796 
them an invitation to come and try the rapids. 
But they declined with thanks, as “they preferred 
to fish in still) water.’ Now, every old angler 
knows. that those who fish for trofit in still water 
in May are likely to angle in vain, angle they 
ever so deftly. Still-water fishing will do in July 
and August, but it is dull work in May or early 
June. 
I subsequently met one of the guides who ac- 
companied these gentlemen, and his story was 
something like this: “The difficulty, sir, was 
just here. They knew nothing about their busi- 
ness, and they,were not willing to learn. As 
soon as they struck the river, instead of halting 
and casting where the fish were, they halted and 
cast where the fish weren’t; and when I ven- 
tured a suggestion they just tcld me to mind my 
business and they would mind theirs. As I was 
agreeable, I concluded to let the darned fools 
enjoy themselves in their own way. The result 
was that after fishing every bit of still water be- 
tween Cold Brook and Lathrop’s Chopping they 
didn’t catch fish enough to make one square meal 
for a hungry man; whereas, by fishing the riffs 
and swift water, the donkeys might have half 
filled the canoe. I never went out with a brace 
of more disagreeable buffers. I could and would 
have put them where they could have had all the 
sport they could have desired. but as they ‘knew 
their business,’ and were as abusive as they were 
stupid. I could only get my revenge by permit- 
ting them to skin their own skunks after their 
own fashion.. They left Martin’s with as poor an 
opinion of the Raquette as I had of them.” 
The mistake of these gentlemen was that be- 
cause on some former occasion they had fair 
sport in still water and nowhere else in August, 
they expected equal sport in the same kind of 
water in May. But that is not according to the 
order of trout nature. They have their different 
haunts in different seasons, and those who know 
their habits will be always sure to have the best 
sport. 

AS A RULE I have been fortunate with my 
euides—less, perhaps, because they possessed any 
inherent superioritv than because I early learned 
how to get out of them the best that was in them. 
I always treated them kindly, and uniformly 
went where they wished to take me—provided 
they wished to take me where I wished to go. 
By this seeming acquiescence I always had my 
own way, and at the same time rendered them 
as:anxious that I should have a “good time” as I 
was tn have it. 
But there is, nevertheless, a great difference 
in guides. Some are stupid, some are lazy, some 
are willful. and some are so full of conceit as to 
render them quite unbearable. Others are oblig- 
ing, industrious and thoroughly posted in’ every 
department of their craft. They are expert ang- 
lers, good cooks. perfect masters of paddle or 
oar. and thoroughly acquainted with every rod 
of forest and every foot of water within the ter- 
ritory where thev undertake to pilot their patrons. 
When one is fortunate enouch to secure such 
onides he is sure to have the best sport and the 
highest pleasure attainable. A carry of a mile 
or two doesn’t deter them from revealing what 
may he hoped for bv makine it. Because the 
current is stiff or the ranids formidable they 
don’t trv to evade their ascent by lving about 
them. Nor do they wait to he forced to gather 
fresh honehs and plenty of them to make your 
couch soft and fragrant. When the evenings are 
chilly and a roaring fire is necessary for warmth 
and comfort. they don’t wait to be reminded of 
the fact. With such euides vour tent is always 
tidy, your larder is alwavs protected, and vour 
cooking utensils and tin plates are alwavs clean. 
They can fry a trout or broil a salmon to per- 
fection: their baked nork and beans would satisfy 
the most exactins denizens of the Huh: their 
nancakes are always lioht and = artistically 
hrowned; their coffee is never spoiled bv over- 
boiline. and they are never so hanpv as when as- 
sured that they are rendering satisfactory and 
accentable service. ; 
While good guides are to be coveted on all 
waters, they are indisnensable on salmon rivers 
where the canoes are light, the currents heavy. 
and the rapids formidable. As a rule, Indians 
«tM 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 19, 1906. 

are the most expert and safest canoemen, whether 
handling a paddle or a pole. I have frequently 
had one Indian and one white man in my canoe, 
but the Indian was always given precedence, not 
by my wish alone, but with the assent and con- 
currence of his white co-laborer as well. They 
are not only more expert but more cautious than 
white men, and, on the roughest waters, I soon 
learned that it was always safe to go wherever 
my Indian pilot was willing to take me. I only 
once deemed him too timid, and ordered him to 
push straight through a rapid around which he 
wished to carry. He obeyed, with no other pro- 
test than a guttural “Ugh! Get wet!’ And so 
we did; for it was “nip and tuck’? whether we 
went over the rapids or went under them, I 
never afterward asked him to take me where he 
was not willing to go. 
But handling a canoe is not the most difficult 
office of a guide on salmon waters. There are 
ten good canoe men where there is one good 
gaffer. To a looker on it seems easy enough to 
gaff a 20 or 30-pound fish, but to do so from a 
canoe, in swift water and while the fish is in full 
life and in constant motion, or even when drawn 
near the shore, is about as difficult a piece of 
work as is connected with the art. A miss is 
as mortifying to the gaffer as it is provoking to 
the aneler. But misses are common and often 
fatal In sch cases, if the angler has any 
“swear words” in his vocabulary, they are pretty 
sure to be ventilated. 
T had killed a gteat many salmon before I ven- 
tured to gaff one; and while I was about it I 
wished T hadn’t undertaken the job. Such scoot- 
ing and dodging, such dashing and flonping, such 
striking and missing w2s never before seen in 
salmon waters. But I succeeded, thanks, not to 
my own skill, but to the saintly patience and 
marvellous manipulations of the Judge who had 
hooked the fish. 
While few guides are perfect i in every phase of 
service, one is seldom met with who cannot be 
made useful. If he is only willing the rest will 
follow. With a willing guide all things are pos- 
sible, if his emnlover is endowed with the essen- 
tial gifts of patience and good temper. G. -D 
A Large Pike. 
I caucut this splendid fish, shown in the ac- 
companying engraving, Nov. to, 1801, nearly fif- 
teen vears ago. As it was then and still is the 
largest one of its species which any authentic 
record shows to have been captured in the central 
Mississippi River Valley, it was immediately 
mounted and is still hanging in my office. 
The little picture here given does not do the 
fish justice, as the long exposure to the sunlight 

has bleached out much of its original beautiful 
colors. The back being a deep green gradually 
shaded down the sides to a light green, then fad- 
ing into a white belly, the upper portions con- 
taining many elongated silver colored spots and 
short longitudinal stripes. 
Besides it was miserably mounted in another 
city by a reputed taxidermist who was good on 
animals and birds, but evidently knew nothing 
about fish. As will be noted, he stuffed out the 
throat too much and nearly spoilt all the fins by 
failing to overcast them with thread. which al- 
lowed them to split so badly in drying that I 
thought best to trim off all their borders for the 
photographer, Mr. W. E. Givan, of Hannibal, Mo. 
Its length was thirty-eight inches cand weight 
T4 pounds, and its stomach contained a tooth 
herring thirteen inches long. 
IT had much tronble but lots of sport in secur- 
ing him, having failed twice, as he bit off my 
heavy linen bass line like a piece of cotton twine. 
But finally IT made a large snell of a silver wire 
wrapped, silk base, guitar- string, which was 
- 
too much for his sharp teeth, that later badly 
lacerated the finger of a foolish boy who thought 
he was dead, ; 
Fifty years ago, when the writer was a kid 
“river rat,’ pike up to 10 pounds were very com- 
mon in these waters, but this very gamy and 
edible member of our finny tribe was about fished 
out a decade back, and now they are virtually 
exterminated; I presume by the contemptible 
carp, which furnish neither fun nor decent food, 
and have about ruined the sport of all true ang- 
lers in this territory. 
What a terrible reflection upon our Fish Com- 
mission, who are now uselessly working nearly 
as hard to exterminate them as they did fifteen 
years ago to introduce them. 
Our latest Chicago and St. Louis wholesale 
quotations for gross fish average about as fol- 
lows: Carp, per pound, 1% cents; buffalo, 3% 
cents; crappie and cat, Io cents; black bass, 14 
cents. This speaks pertinently as to the value 
of our importations in this line from the River . 
Rhine. S. E. Worre tt, 
Sullivan County Trout. 
BEAVERKILL, N. Y., May 12.—Last Tuesday 
morning the hills were white with snow, good 
thick ice formed during the night and the outlook 
was dreary in the extreme. At 2 o'clock the 
wind backed to the southwest and the sun came 
out bright and warm. I seized my old Leonard 
at once, and in half an hour was casting my flies 
upon a good rift. By 5:30 I had sixteen ‘good 
trout in my creel and was satisfied to reel itp and 
return to my quarters in time for tea. 
In spite of considerable unkindness on the part 
of the weather, the season thus far has been a 
very satisfactory one, particularly upon the 
Beaverkill, Upon that long-time celebrated stream 
the fishing has been wonderfully good, much bet- 
ter, in fact, than for many years past. Fresh 
blood has been introduced by at least one or two 
of the clubs, and the protection afforded to por- — 
tions of the river not open to the public may have 
benefited the whole stream. I think myself that 
the great measure of success enjoyed by anglers 
has been due to the absence of. heavy rain and 
the comparatively low state of the water, which 
is perfectly clear. I saw a dish of about 10 
pounds of good trout taken by a well known 
guide and fisherman of Fallsburg and the angler 
who was with him in something less than two 
days. The weather was so cold that worm was 
used in killing a part of the fish. This man said 
that his favorite flies for spring fishing were 
Seth Green, Wickham’s Fancy, Cahill, Royal 
Coachman and one or two others. Nearly every 
list contains the Cahill, and it is certainly a grand 
fly. good all through the season.: Which is the 
better pattern, the dark or the light Cahill, is a 
mooted point. Some of the best anglers I know 
prefer the pale blue dubbing body, others the 
darker fur for body. 
If any of our amateur fly-trying friends are not 
acquainted with the good qualities of muskrat 
fur let them obtain a supply at once. It should 
be easily got at any furriers. Cut off the long, 
stiff hairs and pull out the fine soft fur under- 
neath. It is a delightful material to work with, 
as it is very easily spun upon the waxed silk. It 
is certainly far superior to the English water rat 
fur which was sent to me some years ago from 
the other side of the big sea water. Mole’s fur is 
very dark and as it is very short in fibre is diffi- - 
cult to spin smoothly and evenly upon the hook. 
We must have it, however, for the American © 
grannom, which rises in great numbers upon 
some of our mountain streams in June. We can 
find wings of the correct color for this fly, but 
the legs are the very mischief. I dressed six pat- 
terns of this fly upon one occasion and only in a 
single fly did I get the legs just rioht for the fish. 
I think I have an abundance of hackles of the 
right color this year, but cannot be sure of this 
until I test them practically over the critical eyes 
of the trout; that is the court of last resort. 
However. we are always privileged to bring the 
case up for trial again where the natural insects 
are numerous for nearly three weeks. 
IT have been much disappointed thus far this 
season in the small number of flies seen upon 
