August, 1918 
FOREST ANI) S T REA M 
487 
L. E. P., Rexburg, Idaho: 
We would like to have published your 
interesting letter on Idaho’s big trout, but 
you did not sign your name to the com¬ 
munication. Names and addresses are 
not published in these columns if the 
contributor signs also a pen name, but we 
must request a proper signature of all com¬ 
munications. Editors. 
CHUBS BUT NO TROUT 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
I notice in your June issue you refer to 
the good trout fishing in the vicinity of 
Hackettstown, naming the River Muskenet- 
cong and Pequest. 
A friend and myself whipped both 
streams for three days last week, with 
little or no success. My friend creeled 
thirty chub. The streams are well stocked 
with this coarse fish, but no trout. 
I am informed these streams have been 
stocked with Rainbow trout, which are ab¬ 
solutely useless for .stream stocking, their 
nature being migratory, here .to-day and 
gone to-morrow. 
Will some of our New Jersey fly-fisher¬ 
men express their views if they consider 
they receive sufficient return for the money 
spent for this particular branch of sport. 
“Fly-Fisherman." 
A CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
While not an experienced dry fly fisher¬ 
man, I sincerely question the soundness of 
the advice of R. L. M. in the April issue 
of your magazine upon the kind of a rod 
to select for dry fly fishing. 
I have no fault to find with his em¬ 
phasis that the rod should be comparatively 
powerful, but I am confident that the aver¬ 
age rod designed for this style of fishing 
is not built with a slender light tip, which 
he particularly insists upon, but on the con¬ 
trary with a heavy tip (it is understood, 
of course, that the use of such qualifying 
words as “slender” and “heavy” are used 
in a relative sense, applying to a particular 
rod as all rod tips whether salmon bait or 
trout rods, would be slender, say, com¬ 
pared with the tip of a walking cane). 
This contributor gives considerable at¬ 
tention in his article to a type of rod made 
for Mr. Halford, an English authority on 
dry fly fishing and equipment, and if the 
Halford rod is any criterion R. L. M.’s 
views are wrong as this particular rod is 
built with a powerful, heavy tip. This 
feature of the rod is emphatic to any fish¬ 
erman used to handling a wet fly rod who 
picks up a Halford rod for the first time. 
Furthermore, another typical dry fly rod 
by a well-known English maker is par¬ 
ticularly described as having an extra 
heavy tip to obtain the maximum lifting 
power so that the heavy line can be picked 
neatly off the water, and the attention 
given by the maker to this feature of the 
rod plainly indicates that such a feature is 
of importance in dry fly fishing. Possibly 
the English makers build their dry fly rods 
on wrong principles when they give them 
heavy tips to handle a long line easily, but 
I have a rod by one of the best known 
American makers that is particularly rec¬ 
ommended for dry fly fishing. This rod 
also does not conform to R. L. M.’s idea 
of a “Scotch taper” as it has to all intents 
and purposes a uniform and even taper 
from tip to butt, and yet there is no lack 
of bamboo in the middle joint of this rod 
as its extensive use in tournament casting 
evidences. Fine pointed tapered leaders 
seem to be used generally by English dry 
fly fishermen with rods with heavy tips 
and the probability is that power in the tip 
is more important in a properly made dry 
fly rod for satisfactory work than the risk 
of an occasional broken leader. 
I trust this criticism will be taken in 
good part as it is so intended, and if I am 
not right I beg to be corrected with recog¬ 
nized or authoritative data. 
E. B. A., San Francisco, Cal. 
[We have read your criticism and wish 
to compliment you upon the good tone and 
temper in which you have presented it. 
Constructive criticisms interest our readers, 
and we will take great pleasure in publish¬ 
ing yours in Forest and Stream. We are 
always glad to hear from members of our 
old family of readers and hope they will 
communicate with us whenever the spirit 
moves. Editors.] 
THE RABBIT DISEASE 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Because of its intimate connection with 
the abundance or scarcity of game birds 
the disease affecting the rabbit supply 
in the northwest has always interested 
me greatly. Bunny himself does not in¬ 
spire enthusiasm in the owner of a good 
dog, as he is a continual temptation, 
and we know from ourselves that only 
very stern virtue will resist temptation 
long continued. So I have studied the 
rabbit question, so far as it bears on game 
birds, with some care. 
My convictions are as follows: Rabbits 
increase for several years, generally seven 
or eight, until they become extremely 
abundant. Then, a murrain clears /them 
off, probably because the ground has be¬ 
come foul, and for a year or two they 
seem almost extinct. Gradually they grow 
in number until at length they reach their 
former abundance, and again disappear. 
Coincident with the growth of the rabbit 
population all the animals of prey, such as 
foxes, wolves, coyotes, etc., increase 
mightily. The maximum increase is 
reached in the big rabbit year; then, the 
food supply failing, all the vermin hunt, 
hunt, hunt continually for anything edible, 
and pay particular attention to the sharp- 
tails, ruffed grouse, and in fact all ground¬ 
nesting birds, so that the latter pay a heavy 
toll, and to the intense surprise of some 
people seem verging on extinction. But 
the vermin, notwithstanding their forays 
upon the bird ranks, fail to obtain a living, 
and within a few months most of them 
perish from starvation. Now the reaction 
sets in; the birds gradually increase, until 
five years or so later, they seem as abun¬ 
dant as ever. 
Now for concrete facts in support of my 
argument. The year 1914 was the last big 
rabbit year in Manitoba. I counted two 
hundred on a forty acre lot, and possibly 
did not see half. With so much easy meat 
neither the fox nor the coyote will bother 
much about grouse; he can get a meal in 
a few minutes at any time with the mini¬ 
mum of exertion, and much prefers fat 
fur to feathers. By 1915 the rabbits had 
gone and the chicken were following fast. 
That winter most of the fur-bearers died 
off, and by the fall of 1916 there were no 
rabbits, few chicken and yet fewer foxes 
and coyotes. 
The spring of 1917 was favorable to 
nesting and large broods were raised, so 
that in September there seemed a very fair 
stock of ruffed grouse, and evidently many 
more chicken. This spring all agree that 
there are quite a fair number of nesting 
birds, hence by the autumn the shooting 
might be fairly good were the prohibition 
lifted (I understand that in Alberta they 
will permit a short open season.) 
The seasons of 1919 and 1920 will prob¬ 
ably be good ones, as the rabbits are show¬ 
ing up again and should by that time be 
numerous. These will also be good trap¬ 
ping years, for the poor rabbit years are 
invariably light fur yielders. 
I have gathered from the government 
reports issued by the Topographical and 
Geological surveys that the same cycle has 
been observed in most parts of the north¬ 
west, from the Yukon to Hudson’s Bay. 
I write “in most parts” because there al¬ 
ways seem to omit little oases which 
shelter colonies of rabbits and birds, and 
from which the breeding stock filters to 
contiguous territories, eventually restock¬ 
ing the whole land. 
Chas. A. Bramble, Winnipeg, Man. 
HABITS OF WOODCOCK 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have wondered how a woodcock ob¬ 
tained his food and recently I had an ex¬ 
ceptional opportunity of seeing him do the 
trick. I always thought he stuck his bill 
deep down in the mud and pulled the worm 
out, but it is not so. 
Being thirsty and tired I went to a 
spring and after drinking sat down on the 
grass to rest.' The sun was down and it 
was getting dark when I heard a whirr of 
wings and a large woodcock lit on a patch 
of muddy ground not ten feet from me. 
He took a few steps and drove his bill deep 
down in the moist ground five times, each 
hole three or four inches from the other, 
and then stood perfectly still until he sud¬ 
denly grabbed a worm at the top of the 
hole and swallowed it. I moved slightly to 
get a better view and he flew away. I then 
examined the place and in a little while 
saw another worm come out of a hole and 
wriggle away. I then discovered why he 
made these holes in the mud. Earth worms 
become very active after sunset and when 
they penetrate the sides of these holes come 
immediately to the surface. This I demon¬ 
strated by punching some round holes in 
the mud and watching the result. 
T. C. Homiller, Washington, D. C. 
G. J. B., Mohegan Lake, N. Y.: 
Relative to the harm that may be done 
by the introduction of pike perch into Lake 
Mohegan, you are advised that since this 
lake is well stocked with yellow perch, 
sunfish, black bass and pickerel, the perch 
would not prove detrimental, as under 
natural conditions they are often found 
inhabiting the same waters. 
The Bureau of Fisheries does not rec¬ 
ommend the stocking of trout streams with 
bass, pike perch or pickerel, as they are 
cannibalistic and would devour the trout. 
