June 26, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
1019 
Fishing in the North. 
Minneapolis, Minn., June 15. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: Rainy Lake has taken on her 
summer dress and modern craft now follow the 
courses but recently marked in the ice by the 
brushed trails of loggers, Indians and trappers. 
Today her thousands of rock-bound islands are 
decked in green, her countless streams .sparkle 
in the sunshine, bidding the traveler drop his 
hook for wary trout or gamy bass. Here among 
the thousand islands of the North, nature in her 
most delightful mood tempts to life in the open 
and the fishing laws are at last unforbidding. 
To the aesthetic sense nothing can be more 
appealing than the beauties of landscape found 
in this section, of which Fort Frances and 
Rainer are the center of attraction. 1 he artis¬ 
tic perfectness of Pither’s Point opposite 
Rainer is only typical of the countless nature 
pictures spread out over the Rainy Lake region 
and passed by hundreds of vacationists daily. 
Indeed, should one come here without fishing 
rod or gun, but only with camera, one would 
be more than repaid in the endless varieties of 
distinctive settings in which rock, tree, flower, 
cloud and water play a part^—particularly in the 
brooks dashing across the islands and the 
waterfalls which vie with Minnehaha. It is 
stated with authority that the Thousand Islands 
of the St. Laurence are far outclassed by those 
less widely known in the Northwest. Here one 
may spend days and weeks in his canoe, glid¬ 
ing in and out among scenes ever changing, 
each day paddling in new waters, each night 
camping on a new island. Each day something 
fresh, something you have not seen; new 
places to explore on every hand. It means 
much indeed to fill your lungs with the North¬ 
land’s healthful balsam, or to lap up the water 
as you drift, which you may do with the as¬ 
surance of its purity. The bold, rocky shores 
of Rainy Lake forbid the growth of floating 
vegetation so often found in other lakes, and 
makes it possible to look over the gunwale into 
dizzy depths of the purest water. That the 
distances to be reckoned with here may be un¬ 
derstood, let it be said that from Fort Frances 
to Kettle Falls is forty-five miles, and from 
Fort Frances to the Devil’s Cascades, a thirty 
mile journey. This entire stretch is navigable 
by steamer as are the tributary rivers for many 
miles. Viewed as a starting point for summer 
outing trips. Fort Frances is happily located. 
Launches make daily trips westward on Rainy 
River to Warroad, at the foot of the Lake of 
the Woods. Thence one may go by steamer to 
Kenora near Winnipeg, a voyage of great in¬ 
terest. Fort Frances is but seven hours from 
Port Arthur by railway, from which point con¬ 
nections are made with various steamship lines. 
Verified accounts of the result of fishing ex¬ 
cursions in the streams and inlets tributary to 
Rainy Lake are interesting if not astonishing. 
Two men last summer trolling five hours in one 
day landed one hundred trout, one forty-one 
inches in length and weighing thirty pounds. 
No data are available as to the quantity of 
fish annually taken from our inland waters, but 
from interstate and international boundary 
waters, including the Mississippi River and 
Lake St. Croix, between Minnesota and Wis¬ 
consin, that part of Lake Superior known as the 
North Shore,Rainy Lake and Lake-of-the-Woods, 
the value of the total catch of commercial fish¬ 
ermen approximates a million dollars a year, 
nearly all of it shipped to outside markets and 
over half in quantity and value—made up of 
the humble and despised German carp, caught 
in the Mississippi River. The river is marvel¬ 
ously productive of fish of the so-called rough 
varieties, which seem to be increasing not¬ 
withstanding the heavy drain upon them. The 
Minnesota River and some interior lakes are 
also filled with carp and some legal method 
should be provided whereby they may be made 
use of commercially, their presence, on ac¬ 
count of increasing numbers, being a menace 
to the better varieties of game fish. 
Lake trout and herring constitute the bulk 
of the North Shore catch. Whitefish once 
formed an important item, but they are gone, 
due to destructive methods and over-fishing. 
Lake trout will go the way the whitefish went 
unless the United States Bureau of Fisheries 
succeeds in propagating this fish in quantity 
to maintain the supply. From the Lake-of-the- 
Woods come a half million pounds of yellow 
pike annually, as well as half as much each of 
whitefish and pickerel. Fifteen years ago this 
lake produced an annual catch of a million and 
a half pounds of sturgeon and great quantities 
of caviar, but in the year last past the stur¬ 
geon catch had dropped to 87,000 pounds, so 
that a close season for five years by interna¬ 
tional agreement is now proposed. 
Robert Page 'Lincoln. 
Fishing Near San Francisco. 
San Francisco, Cal., June 12.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Trout fishing in the vicinity of 
San Francisco is now largely at an end, owing 
to the fact that the coast streams now have but 
little water in them owing to the lack of spring 
rains, and besides the streams have been well 
fished out. Perfect weather has been the rule 
ever since the opening of the trout season and 
more fishermen than ever before have been visit¬ 
ing the nearby fishing grounds. 
Bass fishing is rapidly improving and during 
the past two weeks some very heavy catches 
have been made. The success met by those who 
have turned their attention to this branch of the 
sport has caused a falling off in the numbers 
who have been whipping the trout streams. The 
San Francisco Bass Fishing Club held an out¬ 
ing recently and met with great success in the 
fishing line. Henry Peterson’s launch, the Cap¬ 
tain Chas. Rock, was secured to carry the crowd, 
and with Speck Smith, the president of the 
club, as master of ceremonies, the outing was 
much enjoyed. 
Reports from the high sierras indicate that 
the water in the streams there is falling fast 
and that trout fishing is now good on almost 
every stream. Some of the fishermen who are 
now on the Klamath River have written to their 
friends here that it is expected that fishing on 
that stream and tributaries will be better this 
season than in many years past. Fish are very 
plentiful and in splendid condition. 
It was feared for a time that the acquisition 
of the water rights and properties along the 
river at Big Meadows by the Great Western 
Power Company would put an end to the fish¬ 
ing there, especially since that concern has posted 
orders against trespassing, but anglers who have 
been here this season state that no objection is 
made to fishing and that there are plenty of good 
fishing grounds outside the properties of the 
company. Several new hotels have been opened 
there and it is expected that a large number of 
San Francisco anglers will visit the place this 
summer. 
The black bass season opened on June i and 
these fish have proved attractive to a number 
of anglers. They are found chiefly in Prospect 
Slough and the sloughs branching out from the 
Sacramento River. During the next two months 
they will afford good sport, but when hot weather 
sets in they become sluggish. A. P. B. 
Fishing in Arkansas. 
Christie, Okla., June 12. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: What was scheduled to be a twelve- 
day contest with the game fish, alleged to in¬ 
habit the upper reaches of the Illinois River, in 
Arkansas, terminated in utter rout for the par¬ 
ties of the first part after three dismal days of 
concerted effort. If there are many fish, game 
or otherwise, in that part of that stream, and 
if they are shifty enough to avoid.the hoard 
of- snakes and turtles infesting the water, they 
surely are active enough to keep away from any 
sort of lure invented by man. And it must be 
conceded that we used very nearly all possible 
varieties of bait, from the lowly earthworm to 
the gilded, glittering artificial minnow. For 
practically three days during waking hours I 
sat and stared at a cork floating serenely on the 
water’s surface, awaiting with beating heart the 
sudden and erratic plunge which I was con¬ 
tinuously confident it would take. Sometimes I 
was trying to watch three corks at one time, 
thinking perhaps that by suspending many hooks 
in the water, some sort of fish would be hooked 
either by accident or design. 
The farmers who till the • rich bottom land 
along the course of this stream will tell you 
that the fish have been exterminated by city 
chaps. Concrete evidence to the contrary is 
stumbled upon at every turn of the creek. On 
each side, where there is space enough for a 
mink to sneak along, is a path beaten to the con¬ 
sistency of concrete. It is not argued that city 
chaps beat this trail. It was made and is kept 
in good condition by the country fisherman daily 
and nightly visiting their set lines. Like a fine 
tooth comb, crude sticks project from the mud 
banks over the water supporting these lines. 
Each fisherman sets these lines at night baited 
with rabbit, worms, birds, chicken entrails, min¬ 
nows—anything to be delectable to the taste of 
the plebian catfish. Formerly, when strict in¬ 
dividual honesty was supposed to be more preva¬ 
lent, no doubt these men the following morning 
visited their respective lines only, but according 
to many admissions the custom does not now 
prevail. Therefore, the first to arrive on his 
tour of inspection reaps the net results of this 
combined scheme to fish while you sleep. 
Tales of marvelous catches from the lips of 
different relators were listened to, but whether 
this represented the telling by many of one 
original catch could not be determined, because 
of the usual discrepancies as to detail, especially 
the number of fish landed. It was pointed out 
to these people that city folks usually compose 
the membership of all fishing and hunting clubs 
