Dec. i7, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
981 
Bait-Casting Golf. 
Bait-casting golf is a game allowing any 
number of persons to practice bait-casting and 
to become skillful in this style of fishing. 
All beginners in bait-casting have experienced 
some tediousness in casting at a target, and al¬ 
though one gets sufficient exercise in the arms 
and thorax, the legs do not get their proper 
amount of work. 
In bait-casting golf, says a French angler in the 
Fishing Gazette, arms, legs and chest are all 
called to work, and therefore the new game is 
highly beneficial for the health. Of course, real 
go.f gives the same benefit, and I am far from 
thinking that the new game will supersede the 
old one. Real golf has its one scope—the cham¬ 
pion driver will send a ball to a distance so great 
that it makes us open our eyes and mouths, but 
that is all. The champion bait-casting golfer 
will not only be efficient in the game, but also a 
master fisherman. The more he plays, the better 
he will fish; therefore a double result is attained. 
Real golf requires good links, costly club 
houses, little boys accustomed to strong lan¬ 
guage, a stock of balls and a number of clubs. 
Bait-casting golf can be played almost on any 
ground in the splendid freedom of solitude, where 
you can give vent to your feelings without re¬ 
straint. 
All you want is a rod, a casting weight (British 
B.C.C. or C.C.F. model) and a reel. 
I tried with a friend bait-casting golf on the 
same rules as real golf.; the result was not good. 
You cannot get bunkered, and putting loses its 
interest when you have only to put out your arm 
and drop the weight in the hole. 
But in practicing bait-casting in a winding- 
drive I found how difficult it is to keep on the 
gravel without getting in the grass. 
Trees take the place of bunkers and difficulties 
can be added by placing the player in such a 
position that he cannot make an overhead cast 
or a right-handed side cast. 
The course can be laid out according to per¬ 
sonal taste or the difficulty of the ground on the 
lines suggested by the diagram. Using (say) the 
iLi-ounce lead, two anglers, A and B, agree to 
play a match over the course; they toss for 
order of starting, and A wins. He stands be¬ 
hind the starting line, xxx, and makes his first 
cast (for distance) down the parallel lines to¬ 
ward target No. 1. We will suppose he casts 
fifty-five yards. B then makes his cast and suc¬ 
ceeds in getting his lead seventy yards. Both 
walk up to where A’s lead fell, winding in, and 
A makes his second cast (for accuracy) at the 
target; his lead falls in ring No. 2. They then 
walk up to where B's lead is and B casts; he 
misses the target altogether, thereby being pen¬ 
alized three points. The score at target No. 1 
is as follows: 
A 
B 
.I + I+2 = 4 
• 1 + 1 + 3 — 5 
A 
B 
. .4 + 1 + 0 = 5 
■-•5 + 1 + i = 7 
- 1 - 
cast in turn toward target No. 3, and so on 
throughout the course. We will suppose that the 
players have arrived at casting line No. 11, and 
that the scores at No. 10 target were : 
A 
B 
• 35 
•32 
and it is B's turn to cast; he does so> and casts 
seventy yards. A follows, and by a fine cast of 
seventy-six yards just gets over the finishing- 
line. B casts again and also passes the line, the 
final scores being: 
Both players line up at casting line No. 3, and 
A 
B 
•36 
•34 
B is the winner, as he has covered the course 
in the fewest number of casts. 
to 200 or more eggs of the lake trout. This was 
brought to my attention by James C- Goodspeed, 
president of the Seth Green Line Fisherman’s 
Club, of Penn Yan. Mr. Goodspeed sent four 
of the perch to this office, where they were 
opened and found to contain many eggs of the 
trout. These perch will run about six to the 
quart, and if we estimate only 150 eggs eaten 
by each perch, we would find that a single haul 
of the net brought in perch containing a total 
of 201,600 eggs. This was the work of one 
schbol of perch in a single night. Perhaps it 
will help to account for the scarcity of lake 
trout in many of our large inland lakes. What 
can we do about it', to paraphrase the famous 
expression of Bill Tweed?' The only remedy, as 
far as the State is concerned, is to avoid and 
m 
A SUGGESTION FOR A CASTING COURSE. 
By making the course go through a wood, 
round and under bushes, the length of the casts 
can be considerably shortened, and greater skill 
is necessary. Bait-casting golf being a practice 
of bait-casting, the aim should be to place ail 
likely difficulties met in actual fishing on the 
course. 
Of course I do not intend to lay down the 
rules of bait-casting golf. It must be tested 
thoroughly so as to make it a real game, and a few 
days trial is not sufficient to find out the defects. 
I hope some skillful bait-casters will help with 
their advice. 
Both players then line up at casting line No. 
2, and A makes his next cast (for accuracy) at 
target No. 2, and scores a bullseye; B casts and 
scores in ring No. 1. Score at target No. 2: 
A Destroyer of Lake Trout. 
Dr. T. IT. Bean, State Fishculturist of New 
York, calls our attention to an extraordinary 
discovery recently made which shows the great 
destructiveness of the yellow perch in some 
waters. He says: 
“A very interesting thing was brought to light 
last week in our lake trout work in Keuka Lake. 
A net was hauled around a spawning ground of 
the lake trout for the purpose of taking ripe 
fish for the sake of their eggs. Our men took 
seven bushels of yellow perch, and all of the 
perch that were examined contained from 150 
discourage the planting of yellow perch in trout 
waters.” 
[Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, State Fish Culturist of 
New York, says of the depredations of the yel¬ 
low perch on lake trout spawning beds: 
“The mystery of our failure to collect eggs 
of lake trout in waters known to contain the fish 
can undoubtedly be explained by the recent dis¬ 
covery of Foreman Davidson in Keuka Lake. 
Between 3,000 and 4,000 yellow perch were 
seined on a trout bed at one haul. Every one 
of these perch that was examined was found to 
be gorged with trout eggs. As many as 150 to 
250 eggs were counted in individual fish. This 
would mean a loss of about one-half million 
eggs in one night on a single spawning bed. 
When a bed is depleted, the perch migrate to 
some other spawning ground and repeat their 
destruction. Foreman Davidson wrote me on 
Dec. 8 that no perch were taken in the last five 
hauls of the seine, and only two or three trout 
were secured. Undoubtedly the perch have gone 
to another bed to continue their operations. It 
is lamentable to think of the wholesale destruc¬ 
tion of good eggs in this manner.”— Editor.] 
All the fish lazvs of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and nozv in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
