April 12, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
4G5 
lAM 
1® SDWEimiMll 
Something About Bait-Casting 
By ROBERT PAGE LINCOLN 
Tanning Skins. 
Las Animas, Colo., April 2.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Edward A. Eames, of Buffalo, 
N. Y., asks for a formula for tanning. The 
following is the method most used by trappers 
and Indians, and one which leaves the skin in 
the most perfect condition. It is more appli¬ 
cable to light weight skins, although the Indians 
used it in tanning buffalo robes. The brains of 
any animal will tan its hide, but the fact should 
not be lost sight of that it is the elbow grease 
used in pulling the skin after the brains are 
rubbed in that is of the most efficiency. I have 
used raw sheep skins, wolf hides, mountain lion 
hides and numerous other skins under my bed 
until they were as soft and pliable as they could 
be made by any method of tanning. 
With the formula inclosed, I have tanned a 
wolf skin (done the pulling) in an evening while 
gossiping with the boys. Beaver, badger and an 
old otter being thicker and containing more glue 
are more difficult to work soft, and unless one 
wishes to put considerable extra work on them, 
should not be tanned by this method. 
FORMULA. 
Stretch and salt the skin and let it dry. 
When dry, moisten the flesh side, double it 
flesh side in, roll tightly and let it lie, until 
pliable. Place on a smooth board held in the 
lap and with a sharp knife remove all flesh, fat, 
etc. 
Take the brains of a beef and thoroughly 
clean them. One set of beef brains will tan 
two wolf hides. Place them in cold water with 
a little salt for twelve hours. Place the hide 
on a board and apply the brains, rubbing them 
in thoroughly. Roll the hide flesh side in and 
let lie twenty-four hours, then take the hide 
over the knee and pull it from you until dry. 
The squaws were in the habit of holding the 
brains in their mouth and chewing them as they 
used them. This is not necessary, but I have 
no doubt but that it adds to their efficacy. 
F. T. Webber. 
Floods and Felled Foreslsj 
Walter C. Taylor, of Brookline, Mass., 
writes to the New York Times: 
The tide of flood nonsense is rising faster 
than the waters did in the recent mid-West 
disaster. Why is it that some of the most re¬ 
markable floods occur in West Virginia and Ken¬ 
tucky, in regions which are barely one-fourth 
denuded of the trees and underbrush? 
Take the case of the Ohio flood of 1832, 
when Ohio was 95 per cent, first growth forest? 
Do we expect farmers to give up cultivating 
lands which are worth from $50 to $150 an acre 
and plant trees to secure an imaginary guard 
against floods which hit them about once in a 
life time? Against such a visitation as that of 
last month, no human power can guard, any 
more than against a tidal wave or an earthquake. 
New Tariff Protects Birds. 
Bird protection societies in the United States 
will score a strong point under one provision of 
the new tariff bill. The measure will prohibit 
all importation of aigrettes, egret feathers, osprey 
plumes and feathers of wild birds, except for 
scientific or educational purposes. Ostrich plumes 
and feathers of domestic birds will be exempt. 
I DO not 130SC as an authority on bass fishing 
and bait-casting particularly, nor do I come 
out with brilliant stories of catches I have 
made; neither do I confine myself to the use 
of the artificial bait, and I do not scorn, 
when the situation demands, to use worms, 
helgramite or any other earth beings. I do not 
fish from the opening of the season till June 
alone. I find that the best bass fishing on the 
calendar is to be had from the end of June till 
the cold weather sets in. We have listened to 
the words of the immortal bait-casters; we 
have placed them way up in the empyrean, and 
we have taken their word for granted. There 
seems very little more to be said, and if we have 
anything else to say, we say it with bated 
breath, awaiting the moment when death shall 
visit upon us. 
I have spent years on the water fishing for 
the pugnacious bass, and the more I have fished, 
the more I have found out—one point in special 
--and that is that you will never know the bass 
and his queer notions. What he will take this 
day it is hard to use with effect the next, when 
another bait will be just the thing, or it may be 
that the fish will not strike at all. One day they 
will bite with avidity and the next it is all off; 
it sets the mind to wondering, and therefore it 
is that I have said somewhere in one of my 
.articles to the American outdoor press that 
you will not know and appreciate the habits of 
the black bass in one year nor in ten. 
Now I have fished and I have fished hard. 
I admit I am a crank in everything concerned 
with the out-of-doors. For years the needle 
of my compass has covered black bass fishing, 
and I have followed it up with care and con¬ 
sideration. I have renounced ambition and 
have let personal advancement go hang that I 
might take just one more little trip, just one 
more fling into the pockets, one more toss into 
the pads, and I have been rewarded. But, as 
I say, I have no brilliant catches to hand out 
to you. My success has been measured in hard 
work and a lot of it. 
There are times when I have pursued the 
sport from the time the sun slips up from the 
region of night in the east until it crept into 
the lids of night in the west. After that I have 
gone out with the moonlight baits, but I can¬ 
not say that my success has been phenomenal. 
The trouble with so many of these men who 
pose as authorities (and I say it without malice 
aforethought) is that they will never admit 
their hours of ill-luck, but will always paint 
their success in glowing colors. This has al¬ 
ways been hard on me, for I appreciate the 
fact that I have brothers along the line. I have 
hunted in vain, however, for those hours of ill- 
luck, narrated in the course of their stories. 
If I should find them my hope would be greater 
and I would know that I am not alone with 
my hours of ill-luck. I have used practically 
all of the artificial baits on the market and have 
had success with them. I have caught ten bass 
of good size in an afternoon with a Coaxer, and 
then again I have used a Coaxer all day and 
have had little or nothing to show for my day’s 
work of pleasure. It revolves then on the fact 
that bass are queer creatures, now bright and 
alert, now sulking and indifferent, changing by 
the hour—but there is always the chance that 
the coming moment may bring success. 
In the question of artificial baits, we have 
a beautiful one for speculation. In some of the 
wild Minnesota lakes, where no human beings 
seem to have transgressed, I have caught bass 
quite easily with the artificials, and coming 
right down to the heart of civilization, in the 
lakes near the haunts of man, I have had no 
luck. Proving that the artificials are of little 
or no use in much fished waters, except in rare 
cases, in wild waters they will keep the fisher¬ 
man busy. Artificial baits have been con¬ 
demned by the humanitarians as being unsports¬ 
manlike, as a procedure not worthy of one hold¬ 
ing superior notions and looking at the pastime 
from the angle of art. Well, I don’t know about 
that. If you think stabbing a frog through 
the head with a hook and plunking it around 
until it is dead is more sportsmanlike than using 
the artificial, all well and good. It is for your¬ 
self to decide. For my part, I am impartial. 
I use the bait I think will get the most fish for 
that day. I find out in the early morning hours 
what bait the bass are taking best that day, 
and then gauge my proceedings accordingly. 
Therefore, I always have with me both live and 
artificial, selected with care. The frogs I choose 
are not too small, and not too large. I know 
just what size attracts the bass and follow it up. 
In regard to the artificials, it may be said 
that they are things of worth if used right, but 
very poor things if used wrong. There are 
baits with gangs on the sides and behind that 
will catch in the weeds, and that is about all. 
Thank heavens! we have weedless artificials. 
Bass can see for a distance of fifty feet and 
are often noted lying in wait by some conceal¬ 
ing pad, their eyes taking in everything that 
goes on above. Beware of the fly that falls 
near it. I do not condemn any bait of the arti¬ 
ficial order for the reason that bass are so 
changeable in their notions. This bait may 
prove good in one lake, another better in an¬ 
other and so on. There is always room for 
speculation, calculation and study, also work. 
If, after working a whole morning on a 
lake without success, I wind up at noon with 
one ingenious catch, I am plenty satisfied, and 
will put that morning down as one worthy of 
attention among the rest of them. You will not 
know the ins and outs of using artificial baits 
in one year or two. You have to study, and 
