APRIL 28, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
67 5 


The Maine Ice. 
Bancor, Me., April 21.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The warm days of early spring are 
here, the maple syrup flows over the luscious 
creations of cook and griddle, and the fishing 
fever burns with an intensity heightened by the 
fact that the opening of fishing, at least in Maine, 
is later than for several seasons past. Whether 
this condition will hold until after the usual date 
for the opening of the inland lakes is a mooted 
question, and one that is being settled (?) in 
every gathering of anxious anglers, the State 
over. 
Usually the first fishing is close to the first day 
of April, and comes with the leaving of the ice 
in the rivers where sea salmon may be taken, 
and in such lakes near the coast as appear to be 
affected by the salt air, notably Sebago, Tunk, 
Green and other waters near to the coast line, and 
at a comparatively low level. This year Sebago, 
at this writing, is still not what one may con- 
sider open, although the ice has left several por- 
tions of the lake, and the news of its final clear- 
ing is only a question of days at the most, and 
possibly hours. Already ambitious fishermen have 
put in their boats and caught some fine salmon, 
which are reported as being quite as greedy for 
the troll as in last year’s early season, when the 
sport at Sebago was unsurpassed in the country, 
and enormous catches were made on that body of 
water every day for weeks, although the best 
sport came just after the ice left the lake. Some 
splendid strings were taken, and some very large 
fish became prizes that now adorn the walls of 
sportsmen all over New England, although some 
of the finest specimens were captured by resi- 
dents of Portland and vicinity. 
The sport began at the salmon pool in Bangor 
on the 7th, two days after the ice left the river, 
and some four or five salmon have been landed to 
date. The last several days the river has been 
full of running ice in small cakes (the ice of 
Sunkhaze and other tributaries, which has just 
broken up) and recent rains have rendered the 
water very muddy, so that good results at the 
pool were practically impossible. No fish, up to 
date, has been caught weighing as heavy as 20 
pounds, although there has been one of 17% 
pounds taken, the smallest being about 8 pounds. 
One man took three in one day, two of which, 
however, were kelts. 
To visit the inland lakes now one would feel 
as if it might easily be the Fourth of July before 
any chance for fishing could be expected. A 
postal card to the writer from one popular resort 
within a week stated that there was thirty inches 
of ice in the lake to-day,’ and the writer of the 
card stated to your correspondent to-day that it 
shows no signs of weakening. 
On the big lakes. such as Moosehead, the ice is 
still strong and firm, only showing the approach 
of spring by a mid-day weakness of the top ice, 
so that teams are obliged to do all their traveling 
in early morning or evening, to avoid bad slump- 
ing. Of course, some do travel right along, but 
it is slow, laborious work, and they don’t really 
save any time. 
In general there is a period of about three 
weeks between the discontinuing of stage service 
on the lake between Greenville and Kineo, and the 
leaving of the ice, and the stages were running 
all right at last accounts. Unless some extraordi- 
narily warm weather should sweep over northern 
Maine, and be followed by a very warm south 
wind, there is little prospect of the ice leaving 
before the roth, and perhaps the 15th, which 
would be late, although not unprecedented. 
Usually, however, the ice in Moosehead leaves 
from the 5th to the roth, and that in the Range- 
leys, Sebec and Grand Lake is seldom more than 
a day or two one way or the other, so closely are 
all these waters affected by the approach of the 
warmer spring days. Anglers who plan to be in 
Maine the 15th of the month are likely to be right 
on the spot at the critical moment to take ad- 
vantage of the early fishing, which will remain 
good for the month following the leaving of the 
ice, and possibly, if the season continues late, till 
the Fourth of July. 
Secretary Farrington, of the Maine Sports- 
men’s Fish and Game Association, is sending out 
the advance announcements of the annual sum- 
\ 
mer outing of the Association, which this year is 
to be to that mecca of the angler and nature lover, 
Mt. Kineo. The dates this year will be July 3 to 
10, with special excursion rates good during that 
time, for transportation and board. More com- 
plete particulars will be announced later. 
HeErBerT W. Rowe. 
Letters from a Recluse. 
Fly-Fishing. 
It is a bitter cold winter’s night and I am far 
away from the cheerful lights of town or city. 
The north wind is shrieking and tearing at this 
lonely house, like some evil demon wishful to 
carry it away bodily or shatter it completely. 
The icy breath of this demon penetrates through 
every chink and crevice, of which there appear 
to be many, and the wood-burning stove is my 
only companion. It is on nights such as these, 
after the turn of the year, that our thoughts stray 
away from the present to other scenes and very 
different seasons. We return in spirit to the time 
of leaf and blossom, when birds were singing 
merrily and trout were rising in the pools. We 
remember many days of glorious sport and keen 
enjoyment, and then somehow our thoughts take 
a turn and leap forward. Spring is near, quite 

near, and it will soon be time to go a-fishing. 
We want to talk about it dreadfully. O for a 
brother crank of the fly-fishing fraternity, one 
who would be ready to listen occasionally and 
not insist upon doing all the talking, telling all 
the stories himself. But if we cannot talk we 
can write, and it is just possible that some dear 
brother angler will read what we say upon paper. 
There is some comfort in that idea, so here goes. 
Why is it that with all the improvements made 
in fishing tackle in recent years we have but few 
patterns of artificial flies copied direct from na- 
ture? From the hosts of flies to be found on 
many of the hard-fished waters of the Eastern 
and Middle States? The imitations sold in the 
shops were nearly all of them copied from Eng- 
lish patterns originally, and these, of course, were 
not taken from American flies. Our original pat- 
terns are largely fancies, combinations in colors 
pleasing to the eyes of man and are used as lures, 
not as imitations of any insect. Many of them 
are very killing in the waters for which they 
were created, but there is something extremely 
fascinating in the successful imitation of one of 
the smaller ephemera, when we can believe that 
our fine basket of trout was due to our care in 
getting the colors and size just right. Fancies 
and lures are very well and are absolutely essen- 
tial in Maine and the Dominion of Canada, but 
there are streams where at times and upon occa- 
A MOMENT OF SUSPENSE. 
