April 26, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
519 
Big Fishing 
I F you need a REAL change^ if you want a few days 
outing that will be more fun and do you more good 
than anything you ever did^ and that won’t cost much— 
DO THIS — Write us TODA Y for exactly where to go in the 
MAINE LAKES 
to find big, hungry, fighting trout, salmon and bass ]VAITING FOR YOU. 
For the best fishing camp, or if you’re fussy and 
want to eat with a fork, the best hotel. 
What to take, how to go, what the trip will cost. 
And the name of the registered guide who will 
meet you with everything ready. 
5 Hours From Boston 
10 Hours From New York 
N. B. Your family will enjoy it as much as you. 
Thousands of women and children go. 
Send for free Booklets “Fishing and Hunting in Maine** 
and “Maine Guides** 
THE NEW ENGLAND LINES 
Room 723 South Station, Boston, Mass._ 
Bird Notes from Maine. 
City Point, Ale., April 14. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: On April 8 there was a flutter of 
wings on the porch where crumbs had been 
scattered. "Robin red-breast,” I said, for my 
eye caught the warm reddish tinge of our old 
friends’ feathers. Looking more closely, my in¬ 
terest in our visitor increased, for he was a 
stranger, a smaller bird than the robin, and the 
red markings were on his wings and tail feathers, 
while his body and breast were a mottled, 
speckled gray. The bird lover who was look¬ 
ing over my shoulder whispered "a fox spar¬ 
row,” and with bated breath we watched until 
some noise startled the bird, and he flew away. 
The bird lover told me that fox sparrows are 
only seen here for two or three weeks, stop¬ 
ping on their way further north, and that they 
are sweet singers. He saw the first one this 
year on March 20, which was unusually early; 
in fact, all the birds arrived early this year, as 
his records show. 
"It's a strange thing,” he said the other 
morning at breakfast, "how the song sparrow 
sings at this season of the year while the birds 
are mating. His song lasts a full minute or 
longer, and is as liquid and sweet as that of 
any bird I know. Later in the season the song 
changes; it lasts only a few seconds and is much 
less musical.” When he talks of the feathered 
folks, we are glad, for they are close and inti¬ 
mate friends of his. He has made a life-long 
study of their ways and habits. His mind is 
stored with interesting facts concerning them, 
and he seems to enjoy their confidence to a great 
degree. 
The purple martins are his favorites and he 
has a large colony. His three houses were filled 
last summer, and he has just completed another 
large house, built in the shape of a castle, with 
turrets and towers, which we have no doubt will 
prove attractive to his feathered friends. The 
musical, gurgling notes from the throats of a 
hundred or more of these martins fill the air 
around his home through the long summer days, 
and the sudden silence when they migrate some 
day late in August is almost oppressive. 
One day on a mountain top in the solitude 
and silence we found the bird lover on his knees 
beside a net which held three little helpless her¬ 
mit thrushes. The day had been a wonderful 
one of mountain climbing, and memory holds 
many of its pictures, but the one that comes to 
us most often is that of the birds’ nest hidden 
away so carefully among the mountain grasses, 
with the strong man bending over it. We think 
that even the anxious mother bird must have 
trusted his good will when she saw the gentle¬ 
ness and friendliness of his expression at that 
moment. 
Summer brings us many happy days in the 
Maine woods. We look forward to them eagerly, 
longing for the trout brooks and the freedom 
from care that come to those who follow their 
winding ways, and for the companionship of the 
feathered folks. R. T. Newell. 
Early Sebago Salmon Catches. 
Boston, Mass., April 14. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Just returned from Sebago Lake. I 
brought back five salmon. The man I went with 
caught a iil4-pounder, while a young lady from 
Dorchester landed one that scaled 1214 pounds. 
Morton G. B.m.dwin. 
Lough Melvin Will Fish Well. 
I h.we always considered this lough to be 
one of the very best salmon waters in the British 
Isles for the man of small means. I see no rea¬ 
son to alter that opinion. In addition, it is an 
early lough, and there are competent boatmen 
and good boats on the water, and comfortable 
hotels on the banks. The direct route to the 
lough is from Euston, via Holyhead or Fleet- 
wood, to Dublin or Belfast, thence by G. N. Rly. 
(I.) to Belleek, and by car to Garrison, which 
is the angling center for the lough. 
In addition to the salmon fishing. Lough 
Melvin holds some very large lake trout, gillaroo 
and brown trout. It opens on Feb. i and closes 
on Sept. 30. The best of the salmon fishing 
occurs early in the season; then follows the 
grilse season. The best time for the trout with 
artificial fly is February, March and April. In 
August they are taken dapping with the Harry 
Long-legs—of which a plentiful supply can be 
obtained locally—and this sport often continues 
through September. The charge for fishing is 
i8s. per week, or 3s. 6d. per day, tickets to be 
had at any of the hotels on the shores of the 
lough. The best fishing part of the lough is the 
Garrison end, but the fish at times feed over the 
greater part of the water. 
I am often asked for patterns of flies suit¬ 
able for Irish waters. Here are some dressings 
that will kill in Lough Melvin, the River Erne 
and the adjacent rivers and loughs. 
The Parson.—Hook No. 7; tail, two twists 
gold, small topping and two or three sprigs gold 
pheasant tippets, black harl, three twists; body, 
golden olive silk, changing into pig’s down of 
the same shade, then into orange and fiery brown 
toward the shoulder; golden olive hackle three 
parts down the body, with full claret hackle over; 
wings, two golden pheasant saddle feathers, over 
this three or four toppings with sprig of green 
parrot, golden pheasant tippet, pintail, turkey 
and wood-duck, with kingfisher’s or bine chat¬ 
terer’s feathers at each jowl, and blue macaw^s 
feeler; head, slack harl, gold tinsel according. 
Other Parsons are dressed larger, with six, seven 
or eight toppings in the rings with cock-of-the- 
rock ad lib., and with jay’s hackle and purple 
cock instead of pintail, and even small toppings 
on the breast. This last one is good in heavy 
water. 
Another Fly. — Hook No. 5; silver twist and 
pure silk tag, gold pheasant topping and tippet 
sprigs for tail; ostrich harl over; apple-green 
silk body, tipper with black twist and silver, 
greenish yellow hackle all the way down; gold 
pheasant tippet feather, tied hackle fashion, and 
jay’s hackle over; black harl head, and mixed 
wing of golden pheasant saddle feathers; ditto 
tail and tippet, gallina and bustard and red and 
blue macaw, two or three sprigs of each. 
Another Fly.—Hook No. 5; blue silk and 
silver tag, gold pheasant topping and tippet 
sprigs for tail; black harl over; body, about a 
third of an inch of claret silk, the rest orange; 
golden olive all the way down; jay’s hackle over 
silver tinsel; wing, mixed, of gold pheasant’s 
tail and tippet, gallina, and one topping and red 
macaw feeler; black harl head. 
Another of Smaller Size.—Silver and pure 
silk tag, topping and tippet tail; black head; 
orange silk body, with claret hackle all down, 
silver tinsel; wing as before with blue feelert. 
A yellow body and hackle may also be fitted to 
the same fly. 
Add to these for bright weather and low 
water later in the season a fly with dark orange 
body (spare), fine silver; a cock-of-the-rock 
feather for tail; two cock-of-the-rock for inner 
wing; gold pheasant tail and dark argus over 
that; dark mallard over all. and blue chatterer 
on each side of the cheek; golden olive hackle 
with claret hackle at shoulder; and blue macaw 
feeler. 
Also three bodies of dark blue and red tail 
joint, yellow and claret joint, or claret and yel¬ 
low joint respectively: silver tinsel tips; ostrich 
head; blue, claret, and golden olive hackles re¬ 
spectively; jay at shoulder of each, finish silver 
twist: wing, same for each — two toppings, pin¬ 
tail, green parrot, and gold pheasant tail; bine 
macaw feelers. 
Brown trout flies in their order of merit arc : 
Claret and partridge, black and teal, butcher, 
claret and mallard, claret and grouse, claret and 
teal, March brown, blue and hlea, bine spider. 
The bine spider is an Ai bright-weather fly.— 
-Shooting Times, London. 
