July 23, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
139 
there, 15, 20, 30, perhaps 40 pounds in weight. In 
him is represented all the beauty, all the grand 
qualities of a superb game fish, and he must ever 
remain the crowned prince among all the splen¬ 
did specimens indigenous to our middle Atlantic 
coast. Leonard Hulit. 
O’Mara Kills Big Tuna. 
Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, Cal., July 7.— 
The seventh largest tuna ever landed was brought 
into the dock on July 3 by Phil. S. O'Mara and 
weighed 168V2 pounds. It was taken after a 
fight of two and a half hours and O’Mara's 
achievement in landing it was noteworthy from 
his launch breaking down, adding the handicap 
of fighting the weight of the drifting boat as 
well as the huge fish. Game Warden Beebe was 
along and valiantly officiated as captain and en¬ 
gineer until the Algeria’s engine gave up. Finally 
the fish was gaffed. 
General fishing around the island continues 
good for yellowtail, with occasional white sea 
bass and smaller fish. O’Mara’s tuna makes the 
second landed this year, Col. John Stearns hav¬ 
ing brought in the other one, also a fine speci¬ 
men, weighing 146% pounds. 
The tuna school has moved offshore again 
just as many thought it would, the complicating 
circumstance being apparently the aftermath of 
a storm, or some other occurrence at sea which 
has manifested itself in a heavy ground swell 
and a very fast current, which last is due to the 
high spring tides. The fish may return at any 
time, however. 
The flood tide, driven by the big swells which 
came pounding in on the beaches, breaking in a 
smother of silvery foam and rolling white water 
fat beyond high tide mark, has done consider¬ 
able damage alongshore. The ends of several 
piers were carried away and floats had to be 
anchored out at sea to prevent them knocking 
adrift the piling. Edwin L. Hedderly. 
North Carolina Trout. 
Hendersonville, N. C., July 10 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: Trout fishing in this part of the 
country has been at a decided discount for the 
past month. Rain and thunder storms prevail 
and the water is red and muddy much of the 
time. Fly-fishermen havfe never fished brick- 
colored water, because they know to begin with 
that no trout can see the flies an inch through 
it. However, I hope the rainbows are fattening 
and growing, and when reasonably good weather 
returns we hope to have some good sport. 
As a rule, in our waters during the very warm 
weather the rainbow trout lie quiet during the 
heat of the day. Especially so is this the case 
if the day be clear. A cloudy day always gives 
the best results at this season here; at least, that 
is my experience. But as the sun falls low after 
4 P. m. they begin to take notice, and about sun¬ 
set the larger fish begin to rise. 
All rules, however, have occasional exceptions 
and one cannot tell what a rainbow trout might 
do at any time. He is not at all like the brook 
trout in this respect. 
About ten days ago a friend of mine, while 
fishing in Hazel Creek about thirty miles from 
Bryson City, gave a No. 10 barbless royal coach¬ 
man fly to a fisherman who followed just behind 
him. This man attached a small grasshopper to 
the hook. My friend had just left a nice pool 
when this grasshopper outfit got caught on to a 
twenty-inch trout to the great excitement of the 
rod holder, who wanted my friend to go in 
after it. He was persuaded to be patient and 
finally landed his fish. 
Ernest L. Ewbank. 
Fishing in Minnesota. 
A tranquil summer evening, the flaps of the 
tent thrown wide open with but the faintest 
breezes from over the lake, make this an occas¬ 
ion long to be remembered. Encamped on an 
island in one of the finest lakes of the North¬ 
west, I am realizing untold pleasures, such pleas¬ 
ures as I have been thinking over through the 
long hours of the winter evenings. Here there 
is everything that one could wish for; on all 
sides lie heavy woods with a path leading down 
SURF FISHING ON THE NEW JERSEY COAST. 
to the shore of the lake, a path that is sanded 
from shore to tent entrance. 
The fishing has been splendid and the results 
are all I had wished for. At this date the bass 
have left the shallows and are now to be found 
in the deeper waters where they may be taken 
with minnows or angle worms in the evening 
hours. In the early morning especially do they 
bite with an avidity that is surprising. Angle 
worms are not generally used for bass fishing, 
but I find them the best bait at the present time. 
As usual frogs have proved their worth as lures. 
I have had great success with the bass among 
the lilypads at the further end of the island. 
They seem to be constantly on the lookout for 
bait, and when it comes along it is snapped up 
sharply. Once we were lightly’ skirting the pads 
and I was casting inshore, but without success. 
The lake was smooth as a mirror. Suddenly, 
not four feet from shore, a bass rose and took 
a fly that had drifted into the lake. I directed the 
oarsman to back water and made a cast slight¬ 
ly ahead of where the ripples were receding. 
The frog fell and barely had it time to sink ere 
it was seized with a great whirl. The man at 
the oars knew his business, and at once rowed 
out to take up the slack line. Gathering up the 
loose line, I set the hook in the mouth of the 
fish, and raising the tip of the rod began the 
fight. This was one of the unusual bass that 
one meets with now and then, and from the be¬ 
ginning he convinced me that he was a fighter. 
I had a weedless hook, yet as the wires were 
bent out of place I feared he might run in among 
the lilypads and make good his escape. Fortu¬ 
nately he kept clear of them when he felt the 
line tighten and leaped into the air. Down 
he plunged again, and before I knew it he was 
coming straight for the boat. When near it he 
rose again and with gills distended he fiercely 
shook his head to relieve himself of the piece 
of steel that held him prisoner. My companion 
had the net ready and at the proper moment 
scooped up the fish. When I took the hook from 
his mouth I saw why he could not have gotten 
away. The hook was firmly wedged in between 
the jaw bones and it was some moments before 
I could free it. He was not one of the six- 
pounders of which we hear so much, but weighed 
a little over two and a half pounds, yet, as I 
said, it was an unusually good fighter. 
About weight in bass the average fisherman is 
likely to fall into error. It is a good idea to 
take along small hand scales and to be sure of 
the weight of each fish before you tell the story 
of his capture to your friends. A three-pound 
bass is a good one and in nine cases out of ten 
will be put down in a rough estimate as easily 
a six-pounder. Bass are deceptive as to weight. 
If you have not the fish to show, do not ex¬ 
aggerate. The joke about the big fish was not 
founded by a porch fisherman, but is pathetically 
true to life. 
Bass are odd in their traits and the one who 
succeeds in taking them is he who has studied 
their habits, found out where they stay, what 
they eat and at what hours they feed. To know 
all these things will not only make the fishing 
more interesting, but will make the creel heavier 
in proportion to your knowledge on these points. 
Many of those who go fishing know nothing 
about the inhabitants of the deep. 
Directly out in the lake from my camp is a 
sunfish bed. Within the space of some hundred 
feet there are a great number of small graveled 
holes, and in these excavations the sunfish are 
seen swimming around and around, enjoying the 
sunlight. It is pleasant to anchor the boat di¬ 
rectly in their midst and lie and watch them as 
they swim about, looking keenly at everything 
that goes on about them and sometimes driving 
the small fish away from their territory over 
which they seem to have perfect control. 
One day two men with cane poles rowed over,, 
and in the course of an hour or so caught all 
the fish they could carry. Some of these fish I 
have so tamed that they rise and take worms 
from my hand. When the men with poles came 
along, these tame fish were the first to fall vic¬ 
tims to the hook. 
Fish have a keen sense of sight and may per¬ 
ceive things on all sides at a distance of from 
thirty to forty feet, and any bait that is not 
lifelike they will shun. The angler who sits 
quiet in the boat and drops ,his bait without a 
sound usually gets the fish. 
Robert Page Lincoln. 
