Several years ago a friend, an honest 
fisherman, a man above reproach 
(until the guilty day he telephoned 
me) used the wire to urge me to join 
him the same afternoon on a pond 
which was well known to be filled with 
bass and which, until this day, had 
been posted. This glorious day he had 
been given permission to fish it and to 
bring a friend. He insisted I bring 
live bait knowing I had but to motor a 
mile or two to secure it. This I gladly 
agreed to do and set the time I would 
meet him live bait and all. My con¬ 
sternation is surely realized by you 
when I tell you the live bait dealer had 
no bait; insisted it was no use trying 
to get live bait for earlier in the day 
he had, and had failed. 
Time was growing short; it was mid 
afternoon, I had some ten miles to 
motor to meet my friend and then an 
added ten miles or so to the pond. I 
was excited; there was not a moment 
to waste; I could see that pond with 
bass rising like “rain drops all over 
the water.” The idea of any artificial 
lure was not entertained. My friend 
had said, “bring live bait,” and I had 
said I would. There you are; tragic, 
for I live in a city; the place I went 
for live bait was one of the city reser¬ 
voirs; to join my friend I must needs 
drive through the center of the city to 
get to the country and the pond on the 
other side. Just where to get live bait 
on this itinerary was fast “stumping” 
me. In desperation I rumpled my hair 
and felt in my pockets in the latter of 
which I felt inspiration: it was two 
dollars with which I bought two dol¬ 
lars worth of gold fish and we took a 
thousand dollars worth of bass before 
the sun had set! 
H. Merriman Steele, 
New Haven, Conn. 
LARGE BROWN TROUT 
Dear Forest and Stream: 
T HAPPENED to be looking over your 
^ April, 1923 issue of Forest and 
Stream and noted on page 181 you say 
the largest brown trout captured in 
American waters by rod & reel weighed 
10 lbs. 
Now, not in any way to start an 
argument, but as a matter of advice 
and information, would say I saw a 
brown trout taken in 1903, that 
weighed 14% lbs. It was caught by 
Colonel A. B. Hilton of New York City, 
in Lake Giles, on the property of the 
Blooming Grove Hunting and Fishing 
Club, of Glen Eyre, Penna. Mr. Hil¬ 
ton had the fish mounted and presented 
to the club, where it hung over the 
fireplace in the Club House. Some 
years ago a fire consumed this building 
and I imagine this fish was burned at 
the time. However, if you should 
write the Blooming Grove Hunting & 
Fishing Club at Glen Eyre, Pa., I 
think they would be able to give you 
the size, etc., of this fish. It was 
caught by rod and reel on copper wire, 
trolling with an Archer spinner. The 
name of the guide with Col. Hilton at 
the time he caught the fish was Barney 
Reading. H. A. Pryor, 
Mound, Minn. 
FLYING FISHERMAN 
Dear Forest and Stream: 
'THE flying fish of the region of Santa 
* Ana Catalina Island have often been 
extolled, and now comes the flying fish¬ 
ermen. To fly across the channel from 
the Pacific Marine Airways at Wil¬ 
mington, California to Catalina in 
twenty minutes, stop for lunch at the 
Island capital of Avalon, and to be 
sighting fish from the seaplane a short 
time after, was the experience of a 
party of four in a seaplane trip over 
the twenty-five miles of ocean inter¬ 
vening between Wilmington and Ava¬ 
lon. One of these was a woman. 
From an altitude of 500 feet, near 
the San Clemente Islands a school of 
albacore was sighted. The pilot of the 
seaplane descended and hovered over 
the school which was plainly discerni¬ 
ble because of the clearness of the 
water that day. The party had brought 
along the proper tackle for taking the 
game fish, and two lines were at once 
cast. Then the seaplane scooted over 
the water, trolling the bait. In a few 
minutes, two strikes were made by the 
albacore, and in twenty minutes these 
were landed. 
After taking as many as they wished 
of this school, the party sought an¬ 
other ground and here a big shark and 
more albacore were taken. The party 
then returned to Avalon and from 
there to the Airways station from 
whence they had started. The trip was 
made in a short time, they had had all 
the fun of a day’s deep-sea fishing, 
and nobody was seasick. 
The feat leaves one wondering what 
Isaac Walton would think of such a 
performance and also whether we 
shall fish by wireless next. 
Delphia Phillips, 
Balboa, Cal. 
THE PASSENGER PIGEON 
QUESTION 
Dear Forest and Stream: 
HE writer is an old sportsman and 
remembers well when the wild 
pigeons were plentiful. There were 
two years when they roosted at or near 
South Haven, Mich., about forty miles 
west of here. The next roost was at 
Pentwater, Michigan. 
The two years that they roosted at 
South Haven as near as the writer can 
remember was between 1871 and 76. 
If possible for you to do so, kindly 
give me the correct years. 
When they roosted at Pentwater this 
roost was 12 miles east of this place 
and it was claimed that it was three 
miles wide and twelve miles long. 
Every tree had from 50 to 200 nests in 
it. Every little crotch had a nest. 
The law then was that you could not 
shoot within a mile of their nests. I 
remember one flock in particular that 
was so large I did not shoot at them 
as I was interested in the size of the 
flock which was fully a mile and a half 
long and a mile wide. I was simply 
amazed at the number of birds and 
believe there were over a million in 
this one flock. 
The females would leave the nests at 
daylight, probably flying a hundred or 
more miles to their feeding grounds, 
returning about noon, then the males 
started for their feeding grounds re¬ 
turning before dark. 
This was the first year that the 
breech loaders came into use, there 
were six shooters in my party who all 
had breech loaders with the exception 
of myself, I used a double barrel muz¬ 
zle loader and killed something like 
300 birds with a boy to pick up for 
me, killing more birds than my entire 
party with breech loaders, as their 
shells were not properly loaded for 
penetration. 
There were about 30 netters there 
all catching pigeons. And I believe 
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