beautiful fish in the air at one time, 
not to mention the hundreds visible 
darting through the clear water. On 
the whole, I consider the experience 
well worth the little trouble involved. 
POLLOCK AND SPORTS¬ 
MANSHIP 
Dear Forest and Stream: 
A LTHOUGH the pollock is a mem¬ 
ber of the cod family, and as 
such is often overlooked, if not actually 
sneered at by sportsmen, I have fre¬ 
quently enjoyed fine sport when angling 
for these fish with comparatively light 
tackle. Sometimes it has been fly-fish¬ 
ing, sometimes trolling from a launch; 
but always I have found that a sea pol¬ 
lock of from five to fifteen pounds on a 
light rod could be depended on to create 
lots of excitement and thrills. 
My first trials at this game consisted 
in fly-fishing for small harbor pollock 
weighing from one to two pounds and 
proved very successful. This led me to 
experiment farther off shore to see if 
the larger fish could be persuaded to 
rise. After two or three unsuccessful 
trips I finally hooked and landed a pol¬ 
lock that tipped the scales to an even 
eight pounds. This fish put up a furi¬ 
ous battle for nearly twenty minutes, 
and many others that I have taken 
since on the same kind of tackle have 
displayed similar strength and activity. 
Another method of taking pollock 
that furnishes splendid sport is trolling 
from a launch with a light trolling rod. 
I have captured many fine specimens in 
this fashion, and I have always found 
that the strike and subsequent play of 
the fish was something to be long re¬ 
membered. The launch should be run¬ 
ning at about a three-mile gait and the 
engine must be stopped at once when a 
pollock strikes, the boat being allowed 
to drift while the fish is being played. 
In regard to the tackle to use for 
this form of sport the angler can, to a 
great extent, follow his own inclina¬ 
tion. Personally, for the fly-fishing I 
prefer a nine-foot split bamboo about 
six ounces in weight, although I have 
frequently used a steel fly rod of the 
same length with good results. For 
reel and line I use a quadruple multi¬ 
plier bait-casting reel holding eighty 
yards of No. 6 Cuttyhunk, lightly 
greased with “3-in-l.” Parmachenee 
Belle and Scarlet Ibis seem to be the 
most taking flies, and they should be 
mounted on hooks ranging from No. 2 
to No. 00. 
For trolling I always use a light six- 
foot rod, a double multiplying reel and 
a hundred and fifty yards of No. 9 Cut¬ 
tyhunk line, and I try to keep my rig 
not less than one hundred feet astern 
of the launch. A No. 5 spoon makes 
a most excellent lure, but an even bet¬ 
ter one is a light cedar squid covered 
with eelskin and with a scrap of red 
flannel attached to give extra color. 
Whenever the pollock are schooling 
on the surface large flocks of gulls and 
terns will be seen wheeling and circling 
over each school; and it is under these 
flocks of birds that the angler is likely 
to secure some royal sport. Any time 
from May to October these fish may be 
found on the surface, and I feel sure 
that it will well repay any sportsman 
visiting on the New England coast at 
that season to give the above methods a 
“try-out.” 
I hope that brother sportsmen and 
anglers will send in their experiences 
to good old Forest and Stream, for we 
can all learn from each other 
W. G. Freedley, 
Germantown, Pa. 
A GOOD DAY’S SPORT ON JAMAICA BAY. 
PHOTO SENT IN BY ONE OF OUR CON¬ 
TRIBUTORS 
WHEN I WAS A TENDERFOOT 
Dear Forest and Stream: 
1 WENT to Texas in the spring of 
’72 and in May I bought a pony 
and struck out for the cattle range. 
I caught up with two men who were 
wanting to hire some cattle man who 
was going to drive herd to Colorado. 
I traveled with them, and in a day or 
two we met a man who stopped and 
asked if any of us wanted to hire. He 
was gathering a herd to drive to Colo¬ 
rado and hired all three of us. For a 
month we herded on the range while 
the experienced hands scoured the coun¬ 
try for such cattle as the owner wanted 
to drive. 
We started about the first of July 
with 400 head and in a few days 
reached Fort Concho where we heard 
some interesting news about the In¬ 
dians capturing two herds and killing 
one man a few days before. We stop¬ 
ped at Concho for about a week and 
four other herds arrived. Then the first 
herds, accompanied by an escort of sixty 
soldiers, crossed the Staked Plains to 
the Pecos River where the soldiers 
turned back. 
We drove up the Pecos, then through 
New Mexico, crossed the Ratone Moun¬ 
tains into Colorado and on to within 
75 miles of Denver. Some of the boys 
stayed with the cattle and four of us 
started back to Texas with the mess 
wagon and some of the saddle horses 
some time in November. Two other 
Texas men joined us. Nothing of in¬ 
terest happened until we got to Ft. 
Lyons, where one of the boys (Jim) 
was not ready to start when we did, 
and the other two got a bottle of liquor 
and we camped pretty early on the 
Arkansas River. 
I drove the wagon and after turning 
out the mules got into the wagon to 
unload such things as we needed for 
the night. The valley was not very 
wide, and I saw humps of some buffalo 
over the bluff. Ben, an old hunter and 
Texas ranger, and I got out Winches¬ 
ters and started for them. When we 
got to the top of the bluff we were 
within easy range of about 20 buffalo. 
I shot a small one but did not kill it, so 
Ben fired and killed one. We did not 
skin it but took some of the meat to 
camp. While getting supper Harry and 
Ben were feeling rather funny and 
thought it would be fun to make Jim 
believe that the buffalo meat was beef. 
Although Jim got to camp in time for 
supper the expected fun did not mate¬ 
rialize. 
The drinks he had at the fort warmed 
his fighting blood. When they said the 
meat was beef he knew it was buffalo, 
although he had never seen any before, 
and when they snickered and made 
some funny remarks he rose and start¬ 
ed towards Harry with a butcher knife 
he was eating with in his hand. Harry 
jumped up and drew his revolver. I 
threw my arms around him from be¬ 
hind and held on until they were both 
disarmed. Well! I have never forgot¬ 
ten my first buffalo hunt, although I 
have had many more successful ones. 
The wind turned to the north that night 
and in the morning there were countless 
thousands of buffaloes all along the 
valley, under the bluffs, to get out of 
the wind, and there were thousands in 
sight most of the time for several days. 
We followed the Arkansas River to 
Wichita and the Chisolm Trail to Texas. 
When we reached the Brazos River we 
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