March 26, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
501 
British Casting Club. 
The British Amateur Fly- and Bait-Casting 
Club held its first general meeting in London 
recently with nearly fifty members in attend¬ 
ance. Concerning it the Fishing Gazette says: 
The chair was taken by R. B. Marston who 
gave a short review of the spread and growth 
of fly- and bait-casting clubs in America, Can¬ 
ada, Australia and France during the last thirty 
years. He had felt for some while past that the 
time was ripe for the establishment of a similar 
society among British anglers, and the result 
proved he had not been mistaken. Founded on 
Dec. 22 last with a roll of only seven supporters, 
the British Amateur Fly- and Bait-Casting Club 
had now increased to well over one hundred 
members, and applications were still steadily 
coming in. He ventured to prophecy that before 
very long their present membership would have 
increased so largely as to necessitate the estab¬ 
lishment of subsidiary clubs in other_parts of the 
country. It was astonishing how quickly the fas¬ 
cination of casting grew upon one, and how in¬ 
fectious it was apt to prove. Only the day be¬ 
fore he had spent a couple of hours casting in 
company with J. T. Emery, and they had only 
left off reluctantly when the light began to fail. 
The first business of the evening was the elec¬ 
tion of officers and committee. He was glad to 
say that that splendid all-round sportsman, Lord 
Desborough, had agreed to become president, 
and William Senior, late editor of the Field, 
was elected vice-president. 
Messrs. R. B. Marston and L. Crossle were 
elected honorary treasurers and L. Crossle hon¬ 
orary secretary of the club. 
Messrs. R. B. Marston, H. T. Sheringham, N. 
Chaplin, W. D, Coggeshall, L. Crossle, J. T. 
Emery, Philip Geen, H. W. Little. A. Piercy, 
J. Holt Schooling and J. Wrench Towse were 
appointed members of the committee (this leaves 
one vacancy, C. H. Cook being unable to serve, 
owing to distance from town), and it was agreed 
to ask Philip Geen and G. T. Fitzgerald to act 
as auditors for the ensuing- year. 
The meeting then proceeded to consider the 
draft rules, proofs of which had been previously 
circulated among the members. A number of 
useful and practical suggestions were made, in¬ 
volving slight alterations and additions. The 
provision for the re-election of all members at 
the beginning of each year was somewhat keenly 
debated. Finally it was agreed to accept an 
amendment moved by Dr. Davies, and it was 
arranged that the honorary secretary should re¬ 
draft the rule in consultation with him. 
The next point dealt with was the hiring of 
a ground and water for the use of the club. R. 
B. Marston, after dwelling on the great import¬ 
ance of a suitable choice described at some 
length the negotiations which the committee had 
been conducting for the past two months. They 
had been in treaty for a ground and water in a 
very central and convenient position which 
seemed to offer many advantages and to be in 
many ways most suitable for their purpose. But 
at the last moment they had been forced to the 
conclusion that although very well suited for fly¬ 
casting, it was too public and too crowded for 
comfort and safety in bait-casting. He was very 
much afraid that they would have to go a little 
further afield for what they required, but he 
hoped to be able to announce at an early date 
that they had secured a pleasant and convenient 
spot both for practice and for the holding of 
tournaments. 
The proceedings terminated with a vote of 
thanks to Mr. Marston for presiding at the meet¬ 
ing, and for the large part which he had taken 
in the formation of the club. It seemed to be 
generally felt that the meeting had been a most 
successful one, and that the keen interest shown 
by all those who took the trouble of attending 
it augured well for the future of the club. 
Mr. Marston in sending Forest and Stream 
a report of the meeting, said he was very glad 
to find there was general agreement with the 
view that they should bring the rules governing 
their tournaments as far as possible into line 
with those in force in America. 
Spruce Cabin Burned. 
St. John’s, N. F., March 15 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: American anglers who have en¬ 
joyed the hospitality of Dodd and Paulett at the 
Log Cabin, Spruce Brook, will regret to hear 
that the famous hostelry has been recently de¬ 
stroyed by fire. It had. been closed up for the 
winter and the proprietors were absent and the 
house was in charge of a caretaker. By some 
accident a fire started and before help arrived 
the hotel was razed to the ground. 
It is not known whether it was insured, but 
it is to be hoped that it was well covered, and 
that a new hotel will be erected on the site. 
Newfoundland is too poor in respect to hotels 
to lose such a one as the late Log Cabin. Be¬ 
sides its situation it was run on up to date lines 
and the proprietors catered to the very best class 
of American and English hunters and anglers 
and did it in such a manner as to give perfect 
satisfaction. 
Reports from the deer country show that they 
are not decreasing in numbers. Beaver also are 
on the increase, though it has been asserted that 
many were killed during the close season by 
Indians and others. Parties who recently came 
from the deer reservation which extends from 
Kitty’s Brook to Grand Lake say that beaver 
are far more plentiful now than they were a 
few years ago. These people recommend that 
the close season which expires next October 
should be extended for a few years longer. 
The courtesy of the railway officials on the 
Newfoundland Railway has been noted time and 
again through the. columns of Forest and 
Stream. In addition to their native kindness 
which prompts them to show every care for the 
welfare and comfort of strangers, there is a 
standing order all along the line that every con¬ 
ductor, brakeman, station agent, telegraph opera¬ 
tor and every other employe of the line be extra 
attentive to all sportsmen, particularly for¬ 
eigners. W. J. Carroll. 
Fishing in the South. 
New Orleans, La., March 18. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: The fishing season has opened 
here in earnest and a number of parties have 
been out at the several resorts at North Point, 
in the Barataria section and other points. The 
reports are to the effect that very poor luck was 
experienced. Amos Everhardt seems to have 
been the most successful fisherman, having 
landed fifteen speckled trout and three redfish 
at North Shore on Lake Pontchartrain. Several 
dozen perch were caught in Barataria Bayou, but 
on the whole the luck was bad. 
Commissioner Miller has authorized, with the 
consent of the other members of the board, that 
the law in preference to the catching of buffalo 
and catfish, except spoonbill catfish, be sus¬ 
pended. The law provides that these fish shall 
not be caught between March 1 and May 1. Mr. 
Miller says the commission decided that inas¬ 
much as the rivers have been very low during 
the past several months, the fishermen could not 
catch these fish, and as a consequence a great 
many poor people who have made a living from 
this industry have suffered. A great many peti¬ 
tions have been received from various portions 
of the State asking that the law be suspended. 
Last year the commission suspended this law on 
account of the boll weevil and failure of crops, 
and quite a number of people criticised it, al- 
leging that the body had no right to suspend 
the operation of a law enacted by the Legisla¬ 
ture. Large numbers of buffalo fish are caught 
and shipped from this State annually. 
F. G. G. 
r Anglers’ Club of New York. 
This club will hold its customary spring tour¬ 
nament on May 12, 13 and 14 on the Pool in 
Central Park. It was at first arranged to hold 
the affair early in April because of the desire of 
members to visit the new club preserve in Pike 
county, Pennsylvania, when the season opens 
there on the 15th, but the dates were recently 
changed to May, when the weather, it is ex¬ 
pected, will be more favorable. 
1 he tournament will be open to members and 
visitors, and a special effort will be made to 
attract novices. To that end the main events 
will be classified, according to the skill of the 
variqus contestants. The prizes will be cups and 
merchandise. 
# 
Newark Annual. 
The Newark Bait- and Fly-Casting Club held 
its third annual banquet in the Continental Hotel 
in Newark, N. J., the night of March 18. Charles 
T. Champion, its president, and nearly a hun¬ 
dred members and guests were present. The 
hall was decorated with fishing paraphernalia 
and trophies, and in the center of the table, 
which was arranged in the form of a Greek 
cross, there was a miniature lake, appropriately 
set off with a boat house and landing, fisher¬ 
men in boats and a casting platform. 
In his address of welcome President Cham¬ 
pion told of the plans of the club in the matter 
of obtaining property on which its members can 
enjoy trout and bass fishing; for, although New¬ 
ark is the home of a vast number of dyed-in- 
the-wool salt water anglers, the majority of the 
members of this young club follow the trout 
streams and frequent the lakes in the hill coun¬ 
try within a few hours’ ride from Newark. The 
club, he said, was heartily in sympathy with the 
work of the Fish and Game Commission in re¬ 
stocking the many beautiful streams of the State 
with trout and the lakes with bass. 
Among the speakers were the Rev. William H. 
Morgan, who learned to cast the fly and to 
preach the gospel while holding down his first 
charge in the backwoods of Wisconsin; Joseph 
Crawford, who spoke of fish and game legisla¬ 
tion; Albert Forest, the witty monologist. There 
