June 7, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
721 
An Angling Reminiscence 
By H. H. THOMPSON 
A BROOK that crossed our farm coursed 
through a gulf, at the lower end of 
• which on the hillside was a spring 
which emptied into a pool in the brook at the 
foot of a large tree, from behind which one 
could get his baited hook into the water “un¬ 
beknown” to the wary trout. Behind that tree 
I made my first acquaintance with brook trout, 
plus a fondness for that sort of angling that in¬ 
creased with the years and culminated in mid¬ 
life in bringing to my creel in the Adirondacks 
a string never equalled in that region within 
my knowledge. 
In one of my annual excursions to those 
grand old woods three of my intimate friends 
were my companions—Prof. I. N. Loomis, E. 
T. Benson and the artist, Augustus Rockwell. 
Our first camp was where the Cold River joins 
the Raquette River below the foot of Long 
Lake. We arrived one Thursday noon, finding 
an old camping ground unoccupied for some 
time, redolent of litter and decay. The whole 
afternoon was spent by all hands in renovation, 
and before night we had a new shanty, open in 
front, and roof and sides of freshly-peeled 
spruce bark whose white and fragrant sides 
made the interior of our tabernacle intensely 
enjoyable. The solid comfort of this sylvan 
cabin was perfected by the artist’s unique con¬ 
tribution to the general hilarity. Though 
neither hunter nor angler, he always found 
some way of endearing himself to any party 
fortunate enough to include him. He had the 
guides drag to camp some small hemlock trees, 
the tips of whose limbs we clipped with our 
jack-knives, and against the log supporting the 
lower ends of our rafters we set upright a row 
of these and against them another row, and so 
on, until we had a level, compact hemlock 
mattress—the ne plus ultra of a camp bed. It 
was late August and the trout had left the 
rapids for deeper and cooler waters up stream, 
but we got plenty of small ones at the landing 
for a hearty supper. 
Next morning, Loomis and I started up 
the Cold in one of the boats which we soon 
had to abandon, finding the river wide, shallow 
and bedded with stones from pebble size up. 
After laborious wading for about four miles 
without sight of deep water or trout signs, a 
halt was called. It was my first outing for a 
twelve-month and I was nearly fatigue-blown 
and the tall, heavy Professor became vociferous¬ 
ly skeptical on the subject of Adirondack trout. 
We stood where the Cold was joined by a 
rivulet between high shelving banks roofed by 
the branches of large forest trees, and he pro¬ 
posed to investigate it. I approved, and notic¬ 
ing a bend of the river above, said I would go 
up there, and finding no game, would consent 
to beat a retreat toward camp. 
Judge of my rapture on finding above an 
immense pile of floodthrash a wide, deep pool 
which, my woods experience told me, covered 
a cold spring to which large trout had re¬ 
treated. Sure of this, I sat down on the bank, 
lunched, imbibed and smoked. From the shore 
the water was quite shallow for several feet to 
a narrow, deep channel beyond, which was a 
large, flat stone from which one could watch 
the center of the blessed pool. The step over 
that channel on to the slimy stone—a foot under 
water—was risky, but my sureness of good luck 
and the hobnails of my wading shoes took me 
over safely and the fun began. 
My first cast hooked a leviathan that, for 
fear of disturbing the rest of the family, was at 
once withdrawn from the pool. Getting the 
line into my fingers, he was drawn with speed 
and care hand over hand to the shallow, roily 
water, where I stood. When his belly struck a 
stone and the hook was released, I pitched 
down and gripped my right across his neck. 
His size and beauty excited me and so did 
his two-pound weight. The second capture 
weighed exactly the same. 
As soon as the Professor came down to 
the river I beckoned him up, and wading across 
the stream above the bend, he plied his rod 
opposite me until the trout got onto our little 
game and sulked. In such places, however 
active they may be for a while, trout will sud¬ 
denly stop biting and the jig is up. No more 
two-pounders were taken, but we had the toil 
and pleasure of backing to camp twenty-six 
trout that weighed thirty pounds—a string I 
never saw matched anywhere. 
The next day the Professor piloted Benson 
up to the spring hole and they made a very 
fine catch. That night the latter went up to 
the lake and bagged a fat deer, so that our 
camp could not be in better condition for a 
Sunday’s restful enjoyment, while the guides, 
from the deer’s meet, were curing the best 
jerked venison I ever saw. 
Tulare Lake Opened to Seine Fishermen. 
BY GOLDEN GATE. 
The anti-seining ordinance which has been 
in force in Kings county for the past four years 
has been removed by the board of supervisors 
at the suggestion of Deputy Fish and Game 
Cbmmissioner A. D. Ferguson, of Fresno, and 
Tulare Lake is now open to fishermen, with the 
exception of a small area at the point where 
Kings River empties into that body of water. 
The lake is rapidly diminishing in size, and as 
the present season is an extremely dry one, 
there will be but little waste water emptied into 
it. Thousands of acres of its waters are now 
very shallow, and tons of splendid food fish 
will be destroyed if something is not done to 
meet the conditions. It is pointed out that 
Tulare Lake contains more large catfish and 
black bass than the rest of the State put to¬ 
gether, and that the fish will find a ready market. 
Black bass are being taken that weigh from 
twelve to fifteen pounds and splendid sport is 
enjoyed there with hook and line. The new 
seining ordinance went into effect on May 24. 
Conviction Secured in Important Case. 
BY GOLDEN GATE. 
George Knight, an angler arrested recently 
following a fishing trip to Bear Valley, was tried 
before F. F. Oster, of San Bernardino, and 
found guilty of having more than the legal limit 
of trout in his possession. The case attracted 
much attention as it hinged entirely upon the 
identification of the species of fish taken and 
established a precedent that will be followed in 
the future by fishermen in that section. One 
hundred and fifty pounds of trout confiscated 
by the State were held as evidence against 
Knight, who is well known as an angler in 
Southern California. Knight contended that the 
fish were steelhead, and that he had a right to 
take fifty of them in a day while the State 
officials declared that the trout were rainbow, 
and that therefore ten pounds and one fish was 
the legal limit. It developed at the trial that 
steelheads had been planted in Bear Valley, and 
that rainbow trout had been placed in the lake. 
N. B. Scofield, an expert from San Francisco, 
explained the difference between the two species 
of fish and convinced the jurors the fish before 
them were rainbow trout. In passing judgment 
Judge F. F. Oster took occasion to criticise 
the present game laws, but ordered the defend¬ 
ant to pay a fine of $100, which was done on 
the spot. The second charge of shipping an 
illegal number of trout was dismissed. 
Fishing in California. 
BY GOLDEN GATE. 
The season has been rather late in open¬ 
ing on most of the streams in Northern Cali¬ 
fornia in spite of the fact that the waters of 
most of these are' lower than is usually the case. 
Light showers have been falling with regularity, 
and the large streams have been too muddy -for 
successful sport. Cold weather has been the 
rule, and in but few places is fly-fishing success¬ 
ful. 
In the Feather River country some fair 
sport is being enjoyed in the small streams, but 
in the main river the water is muddy and live 
bait is the best lure. There is but little snow 
now on the ground, and with a cessation of the 
showers the streams should soon get into ex¬ 
cellent shape. On Long Valley and Poplar 
