March 22, 1913 
sr.4 FOREST AND STREAM 
have found for the French River bass is a fair¬ 
sized crawfish, which has proved better than 
either live minnows or frogs for still-fishing. I 
have never had success with the fly for the 
French River bass in July or August. They 
run from one and a half to four and a half 
pounds, and, homing in the cold waters of this 
waterwar^ are gamy to the last turn of the reel. 
The best spots are in the deep pools below white 
water, and generally just below your portages 
you will find such spots. 
The lunge or muskies of the French are of 
all sizes, running from three and a half to twenty 
and twenty-five pounds, with an occasional 
grand-daddy over the thirty-pound mark. On 
a short tip rod, with a sixteen to twenty-five- 
pound test line, a strong reel, and one of the 
heavy trolling spoons, you can here enjoy some 
real sport—if a wolf-snouted musky, perform¬ 
ing up to his reputation both in and out of 
water, provides what you consider sport. 
Pickerel River, a confluent of the French, pro¬ 
vides some of the best musky waters. The 
waters of those expansions of the French proper, 
which, as I have before said, might aptly be 
termed lakes, are generally fairly deep and 
usually home some of the larger fellows. With 
your guide or companion paddling the canoe— 
moving along at the rate of around three miles 
per hour or slightly less—your trolling outfit 
cleaving the water astern, use a fairly heavy 
spoon. It is no cinch to handle a big musky— 
full of fight—on a rod, but let me assure you 
it is worthy the work and offers a thousandfold 
greater sport and satisfaction than hauling in the 
fish with a small rope, hand over hand. For 
canoe fishing for muskies I have found a net 
impracticable in many instances, especially where 
the catch runs large; also a “swat-stick” is not 
always a safe proposition in the canoe. The 
best method of killing your musky when you 
have played him to a frazzle, and he comes along¬ 
side and shows his gleaming white belly, is a 
head shot from an accurate .22 revolver; or, 
better still, in my estimation, a .22 automatic 
rifle. Of course, if close to shore or to one 
of the islands in these lakelets, one can land 
and work the fish ashore, but land is not always 
available. One thing I urge to be remembered 
every moment you have Mr. Lunge at the other 
end of your line—when using a canoe, as you 
will be doing, if you are cruising the French—■ 
and that is to keep down in the bottom. Don’t 
sit on the thwart under any conditions, and if 
you have to kneel to have elbow room, keep 
your knees braced on the sides of the canoe 
and your weight on them. 
The musky of the French is about as full 
of wolf fury as any muskuhlunge on the conti¬ 
nent. They home in ice cold water here and 
seem chock full of energy and vim. Their flesh 
is exceptionally firm and tasty, save when you 
get one over fifteen pounds, when they get coarse. 
Go up and connect with one of these; handle 
him on a fairly light line and a rod; then when 
you come south again, be sure and tell the boys 
if you found the experience below expectations. 
RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING THE FRENCH RIVER 
TRIP. 
The French can be reached direct by rail¬ 
way, but the best route is to North Bay and 
across the Nipissing, putting in at its head¬ 
waters. The cruise can run from five days to 
two weeks, and if you plan to do much fishing. 
better arrange for a full two weeks on it. 
The best plan is to make it a camping propo¬ 
sition throughout, taking along your tents and 
dunnage. Pretty well everything can be obtained 
at North Bay in the way of provisions, extra 
tackle, blankets, etc. You can bring up your 
canoe with you, if preferred to a rented one. 
The cruise is one that had best be taken 
between July 10 up to Sept. 10. The fishing is 
good all summer, but the flies are bad prior to 
the end of the first week in July. 
Excellent opportunities exist for live game 
photography, notably deer and bear. The sur¬ 
rounding forests are full of game, and much of 
it comes, to the French along the route. A flash¬ 
light outfit should be included in the outfit for 
night work, and would well repay the expense 
and trouble involved. 
Guides are not necessary, if your members 
are used to handling canoes, loaded for cruis¬ 
ing, in the open. However, I would be inclined 
to recommend your engaging at least one man 
for the run, as it is safer under certain condi¬ 
tions, and in addition takes a lot of camp work 
off your hands. Indians from the reserves on 
the French can be engaged and can supply 
canoes as well. They will charge around $2.50 
per diem for their services as guide, with fifty 
cents additional where canoes are required. 
Many of these Indians know every foot of the 
cruise and the best fishing sections; the extra 
expense is warranted. These Indians are Ojib- 
N O country in this old world of ours, pos¬ 
sessing such vast tracts of territory, is 
more happily endowed than the Dominion 
of Canada. That inherent love of the sea, 
which has been transmitted to us through our 
forefathers, whether we dwell in the exhilarat¬ 
ing Northland, or the balmy Isles of the South¬ 
ern Pacific, is our joint inheritance. One of 
the greatest deprivations suffered by settlers 
and visitors to other lands, is the absence of 
the pleasures and inspirations derived from 
proximity to the ocean. That these pleasures 
are a potent factor in the lives of many of us, 
no one will deny. 
It is exactly in this direction that Can¬ 
ada is unique. To the sea-lover, nature mani¬ 
fests herself in her most generous and thought¬ 
ful of moods. Hardly have we lost the flavor 
of the ozone-laden breezes of the ocean, than 
we are confronted with the fact that, a 
wondrous provision has been made by a bounti¬ 
ful Providence who, anticipating this deficiency 
from the beginning of all things, and that the 
scions of the seafaring race would inhabit these 
wide domains, bestowed upon them the coveted 
possession of the world’s greatest inland seas. 
The kingdom of Scotland, whose greatest 
length and breadth are two hundred and eighty- 
seven, and one hundred and eighty-two miles 
respectively, with an area of thirty-one thousand 
square miles, could be carefully deposited in 
Superior, the greatest of all land-locked lakes. 
This, to Scotsmen unfamiliar with such 
ways and are very fair canoemen as a whole. 
Do not take along any firearms for this 
cruise in the summer; the season is a closed 
one on all game in Ontario, and save a .22 caliber 
rifle for killing your bigger fish, any gun or 
bigger rifle is only an unnecessary addition to 
your load. The only big-game shooting per¬ 
missible is that with your camera. 
Carry a full supply of tackle with you from 
home, as, once north, you may not be able to 
purchase your favorite spoon or line. A map 
of the French River may be had from the De¬ 
partment of Lands and Forests, Toronto, or a 
very accurate blueprint may be purchased from 
Mitchie & Co., 7 King street. West, Toronto, 
at a cost of around fifty cents. If you cruise 
without a guide, an accurate map on a fairly 
large scale is absolutely necessary, particularly 
as there are many paralleling channels where the 
party would invaraibly go astray from the proper 
route. 
You will find an 18-foot cruising canoe best 
suited for this run, and also that a canvas- 
covered type is superior to the basswood models. 
A 16-foot canoe. is generally too cramped for 
space when a camp outfit and two people are 
stowed aboard. The canoe can be taken north 
from Toronto on the G. T. R., or one may be 
rented at North Bay or from your Indian 
guide. Never figure on carrying more than two 
persons to each canoe; it is neither safe nor 
practicable. 
prodigious disparity, will appear inconceivable, 
particularh' when they have to face the dis¬ 
couraging fact that, their own beloved Loch 
I.omond is the merest pigmy in comparison. 
This latter, the “Queen of Scottish Lakes,” 
measures but twenty-four miles in length, seven 
miles in breadth, and has an area of nothing 
more than forty-five square miles, from which 
it will be readily seen her great Canadian rival 
is nearly eight hundred times as large. 
These gigantic inland waterways of Can¬ 
ada, connected at the Soo by the largest lock 
in the world, measuring one thousand feet in 
length, are not only sailed by magnificent 
liners, but are the highway for innumerable 
ponderous freight steamers. 
Nothing like justice, however, is done to 
these mighty lakes. They receive but scant 
attention from the majority of the dwellers in 
this land. This, most assuredly, is not what 
they are entitled to, for Canada offers no more 
delightful holiday to those with a predilection 
for the sea than a voyage on the placid waters 
of her great lakes. Countless numbers of Can¬ 
adians, for some reason known only to them¬ 
selves, while complaining of the tedium of the 
railway journey to the west, refuse the temp¬ 
tations so generously presented by the alter¬ 
native of the steamers of the great lakes, which 
convey passengers, amid an environment of 
luxury, as far as Fort William. 
The writer, speaking from considerable ex¬ 
perience in ocean travel, feels compelled to pay 
An Ideal Canadian Holiday 
By ROBERT WILSON 
