July 18, 1908.] 
Testing the New Rod. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
An uneventful ride of two hours by rail and 
& drive of five miles partly through farm and 
pasture lands, and the rest over rougher coun¬ 
try and through woodlands, showed us a road 
fringed with black and raspberry bushes all a- 
bloom, with here and there patches of “May 
apple’’ plants, their white waxy flowers shyly 
peeping out. Up hill and down we went and de¬ 
scending the last hillside, the way led along 
over the tree-strewn grassy levels of the “part¬ 
ings,” a little irregular stretch, some 400 feet 
wide, between the two lakes, ending at the foot 
of an abrupt ridge against whose side nestled 
our shelter on Twin Lakes. 
This is the most picturesque spot in southern 
Wisconsin. The hill to the east rose from 300 
to 500 feet, all verdure clad, with here and there 
a roof or an angle of a cottage peeping through, 
stretching away to the north and south some 
three miles. This little lake, Elizabeth, one and 
one-half miles long, hill-surrounded and reed- 
lined on the west, is a gem, while the larger 
lake, Mary, lying to the south, reaching away 
.'three miles, is the home of many ’a wily bass. 
(Scattered here and there are shallow spots where 
aquatic plants grow and the northern pike 
dwells, and there is a deep hole that the wall¬ 
eyed fellows live in. A half submerged road 
starts at the little pier on this bay of Lake 
Mary, leading west past the spring under the 
oaks, climbing the gentle slope between those 
cedars and disappearing in the glen. It is an 
odd phenomena, those two steep-sided tree-clad 
knolls, flanking either side of the entrance of 
this north bay. The eastern one is Mt. Moriah. 
“I should say it was a pretty spot, Ed,” said 
my friend. “No fisherman would stop to look 
"it over as we have, otherwise. Let’s greet mine 
host, assemble tackle and get afloat.” 
“I’ll row the first hour, Charlie. Now ‘go 
to it’ with that new rod. Some fellows are 
rodmakers and build rods, but the man who 
made yours is a rod artist. He was among the 
first in the West to develop pliable rods of 
bamboo, and he gets the action from tip to reel- 
seat. One can swing them for ten hours straight 
away using a half-ounce bait. Go down along 
Mt. Moriah and let’s try out that fringe of 
rushes. The bottom drops away sharply a few 
feet outside of them, and on a day in June 
like this at 5 P. M. there should be something 
doing. Hold the boat a minute while I drop a 
:ast in that cove. Not far enough; well, again. 
Never was a long distance caster. Try it your¬ 
self. You peg away on the lawn; see if you can 
'?et there on the water.” 
‘Guess three is all there are here, Ed, and 
dl yours,” I replied. “Row over to the other 
cnoll. The rushes grow further out there and 
scatter more. Ah! this is my kind of water. 
See the bottom at five or six feet; greenery all 
(round it—wollop. There he goes, fairly hooked. 
Now see this rod play; graceful as the sweep 
if willows in a romping wind. It seems as 
hough one can almost feel every movement 
>.v the quivers that come along into one’s elbow, 
t es, long enough I guess. These fellows never 
enow when they are whipped. Prettily marked, 
r sn’t he; certainly two pounds. 
Throw her side on to the wind and drift this 
- 1 av shore, Ed; we can both cast then. You take 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
one end and I’ll thrash out the other. What 
are you doing over in my water? Got a strike, 
too.” 
“Oh, it looked good,” said Ed. “Why don't 
I go back after him? A bass won’t strike twice 
in the same spot at the same time; that’s why.” 
“Well, Ill just show you; you are wrong,” I 
retorted. "Watch this same spot. Ah! a strike, 
too. He’s a whacker. Now look at this rod 
bend and sway; good taut line, you know, and 
let ’em fight. No, you can’t have any more 
line; too many rushes about. This is no bass; 
it’s a pickerel by the way he pulls. Bet he’ll 
weigh seven pounds. Pretty good test for a 
4 / 4 -ounce rod, too. Well, I want to know what 
it will stand.” 
“Go easy Charlie,” continued my friend. “Let 
him out a little. It won’t hold a calf.” 
“Pshaw! it’s an ‘old dog.’ Well, anyway, I 
wanted to try out this rod, and he did it all 
right. Must have been fifteen minutes playing 
. him.” 
After supper we tried the Mt. Moriah rushes 
again, but it seemed to be no use, for bass will 
not often bite when the sand flies are on the 
water. We never saw the flies thicker, but from 
the “wollops” it sounded as if all the fish in 
the lake were there. The wind was east, so we 
put the boat’s nose on the beach at the point 
where the wind struck us so that it would 
blow off the sand flies, and we could both cast 
awhile. I used a pork rind strip. We got two 
bass despite the belief about sand flies. 
Next morning before breakfast we got three 
nice bass and when we started out again Ed 
said: 
"I'll row you down the east shore to the old 
sunken road. Tradition has it that small-mouth 
haunt there.” 
Drifting, now and then a bass came in. As 
the day wore on the wind rose, and further out 
the whitecaps were rolling and the cloud shadows 
chased each other over the hillsides. When the 
dinner bell rang we had sixteen bass nearly all 
around two pounds, enough for a boat of two, 
nearly an even score. Ed and I voted the new 
rod a jewel. It stood up to the pressure, and 
my wrist was still fresh, pliant, supple and soft, 
and yet when that big dog surged it seemed to 
grow firm and rigid under one’s hand. The 
harder he lunged the more rigid the rod was. 
“It’s the best in the world,” I declared. 
“Except mine,” declared Ed. “To add zest 
to the sport, light tackle for us, eh?” 
L. E. DeGarmo. 
A New Trout Club. 
Wadsworth, Ohio, July 7.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The newly organized Au Sable Trout 
and Game Club of Michigan held its first meet¬ 
ing at Cleveland, Ohio, June 27. They elected 
the following officers for the ensuing year: 
President, C. E. Corrigan, of Pittsburg, Pa.; 
Secretary, N. C. Cotabish, of Cleveland, Ohio; 
Treasurer, W. J. Hartwig, of Detroit, Mich 
The above named officers with S. W. Glover, 
of Cincinnati, and Dr. J. F. Detweiler, of Wads¬ 
worth, Ohio, were elected directors. 
The club property is located on the North 
Branch of the Au Sable River in Crawford 
county, Michigan. This splendid trout stream, 
from a fly-fisherman’s standpoint, is not sur¬ 
passed by any stream of its size in the United 
IOT 
States. The laws of Michigan prohibit all fish¬ 
ing except with artificial fly and all trout under 
eight inches to be returned to the stream. This 
is an excellent law and is already showing splen¬ 
did results. The largest brook trout reported 
was twenty-one inches long. Many large rain¬ 
bow trout are taken in the swift water. The 
stream can be waded with ordinary hip boots 
for twenty miles. J. F. Detweiler. 
The Tuna Club. 
Los Angeles, Cal., July 5 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The other directors of the Tuna Club 
thought they had presented Commodore Potter 
with quite a package when they turned over the 
job of repaying Colonel Dan. M. Burns the 
$5,000 he advanced to build a club house; but 
high finance proves to be directly in the com¬ 
modore’s line, for he has gone after backsliders 
with a circular letter which seems from the 
numerous responses to have made a decided hit. 
In it he says in part: 
J hrough the kindness of the Banning Company, we 
have been given free the best location on the bay, and 
Col. Daniel M. ■ Burns has advanced to the Tuna Club 
$5,000, for the erection and furnishing of the building, and 
we have two years to repay the loan so kindly advanced. 
We have decided to issue 200 certificates at $25 each. 
We intend to issue only one certificate to each person, 
so that each one may feel that he is just as big a toad 
as any of the others. The club house can be made to 
pay its own expenses, and the added conveniences will 
entail little expense upon each member. Several appli¬ 
cations have already been made, and it will be very grat¬ 
ifying to the committee to have a hearty response from 
members. 
All kinds of conveniences are included in the 
house! There is a locker room for members to 
stow away clothes, rods and other gear in. The 
temperature will be such as to preserve the rods 
at their best. A shower bath awaits the ex¬ 
hausted and perspiring angler as he steps ashore. 
Herman Heinchen went out the other day with 
light tackle and caught a 28-pound yellowtail 
and a pair of white sea bass of the same size. 
He entered them in the Southern California Rod 
and Reel Club tournament. O. R. W. Robinson 
also has entered a white sea bass of 33 pounds, 
taken at Catalina, June 7. 
Edwin L. Hedderly. 
The Cincinnali Casting Club. 
Cincinnati, Ohio, July 11.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The scores made by the club to-day 
in bait-casting for accuracy are as follows: 
tya-ounce. 14-ounce. 
Murphey ... 89 
Hutchins . 96 6-15 96 7-15 
Groesbeck . 96 12-15 96 5-15 
Latham . 97 1-15 98 12-15 
Crugar . 86 9-15 80 
James .. . 96 6-15 
Liston . 96 5-15 
Gould . 93 9-15 
Harry Walter Hutchins, 
Sec’y-Treas. 
Fisheries at Port of Vera Cruz. 
Consul W. W. Canda writes that the Mexi¬ 
can fishing fleet at Vera Cruz consists of about 
twenty open sailboats, of which number about 
ten make daily trips to the fishing grounds in 
favorable weather. Most of them are owned 
by parties that work independently of the fish 
dealers and shippers. Each vessel carries a 
crew of from-6 to 10 men, who, as a rule work 
on shares. 
