Nov. 4, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
681 
Tournament Casting. 
New York City, Oct. 25.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Recently I was casting from the Ang¬ 
lers’ Club platform in Central Park. The 
weather was charming, I was interested in my 
occupation and consequently was in a good 
humor. There strolled down to the platform a 
well-known fisherman, and when I asked him to 
try his hand at casting, he replied that he never 
indulged in tournament casting, for fear of 
injuring the cast which he used when on the 
stream. Then my good humor was not so ap¬ 
parent; but unfortunately for the advancement 
of tournament casting there are many anglers 
whose views are very similar to those held by 
this skilled fisherman. 
But are their views correct? Cannot much 
be learned on the casting platforms which will 
be of great benefit to the angler on the stream? 
Decidedly yes! If a caster has the ability to 
put out say ninety feet of line from the plat¬ 
form, does he not have a much better command 
of the thirty or forty feet of line which he uses 
when fishing? Practical knowledge gained by 
actual experience far surpasses in value perhaps 
knowledge evolved from theory, and the plat¬ 
form is the place for practical results. Here 
you learn by practice the proper way to lift 
your line from the water, how to get the action 
out of your rod and how to place your line in 
the water—all without your attention being dis¬ 
tracted by a rising fish. Then when the happy 
day comes that you are actually on the stream, 
you know exactly what you can do and how to 
do it. How is it possible for tournament 
work to be anything but a benefit to the fisher¬ 
man? 
In my opinion, this want of faith in tourna¬ 
ment work which exists among fishermen is 
largely due to the tackle which is used in tour¬ 
nament casting and to the rules under which 
tournaments are held. Were we to make our 
tournaments conform more with the actual fish¬ 
ing conditions on lake and river, we would have 
a great deal more interest shown in our con¬ 
tests. Then fishermen would have a practical 
demonstration of what may be learned by tour¬ 
nament work. To my mind it is a mistake to 
attempt to make tournament casting a sport 
pure and simple; we must show the fisherman 
that tournament casting may be done with ordi¬ 
nary fishing tackle, and that his participation 
in the sport will be of great benefit to him 
when he fishes. I therefore advocate the follow¬ 
ing changes in casting tournaments: 
In all fly events I advocate that all casts be 
made from a reel attached to the rod. If the 
back cast touches the water, the forward cast 
is not to count. If the fly is snapped off the 
contestant is to retire. 
Whenever possible, I would have the con¬ 
testant stand in a water-tight box. so placed 
that his feet would be at least two feet below 
the surface of the water. I do not believe in 
the practice of casting a fly from a platform 
eighteen inches above the surface of the water, 
when most of the time when a fisherman is 
wading a stream, he is up to his waist in water— 
the difference is too great. 
All bait-casting should be done from a boat, 
the contestant standing, and the line should be 
one which could hold a fish of fair size. The 
size of the line which is now used in bait-casting 
is too ridiculous for comment. 
In surf-casting I would limit the length of the 
rod and the size of the line to fishing conditions. 
I believe that the just criticisms made by many 
anglers upon the tackle used in bait- and surf¬ 
casting have been a great detriment to the ad¬ 
vancement and popularity of tournament cast¬ 
ing. Some fishermen are all time cranks, while 
all fishermen are some time cranks. 
Walter McGuckin. 
A. J. W. McNeily, K. C. 
St. Johns, N. F., Oct. 25 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Nature lovers in Newfoundland, more 
especially the disciples of the gentle Izaak, have 
met with an irremediable loss in the recent death 
of A. J. W. McNeily, K. C. 
Mr. McNeily was leader of the local bar at 
the time of his death, but during his career he 
wielded a very powerful influence on the political, 
social and literary life of the colony. He was a 
scholar of rare attainments and a man of broad 
culture. During his political career he occupied 
many positions of trust, and always with con¬ 
spicuous ability. He was jurist, scholar, thinker, 
writer, poet and musician, and with voice and 
pen spoke with authority on any subject 
touched. But it was as poet and interpreter of 
the mysterious voices of nature that we shall not 
soon see his like again. 
'In every movement appertaining to fish and 
game conservation he was well abreast of the 
most advanced thinkers. For years he was the 
presiding genius and moving spirit among a 
number of local sportsmen who devoted much 
time and money to fish preservation and propa¬ 
gation. They introduced the beautiful rainbow 
and the large growing Loch Leven to Newfound¬ 
land, and with them stocked the depleted waters 
with the result that to-day splendid rainbow fish¬ 
ing may be had in many lakes in different parts 
of the island. 
When the new Fish and Game Commission was 
appointed by the Governor in Council, with the 
Minister of Marine and Fisheries, ex-officio, as 
its official head, Mr. McNeily by acclamation was 
elected to the first position on the board, viz.: 
vice-president, and held that place till his death. 
One of the first objects of the board was to 
consolidate all the laws relating to fish and game. 
These laws were numerous, as amendments came 
before the Legislature nearly every season and 
were looked on by that body as “hardy annuals.” 
Mr. McNeily being the only member of the board 
of the legal profession, spent a great deal of 
time and thought remodeling the various laws 
and their amendments, and eventually presented 
the rules as they now stand in complete form. 
They were unanimously adopted by the board 
and confirmed by the Governor in Council. 
It was characteristic of Mr. McNeily that though 
he devoted many weeks to the task to the detri¬ 
ment of his other professional work, he scorned 
the suggestion of any remuneration, as it was to 
him purely a labor of love. He was prince of 
anglers, steeped in the traditions of learning and 
ethics of the gentle craft as exemplified by its 
best and keenest exponents among sportsmen of 
the old school. His poems and nature papers 
have always been considered as rare intellectual 
treats by local nature lovers, and when he 
deigned to address larger audiences through the 
medium of British and American periodicals, 
he always commanded that attention that is the 
tribute to learning and genius. 
Many British and American anglers, as well 
as those local ones who were privileged to have 
known him intimately, will feel with regret the 
death of this true sportsman and lovable man. 
W. J. Carroll. 
Game Fish for Tuxedo Lake. 
Tuxedo Park, N. Y., Oct. 29.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: What will probably be the finest 
lot of land-locked salmon and steelhead trout 
ever planted in any lake in the country will be 
turned out from the Tuxedo Club’s hatchery into 
its largest lake next Saturday. There are about 
9,000 of the salmon running from eight up to 
twelve inches and averaging five ounces in weight, 
and about 2,000 of the steelheads of the same 
size. 
The salmon are the third generation of do¬ 
mesticated fish, and in condition and appearance 
are finer looking fish than those resulting from 
wild eggs. 
For the past five years the Tuxedo Club has 
thoroughly tried out the experiment of stocking 
heavily with fry and fingerlings instead of larger 
fish, and with disastrous results as to the fishing. 
Formerly 6,000 on an average of two-year-old 
fish were turned out each season, and from 2,500 
to 4,000 caught each summer, while the seasons 
since the stocking with fingerlings commenced 
have hardly shown the capture of a hundred per 
year. 
Last fall approximately 15,000 (nineteen months 
old) chinook salmon averaging eight inches in 
length were turned out into Tuxedo Lake, and 
a few were taken this summer in excellent con¬ 
dition and showing a good growth. These are 
expected to begin to take the lure readily next 
spring, although as it is a new fish to these 
waters, the outcome is uncertain, and while it 
cannot be expected that they will grow in this 
lake to the size that they have attained in Lake 
Sunapee, it is hoped that the introduction of 
smelt may furnish a food favorable to a growth 
of four or five pounds at least. W. M. Keil. 
Fishing in California. 
San Francisco, Cal., Oct. 26. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: The splendid weather and the large 
fish taken recently in Napa S ! ough have attracted 
many anglers to the striped bass grounds. San 
Antonio and Wingo Sloughs are usually good 
fishing grounds, but the bass seem to be more 
plentiful up the river or on the east shores of 
the bay. A twenty-six-pound bass was taken by 
W. S. Kittle. 
On the streams in the sierras trout fishing is 
still good, the flow of water being unusually large 
for the season. On some of these streams, nota¬ 
bly the Klamath River, fishing did not commence 
