Forest and Stream 
Six Months, $1 50. 
$3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1913. 
VOL. LXXXI.—No. 12. 
127 Franklin St., New York. 
Fishing at Wildwood Lake 
A NGLER, do not indulge the fond hope that 
you can pack your bag, go off on a one 
day's trip, and find good black bass fish¬ 
ing guaranteed within a hundred miles of New 
York city. You may do it; more likely you 
may not. If you are to assure yourself of good 
bass fishing, you must visit your selected water 
and fish it and fish it. When climatic and aquatic 
conditions are right, and you and your bait and 
tackle are right, the good fishing will come to 
you and not before. 
Nevertheless, if you are agreed that it is 
not all of fishing to fish and are willing to take 
your chances as to angling conditions and will 
visit Wildwood Lake, Long Island, a mile and 
a half from the village of Riverhead, you will 
probably be glad that you went. The pond is 
not fished as much as it would be were it not 
for the neighboring counter attractions of salt 
water fishing in Peconic Bay, the Sound and the 
Great South Bay. An occasional party of cot¬ 
tagers from the Hamptons or elsewhere along 
the South Shore motor to the lake for an after¬ 
noon’s fishing during the summer season, but 
the natives in the vicinity appear to hold fresh 
water fishing in contempt so long as they can 
find bigger catches in the briny. Well, so much 
the better for the conservation of the bass in 
Wildwood. Up to the present time the pond 
has yielded the large-mouthed variety of black 
bass only. Within the past year, however, many 
thousand small-mouthed black bass fingerlings 
were put into the pond and are evidently thriv¬ 
ing. More will be added this year. 
The pond is a pretty sheet of clear cool 
water quite surrounded by wild hillsides of oak 
and pine growth, so that its name does not be¬ 
lie it. Excepting a seldom used camp near the 
southeast end, one sees nothing about the lake 
to suggest civilization. Many ducks visit it, 
ospreys draw upon it for their food supplies, 
and snipe wade its margins. Its outline is some¬ 
what suggestive of an hour glass. The south¬ 
east expansion is the deeper of the two and a 
shallow bar connect the two points of land which 
approach each other at the central constriction. 
The steeply sloping banks at the south, the lily- 
pads at the opposite end, and the shallow bar 
afford varying water conditions sought by the 
bass angler, according to conditions of weather, 
season and time of day. 
Frank J. Corwin, the obliging proprietor of 
the Long Island House at Riverhead, will make 
a date with Wallace Nesbit who keeps boats for 
hire on the lake, and who will have live bait 
ready for those who wish to use it. Nesbit is 
typical of the class of guides and local fisher- 
By WILLIAM S. THOMAS, M.D. 
men with which every bass fisherman grows 
pleasantly familiar. A good fishing companion, 
and one who knows the lake. One time he re¬ 
marked that there were places in the pond 
where springs made the deeper water ice cold. 
I wondered if he were bluffing, and askd him 
how he knew that to be the fact. “Well,” said 
he, “when you drop your anchor stone there and 
haul her up, you’ll find the weeds that come 
up with her’ll be cold as ice.” He has some 
A GOOD CATCH. 
tales to tell that are worth listening to. Lie 
once opened the stomach of a black bass and 
found in it the body of an as yet undigested 
“yaller bird.” This was probably a Maryland 
yellow-throat, for their haunts are among the 
bushes at the margins of brooks and ponds. He 
thinks that fish have powerful digestions. “A 
pickerel hez a mighty strong stomach,” said he. 
“I’ve opened a many a one of ’em, and one 
time I found one with a fish hook in it, and it 
was so corroded that it was most gone. There 
wa’n't no more to it than the thickness of a 
fine needle p’int. Seems to me they ought to 
make some great dyspepsy medicine out of 
fishes’ stomachs.” On one occasion as we 
watched together an osprey soaring over the 
lake, he said: “I seen that chap or his brother 
t’other day grab a three-pound bass out’n the 
shaller water on the bar, and sir, he had about 
all he c'd tend to. He jest could raise him up, 
and he must have had his claws sunk deep in 
him, ’cause he couldn't git loose, ’though he 
shook and shook. But old Mr. Hawk won out 
and staggered away with him.” 
Nesbit is a bait-caster, and told of his first 
trial of a much-advertised spinner bait, when 
on reeling in a good-sized bass another big fel¬ 
low struck and became hooked. He said that 
they looked like a team of horses hitched to¬ 
gether as they came up to the net. 
In Wildwood Lake there are, beside the two 
varieties of black bass, pickerel, yellow perch, 
eels and great numbers of white perch one-half 
to three-quarters of a pound in weight. These 
are gamy for their size, though seldom reckoned 
with by the angler, and moreover they are ex¬ 
cellent table fish. They are said to take the fly, 
and it would be interesting to offer it to them 
on this pond. 
When conditions are unfavorable for bass 
fishing, and the Wildwood angler is willing to 
step down from the bait-caster’s pedestal, he 
may soon fill the basket with these savory fish. 
They annoy the live-bait fisherman, and chase 
after the trolling spoon, but rarely take the 
spinner. 
The oft-recurring question as to whether 
the small-mouthed bass is gamier than his large¬ 
mouthed cousin will never be settled unanimous¬ 
ly among the angling fraternity. Apropos of the 
fighting qualities of the large-mouthed bass the 
following incident is of interest. On my last 
visit to Wildwood a four and a quarter-pound 
fish took an underwater artificial bait and bored 
persistently, though sluggishly, for bottom for 
some minutes, until it was possible to raise him 
to the net which he entered without a struggle. 
A little later, while casting a light surface bait, 
a three-pounder took it with a rush and a dash 
worthy of any game fish that ever swam. Three 
times he leaped clear of the surface shaking his 
head to rid himself of the hook like a bulldog 
with a piece of torn trouser leg, and it was only 
after a long fight that the net was finally placed 
under him, so gallant were his efforts. What 
shall be said of the different actions of these 
two fish of the same species caught under iden¬ 
tical conditions of environment and season? Was 
