


Tangier Sound 
can lay 
ground. 
“This surely is a sailing little boat, 
dad,” says son, “she lays right up to 
the wind, when the centerboard is 
down.” 
“Yes, son, she is a Raym-Tom ba- 
teau. He worked the model out him- 
self, has built hundreds of them, and 
they are the smartest and ablest V- 
bottom boats I ever sailed. You had 
better rig up the rods now, we shall 
soon be there.” 
Three miles or so out in the sound, 
the landmarks are in line, and the cap- 
tain’s orders are: “Let go the anchor. 
Give her about fifteen fathoms of line. 
It is only six or seven fathoms deep 
here, but the tide is running like a 
mill-race. You will need a five-ounce 
sinker to keep our No. 9 line on the 
bottom.” 
Somehow dad nearly always gets his 
line over first, and therefore usually 
draws first blood. The hardheads, or 
croakers, are biting like hungry 
wolves, and conversation languishes, 
except for such exclamations as, “Ah, 
boy, got you that time!” ‘Watch him 
pull my tip under.” “Dad, I believe 
I’ve got a trout on, a big fellow, see 
how he is taking my line. Stand by 
with the crab net. He is too big to 
lift in with the leader. Mind he doesn’t 
foul your line. See him scoot. Steady 
now with the net while I lead him 
in. Whooee! That’s some trout, five 
pounds if he’s an ounce. I thought 
one time I had lost him.” 
There is quite a variety of fish, so 
that you never know until he is on 
the hook, and coming up, just what 
kind he is. Long before he is sighted, 
however, a practiced fisherman can tell 
you the variety and somewhere near 
the size, unless he is hooked foul. 
There are croakers, trout, large spot, 
kingfish or mullet, pigfish, perch, 
Black Wills or small seabass, occa- 
sionally a flounder, or bluefish, not 
540 
our course for the fishing 
to mention oyster toads, puff toads 
or sea robins, dogfish, skate and 
stingrays, so that there is enough 
change to keep one interested. While 
the tide runs strong, the catch is 
mostly croakers; when it slacks some- 
what, the trout bite more freely; at 
dead slack water, the spot and pigiish 
are in evidence, unless you cast out 
from the boat and reel in slowly, when 
you can still catch trout and croakers 
with a moving bait. With the coming 
of the flood tide, in the early part of 
the season, they usually do not bite 
so freely, so, “Up with the anchor, and 
let’s go home.” 
The wind has fallen with the tide, 
and we must take the motor from the 
locker, screw it on to the stern, and 
away we go. 
At the crab house, we count up, and 
give the boys about half a bushel of 
fish for the bait they gave us. We 
have twenty-nine trout, and enough 
other fish of various edible kinds to 
make a tale of one hundred and three, 
weighing, we estimate, about one hun- 
dred and thirty pounds. 
Rev. C. W. STRICKLAND, 
Tangier, Virginia. 

A Unique Fishing Platform 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
ROBABLY one of the most unique 
fishing methods in the world is 
shown in the accompanying picture. 
It is built to overreach a great whirl- 
pool in the Yuculta Rapids on the 
coast of British Columbia. Here the 
water of the entire Strait of Georgia 
is forced for a couple of miles to pour 
through a narrow channel made by 
two islands and the mainland. At the 
change of the tides, and particularly 
in the months of December and June, 
when the tides are greatest, the enor- 
mous volume of water forced in this 
manner creates great whirlpools, ed- 
dies and boils, and the water rushes 
at a speed so great that none of the 
coastwise steamers can buck it. Great 
trees are sucked down like matches. 
The swift, cold waters are the favorite 
haunt of the coho and spring salmon, 
ranking among the gamest sporting 
fishes in the world. But at many 
times of the day it is impossible to 
handle a small boat in the waters. 
So a retired shipbuilder erected the 
platform as shown in the picture. 
From the top of this a line and spoon 
can be cast into the water. The whirl- 
pool below is a particularly good spot 
for salmon, and they can in this way 
be pulled out with ease and safety. 
Another method is to anchor a boat 
beneath the platform when fish can be 
taken with a rod. At the moment the 
picture was taken a small boil was 
forming on the water. 
FRANCIS DICKIE, 
Heriot Bay, B. C. 
Woodchuck Arms 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
HE June issue of FOREST AND 
STREAM contains two very good 
articles on woodchuck hunting. Both 
are true to life and are very inter-— 
esting. We have here in Rockford an 
outfit similar to the “Gang” that Mr. 
A fishing platform in British Columbia. 


