MOUNTAIN CITY LODGE, HUNTERS’ AND 
ANGLERS’ ASSOCIATION SUGGEST 
STREAM TROPHY. 
By Thomas L. Sullivan. 
It was great good luck that persuaded the larg¬ 
est Muscallonge caught at Pine Cone Camp last 
summer to strike at my spoon. My luck still 
held when a few days ago I received the beau¬ 
tiful cup presented by Forest and Stream to me 
because of landing such a fish. In telling about 
it the delight cannot be put into words. The 
thrill that comes to the fisherman must be ex¬ 
perienced and cannot be described. 
For many years it has been my good fortune 
to be able to spend several weeks each season 
among the pine woods and lakes of Northern 
Minnesota and Wisconsin. Of late years I have 
gone to Pine Cone Camp, Minnesota. 
When you are finally seated in the Great 
Northern train in the depot at St. Paul, the re¬ 
alization comes to you that you are approaching 
the place of rest and quiet and peace. True 
enough you will stay on that train until it has 
traveled two hundred miles further, but there 
are no more changes. Your responsibilities are 
over and the air has begun to charge itself with 
qualities that soon will make you eat like a hired 
man and sleep like a dead one. If you have 
fished for muscallonge in other states you will 
be most interested in the decided air of pros¬ 
perity that covers the farms and towns as you 
see them from the car window. For two hund¬ 
red miles directly north from St. Paul you pass 
through a farming country that you will say 
compares favorably with the farms of my own 
State of Indiana. This is not true of any other 
“Muskey” locality I have ever seen. The big 
fish and crops go together in Minnesota. Else¬ 
where you cannot have both. 
Dorset is a small place, but you have great 
regard for Dorset because there you leave the 
train and get into the wagon for a drive of two 
miles to Pine Cone Camp. 
Pine Cone Camp is owned by three brothers, 
Clark, Lenord and Charley Thomas. One of 
these brothers will meet you at Dorset. They 
will all meet you at the camp. Anybody will 
feel at home in ten minutes. The whole place 
impresses you with the notion that it is run for 
your special benefit, and if you personally have 
a good time then the Thomas’s have done what 
they are there for. 
The camp is situated on a chain of lakes 
called “Sand Chain.” About one mile on each 
side of this chain is another chain, making three 
chains in all, about one mile apart and lying 
almost parallel with each other. The peculiar 
thing about it is that the “Sand Chain,” which 
is the center chain, affords fine muscallonge fish¬ 
ing, the best I have ever seen, while no muskies 
whatever are found in either of the other two 
chains. In the other two chains you will find 
walleyed pike, pickerel and Great Northern pike 
in great abundance, while in the center chain 
there are none of these fish at all. The only 
game fish that flourishes in all the chains is the 
bass. The guides of Pine Cone are men who un¬ 
derstand their business. My guide last summer 
prefers to be called Willie rather than a more 
high sounding title, and I can testify to his skill 
and efficiency both on the water and in the camp. 
The morning of the day the big fish was 
caught, we were fishing in one of the sand lakes 
FOREST AND STREAM 
about five miles from the camp. I was casting 
about the lily pads for muscallonge or bass. The 
rod was a split bamboo four feet long and 
weighing less than five ounces. Of course most 
of your readers will say it is too short. How¬ 
ever, I like it. It was made for me by the 
Montague City Rod Company of Montague, 
Massachusetts. I have used it for two sea¬ 
sons and am entirely satisfied with it. The line 
used is called “Duplex line,” 24 lbs. test made 
by Chas. Mayer & Co., Indianapolis. The fea¬ 
ture of the line is that it actually has a braided 
core. The reel a No. 3 Meek. The artificial 
lure used is new in this part of the country, 
though doubtless many of your readers know of 
it. A No. s spoon with a slot in the center, the 
single hook is pushed through the slot from the 
convex side, so that two-thirds or more of the 
hook shows on the concave side. When a fish 
is struck the hook comes out of the slot, thus 
getting the spoon out of the fish’s mouth, lessen¬ 
ing any leverage in the fish’s favor. The hook 
being in the spoon is exactly where the fish hits 
it, and last, but not least, the spoon is practi¬ 
cally weedless. 
It is also claimed for the lure that when the 
hook comes out of the slot it fastens the fish 
more firmly. This seems to be so provided the 
fisherman has struck the fish so that the hook 
will only come out of the slot and not out of 
the fish’s mouth also. 
With such tackle I was casting toward the 
shore and came to a bed of lily pads some 
twenty feet wide; between the lily pads and the 
shore was a narrow strip of clear water. A cast 
was made over the lily pads into the clear water, 
when like a bolt from a clear sky, with a rush 
and a swirl that can only be imagined, a 27% 
pound muskie had hit my spoon. Of course no 
force could be used beyond simply trying to fas¬ 
ten the fish. The immediate problem was to get 
the fish through the lily pads into deep water. 
This the fish himself solved. Fortunately the 
fish was in a narrow and shallow strip of water 
and not liking such conditions he started with 
a rush for the lily pads, tore through them in 
the direction of the boat—at no time could there 
have been more than forty feet of line in use. 
When the fish got through the lily pads he hesi¬ 
tated and stopped, and it was by no means dif¬ 
ficult, though unusual, to persuade him gently 
95 
MOUNTAIN CITY LODGE, HUNTERS’ AND 
ANGLERS ASSOCIATION SUGGEST 
CHANGES IN PENNSYLVANIA 
GAME LAWS. 
At the annual election of officers of the 
Mountain City Lodge, Hunters’ and Anglers’ 
Association, held recently in Altoona, Pa., the 
following officers were elected: 
Samuel C. Bowen was re-elected president, it 
being his fourth term. First vice-president, 
William Huber; second vice-president, George 
Fasic; secretary, H. L. Smith; directors, Fred 
Strohmeyer, S. H. Glenn and J. H. Hill. 
Want Laws Changed. 
The committees appointed to suggest changes 
in the fish laws reported that they favored limit¬ 
ing the number of fish caught, but not the size, 
claiming that many fish were lost each year be¬ 
cause they are pulled from the water and then 
thrown back on account of being undersized. 
They suggested that the laws be changed to 
permit twenty trout of any size to be caught in 
one day. The other changes suggested, follow: 
Wall-eyed pike and salmon, twenty-ifive in one 
day, any size; white, red and calico bass and 
yellow perch, twenty-five in one day, any size; 
black bass, twenty in one day, any size. 
The committee on game reported as favoring 
a law permitting a hunter to kill one buck and 
one doe deer in a season, and six rabbits in one 
day instead of ten, while a law to permit wild 
turkeys to be shot next year was also favored. 
Seek Later Seasons. 
It was recommended that all game seasons 
start on Nov. 15 and continue until Dec. 16, as 
during this season the leaves are off the trees and 
there is less danger of men being shot in the 
woods. A law placing a bounty on skunk and 
red fox was also recommended. 
The reports of these committees were all 
adopted by the organization and the legislative 
representative of Blair county will be asked to 
support measures containing the above changes. 
J. E. Pfeister, one of the leading members of 
the Harrisburg camp of sportsmen, was present 
at the meeting, and gave an address, in which 
he declared that the changes in the game and 
fish laws suggested by the Altoona sportsmen 
were about the same changes as the Harrisburg 
men favored. 
near the guide who promptly and skillfully 
put a bullet through his head. Such was 
the catching of the big fish. Mostly good 
luck, but an experience not to be forgotten, 
and an experience worth a journey of 
many miles to have enjoyed. 
FOREST AND STREAM TROPHY. 
The Accompanying Cut Shows Mrs. C. H. 
Dixon and Seven Small Mouth Black 
Bass, Taken at Lake View Resort, 
Bellaire, Mich. Mrs. Dixon Won 
FOREST AND STREAM Trophy With 
the 4 Pound Bass in Middle of String. 
