oG6 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May 4, 19x2 
Trout Fishing. 
BY HENRY D. ATWOOD. 
I went to fish for trout one day and met a friend upon 
the way; 
He had a rod as well as I, and sought with me his luck 
to try. 
A limpid brook was winding near, its waters running 
cold and clear; 
We walked along the mossy bank, and brushed aside 
the rushes rank 
Until we came upon a turn, whose marge was crowned 
with flag and fern; 
While bending birch and maple spread their moving 
branches overhead: 
And oft above the surface there some sportive trout 
would spring in air— 
A sight to make Piscator smile and ply his art with 
skilful guile. 
In hopes that soon his tempting lure some luckless vic¬ 
tim would secure. 
With all my skill I cast my flies, but not a trout would 
deign to rise. 
Until at last with lengthened throw I let my line far 
downward go! 
As round the bend it left my sight I felt a sharp and 
savage bite: 
Out spun the line, but I felt sure his struggles long 
could not endure. 
And snubbed him hard with deftest skill, and reeled him 
up resisting still. 
He twisted, turned and ran down stream—Ah! thus to 
end an angler’s dream! 
If he should reach yon sandy shoal, it might to him 
prove safety’s goal: 
Against some stone the hook might scrape, and so from 
me he would escape! 
In fear of this I wind the reel and fret him with the 
pointed steel. 
Until I see he’s failing fast, and then I know he’s mine 
at last! 
No more he strives to plunge or spring—and to the 
shore my prize I bring. 
His spotted sides I proudly see—his weight, two pounds 
at least must be! 
What lovely hues! how bright the dyes appear to my 
admiring eyes! 
I’ll cast again just as before—in that same spot there may 
be more. 
With cautious tread approaching nigh, I watch the false, 
delusive fly 
Go sailing down the rippling stream, where rays of sun¬ 
shine softly gleam; 
And as it floats beneath the curve, round which the 
dimpling waters swerve. 
There comes a tug upon the line that tells another 
prize is mine. 
I land him soon, and then I hear my own good friend 
approaching near. 
When he arrives, he says, “Well done! Is that good 
trout the only one?” 
And I reply: “I have but two, though good ones both; 
what luck had you?” 
“Oh, well,” said he, “my luck was fair—I have enough 
with you to share. 
If you take two, we’ll each have four, and equal then 
will be our score; 
For I have six, and caught them all just there below 
the waterfall. 
And now, if you with me will go, perhaps we’ll have 
six more to show.” 
Angling in Southern California. 
Los Angeles, Cal., April 10. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: The winter tournament of the 
Tuna Club has been one of the most interesting 
and productive of sport since it was started. 
This has been due in a large measure to the 
peculiar winter. Heavy or torrential rains, 
which often come in January, drive the migra¬ 
tory fishes away. This season the rains did not 
come until March, and there was good yellow- 
tail fishing in Avalon Bay all winter, with the 
average large. Some of the finest catches have 
been made by English men and women. Sir 
and Lady Branton Smith, and Sir Henry and 
Lady Bosse have made some remarkable catches 
of yellowtail and long-finned tuna, considering 
the time. Avalon Bay is a favorite resort for 
Englishmen, and every year the Tuna Club en¬ 
tertains scores, many of whom are members of 
the British Sea Anglers’ Society of London. 
Lord Desborough, president of the latter, is an 
honorary member of the Tuna Club, and 
Charles F. Holder, president of the latter, is 
an honorary vice-president of the British club, 
so there is an interchange of courtesies. 
Being so much in evidence, it is not to be 
wondered that so many of the club prizes go 
to England. The record rod yellowtail of the 
Tuna Club is held by a foreign member, W. W. 
Simpson, of Whalley, England. He has placed 
the big 6oj4-pounder on exhibition with a 
replica of the rod and line in the British 
Museum. 
The white sea bass season opened early at 
Avalon Bay, about a dozen big fish having been 
taken so far. This fish attains a weight of 
eighty pounds here, but the average fish is 
forty pounds. It is a big cousin of the weak- 
fish taken in New York Harbor, and of the 
same genus (Cynoscion). These same fish spawn 
alongshore, near the kelp beds, and there is a 
war between the Italian and Portuguese fisher¬ 
men and the anglers to prevent their practical 
extermination. In March, while fishing near 
Long Point, J. B. Dempsey, of Cleveland, O., 
brought to gaff the season’s record white sea 
bass weighing forty-seven pounds. Another 
good-sized fish was brought to gaff by Miss L. 
King, of New York city, on heavy tackle. 
There are no adequate laws for the protec¬ 
tion of the big game and food sea fishes of 
California, hence the market fishermen loot the 
sea in season and out. When a catch large 
enough to affect the market price is taken, it 
means that a ton, more or less, of fish is 
dumped, nets are run out from the islands a 
long distance, and at short intervals, and fish 
of all kinds are taken, especially the white sea 
bass. It is apparently impossible to convince 
the average man that the fishes of the sea can 
be exhausted; but off Southern California can¬ 
ning companies in a few years have so exhausted 
the sardine supply that some of them have had 
to go out of business. 
San Clemente Island, forty miles from Los 
Angeles, is government land. It is the finest 
big game fish ground in the world, but is being 
looted, despite the fact that the Tuna Club hires 
inspectors and pays for prosecutions. A move¬ 
ment is on foot to have this splendid park out 
at sea made a fish and game or bird refuge or 
preserve, so that the people can enjoy it for 
all time. 
The Santa Catalina Island is a part of Los 
Angeles county, and Avalon is a town of six 
thousand, or seven thousand in summer, the 
property being owned by people all over the 
country, while the bulk of the island is owned 
by a single company. These owners have done 
what they could to protect the fish, and the 
Avalon boatmen and allied interests, who have 
nearly two hundred thousand dollars invested, 
have done what they could, but the looting 
goes on. The fact that three kinds of tunas, 
the long fin, the yellow fin and the leaping tuna, 
spawn in the Santa Catalina Channel, and have 
afforded wonderful sport, has attracted the at¬ 
tention of Japan, that has practically looted the 
islands of shellfish. They now propose to can 
the long-finned tuna, and a tunny fishery ap¬ 
proximating that of the Mediterranean may be 
seen here in the near future. The long-finned 
tuna exists here in such vast numbers that it 
cannot be depleted, but tons can be taken. 
Nearly all the market fishermen in Los Angeles 
are aliens. The fish are taken and much of the 
money goes to China, Japan and Italy. 
The difficulty is to make Californians under¬ 
stand that a sport like angling has an enormous 
value to the State, and that it exceeds in value 
the market catches. The economic value of 
sport to California is not less than three million 
dollars per annum. That is, anglers in the 
State and foreign anglers who come to it every 
year spend this amount, and at least two million 
dollars is spent by anglers in yachts, power 
launches, employes, bait, bait catchers, glass- 
bottom boats, rods, reels, lines, and all the 
articles used in fishing, transportation, railroads, 
hotels, etc. As a rule the general public does 
not appreciate the value of sport to a State. 
The sport had at the government Island of San 
Clemente has done more to attract attention to 
Southern California than the combined efforts 
of all its real estate “boomers” and boards of 
trade; and the reason is plain that there is the 
finest sea angling in the world, within twenty 
or thirty miles of a city of four hundred thou¬ 
sand inhabitants (Los Angeles); and the result 
is a pilgrimage of from two hundred thousand 
to two hundred and fifty thousand people to 
these localities from all over the world, yet the 
average deputy game warden will side with the 
market man against the angler from England 
or the East, forgetting that each angler employs 
a boatman who owns a boat that is valued from 
one thousand to four thousand dollars. The 
economic value of sport is a question of na¬ 
tional importance. 
The leaping tuna has been superseded as the 
great game fish, and the great swordfish, which 
attains a weight of four or five hundred pounds, 
has been given first place by the experts of the 
Tuna Club. In its play, it is more spectacular 
than a tarpon, but not so hard a fighter as the 
tuna. As an illustration, the tarpon will rarely 
make twenty leaps. In my experience, this is a 
good exhibit, but Gifford Pinchot took a swordfish 
that leaped fifty times before he landed it. Last 
season a large number were taken, and they 
have already been seen off San Clemente, and a 
good season is anticipated. Long-finned tuna 
have been taken all winter. 
The season for anglers on the mainland 
beaches has been fair, and surf fish or roncador 
fishing from the beaches is getting better every 
day. Anglers have been enjoying the steelhead 
trout fishing at the mouth of the Ventura and 
San Ynez rivers, and some ten- and fifteen- 
pounders taken. The rainbow trout season 
opened April i, and a fine season is anticipated 
in the San Gabriel, Rincon, Ventura, Santa 
Ynez, Bear Valley, Santa Ana and others. 
Senor X. 
Why He Didn’t Catch Any. 
Keeper —Do you know this water is preserved, 
sir? 
Angler (of little experience, still awaiting a 
bite)—I thought there was something the matter 
with it!—Philadelphia Press. 
