Oct. 9, 1909 ] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
579 
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debaters he joined the force, greatly to the 
amusement of all present. It did not leak out 
until some time after the strange guest had de¬ 
parted that he was Mark Twain, who chose to 
remain unknown while here. 
Now that it has become Pittsburg’s breathing 
place as well as a popular resort for many hun¬ 
dreds from the surrounding country, Clemens 
would scarcely find his little ruse practicable. 
And the little tract which was for so many 
years the home of his host is now the subject 
of a most interesting litigation, all because it 
was not considered worth including in the deed 
when a transfer of the farm, to which it origi¬ 
nally belonged, was made. Just who owns the 
lake with its rich attractions is now in the 
hands of the Supreme Court to decide. Who 
owns Wolf Island is another question, and 
while the ice company was sparring over the 
first question its attorney purchased the island 
from the heirs to the farm and found camp life 
there so charming that he plans to erect a sum¬ 
mer cottage. Bessie L. Putnam. 
Maine Pickerel. 
Brewer, Me., Sept. 30.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I am very glad to see Col. E. C. Far¬ 
rington’s article on pickerel in your issue of 
Sept. 11. After an experience of more than 
sixty years I can fully endorse all he says, both 
as to the edible and the fighting qualities of 
such pickerel as we catch in Maine. Here we 
call a three-pound pickerel a large one and they 
very rarely exceed six pounds, but as a fish for 
the table pickerel ranks very high. In the Ban¬ 
gor market in June and up to close time, July 
15, the retail price of salmon cut to order was 
steadily twenty-five cents. To-day I priced pick- 
: erel in one of the largest markets and the price 
was seventeen cents per pound and the market 
is never overstocked. When it is considered 
l that the pickerel is always sold whole, while 
the salmon cut to order has practically no waste, 
: the price per pound really does not vary so very 
much. 
People from other States coming here seem 
to think trout the only fish fit to eat, but most 
. of our Maine people, who are where they can 
get both trout and pickerel, think pickerel fully 
equal to trout, and if properly cooked one does 
not tire of them nearly so quickly as one does 
of trout. I have often eaten trout fresh from 
the water, nicely cooked, but never could enjoy 
eating more than a few meals of them, but when 
in the woods I have eaten pickerel nearly every 
day for weeks and have never tired of them. 
While fully equal to trout, either baked, fried 
or in chowder, still the way we usually cook 
them in the woods I think the best of any. 
Take a large fish, say from two to four pounds, 
clean it nicely and split clean down the back. 
Then split again under the backbone so as to 
remove the backbone and most of the small 
ribs. Then rub with fine salt, putting most on 
the thickest parts; lap the sides together or 
place two fish flesh to flesh and let lie for sev¬ 
eral hours or over night so as to corn the fish. 
But it should not be salted too heavily. When 
ready to cook it, wash clean, place fully spread 
out on a wire broiler and broil before a hot 
fire. When both sides are thoroughly cooked, 
serve with plenty of butter spread on, and if 
you do not call it equal to any fresh water fish 
we have our tastes differ. Cooked in this way, 
it is fully as good when cold. 
As to fighting qualities I have caught a good 
many of both trout and pickerel, and when a 
pickerel has a fair chance in water free from 
weeds or lilypads, he can fight as long as most 
trout of the same size. Why Mr. Spaulding 
entitles his article “My Friend the Pickerel,” 
and then abuses him as he does, is .beyond my 
ken, but if that is a fair sample of his idea of 
friendship, then may heaven save us from such 
friends. Manly Hardy. 
Light Tackle on the Pacific. 
Los Angeles, Cal., Sept. 25.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: I have read with interest the 
article by A. J. Eddy on “Light Tackle Fish¬ 
ing” in your issue of Sept. 18. It is apparent, 
at the end of the Catalina season of 1909, that 
our ideas as to what constitutes a proper rod 
are about as divergent as ever. 
Were it not for the bad impression that would 
be created abroad among anglers unacquainted 
with our needs here I should almost be in favor 
of A. L. Beebe’s solution of our rod problem. 
Mr. Beebe is president of the Catalina Light 
Tackle Club and an enthusiastic excellent fisher¬ 
man. He proposes to put the cart before the 
horse as it were and have three classes, based 
on the line only; viz., the twenty-four-thread 
line, the nine-thread line and the six-thread 
line,, thus making the line the dominant feature. 
This is, I have always contended, the really im¬ 
portant point, but from the endless rod discus¬ 
sion one would think the line might almost be 
dispensed with, and seemingly it is only a sec¬ 
ondary consideration. 
jMr. Beebe proposes to allow the angler to 
use whatever rod will serve his own purpose 
best or embody his own ideas, disregarding 
length and weight, but even under such con¬ 
ditions there would be but little change from 
rods as at present constituted. 
Now, a rod might be considered as a con¬ 
tinuation of the line only, and so constructed 
as to be of proper weight and length with the 
strength so distributed throughout as to give 
the maximum power with the minimum tension 
on the line. Fighting a big game fish on the 
reel only is a very difficult and hazardous under¬ 
taking which only experts like Mr. Eddy may 
attempt with success. The Catalina boatmen 
will instruct the angler to fight the fish on the 
rod, not on the reel. This means that the bow 
of the perfect rod in action distributes and 
graduates the strain on the line in accord with 
the increased power exerted when the rod is 
elevated, and this power rs the backbone of the 
rod tempered off through a finely drawn tip. 
I would say to the Eastern angler, leave your 
trout and bass rods among the moth balls when 
you come to Catalina. All your skill will avail 
you nothing here unless you are properly equip¬ 
ped, and even then the fish has a slight advan¬ 
tage. T presented Gifford Pinchot with one of 
my six-ounce rods this summer, and after a 
thorough tryout he wrote me that he had never 
before handled a rod so perfectly adapted in 
every particular for fighting a big fish. 
Mr. Eddy says in his article that the six- 
strand line is plenty strong enough for yellow- 
tail of any size and that the six-ounce rod is 
only heavy enough for very light yellowtail, but 
had he accepted my offer to try out my rod, he 
would have found that it contained the proper 
proportions for killing the biggest fish that a 
six-thread line will withstand. 
Generally speaking it takes but a little more 
time to bring a fish to gaff with the six-ounce 
rod than it does with the nine-ounce, which is 
proof positive that the former is an efficient 
tool in fairly expert hands. The only difference 
is that with the nine-ounce rod you fight the 
fish and with the six-ounce rod the fish fights 
you. 
Mr. Eddy sets me down in print as “grace¬ 
fully acknowledging the error of my ways.” 
This I tacitly admit to a certain extent. In¬ 
deed, I would have been with him from the 
moment he became the father of the light tackle 
movement if we had then possessed nine-ounce 
rods that included, in addition to a tip perfect 
in every respect, a butt of such strength as to 
permit resting it against the body as a lever, or 
the use of a seat socket. 
This gives the angler a powerful leverage, 
and under the old conditions the result of course 
was a heap of broken butts and, mirabile dictu, 
neither Mr. Eddy nor myself escaped the sad 
catastrophe. Nevertheless, Mr. Eddy's point in 
having the rod weighed entire was well taken, 
but on my part I looked to the greatest good 
of the greatest number, and the unlimited butt 
appeared, designed for the pumping up of tuna 
weighing from thirty-five to sixty pounds. 
That year several hundred tuna of this class 
were taken, though many were released, and we 
had figured that, the same conditions would pre¬ 
vail the next season. I am confident that a 
proper and adequate nine-ounce rod can be pro¬ 
duced, but it has not as yet been standardized 
so as to meet the requirements of all. Further¬ 
more, the rapid increase in efficiency among our 
anglers is fast outstripping the reduction in the 
weight of our tackle. 
Last winter I suggested a four-ounce rod five 
feet’ long with an eight-inch butt; and a three- 
strand line for yellowtail. This would have 
been perfectly feasible, but the Tuna Club called 
a halt, preferring to let the six-ounce tackle 
have a few more seasons to itself and prop¬ 
erly so. 
The second season of the six-ounce rod will 
close Oct. 1. More than sixty anglers have 
qualified with it, six butts have been broken, 
and as Mr. Eddy says, “to the disgust of the 
users”; but I have found upon investigating 
each case that the users were generally dis¬ 
gusted with themselves alone. Several ladies 
have qualified with the six-ounce rod, coming 
through with the tackle intact, and really there 
is not a particle of excuse for breaking a six- 
ounce rod properly manipulated. 
I do not mind having six-ounce tackle called 
“flimsy,” but “freaky”—ough! Mr. Eddy is 
such a royal good fellow that I do not mind 
disagreeing with him now and then, but when 
he says he did not follow the Commodore’s di¬ 
rections, which are “to keep the butt firmly 
fixed against the body,” I feel that we are 
rapidly approaching common ground. But on 
referring to my directions thus alluded to I find 
this paragraph: “The butt of the rod should 
touch the body lightly as a means of support 
while lifting only, the forearm being used gen¬ 
erally as a support to the rod in fighting a fish.” 
The little word “only” is a great tackle saver. 
