FOREST AND STREAM. 
Fly-Fishing for Weakfish. 
Boston, Aug. 14. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
I am glad, as you request, to give some of 
your readers a bit of useful information con¬ 
cerning fly-fishing for squeteague or weakfish. 
; From my experience, 1 say with confidence, 
that squeteague will take the proper fly more 
readily than a shrimp or minnow. To see a four 
or six-pound squeteague rise and swirl for a fly, 
showing his brilliant side and forthwith making 
his first powerful and rapid run, is sport equal to 
fly-fishing for black bass, and when the fish are 
plenty it is more exciting. The usual throwing 
1 of shrimp as a toll is, of course, part of the game. 
Oftentimes at sunset I have seen them eagerly 
take a skittering fly and one evening in the 
“pond” at Cuttvhunk I had several clear tile 
water for it. It is surprising to me that sports¬ 
men in the East are so slow in seeking the really 
good fishing our salt water affords. By good 
fishing I mean rod fishing with proper tackle. 
A seven-ounce fly-rod, with one hundred yards 
j of nine-thread twisted line, six-foot gut leader, 
and, for the fly, a yellow-May tied with silver 
body, is the proper outfit. As the fly should 
usually be a foot under the surface, the body of 
the fly should be weighted. The use of a leader 
is not really necessary. The fly should be offered 
just as in trout fishing, except that a long cast 
is not needed, and the fly should be kept under 
the surface. The slower the motion the better. 
If a squeteague sees it move an inch he will take 
it. A quick strike is also unnecessary as the fish 
j do not eject the fly as a trout will. Fishing with 
I my skipper or with friends using live bait under 
a bob, I invariably beat them. 
If the fish are running seven or eight pounds, 
j a nine or ten-ounce rod is preferable to a lighter 
one, at least in Buzzard’s Bay waters; and in 
1 case bluefish are about, as they are apt to be in 
unusual places at night or late evening, I should 
advise a light wire leader. 
Perseverance in this manner of fishing will 
i lead every good sportsman to give up bait-fishing 
for squeteague. 
Speaking of our fishing here, I will take the 
opportunity of stating that, in my mind, were 
| tuna fishing followed here in the waters of Saga¬ 
more Beach (Cape Cod) and adjacent waters as 
i persistenly as it is at Catalina, our results would 
be as good. The fish are there and schools of 
small ones, 100 to 125 pounds, are frequently 
seen. There is no doubt but that small mackerel 
would answer for bait in place of flying fish. I 
hope some day to report to you the results of a 
week’s work at this sport. Andrew Gray Weeks. 
Black B ass. 
Pasadena, Cal., Aug. tt.— Editor Forest and 
j Stream: Several times recently we have seen 
items in your journal concerning black bass that 
had been planted in California waters. The 
; other day we saw in one of the sporting goods 
houses of Los Angeles a string of fish that were 
i unknown to us. On inquiry we were told that 
I they were small-mouth black bass that had been 
j planted in a lake near that city. Those measly 
looking fish black bass! Horrors! They re- 
I sembled my old acquaintance Micropterus 
j salmoides of the East about as much as a French 
j horse that has been fed on straw in the barnyard 
1 all winter resemble a well-groomed thoroughbred. 
From my early boyhood I have caught bass in 
the Canadas and Eastern States and the 
brightest, cleanest fish that I have taken have 
either come from the Back Bay of Lake Cham¬ 
plain or from waters east and northeast from 
that point. The small-mouth bass is found at its 
best in waters that are covered with ice a por¬ 
tion of the year, which causes them to hibernate 
and rest during that time. Stanstead. 
Newark Bait- and Fly-Casting Club. 
Newark, N. J., Aug. 22 .— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The following scores were made in 
practice to-day, all with half-ounce weights: 
Distance. 
Accuracy, 
Best cast. Average. 
Per Cent. 
A. T. Marsh. 
. 175 
147 2-5 
96 13-15 
George Endersby ... 
. Hit 
153 1-5 
96 6-15 
Comppen . 
. 100 
72 
91 6-15 
1’. I. Muldoon. 
. 147 
139 4-5 
93 6-15 
(J. T. Champion. 
. 150 
95 3-15 
F. T. Mapes. 
. 145 
97 9-15 
Our interstate 
tournament 
will be 
held on 
Oct. 3, all day. 
The events 
will be: 
Quarter 
and half-ounce distance bait, half-ounce accu¬ 
racy bait, accuracy fly, distance fly, salmon fly 
colored water’ is most favorable to the fly, but 
as G. S. Marryat used to say, it is not so much 
the fly as the driver.” 
This is similar to the request of the French¬ 
man to know why a blackberry is said to be 
green when it is red, while its juice is purple 
but colors the tongue blue. 
Real Salt Water for Aquarium. 
The new salt water system now in use at the 
New York Aquarium is known as the closed 
circulation system. The pure sea water is 
brought in tanks from the ocean and stored 
in a reservoir, and then pumped through the dis¬ 
tributing tank on the upper floor, flows through 
the exhibition tanks and is brought back to the 
reservoir. 
This reservoir holds 100,000 gallons of stored 
sea water, and with its new filters is working 
to the Director’s entire satisfaction. 
Mr. Townsend says: “This is the most im¬ 
portant change that has yet been made by the 
SCENE DURING THE DISTANCE BAIT-CASTING AT THE CHICAGO TOURNAMENT. 
and surf casting. Medals will be given for first 
three prizes in each event, and there will be a 
cup for professionals. 
The next club contest will be held on Aug. 
29, starting at 1 o’clock P. M. 
Fred T. Mapes, Sec’y. 
Flies for Muddy Water. 
Not long ago Ernest L. Ewbank stated, in 
these columns, that he and a friend ceased fish¬ 
ing for trout in Green River, in North Caro¬ 
lina, because the water had been roiled by a 
shower and the trout would not take any fly 
they had in their books. At the same time a 
colored man exhibited thirty-seven trout which 
he said he had taken with a fly. 
Editor Marston, of the Fishing Gazette, quotes 
Mr. Ewbank’s communication and adds: 
“If a white man cannot catch fish with the 
fly in colored water, that is no reason why a 
colored man should not do so —similia similibiis 
curantur. Besides, every colored man is not a 
George Washington—though he may be a good 
angler. In shallow streams a white moth or 
coachman will kill in ‘pea soup’ and a ‘porter- 
Zoological Society in methods of operation at 
the Aquarium. It means that the exhibition tank 
containing marine species will hereafter be sup¬ 
plied with real sea water instead of the brackish 
sewage-laden water of the harbor. It means 
also that the high death rate among the sea 
fishes and invertebrates, due to polluted water, 
will be done away with, and that the exhibition 
of many forms of marine life new to our col¬ 
lections will be made possible.” 
Fishing in the North. 
Numerous large catches of black bass, trout, 
pike and muskellunge have been reported from 
the resorts in Wisconsin and northern Michigan 
during the past week. The conditions for fish¬ 
ing have been unusually good for midsummer. 
A Rhinelander angler caught a muskellunge 
weighing 25 lbs. in Mud Lake. Mrs. Knapp 
caught four bass weighing 13 lbs. in Sugar Camp 
Lake. Mrs. Woodzicka caught 1 muskellunge 
weighing 13 lbs. and 2 muskellunge weighing to 
llis. in Little Tomahawk Lake. C. V. Wood¬ 
ward, of Chicago, caught a muskellunge weigh¬ 
ing 28 lbs. 
