180 
Blue Bream. 
On the Willowemoc, July 24 — Editor Latest 
and Stream: The letter of F. A. Olds, of Ral¬ 
eigh, N. C., in Forest and Stream of July 17, 
is the first mention of the blue beam that 1 have 
seen in ■any of the periodicals; at least, for many 
years. This is one of the best of our fresh 
water fish for the table and affords excellent 
sport on light tackle. In my experience it rises 
freely at artificial flies of proper size and colors; 
in fact, it is so eager for the fly that at times it 
almost swallows the hook. 
A common method of fishing for bream in 
the South is with a long native reed pole, line 
of strong black thread—the water is dark, as 
it is apt to be tinged with decayed vegetable 
matter—and small hook baited with a wriggling 
worm. A tiny cork float is used but this is set 
high enough to allow the worm to rest upon 
the bottom. Early in the season the fish are 
found ‘'bedded" in deep holes or pools; that is, 
collected in schools in certain places that are 
often their, resort year after year. When these 
are .known great numbers are often killed in 
one favored hole. The blue bream belongs to 
the perch family and is not a true bream, as 
known in European countries. We have a bream 
that seems to be identical with the English 
bream but wherever we have found it in the 
United States, it was of small size and insig¬ 
nificant in number. Our blue friend when of 
large size sports a copper colored nose and is 
known as the copper-nosed bream. 1 have heard 
of individuals taken from lakes or ponds that 
weighed 2^ to 3 pounds but never caught one 
over one pound and a half. We usually found 
them in pursuit of the Southern bass in Georgia, 
and as a trout fly rod and tackle were used, 
both fish had an opportunity to display their 
fighting qualities to the best advantage. Flies 
of rather light colors, dressed upon No. 6 
spiral hooks, seemed to give the best results, 
although at times we failed to hook the large 
bass. These have such an enormous mouth that 
a larger hook might prove to be more efficient. 
In fact, one of my angling friends informed 
me that he had used some of the largest bass 
flies that he could find in New York with good 
results. lie habitually allowed his flies to sink 
deep before giving them any movement and 
claimed that this was the best method of seduc¬ 
ing the big bass. I wished to see the fish rush 
at the fly and take it in, as 1 found this vastly 
more exciting, but my friend may have been 
correct in claiming that his style was best for 
the largest fish. The bream has not a big mouth 
and it would probably find it difficult to nego¬ 
tiate a larger fly than No. 6 . 
The Governor Alvord, academy, white moth 
and several other well known flies were mod¬ 
erately successful, but the best of all, by long 
odds, was a fly of my own tying. It may be 
worth while to give the formula although I 
fancy the color and depth of water had much 
to do with the choice of a fly for th s kind of 
fishing. Wrings, light gray mottled turkey, with 
white under wing; shoulders, jungle fowl; 
hackle, badger or yellowish white furnace; body 
white silk chenille, ribbed flat; silver tinsel; butt, 
red wool; tail, scarlet ibis or swan dyed scarlet. 
With this fly I enjoyed extraordinary sport. 
At feeding time the fish rose at almost eyery 
cast, a small party taking about ten dozen bass, 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
bream and perch. The fun was fast and furious 
for an hour or more, yet it was a curious fact 
that a fly identically the same with the above 
pattern, except that the body was bright red, 
was almost entirely ignored, although placed 
upon the same casting line. Both bass and 
bream fed largely upon minnows and small 
crayfish but they took the fly with great good 
will. When a fish was seen rising or striking 
at anything near, or upon, the surface of the 
water, a rise at the artificial fly was a certainty, 
if the cast was not bungled in any way. 
I do not know the northern limit of the blue 
bream's habitat but it should be numbered among 
American game fish. It is very handsome and 
where I knew it averaged a pound in weight. 
As a food fish it was more esteemed than the 
black bass. Theodore Gordon. 
[Jordan & Evermann give the range of the 
blue-gill, blue bream, blue sunfish, coppernosed 
bream or dollardee (Lepomis pallidus ) as- the 
Great Lakes to Florida and the Rio Grande, 
abundant in all quiet streams of its range Ed¬ 
itor.] 
Third Edition of “The Compleat Angler.” 
The London Field says that July 2 a copy 
of the third edition of the “Compleat Angler” 
was sold, after some competition, for £60. 
Considering that it had the title slightly torn 
and a few margins wormed to some extent, tue 
price must be considered remarkable. Within 
the last eighteen months, as recorded in the 
Field of December 21, 1907, a copy of the firsi 
edition was sold at Christie's for £100, but it 
was water-stained and in early mid-nineteenth 
century binding. Messrs. Sotheby also sold one 
in April, 1899, for so little as £91. Of course, 
the record price for a first edition is the £ 1290 
paid by Mr. Quaritch at Messrs. Sotheby’s on 
March 23, 1907, for the van Antwerp copy, prob¬ 
ably the finest in existence. 
Big-Mouth Black Bass. 
Logansport, Ind., July 24.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: On page 141 of your issue of Satur¬ 
day, July 24, R. M. McCrory, of Mansfield, 
Ohio, asked the editor what was the weight of 
the largest big-mouth bass caught. For the ben¬ 
efit of Mr. McCrory I give you the following 
information: Will H. Dilg, of 14 State Street, 
Chicago, caught a large-mouth black bass last 
winter in Florida weighing 15 [4 pounds. 1 he 
bass was mounted and is now on exhibition at 
Von Lengerke & Antoine’s in Chicago. 
John J. Hildebrandt. 
Cutlery in a Cod, Fish. 
A St. Johns, N. F., paper says that “Thos. 
Martin, fishing on the local grounds, caught a 
codfish which, on being opened, was found to 
contain a pair of scissors and a pocket knife. 
This, though sounding a bit ‘fishy,’ is not un¬ 
usual, as articles of various kind are often found 
in the bodies of codfish. This cod evidently had 
a decided taste for hardware.” 
All the fish laws of the United States . and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
[July 31, 1909. 
Trout Fishing in Linville River. 
Linvii.le Falls, N. C., July 24. — Editor For¬ 
est and Stream: The fishing season thus far 
has been on the whole better than last season, 
in spite of a rainy season that lasted nearly six 
weeks. Early July is usually quite rainy, and 
this year a good part of June was wet, so the 
river was muddy most of the time. Not only 
do the heavy rains fill the crystal waters of the 
Linville River with mud and spoil the fly-fishing 
for that reason, but millions of bugs and worms 
are washed into the stream from the mountain 
sides and the fish are fed to the gorging point, 
so they have less appetite for the angler’s lure. 
Resort is then had by the fisherman who “fishes 
for fish" to worms, crawfish tails, “white bait,” 
grasshoppers, etc. As soon as the river begins 
to clear, the jumping trout are seen from 4 p. m. 
till dark. The best fishing here is just at dusk, 
for then the big ones seem to leave caution be¬ 
hind and venture out to seize the fly that looks 
good and that is cast with cunning to match 
their own. We have now had two weeks ot 
good weather, the stream is beautifully clear, 
the fish hungry and some very creditable catches 
are being made. More people have visited the 
place than ever before, many of them referring 
to Forest and Stream as their guide to the spot. 
Very comfortable accommodations may now be 
had for a dollar a day. 
Admiral Rogers, Paymaster-General of the 
Navy, spent two weeks here with his friend,. 
N. B. Plandy, of Lynchburg, Va. These two 
veteran anglers thoroughly investigated the fish¬ 
ing possibilities of Linville River and some of 
its trout-filled tributaries, and have announced 
their intention of returning for a more satisfy¬ 
ing campaign in the great canyon below the falls, 
where the larger fish are found in greatest num¬ 
bers. They are talking about building a camp 
down there, so they will be able to fish till dark 
without having to climb out at night. 1 he local 
fishermen, and they are experts with the fly 
paid these two artists of the rod the most sin¬ 
cere compliments, the first of the kind I have 
heard them utter. They said the Admiral anc 
Mr. Handy were the best fly-casters they evei 
saw. But truth demands, and so would they 
the statement that, expert as they were in cast 
ing for brd&k trout, they had to begin all ove 
again on the rainbows. But they settled dowr 
to the business in a way that showed them t( 
be thorough sportsmen, for they studied th 
stream and gathered in all the information avail 
able. They did not expect to achieve succes, 
the first day, as some hurried tourists do, bU| 
they realized that as good a thing as first-clas 
rainbow trout fishing is worth working fo: 
They were well satisfied with the results an 
Admiral Rogers became one of the most er 
thusiastic of Linville River’s admirers. He sai, 
it was the largest mountain stream of sue 
beauty that he had ever seen, and he enjoye 
this feature of his visit as much as the spor. 
A new postal route is to be established in 
few days, connecting us directly with the Can 
lina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railway at Linville Falj 
Station, six miles down the mountain. This w; 
give us a daily paper the day it is printed ai 
bring us, for most of our mail, twenty-fo' 
hours nearer the outside world. I his will • 
terest visitors as well as residents. 
Frank W. Bicknell. 
