Oct. 26, 1907.] 

Journal has contended for some time, that 
illegal fishing as a business on Oneida Lake 
has ceased to exist. There are nets in the 
lake, as there will be as long as there is a lake, 
but the fishermen will now rob the lake in a 
legal way in fishing with twenty lines through 
the ice. 
| 
| A Famous California Trout Stream. 
SAN Francisco, Cal., Oct. 12.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The best known stream and prob- 
‘ably the one that is fished more than any other 
‘among the innumerable trout streams of Cali- 
fornia, is the Paper Mill, the upper waters of 
which are not more than twenty miles distant 
from San Francisco. 
| The Paper Mill, through the Lagunitas, its 
‘main tributary, takes its rise on Mt. Tamalpais 
(elevation, 2,500 feet) and flows in a north- 
\westerly direction until it meets the San Geroni- 
mo. At this place the stream, gathering ad- 
‘ditional strength, flows through a canon wild 
jand picturesque, lined with magn-ficent laurel, 
oak. cottonwood, pine and stately redwood trees, 
finally flowing into Tomales Bay, twenty-five 
miles from its source, and not far distant from 
the place where the first Christian prayer on the 
Pacific coast is alleged to have been offered up 
(by Sir Francis. Drake. 
The nearness of this stream to the center of 
population, and its ease of access—an hour’s 
travel by rail—coupled with the fact of its being 
prolific with fish life, distinguishes this noted 
fishing water from hundreds of others in Cali- 
'fornia, where the fishing may be said to be 
| better, but not so easily reached by the many, 
\for a day’s fishing. 
The Paper Mill has been fished by white men 
\for forty years and more, and while the number 
of anglers is increasing yearly, yet it can be 
\truthfully said that fishing upon this magnificent 
|stream is as good to-day as ever. An abundance 
of natural food supply found in its waters has 
caused its fame as a fine trout stream to survive 
these many years. 
The game fishes found in the stream are the 
steelhead and rainbow trout, quinnat salmon and 
striped bass. The fish indigenous to its waters 
is the steelhead trout, found also in all the 
| Pacific coast streams from Juneau, Alaska, to 
(Santa Barbara. 
| The steelhead generally comes into the stream 
\from the ocean soon after the first rains in 
|winter; the adult fish running from three to 
twenty-five pounds in weight, and is regarded as 
the gamiest fish in the world. When first in 
from the sea, the fish is silvery in color, but 
soon takes on bright colors and is much spotted. 
The rainbow trout and salmon found in the 
stream are those that have been planted. There 
is much diversity of opinion among ichthyolo- 
gists as to the difference, if any, between the 
steelhead and rainbow. The question is still a 
moot one, and until the scientists have settled 
ithe matter among themselves, the anglers will 
have it no other way than that they are one 
and the same fish. 
In the lower stretches of the Paper Mill dur- 
ing certain parts of the year splendid fishing is 
to be had for the quinnat salmon and the 
striped bass. Specimens of these fish have been 
taken by anglers on a spoon while casting from 
the reel, weighing from ten to fifty pounds. 
The California Anglers’ Association has re- 
cently stocked the stream with fifty thousand 
rainbow and ten thousand steelhead trout—the 
plant being made of fish measuring from two to 
three inches in length. 
Geo. A. WENTWORTH. 
Pike. 

New York, Oct. 18.—Editor Forest and 
| Stream: Accompanying the article on “Adiron- 
dack Fishing” in your issue of Oct. 19, page 620, 
is an excellent photograph of a “Lower Saranac 
}Lake Pickerel,’ so called. This will be easily 
jrecognized as the common pike of New York 
twaters. The pickerel of the same region has 
ichain-like reticulations on the sides, while the 
jpike has oblong pale spots on a dark ground 
\without reticulations anywhere. 
TARLETON H. BEAN, State Fish Culturist. 
| 
| 
FOREST AND STREAM. 


PLANTING 6,000 TROUT 
The 
Varnishing Fishing Rods. 
THERE is nothing more discouraging and 
disheartening to the amateur fishing rod maker 
than a failure in varnishing a rod. And var- 
nishing is a delicate operation. He may finish 
the joints with the utmost care, and polish the 
wood until it glistens, wind it evenly and 
neatly, and then, when it is so near ready for 
actual use, have bad luck in varnishing, and 
feel like throwing the rod away, for apparently 
it is ruined, and there is nothing left to do but 
remove windings and guides, scrape it down 
and begin all over again. 
This, however, is a mistake, and the fault 
can be remedied if one is careful. Let us take 
a bethabara rod as an example. This wood is 
more or less oily. You may finish the joints 
with the greatest care, wetting them to raise 
the grain, then cutting the resulting rough- 
ness down, polishing with mild abrasives, then 
with fine bethabara shavings and finally with 
silk paper, until the wood glistens like brass; 
but in the winding the natural oil of your 
hands will coat the wood pretty evenly, and 
it may never occur to you that the rod is in 
bad shape to take varnish. 
Bethabara at best will not absorb much 
varnish; therefore it is essential that the var- 
nish shall dry rapidly and not “crawl” or 
gather in uneven patches, leaving other spots 
devoid of this protective coating. If you can 
varnish the rod on a warm day, turning it 
round now and then, so that it will dry evenly 
in the open air where there is no dust flying, 
it will please you, but if lack of time forces 
you to varnish it hurriedly, then hang it up 
against a wall or in a window, it may dry on 
three sides, while on the fourth, nearest the 
wall, the varnish may remain tacky or even 
crawl. This is likely to happen if the tempera- 
ture is low and the rod is left in the shade. 
The sunlight is safest if not too warm; but 
the rod should be turned frequently, so that all 
sides will dry evenly. 
After the windings are finished and these 
are given two light coats of the best grain al- 
cohol shellac—to preserve the color of the 
silk—the exposed wood can be rubbed with a 
bit of soft linen or a strip from an old silk 
handkerchief until most of the oil from your 
hands is removed. To do this, place one end 
of a joint in a corner of the room, and lean- 
ing against the other end lightly, with an end 
Photograph Shows Many of 
IN PAPER MILL CREEK. 
the Fish. 
of the narrow strip of silk polish the rod be- 
tween windings just as a _bootblack polishes 
your shoe. Turn the joint often, and reverse 
ends until you have gone all over it, after 
which do not touch the wood with your hands. 
Rub lightly, else the friction will damage the 
windings. 
Varnishing I have described before, but it 
may be well to repeat that I have found that 
known in the trade as extra light coach var- 
nish the most lasting and least likely to crack. 
If it is used while the can stands in a pot of 
hot water it will flow evenly and dry rapidly 
with a beautiful gloss. Two coats will protect 
a rod for a long time. 
Possibly you may forget how old your var- 
nish is, or neglect to have the rod and the 
rarnish warm, or the day selected may turn 
cold, with the result that the varnish may dry 
unevenly, remain tacky or even crawl in 
places. Old coach varnish can be improved 
by warming it and adding a little turpentine, 
then let it stand for an hour before being used. 
This, however, is not advisable, and it is better 
to buy fresh varnish, particularly as a half pint 
of it is cheap, and this quantity is sufficient for 
a large number of rods. Always apply varnish 
while warm, however. 
Should your varnish crawl or fail to dry 
after several days’ time, so that your work 
seems to have been wasted, take a narrow strip 
of canvas, which has a rough surface and will 
not shed much lint in rubbing, wet it slightly 
with crude petroleum, and holding one end of 
a joint of the rod against your chest, with the 
other end resting in the angle of floor and wall, 
work the strip between windings as described 
above, but never lengthwise of the joint. Very 
little pressure is needed, for your object will 
be to warm the varnish slightly through fric- 
tion, spread it evenly and bind it while remov- 
ing a little from the surface. Passing the palm 
of the hand over the joint occasionally will 
enable you to tell when the work is finished, 
which will be when the tacky surface gives 
way to one that is smooth and fairly hard. 
Any doubt will be dispelled when you rub the 
joint lengthwise very lightly with a bit of dry 
linen or silk. If this sticks in places, those 
spots must be polished. 
Now let the rod stand for a day, then pass 
the dry silk over it lightly, and if all parts are 
hard, polish very slightly with a dry silk strip. 
Your high gloss will be gone, but if another 

