980 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[June 19, 1909. 
Nebraska Fishing. 
Omaha, Neb., June 5. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: These are certainly fishing days, and 
after all the late opening of the bass season is 
proving a good thing. In the old law-free days 
lucky was the angler who was on the spot in 
the first sultry days of April, just after the ice 
had disappeared and the waters had begun to 
grow tepid under the rays of the climbing sun. 
Then the big bass came to the surface for the 
first time since autumn and were as hungry as 
the urchin at a church social. If you only troll 
your shiner along the dim and broken border 
of last season’s rushes your chances for a big 
one could never be better, and when he strikes 
and discovers that the tempting lure only hides 
a stubborn and indigestible steel barb, what a 
battle he will give you. 
But we have learned many things in this era 
of higher education and we know now that May 
and June are the real fishing months. The July 
and August vacationist may dally with the indo¬ 
lent fish in mid-summer, but the real angler 
heard the call of the wild the moment the ice 
left the lakes in April and through May, and 
for a good old fashioned day with hook and 
line they were there with no delay. 
“Do you know the blackened timber—do you know the 
racing stream? 
With the raw right-angled log jam at the end? 
And the bar of sun-warmed shingle, where a man may 
bask and dream— 
To the click of shod canoe-poles round the bend? 
It is there that we are going, with our rods and reels 
and traces. 
To a silent, smoky Indian that we know; 
To a couch of new-pulled hemlock, with the starlight in 
our faces. 
For the Red Gods call us out, and we must go.” 
That primitive instinct that we inherit from 
a hunting and fishing ancestry begins to stir us 
vigorously when the woods and fields and waters 
first begin to awaken from their winter sleep. 
Whoever has felt the chilly tang of the early 
April bass waters in the good Auld Lang Syne, 
as he trolled or cast at Omaha’s old-time favored 
resort. Lake Washington, Minn., when, on whose 
banks the leaves were just bursting, or whipped 
his frog or minnow into the eddies at the inlet 
or the outlet, where the foamy waters came with 
a spring time dash, knew well the power of the 
call of the April and May winds. 
And so it is to-day. The same old fever is 
raging and there is no antitoxin but that found 
in a day’s fishing. Going? Of course you are, 
when the season is here, but where? That is the 
question. In Nebraska there are so many good 
places that it is hard to determine just where to 
go. Nearby we have: 
Lake Nakoma or Cut Off Lake—Bass, crappie, 
sunfish, cat and carp. 
Manawa, over the big bridge—Bass, black, 
striped and silver, croppie, bluegills and pickerel. 
Waterloo—Bass, croppie, carp, bluegills and 
channel cat. 
West Point—Bass, croppie, carp, sunfish and 
cat. 
Along the Loup—Bass, pike and pickerel. 
Along the Rawhide—Bass. 
Springfield—Bass and croppie. 
Fullerton—Bass, croppie, wall-eyed pike, sun¬ 
fish and cat. 
Ainsworth, Ender’s Lake—Bass in abundance. 
"Valentine and Woodlake, at Hackberry, Dewey 
and Long lakes—Bass in endless quantities. 
Sidney, Oberfelder lakes—Bass galore. 
Noble’s Lake—Bass, croppie and sunfish. 
The Boardman—Trout. 
The Verdigre—-Trout. 
Upper Niobrara—Trout. 
White Clay—Trout. 
Birdwood—T rout. 
Slagle—Trout. 
Notwithstanding that a day a-stream is only 
the febrifuge for the fever that has laid its 
hands upon you, there is no doubt that the late 
rains have left the water too roily to insure 
good fishing just now, and it cannot be looked 
for until this condition disappears. 
Of course there are some species of fish that 
will bite at any time, or in any kind of weather, 
but when it comes to the higher order of game 
fishes—such as you and I are wont to take— 
trout, black bass, muskellunge, pickerel, pike and 
croppie, you will assuredly find that favorable 
conditions are essential to a big string or ple¬ 
thoric creel. 
It may be a little venturesome to mention trout 
when descanting on the subject of local angling, 
but I hardly think so now that there is plenty 
of good sport to be had with these much-prized 
fishes in a dozen Nebraska streams and when 
hundreds of local anglers now make annual trips 
to Minnesota and to the mountains. A few 
years ago the man who dared to mention trout 
fishing in Nebraska would have been laughed 
at, but not so to-day when, in season, as big 
baskets almost of both speckled and rainbow 
are taken from the picturesque Long Pine, the 
Verdi Gris, Boardman, Slagle and a number of 
other streams as a result from long journeys to 
the so-called natural habitat of these fishes. 
They are the fruits of Nebraska’s first fish com¬ 
mission, that of a dozen or so years ago, as 
much as to recent exertions of the men of to¬ 
day. In the course of a few more years, with 
our fish culture affairs properly and competently 
managed as they are being now, we will have 
them in still greater quantities, and the sport 
will be more economical and readier of access, 
although I have never been very hopeful of an 
energetic advocate of trout propagation in 
Nebraska. The fundamental principle, the most 
necessary element to their thrift, is largely miss¬ 
ing, and black bass, wall-eyed pike, pickerel, sun¬ 
fish and croppie, as the superintendent of our 
fisheries. Will O’Brien, will tell you, are much 
better adapted for our waters as well as our 
wants. 
It was formerly my idea, but I will confess 
to a gradual change of opinion on this head, that 
if we desired trout we could go to the trout’s 
natural lair for them instead of resorting to 
the half barbarous warfare against' them in in¬ 
adequate waters, muddy lakes and private stag¬ 
nant ponds. But as I intimated above, I am be¬ 
ginning to be convinced that propagation of this 
precious denizen of cool- running streams, right 
here in our wonderful State, is a good thing, 
and that the more we have of it under favorable 
conditions the better we will be off. 
With the black bass it is and has always been 
different. All we have to do is to visit nearby 
waters and enjoy their pursuit to the utmost. 
The bass, both big and little-mouth, are indige¬ 
nous here, almost anywhere, and while' certain 
nearby lakes have been all but depopulated by 
lawless market fishermen, it will not take many 
years for them to accumulate again under a 
rigid wardenship, for which our new laws pro¬ 
vide, and we will again have as choice bass fish¬ 
ing as may be obtained anywhere in the world. 
The black bass is fit for the hook at the age of 
three years, but better at four and better still 
the older it grows. Nebraska’s fresh waters are 
his native and natural element, and they have 
never failed to thrive when planted in properly 
constructed and properly attended private ponds. 
Give the ordinary angler black bass to angle for 
and he will never have cause to rebel or remon¬ 
strate. Sandy Griswold. 
* 
Chicago Fly-Casting Club. 
Chicago, Ill., June 7. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The complimentary tournament given 
by the Chicago Fly-Casting Club at the opening 
of the new Anglers’ Pool, in Garfield Park, was 
eminently successful. The attendance greatly 
exceeded expectations. There were sixty-two 
entries in the quarter-ounce bait event, sixty- 
four in the half-ounce bait event and fifteen in 
the accuracy fly event, but twenty were entered 
in the half-ounce distance, as the hour was late. 
'W^'m. Stanley, of the Illinois Bait-Casting Club, 
and C. Nordholm, of the Chicago Anglers’ Club, 
were tied for first place in the quarter-ounce 
bait event with an average of 99.2 per cent. In 
the cast-off Mr. Stanley was the winner. In the 
half-ounce bait event O. J. Loomis, of the Chi¬ 
cago Fly-Casting Club, averaged 99.1 per cent. 
The accuracy fly was a beautiful e.xhibition and 
was won by 1 . H. Bellows, Chicago Fly-Casting 
Club, with an average of 996-15 per cent. The 
half-ounce distance was won by T. Nordholm, 
Chicago Anglers’ Club. The average of five 
casts was 167 4-5 feet. The longest single cast 
was made by L. E. De Garmo, of the Illinois 
Bait-Casting Club, 189 feet. The guest trophies, 
awarded to that member of any visiting club 
making the highest general average in the quar¬ 
ter-ounce and half-ounce accuracy, were won as 
follows: Illinois Bait-Casting Club, "W. H. 
Stanley, 98.65 per cent.; Anglers’ Club of Chi¬ 
cago, C. B. Njordholm, 98.6 per cent.; North 
Shore Casting Club, A. E. Sutor, 95 per cent.; 
Elgin Anglers’ Club, A. J. 'Winteringham, 98.05 
per cent. The representative of the Blooming¬ 
ton Club did not compete. 
The scores made in the regular club contest of 
June 5 were as follows: 
D. F. Beatty. 
%02. 
Bait. 
... 98.1 
Re¬ 
entry. 
Acc’y 
Fly. 
Re¬ 
entry. 
Dr. C. F. Brown. 
... 96.6 
95.5 
97 
97 13-15 
R. W. Crompton...... 
... 98.5 
97.8 
JN. C. Heston.. 
... 97.3 
98.8 
97 13-15 
98 
John Hohmann .. 
...97 
E. R. Letterman. 
... 98.5 
98 
98 7-15 
98 14-15 
0 . T. Loomis. 
... 98.1 
98 13-15 
F. N. Peet. 
... 97.8 
98 4-15 
H. Wheeler Perce. 
... S8.3 
99 
E. A. Snell. 
... 97.5 
97.i 
Visitor: 
M. H. Cooley. 
.. 97 
97.6 
Geo. a. Davis, Sec’y. 
A PLEASING DESSERT 
always wins favor for the housekeeper. The 
many possibilities of Borden’s Peerless Brand 
Evaporated Milk (unsweetened) make it a boon 
to the woman who wishes to provide these 
delicacies for her family with convenience and 
economy. Dilute Peerless Milk to desired rich¬ 
ness and use same as fresh milk or cream 
—Adv. 
All the dsh laivs of the 'United States and 
Canada, reznsed to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
