March 22, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
363 
The Muskuhlunge of the French River 
Something About the Musky Fishing in the French 
River; also Regarding Bass 
By S. E. SANGSTER (CANUCK) 
many are hanging up that motto each year in 
this favored land. Truly the fly-fisher’s para¬ 
dise ! Do not worry about finding trout; they 
are here by the seeming millions, for there is 
not a stream too small to contain them. And 
let this sink into your mind. You will not find 
a trout fisher every two feet; you will not get 
your line tangled in one of your brethren’s, for 
you will go for days and days and days and 
never see one of your kind. You can lose your¬ 
self here and not know but that you are in an 
out and out total wilderness. And the trout are 
not bashful; by no means are they bashful and 
shy. You whip a fly into that little basin and 
there is a rise; again and again you do it, and 
each time you are rewarded with a catch. Per¬ 
haps in time the performance will lose its glory, 
but you will at least gain your end; you will 
be able to satisfy that fish-craving in you. You 
will not have to wander day after day and come 
home with two or three trout in your creel as 
evidence of your piscatorial labors or amuse¬ 
ment if you will call it that. Cold water makes 
for a wideawake fighting fish, and when you get 
a Glacier National Park trout on your barb, you 
will have your hands full for a few moments. 
[to be continued.] 
Maryland State G. and F. P. A. 
At a recent meeting of the executive com¬ 
mittee of the Maryland State Game and Fish 
Protective Association, the president, Talbott 
Denmead, was authorized to have printed and 
issue cards stating what States now have license 
laws, and that these be distributed among the 
committee. 
The executive committee was divided into 
five committees, covering as many special fields 
of work, and the president appointed the fol¬ 
lowing : 
Upland Game—Dr. B. Holly Smith, D. F. 
Mallory, J. Harold Wheeler, M. E. Wirsing, W. 
Howard Matthai, L. M. Levering, Beverly Ober. 
Wildfowl—T. F. Cadwallader, Wm. H. Mc¬ 
Dowell, P. T. Blogg, Harry Busick, T. Edw. 
Hambleton, T. B. Harrison. 
Eresh Water Fish—R. R. Spencer, Dr. 
Thomas Cullen, Gaylord Brooks, Henry P. 
Bridges, R. Hartman, Frank Heller. 
Salt Water Fish—G. Rosenfeld, Swepson 
Earle, Graeme Turnbull, Eelix R. Sullivan, H. 
J. Musselman, John G. Thomas. 
Legal—G. D. Penniman, H. N. Abercrombie, 
D. M. Henry, G. A. Manning, John G. Nagen- 
gast, T. F. Cadwallader. 
The first man on each committee acting as 
a temporary chairman. 
It was the sentiment of the executive com¬ 
mittee and also the association that they were 
unequivocably opposed to any law permitting the 
use of motor boats in any way relative to hunt¬ 
ing of waterfowl. 
The following new names were elected to 
membership: Robert S. Weisenfeld, Samuel 
Adler, Wm. H. Klohr, N. S. Kenny, Howard 
E. Crook, Martin McCormink, Walter S. Brink- 
man, A. Helmuth Brinkman, W. Julian deBullet, 
Howard Adams, M. Ernest Jenkins, Joseph 
Rosenfeld, C. F. Corning, Albert T. Corning, 
B. Holly Smith, Jr. 
W. Howard Matthai, 
Secretary pro tempore. 
T hey have somewhere around six different 
ways of spelling muskuhlunge over here in 
Canada; generally he is known in Ontario 
as the ‘lunge,” while in the States one finds the 
term “musky” applied. These “water-wolves” 
have always appealed to the writer as the king 
fresh water fish to handle on rod and reason¬ 
ably light tackle, barring the Atlantic salmon of 
the Eastern rivers. 
The town of North Bay lies straight north 
of the city of Toronto, and above the trout 
waters of Ontario’s highlands. It is the junc¬ 
tion point of the G. T. R. line from the south 
and the C. P. from the southeast; also it is 
the gateway for the immense hinterland toward 
the Height of Land, including Temagami. Far 
away in front of the spectator, as he stands on 
the waterfront, flings the shimmering waters of 
Lake Nipissing. What lies beyond, straight 
across the lake, this article attempts to describe 
—to the musky enthusiast. 
After you have outfitted and your provis¬ 
ions are packed and stored in the waterproof 
dunnage bag, you will pile the tout ensemble —• 
this is bad French, meaning the whole outfit in 
this case—on one of the small steamers you can 
charter at a reasonable cost, and have your party 
puffed across Nipissing, in through the raft of 
islands and to the inlet of the French. Here 
you slam up against a hard but short portage 
around the Little Chaudiere Falls, and, if the 
day be hot, you will breathe a sigh of vast re¬ 
lief as your canoe slides into the brown waters 
of the French itself below the carry. 
Down toward the Georgian Bay the French 
glides—a long, twisting and crooked channel, 
here slipping quietly into widenings that one 
could almost call small lakes, again narrowing 
between sharp cliffs and hurtling through small 
canons, where strong water necessitates a carry. 
All around you the river lies surrounded by the 
brooding silences that hide, as it were, in the 
forest shadows. The forest is primitive; it has 
remained so since Gitchie made it. 
With the scent of balsam and pine strong 
in the nostrils, the canoe slips noiselessly down 
this silent paddle way; the odors grow fresher 
as the cooler airs come with the sinking sun. 
Here you jump a pair of heavy-winged mallard; 
yonder a V-shaped ripple is seen where a mink 
or muskrat swims from bank to bank; again 
you jump a deer that has come down to the 
water to escape the torments of the flies. 
You will, if all goes well and you keep 
moving, get down to excellent bass waters by 
late afternoon. Around about 4:30 p. m. camp 
may be pitched, and then you may try your 
luck for some of the bronzed-backed fighting 
devils of the inky pools—sometimes known as 
the small-mouth black bass. The best bait I 
breakfast on french river. 
