Dec. 26, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
IOJ I 
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fish were feeding toward the boats. Suddenly 
my friend T., with whom I was fishing, re- 
| marked that he had a bite. Fortunately he did 
not strike, but quietly allowed the fish to take 
hold. Presently I saw his rod bend and away 
went the line, the flying reel showing the fish 
was hooked. Straight away he went, taking 
about 200 feet of line in the first rush, when 
the steady pressure of the rod turned him in a 
great circle. He went completely round the boat 
four times, making a wave in the shallow water, 
and when finally brought near the boat, made 
several lightning-like rushes across the stern. 
So quick was his movement in the water the eye 
could hardly follow him. Compared to this fish 
the movements of a brook trout are those of 
a mud turtle, and even the tarpon is slow. 
Finally he came alongside, the net was slipped 
under him and the beautiful fish was laid in 
the boat. 
One of the best places for these fish I acci¬ 
dentally stumbled on northeast of Indian Cay. 
It is a small sandbar surrounded by a shallow 
bank on the east side of Lower Mattacombe 
Channel, about one mile north of Camp 9, of 
the Flagler Extension Line. I had a launch 
tow me there, intending to shoot some willets, a 
large bunch of which birds I had noticed tend¬ 
ing there, and on our approach we scared a lot 
of bonefish, feeding in the shallow water. Send¬ 
ing the launch back, we landed on this bar and 
caught several hermit crabs and started fishing. 
Not a fish did we see. Judging the launch had 
scared them off and thinking they might be on 
the other side of the sandbar, we poled quietly 
around it, and there in shallow water between 
the bar and shore, in a place full of small mango 
plants, I saw more bonefish than at any time on 
our cruise. I feared fouling one of those mango 
plants, but had no choice and cast into the only 
open place. Within a few moments I had my 
fish hooked and what I feared happened. In 
his first rush the line fouled a mango and he 
tore loose, taking hook, snell and leader—for 
at that time I was using a leader, not having 
learned' better. 
I fear we swore some and the guide and I 
waded out and pulled up a lot of those mangoes 
because the place was evidently a feeding ground 
and I wanted room to fish. When things had 
quieted down they came back and were all round 
the boat, tails waving pleasantly, and an occas¬ 
ional swirl and flash of a gray shadow when 
they saw us. Again I had a strike, but not so 
rapid, and the rush much slower. The line 
fouled again, but he somehow .stayed on and 
proved to be a mango snapper of three and one- 
half pounds. A nice game fish, but nothing like 
a bonefish. The next fish hooked was one of 
the beauties, and I succeeded in dodging sev¬ 
eral of those wretched mango plants on the first 
rush and thought I had him, but he fooled me, 
wrapped the line round one in spite of my best 
efforts to the contrary and escaped. Darkness 
forced me to stop, and I left determined to re¬ 
turn with a scythe or a mowing machine and 
reduce the mango crop of Florida before fishing. 
Such is bonefishing, the daintiest, most difficult 
and fascinating of all fishing. Try it. 
Henry A. Thorp. 
All the fish laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and nozv in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
Salmon Fishing at Campbell River. 
New York City, Dec. 19.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Campbell River rises among the 
snow-capped mountains in the interior of Van¬ 
couver Island, B. C., about 270 miles north of 
Victoria and flows southeast into Discovery 
Strait. About four miles from its mouth it 
tumbles over high falls into a canon, and this 
is where the great tyee (chief) salmon go to 
spawn. Not only the tyee use these spawning 
beds, for the humpback and the beautiful cohoe 
salmon are also there in great numbers. 
Last July I journeyed six days to see if the 
reports of the wonderful fishing at the mouth 
of the Campbell River were true, and found the 
sport far better than I had hoped. One reason 
for the extraordinary fishing this season was 
the fact that the present Government, by heavy 
fines, had succeeded in driving away the Japan- 
SALMON WEIGHING 5, 15, 49)4 AND 50)4 POUNDS. 
ese poachers, who, for several years, openly de¬ 
fied the law and poached the salmon with every 
known device, from dynamite to illegal meshed 
nets. 
Discovery Strait is a stretch of salt water, an 
arm of the Pacific ocean, which divides Van¬ 
couver and Valdez Islands, and is about two 
and one-half miles wide. If it were not for 
the great current and strong tides that flow 
through the straits it would remind one of a 
Swiss lake, for one is surrounded by hills beau¬ 
tifully wooded with splendid fir trees, and snow 
mountains show plainly in the distance. 
The best fishing is along the shore of Van¬ 
couver Island, a stretch of water one mile below 
and a half a mile above the sandbar at the 
mouth of the river. The current is so swift that 
it is almost impossible to fish excepting at the 
change of the tide, or at half tide. As the mode 
of fishing is trolling with a spoon, it is impos¬ 
sible to make enough headway when the tide is 
running strong, especially about the time of the 
full moon. The natives fish with handlines, with 
heavy lead and small silver or copper spoons, 
the lead being about twenty feet away from the 
spoon, and it is most interesting to watch the 
Indians standing in dugout canoes handling the 
fish, gently playing it, and finally clubbing him 
on the head, when the fish, having fought his 
battle, has succumbed. It is said that these fish 
return to the river to spawn after having left 
it four years before, and that after spawning 
they all perish. This seems hard to believe; 
hard to believe that a fish can grow to the size 
and acquire the strength that these fish do in 
so short a time, for I saw one giant that was 
taken on a handline that weighed 72 pounds at 
the cannery some hours after he was taken, 
and I killed a fish myself that weighed 63 
pounds. 
These fish came from the north and are found 
off Kitima, some four hundred miles north of 
Campbell River early in May, but do not appear 
at the latter place before Aug. 1. 
Most of the amateur fishermen who were en¬ 
joying the sport when I was there were sports¬ 
men from England on their way to Cassiar after 
big game, who had stopped en route in the hope 
of taking a fifty-pound salmon. They had every 
possible kind of rod and tackle, most of it better 
adapted to fly-fishing than sea-fishing, for it is 
sea-fishing pure and simple. I fished with a 
light striped bass rod, a Cuttyhunk line with 
three ounces of lead, seven feet from the spoon. 
The lead is necessary owing to the strong cur¬ 
rent, and does not seem to bother the fish, for 
they are very quick and have great strength. 
If you give them the butt after their first grand 
rush they will generally jump three feet into 
the air. If you fish with a fly-rod they never 
show and are apt to take all your line before 
you can stop them. The light tackle fishermen 
spend most of their time repairing outfits and 
buying new lines and spoons. 
The fish feed on small bright herring which 
abound, and any bright spoon seems to attract 
them when feeding. The cohoe salmon, which 
run from five to ten • pounds in weight, are at 
times very plenty. The professional fishermen 
take as many as seventy in a day’s fishing and 
the cannery on Valdez Island pay ten cents a 
piece for the fish. For the tyee salmon they 
allow one cent a pound. I saw two cohoe sal¬ 
mon taken with a fly in the open sea, fish of 
about eight pounds in weight, but as the fish are 
moving you might cast all day without rising a 
fish. 
The Willows Inn is clean and comfortable and 
the food good for $2 a day. Your boatman re¬ 
ceives $3 a day and the fish. For a boat they 
charge fifty cents a day. I only had one blank 
day and that was owing to a strong wind and 
rough water. I took the following fish in fifteen 
days: 
August 1.—631bs., 481bs., 461bs. 
“ 2.—49%lbs., 52i/ 2 lbs., 151bs., 501bs„ 461bs. 
“ 3.—401bs. 
4.—451bs., 451bs., 421bs., 421bs., 401bs., 461bs., 
471 bs., 121bs. 
“ 5.—451bs., 351bs„ 301bs„ 421bs. 
“ 6.—421bs„ 441bs., 351bs., 211bs. 
“ 7.—461bs., 40y 2 lbs., 411bs., 171bs. 
“ 8.—201bs., 441bs. 
“ 9.—431bs., 38Ibs. 
“ 10— 291bs., 321bs., 351bs. 
“ 11.—321bs., 461bs„ 471bs., 481bs. 
“ 12.—531bs„ 411bs„ 411bs., 44i/ 2 lbs., 331bs. 
“ 13.—531bs. (High wind and rough water.) 
“ 14.— 
“ 15.—5iy»lbs., 401bs„ 401bs., 371bs., 3Glbs„ 351bs„ 
341bs. 
47 tyee, average, 431bs.; 5 spring fish, about 201bs. 
each; 45 cohoe salmon. Total weight, 2,1791bs. 
F. Gray Griswold. 
