March 30, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
499 
II---- ' 
A National Casting Tournament. 
1 Racine, Wis., March 23.— Editor Forest and 
stream: That there seems to be a considerable 
[•amount of interest taken in the International 
Tournament of Bait- and Fly-Casting Clubs, 
.vhich is to be given by the Racine Fly-Casting 
Club at Racine, Wis., Aug. 15, 16, 17, 1907, is 
| evidenced by the many commendatory letters 
vhich the committee are receiving from various 
-.ources. The manufacturers are responding 
-lobly to the call which has been made on them, 
md are particularly moved to do so in view of 
he recent action of the affiliated clubs in deter- 
nination not to solicit donations of prizes for 
dub contests or merely local tournaments, and 
is a result, the prize list promises to be the 
biggest ever offered. All the committees feel 
hat they have their work cut out for them, and 
ire rapidly getting things in shape even at this 
early date, so that they know where they are 
it. 
It is the general impression that we will have 
the biggest crowd at Racine that has ever at- 
ended a tournament in the history of the sport, 
md it behooves each and every one to be up and 
loing. It is the earnest desire of all commit¬ 
tees that no favoritism be shown any one in 
any way, and this, of course, is meeting with 
general approval. New clubs are being formed 
■ ;n various places, and will, no doubt, rapidly 
iffiliate with the National Association. Milwau¬ 
kee has dropped into line, and ought to support 
1 first class organization, and being close by, they 
should be well represented at the tournament. 
In this connection we wish to add that the 
National Association has given the matter of the 
professional its close attention. Every considera¬ 
tion and courtesy will be extended to the reput- 
ible and sportsmanlike professional, and oppor- 
:unities will be given him to display his skill and 
nake records. A sincere effort will be put forth 
to make all restrictions of professionals as fair 
md friendly as possible, and to look after their 
welfare and enjoyment to the fullest extent. 
However, it is recognized that the time has 
arrived to establish a demarcation between the 
two different interests, and the Racine tourna- 
nent will be conducted largely for the caster who 
i engages in the sport solely for the love of same, 
' and who is without trade jealousies or financial 
^interest in the game. 
The entertainment committee is making ar- 
: rangements about accommodations, and it will 
not be necessary to “double up” as is usual for 
: conventions of this sort. A. H. Barnes. 
► 
; -- - 
Black Flies and Trout Fishing. 
Tt was while I was sitting in the lobby of the 
King Edward Hotel in Toronto and dreaming, 
over a cigar, of the experiences of two weeks, 
j which had been spent on the Muskoka Lakes,. 
I that Jack and Tom came in. After greetings 
had been exchanged and numerous questions 
asked, such as, “Where did you come from?” 
“Where have you been?” and “Why didn’t you 
; let us know you were in town?” we seated our- 
! selves to have an old-time chat and enlighten 
1 each other on the trials and tribulations, suc- 
! cesses and failures of the past five years of our 
' lives. 
We were old school mates in Svracuse, but 
thinking we could see brighter prospects sonte- 
wbere else, we had drifted apart. Tom, to 
Toronto; Jack, to Buffalo, and I, to a town 
near Cleveland; and in trying to establish repu¬ 
tations, we had not felt like taking outings ex¬ 
cept for a day or two for the past few vears. 
As we had had many of these outings in the 
J good old days of our boyhood, it was with a 
' great deal of delight that we met at this time. 
Jack had come over from Buffalo that morning 
for a two weeks’ vacation, and it being the dull 
! season in his business, Tom was open for any 
kind of an engagement, and I had another week 
uin which to enjoy the beauties of nature and 
come and go where I pleased. 
After talking over old times and getting each 
: others’ history for the past five years, we be- 
1 gjn to talk over plans for a fishing trip; of pike, 
| pickerel, lake trout, muscalonge, and where to 
find them, until we aroused the curiosity of a 
stranger who was sitting near and who, like 
all fishermen with a good catch, likes to talk 
about them, and exhibit them to everybody. 
The stranger, therefore, told about the speckled 
trout he had hooked, up in the woods north 
of Toronto; that he had just come in from 
there, and that he had a basket of trout in his 
room, that he was taking home. Of course we 
wanted to see them and were shown fifty of as 
fine brook trout as it has ever been my pleasure 
to look at, their speckled sides fairly sparkling, 
as they lay among the fresh, damp grass. 
When we had feasted our eyes on this en¬ 
trancing view, it sent the warm blood of the 
sportsman coursing through our veins, and we 
wanted to start immediately for the place. 
On looking up the time-table we found we 
could leave Toronto about midnight and arrive 
in Burk’s Falls at daylight the next morning; 
this being the place where the stranger said he 
had caught the trout. Tom said he knew Hughey 
who ran the Burk’s Falls Hotel; also that he 
was a genial host and a sportsman. Tom had 
met Hughey in Toronto and he had promised 
to take him out trout fishing or deer hunting 
any time he would come up there. 
This clinched our decision and we parted to 
get fishing tackle and clothing together and meet 
at the train. Our trip was of the sleepy kind, 
and when we arrived at Burk’s Falls our host, 
Hughey, a jolly, red-headed Irishman, six feet 
and one inch in his stocking feet, was there in 
person to meet us. We were loaded into the 
bus and driven down the rocky road to the 
hotel. The hotel and hamlet are situated in a 
hollow at the foot of the falls in as pretty wood¬ 
land as one could desire, with hills rising all 
around, and a stream of crystal clearness tumb¬ 
ling and tossing over a rocky decline, too steep 
to be called rapids and yet not the sudden 
drop of falls. 
The morning was spent in getting things in 
readiness for an early start after dinner, and 
in the meantime we made the acquaintance of 
George, a commercial traveler, who had finished 
his business, and as he could not leave town 
until late in the evening, he expressed a desire 
to go with us and was taken in as one of the 
party. Everything in readiness and dinner eaten 
we started off, a party of six, five fishermen to 
whip the stream for trout and the sixth, a 
porter to carry the good things with which to 
regale ourselves on the jaunt. 
After traveling about a mile up the stream 
through underbrush, over rocks and encounter¬ 
ing black flies so thick that they were like a 
cloud over us, we prepared to make our first 
cast. Our host had prepared a special salve 
which the flies could not bite through, but in 
which they would land and stick, like fly¬ 
paper. With this we covered our hands and 
faces, but nevertheless we had to pick the flies 
out of our eyes and ears, blow them out of 
our noses and keep our mouths shut, for fear 
of swallowing some. But they say in that coun¬ 
try that the trout bites best when the flies are 
thickest. 
This was an ideal stream for trout, as it 
tumbles over a rock and settles in a basin at 
the bottom, forming a shady pool; or goes 
swiftly through a narrow passage and then a 
rapid or a sharp turn. This was continued, 
with variations as far up as we went, a distance 
of about five miles, and Hughey told us we 
could go ten or fifteen miles further with the 
same results. After fishing up stream for about 
an hour, with very good results, we came to a 
large deep pool, and Tom suggested that we 
go in for a swim. This was seconded by all 
of us, and as we were so far back in the woods 
that we did not need bathing suits, we enjoyed 
the frolics which we used to have, in the old 
swimming hole, when boys. On coming out 
of the water George lay down on the bank, 
en deshabille and went to sleep, so we, thought¬ 
lessly, decided to leave him there, fish up the 
stream for a way and get him on our way back. 
The fishing was all that the stranger had said 
it was, as we could not stop at a pool or hole 
without pulling out from eight to twenty with¬ 
out moving. One caught by Tom measured 
fifteen inched, four others measured twelve 
inches, quite a number were from nine to ten 
inches and the balance ran down to six inches 
in length. The trout seemed so hungry that they 
would follow the bait clear out of the water, 
and a few were hooked by the fish seizing the 
bait while it was in the air. This made it so 
interesting for us that we forgot all about 
George, and it was nearing dusk when we got 
back to him and found him still asleep. The 
sight was one that appeared humorous to us 
at the time, but which turned out to be a very 
serious proposition, and one that we will never 
forget. His body was entirely covered with 
black flies, each one of which had left its sting 
and this was beginning to swell, there being 
hardly a square inch of his body that did not 
have several bites in it. Any one who has had 
one bite and knows how it swells and itches 
can imagine how he felt to have this multiplied 
thousands of times. 
We forgot all about fishing and took him 
back to the hotel, by which time he was puffed 
up like a puff ball, as the poison had gone all 
through his system and the itching had become 
painful. We called in the only doctor in the 
place, and he covered George’s body with a 
cooling salve to stop the burning and ad¬ 
ministered medicines internally to drive out the 
poison; but it was two weeks before George 
was able to take the road again, and for a num¬ 
ber of days it was a question whether or not 
it would end fatally. This took some of the 
good cheer out of the feast of trout we had 
prepared to have on our return to the hotel, 
but as we were famished from the violent ex¬ 
ercise of climbing over rocks and through 
brush, we turned our fish over to the cook, and 
after making George as comfortable as possible, 
sat down to a feast fit for an epicure. 
We remained at Burk’s Falls the rest of the 
week, made three more trips after trout, with 
as good results as the first day, and returned 
to Toronto Saturday night to depart for our 
different homes, after promising to meet next 
year and spend two weeks together in the same 
locality, as we certainly regretted leaving there 
and going back to our daily routine of labor. 
E. F. Lake. 
The Shad. 
Philadelphia, March 9. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: At this time of the year the thoughts 
of readers of Forest and Stream turn toward 
fish and fishing. I am a great lover of this 
kind of sport, but my opportunities have been 
limited to only a few kinds. At this time the 
shad fishery is about starting in the lower Dela¬ 
ware and a few warm days will bring them up 
the river. 
We have a great many old fishermen on the 
Delaware that are loaded with information con¬ 
cerning this fish and its habits, opinions dif¬ 
fering on certain points, and many long argu¬ 
ments you can hear among them, but on one 
point they seem to all agree, that he is migra¬ 
tory. He starts early in the season from south¬ 
ern waters and makes his way north as the sea¬ 
son advances, entering the fresh water streams, 
following to their head waters to spawn. After 
spawning he returns the route he came and is 
seen no more until the next season, and many 
of the debates I have heard as to where he is 
between seasons, but our Delaware fisherman 
will tell you he is never seen at sea or caught 
in any manner only in the spring "in the bays 
and rivers. 
In August, 1905, it was my good fortune to 
spend my vacation on Monhegan Island, Maine, 
which kas been inhabited by fishermen since 
1619, and with the catching of lobsters is the 
only occupation of the people of this island. 
The squid and kyack are the usual bait, the 
kyack being used when the squid is not around. 
The kyack is a species of herring. The people 
of Monhegan carry on a very extensive fishery 
in the same manner as was used a hundred 
years ago—namely, with the hand line, never 
using trawls or traps of any kind. They drift 
for bait at night with a seine. One night my 
friend Davis and I put out a net and made a 
short drift and were rewarded by about five 
hundred pounds of not kyack, what we were 
