Photo courtesy Northern Pacific Ry. 


Mule deer at Mammoth Hot Springs. 
It was yet dark; you could hear flock 
after flock of ducks passing overhead, 
continually quacking and flying east. 
During the night the wind had 
changed to the west and the weather 
looked fairly clear. We reached our 
hunting place and set out our decoys 
and retired to our blind and waited 
for daybreak. 
Dawn soon came, but with it the last 
ducks had passed, it seemed, for at 
broad daylight there was not a duck to 
be seen, although a few hours before 
there were thousands. But we weren’t 
the kind to quit on the spot, although 
I was never more disheartened in my 
life. 
We smoked and talked until about 
eight o’clock and were about to give up 
all hopes, when I looked over to the 
right of the blind and saw an old mal- 
lard drake coming out of the east. I. 
showed Jess. He said: “Just a strag- 
gler; I guess he missed going out this 
morning.” 
I picked up my gun and went over 
about in line where the duck had 
passed and made a blind on a knoll. 
By that time I had seen several 
bunches coming from the east. I looked 
over toward Jess just in time to see 
him double up a big pair of mallards; 
that started the hunt. 
A small bunch of teal flew past me 
with a big mallard drake flying among 
them. I drop a pair of teal and the 
mallard left the bunch and flew straight 
over Jess and was dropped with a cen- 
ter shot. 
Another pair came into the decoy. 
Jess dropped them with the remark: 
“How do you like my shooting for an 
old man?” I did not have time to an- 
swer him, for I had three big mallards 
within twenty yards. I dropped them 
in succession, making a very pretty 
shot. Jess got a shot at the same time 
and didn’t get to see it. I was disap- 
pointed, for I don’t make shots like 
that often. 
We shot until about nine o’clock and 
I picked up my ducks and went over to 
where Jess was. I had sixteen and he 
had twenty. ‘The Louisiana limit is 
twenty-five and he did not want to quit 
with less. 
While preparing to leave the blind, a 
bunch of pintails flew in over the de- 
coys. Jess dropped two and I made a 
clean miss. 
In a short while two mallards came 
in and we each got one. A bunch fol- 
lowed and we each doubled. Another 
pair came in and we each got one 
again. A little later I dropped a sin- 
gle. In the meantime, it had clouded 
up and the weather was looking very 
bad, so we counted our ducks and pre- 
pared to leave. I had eighteen mal- 
lards and two teal and Jess got the 
limit. 
Jess was as happy as a two-year-old 
He said, “Well, you didn’t. get. 
child. 
the limit.” I said, “No, but I got one 
of the best morning duck shoots I have 
ever had and I am not going to walk 
back to town either, because you cannot 
drive the car.” 
W. J. GuiLi, Lake Charles, Ill. 
Good French River Season 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
HAT is claimed to be the best 
fishing season ever experienced 
in the French River district of Ontario 
both from the point of view of sport 
and size of catch is apparently borne 
out by some of the stories told here 
daily well authenticated, because they 
are backed by strings of real fish. 
Dr. Seleskar’s party of six people 
from Cleveland report a catch of 48 
bass in one day, while the next day the 
party hooked four mascalonge, weigh- 
ing 15, 12, 9 and 8 pounds respectively, 
according to J. G. Strathdee, manager 
of the French River Bungalow Camp. 
The record catch was made in July 
when 17 mascalonge were taken in one 
day, of which the top weight was 32 
lbs. The catch also included fish weigh- 
ing 33%, 26 and 24 lbs., and four 
others weighing between 22 and 12 lbs. 
It is claimed that this catch has never 
been equalled in the French River. 
Every year there is a fishing trophy 
competition in the French River sec- 
tion. At present there are two entries. 
C. E. Gray, jr., of Chicago took a four 
pound small mouth bass of a length of 
16 in., girth 10 in. It was taken in the 
Murdock River with a Bristol rod, 
Diamond reel, Kingfisher line and with 
a Pikie minnow bait. 
The other entry is of a 33-34 pound 
small mouth bass, 21 in. in length and 
13% in. girth. 
This Baker of Toledo used a bamboo 
rod, Shakespeare reel, Japanese silk 
line and a double spinner bait. The 
competition is open until the end of 
September. French River, a little over 
200 miles north of Toronto on the 
C. P. R., is in reality a chain of small 
lakes connecting Lake Nipissing on 
the east with Georgian Bay on the 
west, a distance of 60 miles. 
Wo. Harris, Toronto, Ont. 
beet a 

Photo y Harold Meizxell 
W.F. Bemis with record square tail trout. 
Weight 7 pounds. Caught on the Nipigon. 
739 
