484 
FOREST AND STREAM 
AUGUST, 1918 
When in a Hurry for Lunch 
D O not waste time cleaning the fish. 
With a sharp knife cut through the 
skin around the head and tail (Fig. i), 
then lay the fish on its side and cut care¬ 
fully through the skin on the under side, 
FOLLOW DOTTED LINES IN SKINNING. 
following the dotted line (Fig. 2). Cut 
also down the backbone from head to tail 
(Fig. 3). Grasp the point of skin at the 
back of the head between knife and thumb 
and give a firm, hard, quick pull; the skin 
comes off neatly. Do the same on the 
other side, then slice off a thick strip of 
meat (a filet) from each side, and throw 
the rest away. There is really very little 
waste, as what is discarded is mainly skin, 
bones, and entrails. You have appetizing 
portions of solid meat, ready to fry or 
broil, or drop into chowder. These por¬ 
tions of fish are delicious strung on cords 
and smoked in hardwood smoke. They 
may be cured this way at one end of the 
long campfire crane. 
F. V. W., Canada. 
The Daddy of All Tote Bags 
OTHING equals the pleasure of buy¬ 
ing new equipment, except per¬ 
haps that of trying it out, but among 
the “'oldsters” as Dr. Breck calls those 
of us who have for many years hit the 
untrodden trails, there is a tendency to 
get down to the simplicity of things— 
to rely more and more on the material 
at hand, and less and less on the out¬ 
fitter who is interested in smoothing the 
pathway of him who adventures afield 
or astream. 
It may be the crankiness that is said 
to mark the advance of years; it may 
be the reversion to type, but your old 
woodsman does not take kindly to ready 
made, up-to-date outfit half as much as 
he does to the contraptions he hammers 
or whittles out for himself. There is 
no poetry visible to the naked eye—that 
is, to the average person—in drinking 
tea out of a cup constructed from the 
lower half of a tin can, but it seems to 
afford a deal of satisfaction to a lot of 
old timers who do so in the woods. 
In numberless other ways the same 
peculiarities and characteristics are to be 
noted. Some of them are to be smiled 
at; others are to be admired for the ex¬ 
cellence of their intent and use. 
Take the packsack, for example. At 
best, with all its flubdubbery of attach¬ 
ments of flaps and buckles, it is a bag 
in which to carry things. Ergo, the bag 
that carries the most within human pow¬ 
er, and with the least trouble and an¬ 
noyance, is the best. Now, although 
there are dozens of styles of bags, on 
which there are patent's and improve¬ 
ments aplenty, what is the best bag you 
can think off? 
The common, ordinary grain sack is 
the unsurpassed original! It holds more, 
is easily get-at-able, and altogether, like 
many other basic things, is still to be 
preferred to newer adaptions. But you 
cannot go through the woods with a 
grain sack tossed over your shoulder? 
Of course not. 
The old woodsman doesn’t need to be 
told that, and he doesn’t' go that way, 
either. What does he do? Simply what 
pioneers, lumbermen and others of the 
clan have been doing for years. He 
gathers up one lower corner of the empty 
sack, makes fast to it a cord or strap, 
then fills his bag. The mouth of the 
bag is tied. Then the loose cord or 
strap is passed up under the left arm, 
across the chest, and with a round turn 
and a half hitch is made fast to the 
gathered in mouth of the sack. This 
operation can be performed before the 
bag is heaved to the shoulder, if pre¬ 
ferred. The advantage is that if you 
wish to be relieved of your load in a 
hurry, it is only necessary to give one 
twitch to the dangling end of the cord,_ 
and you are free to shoot or run, or any¬ 
thing else. 
The “lumberman’s suitcase,” this con¬ 
trivance has been called, but the lumber¬ 
man, and particularly the Canadian hab¬ 
itant, has a fashion of sewing two straps 
to top and bottom of his “pacto” and 
buckling or tying them across his chest, 
or using them as a tump. 
The tump is a useful and expeditious 
way of transporting the outfit, but it is 
a man-killer for the amateur. If you 
have ever run your hand over the back 
of the neck of the seasoned “breed” 
tumpline artist, you will understand why. 
The neck muscles of some of these men 
have been so overdeveloped as to stand 
out abnormally. 
The old grain sack is the daddy of all 
tote bags, and is hard to beat. Some 
of its refined and improved later chil¬ 
dren look prettier, but looks are not 
everything. Waterproof it if you want, 
but it is the adjustment of the tying at 
the right side, the easy riding on the 
back, and the certainty that' you can slip 
it loose in a second and at all times 
have the free use of both arms, that 
have made it hold its own in our best 
circles of seasoned old woodsmen. 
D. C., New York. 
A Folding Pocket Line Dryer 
Y braided silk casting lines are not ex¬ 
pensive because I take such excellent 
care of them that they outlast several 
cheaper lines. As soon as I am through 
fishing I take off the butt of my rod and 
set up a folding line dryer which I carry 
in my pocket for just this occasion. It is 
so convenient to carry and so necessary an 
article of the fisherman’s outfit that I am 
passing it on to others. 
The accompanying illustrations show suc¬ 
cessive steps in the making of the folding 
dryer. Procure a square stick of wood 
five inches long and one and one-half 
inches thick and bevel it at the corners to 
octagonal shape : near the ends bore holes 
in the beveled sides to hold the side wires. 
