

AuG, 10, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
219 

“Jim!” the Ancient Secretary exclaimed. 
“Ves, Jim Gardner was in the boat. He 
weighed the fish and said it was a 200-pounder.” 
“T dry mine,” the Commodore murmured as 
he motioned the boy with the tray *to come 
alongside. ArTHUR JEROME Eppy. 
[CONCLUSION. | 

Canadian Fish and Fishing. 
Quesec, Aug. 3.—Editor Forest and Stream: 
Senator Jotham P. Allds, who opened the ouana- 
niche fishing at the Grand Discharge this season, 
enjoyed some excellent sport. He is an adept 
with the fly-rod, and now that he has killed 
ouananiche, not many varieties of the best game 
fishes of America have escaped him. The 
steamer was not yet regularly crossing Lake St. 
John to the Discharge when the Senator went 
there and he had to take a roundabout course. 
In two days’ fishing he killed over thirty fish, 
his last one a five-pounder. On two or three 
different occasions he hooked and played two 
fish at the same time. 
Constant rains have kept the water in Lake 
St. John so high that the owananiche fishing is 
likely to continue good all summer, thus afford- 
ing some compensation for the lateness of the 
opening. Steamers now cross the lake from 
Roberval daily. There is this year, as last, quite 
4 noticeable increase in both the number and 
the size of fish in the Grand Discharge, un- 
doubtedly due to the total prohibition of all net- 
ting of ouananiche. , 
Lake Edward continues to give marvelous ac- 
counts of itself this season. Only a day or two 
ago nearly a dozen of its big red trout, averag- 
ing 4%4 pounds, were exhibited in the window 
of a newspaper office in Quebec. 
The new. line of the Canadian transcontinental 
railway now under construction is opening up 
a magnificent fish and game country from one 
end of the Dominion to the other. It is bound 
“to attract many lovers of big game to the north- 
ern part of the British Columbia Rockies and 
also to the far northern Peace River Valley, 
while upon both sides of the St. Lawrence in 
Quebec it will afford easy access to a good moose, 
caribou and deer country and to virgin trout 
waters. In the north of Quebec the best terri- 
tory that it will develop for the sportsman will 
be between Lake Abitibi and La Tuque on the 
St. Maurice River, while on the south shore, 
after crossing the new Quebec bridge, it -will 
open up a wild fish and game country in the 
vicinity of the Maine border. 
. I have just returned from a trip along the line 
of the railway where it is being constructed to 
the headwaters of the St. Maurice. Ascending 
the river from La. Tuque to the mouth of La 
Croche, we ascended that tortuous stream forty 
miles and then portaged into a series of lakes 
recently leased from the Government by some 
of the officials of the railway, where some of the 
grandest trout fishing I have seen for years was 
enjoyed. The fish in different lakes were of 
course’ of different sizes, but one particularity 
of these almost virgin waters was the remark- 
able average maintained by the fish in each of 
them. In Lake Kennedy, for instance, the trout 
ran from 2 to 6 pounds, with 3 and 4 pound fish 
predominating. In little Lake Clair, on the other 
hand, almost all the fish caught were from 1 to 
114 pounds, but I never saw a.lake so abundantly 
stocked as this is, or where the trout rise so 
greedily to the fly, and that in the heat of the 
day and in the middle of July. Thirty of these 
fish rose to my flies and were killed in the coiirse 
of an hour and I was compelled to stop fish- 
ing or to put back all other fish hooked, although 
six: men were in camp, for fear that some of 
them might be wasted. 
On another day one of our party killed a score 
of fish in an hotir in the same lake. All these 
lakes are beautifully wooded right down to the 
water’s edge and surrounded by lofty moun- 
tains. Beautiful mountain streams, rather brooks 
than little rivers, connect some of these lakes, 
and the tracks of big game were found by the 
margins of the lakes. This region of the upper 
St. Maurice is destined to become a great resort 
for sportsmen, E. T. D. CHAMBERS, 
In Pennsylvania Waters. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The trout season has closed in Pennsylvania, 
and, taking into consideration the unfavorable 
weather, it was far better than last year, which 
was better than it had been in many years. Ac- 
cording to reports from all parts of the State, 
there was a gratifying number of fish consider- 
ably beyond the legal limit of six inches. 
The reports given out early in the season 
that in counties like McKean, Potter and Pike 
the fishermen had no temptation to take small 
trout because there were so many large ones, 
seems to have prevailed in most parts of the 
State throughout the season. Very cold weather 
which lasted into June prevented excellent fly- 
fishing, but the worm fishermen had no cause 
to complain. They could operate regardless of 
cold or high water, and to some extent low 
water. The good reports come éyen from 
counties like Berks, where there is a large popu- 
lation and where most of the trout streams flow 
through cultivated meadows. A dispatch to the 
Philadelphia Ledger from Reading, dated July 29, 
declared that the trout season is pronounced 
the most successful in years. There were many 
trout caught and in most instances they were 
of good size. 
Because of the environments of population 
and cultivation, this statement is very significant. 
Anglers from that section attribute the mainten- 
ance of trout fishing and its improvement to 
stocking. [he anglers of Berks county are en- 
thusiastic in this particular, drawing thousands 
of trout from the State hatcheries every year. 
As far as can be learned the palm this year 
was carried off by Monroe, Center, Clinton and 
Pike counties, both for size and numbers, and 
the outlook for next year is brighter. The 
streams, they say, are literally alive with little 
fish. Indeed, so many of them showed up in 
some of the waters as to be almost a nuisance 
and started some of those who are impatient or 
thoughtless to agitate for a repeal of the bene- 
ficent law which makes the minimum size trout 
to be caught legally six inches. 
This is particularly true of the fisherman who 
loves to fish the small streams in which trout 
make their principal breeding places and not 
often occupied by old or large fish. These set 
up the ery which makes the experienced angler 
smile that the law ought to permit a five-inch 
trout to be caught, because the majority hooked 
are killed. If those who advance this argument 
only knew what experienced anglers know, that 
in 95 cases out of roo fish killed after being 
returned to the stream is due entirely to a lack 
of knowledge of the real habits of the trout and 
how to handle them, or wantonness, they would 
not be so quick to make their views public. 
Some extraordinarily large trout were caught 
during July. Aaron Bisbing, of Analomink, 
caught one measuring 21 inches long. from 
3rodhead’s Creek, and William H. DeWar 
captured one from the West Branch at Henry- 
ville, Monroe county, on the 13th which meas- 
ured 2134 inches, and in less than half an hour 
afterward captured anothtr measuring 20% 
inches. Mr. DeWar is a Philadelphian. The 
species of trout is not given, but is supposed to 
have been brown trout, as this species is very 
abundant and of large size in the West Branch. 
Clayton Brown, of Bellefonte, caught a 19/%- 
inch brown trout and Edward J. Kroll, of 
Waynesboro, Franklin county, captured on the 
oth of July 22 brook and rainbow trout that 
weighed in the aggregate 13 pounds. The fish 
averaged 12 to 14 inches each. 
Sullivan county yielded one trout weighing 
2 pounds 14 ounces, said to have been caught 
by Charles R. Stark, at Callicoon Center. A 
2i-inch 3-pound trout was captured from Roar- 
ing Creek in Columbia county by C. E. Kressler, 
of Catawissa. Walter S. Steelman, of Wilkes- 
barre, caught three from the Henryville dam 
in one day measuring 14, 16% and 18% inches. 
Even young ladies in Pennsylvania are learn- 
ing to catch large trout. Miss Lucille Morse, a 
16-year-old maid of Pittsburg, caught a 24-inch 
brown trout in Spruce Creek, Huntingdon 
county, on July 6. The fish weighed 5 pounds 
10 ounces, and is the largest fish of which 
record has been made, as far as known to the 
writer, this year. The same day that this fish 
was caught a stranger at Spruce Creek station 
was seen with a brown trout which he said he 
caught in Spruce Creek that weighed 434 
pounds. He did not seem very anxious to talk 
about the fish to those who saw and were ad- 
miring it, and from the fact that he is said to 
have had a basket full of outlines with him, it 
was strongly suspected that he had not caught 
the fish in a legal manner. 
Brown trout are increasing with almost 
alarming rapidity in many of the trout streams 
of Pennsylvania. Anglers fishing the Lacka- 
waxen in Wayne county report that nearly one- 
third of their catches were of this species. A 
correspondent in Blair county asserts that Piney 
Creek now contains more brown trout than 
brooks.. The Hon. Henry C. Cox, of” Wells- 
boro, Pike county, a member ot the Board of 
Fishery Commission, says they are greatly on 
the increase in the streams in that county and 
in the early part of July caught one (with a fly) 
in Pine Creek, or the mouth of Four-Mile Run, 
that weighed about 4 pounds. There is a grow- 
ing revulsion of sentiment in favor of the brown 
trout in Pennsylvania. A few years ago there 
was such an outcry against the fish because of 
its destructiveness and its fondness for brook 
trout that the Fish Commission ceased propa- 
gating it. Within the last six months the de- 
partment has been getting many letters asking 
for the fish to be propagated again, especially 
for streams the banks of which have been de- 
nuded of forest and the water temperature be- 
came too high for successful growth and con- 
tinuance of brook trout. If the sentiment grows 
to such an extent as to make it again a popular 
fish, perhaps there is hope for the hog-like 
rooter, the German carp. Indeed, this fish is 
not regarded to-day with the antipathy it used to 
be in some quarters of the State, especially the 
Schuylkill valley. 

Pennsylvania is now on the second month of 
the bass season. The first fifteen days were 
very unsatisfactory to. the conscientious angler 
because, owing to the backward season, the bass 
were not all off the nests before the first of 
July. The reports regarding bass fishing are 
very contradictory. In some sections it is 
claimed to be very fine, while in a few it is called 
distinctly poor, In the West Branch of the Sus- 
quehanna the water has been so muddy and 
high in the neighborhood of Lewisburg that 
nearly all fishing of this character has ceased. 
Another story is told of the North Branch of the 
Susquehanna, especially in Wyoming and Brad- 
ford counties. The Susquehanna, at this point 
undoubtedly the paradise for bass fishermen, is 
rapid, clears quickly and there is an abundance 
of fish. Fish Warden Shoemaker, who has this 
territory in hand, is a terror to the fish law 
breakers, and anglers who observe the law and 
believe in it give much to the credit for the good 
fishing to Mr. Shoemaker. 
The Perkiomen Creek in Montgomery county, 
a tributary of the Schuylkill, seems also to be 
maintaining the high reputation it has held for 
several years and is yielding fine sport whenever 
the water is right. Four,members of the Perki- 
omen Rod and Gun Club caught 75 pounds of 
bass, sunfish, catfish and chubs from the Perki- 
omen and Parkside on July 11. 
The Conococheague in Franklin county is 
yielding good sport, and John A. Mickley, of 
Gettysburg, caught 31 bass in one day from 
Marsh Creek. The Tulpehockon in Berks 
county, and the Brandywine in Chester county 
are also yielding many fish. Some of the 
catches reach from 15 to 20 a day from these 
streams, under proper conditions. 
John W. Blummer, of Altoona, caught 30 bass, 
17 wall-eyed pike and a number of other fish 
from the Juniata River in a two days’ outing. 
From the upper Delaware come good reports. 
Dr. Townsend, the head of the New York 
Aquarium, with a friend canoed down the upper 
river from Hancock to Port Jervis the early 
part of July and caught as many fish over 12 
inches long as they could eat. 
Last year the lower Susquehanna was very 
bad for bass, and this year it is poorer and no- 
body seems able to account for it. A few of the 

