722 
FOREST AND STREAM 
June 7, 1913 
Sensational Dry-Fly in Nova Scotia 
By EDWARD BRECK 
Creeks, near Cromberg, some good catches are 
being made, and a number of San Francisco 
folks are camping there. Among these are Clyde 
and Clifford Lane, Mrs. Winifred Patterson, 
hlrs. Thomas Taylor and Fred J. Goble and 
wife. The fish there run to small sizes, but 
are quite plentiful. At Blairsden but few fish 
are being taken, and the roads to the lakes back 
of that place have not been opened as yet, as 
the snow is still on the ground. At Eureka Lake 
several limit catches of Eastern brook trout 
have been made. Beldon will be visited on 
June I by a delegation of anglers from the 
California Anglers’ Association, and several of 
the party will make a hurried trip up the North 
Fork, where some very large fish are being 
landed. Among others who will make this trip 
will be Dr. L. T. Cranz. 
Sport on the Klamath and Eel rivers was 
interfered with recently by a heavy rain storm, 
hut the water is now clearing, and a big run 
of steelhead trout is now in progress. Steel- 
head fishing is generally good in coast stream, 
the cool weather having prevented the sudden 
shrinkage in the water supply that was expected. 
Some very good striped bass fishing is being 
enjoyed around San Francisco Bay, but only a 
few devotees are making visits to the fishing 
grounds, many anglers preferring to fish for 
trout while they are still plentiful. At Belvi- 
clere Point. Al. Wilson recently landed a 13- 
pound striped bass, and Louis Eaton secured 
two large fish at Wingo Slough on a recent 
trip. That some large bass are now to be had 
can be judged from a recent catch made by net 
fishermen in Sonoma Creek. A fish was taken 
there by Martinez Toza and two companions 
that weighed seventy-eight pounds, and which 
almost destroyed the nets before it could be 
landed. 
In case the bill now before Governor John¬ 
son is signed, amateur fishermen over eighteen 
years of age will be called upon to pay an annual 
license of $1, and those fishing for profit will 
iiave to pay $10. 
JjARDEN City, N. Y., May 28.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: I get Forest and Stream regu¬ 
larly and look forward to its coming, so greatly 
do I enjoy it. Lynn Bogue Hunt. 
“’Lo, Jim, fishin’?” 
“yAw. Drownin’ worms.” 
— From Harper’s Weekly. 
S CENE: Shelburn River, jMay 10, water 
full and rapid, but very smooth. Cabot's 
canoe and mine hanging to rocks. Weather 
lovely. Air and water full of hlay flies, 
the first, dark-bodied, filmy-winged kind with 
the two very long tail feelers. Trout esti¬ 
mated, by the rises, at between two and three 
millions. Aha! Now Cabot shall see the real 
thing—watch. This little hair’s-ear looks some¬ 
thing like the Hies on the water, or this tiny 
March brown—wait, here’s a still nearer one; 
don't know what it is. Quickly I attach it to 
the sweet, fine, orange-colored leader that Mr. 
Orr, of Portland, just sent me to try. My word, 
you can’t see the leader, but—a gentle swish- 
how lightly it settles on the water, and how 
prettily it lies there cocked and floats down 
stream right over the spot where that one chap 
has, by actual count, gulped down a half a 
dozen Mays. Ha! There it goes! Now for 
that famous “turn of the wrist.” Hullo, what's 
the matter? A guffaw from Cabot. “He wasn’t 
after your fly—he took one just ne.xt to it!” I 
try him again, and again, and once more, and 
then two or three times after that—rien—nichts 
—nothing. No matter, there are some five or six 
rises on the surface continuously. He isn’t the 
only fish in this pool by about three million. 
■yVatch this, it’s bound to float over that spot 
where that bunch are feeding below that rock. 
Look! isn’t that bully? None of your wet fly 
for me! Just glue your eye to this cast. Now! 
False cast; false cast; false cast; then back, 
pause, forward out over. The fly takes a little 
jump into the air and falls as softly as my hand 
strokes mj' pet porcupine. “Hm,” grunts Cabot. 
A S to muscalonge in Northern hlinnesota: 
While an occasional musky, or 'lunge, as 
the fish is called in Canada, of thirty to 
thirty-five pounds, or even larger, is taken, it 
may be set down that the day of these large 
muskies has past. The party starting out now 
on a fishing trip with the expectation of taking 
several of these fish of this size is doomed to be 
disappointed. 
A 15-pound musky is now regarded as a 
pretty fair fish, and anything over twenty pounds 
is considered a big one. With a rod of about 
eight ounces the angler has a good deal of sport 
with a 'lunge even as small as say ten or twelve 
pounds. 
People who know how to fish for them and 
are satisfied with muskies running from small 
ones up to say twelve or fifteen pounds ought 
to be able to enjoy a vacation spent on the Man- 
trap chain of lakes in Northern IMinnesota. 
These are fine lakes, reached by the Great North¬ 
ern Railroad, from St. Paul and Minneapolis. 
Leaving these cities in the morning, Dorset 
is reached about 6 o'clock in the afternoon. 
“Pretty enough, but how about transferring a 
couple of those fish to the frying-pan? I’m 
getting peckish. Scoffer! Barbarian! Dweller 
in outer darkness! Fasten your optic to that 
Hardy masterpiece. There it goes! Down, 
down; there it is now just over the spot! Now, 
now, now—well. I’ll be eternally gall-dinged! 
What's the matter with the dratted fish?” “Hee 
hee!” from Cabot. Same scene repeated in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the pool with several flies. At 
last came the time. There was a splash, a check 
and a fish had my dry fly. “There you are, you 
old croaker. Now, watch me play him.” AnS 
I did so, with a display of grace and sagacity 
meant for Cabot’s admiration. Finally, after 
the fish was all in, Charles the Strong (he of 
the “Tent Dwellers”) met him with the net and 
held up to our eager gaze one medium-sized 
yellow perch, the only one caught that day. 
Seriously, dear editor, there is no exaggera¬ 
tion in the above account. I did indeed, in our 
sixteen days of glorious fishing, take three small 
trout on the dry fly, two of them (quarter- 
pounders) on a red tag, the smallest fly I ever 
possessed, but I think the fish were drunk. We 
did, however, have great sport with the dry fly 
—fished wet. I used it half the time, except in 
heavy water, and had fine success. Dave Aber¬ 
crombie tells me that his experience with the 
dry fly in northern waters has been about as 
described above. 
Note.—If you watch the flies on the water 
that the fish are feeding on, you will see that 
in these waters at least their legs and feelers 
are in motion. Those of a dry fly are not. 
Q. E. D.! 
Dorset is the railroad station for these lakes. 
There are several good places to stop if one 
enjoys being out in the woods. 
The proprietors meet expected guests at 
Dorset with conveyances, and the drive from 
the station is from two to ten miles, according 
to which place you choose. There are log cabins 
comfortably furnished and well screened. The 
board is good and they have pretty good boats. 
The charges are reasonable for what one gets. 
There are guides whom the angler may em¬ 
ploy or not as he chooses. Unless the angler is 
on to the game and knows his business, he had 
better take a guide. If he knows the game as 
well as they do, he doesn't need them. 
Ordinarily July is pretty fair for muskies 
there and September, after the loth, still better, 
but seasons vary and sometimes August has 
proved good. It depends on the season. The 
e.xperienced man knows how it is. Sometimes 
he gets them and sometimes he doesn't; he can't 
control conditions. 
The people about Mantrap Lakes use a 
Skinner spoon No. 7 nickel. It is all right. 
Muscalonge in Northern Minnesota 
By W. D. 
