114 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Live Notes From the Field 
GAME PLENTIFUL IN CONNECTICUT. 
Putnam, Conn., July 22. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The game prospects for the coming season 
seem to be very encouraging, by what I have 
seen. Partridges and more of them nested around 
here in the vicinity of “Oakledge” than I ever 
knew before, and the broods were fully as large, 
if not larger, than in past years. And weren’t 
the chicks little beauties, though? So far as I 
know, and hear, but a very few quail wintered 
over. Have seen only two since I came here 
from Asibury Park in early May. Farmers and 
others tell the same story. Grey squirrels abound 
almost everywhere—in the woods, and even they 
are very often seen in fields some distance from 
trees. 
Rabbits are very plentiful. Have seen more 
of them up around here this year than ever be¬ 
fore, and others speak of seeing many of them. 
Deer are getting to be quite common and the 
way they trim off the shoots on the appletrees 
here at ^Oakledge” and in some places destroy 
the farmers truck makes them rather of a nui¬ 
sance. Nevertheless, I for one like to have them 
around and would hardly care to shoot them even 
if the law were off. 
So, taking it altogether, the prospects for hunt¬ 
ing small game in this vicinity next fall are fully 
up to the average. 
A. L. LYON. 
MAINE FISHING. 
The new law on bass in Maine, extending the 
close season to June 15th hit the camp and 
hotel people pretty hard. In the central and 
southern part of the State there are almost in¬ 
numerable lakes and ponds in which bass abound 
in large numbers. It has been rare sport for 
many years to start in with the first warm days 
in the Spring—usually about May 20th—fly fish¬ 
ing these waters for bass, thus getting nearly 
four weeks up to June 15th of the finest kind of 
sport. I remember very well being at Great 
Pond, one of the Belgrade Lakes, a few years 
ago for a week beginning May 25th. We fished 
two in a boat with a guide to do the rowing. 
The weather came off hot and we started in fly¬ 
fishing. The results exceeded our most sanguine 
expectations. A carefully kept record showed 
that we landed in a few days close to three hun¬ 
dred and fifty bass all of which were carefully 
put back in the water. I doubt if there are any 
other waters in the country that can furnish such 
fast fishing with the fly for bass that the Maine 
waters do. Very naturally such rare sport 
brought many anglers to the camps and hotels 
and the new law has driven most oif this business 
away. During the last half of June and early 
July there is very fair fly fishing but the cream 
of it is over. I am aware that the early fishing 
as it used to be simply means taking the bass 
off the spawning beds and for that reason be¬ 
lieve that the extension of the close season to 
June 15th is a wise provision that will make a 
great saving of fish and I sincerely hope that it 
will not be repealed. The Main Legislature 
meets every two years, the next session being 
in the winter of 1915 and T6. I understand that 
plans are being laid—even at this early date— 
to make a determined effort to take this law 
off the books but I sincerely trust such efforts 
will not be successful. 
Gen. Philip Reade, a retired officer of the U. 
S. Army, who has spent many seasons at Grand 
Lake Stream, Maine, has written much in praise 
of the salmon of those waters. So have many 
ethers—perhaps equally learned in fish culture— 
Who have been moved to express on paper their 
admiration for the fighting qualities of these 
fish. Somehow they seem in a class by them¬ 
selves. I like to think .of them as the true 
“Ouanauiche,” the same as that noble fish taken 
at the “Grand Descharge” Lake St. John. One 
hears the remark made occasionally that the 
Grand Lake salmon are too 'small and a prefer- 
ance is expressed for the Rangeley Lakes or 
some other waters where the fish run to greater 
weight. My own experience is decidedly in favor 
of Grand Lake. In the first place the fishing 
is far better for the very simple reason that the 
waters are stocked with more fish and they surely 
do have the punch. Pound for pound I believe 
they will excel in intelligent fighting and pure 
grit any game fish in American waters. In the 
lake many fish are now taken from four to six 
pounds and a fisherman who gets attached to 
one of these fellows with moderately light tackle 
must have both skill and some knowledge of the 
game to land him in the canoe. The lake is 
large, often very rough and as nearly all the 
fishing is done from canoes there are many days 
when it is hardly safe to go out. The great 
charm of Grand Lakes to me lies in the 'fact that 
one gets both fly fishing and trolling. The 
stream—with the possible exception of the Gun¬ 
nison River in Colorado—presents in its reaches 
of both still and tumbling water the finest kind 
of sport. It is a river of pools and rapids and 
at Big Falls many ambitious anglers have learned 
the long cast necessary to reach the swirling 
water under the big rock on the other side where 
the salmon often lurk. Bait fishing is not per¬ 
mitted on the stream but some bright fellow 
evolved a fly with a long trailing white feather. 
It is supposed to resemble a piece of pork in 
the water but at any rate has proven very suc¬ 
cessful. The proper name for this fly is “Morn¬ 
ing Glory - ’ but the guides have dubbed it the 
“Roosters Delight.” Other good flies on the 
stream are the Silver Gray, Orange Jungle, Sil¬ 
ver Doctor, Professor and Parmachener Belle. 
These are all so-called wet flies. Dry fly fish¬ 
ing is now practiced extensively and has made 
good. Some of the best patterns are March 
Brown, Plares’ Ear, Alder, Wickham Fancy, Red 
Ant and Whirling Blue Dun. If one tires of the 
stream and desires a change why go up the lake 
trolling. For this I have found the most ef¬ 
fective tackle to be a light and flexible trolling 
rod either 9 or 91-2 feet, a reel with xoo yards 
of good silk line and a single hook on which is 
sewed a live minnow or chubb. Late August or 
September are surely poor in results in most of 
the Maine lakes but at Grand Lake I have rarely 
had any difficulty in getting a good catch at this 
time. If one is fond of camping and canoeing 
this country presents the finest of possibilities. 
There is a chain of large lakes—all connected— 
and many fine camping sites. Just now the 
camps at the stream are well filled with fisher¬ 
men. Messrs. George and Fred Hunter of Bos¬ 
ton have just reached home and report the best 
results they ever had and their experience covers 
many seasons. 
“HACKLE.” 
PENNSYLVANIA NEWS. 
Hazleton, Pa.—Malcolm Gillespie, of Shamo- 
kin, who could not wait for July 1 to kill frogs, 
was arraigned before Squire A. H. Sharpless, of 
Catawissa, and paid a fine of $25 and costs for 
the exploit. 
Martin Jernhart and Roland Andrews have 
returned from a fishing trip with a fine mess 
of trout with which they regaled their Hazleton 
friends with a supper. 
William E. Mumaw, of Hazleton, found fishing 
poor in Tioga County but he says that wood 
chucks are plentiful. 
Johnny Aloyer, of Tamaqua, formerly chef 
of the St. Elmo at Hazleton, made a good catch 
of bass at his boyhood home at Danville. 
Standing on the pavement of one of Belle- 
fonte’s main streets, Henry Montgomery caught 
five trout in Spring Creek which totalled 81 
inches, comprising the banner catch in that sec¬ 
tion. The biggest one was 26 inches long and 
weighed six pounds; the others, 21, 13, 12 and 9 
inches respectively. 
James M. Dieter, of Little Gap, in the Car¬ 
bon County section near the Pocono Mountains, 
came across a fine deer in his fields. 
The county treasurer of Pennsylvania has re¬ 
ceived 310,000 blanks for hunters’ licenses this 
month and it is expected that the demand for 
them will be greater than last year when many 
Nimrods went out to the chase with certificates 
of payment instead of the regular papers, the 
supply being exhausted. 
The state treasury received 90 per cent of the 
dollar fee paid for the license, the ten cents going 
to the county treasurer. The money thus secured 
last year, totalling over $300,000, lies idle. It 
awaits the settlement of the controversy over 
which specific funds it shall go to. The section 
of the law establishing the fund is the same 
which is in the courts in the litigation over the 
disposition of the automobile license money. 
Thus the income from these hunters’ licenses, 
which should go to counties for reimbursement 
for payment of bounties on scalps of noxious 
animals and for game propagation is held up. 
“Grandpa” Harter, of Berwick, aged 78 years, 
made the record catch in a mess of one thousand 
splendid fish brought home and packed in seven 
big lard cans. The fishers were: J. H. Harter, 
Adam Harter, John Harter, Peter Smith, Sam¬ 
uel Smith, Thomas Smith, Howard Peifer and 
Dr. Harter. 
“Grandpa” Harter landed a pike which meas¬ 
ured 30 inches in the first hour of the day and 
a half’s fishing which brought in this splendid 
catch at Promised Land Lake, Monroe County. 
The catch consisted of pike, sunfish, catfish, perch 
and bass and were all landed with hook and 
line. Howard Peifer established a record for 
sunfish when he caught 145 of the yellow backs 
