742 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 13, 1911. 
Heavy Rains South. 
New Orleans, La., May 6 . —Editor Forest and 
Stream: H. F. Haffaman, while fishing in Mis¬ 
sissippi Sound at Clermont Harbor, near Wave- 
land, was finned by a large catfish in the left 
foot, which caused blood poisoning. The acci¬ 
dent occurred a few days ago, and Mr. Haffaman 
was taken to the Toure Infirmary in this city 
for treatment, where he is doing well and will 
recover. Mr. Haffaman is a confidential man 
and bookkeeper for the wholesale house of J. C. 
Koenig. He is well known in this city. 
The heavy rains and storms of the past several 
daj’s in Southern Louisiana made fishing almost 
impossible on Lake Bergne, Lake Pontchartrain, 
Mississippi Sound and other places near the gulf. 
The waters have been very high and dangerous 
for small craft. A few fishermen went to the 
clubs Sunday, but did little fishing. It is ex¬ 
pected that the fishing season will open shortly 
as soon as the rainy and cool weather passes. 
Gar and buffalo fish have been almost elimi¬ 
nated from Lake Verret, in Southwestern Louis¬ 
iana during the last few weeks, and the game 
fish will be given a chance to increase rapidly. 
For a long while complaints have been made to 
the commission to the effect that the game fish 
in Lake Verret were almost exterminated by the 
gar and buffalo. The commission authorized 
fishermen with seines to go into the lake and 
catch as many as possible of the gar and buf¬ 
falo, and also destroy the eggs. For this service 
on the part of the fishermen the commission de¬ 
cided to allow fishing in Lake Verret to continue 
a month longer; that is, during April. The sea¬ 
son should have closed April 1. President Miller, 
of the commission, says that several millions of 
gar and buffalo fish eggs were destroyed, and he 
believes that good results will be obtained, and 
that game fish will multiply rapidly. Lake Verret 
is a large body of water and at one time pro¬ 
duced thousands of valuable game fish, but in 
the last year or so these fish have disappeared 
and thousands of gars took their places. Pro¬ 
fessional as well as pleasure fishermen will reap 
a reward from this lake as soon as the open sea¬ 
son comes again. 
The long bridge over the Rigolets on the 
Louisville and Nashville Railroad was put out 
of commission by the heavy storm of some days 
ago, and trains were operated over the Queen 
and Crescent by the way of Hattiesburg and 
Gulfport. The bridge has just been repaired 
and fishermen can now go to the Rigolets and 
other famous fishing places on the L. & N. road 
a short distance from New Orleans. 
A number of fishermen allege that those en¬ 
gaged in the fishing business in Mississippi come 
over to Lake Borgne and Mississippi Sound in 
Louisiana territory and catch great quantities of 
shrimp and all kinds of fish and sell them in the 
Louisiana and Mississippi markets. The Louis¬ 
iana fishermen claim that those from another 
State have no right to utilize the waters of 
this State, and especially as they pay no license 
here. The game commission decided that it is 
a difficult problem to deal with, but in the future 
the board would station extra officers in the 
waters referred to and arrest those who have 
no right to fish in Louisiana territory. 
T. H. Lyons, John Pratt, George Lyons and 
T. Lyons, Jr., comprised a fishing party Sunday 
and succeeded in catching 500 perch in addition 
to a number of other fish near Dunbar. This 
was the largest catch of perch in some years. 
J. J. Frawley, vice-president of the City Coun¬ 
cil of New Orleans, and a party of friends, 
spent two days recently at North Shore on 
Lake Pontchartrain and were the guests of the 
Queen and Crescent Fishing Club. The party 
landed a number of sheepshead, green and 
speckled trout and perch. The Queen and Cres¬ 
cent Club has excellent quarters and is provided 
with comfortable sleeping rooms, a spacious din¬ 
ing room, a well supplied kitchen and a pantry 
always filled with the best the market can afford. 
An expert chef is employed and the most tempt¬ 
ing dishes are set before the guests. The club 
keeps on hand fishing tackle, gasolene boats and 
skiffs for the use of members. A large num¬ 
ber of those connected with this organization 
are leading financiers and business men. 
F. G. G. 
Gill Disease in Trout. 
Washington, D. C., May 6. — Editor Forest 
amt Stream: My attention has been called to 
a query in your issue of May 6, 1911, whether 
trout with short gill covers, or with the gills 
extending beyond the gill cover, are wholesome 
as food. It may be said that no one should 
hesitate to eat trout in this condition from fear 
of ill effects of any sort. Such fish are entirely 
who'esome as food. Tn fact, so are the trout 
with the thyroid or throat tumor, and practically 
all trout taken fresh from the water. The objec¬ 
tion to using any such fish as food, when it 
exists, is of an aesthetic or sentimental nature. 
When well cooked, as of course all fresh fish 
should be before eating, the trout are harmless, 
although disease or bad hygiene may have made 
them less palatable and appetizing. 
The cause of short gill covers is not known 
beyond the general fact that domestication pre¬ 
disposes to it. H. M. Smith, 
Acting Commissioner. 
Harry Whitney Injured. 
A press dispatch from New Haven says that 
word was received there last Saturday that Harry 
Whitney, the arctic hunter, who for some time 
has been tarpon fishing at Knights Key, Fla., is 
recovering from an attack of blood poisoning at 
a Florida East Coast railway camp. 
Mr. Whitney, with a party of friends, had 
landed a large number of tarpon, and while try¬ 
ing to take the hook out of the seventy-pounder 
the fish gave a quick snap of his head which 
drove the hook into Mr. Whitney’s hand. There 
were no facilities for dressing his hand there 
and the hook was cut out with a rusty knife, 
which resulted in the blood poisoning. 
Tarpon al Port Aransas. 
Akron, Ohio, May 1. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have just received some interesting 
fishing news from our secretary, J. E. Cotter, at 
Port Aransas, Texas, in which he informs me 
that on the 22d inst. there were fifteen tarpon 
and 2,500 pounds of mackerel caught, all on 
hook and line. The tarpon were all caught on 
light tackle according to the Aransas Pass Tar¬ 
pon Club’s rules. 
The tarpon are in the pass in large quantities 
and great sport is being had with them. Fish¬ 
ing will be excellent from now on to Dec. 1 
next. J. E. Pflueger, Cor. Sec'y. 
Hungry Pike. 
A pretty tall story is to’d in the Angler’s 
News by a correspondent who submits a photo¬ 
graph of two pike as proof. One of them, he 
said, weighed about 5P2 pounds, the other 4^2. 
They were found dead with the head of the 
larger fish in the smaller one’s mouth, the latter’s 
teeth fixed in his intended victim’s skull. With¬ 
out any apparent hint at humor the correspond¬ 
ent adds that he saw a swallow on a certain day. 
Some News and a Little Gossip. 
Alexander S. Cochran has ordered the 
schooner Westward home. The yacht is now at 
the yard of Summers & Payne, Southampton, 
and that firm has been notified to start work on 
her. Captain Chris Christiansen, who last 
year was skipper of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s 
sloop Aurora, has been chosen as skipper of 
Westward, and he and a crew of thirty men left 
port last Saturday on the steamer New York 
for Southampton. These men will put the yacht 
in shape for her voyage across the Atlantic and 
sail for home in her as soon as possible. 
Capt. Christiansen is a very capable skipper. He 
was mate on Reliance with Capt. Charles Barr. 
The officers of Westward are Mate Harry 
Klefve and Second Mate John Swenson. These 
two were on Westward in her races in British 
and German waters last year. Capt. J. F. 
Mauerhoff, of Brooklyn, will be navigator on 
the ocean trip. 
The yacht is to go to Bristol as soon as pos¬ 
sible, and she will there be put in commission 
and will later be raced against Elena and others 
of her class whenever possible. Mr. Cochran 
says she will take part in the cruise of the New 
York Y. C. It is possible that she will be ready 
for racing earlier than that time if she has 
luck in making the ocean passage. Mr. Coch- 
