The Changed Illinois River. 
Chicago, Ill., Sept. 8. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: To a long-time devoted reader of 
Forest and Stream it has been a matter of 
wonder that so little is said of the excellent fish¬ 
ing along the Illinois River. Many have written 
of the wildfowl shooting on this stream, which 
of late years is improving, but the fishing possi¬ 
bilities have been neglected by your contributors. 
The Illinois River is formed by the junction 
of the Fox and the Des Plaines Rivers at 
Ottawa, in the northeastern part of Illinois, and 
flows southwesterly for 240 miles into the Mis¬ 
sissippi at Grafton, Ill. 
The river valley for its entire length is from 
five to fifteen miles wide and is very flat and 
low. During periods of high water it is entirely 
overflowed for weeks and even months at a 
time, and a complete series of lakes and sloughs 
extend for almost its entire length, many of 
them being several miles wide. 
Since the completion of the Chicago drainage 
canal some ten or twelve years ago, and the di¬ 
version of a portion of the waters of Lake 
Michigan through the canal into the Des Plaines 
River at Lockport, the average level of the Illi¬ 
nois River has been raised about three feet. This 
has had the effect of keeping a vast area of the 
Illinois River bottom lands, formerly dry for at 
least a portion of the time, constantly under 
water. This high water has killed practically all 
of the luxurious growth of timber on almost the 
whole length of the valley, so that at present 
the entire territory presents a scene of desola¬ 
tion equalled only by the Reelfoot' Lake country 
of Western Tennessee. This overflow has caused 
many suits against the Government on account 
of damaged lands, which the Government has 
been uniformly successful in defending. 
These conditions have increased the numbers 
of fish in the river perhaps a hundred fold. The 
overflowed lands furnish an unlimited area of 
spawning ground where the water remains at a 
fairly uniform level during the entire spawning 
season, and which is entirely protected from the 
nets of market fishermen by the dead and fallen 
timber, logs, stumps, brush and dense growth 
of aquatic vegetation. These conditions have 
protected the spawning grounds of all varieties 
of fish, until at present more commercial fish are 
shipped from the Illinois River than from any 
other river in the world, not even excepting the 
salmon rivers of the Pacific coast. I witnessed 
one haul on a lake near Beardstown, Ill., from 
which 70,000 pounds of coarse fish were taken, 
consisting principally of carp and buffalo. 
A good word may be said here for the much- 
abused German carp. Hundreds of market fish¬ 
ermen along the Illinois River make their entire 
living from the carp fishing. The carp is the 
poor man’s fish, and it may surprise people of 
the East to learn that thousands of pounds of 
carp are shipped weekly to Boston, Philadelphia, 
New York and other eastern cities, but for which 
many of their inhabitants might never get a 
taste of fresh water fish. The Illinois River has 
millions of carp, but in the opinion of many of 
our local fishermen they interfere but little with 
the propagation of our game fishes. 
That peer of all game fishes, the black bass, 
exists in the Illinois River in countless numbers 
and sunfish, rock bass, crappies, ring perch, pike 
and catfish can be caught in numbers by anyone 
with hook and line. Those familiar with the 
spawning habits of our inland game fishes know 
that any fish, no matter how small, whose habit 
it is to guard its nest during the incubation of 
its spawn, will drive away the largest carp that 
swims. There is no food that the black bass 
likes better than a good big carp minnow, and 
many of the market fishermen claim that on ac¬ 
count of the constantly increasing number of 
black bass in the river, lakes and sloughs, the 
carp are less plentiful of late years. It may be 
that their complaint has some foundation in 
fact. Three hundred and twenty-five pounds of 
legal sized black bass were taken by one market 
fisherman on hook and line in two days’ fishing 
last season, and the present season I caught more 
than 150 pounds of black bass all over legal 
length—most of them were returned to the water 
■—in three days’ fly-fishing, using a 5^-ounce fly- 
rod. 
In another letter I will attempt to describe the 
bass fishing and methods pursued on the Illinois 
more at length. Willard A. Schaeffer. 
Rainbow Trout. 
Hendersonville, N. C., Sept. 3. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: We have just had the heaviest 
rain the past week since July, 1901, and much 
damage has resulted from it. I hope the fish 
that were planted in March have been able to 
pass safely such a sudden rise of the streams. 
I left Brevard a fortnight ago with three 
anglers to try the rainbow trout in Little River, 
a stretch of water I had never fished. As we 
left Brevard quite late in the afternoon and only 
reached the stream about 7 p. m., we had little 
time to fish before dark, and I do not care for 
night fishing. However, I killed two very nice 
trout and two of the other men each one, so we 
had trout for supper. 
At daylight I again had my flies on the water, 
but not a trout could I get a rise from. I re¬ 
moved the flies and with a No. 1 fluted spoon, a 
bit of bacon skin and a light sinker I tried again 
and soon had two nice ones. 
Later I walked up the stream and passed two 
of the party. I went on till I could hear through 
the undergrowth the ripple of water and then 
turned in, put on my flies again to try my luck 
and soon had two more trout. 
At each promising bit of water I tried the 
spoon when flies failed to get a rise, and so by 
11 A. M. I was back at the wagon with nine trout, 
the others soon joining me there. They had one 
nice trout killed by the driver. 
It is too late now for brook trout fishing, but 
the rainbow trout can be caught for some time 
yet. Ernest L. Ewbanic. 
The Rod and Reel on Salt Water. 
IX.—The Snapper or Snapping Mackerel. 
Few who have never enjoyed the delights 
found in the capture of this fish can understand 
the enjoyment to be had from it. The enthu¬ 
siastic trout fisherman who spends days in 
patiently whipping the streams of woodland and 
dell could hardly be convinced that in almost 
every tidal stream of the middle Atlantic States 
there is to be found a quarry as game and ready 
in attack and defense as the lord of the brook 
and to be taken with much less labor. 
In trout fishing the enchantment of the strolls 
through meadow and woodland holds the heart 
of the nature lover in close embrace and is a 
part of the outing to be appreciated by all men, 
and he firmly believes the axiom that it is not 
all of fishing to catch fish. Still, the autumn 
days on a quiet salt water stream possess a great 
charm. When equipped with the right tackle one 
is successful in luring the ever hungry, always 
resourceful snapping mackerel to the basket. 
Just where or when the name originated seems 
past finding out. Surely, thirty years or more 
have passed with the title unchanged, and it is 
perhaps as good a vernacular term as any. It 
well denotes their habit of striking the bait, as 
there is nothing of their size quite their equal 
in vigor and rush. 
That they are the young of the bluefish has 
sometimes been denied, and even among the 
market men of New York city. I have heard 
the opinion expressed that they were a different 
fish, but so many facts exist to prove their iden¬ 
tity that the matter is unworthy of discussion. 
Their rapid growth from the fingerlings to the 
more mature fish in both aquaria and in closed 
inland streams is quite convincing. 
The joys of snapper fishing depend principally 
on the methods and on the tackle employed. To 
fish with heavy rod and line or from the bank 
of a stream gives little sport, whereas to use the 
lightest of rigs from a boat insures sport of a 
high order. Early in August the small fish ap¬ 
proach our shore from the open sea, and the 
fact that they appear simultaneously along so 
many degrees of latitude confirms the opinion 
that the mature fish spawn in the open sea and 
that as soon as able to care for themselves the 
fry seek the tidal waters of bays and rivers for 
better protection as well as more readily to se¬ 
cure their favorite food, the spearing. Their 
growth is phenomenal. From the fingerling of 
about two ounces in weight in August they reach 
the weight of one to one and a quarter pounds 
in late October, when they leave our coast for 
their sojourn in that vague locality termed South¬ 
ern waters. It is quite clearly determined that 
no one really knows where the bluefish spend 
their winters, though it is true that they do ap¬ 
pear at times on the Florida coast, yet they are 
not permanently there, or at any other point. 
The fisherman who has never tried this class 
of fishing under its best conditions has much to 
learn of angling delights. The pastime has grown 
