April 24, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
661 
Recent Publications. 
Jack Lorimer’s Holidays, by Winn Standish. 
Cloth, 293 pages, illustrated from drawings 
by Frank P. Fairbanks, $1.50. Boston, L. C. 
Page & Co. 
Originally the Lorimer stories for young peo¬ 
ple appeared in the Boston Sunday Herald, but 
were later issued in book form and have proved 
so popular that others are to follow in due time. 
The present one will be read with increased in¬ 
terest by all who have followed young Jack 
through college, and wish to know of the inci¬ 
dents and amusements connected with the camp 
life of Jack and his friends. These are just 
the sort of stories healthy boys should read. 
Wet-Fly Fishing, Treated Methodically, by 
Ewen M. Tod. Second edition, 240 pages, 
illustrated, 6s. net. London, Sampson Low, 
Marston & Co., Ltd. 
One reason for the existence of this work by 
the veteran Scottish angler, we take it, is the 
great mass of matter that has been written for 
the sportsmen’s press by men who have become 
fascinated by dry-fly fishing. With the dry-fly 
purist Mr. Tod has no patience; for he, as well 
as others, have pointed out the fallacy of trying 
to fish with the floating fly those waters which 
are suited only to the older form of casting 
with the sunk fly. He is. very fair. He admits 
that his favorite method of fishing would pro¬ 
duce poor results on dry-fly streams, just as 
casting with the floating fly only must fail on 
streams in the rough country of Scotland; but 
he also admits that in many places on Highland 
streams the dry fly is a killing lure, and urges 
the use of the proper method in its proper place 
—a bit of advice that is of value to American 
anglers; in fact, the book bristles with excel¬ 
lent advice for any fly-fisherman. 
The advocates of up-stream and down-stream 
casting may be interested in his description of 
burn, or brook; and water, or stream, fishing. 
Referring to eddies, he says: 
“And now fish the center current, moving up 
gradually till you near the rapid or rapids de¬ 
scending from the pool or stream above. All 
such rapids must be fished up, and the line 
should be short, especially if the angler is wad¬ 
ing in fairly deep water, and below the trout of 
course. Throw up, with a quick, direct, forci¬ 
ble cast, and then lower the point of the rod 
so that, when the line is thrown, your rod points 
upward and is quite close to the surface of the 
river; rod and line, for one brief second, form¬ 
ing one unbroken extension pointing directly up¬ 
stream. In this way—and in this alone—you 
command your fly from the moment it alights; 
and you will find that even then you have to 
raise the point of your rod overhead, or side- 
wise with considerable rapidity, as your flies 
often come toward you at a great pace. 
“And here it is necessary to dwell a little on 
the proper fishing up-stream of any rapid like 
this. One throw is no real test. You must 
throw again and again, the oftener the better, 
in a given time; four, five or six rapid casts with 
a short line, and then, if you like, try the water 
on either side. But remember, when fishing a 
narrow ‘throat’ up, if the fly halts for a moment, 
look out, for it means a trout, and you must 
tighten on him instantly and pull him down¬ 
stream gently, if you can do so.” 
Of Scotch anglers Mr. Tod says—as might be 
said of American anglers—that their best wet-fly 
fishermen are chiefly professional and business 
men, who have little time or inclination to study 
entomology; who take their annual holiday in 
fly-fishing, and that over, take up again the more 
serious affairs of life. “Therefore,” he continues, 
“the man of leisure or the scientist is the one 
to whom we all naturally look for information 
upon such matters. A man may be a very good 
fly-fisher and a poor entomologist, or he may 
be a good entomologist and an indifferent fly- 
fisher. The man who combines the two and 
who also can fish well with wet-fly and dry-fly 
alike, is king of fishermen ‘for a’ that.’ ” 
Early Trout Fishing. 
Sullivan County, N. Y., April 19 .—Editor 
Forest and Stream: Not in the memory of the 
oldest inhabitant of this region has the weather 
been so fine for the opening of the trout sea¬ 
son in mid April. The early morning of the 
i6th inst. was rather cold, but the temperature 
rose rapidly as the day advanced. The larger 
streams were high from the rain earlier in the 
week, but all the brooks were well patronized 
by disciples of the angle. The early worm and 
shiny minnow were largely in evidence and the 
first fisherman of experience on the water 
usually basketed most of the trout that were 
caught. A large number of men and boys on 
a small stream are apt to defeat each other by 
scaring the fish. Each fish rod is anxious to 
be first and a spirit of competition is engendered 
which should be unknown in the contemplative 
recreation. Our father Izaak would be sadly 
bewildered if he returned to earth for a little 
fishing in the early part of the season. He 
would find that he was entered for a hurdle 
race to see who would catch the most trout, un¬ 
less, indeed, he advised us of his intention when 
a preserve full of liver-fed trout would be re¬ 
served for him. 
This is an early spring; there can be no doubt 
of that now, but I greatly fear that we will have 
to pay for these beautiful April days with much 
rain and chilly weather in May. The best trout 
that I know of on the opening day was a i 6 j 4 - 
inch native fontinalis, said to weigh two pounds. 
This was taken from a small pond. One young 
man reported the capture of a very large brown 
trout, but as this fish grew rapidly after death 
and was not displayed to doubting eyes, it may 
have been a specter of the imagination. The 
last weight given was 4!^ pounds and it may 
ultimately be recorded as a five-pounder. If this 
weather holds, the fishing should be good this 
week. Theodore Gordon. 
Fishing Information. 
The second annual dinner of the Fisherman’s 
Club of Chicago was held at the Chicago Ath¬ 
letic Club recently. This is an unique organiza¬ 
tion of anglers inasmuch as the chief object is 
to obtain all possible information with regard 
to fishing localities. Routes, distances, all local 
conditions as to waters, accommodations, guides, 
boats, etc., are looked into. This information 
is assembled and made available for all the 
members. The secretary is Dr. George Henry 
Cleveland, 346 Ogden avenue, Chicago, who will 
be glad to have any points of value. 
Mr. Sperry’s Appeal. 
The following circular letter has been sent 
to the anglers of Illinois by E. P. Sperry, chair¬ 
man of the committee on propagation and pro¬ 
tection of and legislation for game fishes, of 
the National Association of Angling Clubs: 
If you have any desire to have the angling 
for game fishes in the State of Illinois return 
to something near the sport it was in years past, 
the time has come when you can help make it so. 
When it was learned that there had been a 
bill presented to the House and Senate of the 
State amending the fish law of 1907, it was 
taken to be a most opportune time for the mem¬ 
bers of this committee from this State to emu¬ 
late the example of those of some of the other 
States who have been working hard to improve 
the fish laws of their respective States and have 
the angling fraternity’s interests represented 
therein. 
Over three weeks of hard work was put upon 
the framing of amendments to the bill as pre¬ 
sented to the legislative bodies and another week 
of day and night work was put upon the pre¬ 
sentation of the same to the committee on fish 
and game from the House and Senate, and it is 
an assured fact that the amended bill which 
will be reported out will be the best the State 
has ever had and will bear favorable compari¬ 
son with those of any other State, recognizing 
the angler as never before. 
Nat H. Cohen says this is the first time in 
the sixteen years he has held the office of presi¬ 
dent of the State Fish Commission, that the 
least move has been made on the part of the 
angling fraternity to assist him in improving 
the fish laws of the State, and he also says that 
this year’s help from it has been of the greatest 
value to him. 
The new law contemplates the prohibition of 
the sale of black bass, limits the number of 
game fishes that can be caught in one day, pro¬ 
vides for returning undersized fish to the water, 
does not allow the retaining of anything but 
minnows when seining or trapping bait, provides 
for a revenue from commercial fishermen suffi¬ 
cient to make it possible to carry out the law, 
allows only one package of twenty pounds of 
game fish to be taken from the State accom¬ 
panied by the owmer, and other provisions of 
interest to the angler. 
We must do our best to help place this law 
on the statute books. We do not ask one cent, 
but we do ask this and ask it most emphati¬ 
cally. You must write at once to your repre¬ 
sentative and senator and impress upon their 
minds the importance of their voting for the 
commissioner’s fish bill when it comes up for 
passage; and too, if you know of anyone who 
has any influence, get him or her to use it for 
the furtherance of this bill. You owe it to 
yourself, to your club and to the public. We 
are 3,000 strong and our influence, if concerted, 
will count. Do not wait till to-morrow; do 
it to-day, as it is a matter which cannot wait. 
After all that has been done and the weeks 
of time which has been given by a few to have 
this year’s law recognize the angler, it does not 
seem as though it is asking too much in mak¬ 
ing the above request, which duty, as a true 
sportsman and a lover of the gentle art, you 
should take upon yourself as a pleasure rather 
than a burden. Do it now. 
