Dec. 18, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
981 
Au Sable’s Trout Law and its Results. 
Saginaw, Mich., Dec. 10.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have always believed that the North 
Branch of the Au Sable River was the greatest 
trout stream in the United States, or if not that, 
at least the greatest in this part of the country. 
The law provides that everything under eight 
inches must be put back into the stream; that 
you cannot take more than fifty trout in a day, 
or take more than fifty trout away from the 
stream on any one fishing trip, and that the 
fishing can be done only with the artificial fly. 
The season opened last year the 15th of April, 
and closed the 15th of August. The new law, 
however, makes the open season May 1, the clos¬ 
ing season Sept. 1. The stream is full of fish 
food and besides from the numerous springs 
along its banks it is fed by lakes at its head¬ 
waters. Nearly every day during the month of 
May there ■ is a flood and water rises two or 
three feet above normal. This is for the pur¬ 
pose of flooding the saw logs, cedar poles, ties, 
etc., from the upper stretches of the stream down 
to the Douglas saw mill. The flood lasts any¬ 
where from three to five hours and the fish food 
is increased by it. When the flood starts the 
trout will not bite. As soon as it begins to sub¬ 
side they begin rising and on this falling water 
the fishing is usually best, but there is some¬ 
thing about this flooding that provides fish food 
in abundance. 
During the spring migration of the warblers 
and waders the sandbars were filled with birds. 
I have seen on certain days great quantities of 
yellowlegs and once last spring the river banks 
seemed alive with thrushes, although there was 
snow on the ground. All during April and gen¬ 
erally up to the end of the first week in May 
that part of Michigan is cold and stormy, and 
there is too much snow and wind for comfort¬ 
able fishing. In the latter part of April I was 
on the stream when my line froze and my fly 
went down like a buckshot and the snow came 
down almost like a blizzard, yet on that day 
Geo. B. Morley and I got nearly our limit of 
eight-inch trout. 
At the beginning of the last trout season I 
intended to have a record kept by the various 
anglers frequenting the stream of all the fish 
of legal size that they took and saved. I had 
printed blanks distributed, and I have just got¬ 
ten in the reports for the year and those report¬ 
ing show a total of 18,181. Of course, there are 
a great many who have not reported their catch. 
Many natives have taken fish that have not been 
reported and several fishing clubs on the lower 
stretches of the river have paid no attention to 
my request, so that it is safe to say that several 
more thousand fish ought to be added to this 
total. I should not be surprised if there had 
been taken a total of 25,000 trout of eight 
inches. 
The State does not stock the stream very 
liberally, only about 100,000 fry annually being 
put in it, and I attribute the extreme fertility of 
this stream to be the result, first, of the fact 
that no trout are killed with bait hooks as for¬ 
merly, only the fly being allowed. Next, the 
State law is observed, for the Au Sable Forest 
Farm, in connection with a number of fishing 
clubs, employs and pays a warden who spends 
practically his entire time on the stream. Next, 
that the State law makes the limit eight inches 
for the Au Sable River, whereas on other 
streams it is seven inches. 
A catch of fifty in a day is too large, twenty- 
five or thirty would be ample, but this is a 
wonderful trout stream, and it shows what could 
be done in other streams. I have many times 
kept a record of the undersized fish taken, and 
I have found through a series of years that the 
rule is when I take twenty-five fish eight inches 
and over I have at the same time taken off my 
hook and put back to the stream one hundred 
fish running under eight inches, the most of them 
seven and seven and a half inches. Now, when 
the bait-fisherman was in evidence, a large per¬ 
centage of these fish—if put back at all—died. 
Many bait-fishermen were likely to slip the 
smaller ones into the bag that trailed after in 
the water in which he soaked up his fish, but if 
afraid that he would be caught at it he put them 
back—largely to die. Now when only the arti¬ 
ficial fly is used it is very unusual to see a dead 
fish in the river. 
I believe that since the new law was passed, 
and this is now its third year, more people fre¬ 
quent the stream and more people enjoy fishing 
on it than before when bait-fishing was allowed. 
W. B. Mershon. 
White Bass. 
Cincinnati, Ohio, Dec. 5. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: While fishing for bass this past sum¬ 
mer and fall at Put-in-Bay, Lake Erie, I had 
some most enjoyable sport catching white, or 
silver bass. The first time I saw them I did not 
know what they were, nor how to fish for them. 
They appeared about sunset among the islands, 
coming in from the lake in large schools, evi¬ 
dently feeding on minnows. In chasing the min¬ 
nows they broke water, the school sometimes 
lashing it to foam for an area of hundreds of 
feet. The gulls followed the schools, feeding 
on the minnows driven to the surface, and the 
fish could be spotted at great distances by the 
excited actions of the gulls. 
On inquiry I learned what the fish were and 
was told that when chasing the minnows they 
would strike at anything white moving through 
the water. From that time on I fished for 
them, using a small white spinner at the end 
of my line with two snelled hooks baited with 
pieces of white material attached at intervals 
above. 1 When this rig was cast into the school 
it seldom failed to hook from one to three fish. 
I found that the first strike would usually be on 
the spinner, and as the other hooks were dragged 
through the school they also would be taken. 
The fish strike savagely, fight hard and are 
a good panfish when caught. On a light fly-rod 
they would afford fine sport. I only had my 
bait-casting rod, but another year I shall go 
prepared to get the most out of this fishing. 
To show how they can be caught when con¬ 
ditions are right, as many as ninety fish have 
been taken by one rod in two or three hours’ 
fishing. R. H. Gaylord. 
[The white or white lake bass ( Roccus chry- 
sops ) is commonly found in the Great Lake 
region. Attaining about fifteen inches in length 
it frequents the deep still waters of lakes and 
rivers.—E ditor.] 
All the hsh laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
Experiments with Waders. 
As the result of a lively controversy in the 
papers, several anglers met by appointment re¬ 
cently at a public bath in Edinburgh and tried 
various experiments in both deep and shallow 
water while fully clad and equipped for river 
fishing with the fly. 
According to the Edinburgh Dispatch, Coun¬ 
cillor Dobie, who presided, said the experiments 
had been arranged in order to test the conten¬ 
tion put forward by correspondents and others 
that waders prevented a man from swimming. 
The demonstrators were not professional swim¬ 
mers, and they undertook to show that a man 
who could swim at all would not be prevented 
by waders. Anglers who could not swim, but 
used waders, had to take the risks of acci¬ 
dents. 
It will be remembered there was a great di¬ 
versity of opinion as to what would happen in 
the event of any angler losing his balance or 
going beyond his depth while fishing with 
waders. Some believed that the man who tied 
his waders round his waist, keeping them air 
tight, courted disaster. His waders, so to speak, 
became ballooned, and had a tendency to keep 
the fisher’s head under water once he had lost 
his foothold. In last night’s demonstration, how¬ 
ever, the anglers who were only moderate swim¬ 
mers, had no current to contend with, but 
nevertheless the experiments were particularly 
interesting. One of them had his waders tied 
and the other loose. Their first performance 
was to fall backward or forward into about 
three and a half feet of water, getting the head 
as near as possible to the bottom, with the feet 
uppermost, so as to allow the air to keep the 
head down according to the popular idea. Then 
they fell into six and a half feet of water and 
swam the length of the bath, and then jumped 
in, this latter method allowing the water to fill 
the waders in the one case. The next experi¬ 
ment was to sink and swim to the side, mean¬ 
while trying to keep under the water; and, last 
of all, each donned a waterproof jacket, one of 
which was filled with air and the other stuffed 
with cotton wool, thereby demonstrating that 
with either garment it was utterly impossible 
to sink. 
In a short address at the close, Councillor 
Moscrip stated that these experiments had proved 
that, with a little experience in swimming, ang¬ 
lers had no reason to fear danger while using 
waders. 
Experiments of this sort are of doubtful 
value. To know that one can, swim in waders 
is encouraging, and would be comforting if our 
deep waters were clear of obstructions and free 
from swirling currents; but tank experiments, 
with all danger eliminated, and being suddenly 
swept away at the tail of a rapid into a root- 
filled eddy are very different propositions. To 
be sure, the swimmer has tremendous advantage 
over the non-swimmer, and the latter has no 
business in treacherous water, but in shallow 
rapids, where swimming is not possible, agility 
in manipulating hands and feet will often save 
one from trying his swimming ability in the 
pool below. Even if one has no opportunity to 
swim, his knowledge of how to do it will give 
him confidence, and generally a fall in any water 
save that which is swift and deep is attended 
with nothing more serious than a ducking. 
i 
