FOREST AND STREAM 
[June 5, 1909. 
898 
they’re around on the comfortable seats watch¬ 
ing the blaze and the sparks and seeing pictures. 
Now there’s Jim over there. He’s thinking 
about the time he shot an antelope in the eye 
with an old army carbine just 922 yards off. 
Aaron is next to him, and he’s fanning the 
burros and restoring union rates. Joe is catch¬ 
ing grayling near the Cheney bridge on the 
Ausable, and Henry has just caught ninety at 
the forks of the Manistee. Lee is seeing a big 
white farm house in the Bluegrass country. 
Albert is watching the sun come up out of Lake 
Huron from his camp near Harrisville. Peter 
has just killed a bull elk in Wyoming for the 
twenty-fourth time, and Gus, well—he’s telling 
about the time^ when he didn’t have money 
enough for a hand bath. 
“I can’t mention all of ’em now, for it would 
take too long. You see the crowd is growing 
all the time because none of ’em ever gets so 
old or so far away he can’t come back. Now 
to-night, after the boys have finished their 
smoke and _ gone. I’ll feel as if I’d had a 
genuine party and only invited the folks I 
wanted. Of course the fire’s got to be just 
right or the boys won’t stay long, for they don’t 
like to be frozen out, or smoked out, or over¬ 
cooked. That’s one reason I took so much pains 
to-night and now I’ll tell you why it’s always 
best to make it right. 
“You probably know the choosing of a fire 
site is just as important as picking a tent site 
or a battle ground. In the first place the fire 
shouldn’t be within twenty feet of the tent. 
Next, you should figure on the general direc¬ 
tion of the wind. You know in high, narrow 
valleys it’s up in the day time and down at 
night. Remember this is a camp-fire and not 
a cooking fire. 
“Now you are ready for the location of your 
seats, which should be under a thick-branched 
tree that will keep off dew at night and sun in 
the day time. Cloth-backed camp chairs are 
the easiest, but very good ones can be made 
from a dry log with a cross-cut saw. The log 
may be cut into sections of sixteen inches for 
individual seats or used in one piece. In either 
case stout, flattened stakes should be driven and 
braced behind each seat. 
“The fire should be ten or twelve feet from 
the seats or it will kill the foliage of your shel¬ 
ter. That’s a little too far for comfort, with 
a medium sized fire, so you must throw the heat 
toward you by placing three green logs, six 
feet long, on top of each other just beyond the 
fire site. To keep them in place drive green 
stakes on each side near the ends. The ends 
of four or five ten-foot dry logs are now 
brought together in front of your reflector and 
the fire built on top where they join. When 
the ends have burned away they can be pushed 
together again. A few chunks added occas¬ 
ionally will give an even comfortable fire all 
the evening. Don’t raise the ends of the logs 
or the fire will get underneath and smoke you 
out by running the length of the logs.’’ 
When we had explored the surrounding moun¬ 
tains and fished all the tempting water within 
easy reach, we moved to a point four miles 
below where a six-mile meadow begins and Lost 
Trail Creek comes in. Some tents were visible 
near Jackson’s cabins, in the meadow, so we 
went up the creek nearly a mile to the mouth 
of a dark canon that is seldom fished. From 
our elevated camp we had a pleasing view of 
the river where it turns to the east and winds 
through the long meadow. Being here aug¬ 
mented by Lost Trail and Ute creeks, it assumes 
the majesty of a river and becomes a paradise 
for long distance fly-casters. With its mode¬ 
rate current, frequent pools and sinuous course, 
it is a haven of delight during July and August. 
In June the tributary streams afford fair sport, 
while in September all may be successfully 
fished with bait. • 
We fished up the canon above camp the first 
day. As but few fish were required for our 
daily wants, we took only one rod. The volume 
of water was satisfactory and the fishing so 
good that five out of every six captured were 
returned. Well stocked pools, easy to reach 
and to fish, were common. At other times the 
pools touched both upright walls, causing us 
some hard climbing. But we were in no hurry 
and took plenty of time in getting around ob¬ 
structions. We were only common woodsloaf- 
ers, doing the things we wanted to do, and in 
the way most pleasing to us. It was unneces¬ 
sary to assume a brisk, business air; we were 
not afraid of being arrested for loitering. We 
climbed slowly and passed hours in experiment¬ 
ing with the brightest of red, green and blue 
flies; for, be it known, an enthusiast, in the 
course of ten or twelve years, will collect an 
alarming number of things that refuse to fly 
away. 
We had succeeded beyond expectation with 
our curios when we came to a large, round and 
rather shallow pool, the home of a single big 
trout. It was Ed’s turn to catch one, and with¬ 
out any preamble, he dropped a No. 4 light blue 
fly in about the right place. 
“Nothing doing,” said he, as the fish waved 
its tail and moved away. 
I suggested one we called the Seventeenth, be¬ 
cause Ed had once worn it on St. Patrick’s day 
when shamrocks were scarce. It was a bril¬ 
liant green, fluffy creation and resembled a quar¬ 
ter section of a woman’s hat plume. Our am¬ 
phibious friend eyed it with critical admiration, 
Imt did not quite understand its mission on 
earth. Prodigious blue bottles and yellow Sal¬ 
lies from the miscellaneous bunch proved only 
mildly interesting, but a red ibis made him 
furious and sent him around the pool. Ed 
thought one more monstrosity would give re¬ 
sults. 
Many years before I had seen a large trout 
jump at a passing dragon fly. At a later time 
I had acted upon the suggestion, but having 
forgotten the details of construction, had or¬ 
dered three with gray and three with blue 
bodies, all to have gauze wings. At the time 
of ordering these curiosities the maker had ad¬ 
mitted his ignorance of the character, general 
appearance and habits of the dragon fly, and in 
the final correspondence I had deemed it neces¬ 
sary to explain that it was reputed to, and prob¬ 
ably did sew up the ears of naughty small boys. 
Armed with this additional information, my 
correspondent had tied them on hooks two and 
one-half inches long, which gave them great 
plunking ability, and adorned them with green 
glass eyes which gave them a sardonic expres¬ 
sion. He had also used unnecessary thread in 
forming the heads, doubtless inspired by the 
supposition that the material for the aforesaid 
sewing is not replenished in nature, all of which 
gave the flies a bull-doggy appearance when 
viewed from the front. At first I had inspected 
them with suspicion, from the fact that they 
lacked the stout fore legs of the bulldog, but 
remembering I had never dissected a dragon fly 
nor read the works of Olaus Magnus, I had 
gratefully accepted them. 
I produced one of my wonders rather reluc¬ 
tantly, stating it was intended for capping the 
climax of a piscatorial evolution. Ed showed 
intelligence by asking its name and then attached 
it to his leader. Directly there was an impas¬ 
sioned plunk and we saw our fish going over 
the ripples above the pool at a terrific pace. 
Since then Ed has asked me if I believe that 
fish to be still going and what kind of a demon 
he imagines pursued him. 
[to be continued.] 
Fishing in the Adirondacks. 
Little Falls, N. Y., May 27 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: So far no very large catches of 
trout have been made. In the woods the streams 
still feel the melting snow. In the lakes, how¬ 
ever, the best fishing is nearly always as soon 
as the ice is out. This lake fishing is followed 
by rift fishing and then comes the cold bed or 
summer season. 
Very few get to know the early spring lake 
fishing and few more have the joy of the best 
rift fishing. The summer fisherman gets the 
cold bed fishing, as a rule. Year after year this 
happens. There are Adirondack swift waters 
which do not feel a single cast from the begin¬ 
ning to the end of the best fishing, say from May 
20 to June 20. A very few woodsmen know the 
lake fishing. 
Old Jeff Worden used to say “Fishing is good 
in the lakes when it is good.” The fish some¬ 
times bite in one lake, when in another lake half 
a mile away they will not bite. They may bite 
at noon, at midnight or at dawn and dusk. In 
winter they are found on sandbars and at springs 
which are “warm beds” then, though in summer 
the same bed is a “cold bed.” 
As soon as the ice is going out, woodsmen 
start. They sometimes travel from lake to lake 
seeking the “feeders.” Many a hard tramp 
through soggy woods and snowy swamps has 
been rewarded by no fish at all. On the other 
hand two fishermen caught over seventy-five 
pounds of fish at one lake hole. After the 
streams go down both lakes and creeks are tried. 
Very few sportsmen have rift fishing. The 
best of the year finds most of the streams deep 
in the woods deserted. Of course woodsmen fish 
near home, but the camp country is seldom 
visited at this season. One or two flies is all 
one is likely to want on a leader, and often four 
or five fish leap at a fly. 
There are some flies which are stand-bys for 
the fishermen of Adirondack streams. The 
grizzly king with a bright green or gray body, 
the black gnat, the yellow Sallie, the brown 
hackle, the royal coachman and others of dull 
hues and pale shades. The best fly I ever tried 
had a yellow wool body nearly a quarter of an 
inch in diameter, with blue heron wings stand¬ 
ing straight up half an inch long. The usual 
hook for early rift fishing is No. 5 or 6, but 
as the season advances the flies decrease in size 
till the mid-summer cold bed fishing, when 12s 
or smaller are best. Raymond S. Spears. 
