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FOREST AND STREAM. 


[JULY 20, 1907. 

fine long rurs, or rather sweeps, near the sur- 
not infrequently presenting broadsides 
of silver through the water. 
fish 
face, 
excellence 
Cie yellowtail is the par 
alongshore. It is a good striker, a good 
fighter, and a fairly good eater. In the sum- 
mer it is taken in such numbers that it is a 
drug in the market, and most of those brought 
ashore are afterward carried out and dumped. 
In the old heavy tackle days it was not un- 
common for the launches to bring in two o1 

three hundred yellowtail in the morning to 
dump them back in the afternoon. 
The light tackle movement has about put 
an end to this abuse. No fish under twenty 
ounds counts at all, and one is as good for a 
button or a record as a dozen, consequently 
comparatively few are brought ashore, except 
during the months when the fish is in demand 
for food. The boatmen are instructed to re- 
ease the fish without eaffiing. This.is easi y 
done by picking the exhausted fish up by the 
narrow part of its tail—a veritable handle— 
and carefully taking out the hook. To lift the 
ish by inserting either the gaff ‘or the fingers 
under the gills is cruel and quite unnecessary. 
\s regards injury to the fish from the hook 
in the side of his mouth, the tender-hearted 
isherman may console-himself with the beliet, 
which now amounts to very nearly a certainty, 
hat there is little or no feeling in the cartilage 
‘rounding the mouth. The fish-mouth is a 
very different organ structurally from the ani- 
mai. It does not appear to be endowed with 
anything like the same degree of sensibility. 
lish that have been hooked again and again 
come after the bait fiercely, even with hooks 
langing from their jaws. 
If hooked foul in a tender spot, or 1f the 
ait is gorged, it is a different matter; the pain 
yrings the fish right in sometimes without a 
struggle. A large tuna was once landed in 
than two minutes, but it was hooked in 
he eye. The very fierceness of the struggle 
when the hook is through the side of the jaw 
proves that there is litthe or no sensation from 
he wound itself. 



Sl 
ess 

ARTHUR JEROME Eppy,. 

A Curious Catch. 
New York City, July 2.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In looking over your valuable paper to- 
day I read an article signed by Leonard Hulit. 
It is interesting to note that striped bass are being 
caught at Shark River Inlet. It seems that these 
fish are more plentiful (although not half plenti- 
ful enough to suit the angler) near river inlets. 
The Manasquan Inlet affords some excellent 
angling, especially on the south side. The river 
turns south as it makes its way out to sea. The 
small feed that comes out with the ebb tide is 
naturally looked for by the bass and other game 
fish. 
\ remark that Mr. Hulit makes in regard to 
kinefish not being easily caught on a large bass 
hook, recalls to my mind when I was. fishing 
near the Manasquan Inlet last fall. One after- 
noon I caught eight kingfish and three bass, and 
strange as it may seem, | landed seven out of the 
eight on an 8-0 sproat hook, although I had a 
small kingfish hook on the same leader. At one time 
I landed a bass of 4 pounds and a kinefish, and 
the bass was on the small hook. When I felt the 
bite I did not strike immediately, but waited for 
the second signal. The only way I can account 
fo. a proceeding, was that the kingfish were 
unusually hungry and went after the largest bait 
of worms Geo. M. Warson. 
such 
Fish Stories. 
A 
A pretty story is told of a twelve-year-old girl 
who, catching a large bluefish from one of the 
piers at Coney Island, sturdily hung on until her 
big brother arrived, when their prize was landed 
and proved to be a sixteen-pounder. 
Contrasted to this is another one that came 
from the Hudson River where a patient man, 
angling from a pier, on actually catching a tom- 
cod, lost his presence of mind and his balance, 
snd fell overboard. 
Brook vs. Brown Trout. 
CareponiA, N. Y., July 11.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: It is with the keenest interest that | 
have read the recent articles in your columns 
relative to brook and brown trout. 
Having lived all my life on that noted stream 
where Seth Green made his first study of’ the 
jontinalis, and having seen the plucky little char 
eradvally lose ground and give way to the Salmo 
fario, I feel it my duty to add just a word, per- 
haps in the form of a sequel, to the discussions 
that have gone before. 
lt is with the deepest sense of regret that I 
have seen our plucky little fontinalis going down 
to defeat. He has fought a good fight, but the 
odds are against him. Mr. Harry Chase, of 
Bennington, Vt., has the proper idea, for it is 
true that the conditions essential to the pros- 
perity of the brook trout are fast disappearing. 
Before the ax of the destructive lumberman, our 
forests are passing away like the snow in the 
spring time. This is the key to the situation. 
lontinalis might as well be expected to exist 
without water as to keep pace with our modern 
civilization. 
Now, since time has demonstrated so clearly 
that in these parts of the country that are being so 
rapidly cleared up, our brook trout is doomed, the 
problem reduces to one or two things: either se- 
lect a substitute, or unjoint our rods for the last 
time as far as that trout is concerned. But, with 
such a worthy successor and substitute as the 
Salmo fario, this last idea is absurd. The brown 
trout is a splendid fish and‘is suited to fill the 
place he is about to occupy. This seems to be 
the time for which he was created, thanks to 
the foresight of Efigene G. Blackford and Fred 
Mather. 
In a neighboring county there is a stream 
which, easily within the memory of some of 
our veteran anglers, was a native trout stream 
of great renown. For some half dozen years 
there has not been a single brook trout taken 
from it, and I believe I am safe in saying that 
to-day there is not a single fontinalis in its water. 
The disappearance of this fish is due almost en- 
tirely to the increase in temperature of the 
water. However, the stream has been subject 
to much abuse, but this alone, although it has 
aided quite materially, would not have been 
sufficient to cause the total destruction of the 
trout. Since the fontimalis have become extinct, 
these waters have been stocked with Salmo fario. 
The result is that a stream which otherwise 
would have been. destined, I may say, for mud 
turtles and. bullheads, is furnishing excellent 
sport for the trout fishers of the community. 
With the proper protection and care there is 
no reason whatsoever why it should not be one 
of the finest trout streams in western New 
York, 
It gives me a feeling akin to weariness to think 
that the term “logy” should be applied to such 
a gamy fish as the brown trout. I am un- 
able to conceive how a person could capture 
even one of these fighters and then do him such 
a gross injustice. I have caught many hundreds 
of these’ fine fellows, but never once have I 
found them lacking in gameness. Once hooked, 
“there is something doing’ for the angler. I 
do not mean any disrespect for our noble little 
char, but pound for pound on the end of the 
line, the brown outclasses him. 
As for eating, I am unable to say which has 
the finer flavor. ’Tis true the fontinalis is a 
delicacy hard to equal, but take the two fish, 
captured from the same stream, about the same 
size, and the decision as to flavor will be a hair- 
splitting affair. 
There are, of course, many cases where the 
Salmo fario would be out of place. By no means 
should he be planted in waters inhabited by the 
fontinalis if it be desired that the fontinalis be 
preserved. His rapid and large growth and 
cannibal ways make him very undesirable in 
such waters. If placed in the same, it is a mat- 
ter of only a short time before he reigns 
supreme. 
Great. precaution should be exercised in the 
planting of the brown trout in the waters of the 
Adirondacks. They are there to a small ex- 
tent now, but ought to be kept down. These 
waters are in most cases ideal native trout 
waters and should be preserved as such as long 
as possible. 
To myself, and I know, to many who are 
prominent in the fishculture, it is a mystifica- 
tion why our United States Commission should 
discontinue the hatching of the Salmo fario. Let 
us hope that they will “sit up and take notice” 
before long. 
I hope that my attitude toward this subject 
will not be misconstrued. It is not my aim to 
condemn, or do even the slightest injustice to 
the Salvelinus fontinalis, but in the path of the 
present day advancement, the fish which our 
fathers and grandfathers knew so well, is surely 
disappearing. For the fontinalis waters that are 
passed; we cannot do better than adopt the Salmo 
fario. H. K. A. 
Forest and 
trea In reply to Mr. Samuels’ communica- 
tion in your issue of July 6, | wish to assure him 
that I have been his admirer for many years, and 
Mirrorp, N. S., July 7.—Editor 
Stream: 
that I could never for a second consider him 
ehgible .for membership in the Ananias Club. 
Tle is a whale in the ocean of angling in which 
| am but a minnow, but a minnow that has, per- 
haps, had more experience of the brown trout 
than he, having been after them these many years 
in the old country. It was in the light of this 
experience, as well as in consideration of the 
ease with which one species may be mistaken 
for another, that I became convinced that a fish 
that comported itself with the sprightliness of 
Mr, Samuels Kedgeemacoogee individual was no 
Salmo fario. About in the place where this fish 
was caught I have often taken good sized smolt 
which were, of course, very lively, and looked 
very much like brown trout. This is a+ mere 
hypothesis. 
_ I fear the testimony of such authorities as the 
immortal Izaak and Sir Humphrey can hardly 
be taken in regard to a fish a single specimen of 
which they never saw, and even the modern 
Englishmen know fontinalis only in their own 
warm waters where it of course fails to thrive 
and is consequently by no means the fish it is 
with us. In all modesty I fancy that the. ex- 
perience of one, who, like myself, has taken 
hundreds of both species in their native waters, 
would be more to the point. 
In regard to the planting 
the Liverpool system of this 
uels is right concerning my 
of brown trout in 
province Mr. Sam+ 
comparative ignor- 
ance. Nor did I deny the possibility. It only 
seemed an added argument against the identity 
of that famous fish that I had never heard of 
a single Salmo fario taken here, though I have 
been fishing and inquiring for years. I am 
obliged to Mr. Samuels for his data and shall 
certainly look up the subject for the sake of 
historical accuracy. It would not be difficult to 
find, I opine, that in the elder days they did 
more in this province for the propagation and 
distribution of the Salmonide, for at present the 
situation is next door to scandalous. 
And once more | wish to deny to the fario, 
as fine a fish as it is, the supreme qualities of 
our peerless fontinalis, Epwarp Breck. 

Reforming the Anglers. 
“How to Fis; A TREATISE on TrouT AND 
Trour FisHers,” by W. E. Hodgson, has ap- 
peared in London, and a five-column review of 
the book has been published in the Fishing 
Gazette, whose editor, Mr. R. B. Marston, does 
not mince matters in criticising statements that 
are in error. Every angler familiar with dry- 
fly casting knows that in retrieving his fly he 
must be particular. to rid the line, leader and 
fly of moisture before making another cast, and 
he will therefore smile at Mr. Hodgson’s advice 
to “use a yard of plaited gut’? between line and 
leader; that this need not be lighter than the 
reel Jine, and as it will hold little water, this 
will not be “thrown on stream or lake in a 
shower”! He also favors a level line in prefer- 
ence to a tapered one, but grants that the back 
taper of a double-tapered line admits of a 
greater length of line on the reel! 



