660 
FOREST AND STREAM 
November, 1918 
PICKEREL AND PIKE 
O. R. S., Detroit, Michigan : 
Your communication to Forest and 
Stream has been handed me for reply. 
In relation to the pickerel, while it be¬ 
longs to the pike family it may always be 
distinguished by its colorings, which are 
uniformly of a greenish yellow varying as 
to intensity by the water which it inhabits 
whether swift moving or sluggish and dark 
colored, and also by the peculiar chain-like 
links along its sides. These ordinarily are 
thirteen in number and extend from gill 
opening to the caudal fin or tail. This pe¬ 
culiarity gave it in Colonial days the name 
of “federation pike” which name still ap¬ 
plies in some localities. You doubtless are 
referring to what is known as “the great 
northern pike” which has a great range not 
only in this country but throughout all 
northern Europe and Siberia. The mus- 
kellunge belongs to the true pikes and 
reaches a large size, while the pickerel 
rarely reaches eight pounds in weight in 
any of our waters, and is only found east 
of the Mississippi valley. The pikes are 
always dark gray or brown and mottled or 
slightly striped, which can only be seen 
when first taken from the water. 
As to the “black basses” they have only 
two members which are known as the large 
mouth or Oswego, and the small mouth. 
The two are hard to distinguish by the 
average fisherman as having any distinctive 
differences, but may be told apart by laying 
a rule or other straight edge directly over 
the center of the eye. In the small mouth 
the fold of the jaw is exactly in line with 
the center of the eye, while in the other the 
jaw extends much farther back; also in 
the large mouth the body between the anal 
fin and tail is not so full and even in size 
as in the small mouth. All other names 
which are applied to the fishes are only 
what may be termed localisms and have no 
real value. I have fished over many waters 
in the south where the “large mouth” 
abounds and they are known there as trout 
or green trout and the natives still look 
askance at the man who calls them “bass.” 
Leonard Hulit, 
Associate Editor Forest and Stream. 
GAME LAW REVISIONS 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
Since issuing our 1918 Game Laws the 
President of the United States has changed 
the laws by a proclamation issued on the 
shooting of migratory birds. 
In view of the fact that we sent out some 
350,000 of these Game Laws broadcast, we 
feel in duty bound to do what we can to 
put the corrected laws befors as many 
sportsmen as possible. 
For this reason we have had them print¬ 
ed and we would appreciate it if you would 
help us to distribute these in the same man¬ 
ner which you aided us in notifying your 
QUESTIONS, 
ANSWERS AMD 
LETTERS 
readers of our willingness to supply Game 
Laws postpaid. 
Yours truly, 
Utica-Duxbak Corporation, Utica, N. Y. 
Doubtless many of our readers availed 
themselves of the Utica Duxbak’s offer of 
free copies of the Game Laws through the 
notice given in Forest and Stream. A 
postal to the above address will bring them 
the revisions, free of cost. [Editors.] 
DRY-FLY FISHING OVERSEAS 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
I have been much interested in the ar¬ 
ticle “Why’s and How’s of Dry Fly Fish¬ 
ing” by R. L. M. As a boy I was mostly 
interested in yachting, and subscribed to 
Forest and Stream for several years. To¬ 
day I am mostly interested in fishing and 
have been taking your journal for the last 
few months, as I find it the best of the 
sporting papers on this subject. 
I am enclosing a copy of a letter from 
my cousin, Lieut. Paul M. Smith, to his 
father, that I think will interest R. L. M., 
as it is on Dry Fly Fishing. Lieut. Smith 
is an expert fly fisherman by our wet meth¬ 
ods ; but till after he was wounded and 
sent to England I know he had never cast 
a dry fly. 
Yours very truly, 
C. Harold Grant. 
* * * 
Dear Father:— 
It is long since I have written you, but 
to-day I have a subject that may be of 
particular interest, so I indite this epistle 
to you. 
Matlock Bath is a little health resort 
village on the banks of the Derwent River, 
in the Peak District of Derbyshire. It is 
of this river and the fishing therein I would 
write. The river itself is about the nor¬ 
mal size of the Cowichan, but not subject, 
I should judge, to such low levels in late 
summer as our rivers; due to the large 
summer rain fall in England. The water 
even after two weeks without rain still 
remains a faint tea shade of brown and 
any heavy shower, of even short duration, 
is sufficient to color it up badly and make 
fishing out of the question. The river is 
quite swift in places, but these rapids con¬ 
tinually give way to long stretches of still 
deep water, flowing very slowly between 
high earth banks,' mostly lined with trees, 
making the fishing almost impossible at 
times, as only fly fishing is permitted. 
The nature and habits of the trout 
(Salmo fario ) are very different to any 
of the fish native to our rivers, and seem to 
me to be more like our distinctly lake trout. 
They are non-migratory and often an in¬ 
dividual fish remains for years in the same 
stretch of water, till he is well known and 
often arises to the distinction of being 
given a name by the fishing fraternity. 
I have located the haunt of one that has 
never failed to be within a foot of where 
I saw him the last time during the past 
week, and vain indeed has been my every 
effort to persuade him to rise to my fly, 
though all day long he feeds on the flies 
that float down the river over his nose.i 
Anything that passes more than a foot to 
his right or left is entirely ignored. His 
means of picking up a living are apparently 
too easy to require such unnecessary ex¬ 
ertion. This may be taken to be the gen¬ 
eral habit of the larger fish. They lie 
close to the bank in some comparatively 
deep still stretch of the river and there 
remain a fixture. Fast ripples and all such 
places as at home are a likely place for 
fish, produce nothing, the body of the fish 
are in still or comparatively still deep 
water that, protected by the trees and high 
banks from the wind, is as placid as a mir¬ 
ror. Under such conditions you know the 
difficulty of getting fish to rise, hence the 
vogue of dry fly fishing. To make a suc¬ 
cess of this requires a very delicate outfit 
a long, very fine cast with one tiny fly; 
which you keep as dry and fluffy as you 
can by moving it back and forth through 
the air "several times before casting, thei 
you allow it to light on the water and le 
it float away with the gentle movement o 
the stream. If this fails to produce a risi 
you dry the fly again and repeat. Properh 
done you can produce an extremely nat 
ural effect. I have found that the best re¬ 
sults were obtained by watching som- 
stretch of water and locating exactly when 
some fish was feeding, then with care an< 
caution drop your fly in such a positio 
that it will float immediately over his heac 
for you can be sure he will not go muc' 
out of his way for it, then if the fish is no 
a large one you have a hope of getting 
rise. If he is above a pound my experi 
ence so far is to have the whole manoeuve 
passed up with disdain, and I have not me 
anybody yet with a big one, though the 
are in the river to be plainly seen and ar 
occasionally caught. My best bag so fa 
has been four around one-half pound an: 
one nearly a pound, and that was equal tl 
anybody’s best for the week, so you sei 
there is no slaughter. 
The fishermen I have met here, most! 
old gentlemen, are a very sportsman-lik 
lot, and have given me every help in the 
knowledge to make my fishing a succesi 
In spite of my inferior outfit, I can do i 
well as any of them I have met so far, i 
