June 19, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
981 
Minnesota Fishing Notes. 
Minneapolis, Minn., June 10.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Bass fishermen were cut loose 
May 29 and in the coming weeks enthusiastic 
anglers will be out in great numbers. Although 
early season enthusiasts get after walleyes and 
croppies throughout May, Western fishermen 
generally are bass specialists, and the majority 
of sportsmen who angle with rod and reel wait 
until the opening of the bass season. 
On the 30th I went to a neighboring lake and 
hooked five before dinner. This tempted me to 
try again in the afternoon, but without success. 
The bait question bothers the bass fisherman at 
the opening of the season and there is a wide 
difference of opinion among anglers on the mat¬ 
ter. One swears by a live bait, while another 
sticks to the artificial minnow, and each may 
very well be wrong. The man who has any set 
rules for bait is likely to make a mistake and 
each individual angler should follow the lessons 
of his own experience. Many fishermen still 
use the long cane pole and a fairly long line and 
are very successful. Rowing along the edge of 
the lilypads, the live bait is dropped here and 
there and nearly the same results are obtained 
as in casting with a frog. For this fishing the 
frog is undoubtedly the best bait. 
Although the international fisheries treaty was 
signed recently by Dr. David Starr Jordan and 
Prof. Edward E. Prince, respectively the Ameri¬ 
can and British commissioners, its final restric¬ 
tions upon and regulations of sturgeon fishing 
in boundary waters will undoubtedly depend 
upon extensive experiments to be undertaken 
at Warroad, Minn., about July 10. The inter¬ 
national commission has worked over the treaty 
for about two years and with the signatures of 
the commissioners attached, it will go to Presi¬ 
dent Taft shortly. Upon approval by him it will 
then go to the premier of Canada. Dr. Jordan 
recently stated that upon the subject of sturgeon 
fishing, in which the State of Minnesota has 
been particularly interested, the treaty provisions 
are such that the agreement is subject to amend¬ 
ment, provided circumstances require it in the 
future. 
“The sturgeon problem has been one of the 
most perplexing with which we have had to 
deal,” said Dr. Jordan. “We have secured all 
the information that was to be had upon the 
subject, but that information is limited. We do 
not know how long it takes sturgeon to grow, 
how methods are best adopted to keeping waters 
stocked with them, or how the supplies may be 
renewed when lakes and waters are depleted. 
The Lake-of-the-Woods, between Minnesota and 
Canada, has the most abundant supply of stur¬ 
geon to-day and the fish have not noticeably de¬ 
creased in numbers during the last few years. 
We do not know how to maintain the supply, 
however, and therefore cannot be entirely sure 
of the best regulations to put forth for the 
sturgeon fisheries. I expect to visit the district 
in June some time with the British commissioner. 
We will go to Duluth June 10 to take up the 
whitefish and trout question. It is the present 
plan to go to Warroad, on the Minnesota side 
of the Lake-of-the-Woods about July 10, and 
begin experiments in the artificial handling of 
sturgeon to determine whether satisfactory arti¬ 
ficial propagation can be accomplished. What¬ 
ever definite regulations are made on sturgeon 
fishing may depend upon these experiments, as 
the treaty remains open to amendment on this 
subject.” 
The sturgeon fishing industry is especially 
profitable because of the great value received 
for the sturgeon eggs which sell as Russian 
caviar. The fish have been practically eliminated 
from many of the boundary waters, but it is pro¬ 
posed to restrict operations now so as to prevent 
the disappearance of the American sturgeon. 
State Fish and Game Protector William Ferree, 
of Cayuga, is in the city to-day and he stated 
that there were a lot of interesting things seen 
in the fish line every day the nets are drawn at 
Cayuga Lake by the fishermen licensed to draw 
nets for the purpose of eliminating carp from 
the lake. Up to date and under the poor weather 
conditions the fishermen have taken twenty-five 
tons of carp from the lower end of the lake, and 
in seventy-five hauls of the nets not a peck of 
perch has been caught, showing that the carp 
have been gradually eating up the better species. 
The netters have also caught some whitefish 
FAIR ONES FROM THE ADIRONDACKS. 
weighing up to three pounds each and fresh 
water herring weighing in the neighborhood of 
a pound. One day last week a beautiful speci¬ 
men of rainbow trout, weighing ten pounds, was 
caught, and had Mr. Ferree been present he 
would have taken it and had it mounted. The 
fish was turned out in the waters of the lake. 
Robert Page Lincoln. 
Adirondack Notes. 
Blue Mountain Lake, N. Y., June 9.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: A friend once quaintly re¬ 
marked to me, “It is a good thing when one 
learns to take human nature as it is and not as 
it ought to be.” Something of this philosophy 
has been needed this spring in the Adirondacks, 
where we are obliged to take nature as she is. 
May was cold, moderately wet and immoderately 
backward. The little tillable ground was unfit for 
working and even now the leaves are only about 
half grown. June i brought a change and 
moderately warm weather, things advanced. It 
had seemed like a strange mixture of spring 
and fall in the woods with fall predominating, 
but now it begins to look like summer. 
This study of nature in her varying moods is 
one of the most fascinating privileges of the 
sportsman. The early spring llowers with moun¬ 
tain hardihood and boldness trying to conform 
to their calendar, contrasted strongly, almost 
painfully, with the chill atmosphere and the 
bleak desolation of the hardwood forests where 
distance (in vision) did not lend enchantment 
to the view. 
Most of the forms of vegetation are as back¬ 
ward as the trees. One is bothered to find some¬ 
thing to line his trout basket. It does not seem 
fitting that such a magnificent fish as a brook 
trout should lack suitable setting for his beauty. 
Therefore, line the creel—leaves, ferns, grasses— 
something from the forest. ’Tis well at this 
time of exorbitant prices for beef, if one can 
get plenty of trout, to suit the lining. This has 
been generally the case, although no large catches 
are reported except in connection with the flood¬ 
ing of a river by the lumbermen in getting out 
the lagging remnants of last season’s cut of logs. 
And of course the advantage of this fell mainly 
to the river drivers themselves. 
Many speak of the comparative scarcity of 
trout as due in part to the extreme drouth of 
last year. The fish are certainly not distributed 
through the streams as usual. By the public 
spirit of some of the regular summer visitors 
here and the courtesy of the Forest, Fish and 
Game Commission, several thousand trout fry 
have been planted in these and adjacent waters 
_this spring. It is believed that restocking will 
keep up the fish supply. 
A fishing party recently had a queer experience. 
Leaving a pack basket with lunch, some rods and 
other duffle beside the trail, the party visited a 
pond and returned for lunch. It had been 
broken open and a good share eaten. This was 
unusual. Further examination showed clothing 
injured, a fine rod case partly eaten and another 
rod stolen. Careful search revealed this about 
thirty feet distant and concealed under a log 
for future use. Some of the party expressed a 
willingness to leave the hedgehog some flies, but 
others craved vengeance. Neither were grati¬ 
fied, as the thief had betaken himself to safety. 
The place of usefulness of these marauders of 
the woods in the scheme of creation is as great 
a mystery as that of the mosquito. 
Juvenal. 
The Anglers’ Club of New York. 
New York City, June 14.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The regular weekly contest of the 
Anglers’ Club of New York, held on June 3, 
resulted as follows; 
quarter-ounce bait. 
R. J. Held. 
Best Cast. 
. 157 
Hdcp. 
0 
Score. 
157 
H. Friedman .. 
. 139 
10 8 
149 8 
E. B. Rice. 
. 135 
14 
149 
P. D. Frazer... 
. 99 
50 
149 
E. B. Rice. 
HALF-OUNCE BAIT. 
. 191 
20 8 
211 8 
R. T. Held. 
. 200 
0 
200 
H. Eriedman..., 
. 162 
26 8 
188 8 
W. McGuckin ., 
. 102 
84 
186 
The next event will be cast off on June 10 and 
will be distance fly and salmon fly. 
Edward Farnham Todd, Sec’y. 
The Forest and Stream may he obtained from 
any neivsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
