Fishing on the Virginia Coast. 
Baltimore, Md., Sept. 15. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: We wished for a few days to play 
truant to clear our brains of cobwebs and to 
practice deep breathing before the coming sum¬ 
mer. The mind of one whose years are not a 
few, if he dwells south of the Mason and Dixon 
line, becomes slothful and the inflation of the 
lungs labor. 
Since the time given to travel must be de¬ 
ducted from the few days we allowed ourselves, 
our accustomed haunts were beyond reach. Of 
nearby lounging places we knew little and an 
advertisement in Forest and Stream describing 
a resort for sportsmen on the lower Virginia sea 
coast was interesting reading. 
The longer the advertisements enumerated 
therein incubated in our minds, the more allur¬ 
ing they grew, until on a compelling May morn¬ 
ing we set out to learn whether the attractive 
word pictures were fact or fiction. 
We reached the quaint little seagirt village 
earlier than the best season for the heralded 
pastimes, but also before the arrival of summer 
guests and so the hotel, the coast and the sea 
were almost exclusively ours. 
Guides were difficult to find because sturgeon 
fishing offered them such speculative possibilities 
that they had removed from the village and were 
camped on the beach within easy reach of their 
nets which trailed on the sea bottom several 
miles offshore. 
The taking of a female sturgeon with a large 
roe from which caviar could be made promised 
a profit of a hundred or more dollars, and we 
possessed no magnetism to offset the influence 
of such a dream of good fortune. 
To our rescue then came a lad whose life was 
one long vacation, and whose habits were good 
under the laws of his native State, but hardly 
to be approved by Forest and Stream and those 
persons who would shield the migratory game 
birds in their spring flight and generally practice 
conservation. 
The Indians and trappers and untamed people 
generally have always had my sympathy, as the 
game laws gradually constricted their natural, 
though wanton, lives and required conformity 
with a legalized mould of individual of entirely 
different temperament, and fiber. Their descend¬ 
ants will comprehend the wisdom of preserva¬ 
tion no doubt, but when the Virginia game laws 
are revised, and but one season of the year is 
open to this roving boy for indulging his natural 
proclivities, he, like the modernized Indian and 
trapper, will probably mourn. He could see no 
more harm in bagging some of the countless 
plover, curlew and snipe as they alight upon the 
marshes or the beach on their way north in the 
spring, or in taking the eggs of the marsh hens 
for a change of diet, than in prying oysters off 
the wooden piles at low' tide or kneading the 
mud for clams, or taking crabs or fish from the 
water whenever so inclined. He was near kin 
to nature and preyed upon any other form of 
life that pleased his palate, just as has been done 
by wild creatures since the beginning of life. 
All these things he had done instinctively since 
the day he donned trousers, and when we offered 
to rent his motor boat and pay him a guide’s 
wage to accept us as confederates in his depre¬ 
dations, his enthusiasm was refreshing. Under 
such circumstances the days were not long 
enough for him. 
After locating 11s in a blind he would put out 
his decoys and then sit beside us scanning the 
THE INLET. 
SEA FISHING. 
horizon in search of a flight of birds, and the 
moment they appeared, however distant, he de¬ 
tected the variety and accurately whistled their 
peculiar call until they hovered over the decoys, 
or passed quite out of sight. 
He knew where the fish were biting within the 
quiet water of the harbor, and upon what tide, 
and where the drumfish could be found out at 
sea, and whether in the blinds or engaged in 
fishing, or when swimming in the briny deep, or 
churning ^he water of the thoroughfares among 
the islands of the inlet in the motor boat, the 
boy was a constant inspiration. He not only sub¬ 
stantiated the verity of the advertisement that 
led to our introduction, but taught us that living 
is not a difficult accomplishment after all, and 
furthermore he taught us that our relationship 
to boyhood is not as remote as our accumula¬ 
tion of years had persuaded us to believe. 
Lippincott. 
Fishing on the West Coast. 
San Francisco, Cal., Sept. 14. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: Trout fishing is receiving but little 
attention from anglers at the present time, not¬ 
withstanding the fact that the sport is in excel¬ 
lent shape in many of the mountain streams, and 
especially in the lakes of the high sierras. The 
summer vacation period is about at an end and 
angling enthusiasts are now content to make 
short week-end trips to nearby grounds where 
salt water fishing is in excellent shape. 
The salt water fishing season has come on 
with a rush and excellent sport is now being 
experienced in many lines. The leading item 
of importance at the present time is the an¬ 
nouncement that the run of salmon has set in 
in earnest and anglers are making heavy catches 
of this fine game fish. For the past week this 
sport has been in excellent shape, but as yet 
most of the fish are taken outside the heads 
from launches and but few are to be had with¬ 
in the confines of the bay. The season lasts 
until Sept. 16. The fish are running to large 
sizes this season, several that have been landed 
weighing more than fifty pounds, and one has 
been taken by trollers that tipped the scales at 
sixty pounds. Anglers claim that this is the 
year when the heavy run should be experienced, 
and they are expecting heavy catches. 
One of the features of fishing outside the 
heads has been the catch of sea bass. This fish 
has been very scarce in these waters for the 
past few years, but a number have been taken 
this season. Salmon have been very plentiful 
in Monterey Bay for several weeks and are now 
commencing to make their appearance in the 
Russian River. 
During the past two weeks striped bass have 
also commenced to make their appearance in 
large numbers and some excellent catches have 
been made. San Antonio slough, in Marin 
county, is now the scene of great activity among 
bass fishermen, and a couple of thirty-pounders 
have been taken. Seine fishermen have been 
operating there, contrary to law, and two of 
these have recently been apprehended and fined. 
At Wingo the striped bass have not yet made 
their appearance and probably will not be in 
evidence until about the first of October, this 
being the usual rule. Some large fish have been 
taken in the Russian River near Duncan’s Mills, 
the record bass being a fifty-two-pound fish 
landed recently by J. P. Parmeter. The fish was 
forty-eight inches in length. Along the Ocean 
Shore railroad some fine catches of rockcod 
have been made, and other small fish are very 
plentiful. A. P. B. 
