FOREST AND STREAM. 
n 
I 
n July 4, 1908.] 
;aw it was a trout, and a huge one. Although 
ny rod was a strong, stiff one, I was afraid of 
his trout, and treated him very gingerly. It 
00k me the best part of five minutes before I 
igot that fish to bank, and he was so big that 
I John had to gaff him. I had caught my big 
; rout at last. An ugly-looking fish he was, too, 
| ill head and savage mouth, a fresh-water shark. 
I John and I put him down at nearly seven 
I pounds in weight, and when we reached camp 
md the scales were put in requisition, he pulled 
Jown six and three-quarter pounds. 
1 was most jubilant, but on the following day 
I.Silver Mitchell, fishing for salmon in the upper 
lone of the two big pools, rose, fastened and 
! killed a trout that made mine look like an 
: infant. This second leviathan weighed a trifle 
I over eight pounds, and he was the ugliest and 
chunkiest fish I ever saw. And so our wish was 
gratified; we had killed two big trout, we had 
[ seen others that were larger, and sweet peace 
reigned over us. Unfortunately, our supply of 
provisions was about exhausted, and it behooved 
Catalina Angling. 
Avalon, Cal., June 20. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: If anything further were needed to 
convince sportsmen generally of the damage 
done sea fishing in this vicinity by indiscrimi¬ 
nate netting by the market men, the splendid 
sport with white sea bass which has featured the 
past few days supplies finality to the argument. 
Faced by prospects of little or no sport, the 
fish being rather over-due and few catches of 
consequence being reported except from the 
windward side of the island, the hopes of 
anglers ebbed to low-water mark until ten days 
ago, when Deputy Game Warden E. H. 
Brewster, Deputy Jim Gardner and County 
Warden William B. Morgan all became busy 
with the law violators about the same time. 
The result was several arrests within a few 
days; a general panic among the dagoes who 
had been setting nets followed, and the majority 
of the launches scurried back to San Pedro. 
Many have been lying at anchor ever since, 
BROWN TROUT FROM THE LITTLE HOOSAC RIVER. 
us to make for civilization, so we left Fox 
Island River, with its big hungry sea trout and 
its schools of smelt. 
1 I have never seen the river since, but it is still 
I there, flowing on over its stony bottom. I am 
) told that the big trout come there year after 
j year and I fully believe it. To any angler who 
l wants a battle with these fish I recommend the 
| stream. May he have better luck than we did, 
j and may he capture one of those giants that we 
j saw but did not get, and when the trout pulls 
| down twelve pounds on his scales, let him think 
of us and the three days of fishing that taught 
us so much. J- L. D. 
Brown Trout. 
Berlin, N. Y., June to. — Editor Forest and 
1 Stream: I wrote you a few days ago that a 
j large trout was taken at Petersburg, just north 
j of here, in the Little Hoosac. 
I inclose picture of it which might interest 
your readers. It weighed 3 pounds 15 ounces 
| and was 21 inches in length. It was taken by 
A. F. Barnhart, R. G. Saunderson. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
L any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
I supply you regularly. 
9 
awaiting the decision of the courts on the 
arrests before fishing again. 
This has effected a much-needed rest for the 
white sea bass, and almost immediately a gen¬ 
eral improvement in the sport was noticed. In 
conjunction with the cessation in seining has 
come an excellent supply of bait around the 
island, rather better than for several seasons 
past. No longer are fish wasted at Catalina. 
Not as many need be caught upon the present 
light tackle in order to satisfy fully the most 
ardent angler, and especially is this true of the 
latest refinement, the Three-Six gear; but, 
nevertheless, the flotilla of launches that sets 
forth every Sunday or holiday will in the aggre¬ 
gate bring in hundreds of pounds of splendid 
food fish, for which Mike, Vincente’s right 
bower, always is waiting before the boat’s side 
has rasped alongside the float. Vincente is one 
market fisherman who gets along with the 
hportsmen smooth enough; so long as he sees to 
it that the bait is in endless supply, so long will 
his boxes be filled with more fish taken by 
sportsmen than fall to the nets of his own men. 
There has been a swift change of sentiment at 
Catalina regarding the former practice of posing 
before a rack of slaughtered fish. Any man 
with red blood in his veins may, however, be 
excused for pleasure in standing before the 
camera with his light Three-Six rod, flanked by 
a pair of twenty or thirty-pounders which repre¬ 
sent an achievement no less notable in its way, 
and quite as worthy as the taking of the large 
tuna upon tackle of four times the brute force. 
And it is this kind of picture that will be taken 
home from the island in future, rather than the 
slaughter-house vista of the past. 
Ideas sometimes change rapidly, but not as a 
rule. It is therefore particularly gratifying to 
the men who have labored faithfully to reduce 
the kill of gun or rod by the force of law to 
find that moral suasion is more surely accom¬ 
plishing the same thing. The opportunity for 
slaughter still exists at Catalina; yet the skin of 
the man who persistently will do it, and per¬ 
petuate his own infamy by the ineffaceable evi 
dcnce of the camera must be much thicker than 
that' of the rank and file who are visiting the 
island nowadays. Heavy tackle methods surely 
are being crowded into the background, even 
among the novitiates. 
The arrests made by the wardens were not 
entirely devoid of humorous features. The first 
man Brewster got was Louis Mascolo, and when 
Brewster tried to ask him some questions, Looey 
played the Chinese game upon him: “I no sabe; 
no speak-a da Ing-glish.” Brewster took it for 
granted, and on meeting him on the streets of 
Avalon the day after he was fined, asked the 
man Mascolo was with to translate a few ques¬ 
tions he wanted to ask Looey. It was done, 
but Looey had been swelling up for a full 
minute, and utterly disregarding the queries, he 
exploded upon Brewster, to wit: “Yes-a da 
nice-a de package you hand-a me for da hun- 
dred-a dolla; I fool-a you yet.” Not so bad 
for a man who “no speak-a da Ing-glish,” eh? 
Then there was the pinching of Baptisti 
Falconi Tuesday for the same offense. The 
wardens wanted to get Baptisti on the Catalina 
side of the channel because the offense was com¬ 
mitted there. Baptisti is one of the brightest 
fellows in the fishing business and everybody 
likes him. He is a good fellow, but a danger¬ 
ous man for the fish supply. Beebe and Tad 
Gray were fishing at Italian Gardens when 
along came Baptist!—he gave them the slip be¬ 
fore—in his big, fast launch the St. John. Bap¬ 
tisti proceeded to make a haul, and Beebe bolted 
for Avalon after Brewster, passing us on the 
way down. We pulled out for Italian Gardens 
and got there just as Baptisti started down the 
coast for Avalon to ship his fish by the steamer, 
we supposed, and as he went by he sung out 
and held up a beautiful seventy-pound white sea 
bass. His whole boat was full of fine, big fish. 
No use for us to bother when he was driving 
right into Brewster’s hands, and we had a good 
laugh over the reception Brewster would give 
him at Avalon, for it is not often a man conics 
around looking for it; generally they have to 
be chased. Brewster was posted in ample time 
and arrested Baptisti. I never saw a man in 
such a hurry to get arrested before; he couldn't 
get away from us fast enough. 
The true Mediterranean pilchard, the sardine 
of commerce, has appeared at Catalina for the 
first time, so far as I can gather from authentic 
sources. It is more cylindrical than the native 
sardine and lacks the spots, has no yellow around 
the mouth, and the head is almost transparent. 
We think it is better bait. It is certainly softer, 
and the fish appear to like it better. These pil¬ 
chards are coming to hand in just the right size 
