422 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[March 13, 1909. 
Sulky Salmon. 
Let the proud salmon gorge the feather’d hook, 
Then strike, and then you have him. He will wince; 
Spin out your line that it shall whistle from you 
Some twenty yards or so, yet you shall have him— 
Marry 1 you must have patience—the stout rock. 
Which is his trust, hath edges something sharp; 
And the deep pool hath ooze and sludge enough 
To mar your fishing, ’less you are more careful. 
—Sir Walter Scott. 
I WONDER did any, or many, readers of 
Forest and Stream ever strike a sulky salmon? 
I can imagine nothing more provoking than 
getting fast to a salmon of weight which re¬ 
fuses to play or to be played. “Marry! you 
must have patience,” or you’ll lose him sure 
enough. 
The first experience I ever had with a fish 
of the kind was with one that proved ready to 
“gorge the feather’d hook,” that had long been 
saved up for him. Going leisurely up the 
Placentia River one lovely summer day, fishing 
for sea trout in the likely spots, I threw my 
flies into a pool shaded by an overhanging 
bank. Immediately the flies struck the water 
something happened, and I got a new experi¬ 
ence. My tail fly, a silver-doctor, was sucked 
in by what I thought was a monster sea trout. 
The pool was fairly deep and dark, but I could 
see a white stone shining through it. My 
“trout” did not break water, or fight or make 
any fuss; he simply darted down behind the 
white stone and stayed there. I stayed there, 
too, because I had to; if I had been fastened to 
a kedge-anchor, my line could not have had 
a steadier strain. My patience was taxed nearly 
to the extreme limit. 
The definition of the cynical old Dr. Johnson, 
about the fish on one end and a fool on the 
other, forced itself unpleasantly on my mind, 
and I was conjecturing which was the more 
foolish, this unresponsive fish, or the utterly 
powerless fisher. The arrival of N., a veteran 
angler, caused a distraction. 
“FIullo!” he hailed, “what have you there?” 
“If I hadn’t felt something rise to the sur¬ 
face and take the fly. I’d imagine I had hold of 
that white rock; but under the circumstances, I 
incline to the opinion that I have hold of the 
biggest sea trout ever seen in these parts; in 
fact, the father or grandfather of all the trout 
in this river!” 
“You have hold of a sulky salmon, that’s 
what you have, if you ask me,” he replied after 
viewing the situation. 
“What kind of salmon is a sulky salmon?” I 
asked him, as I heard the term then for the first 
time. 
“A sulky salmon is a salmon that sulks,” was 
his illuminating rejoinder. “He simply sulks; 
he won’t play or he won’t work; he won’t fight 
or he won’t stir till you make him.” 
He then got the landing net, waded out a bit, 
and made a prod with the handle at the white 
stone. Immediately there was a commotion in 
that pool. The salmon flung himself out of 
the water, and then made the line whistle to 
the tune “of twenty yards or so,” up under a 
small fall, and back to the white rock to take 
a breather. He repeated this trick about a 
dozen times, and each time N. prodded him 
with the handle of the landing net. At last, 
tired out with his unavailing effort, after a 
gallant battle lasting nearly three-quarters of 
an hour he gave up the fight, turned on his side 
and came wdthin reach of the landing net. We 
took no risks with him, but handled him 
gingerly and tenderly, and presently he lay on 
the mossy bank, a thing of beauty in form and 
proportion that- would tax all the art of a poet 
or painter to describe adequately. 
Generally a salmon, when struck, will break 
w'ater more than once. I struck one about 
nine pounds’ weight, one day in La Poile River. 
He broke water six or seven times, and the 
man who w'as with me and who had never be¬ 
fore seen a salmon caught with a fly, first 
thought I had lost him, and then got an im¬ 
pression that I had four or five salmon on at 
one time. 
The late Sir W. Whiteway hooked a sulky 
salmon one day. It was well out of reach, so 
he could do nothing but sit and await his 
majesty’s pleasure. Many hours passed before 
he stirred at all, and many more before he 
landed him safely. 
A sulky salmon is a tormenting proposition. 
It is a pleasure beyond words to strike a fresh 
run salmon that will take the air like a flying- 
fish, and put you on your mettle to beat him. 
What a row he will kick up; how he’ll churn 
the pool, and if you are not seasoned, what 
electric thrills he will flash through you, and 
how your pulses will alternate with hope and 
fear, and with what feelings of pride and pity 
you will view your quarry. 
W. J. Carroll. 
California Fishing. 
San' Francisco, Cal., March 2 -—Editor Forest 
•and Stream: The California Fish Commission 
has come in for considerable redrhot shot from 
the Assembly lately, and committees of inves¬ 
tigation have been chosen to look into ih.' 
financial affairs of the commission. A propo¬ 
sition to make commissioners salaried officers 
with traveling allowances was voted dow.i 
promptly, it being apparent that for some rea¬ 
son the office is much desired of politicians 
now, as there are two of them on the board. 
A measure went through a few days ago—• 
T do not know whether Gov. Gillett signed it— 
that has a distinctly vicious side to it. Intro¬ 
duced by some up-country member, this bill 
provides that all streams stocked with fish by 
the State shall be open to all fishermen 
throughout their length, and indeed, applies to 
all waters as well. While at first this seems 
like a public benefit bill, I am curious to see 
how it will work out. It will stop all private 
stocking of streams, and the incidental over¬ 
flowing of fish; will preient the preservation 
of streams except by the State; will alienate 
much of the individual effort of parties inter¬ 
ested to prevent pollution of waters, and leave 
most of such work to the State—a job that in 
the past it has seemed wofully incompetent to 
perform where corporate interests were in¬ 
volved. It will prevent the formation of 
sportsmen’s clubs, for. no matter if a coterie 
of sportsmen has propagated and dumped a 
hundred thousand trout in a stream to one 
thousand by the State, that stream is opened 
to all. Many other objections will suggest 
themselves. 
The first silver-button yellowtail of the sea¬ 
son came to hand—-Feb. 23—off Seal Rocks, 
Catalina, weighing over thirty pounds. R. G. 
Taber, of Red Wing, Minnesota, for two 
months has been towing sardines behind 
Chappie’s launch, and struck a school from 
which two big yellowtail were taken, the 
larger putting up an hour’s fight on heavy tackle. 
' The Southern California Rod and Reel Club’s 
bill to limit the taking of corbina, yellovyfins 
and croakers to hook and line methods only 
seems in a fair way of success, having passed 
the Senate. If it becomes a law, surf fishermen 
of this coast will have, at last, that protection 
for which some of us have been laboring hard 
these ten years. 
Judging from the reports brought back by 
the Conn party from the Gulf of Lower Cali¬ 
fornia, bolstered by photographs of immense 
fish, constituting an album of rare interest to 
anglers which has been presented to the Tuna 
Club, Tiburon Island is apt to become a Mecca 
for sportsmen if ever suitable means of access 
are provided thereto. 
Yellowtail of seventy pounds’ weight and 
over are no great rarity in the gulf. White sea 
bass attain a weight of two or three times 
what they do around Catalina. To all appear¬ 
ances, these are the same fish, but it is sai<J 
the gulf variety has ear stones of a different 
shape from those cut out of the heads of the 
local white sea bass by anglers as trophies, and 
not nearly as large in proportion. 
Amberjacks and other carangoid fishes of the 
seriola tribe serve to divert the gulf angler; 
tuna are plentiful, and black sea bass so 
numerous that four or five can be caught as 
fast aS' they can be brought to gaff. One of 
the party has promised to write a book, and 
not much information is being divulged in ad¬ 
vance thereof, but, what with fishing, hunting 
and dodging Yaqui Indians by day and treach¬ 
erous bars and reefs by night, the “Comfort” 
and her crew must have had a joyous seance 
with the red gods. They landed infrequently, 
and then seldom proceeded out of hail of the 
' vessel. Careful scrutiny of each bush for 
secreted Yaquis lent spice to the sport. So 
pleased was Conn with the country that he is 
outfitting again for the trip. 
At the February meeting of the Southern 
California Rod and Reel Club, delegates to 
serve on the various committees of the Na¬ 
tional Association of Scientific Angling Clubs 
were chosen. 
By way of standardizing the single-handed 
two-and-a-half ounce surf-casting event, which 
was originated by the Southern California Rod 
and Reel Club, and which the National Associ¬ 
ation will be asked to add to its list, a limi¬ 
tation of casting weights to that figure was en¬ 
acted, and the national body has been asked to 
provide a suitable design of weight for the 
event, making it official. The local club always 
has cast under virtually the same conditions as 
the Eastern body, having the same size and 
shape of court, and in so far as possible, follow¬ 
ing the same rules. There are certain respects 
in which special rules will be required, how¬ 
ever, and the committee having the matter in 
charge will report these in such form as to 
simplify their enactment as much as may be. 
The following members were named upon the 
National Association’s committee: 
Executive—Edwin L. Hedderly. Protection 
and Propagation—Charles V. Barton. Standard 
of Sportsmanship—Thomas McDaniel Potter. 
Edwin L. Hedderly. 
