June 29, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
j o 19 
number of victims in the creel. There are small 
streams where one could twitch out a hundred 
baby trout with a long switch and a yard or 
two of black thread. 1 remember, as a youth, 
taking 119 from a tributary of the Kinzua in 
Pennsylvania, in two or three hours. 
The trout in all the tributaries of the Allegheny 
River were very small. Even in the Kinzua, 
which was quite a large stream, a half-pounder 
was considered a big fish. Our prime object is 
to take the large fish of any water, no matter 
whether it weighs a half pound or two pounds 
or ten pounds. “I caught fifty trout” counts 
for • nothing in particular, but “I caught that 
old four-pounder • that lived below the dam” 
means a great deal. Theodore Gordon. 
Grayling Propagation. 
The practical results of Dr. Henshall’s splen¬ 
did work in propagating the Montana grayling 
are beginning to appear. The Forest and Stream 
has already noticed this work, as summarized 
not very long ago by Dr. Henshall. This season 
a splendid specimen of the grayling has been 
caught in the South Platte River not very far 
from Lake George, and no doubt, as time goes 
on, it will be found that a number of Colorado 
streams are stocked with the fish. The grayling 
is one of the most beautiful and gamy of fish 
and has always had the highest reputation among 
anglers. Years ago nothing was more desired 
by the accomplished fly-fishermen than to 
iojA pounds; J. A. McVeagh, 3 pounds; Win. 
deB. Keim, 12 pounds; the writer, II y 2 pounds; 
all taken near Shark River Inlet. Not a single 
fish from Deal, Elberon and other usually prolific 
waters has been as yet reported. One small 
fish of three pounds was taken several days ago 
at Deal Lake flume. ■ This point is ordinarily 
productive of many fine fish, but not this season. 
There is a marked absence of skimmer clams 
along shore and this may account in a measure 
for the absence of fish. 
Kingfish are almost entirely absent; but one 
so far has been taken, although one occasion¬ 
ally strikes the large bass hooks and it is hard 
to hook them. I had four well defined strikes 
early this morning, but large hooks are not 
suited to their small peculiarly formed mouths. 
There is no mistaking their quick nervous strike 
once familiar with it. 
Two bluefish have thus far been taken, one to 
Janus Edge, one to Wm. Applegate, two to three 
pounds in weight. Tremendous schools have 
been met with by offshore fishermen and some 
good catches made. Two men f anted as suc¬ 
cessful in this line, and with whom I fish at 
sea a great deal, sent me word during the week 
that not in many years had they seen more fish 
or finer ones, but a cold current of water set 
in at once and they departed to more congenial 
quarters. Bonito, too, were in evidence, but cold 
currents have sent them likewise elsewhere. 
Besides the valuable rod and reel prizes of¬ 
fered by our club—whose membership has now 
Michigan grayling (Thymallus tricolor.) 
Brook versus Brown Trout. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I am pleased to see that the friends of the 
brown trout are coming to the front in Forest 
and Stream. We cannot restore the conditions 
which prevailed on many of our streams previous 
to the distribution of so much of our wooded 
land. The temperature of the water rises higher 
in summer. We have longer drouths and greater 
floods when they do come. These heavy freshets- 
have impaired the beauty of many streams, 
natural banks are eliminated, meadow lands torn 
away, to be. replaced by acres of barren rocks 
and stones, with piles of driftwood and rubbish; 
here and there fontinalis may still swarm in the 
small cold tributaries, but in the larger waters 
conditions are not in many cases such as con¬ 
tribute to his increase and rapid growth. A few 
thousand farios placed in some of our rivers 
will produce greater results in the way of sport 
than thrice the number of native brook trout. I 
honor the sentiment which inspires the lover of 
the native fish, but I remember what the fish¬ 
ing was in the old days before the brown trout 
were introduced, and what is it at the present 
time. The trout were numerous, but the average 
size was very small. A pound fish 'was a big 
one. A two-pounder was not killed once in five 
years. The first time I fished the Willowemoc, 
thirty years ago, one could take many trout, but 
a large proportion were smaller than I would 
now care to basket. It was the same on the 
Beaverkill and Neversink. We did not have 
nearly as many battles with sizeable trout as we 
do nowadays. We never killed any two or three 
pound fish or had occasional sight or touch of 
monsters that thrilled our nerves with wild ex¬ 
citement. The brown trout is a sturdy beggar. 
He takes hold and does well nearly everywhere. 
Growth and increase are both rapid. He rises 
well at the fly and unless the water is warm 
fights a good battle for his freedom. 
It is natural and patriotic to ' exaggerate the 
fine qualities .of our own trout and to remember 
with delight our early fly-fishing experiences, 
but for the man who prefers a reasonable num¬ 
ber of fairly large trout to many little ones the 
sport is better, upon the whole, in this part of 
New York than it was in the days of fontinalis 
only. We still take a good many of the latter 
in certain parts of the stream, usually quite early 
in the season, while the water is cold. I fancy 
that the Beaverkill and Neversink are both suit¬ 
able for the rainbow trout. They require large 
waters I believe. They thrive for many years in 
the tropics and have increased and multiplied 
in the large streams .of western North Carolina 
for twenty years. A few fry were placed in the 
rivers named in Sullivan county, New York, and 
a number of handsome trout of this species were 
taken afterward. I killed several myself. 
Fly-fishers are so numerous now that we must 
make the best use of all the open waters we 
have. Long stretches of our best streams are 
now closed to the public. By stocking the large 
streams with varieties of trout that will endure 
water of rather high temperature we will secure 
sport for the many. Where conditions are favor¬ 
able for our native trout, where they exist in 
numbers and of good size, it is not wise to try 
experiments with foreign fish. In Maine and in 
Canada, for instance. I am confident that the 
brown trout has been a boon to anglers in many 
portions of the middle States. By the way. I 
asked an expert native angler, who has fished 
the Sullivan county streams all his life, what 
he thought of the introduction of the brown 
trout. He said that he considered it a good thing 
and that he enjoyed the fishing much more than 
formerly. The trout run so much larger, he 
said, that" they afford greater sport, and a dozen 
or twenty fish gave one greater satisfaction than 
a hundred small things would if basketed. The 
fact is that for real sport trout must be large 
enough to fight with some little chance to escape, 
and they should be shy enough to be somewhat 
difficult to delude. Suppose one knew of a stream 
where the trout were very shy, but averaged 
two or three pounds each? Would you not be 
satisfied to work very hard and exercise your 
greatest skill to basket just a few of these fine 
fish? One’s pleasure does not depend upon the 
take a few grayling from the Michigan waters, 
which then were the only accessible point where 
this fish was found. Now the stock of Michigan 
grayling has been so reduced by the lumbering 
that has passed over the country and by over¬ 
fishing, that recent reports seem to. indicate that 
fish are practically extinct. Happily, the Mon¬ 
tana grajding is essenially the same fish as the 
one found in Michigan and still flourishes in 
goodly numbers in many streams. 
The graylings are northern fish and are found 
in the United States in only two general local¬ 
ities, though in northwestern Canada another 
species is abundant. The Michigan and tfye Mon¬ 
tana localities appear to represent two isolated 
colonies left over when the ice melted at the 
close of the glacial period. The Arctic gray¬ 
ling is found only in the Mackenzie Basin and 
in rivers of Alaska. All the grayling are noted 
for the large and long dorsal fin which is highly 
colored. The fish are silvery in color, something 
like a salmon; and this hue is interrupted occas¬ 
ionally on the under part by a spot or two of 
dark blue. 
Colorado anglers are greatly to be congratu¬ 
lated on the addition of this admirable fish to 
their already excellent fish fauna. 
Sea Fishing at Asbury Park. 
Asbury Park, N. J., June 23.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Fishing has improved but slightly 
along the coast since my last letter. An occas¬ 
ional striped bass is taken, just enough to keep 
all rods “seeking.” While the bass season 
should now be at its very best, still we hope 
that the very late season also applies to this 
sport and the best is still before us. The total 
catches for the week so far as I have been able 
to learn are as follows: Wm. H. Swartz. 2 Q} 4 , 
4 pounds; A. J. Detz, n l / 2 pounds; J. C. Mertz, 
passed the 150 mark, composed almost entirely 
of business and professional men—each member 
taking a bass of ten pounds or over receives 
a handsome bronze button; fifteen pounds or 
over a silver button; twenty-five pounds or over 
one of solid gold. These are cut in in enamel 
and are fine trophies. 
A fine weakfish of pounds was taken dur¬ 
ing the week from the beach by W infield Scott, 
a club member, and will doubtless secure the 
club prize for largest weakfish, as while much 
larger fish are taken at sea, it is extremely rare 
to meet with so large a fish inshore. 
A sad incident which has cast a temporary de¬ 
pression over the club occurred to-day. Capt. 
G. W. F., one of the charter members and a 
man loved and reverenced by all for his sterling 
worth and amiability, in a moment of weakness 
committed “poetry,”' an eight verse “lyric,” set¬ 
ting forth the tribulations in a battle with and 
subsequent loss of a great bronze back channel 
bass at Barnegat City by our ex-Secretary 
“Scotty.” It- was published in to-day’s Shore 
Press and—well, I said “sad incident ’ advisedly. 
Leonard Hulit. 
Onondaga Anglers. 
The twenty-first annual outing of the Anglers’ 
Association of Onondaga was held June 20.^ That 
morning members met in Syracuse. N. Y., and 
departed in pairs and parties for their favorite 
black bass waters, to fish all day and return to 
headquarters that night to have their largest fish 
weighed in. All sorts of prizes were offered for 
record bass, pike, pickerel, etc., and these were 
awarded at a dinner held at the Empire House 
in Syracuse, Monday night, June 24. The asso¬ 
ciation has 970 members, who are doing good 
work in prdtecting fish and game in Onondaga 
county. 
