620 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 15, 1910. 
they project back and over the barb of the 
hook, wrapping them on tightly with fine silk 
thread well waxed with white shoemaker’s wax 
and the wrapping well cemented with several 
coats of good grain alcohol shellac. The hackle 
is then wound and wings tied on as in the ordi¬ 
nary fly and thus is created one of the most 
effectively weed-guarded flies ever used. 
Fearing that above description is not clear 
enough, cuts are shown herewith of the fly in 
progressive stages of manufacture, and with the 
aid of which anyone with a slight knowledge of 
fly-fishing should be able to duplicate without 
much trouble. This method can be used on any 
favorite fly and is equally good on trout flies 
when used on the smaller sized hooks. The 
weed guard made in this way does not inter¬ 
fere with the hooking of the fish, as the water 
softens the stiff horse hairs just enough so that 
the jaws of the fish push them down over the 
point of the hook, and yet if sufficient hair is 
used, it will fend the point of the hook from 
the moss and obstructions. 
In no ground with which I am familiar does 
the black bass rise more readily to the fly than 
on this water, and nowhere can more satisfac¬ 
tory fly-fishing be had. The sport may be en¬ 
joyed from the time the waters warms up in the 
spring — the closed season excepted — until the 
chill of early November. During the extraordi¬ 
nary warm month of March last many bass were 
taken on the fly by the native fishermen. 
The bass of these waters are all of the big- 
mouth variety, and excepting perhaps the hot¬ 
test weather of mid-summer they are just as 
full of fight and ginger, and when hooked will 
break water more often than the small-mouth 
bass of swifter and colder waters. This state¬ 
ment is made with authority, for I have fly- 
fished the upper Mississippi where no gamier 
bass exist. In size the average fish run from 
one and one-quarter to three pounds. Occas¬ 
ionally a larger fish is taken, and they are known 
to reach eight and nine pounds, but the extremely 
large fish are not often taken on the hook and 
line and usually fall victims to the seines of 
the market fishermen. 
As to equipment the majority of the fisher¬ 
men on the Illinois use a nine-and-one-half to 
ten-foot split bamboo rod of from six to seven 
ounces weight, and while such a rod is well 
tried when, as often happens, a good fish gets 
tangled in the moss, a good rod of these dimen¬ 
sions will be found most satisfactory. Size E 
or F enameled line is generally used with about 
a five-foot leader, usually one, though sometimes 
two flies are used. Flies are usually tied on 
No. 1 O’Shaughnessy or sproat hooks. A larger 
fly is no better for hooking the bass than the 
size mentioned, and is much harder to cast. 
Some fishermen use much smaller flies with good 
results, but larger flies are better on account of 
the sunfish and crappies which abound, and are 
constantly rising to the smaller flies. 
The fishing is all done from a boat. A good 
model of duck boat is best, the angler sitting 
in the bow, a good pusher being necessary to 
handle the boat and the landing net. The 
natives along the Illinois River are all expert 
pushers, and it is surprising with what ease 
they can put a boat in the most difficult places 
without alarming the fish, always watching the 
back cast and so placing the boat that the back 
cast is seldom interfered with. Many of them 
are excellent fly fishermen, and to the angler 
who is willing to learn, many good suggestions 
can be had from those that know the game. The 
guide who has pushed me for many seasons is 
the best practical fly-caster I have ever seen, 
and I am free to confess has taught me more 
about the game than could have been learned 
from all the literature in print on the subject. 
To one who has the true angling spirit, a tire¬ 
less wrist, and with his flies tied with the Illinois 
weed guard, success will come if he will cast 
his feathered lures on the waters of the Illinois. 
Willard A. Schaeffer. 
Atlantic Tuna. 
Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 5. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your issue of Sept. 24, you quote 
a letter from F. G. A., in the London Field, on 
the subject of “Tuna Fishing at Cape Breton,” 
in which the statement is made that “a fine new 
field for tuna fishing will be opened without the 
need of the long distance railway journey to 
California.” I have just returned from a fish¬ 
ing trip to Barnegat City, N. J., of two weeks 
(and had also two weeks in each of the months 
of July and August at the same place), and can 
testify from personal knowledge that tuna fish¬ 
ermen. at least of the. Middle Atlantic States, 
can indulge in their favorite sport without the 
need of the long distance railway journey to 
either California, Cape Breton or any of the 
Canadian Maritime Provinces, and without a 
tithe of the expense involved in fishing at any 
of the places named. 
A band of hardy. Swedes have been engaged 
all summer at Barnegat City in fishing on what 
is called the Ridge, a harbor for small fish about 
twenty miles out in the Atlantic Ocean from 
Barnegat Inlet. These small fish form the food 
of and attract vast numbers of bonita, alba- 
core, tuna, cavalli, bluefish, sharks, etc. These 
Swedes go out in powerful surf power boats 
and have a three hours’ run out every day that 
the weather permits, and invariably bring in 
large quantities, especially of bonita and alba- 
core, but they average about one tuna per day. 
Last Monday week one boat brought in thirty- 
one tuna, on another day over sixty, and fre¬ 
quently from one to four. Last Thursday I 
saw four brought in, two of about twenty 
pounds each, and two of about forty pounds 
each. I saw one other a few days before of 
over fifty pounds’ weight. They are caught all 
the way from twenty to 150 pounds’ weight. 
Larger ones are sometimes hooked, but when 
the landing involves any time, the line is cut 
and the fish allowed to go, as these men fish 
for meat and time is important to them. They 
catch all these fish on a squid attached to a 
powerful sixty-thread line — about three times 
the thickness of the average bluefish line—and 
usually not more than fifty feet from the boat. 
These men usually do not fish more than from 
three to five hours, depending upon the time of 
their arrival upon the fishing ground, and must 
work fast to get their fish in, in time for ship¬ 
ment on the afternoon train. That they do 
work fast is evidenced when they catch from 
five to fifteen barrels per boat, all caught singly 
on the squid. 
These fish feeding on the small fish take the 
bright silvery squid with avidity. 
Any tuna fisherman who has been waiting for 
years to catch tuna at Santa Catalina Island in 
California can have all the tuna fishing he wants 
by simply going to Barnegat City before the 
weather gets too cold, and engaging Charlie An¬ 
derson or some other of his Swede friends to 
take him out to the Ridge. 
If he does not want to use the sixty-thread 
hand line of the Swedes, he can use the six- 
thread line and six-ounce rod of the Tuna Club 
and be towed around to his heart’s content, but 
he must go down into his “jeans” to pay the 
Swede for his time. 
I have been surprised that so ready a market 
is found for albacore and tuna, for they are not 
generally considered edible fish, but they as well 
as sharks are all shipped, and good returns re¬ 
ceived. The Chinese and other foreign popula¬ 
tions in our large cities are said to create a de¬ 
mand for these fish. Moral: Do not eat fish 
chowder in any large city restaurant. 
Charles F. Holder in his book, “The Big-Game 
Fishes of the United States,” devotes a chapter to 
the albacore in which he says: “It is one of the 
commonest fishes in the Pacific waters, found 
in nearly all tropical seas, but not caught on the 
Atlantic coast, and rarely seen.” This latter 
statement has certainly been disproved this year. 
For at Barnegat city they have been caught all 
summer twenty miles out, and more recently 
within tjiree miles of the Barnegat shoals. The 
pound net just north of Barnegat Inlet and not 
over three miles out has caught bonita, albacore 
and tuna this summer. One of the Swedes, while 
coming in, near the bell buoy-—not over three 
miles out—landed two tuna of forty pounds each 
on the squid and hooked a heavy one which 
parted his line. 
Lewis Mitchell, of the Barnegat Life Saving 
Crew, hooked and landed a tuna weighing about 
twenty pounds on the squid in the vicinity of the 
same bell buoy last Thursday, and the crew 
cooked it next day for dinner. Captain Thomp¬ 
son, of the crew, told me that two of the crew 
seemed to like it but the other four did not 
relish it. It was said to have a very peculiar 
uncanny taste; the meat was black and a very 
disagreeable odor was left in the house for 
twenty-four hours after it was cooked. But not¬ 
withstanding this the Swedes net $1.50 for every 
twenty-pound tuna. 
It is not impossible to realize maybe big sea 
fishing in the Atlantic fully up to the far-famed 
Pacific fishing so widely talked of and written 
up, especially by Mr. Holder and others. 
James G. Francis. 
Asbury Park, N. J., Oct. 3.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: While fishing in a power boat 
twelve miles offshore at Asbury Park, N. J., 
Sept. 30. T. E. Townsend, of White Plains, N. 
Y., caught two tuna on rod and reel. The first 
one caught weighed twenty-five pounds four 
ounces. This fish only took about ten minutes 
to bring to gaff. 
The next tuna hooked weighed fifty-two 
pounds four ounces and took from one and a 
half to two hours to land in the boat. About 
five minutes after this Mr. Townsend had the 
strike of a tuna which he and his boatman, Ed. 
Saunders saw, and which both estimate would 
weigh at least 150 pounds. While playing this 
fish his attention was attracted behind him to 
his other fish which was in its death struggle in 
