fishing, with and without flies—some tackle and lures—discursive remarks on the gentle art—the headlight—frogging
here is probably no subject connected with out-door sport so thoroughly and exhaustively written up as fly-fishing, and all that pertains thereto. fly-fishing for speckled trout always, and deservedly, takes the lead. bass fishing usually comes next, though some writers accord second place to the lake trout, salmon trout or land-locked salmon. the mascalonge, as a game fish, is scarcely behind the small-mouthed bass, and is certainly more gamy than the lake trout. the large-mouthed bass and pickerel are usually ranked about with the yellow perch. i don't know why; they are certainly gamy enough. perhaps it is because they do not leap out of water when hooked. both are good on the table.
a dozen able and interesting authors have written books wherein trout, flies and fly-fishing are treated in a manner that leaves an old backwoodsman little to say. rods, reels, casting lines, flies and fish are described and descanted on in a way, and in a language, the reading whereof reduces me to temporary insanity. and yet i seem to recollect some bygone incidents concerning fish and fishing. i have a well-defined notion that i once stood on flat rock, in big pine creek, and caught over 350 fine trout in a short day's fishing. also that many times i left home on a bright may or june morning, walked eight miles, caught a twelve-pound creel of trout, and walked home before bed-time. [pg 36]
i remember that once, in michigan, on the advice of local fishermen, i dragged a spoon around high bank lake two days, with little result save half a dozen blisters on my hands; and that on the next morning, taking a long tamarack pole and my own way of fishing, i caught, before 10 a. m., fifty pounds of bass and pickerel, weighing from two to ten pounds each.
gibson, whose spoon, line and skiff i had been using and who was the fishing oracle of that region, could hardly believe his eyes. i kept that country inn, and the neighborhood as well, supplied with fish for the next two weeks.
it is truth to say that i have never struck salt or fresh waters, where edible fish were at all plentiful, without being able to take, in some way, all that i needed. notably and preferably with the fly if that might be. if not, then with worms, grubs, minnows, grasshoppers, crickets, or any sort of doodle bug their highnesses might affect. when a plump, two-pound trout refuses to eat a tinseled, feathered fraud, i am not the man to refuse him something more edible.
that i may not be misunderstood, let me say that i recognized the speckled brook trout as the very emperor of all game fish, and angling for him with the fly as the neatest, most fascinating sport attainable by the angler. but there are thousands of outers who, from choice or necessity, take their summer vacations where salmo fontinalis is not to be had. they would prefer him, either on the leader or the table; but he is not there; "and a man has got a stomach, and we live by what we eat."
wherefore, they go a-fishing for other fish. so that they are successful and sufficiently fed, the difference is not so material. i have enjoyed myself hugely catching catties on a dark night from a skiff with a hand-line.
i can add nothing in a scientific way to the literature of fly-fishing; but i can give a few hints that may be conducive to practical success, as well with trout as with less noble fish. in fly-fishing, one serviceable four-ounce rod is enough; and a plain click reel, of small size, is just as satisfactory as a more costly affair. twenty yards of tapered, water-proof line, with a six-foot leader, and a cost of two flies, complete the rig, and will be found sufficient. in common with most fly-fishers, i have mostly thrown a cast of three flies, but have [pg 37] found two just as effective, and handier.
the best flies
we all carry too many flies. some of my friends have more than sixty dozen, and will never use a tenth of them. in the summer of '88, finding i had more than seemed needful, i left all but four dozen behind me. i wet only fifteen of them in a seven weeks' outing. and they filled the bill. i have no time or space for a dissertation on the hundreds of different flies made and sold at the present day. abler pens have done that. i will, however, name a few that i have found good in widely different localities, i.e., the northern wilderness of new york and the upper waters of northern pennsylvania. for the northern wilderness: scarlet ibis, split ibis, romeyn, white-winged coachman, royal coachman, red hackle, red-bodied ashy and gray-bodied ashy. the ashies were good for black bass also. for northern pennsylvania: queen of the waters, professor, red fox, coachman, black may, white-winged coachman, wasp, brown hackle, seth green. ibis flies are worthless here. using the dark flies in bright water and clear weather, and the brighter colors for evening, the list was long enough.
at the commencement of the open season, and until the young maple leaves are half grown, bait will be found far more successful than the fly. at this time the trout are pretty evenly distributed along lake shores and streams, choosing to lie quietly in rather deep pools, and avoiding swift water. a few may rise to the fly in a logy, indifferent way; but the best way to take them is bait-fishing with well-cleansed angle-worms or white grubs, the latter being the best bait i have ever tried. they take the bait sluggishly at this season, but, on feeling the hook, wake up to their normal activity and fight gamely to the last. when young, new-born insects begin to drop freely on the water about the 20th of may, trout leave the pools and take to the riffles. and from this time until the latter part of june the fly-fisherman is in his glory. it may be true that the skillful bait-fisherman will rather beat his creel. he cares not for that. he can take enough; and he had rather take ten trout with the fly than a score with bait. as for the man who goes a-fishing simply to catch fish, the fly-fisher does not recognize him as an angler at all. [pg 38]
when the sun is hot and the weather grows warm, trout leave the ripples and take to cold springs and spring-holes; the largest fish, of course, monopolizing the deepest and coolest places, while the smaller ones hover around, or content themselves with shallower water. as the weather gets hotter, the fly-fishing falls off badly. a few trout of four to eight ounces in weight may still be raised, but the larger ones are lying on the bottom, and are not to be fooled with feathers. they will take a tempting bait when held before their noses—sometimes; at other times, not. as to raising them with a fly—as well attempt to raise a sick indian with the temperance pledge. and yet, they may be taken in bright daylight by a ruse that i learned long ago, of a youngster less than half my age, a little, freckled, thin-visaged young man, whose health was evidently affected by a daily struggle with a pair of tow-colored side whiskers and a light mustache. there was hardly enough of the whole affair to make a door-mat for a bee hive. but he seemed so proud of the plant, that i forebore to rig him. he was better than he looked—as often happens. the landlord said, "he brings in large trout every day, when our best fly-fishermen fail." one night, around an out-door fire, we got acquainted, and i found him a witty, pleasant companion. before turning in i ventured to ask him how he succeeded in taking large trout, while the experts only caught small ones, or failed altogether.
"go with me tomorrow morning to a spring-hole three miles up the river, and i'll show you," he said.
at the spring-hole
of course, we went. he, rowing a light skiff, and i paddling a still lighter canoe. the spring-hole was in a narrow bay that set back from the river, and at the mouth of a cold, clear brook; it was ten to twelve feet deep, and at the lower end a large balsam had fallen in with the top in just the right place for getting away with large fish, or tangling lines and leaders. we moored some twenty feet above the spring-hole, and commenced fishing, i with my favorite cast of flies, my friend with the tail of a minnow. he caught a 1?-pound trout almost at the outset, but i got no rise; did not expect it. then i went above, where the water was shallower, and raised a couple of half-pounders, but could get no more. i thought he had better go to the hotel with what he had, but my friend said "wait"; he went ashore and picked up a long [pg 39] pole with a bushy tip; it had evidently been used before. dropping down to the spring-hole, he thrust the tip to the bottom and slashed it around in a way to scare and scatter every trout within a hundred feet.
"and what does all that mean?" i asked.
"well," he said, "every trout will be back in less than an hour; and when they first come back, they take the bait greedily. better take off your leader and try bait."
which i did. dropping our hooks to the bottom, we waited some twenty minutes, when he had a bite, and, having strong tackle, soon took in a trout that turned the scale at 2? pounds. then my turn came and i saved one weighing 1? pounds. he caught another of 1? pounds, and i took one of 1 pound. then they ceased biting altogether.
"and now," said my friend, "if you will work your canoe carefully around to that old balsam top and get the light where you can see the bottom, you may see some large trout."
i did as directed, and, making a telescope of my hand, looked intently for the bottom of the spring-hole. at first i could see nothing but water; then i made out some dead sticks, and finally began to dimly trace the outlines of large fish. there they were, more than forty of them, lying quietly on the bottom like suckers, but genuine brook trout, every one of them.
"this," said he, "makes the fifth time i have brushed them out of here, and i have never missed taking from two to five large trout. i have two other places where i always get one or two, but this is the best."
at the hotel we found two fly-fishers who had been out all the morning. they each had three or four small trout.
during the next week we worked the spring-holes daily in the same way, and always with success. i have also had good success by building a bright fire on the bank, and fishing a spring-hole by the light—a mode of fishing especially successful with catties and perch.
a bright, bull's-eye headlight, strapped on a stiff hat, so that the light can be thrown where it is wanted, is an excellent device for night fishing. and during the heated term, when fish are slow and sluggish, i have found the following plan works well: bake a hard, well salted, water "johnny-cake," break it into pieces the size of a hen's egg, and [pg 40] drop the pieces into a spring-hole. this calls a host of minnows, and the larger fish follow the minnows. it will prove more successful on perch, catties, chubs, etc., than on trout, however. by this plan, i have kept a camp of five men well supplied with fish when their best flies failed—as they mostly do in very hot weather.
fishing for mascalonge, pickerel, and bass, is quite another thing, though by many valued as a sport scarcely inferior to fly-fishing for trout. i claim no especial skill with the fly-rod. it is a good day when i get my tail fly more than fifteen yards beyond the reel, with any degree of accuracy.
my success lies mainly with the tribes of esox and micropterus. among these, i have seldom or never failed during the last thirty-six years, when the water was free of ice; and i have had just as good luck when big-mouthed bass and pickerel were in the "off season," as at any time. for in many waters there comes a time—in late august and september—when neither bass nor pickerel will notice the spoon, be it handled never so wisely. even the mascalonge looks on the flashing cheat with indifference; though a very hungry specimen may occasionally immolate himself. it was at such a season that i fished high bank lake—as before mentioned—catching from forty to fifty pounds of fine fish every morning for nearly two weeks, after the best local fishermen had assured me that not a decent sized fish could be taken at that season. perhaps a brief description of the modes and means that have proved invariably successful for many years may afford a few useful hints, even to old anglers.
frog-bait and gangs
to begin with, i utterly discard all modern "gangs" and "trains," carrying from seven to thirteen hooks each. they are all too small, and all too many; better calculated to scratch and tear, than to catch and hold. three hooks are enough at the end of any line, and better than more. these should be fined or honed to a perfect point, and the abrupt part of the barb filed down one-half. all hooks, as usually made, have twice as much barb as they should have; and the sharp bend of the barb prevents the entering of the hook in hard bony structures, wherefore the fish only stays hooked so long as there is a taut pull on the line. a little loosening of the line and shake of the head sets him free. but [pg 41] no fish can shake out a hook well sunken in mouth or gills, though two-thirds of the barb be filed away.
frog-bait three-hook gang frog-bait three-hook gang
for mascalonge or pickerel i invariably use wire snells made as follows: lay off four or more strands of fine brass wire 13 inches long; turn one end of the wires smoothly over a no. 1 iron wire, and work the ends in between the strands below. now, with a pair of pincers hold the ends, and, using no. 1 as a handle, twist the ends and body of the snell firmly together; this gives the loop; next, twist the snell evenly and strongly from end to end. wax the end of the snell thoroughly for two or three inches, and wax the tapers of two strong sproat or o'shaughnessy hooks, and wind the lower hook on with strong, waxed silk, to the end of the taper; then lay the second hook at right angles with the first, and one inch above it; wind this as the other, and then fasten a third and smaller hook above that for a lip hook. this gives the snell about one foot in length, with the two lower hooks standing at right angles, one above the other, and a third and smaller hook in line with the second. [pg 42]
the bait is the element of success; it is made as follows: slice off a clean, white pork rind, four or five inches long by an inch and a half wide; lay it on a board, and, with a sharp knife cut it as nearly to the shape of a frog as your ingenuity permits. prick a slight gash in the head to admit the lip hook, which should be an inch and a half above the second one, and see that the fork of the bait rests securely in the barb of the middle hook.
use a stout bait-rod and a strong line. fish from a boat, with a second man to handle the oars, if convenient. let the oarsman lay the boat ten feet inside the edge of the lily-pads, and make your cast, say, with thirty feet of line; land the bait neatly to the right, at the edge of the lily-pads, let it sink a few inches, and then with the tip well lowered, bring the bait around on a slight curve by a quick succession of draws, with a momentary pause between each; the object being to imitate as nearly as possible a swimming frog. if this be neatly done, and if the bait be made as it should be, at every short halt the legs will spread naturally, and the imitation is perfect enough to deceive the most experienced bass or pickerel. when half a dozen casts to right and left have been made without success, it is best to move on, still keeping inside and casting outside the lily-pads.
a pickerel of three pounds or more will take in all three hooks at the first snap; and, as he closes his mouth tightly and starts for the bottom, strike quickly, but not too hard, and let the boatman put you out into deep water at once, where you are safe from the strong roots of the yellow lily.
it is logically certain your fish is well hooked. you cannot pull two strong, sharp hooks through that tightly closed mouth without fastening at least one of them where it will do most good. oftener both will catch, and it frequently happens that one hook will catch each lip, holding the mouth nearly closed, and shortening the struggles of a large fish very materially. on taking off a fish, and before casting again, see that the two lower hooks stand at right angles. if they have got turned in the struggle you can turn them at any angle you like; the twisted wire is stiff enough to hold them in place. every angler knows the bold, determined manner in which the mascalonge strikes his prey. he will take in bait and hooks at the first dash, and if the rod be held stiffly usually hooks himself. barring large trout, he is the king of [pg 43] game fish. the big-mouthed bass is less savage in his attacks, but is a free biter. he is apt to come up behind and seize the bait about two-thirds of its length, turn, and bore down for the bottom. he will mostly take in the lower hooks, however, and is certain to get fastened. his large mouth is excellent for retaining the hook.
as for the small-mouthed (micropterus dolomieu, if you want to be scientific), i have found him more capricious than any game fish on the list. one day he will take only dobsons, or crawfish; the next, he may prefer minnows, and again, he will rise to the fly or a bucktail spinner.
on the whole, i have found the pork frog the most successful lure in his case; but the hooks and bait must be arranged differently. three strands of fine wire will make a snell strong enough, and the hooks should be strong, sharp and rather small, the lower hooks placed only half an inch apart, and a small lip hook two and a quarter inches above the middle one. as the fork of the bait will not reach the bend of the middle hook, it must be fastened to the snell by a few stitches taken with stout thread, and the lower end of the bait should not reach more than a quarter of an inch beyond the bottom of the hook, because the small-mouth has a villainous trick of giving his prey a stern chase, nipping constantly and viciously at the tail, and the above arrangement will be apt to hook him at the first snap. owing to this trait, some artificial minnows with one or two hooks at the caudal end, are very killing—when he will take them.
lake trout
lake, or salmon trout, may be trolled for successfully with the above lure; but i do not much affect fishing for them. excellent sport may be had with them, however, early in the season, when they are working near the shore, but they soon retire to water from fifty to seventy feet deep, and can only be caught by deep trolling or buoy-fishing. i have no fancy for sitting in a slow-moving boat for hours, dragging three or four hundred feet of line in deep water, a four-pound sinker tied by six feet of lighter line some twenty feet above the hooks. the sinker is supposed to go bumping along the bottom, while the bait follows three or four feet above it. the drag of the line and the constant joggling of the sinker on rocks and snags, make it difficult to tell when one has a strike—and it is always too long between bites. [pg 44]
sitting for hours at a baited buoy with a hand-line, and without taking a fish, is still worse, as more than once i have been compelled to acknowledge in very weariness of soul. there are enthusiastic anglers, however, whose specialty is trolling for lake trout. a gentleman by the name of thatcher, who has a fine residence on raquette lake—which he calls a camp—makes this his leading sport, and keeps a log of his fishing, putting nothing on record of less than ten pounds weight. his largest fish was booked at twenty-eight pounds, and he added that a well-conditioned salmon trout was superior to a brook trout on the table; in which i quite agree with him. but he seemed quite disgusted when i ventured to suggest that a well-conditioned cattie or bullhead, caught in the same waters—was better than either.
"do you call the cattie a game fish?" he asked.
yes; i call any fish a game fish that is taken for sport with hook and line. i can no more explain the common prejudice against the catfish and eel than i can tell why an experienced angler should drag a gang of thirteen hooks through the water—ten of them being worse than superfluous. "frank forester" gives five hooks as the number for a trolling gang. we mostly use hooks too small, and do not look after points and barbs closely enough. a pair of no. 1 o'shaughnessy, or 1? sproat, or five tapered blackfish hooks, will make a killing rig for small-mouthed bass using no. 4 sproat for lip hook. larger hooks are better for the big-mouthed, a four-pound specimen of which will easily take in one's fist. a pair of 5-0 o'shaughnessy's, or sproat's will be found none too large; and as for the mascalonge and pickerel, if i must err, let it be on the side of large hooks and strong lines.
stout tackle
it is idle to talk of playing the fish in water where the giving of a few yards insures a hopeless tangle among roots, tree-tops, etc. i was once fishing in western waters where the pickerel ran very large, and i used a pair of the largest salmon hooks with tackle strong enough to hold a fish of fifteen pounds, without any playing; notwithstanding which, i had five trains of three hooks each taken off in as many days by monster pickerel. an expert mascalonge fisherman—davis by name—happened to take board at the farm house where i was staying, and he had a notion that he could "beat some of them big fellows;" and he [pg 45] did it; with three large cod hooks, a bit of fine, strong chain, twelve yards of cod-line, an eighteen-foot tamarack pole, and a twelve inch sucker for bait. i thought it the most outlandish rig i had ever seen, but went with him in the early gray of the morning to see it tried, just where i had lost my hooks and fish.
raising the heavy bait in the air, he would give it a whirl to gather headway, and launch it forty feet away with a splash that might have been heard thirty rods. it looked more likely to scare than catch, but was a success. at the third or fourth cast we plainly saw a huge pickerel rise, shut his immense mouth over bait, hooks, and a few inches of chain, turn lazily, and head for the bottom, where mr. d. let him rest a minute, and then struck steadily but strongly. the subsequent struggle depended largely on main strength, though there was a good deal of skill and cool judgment shown in the handling and landing of the fish. a pickerel of forty pounds or more is not to be snatched out of the water on his first mad rush; something must be yielded—and with no reel there is little chance of giving line. it struck me my friend managed his fish remarkably well, towing him back and forth with a strong pull, never giving him a rest and finally sliding him out on a low muddy bank, as though he were a smooth log. we took him up to the house and tested the size of his mouth by putting a quart cup in it, which went in easily. then we weighed him, and he turned the scales at forty-four pounds. it was some consolation to find three of my hooks sticking in his mouth. lastly, we had a large section of him stuffed and baked. it was good; but a ten-pound fish would have been better. the moral of all this—if it has any moral—is, use hooks according to the size of fish you expect to catch.
and, when you are in a permanent camp, and fishing is very poor, try frogging. it is not a sport of a high order, though it may be called angling—and it can be made amusing, with hook and line. i have seen educated ladies in the wilderness, fishing for frogs with an eagerness and enthusiasm not surpassed by the most devoted angler with his favorite cast of flies.
there are several modes of taking the festive batrachian. he is speared with a frog-spear; caught under the chin with snatch-hooks; taken with hook and line, or picked up from a canoe with the aid of a headlight, [pg 46] or jack-lamp. the two latter modes are best.
to take him with hook and line: a light rod, six to eight feet of line, a snell of single gut with a 1-0 sproat or o'shaughnessy hook, and a bit of bright scarlet flannel for bait; this is the rig. to use it, paddle up behind him silently, and drop the rag just in front of his nose. he is pretty certain to take it on the instant. knock him on the head before cutting off his legs. it is unpleasant to see him squirm, and hear him cry like a child while you are sawing at his thigh joints.
by far the most effective manner of frogging is by the headlight on dark nights. to do this most successfully, one man in a light canoe, a good headlight and a light, one-handed paddle, are the requirements. the frog is easily located, either by his croaking, or by his peculiar shape. paddle up to him silently and throw the light in his eyes; you may then pick him up as you would a potato. i have known a north woods guide to pick up a five-quart pail of frogs in an hour, on a dark evening. on the table, frogs' legs are usually conceded first place for delicacy and flavor. for an appetizing breakfast in camp, they have no equal, in my judgment. the high price they bring at the best hotels, and their growing scarcity, attest the value placed on them by men who know how and what to eat. and, not many years ago, an old pork-gobbling backwoodsman threw his frying-pan into the river because i had cooked frogs' legs in it. while another, equally intelligent, refused to use my frying-pan, because i had cooked eels in it; remarking sententiously, "eels is snakes, an' i know it."
it may be well, just here and now, to say a word on the importance of the headlight. i know of no more pleasant and satisfactory adjunct of a camp than a good light that can be adjusted to the head, used as a jack in floating, carried in the hand, or fastened up inside the shanty. once fairly tried, it will never be ignored or forgotten. not that it will show a deer's head seventeen rods distant with sufficient clearness for a shot—or your sights with distinctness enough to make it. (see murray's adirondacks, page 174.)
a headlight that will show a deer plainly at six rods, while lighting the sights of a rifle with clearness, is an exceptionally good light. [pg 47] more deer are killed in floating under than over four rods. there are various styles of headlights, jack-lamps, etc., in use. they are bright, easily adjusted, and will show rifle sights, or a deer, up to 100 feet—which is enough. they are also convenient in camp, and better than a lantern on a dim forest path.
before leaving the subject of bait-fishing, i have a point or two i wish to make. i have attempted to explain the frog-bait, and the manner of using it, and i shall probably never have occasion to change my belief that it is, on the whole, the most killing lure for the entire tribes of bass and pickerel. there is however, another, which, if properly handled, is almost as good. it is as follows:
take a bass, pickerel, or yellow perch, of one pound or less; scrape the scales clean on the under side from the caudal fin to a point just forward of the vent.
swivels and snells
next, with a sharp knife, cut up toward the backbone, commencing just behind the vent with a slant toward the tail. run the knife smoothly along just under the backbone, and out through the caudal fin, taking about one-third of the latter, and making a clean, white bait, with the anal and part of the caudal by way of fins. it looks very like a white minnow in the water; but is better, in that it is more showy, and infinitely tougher. a minnow soon drags to pieces. to use it, two strong hooks are tied on a wire snell at right angles, the upper one an inch above the lower, and the upper hook is passed through the bait, leaving it to draw without turning or spinning. the casting and handling is the same as with the frog-bait, and is very killing for bass, pickerel, and mascalonge. it is a good lure for salmon trout also; but, for him it was found better to fasten the bait with the lower hook in a way to give it a spinning motion; and this necessitates the use of a swivel, which i do not like; because, "a rope is as strong as its weakest part"; and i have more than once found that weakest part the swivel. if, however, a swivel has been tested by a dead lift of twenty to twenty-five pounds, it will do to trust.
i have spoken only of brass or copper wire for snells, and for pickerel or mascalonge of large size nothing else is to be depended on. but for trout and bass, strong gut or gimp is safe enough. the possibilities as to size of the mascalonge and northern pickerel no man knows. frank [pg 48] forester thinks it probable that the former attains to the weight of sixty to eighty pounds, while he only accords the pickerel a weight of seventeen to eighteen pounds. i have seen several pickerel of over forty pounds, and one that turned the scale at fifty-three. and i saw a mascalonge on georgian bay that was longer than the canuck guide who was toting the fish over his shoulder by a stick thrust in the mouth and gills. the snout reached to the top of the guide's head, while the caudal fin dragged on the ground. there was no chance for weighing the fish, but i hefted him several times, carefully, and am certain he weighed more than a bushel of wheat. just what tackle would be proper for such a powerful fellow i am not prepared to say, having lost the largest specimens i ever hooked. my best mascalonge weighed less than twenty pounds. my largest pickerel still less.
i will close this discursive chapter by offering a bit of advice. do not go into the woods on a fishing tour without a stock of well cleansed angle-worms. keep them in a tin can partly filled with damp moss, and in a cool moist place. there is no one variety of bait that the angler finds so constantly useful as the worm. izaak walton by no means despised worm or bait-fishing.
