Nov. 12, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
781 
exertions, we hurried to the express office for 
our pack and pushed on to our campsite. Over 
the camp-fire we dried our clothing and cooked 
our meal, expecting to continue fishing for an 
hour before dark, but instead we sat on a 
blanket in the firelight and talked until the dew 
forced us to seek the shelter of the tent. 
Sunday morning we were so comfortable that 
we resolved to forego our fishing plans and 
spend the day quietly in camp. 
C. S. Shafer. 
Cuban Streams to be Stocked With Trout 
A recent issue of the Havana Post says: 
To Dr. Frank Menocal, the popular chief of 
the immigration department, who is a devoted 
angler, may be due the fact that many of the 
Cuban rivers are to be stocked with American 
trout that will furnish great sport for fishermen. 
On board the Hatuey, of the Cuban Navy, 
which is now in Bath, Me., being thoroughly re¬ 
paired, there are special tanks being constructed 
which will be loaded with the finest specimens 
of this great American finny tribe, and these will 
be brought to Cuba to accomplish the purpose of 
Dr. Menocal. 
Dr. Menocal recently visited parts of the 
Almendares River for the purpose of selecting 
a good part of that river for the purpose, and 
he selected that part which lies between Mazorra 
asylum and the Vento water works. 
Commissioner Miles’ Statement. 
The new Commissioner of Fish and Game in 
Indiana, George W. Miles, has been misquoted 
in reference to a proposition he has made re¬ 
garding the fishing in that State, hence the has 
given the following statement to the press: 
There is nothing I desire so much as the good will of 
the farmers and others who live about our lakes and 
streams, without some moral support from whom it is 
almost impossible for my department to effectually do 
its work, and it is their interests the proposed new law 
will be intended to serve. They are not to be required 
to pay license fees. But there are many who go out 
from the cities to thj lakes and streams every year and 
take the fish out of them without paying anything into 
the fund used to replenish them, and these are the ones 
the law will be intended to apply to. 
Nobody will be required to pay a license who does not 
fish outside the county in which he lives. Nor will 
women and children—persons under twenty-one years old 
—be taxed. And one who has a hunter’s license will not 
need another to permit him to fish. 
With the money paid by the annual city visitors we 
could establish brooderies and employ sufficient men to 
fill the lakes and streams with bass for them, so that 
their vacations would be much more enjoyable, and the 
dollar each one of them would pay to us would be the 
best money spent for his outing. And the farmers and 
country people would have the benefit all the year of the 
improved fishing at no. expense to themselves. 
I have believed that such a law would meet the approval 
of the country people, one of Whom I am. If it will not, 
however, and will cause them to antagonize me, I will 
drop it, for, as I have said, it is the good will and assist¬ 
ance of these people that I want, first of everything. I 
would like to have them write me in regard to the matter. 
Angling Books. 
Books on angling comprise a large portion of 
all those to be sold on Nov. 14-16 by the Mer- 
win-Clayton Sales Company of this city. The 
collection is a private one. Contained in it are 
a great many modern as well as old books on 
fishing, among them more than seventy different 
editions of Izaak Walton’s “Compleat Angler.” 
The Black Bass of the Illinois. 
Rock Island, Ill., Nov. 2. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Although comparatively unknown as 
a bait-casting region for black bass, the Illinois 
River has greater possibilities for sport of the 
highest character than many of the much adver¬ 
tised resorts of the States further north, to 
which the majority of the devotees of the short 
rod think they must go to get results at their 
favorite pastime. 
The bass of the Illinois are not so uncertain 
as the bass of the North, and—the spawning 
season excepted—are generally on the feed wher¬ 
ever along the river they may be located, and 
there is always some section, no matter what 
“tom” in the shark’s jaws. 
the stage of the river, where, if one can find 
their haunts, they may be caught by bait-casting. 
Casting the bait around the edges of the lily- 
pads and vegetation with which the lakes are 
all fringed and among the submerged stumps, 
trees and other cover, will produce the same 
satisfactory results as may be attained in any 
other good bass water. A weedless lure works 
to best advantage, but anyone of the many arti¬ 
ficial baits of all descriptions can be used suc¬ 
cessfully. A large carp minnow hooked through 
the eyes or mouth is perhaps the best live bait 
used to any extent in casting. Frogs and pork 
rind are also used and are as successful as arti¬ 
ficial bait; for the bass of these waters, while a 
little discriminating at times, as a rule seem to 
care little as to the nature of the bait offered 
so long as it looks alive and is kept in motion. 
The most deadly way of catching them with 
live bait is by the method known to the natives 
as drop-fishing, and more fish are taken in this 
manner than by all others combined. To me 
drop-fishing is about as exciting as shooting 
tame chickens would be, for the fish caught in 
this manner has absolutely no chance. The 
method has many followers, and it is to be re¬ 
gretted that all of them are not natives or mar¬ 
ket fishermen. 
A general description of the conditions along 
the Illinois has already been given, and the drop- 
fishermen take every advantage that the condi¬ 
tions of the waters heretofore described possess. 
The outfit for drop-fishing consists of a natu¬ 
ral cane pole from fifteen to eighteen feet long, 
a heavy line about two-thirds the length of the 
pole, and a large hook of from 3/0 to 4/0 size, 
with a heavy sinker and a large float so placed 
as to keep the bait from eight to twelve inches 
below the surface of the water. The bait used 
is generally the largest chub minnow that can 
be obtained, or a young carp. It is not unusual 
to see a drop-fisherman using a carp minnow 
from five to six inches in length, the minnow 
being firmly hooked through the dorsal fin, or 
if a carp, through the' tough membrane of the 
mouth or through the head just back of the eye. 
Thus equipped, the drop-fisherman is ready for 
business. 
As in fly-fishing, to follow drop-fishing suc¬ 
cessfully, it is necessary for two to fish together 
or to have a good pusher to handle the boat. 
With a partner who knows the ground and is 
able to handle the boat well, pushing it quietly 
and without unnecessarily disturbing the water, 
the fisherman stands upright in the bow of the 
boat and works the bait around the willows, 
stumps, logs and trees, reaching as far forward 
and to the side as possible with the bait, plump¬ 
ing it in all the likely places and being re¬ 
warded every little while with the strike of a 
big bass, which, when hooked—as it generally is 
on the first rush—is unceremoniously lifted into 
the boat and the search renewed for another 
victim. 
Another method of bait-fishing also much in 
vogue among the natives is with practically the 
same equipment as described for drop-fishing, 
but without the float and using a young carp. 
The carp has a habit of working up and down 
on the submerged stumps and logs, feeding on 
the vegetable growth and small aquatic life that 
live on the dead and rotten wood. By imitating 
the action of the carp when feeding in this way, 
that is, by working the bait up and down along¬ 
side a stump or log, the bass is caught and 
landed in the same manner as described in drop- 
fishing. The fisherman using this method is 
usually as successful as the one using the heavy 
float, although so much ground cannot be cov¬ 
ered in the same length of time. 
Many bass are also taken with angleworms, of 
which several of the largest obtainable are im¬ 
paled in a wriggling mass on a large hook, using 
the same equipment and fishing in the same man¬ 
ner as in drop-fishing. 
Another most effective and much more sports¬ 
manlike way of taking them is by trolling or 
skittering, using a medium size spoon or spin¬ 
ner and a long cane pole with a line of about 
the same length as the pole, working along the 
shore of the main channel of the river under the 
cut banks, in the drifts along the edges and in 
the mouths of the open sloughs. At certain 
stages of the water very satisfactory catches of 
bass are made by trolling, generally by fisher¬ 
men who are not familiar with or do not care 
