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902 FOREST AND STREAM. [Dec. 4. 1909 
your hands and hold tight until you can either 
get your knees under you or obtain foothold 
sufficiently firm to enable you to rise. In such 
an accident it is seldom necessary to discard 
your rod. 
If you fall while wading down a rapid the 
safest thing to do is to turn over, face down, 
and grasp something firm. This will fill your 
waders and make them pull hard against the 
current, but it will cause creel and net to float 
over and behind you, leaving arms and legs 
free, and it will bring toes down ready to ex¬ 
plore for firm stones. This is a trick canoeists 
know well and practice if capsized in shallow 
rapids. It is also one that is safe to practice 
where there are quicksands or bogs. We have 
employed it in saving ourselves from unpleasant 
consequences in all of the elements mentioned. 
In a rapid where the water is only one foot 
deep it is extremely difficult to face down 
stream, sit down, extend the legs, then attempt 
to .regain footing. Turn over, face upstream, 
and the current assists you to rise. 
There is nothing in the weight of wading 
trousers and brogues that would prevent a man 
of ordinary swimming ability from reaching 
shoal water if he falls at the tail of a deep 
rapid. Patrolmen frequently dive from piers 
and rescue drowning persons, and their uni¬ 
forms and accoutrements are fully as heavy and 
clumsy as those of the trout fisher. 
The following remarks by James Grant also 
appeared in the Scotsman, and Editor Marston, 
of the Fishing Gazette, says that Captain Grant 
has had wide experience in fishing rough rivers. 
His remarks on swimming in waders are valu¬ 
able, for, singular as it may seem, very few 
anglers have related their experiences in similar 
emergencies. Evidently this may be taken as 
showing that few have had actual experiences 
of this unpleasant sort in deep pools. Captain 
Grant says: 
“A man who ties his waders round his waist 
courts death. I have my waders so loose at the 
top that the minute I go over them a bucket of 
water goes in. Air in waders is fatal. 
“If you come to grief, get your waders full 
of water at once. Water is only the weight of 
itself, and if you are anything of a swimmer 
you can keep your head up for hundreds of 
yards, swimming down stream, diagonally, to 
where you know you will be stranded. The 
only risk is being struck against a big stone. 
“For many years I have fished gravelly bot¬ 
tom, which.gave under your feet, while wading 
deep, above Craigellachie Bridge on the Spey, a 
deep pot, with a whirlpool below. If I had come 
to grief there my intention was to make the 
center of the stream, which would have carried 
me through the pot and landed me on the island 
below. 
T may mention I have been down several 
pools in Spey in my waders. One time I went 
through the deep gut at the top of Sourden Pool 
in heavy water with a fish on and another time, 
when in Silmour Pool) with rising water, going 
down the center on a spit of gravel, forty yards 
from bank, with deep water on shore side. The 
water rising quickly, I could not get up the spit, 
so with waders full, rod in one hand and swim¬ 
ming with the other, went with the current 
diagonally to the shore. 
“Let no man have tied waders, but plenty of 
room for water to get in and expel the air if 
there is any chance of his being carried into 
deep water. 
“Of course, a man who cannot swim should 
not fish in dangerous water, wading.’’ 
This is a subject worthy of the fullest pub¬ 
licity. We hope salmon and trout anglers will 
give our young readers the benefit of their ex¬ 
perience through these columns. The character 
of our streams is so diverse that opinions from 
numerous sources must of necessity be of great 
value to novices. 
Fishing in Louisiana Waters. 
New Orleans, La., Nov. 25. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: Among the records of the past 
few days are the following made at the Rigolets 
by a party which was entertained at Abadie’s 
Club: D. Loeb, one red, twenty-four sheeps- 
heads, eighteen trout and a large mess of 
croakers; Robert Crager, one red, twenty-six 
trout, twelve bull croakers; H. Zambelli, three 
reds, two sheepshead, twelve trout; Andrew 
Martinez, one red, fourteen trout, two sheeps¬ 
head, twelve croakers; W. R. Christian, one 
red, fourteen sheepshead; T. Beauvais, eight 
sheepshead, twelve trout; Andrew Martinez, Jr., 
eight trout; E. J. Trepagnier, twenty-six trout, 
eight croakers; J. Barbe, thirty channel mul¬ 
lets, twenty trout; J. Sparando, eighteen teal 
ducks; F. Heldbrink, one red, eighteen trout, 
two sheepshead; G. Barrow, two reds, fourteen 
trout, forty croakers; M. Whitson, two reds, 
sixteen trout, and Louis Decker, one red, seven 
trout and twenty croakers. 
Attorney Ponder will leave shortly for Texas 
and Mississippi for the purpose of consulting 
the officials of those commonwealths with a 
view of entering into an agreement to control 
the streams on the dividing lines of the States. 
Mr. Ponder will also go to Washington to con¬ 
sult the authorities in reference to the control 
of the salt water streams in Louisiana. The 
game commission desires to control the various 
streams for the purpose of protecting the fish 
and to prevent their complete destruction. 
It is claimed that the netters and seiners 
operate in the salt water bodies and gather in 
thousands of little fish and destroy them, and 
it will only be a few years before all the 
fis[i will be decimated. A good many Italian 
fishermen catch these small fish and use them 
in various ways. Mr. Miller said that some 
years ago fishermen would go out to the Gulf 
and return in a day or two with a boat load 
of the finest varieties of red snapper, speckled 
trout and sheepshead, but now this same man 
leaves and does not return for a week and only 
has about half as many as he formerly caught 
in two days. He cites this as an illustration of 
how the fish are becoming more and more 
scarce yearly. Thousands of the middle class 
of people here live on the fish diet, finding it 
much cheaper than meats. He believes if the 
game commission is vested with the proper 
authority and limits the catch and the season 
and the size of the nets employed and the mesh 
and other regulations, the waters will soon 
teem with fish again as of yore in the sea 
waters. He thinks these professional fishermen 
in salt waters ought to be liable for a license 
and the waters made to yield a revenue to the 
State of Louisiana. F. G. G. 
The Fishes of Sunapee Lake. 
Hudson Center, N. H., Nov. 20.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: Commissioners Clarke and 
Wentworth, of the New Hampshire Fish and 
Game Commission, returned from Sunapee Lake 
on the 15th where they have been to look over 
the fish that have been taken there by the 
United States commission. They found in the 
live tanks a number of the Pacific salmon. 
These are the first—if I am not mistaken—ever 
taken by the United States commission in the 
last six years that it has operated the lake. . 
I directed Mr. Derosher—who is in charge of 
the operations at the lake—to select the best 
specimen of these salmon and send it to Wash¬ 
ington for identification. The first of these sal¬ 
mon were planted in Sunapee Lake by the New 
Hampshire commission in 1903 from spawn do¬ 
nated to the commission by the United States 
commission. 
The United States commission has also sent 
a liberal allotment to New Hampshire every 
year since. In 1908 and 1909, in addition to 
what the State has planted in our lakes, the 
United States hatchery at Nashua has grown a 
large quantity of fingerlings (Western salmon) 
of which it has given Sunapee, as well as other 
lakes in New Hampshire, a generous supply. As 
nearly as we can estimate over two hundred of 
these salmon were taken with the rod and line 
this last season. 
Sunapee Lake is noted all over the United 
States as one of the few waters in the United 
States that are known to contain the aureolus 
or Sunapee Lake saibling. They are found in , 
one pond in Maine, two in Vermont and in Dan 
Hole Pond and Sunapee Lake in New Hamp¬ 
shire. In all probability there are more of these 
fish in Sunapee lake than in all the other waters 
combined. They are the most difficult fish we 
know of to propagate. 
We were told by Mr. Derosher, United States 
Fish Culturist, that he had two fish in the tanks 
that he had taken from the lake which he 1 
thought were lake trout. We saw at a glance 
that they were without a question of doubt 
lake trout. Both were male fish and ripe with 
milt. The best specimen of these two fish was 
sent by Commissioner Clarke to a taxidermist to 
be mounted. As the lake trout and saibling . 
spawn at the same time and select about the 
same location for their spawning beds, we fear 
the result will be they will produce hybrids that 
will be dangerous, if not fatal to the saibling. , 
It is not known by the United States commis¬ 
sion or the New Hampshire commission how 
these lake trout were ever introduced into Suna¬ 
pee Lake. They cannot have been there more 
than three or four years at the most, as the 
specimen to be mounted only weighed four and 
a quarter pounds two hours after being taken 
from the water. N. Wentworth. 
Seeking a Home. 
The Anglers’ Club of New York is consider¬ 
ing several propositions regarding a home. 
While some of the members wish to see the 
club established in a home of its own in this 
city, others prefer that the purchase or lease of 
a country place including trout waters be made 
next year. Several propositions are under ad¬ 
visement. 
