901 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
arrival. Messrs. C. W. and W. J. Epting, of 
Philadelphia, passed through Boston on May -?o 
bound for Pierce Pond, wjiere they will stay 
until Oct. 15 Fdr many years they have fished 
together in Maine and express themselves as 
1 better satisfied at Pierce than with any place 
they have previously visited. F. E. Thompson, 
! of Arlington, Mass., with a party of five, has 
just left for an extended trip to Somerset county, 
I Maine, 4 hey will make the Rowe Pond camps 
their headquarters, but expect to fish Pierce Big 
[ and Little Otter and Carry Ponds. 
On May 31 the following persons who went 
1 to Maine with C. A. Lane are Frank W. Pray 
and Edward R. Snow, of Newton; Dr H L 
Shepard. E. P. Randlett and William Smith, of 
Winchester; Fred. J. Brown, of Woburn; C B 
Goss, of Melrose, and E. H. Kilfield, of Boston. 
Rowe Pond is their destination, but they expect 
to fish all the ponds of the neighborhood during 
a ten days’ stay. Dr. M. A. Cummings and Jere 
A. Downs, of Winchester, have gone to Lam¬ 
bert Lake, Maine. E. H. Stone, of Winchester, 
accompanied by a friend, has gone to Grand 
Lake stream. Mr. and Mrs. L. R. Cobb have 
just, returned from the Passaconway River coun¬ 
try in New Hampshire. They succeeded in creel¬ 
ing two dozen small trout in two days. A longer 
stay was intended, but freezing weather drove 
them out. • Mr. Herbert Austin, of Boston, ac¬ 
companied by Miss Austin, will leave in a few 
days for Grand Lake. They will take along an 
outfit and go into camp on Scraggly Lake. Mr. 
Austin has fished over this region for several 
wears and always with the best of success. 
! • A party, consisting of Dr. G. C. Mahoney, Z. 
i;E. Cliff, J. H. and J. E. Perry, Chas. M. Cos¬ 
grove, Asa P. Foster, Frank A. Teele, W. A. 
Snow and E. P. Howard, all of Somerville, and 
IjAsa Minard, of Medford, will leave on June 7 
[for two weeks on the King and Bartlett preserve 
in the Dead River region of Maine. Probably 
jten days of the trip will be spent in camp on 
jiB.ig Spencer • Lake at a spot which the party 
discovered last season and which pleased them 
enough to demand another visit. Hackle. 
Pennsylvania Fish. 
W. E. Meehan, Commissioner of Fisheries, 
las made the following report to Governor 
Stuart, of Pennsylvania, in relation t® his de- 
)artment for the six months beginning Dec. 1, 
906: 
j In fish culture the department has broken all 
ecords ever made for a full year’s work. From 
•even hatcheries out of the eight owned by the 
’tate there were hatched and distributed 652,- 
; 99 , 43 i fish as against 397,636,790 in 1906, 143,- 
;50,io8 in 1905, and 78,985,867 in 1904. Thus 
he output for the last six months is greater by 
lore.than 30,000,000 than the previous three years 
ombined. Of the fish hatched and distributed 
his year 39,446,500 were whitefish, 7,000,000 
ake herring, 5,000,000 smelt, 234,000.075 yellow 
erch, 241,000,000 pickerel, 3.000,000 shad, 8,283,- 
00 brook trout, n 1,773-750 wall-eyed pike, and 
j ,553,000 lake trout. 
There was an increase in the output of white- 
sh, yellow perch, pickerel and wall-eyed pike; 
heavy decrease in the number of lake herring; 
slight decrease in the number of brook and 
j l ^ e trout. The cause of the decrease in the 
i umber of lake herring was the old law which 
f rovided for a close season in Lake Erie at the 
i me the fish were spawning. The output re- 
I arted should be added to in the next six months 
J y other fish which spawn later, notably blue 
ike, black bass, catfish, sunfish, rock bass and 
old fish. There are also in the hatcheries at 
I as t 500,000 tadpoles which should be ready to 
I s shipped as frogs in the summer. 
| The department now has under its charge eight- 
J atcheries, all of which will produce fish before 
he end of the year. Two are for trout ex- 
i usively, two for bass, trout and lake fishes, two 
hr black bass and lake fishes exclusively, one 
)r lake fishes exclusively, and one for river 
; hes exclusively. Two of the eight were started 
st June. 
From information received from all parts of 
ennsylvania there seems to be a decided in- 
ease in the number of trout in the streams 
suitable for their existence. While weather con¬ 
ditions have been unfavorable for large catches, 
anglers report fish of all sizes abundant, that 
the proportion this year is greater than the pro¬ 
portion last year over the previous year. I am 
also pleased to report the apparent restoration 
of the whitefish industry in Lake Erie. The 
fishing boats are daily bringing in this fine food 
fish m paying quantities. Five years ago the 
whitefish industry in Erie was unprofitable. 
. A s black bass is regarded ^as one of the lead¬ 
ing game fishes I have had bass ponds con¬ 
structed at each one of the hatcheries where the 
water conditions are suitable, but the work of 
bass propagation is not very rapid because the 
work of hatching this species of fish has not yet 
reached perfection and pond Construction is slow 
and expensive. 
From the .reports of the wardens there appears 
to be a decided improvement in the observances 
of the fish laws with the exception of a few 
sections. In the last six months the number of 
arrests were 151;. convictions, 134. Of the con¬ 
victions nine defendants went to jail in lieu of 
paying the fines. Thirteen cases were appealed 
to the county courts on cause shown or cer¬ 
tiorari. Six regular wardens made seventy-four 
arrests. Six.teen special wardens made sixty-six 
arrests. The State police made ten arrests. One 
constable made one arrest. The amount of fines 
imposed by magistrates was $3,630. 
Canadian Fish and Fishing. 
Quebec, June 1. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The last of the ice left Lake St. John on May 
23. Lake Edward was then clear. The weather 
has remained so cold, however, that very few 
people have yet tempted the ouananiche or trout. 
4 hose who have tried the ouananiche report 
them very plentiful in the mouths of the rivers, 
chiefly the Metabetchouan and the Ouiatchouan. 
Two different railway men who visited the Meta¬ 
betchouan last week took over a dozen ouana¬ 
niche, three or. four, of them exceeding five 
pounds each in weight. They report that a 
couple-of habitants living near the place killed 
nearly as many fish as they did in the same time, 
fishing with pork or worms. The railway men 
caught their fish on grizzly kings and professors, 
both of which are great favorites with the ouana¬ 
niche, though perhaps a surer fly for almost all 
seasons is either the silver doctor or Jock Scott. 
Large flies are the best killers during the first 
part of the season, and I would not recommend 
anything smaller than a number three at this 
time of the year, and especially in such a cold 
and backward spring, when the water is high, 
cold and dirty. Those who desire to try the 
mouth of the Metabetchouan should'change cars 
at Chambord Junction, and the conductor will 
show them where to leave the train to reach the 
Metabetchouan fishing. The sport ought to be 
good there up to the middle of June, and when 
it is finished the fish will be rising both in Lake 
St. John itself and also in the Grand Discharge. 
Perhaps more convenient to reach, and ■ equally 
good for fishing with the Metabetchouan, are 
the ouananiche pools in the mouth of the Oujat- 
chouan River, about a mile below the falls. The 
fishing is close there to the railway track. A 
railway bridge crosses the mouth of the river 
under which the stream mingles its waters with 
those of the lake, and many fish are caught from 
the bridge itself. For this fishing the train 
should be left at Ouiatchouan station, close to 
the bridge and about ten minutes before the 
train reaches Roberval. The pool there can be 
fished partly from the shore, but a man and a 
canoe can usually be secured close at hand. The 
same flies are used as at the Metabetchouan, and 
the fish are reported here also to be unusually 
plentiful, due, no doubt .to the suppression of 
netting in the lake. Anglers for ouananiche are 
all anxious at Lake St. John to have a rise fro,m 
some of the salmon which have been placed in 
the lake. A few have been taken in each of the 
last two or three years, some of them exceed¬ 
ing 12 pounds in weight. 
For the fly-fishing in the Grand Discharge it 
does not look at ^resent as if there will be any 
until after the middle of June, and I should cer¬ 
tainly advise anglers not to cross to the Dis¬ 
charge at all before the 15th or 16th. There 
will be very good sport, however, almost imme¬ 
diately, now that the ice has gone, in the lake 
itself, all along the Roberval shore. This fish¬ 
ing should be done by canoe, and it is better 
for visiting anglers to proceed directly to Pointe 
Bleue, the Indian reserve, and to there engage 
a man with canoe, since the Hotel Roberval will 
not be open till the middle of June. 
In Lake Edward the fishing has barely com¬ 
menced, though a few large fish have been 
landed with bait. Not a fish has yet been taken 
on the fly in Lake Edward, the water being stfll 
very cold. . A troll is very killing there, how¬ 
ever, at this particular season. 
E. T. D. Chambers. 
A Queer Experience. 
Plainfield, N. J., May 25 .—Editor Forest and 
•Stream: A few days since, accompanied by two 
fellow sportsmen, I went to a stream not many 
miles away, ostensibly to see if we could *not 
induce some perch or dace to give us a little 
sport preparatory to the opening of the bass sea¬ 
son. We fished just below a dam, over which 
the water, swollen by the spring rains, was pour¬ 
ing at a furious rate. Feeling a- nibble, I struck 
expecting to hook a small perch; instead, my 
fine-felt as if it were caught on a rock or sunken 
log I could not reel in a particle, until of a 
sudden it started down the current at express 
train speed. Out went the line like mad. until 
my quarry finally broke water through a shower 
of spray and showed himself for an instant. It 
was a sucker, with the hook fairly imbedded in 
his tail, which tended somewhat to accelerate 
his movements, and incidentally gave him all the 
advantage possible. Of course I had the lightest 
of tackle, and to land him without smashing it 
yvas a problem. Remember, the water was rush¬ 
ing like a mill race, and the fish a good two- 
pounder; so, brother sportsmen, you can guess 
the excitement. After a long time .of give and 
take I succeeded in bringing him ashore. In the 
meanwhile my friends were having the same ex¬ 
perience. Both had bites, and on striking, caught 
suckers in any part of their anatomy save the 
mouth: I will confess it may not have been sports¬ 
manlike, but it was sport for us, just the same. 
I finally solved the riddle this promiscuous 
hooking of suckers offered. The water was 
simply alive with fish trying to get over the dam 
to more shallow water to spawn, and it was 
almost impossible to make a cast without hook¬ 
ing one; so to prove the correctness of my theory 
I removed the bait, and with a single hook made 
a cast, giving a smart twitch when well under. 
Again the same result. This time I succeeded 
m hooking a three-pounder squarely in the side, 
and to kill and land it in that current broadside 
on was a good deal like managing an umbrella in 
a gale. _ However, after a long gamy fight I suc¬ 
ceeded 111 bringing him within reach of the land¬ 
ing net. And so the sport continued until in a 
comparatively short time we had thirty-five of 
them laid out 011 the grass. 
I am one of the many who have always laughed 
at sucker fishing, but, my friends, under like 
conditions, have changed my mind. They can 
certainly furnish all the sport and excitement 
which the average angler commonly seeks. 
Clarence E. Bond. 
Striped Bass. 
Asbury Park, June 1. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The first striped bass of the season 
fell to the rod of Warren S. Conklin, May 24; 
weight, iiJ- 2 pounds; the second three days'later 
to John S. Rogers, 10 pounds 6 ounces. A few 
were taken at Manasquan Inlet a few days earlier, 
but it has been impossible to ascertain weights] 
there being at all times a tendency on the part 
of anglers of that vicinity to keep news of catches 
as much in the background as possible. No 
kingfish have as yet been taken. 
Barnegat is already producing some weakfish, 
as one angler yesterday displayed some fine fish 
at our station. Many anglers are now on the 
ground and there are fresh arrivals daily. Surf 
fishing should from now on be productive of re- 
Leonard Hulit. 
