¬ 
antee a big fight to any man who succeeds in 
hooking a large carp on reasonably fine tackle. 
Ilis rushes and charges are long and full of 
vim, and he requires good handling from the 
fisherman. The baits are bread, dough, small 
boiled potatoes, green peas and worms, and some 
sort of ground bait is usually required to get 
carp to feed well. We have used small pellets 
the baffled hum of a horde of gore-seeking mos¬ 
quitoes on the outside of the bar ceased their 
rasp on our nerves as we dropped off to sleep, 
listening to the sweeter music of the steady 
patter of the rain on our canvas roof. 
[to be continued.] 
of dough with success, flipping them in all about 
the baited hook. Carp weighing as much as 
thirty pounds have been killed on the rod, and 
where game fish are scarce, the angler may do 
worse than devote a little attention to these fish. 
Where trout are not to be had, the fly-fisher may 
have sport with black bass of both kinds, pick¬ 
erel, pike, striped bass, bream, perch, sunfish, 
Delaware chub, etc. In Florida a bewildering 
variety of fish may be killed on large gaudy 
flies. One angler gave me a list of thirteen 
species which he had taken on fly in the estu¬ 
ary of one small river, and I have killed quite 
a variety of fish myself in that State. The Dela¬ 
ware River is one of the most beautiful streams 
in the country, and is well stocked with black 
bass. The largest fish are usually killed on bait 
—“lampers” (young of the lamprey eel), hel- 
gramites, crawfish, frogs, minnows and night- 
walkers, but the artificial fly often does well and 
the short casting rod with “plug” baits is favored 
by many anglers. 
I have the habit of fly-fishing wherever it 
is possible, and have had good fun with pickerel 
in small lakes where the local methods seemed 
dull and uninteresting. With a companion we 
have taken sixty pickerel in an afternoon on 
large flies. 
If one uses tackle that bears some relation 
to the size of the fish, sport is enhanced, and 
surely there is no dearth of pickerel and pike. 
Nearly all our ponds and lakes hold good fish 
of some sort. There are lake trout and black 
bass of both species in small lakes that for years 
have been neglected by myself, as I presumed 
that they held only a few pickerel. 
There are waters that are so plowed by 
motor and other boats during the season (July 
and August) that one’s only chance is to fish 
early or late. We must study these lakes if 
without a proper guide, locate the deepest water 
for lake trout, the positions of reefs, shoals and 
bars, also find out if we can if any cool springs 
rise anywhere at the bottom. In fly-fishing for 
bass we have failed for four days to take a 
fish, yet after trying out many flies and study¬ 
ing the water, we had fair sport. At that place 
we failed to raise bass in very deep water, yet 
in lakes we have occasionally taken the largest 
fish in twelve to fifteen feet. However, we have 
had best sport in water less than seven feet 
deep. Bass often begin to feed as soon as the 
sun has passed behind the western hills, and at 
that time we have seen them take small natural 
flies. They are queer beggars, however, and 
like many predatory fish, often rise at the arti¬ 
ficial fly merely because it appears to be alive 
Rough Notes on Fishing 
By THEODORE GORDON 
