Aug. 3i, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
269 
Ideas About Landlocked Salmon. 
Albany, N. Y., Aug. 14. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: With others I am very much interested 
in introducing landlocked salmon in Lake George. 
On the strength of the statement that the clear, 
cold, clean water there is suited to the species, 
it has been introduced and there is ample proof 
that it has thrived to a noticeable extent. But 
it apparently is caught only when fishing for 
lake trout, and this suggests a problem for the 
solution of expert fishermen. 
As the situation now is with respect to the 
landlocked salmon, the following extract from 
a letter, written by J. W. Muller, of New York, 
who long ago became a devoted admirer of the 
lake, is submitted. He says: 
“As to the landlocked salmon, if any art of 
man can devise a way to catch ’em, that man shall 
have the gratitude of many. I think that the 
trouble is that the conditions in Lake George 
will not favor the ouananiche to live and feed 
as that magnificent creature does in Northern 
waters, where he takes the fly. The ouananiche 
wants swift, wild, troubled water, with torrents 
and deep pools, if he is to be a sporting fish. 
Lake George presents just the reverse. It is an 
immensely deep lake, with no streams of wild 
strength emptying into it. All its streams are 
trout brooks, suitable, no doubt, for the ouana¬ 
niche to spawn, but eminently unsuitable, impos¬ 
sible, for the fish to use when he is grown. 
Hence the landlocked salmon in Lake George (I 
think) is doomed to be a deep-water fish, swim¬ 
ming on the rocky bottoms fifty and one hundred 
feet deep, and to be caught only by deep trolling 
with the regulation and established lake trout 
trolling outfit—an immense long hand line of 
hard, oiled silk, a sinker weighing two pounds, 
and a big trout gang baited with a whitefish. 
chub, sucker or perch, whitefish being by far the 
best bait. 
“All our lake trout are taken thus and thus 
only. The deepest place in this lake is 190 feet. 
The average in the lake trout grounds is fifty 
feet. I’ve tried for them with all sorts of rigs 
and baits, from flies cast over ledges to deep 
still-fishing with live bait, and the trolling outfit 
is the only one with which I ever succeeded in 
getting a touch. And I think I can claim to 
know a little something about fishing. The fact 
is that the ouananiche is a sporting fish only in 
a limited number of regions, where the condi¬ 
tions favor a mode of life different from that 
enjoyed by big fish of the trout and salmon kind 
in deep, still lakes. 
“It has been a good thing, though, to intro¬ 
duce the fish into Lake George. Lake trout now 
are of great financial importance to the people 
along these shores, and if the landlocked chap 
does well, as he seems to be doing, he will be 
a great addition.” 
If other fishermen would submit their views, 
no doubt the symposium would be mighty in¬ 
teresting. Personally, I believe fish change many 
of their habits to conform to their surroundings 
and fishermen must study them to be successful. 
John D. Whish. 
Newfoundland Fishing. 
St. Johns, N. F., Aug. 8. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: That “the world is a small place after 
all” is an old saying, the truth of which was 
impressed on me yesterday, when I received a 
note from an old member of the Forest and 
Stream family at present touring the Bavarian 
Tyrol. C. Du Bois Wagstaff, of New York, the 
writer of the note, informs me that a friend of 
his at present with him at Garmisch, Bavaria, re¬ 
ceived a present of a ten-pound salmon from 
Scotland. It was a cause of great rejoicing and 
Mr. Wagstaff, who is an enthusiastic angler, in¬ 
terviewed the chef and inspected the fish. For 
many years he has been fishing in Newfound¬ 
land and the sight of the salmon reminded him 
of his camp on Harry's Brook. He says: 
“You can appreciate with what pleasure I 
had on looking upon the face of an ‘old friend.’ 
Then in the morning mail came Forest and 
Stream with your article on Newfoundland fish¬ 
ing. I have been looking for something of what 
the fishermen are doing and what they have done 
during June and July. How I wish I could have 
been with all my fishing folks in Newfoundland.” 
The fishing this season beat the record. 
Parties who have returned from the rivers re¬ 
port the fish numerous, and the official figures 
credit some anglers with 68, 50, 48, 43, 30, and 
hundreds of anglers with catches less than those 
figures show, but large enough to prove that 
the fishing all around the island has been excep¬ 
tionally good. W. J. Carroll. 
A Giant Tarpon. 
Pompano, Fla., Aug. 10.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: On Tuesday, the 6th inst., some natives 
captured a tarpon in the surf just north of Hills¬ 
boro River Inlet, which I think is the record for 
size. No one knew of the catch who knew of 
the importance of preserving it, until after the 
natives had butchered it. They state, however, 
that it was eight feet two inches long and must 
have weighed more than 350 pounds. I also 
learn from them that on numerous other occas¬ 
ions, tarpon of immense size have been taken at 
this point, and that the water was fairly alive 
with them at the time of this catch. 
The inlet is open now to a width of about 
forty yards and to a depth of ten to twelve feet, 
and there is splendid anchorage just inside in 
thoroughly protected water. Furthermore, the 
State canal leading from this inlet to Lake Okee¬ 
chobee will be completed by next July, and this 
canal is to be the main transportation from the 
lake to tide water at Deerfield. 
These things should at least encourage 
sportsmen to stop and try out this new tarpon 
territory. Just off this inlet and between the 
shore and the Gulf stream, which lies about six 
or seven miles offshore at this point, is the best 
bluefish, Spanish mackerel and pompano fishing 
to be found on the coast. If you would like to 
have some of the scales of the tarpon above re¬ 
ferred to, think I can procure some to send to 
you from which you could have some idea of the 
size of the fish. W F McF.t.roy. 
Do Dry-Flies Resemble “Dead Bait?” 
New York City, Aug. 21. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: There are probably few of your read¬ 
ers who are not glad when they see the name of 
Dr. Edward Breck signed to an article in your 
columns, and who do not read with interest and 
attention anything that he may write. Fly-fisher¬ 
men especially will be interested in what he has 
to say about the dry-fly in the issue of Aug. 17, 
and will agree with him when he says: “I am 
also of the opinion that some maker must first 
come who has the enterprise to tie flies after 
our own insects before we can pretend to an 
American dry-fly science.” 
Science and fun are two different things, 
though closely interwoven in dry-fly fishing on 
the other side of the water. The fun, or rather 
pleasure, of dry-fly fishing we can all have, but 
I doubt very much if this art can become a real 
science in America until some angler-entomolo¬ 
gist, or a combination of anglers and entomolo¬ 
gists, makes a thorough and scientific study of 
the insects upon which our trout feed, then classi¬ 
fies them, illustrates them accurately in colors 
and finally has „exact imitations made by expert 
fly-tiers. The ways and means of bringing these 
things about are all explained by Mr. Halford 
in his various works, and he has devoted a life 
time to the study of the subject. Dr. Breck men¬ 
tions the writer as one of those who have tried 
to make the art of dry-fly fishing popular in this 
country. When, somewhat against my will, I 
began to write upon the subject of the dry-fly, 
I had two motives: First, as suggested by Dr. 
Breck to do my little toward making the dry- 
fly better known and more popular; and sec¬ 
ondly, hoping that after it had become more 
popular enthusiasts would appear who would 
recognize the necessity of an American fly-fish¬ 
ers’ entomology and eventually give it to us. I 
still believe that this will surely come about, 
though possibly not in the immediate future. 
But is the dry-fly ever presented to a trout 
as “dead bait”? I quote from Dr. Breck’s arti¬ 
cle : “I believe the wild trout in our waters do 
not like dead or immovable bait.” Immovable? 
Not as generally used on running water. 
Again in his “The Way of the Woods” Dr. 
Breck says: “In northern waters, and using 
English flies, I have always found dry-fly fish¬ 
ing a failure compared with the wet, lively fly 
method, undoubtedly for the already mentioned 
reason that our brook trout ignores most dead 
baits; at least on the surface.” 
Whenever this quotation comes to my mind 
it is always accompanied by another quotation 
found in “The Book of the Dry-Fly,” by George 
A. B. Dewar: “The theory—a plausible one—is 
that the wet or sunk fly is taken by the fish be¬ 
cause they suppose it a dead or dying insect. But 
it may be asked, does a dead or dying insect of 
the order of, say, the fragile Ephemeridse, be¬ 
come immersed beneath the water, and so be car¬ 
ried down or across the stream with a series of 
little jerks? Is there any fly-fisherman and close 
observer of the life and habits of the water in¬ 
sects who can say that this is, in his experience, 
a common event in nature? * * * I believe that 
a dronmed and sodden dun is the sort of carrion 
which a good trout would usually decline en¬ 
tirely.” (Italics are the writer’s.) 
In so far as Mr. Dewar attempts to show 
that the floating fly is taken by the trout for a 
