422 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 14, 1908. 
I arrived a day ahead of the rest of the party, 
and after dinner went to the stream. 
The ground over which we fished being new 
to us, we fished carefully and succeeded in creel¬ 
ing some six or eight nice fish—enough for our 
breakfast, as the doctor remarked. We stopped 
fishing and turned toward the hotel. On our 
way back we fell in with Mr. Ripple, an en¬ 
thusiast on angling. We soon became friendly, 
and after exchanging views regarding the dif¬ 
ferent baits and modes of fishing for bass, Mr. 
Ripple proposed for the next day a trip some 
miles up the stream for what he called a-good 
day’s fishing. The following morning we drove 
up the stream, telling the drivers to meet us 
that evening six miles below where we started. 
Mr. Ripple had secured a fine bucket of min¬ 
nows, and several times took occasion to re¬ 
mark that he did not think our light rods and 
flies would do much good on that stream; for 
his part he thought there could be nothing 
better than good live minnows. 
We had not fished many pools until we found 
that the bass were not rising to our flies, and on 
reaching the pool that our friend was fishing 
with minnows, we found he had taken four 
fair-sized fish and was much pleased with him¬ 
self as well as with his bait, and did not hesitate 
to say so. 
We loafed around watching him fish until 
noon, and after eating our lunch, Mr. Ripple 
decided that he would walk down the stream to 
where we were to meet the teams and fish 
there, and suggested that “if we were going to 
try our flies, we had better get at it.” Just 
about this time we heard a yell from down the 
stream which both the doctor and I understood. It 
was Ed., and it meant one of the party had 
caught a fish. They had driven out to meet us, and 
we met them just around the bend. Ed. re¬ 
marked upon the beautiful water and asked, 
“When do you think they will commence to 
jump, Jack?” I replied that it was now 4 
o’clock, and I thought it was about time to 
do something. Mr. Ripple with a smile re¬ 
marked,'“I’ll meet you at the teams.” 
Half an hour after he left us the sport com¬ 
menced, and by the time we reached the place 
our teams were to meet us, every one of us 
had all his basket would hold of fine bass, some 
14, 16 and one 18 inches long. You should 
have seen Mr. Ripple’s eyes when we dumped 
our baskets on the green grass to make count. 
He said, “Where do you buy your flies and 
rods? By George! any set of fellows that can 
loaf along a stream all day, and then turn in 
and catch forty-two bass like that in less than 
two hours can do better than I can. I’ll not be 
lugging all this truck next year, you bet.” 
When I start to write fish or fishing or 
tackle, it is hard for me to stop. I close by 
extending an invitation to Mr. Finletter to join 
our party on some of its trips to some of the 
streams of the State, and feel sure if he goes, he 
will be convinced that the proper way to fish for 
bass is with a fly. S. D. J. 
All the game lazvs of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
Chasing Pickerel Under the Ice. 
New York, Feb. 29.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Here is a clipping from the London Outlook, 
referred to by that periodical as “the most curi¬ 
ous capture of a fish that has come to our no¬ 
tice. The circumstance was retailed many years 
ago by Mr. Heathcote, one of the great authori¬ 
ties on the fens. A Mr. Richardson, of Peter¬ 
borough, was skating on the dikes when the ice 
was very clear and he noticed a large pike swim¬ 
ming in front of him. The fish was terrified by 
the apparition and swam in front of the skater 
until it stopped from sheer exhaustion. The 
skater broke the ice and took out the fish with 
his hand, which proved to be a pike weighing 
twelve pounds. It is a story difficult even for a 
fisherman or a local historian to cap.” 
The gentleman who chased the pike until it 
ON THE FISHING GROUNDS. 
Where many an angler would like to be now. 
was tired, and then broke the ice and lifted it 
out no doubt had a hard time making his story 
good. 
My summer home is at Minnetonka Beach, on 
Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota. Last fall I lived 
there late. The ice formed very smooth and 
clear and remained so for some time. Soon on 
Lafayette Bay, in front of my house, appeared, 
several times each day, boys and men, generally 
by twos or threes—mostly the latter—armed 
with axes, spears or clubs, darting this way and 
that, the one in the center pursuing some thing 
under the ice. Time and again I saw them stop 
and chop a hole and pull out some object, which 
I supposed was a muskrat; but I could not un¬ 
derstand why a rat should be so far away from 
his house, or the shore. Several times I started 
out to interview the skaters to ascertain what 
they were doing, but they invariably had glided 
too far for me to overtake them and find out. 
A week before I left for New York, I took 
my man and team over to what is called the nar¬ 
rows, where a ferry is operated by the county, 
to get some cedar trees we had recently chopped 
out to be transplanted, and while loading them, 
the ferryman whose dfity it is to keep the chan¬ 
nel for his boat clear, and to watch for ap¬ 
proaching teams and autos, came around into a 
little bay on his skates, armed with an ax. Soon 
he was performing the usual antics that I had 
before observed, and I immediately struck out 
across the ice to head him off before he could 
get back to his ferry, in case he heard his signal 
bell ring. Knowing the man well, I asked him to 
explain his gymnastics. He coolly replied that he 
“was running down a pickerel for his dinner.” 
I have been up against some strange stunts in 
my life, in the fishing line, but this was a new 
one to me. It may be generally known but I 
do not think so, and I give you my experience in 
“catching on,” for the enlightenment of those 
not posted. 
The ferryman told me that a pickerel, which 
is a sort of a cousin to the English pike, puts 
up a big bluff for speed for a short distance only, 
and then stops—or quits—and all that is to be 
done then is to chop a hole in the ice and lift 
it out. To think I had lived on the borders of 
that lake many years and never understood the 
trick, made me feel that I had lost something— 
yet, though we all indulge in skating, ice-boating 
and sleigh riding on the lake, we rarely have 
such ice as last December produced. It generally 
snows or freezes rough. 
The ferryman’s job is a political one and he 
is a man of standing in the community in which 
he lives. If any one doubts the story, I pre¬ 
sume we could give between us, the names of 
fifty natives around that lake who will verify it, 
for I took pains to inquire into it after I got 
wise. I should explain that the ferryman lost 
his fish, for he said it took three skaters to turn 
the trick successfully; one to follow the fish and 
one on each side to take up the chase when the 
fish darted to right or left; but that he had often 
done it alone. H. W. Osborn. 
Newark Club Defines its Position. 
At the annual banquet of the Newark (N. J.j 
Bait and Fly Casting Club, held recently, there 
was an address delivered by a speaker which was 
said to be in the interests of the pound net fish¬ 
ermen. The controversy was afterward taken up 
at length in communications which have been 
published in the Newark Star, and the club mem¬ 
bers thought it was necessary for them to take 
some official action. 
A meeting, therefore, was called and after a 
long discussion a resolution was passed setting 
forth the opinion of the members. 
Whereas, At the recent banquet of the Newark Bait 
and Fly-Casting Club one of the speakers, not a mem¬ 
ber of this club, delivered an address which appeared to 
be in the interest of the pound net fishermen; and, 
Whereas, Said address was interpreted by a number of 
guests to be an expression of the attitude of the club 
on the subject, and operated as a deterrent influence 
on prospective members; now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, First, that it is the sense of this meeting 
that said address was neither in harmony with the spirit 
of the occasion nor in any sense representative of the 
attitude of the club. 
Second, that it is hereby declared to be the established 
policy of this club to encourage and practice the highest 
and most progressive ideals and standards of sports¬ 
manship, the propagation and preservation of game fish 
and game and to oppose all forms of their wholesale 
destruction. 
Third, that while it recognizes the necessity for the 
existence of an industry to supply food fish to our 
citizens, it is unalterably opposed to the shortsighted, 
unscientific and mercenary practices of the pound net 
fishing interests and to their practical monopoly of said 
industry. 
All the fish laws of the United States and Can¬ 
ada, revised to date and now in force, are given 
in the Game Lazvs in Brief. See adv. 
