
FOREST AND STREAM. 






S1EA\ ANID JRINVTEIR FFTSIGOIN 





The Missouri Jack-Salmon. 
DoniPpHAN, Mo., Oct. 5.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I had lived almost a year in this sec- 
tion before I became acquainted with that highly 
praised fish of our clear streams, the jack sal- 
mon or wall-eyed pike. As my moments for 
fishing were limited only to the warmer months 
of the year I failed to make connections with 
this fish, and it was not until early fall fifteen 
years ago on the upper Current that I got my 
first glimpse of a well known fish, but under 
another name. While the town markets often 
offered them for sale, the custom here of always 
cleaning fish before bringing them home _ pre- 
vented me from seeing them in their original 
guise just as they came from the cold cress beds. 
One habit here of all the local fishermen of 
skinning fish instead of the old and only method, 
removing the scales, naturally jars on the peculiar 
epicurean sensibilities all devotees of the fly-rod 
Picture what a rude shock it would 
be to some disciple of Izaak to land a four pound 
trout. and immediately after carefully placing it 
in the live box of his boat to see his guide re- 
move its head, cut two gashes on each side of 
the dorsal fin, run another toward the tail, an- 
other cut there, and presto with a jerk your 
prize is despoiled of his skin and scales, and 
all semblance of his original self at once 
gone. 
One instance came to my eyes years ago. A 
man from the far East heard of the small-mouth 
bass fishing here and made the trip, putting in 
on Current River with his guide at Chicopee. 
The day’s run rewarded him with a fine string 
possess. 
is 
of black bass. I met him at the end of his 
day’s run at Phillips Bay, a favorite camping 
place. The large cold spring that pours hun- 
dreds of gallons of pure water into the river 
in a second’s time, together with the enormous 
beds of watercress, bleached by the action of the 
cold water white as the famed celery of 
Kalamazoo, are temptations the camper seldom 
overlooks. The usual lack of ceremony con- 
tingent on new acquaintanceship in the open 
woods. put the Easterner and myself on terms 
of intimacy. We decided to join our culinary 
departments. As supper approached my new 
friend was astonished to see his guide serve 
black bass cut up in slices. I will never forget 
his astonishment as he viewed his prizes butch- 
ered in the manner mentioned. Suffice it to 
say that this method is scarcely in vogue at the 
present time. But my reason for mentioning it 
was to show that I had been among the jack 
salmon, but had never seen one. 
as 


Our guides mentioned salmon very frequently 
and told us that on the run down we would be 
sure to catch one, though fishing deep along the 
rocky bluffs. At that time my fishing outfit con- 
sisted of one fly-rod, one ot the old-time long 
casting rods, and a few ordinary spoons. ‘The 
Easterner had a fine outfit of rods, casting baits, 
flies, ete., which I examined with enthusiasm, 
for in those days a fully equipped angler was a 
novelty, for then the numerous minnows, with 
their assortments of hooks, that not only catch 
every fish they hook, but the possessor as well— 
miniature torpedo boats, well armed with hooks, 
spinners, corkscrews and all such modern lures 
were unknown. ‘Thus it was that parts of the 
outfit of the Easterner excited much suppressed 
ridicule in my mind and some admiration. 


THE PIKE-PERCH OR 
Among his casting rods he showed me a short 
steel rod, something I had never seen before, 
and I good naturedly told him that while it 
might be of some use for short distance work 
it would never cast any great distance. In order 
to prove to me the fallacy of my assertions, the 
rod was quickly dressed with reel and line, a 
sinker and No. 5 spoon attached, and before 1 
could say another word, the casting bait dropped 
with a plunk 120 feet away at the border of the 
cress bed in the deep water of the opposite shore. 
The angler reeled in slowly, then he was startled 
to find something was doing at the other end 
of the line. The churning of the water, a leap, 
the line taut, another leap, and sounding for the 
deep blue water. A repetition of these tactics 
followed on the part of the fish until skill and 
a strong silken linen brought him, subdued, into 
the awaiting net. 

FISHING 
IN THE CURRENT 
RIVER AT DONIPHAN. 





























































“He’s sure got a salmon,” cried the guide, at] 
there, reposing quietly in the landing net, < 
fight beaten out of him, was the well knov) 
pike perch or wall-eyed pike of the Northe 
waters, but to the Missourian he is always ja 
salmon, and no authority on fishes can conve 
them into changing the name of the fish. | 
Current River is well supplied with them, ar}, 
goodly numbers are caught each fall. Thi. 
seldom strike except in the fall, though in m|’ 
summer, in the very deep stretches of watel| 
they can be lured by deep trolling. I have « 
several occasions killed large ones with the fl} 
rod and ibis fly—always very early in the moni}; 
ing when they were after smaller fish in tll: 
cress beds; but as the sun begins to show wel, 
over the treetops they seek the deep stretchi|, 


\ 
WALL-EYED PIKE (Stizostedion vitreum. ) 
\, 
of blue water that races swiftly along the stee), 
rocky bluffs. Many also are speared at nigh 
with torches. In the fall the ordinary Spoo |. 
seems to be the most killing bait. ; 
In southeast Missouri jack salmon do not con’! 
fine themselves to the swifter streams, but th/‘ 
sluggish streams of our Eastern sunken land): 
are filled with them, though like here with u|' 
they refuse all baits until the leaves begin t), 
fall in autumn. As these streams of the alluvia| 
lands are covered with dense timber, and th), 
still more annoying underbrush, the usual fish; 
ing rods are out of the question, streams to} 
deep to wade, and filled with thousands of sunkei|! 
logs to make the use of a boat impossible. Thi! 
native of the swamps secures a long cane pol; 
to which a five foot stout linen line is attached|’ 
a No. 5 spoon is the lure. 
Armed with thi|’ 
equipment the angler walks cautiously out oi| 
the logs or treetops and drops his spoon in al]! 
the likely places. The fight is short, but it il" 
fish he is after, not sport. The jack salmon ar 
ready strikers from the last of September unti 
id 
(2 
the first of May. Locu Lappre. |! 
1¢ 
1 
Ib 
| 


Soles and Souls. } 
From North Carolina comes the followintall 
yarn: ly 
“A visitor was taken out on what was ap-| 
parently his first hunt for quail. In a cottor 
field the dogs were working upon a covey, the 
sportsman and his friend from the North stand- 
ing still, when suddenly the quail appeared be-|{ 
tween the rows of cotton, running. The visitot|t 
raised his gun to fire, whereupon his Raleigh}; 
friend cried out: 
“Don’t shoot them running.’ i 
““T won't,’ replied the visitor in a trembling]; 
voice. ‘I’m waiting for them to stop.’ ” 0 
All the fish laws of the United States and Can-\* 
ada, revised to date and now in force, are given 
in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. d 


