Chapter I: Part 1

Transcriber's note:

Italics is represented with _underscore_, small caps with ALL CAPS..

A list of corrections made can be found at the end of the text.

FAVORITE FISH AND FISHING

_Frontispiece._ (_See page 43._)]

FAVORITE FISH
AND FISHING

BY
JAMES A. HENSHALL, M.D.

Author of "Book of the Black Bass," "Camping and Cruising in
Florida," "Ye Gods and Little Fishes," "Bass,
Pike, Perch and Others."

"_And yf the angler take fysshe: surely thenne is there
noo man merier than he is in his spyryte._"

--Dame Juliana Berners.

NEW YORK
THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY
MCMVIII

Copyright, 1908, by
THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England
_All Rights Reserved_

To
THE MEMORY
of
JUDGE NICHOLAS LONGWORTH

My Friend and Companion
On Many Outings by
FLOOD AND FIELD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is based on articles originally published in _The Outing Magazine_, _Country Life in America_, _Shooting and Fishing_, _London Fishing Gazette_ and _The American Fishculturist_. My thanks and acknowledgments are hereby tendered to the publishers of those journals for permission to embody the articles in book form. For this purpose they have been added to, amplified and extended. For the illustrations of fishes I am indebted to the United States Bureau of Fisheries, Mr. Sherman F. Denton and Dr. Frank M. Johnson.

JAMES ALEXANDER HENSHALL.
BOZEMAN, Montana.

CONTENTS

PAGE

THE BLACK BASS: THE GAME-FISH OF THE PEOPLE 3
THE GRAYLING: THE FLOWER OF FISHES 43
THE TROUT: THE ANGLER'S PRIDE 65
HIS MAJESTY: THE SILVER KING 121
FLORIDA FISH AND FISHING 141

ILLUSTRATIONS

Grayling Fishing on West Fork of Madison River,
Montana _Frontispiece_

FACING
PAGE

Black Bass Returning to Water After Leaping 4
Large Mouth Black Bass 8
Small Mouth Black Bass 12
Black Bass Returning to Water After Leap 32
Michigan Grayling 46
Arctic Grayling 50
Montana Grayling 54
English Grayling 60
Brook Trout 66
Red Throat, or Cut-Throat Trout 72
Steelhead Trout 80
Rainbow Trout 88
Dolly Varden Trout 94
Brown Trout 100
Golden Trout of Volcano Creek 106
Sunapee Trout 114
Tarpon 128
Sheepshead 142
Cavalla 144
Sea Trout 146
Spanish Mackerel 148
Kingfish 150
Cero 150
Redfish; Channel Bass 154
Red Grouper 156
Mangrove Snapper 158
Ten Pounder 160
Ladyfish 160
Snook; Rovallia 164
Jewfish 166
Shark Sucker 168
Enlarged View of Sucking Disk 168
Florida Barracuda 172
Northern Barracuda 172
Manatee 176
Devil Fish 178

THE BLACK BASS: THE GAME FISH OF THE PEOPLE

Favorite Fish & Fishing

THE BLACK BASS: THE GAME FISH OF THE PEOPLE

[Sidenote: Parlous Times in Angling]

These be parlous times in angling. When William King, in the seventeenth century, with as much prophecy as humor, wrote:

"His hook he baited with a dragon's tail
And sat upon a rock and bobbed for whale,"

he builded better than he knew. And if Job had lived in the twentieth century, the query: "Canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook?" would be answered in the affirmative; also, it would be demonstrated that "He maketh the deep to boil like a pot," at Fort Myers and Catalina.

The shades of Walton and Cotton, of Sir Humphrey Davy and "Christopher North," and of our own Dr. Bethune and Thaddeus Norris, could they "revisit the glimpses of the moon," would view with wonder and silent sorrow the tendency of many anglers of the present day toward strenuosity, abandoning the verdure-clad stream, with its warbling birds and fragrant blossoms, for the hissing steam launch and vile-smelling motor boat in pursuit of leaping tuna and silver king. It goes without saying, however, that considered as a sport, fishing for these jumbos is highly exciting and capable of infusing unbounded enthusiasm, but it can hardly be called angling.

[Sidenote: The Ethics of Sport]

In the ethics of sport it may be questioned if there is not more real pleasure, and at the same time a manifestation of a higher plane of sportsmanship, in the pursuit of woodcock, snipe, quail or grouse with well-trained bird-dogs, than in still-hunting moose, elk or deer. In the former case the bird is flushed and given a chance for life, while in the latter case the quarry is killed "as an ox goeth to the slaughter."

So in fishing a like comparison is possible--fly-fishing for salmon, black bass, trout, or grayling as against fishing for tarpon and tuna, which are worthless when killed except as food for sharks. In the first case the angler's skill, and his knowledge of its habits, are pitted against the wiles of the fish, with but a weak and slender snell of silkworm fiber between its capture or escape, while in the case of the leviathans mentioned, they are handicapped by being hooked in the gullet, and by towing a boat in their struggle for freedom. But comparisons are always odious. While the choice between the "gentle" art and strenuous fishing is certainly a question of taste, it may depend somewhat on the length of one's purse.

[Sidenote: Black Bass Fishing]

Black-bass fishing! These are words to conjure with. What pleasurable emotions they call up! To the superannuated angler the words are fraught with retrospective reflections of the keenest enjoyment, while they cause the soul of the new hand to become obsessed with pleasures yet to come--pleasures rendered brighter by the rosy tint of anticipation.

[Sidenote: The Love of Angling]

With the first blossoms of spring the thoughts of many men, both old and young, turn lightly to love--the love of angling. And as the leaves unfold, and the birds begin their wooing, and the streams become clear, the premonitory symptoms of the affection are manifested in a rummaging of drawers and lockers for fly-books and tackle boxes, and the critical examination of rods and reels, and in the testing of lines and leaders. These preliminaries are the inevitable harbingers of the advent of the angling season, when black bass are leaping gayly from the waters after their enforced hibernation in the gloom and seclusion of the deep pools.

And when the encroachment of age or rheumatism forbids wading the stream, one can still sit in a boat on a quiet lake and enjoy to the full the delight and fascination of "bass fishing." What farmer's boy in the Middle West does not look forward to a Saturday when the ground is too wet to plow or plant, when he can repair to the creek or pond with his rude tackle and realize his fond dreams of fishing for black bass! And when such a day arrives, as it is sure to do, how he hurries through the chores, and with what sanguine hope he digs for angle-worms in the garden, or nets crawfish or minnows in the brook, each one good for at least one "sockdolager" of a bass. For it sometimes happens that a bass will take a wriggling earth-worm or a "soft craw" when it will not deign to notice the choicest minnow or the most cunningly devised artificial fly.

[Sidenote: Youthful Ambition]

And the country lad always knows just where an old "whopper" of a bronze-back black bass has his lair beneath the roots of a big tree, or under the ledge of a moss-grown rock. To do future battle with such an one has engrossed his thoughts by day and his dreams by night, ever since the Christmas tree for him bore such fruit as a linen line, a red and green float and a dozen fishhooks.

[Sidenote: "A Riband in the Cap of Youth"]

The triumphal march of a Roman warrior, with captives chained to his chariot wheels, entering the gates of the Eternal City with a blare of trumpets and the applause of the multitude, was an event to fill his soul with just pride--but it descends to the level of vainglory and mediocrity when compared with the swelling heart of the lad as he enters the farmhouse kitchen with two or three old "lunkers" of black bass strung on a willow withe. Many times during his homeward march had he halted to admire the scale armor and spiny crests of his captive knights!

Large Mouth Black Bass. (_Micropterus salmoides._)]

And then to an appreciative audience he relates, in a graphic manner, how this one seized a minnow, and that one a crawfish, and the other one a hellgramite--and how often each one leaped from the water, and how high it jumped--and how the "ellum" rod bent and twisted as the large one tried to regain the hole under the big rock--and how the good line cut the water in curving reaches and straight lines as another one forged toward the sunken roots of the old sycamore. And then came the climax, as, with pride and regret struggling for mastery, and "suiting the action to the word and the word to the action," he tells again the old, old story of how the biggest of all, a regular "snolligoster," shook out the hook and got away!

In the years to come, will that lad exult over the capture of a mighty tuna or giant tarpon with as much genuine joy and enthusiasm as over that string of bass? Well, hardly. And as the boy is father to the man, and as we are all but children of larger growth, the black-bass angler never outlives that love and enthusiasm of his younger days--younger only as reckoned by the lapse of years.

[Sidenote: In Olden Time]

Although the black bass, as a game fish, has come into his own only during the last two or three decades, black-bass fishing is older than the Federal Union. The quaint old naturalist, William Bartram, the "grandfather of American ornithology," in 1764, described, minutely, "bobbing" for black bass in Florida, there, as in all the Southern States, called "trout"--a name bestowed by the English colonists owing to its gameness. While black-bass fishing is comparatively a recent sport in the Eastern States, it was practiced in Kentucky, Tennessee and southern Ohio before the end of the eighteenth century. In 1805 George Snyder, the inventor of the Kentucky reel, was president of the Bourbon County Angling Club at Paris, Kentucky. Fly-fishing was practiced as early as 1840 on the Elkhorn and Kentucky rivers by Mr. J. L. Sage and others. His click reel, made by himself, is now in my possession; and George Snyder's own reel, made in 1810, a small brass multiplying reel running on garnet jewels, is still in the possession of his grandson at Louisville.

[Sidenote: Appearance and Habits]

The black bass is now an acknowledged peer among game fishes, and taking him by and large excels them all, weight for weight. The generic term black bass, as here used, includes both the large-mouth bass and the small-mouth bass. The two species are as much alike as two peas in a pod, the most striking difference between them being that one has a larger mouth and larger scales than the other. When subject to the same conditions and environment, they are equal in game qualities. The habits of the two species are similar, though the large-mouth bass is more at home in ponds and weedy waters than the small-mouth bass, which prefers running streams and clear lakes. Their natural food is crawfish, for which their wide mouths and brush-like teeth are well adapted, though they do not object to an occasional minnow or small frog.

[Sidenote: Now and Then]

Owing to the wide distribution of black bass, fishing for it is universal. It is no less enjoyed by the rustic youth with peeled sapling rod and crawfish bait than by the artistic angler with slender wand and fairy-like flies. While black-bass fishing was known and practiced in the Ohio Valley from the earliest years of the nineteenth century, as just stated, our angling books for three-fourths of the century contained but little, if anything, about the black bass, as they were mostly compilations from English authors. The only exception were the books of Robert B. Roosevelt, an uncle of the President, who fished for black bass in Canada about 1860. At the present day there are more articles of fishing tackle made especially for black bass than for all other game fishes combined. This is proof that it is the most popular and, all things considered, the best game fish of America.

[Sidenote: The Charm of Angling]

Salmon fishing, the grandest sport in the curriculum of angling, is now an expensive luxury. There is but little free water readily accessible, for all the best pools are in the possession of wealthy clubs. The bold leap of the salmon, when hooked, the exciting play of the fish on the rod, and the successful gaffing, are as so many stanzas of an epic poem. Trout fishing is a summer idyl. The angler wades the merry stream while the leaves whisper and rustle overhead, the birds chirp and sing, the insects drone and hum, the cool breeze fans his cheek, as he casts his feathery lures, hither and yon, in eager expectation of a rise.

Black-bass fishing combines, in a measure, the heroic potentialities of salmon fishing with the charms of trout fishing. The leap of the bass is no less exciting than that of the salmon, and is oftener repeated, while in stream fishing the pastoral features of trout fishing are experienced and enjoyed.

[Sidenote: The Leap of Fishes]

The leap of a hooked fish is always an exciting episode to the angler with red blood in his veins--exciting because as an offset to its probable capture there is the very possible contingency of its escape by throwing out the hook, or by breaking away. So with each leap of the bass the hopes and fears of the angler are constantly exercised, while his pulses quicken and his enthusiasm is aroused. Game fishes often leap a few inches above the surface in play, or to catch a low-flying insect; but when hooked they vault to a height commensurate with their agility and muscular ability. They do not leap so high, however, as is commonly supposed.

[Sidenote: Vaulting Ambition]

A tarpon will leap six feet high, but the cero, or Florida kingfish, will leap higher, for it is the greatest vaulter of them all. The ladyfish executes a series of short, whirling leaps that puzzle the eye to follow--it is the gamest fish for its size in salt water. The leap of the flying-fish is sustained for a long distance by its wing-like pectoral fins, on the principle of the aëroplane, though its sole motive power is probably derived from its tail before leaving the water. The salt-water mullet is an expert jumper, leaping often in play, but when pursued by an enemy its leaps are higher and longer than would be expected from its size. The brook trout, pike, and mascalonge seldom leap when hooked, though the steelhead trout and grayling both leap nearly as often as the black bass in their efforts to dislodge the hook. The leap of the salmon is a long, graceful curve, as it heads up stream. Once, while playing my first salmon, on the Restigouche, many years ago, my taut line was leading straight down the stream, when I caught sight of a salmon over my shoulder and above me, leaping from the surface, which, to my surprise, proved to be my hooked fish--the line making a long detour in the swift water.

[Sidenote: Leap of the Black Bass]

I have heard many anglers declare that a black bass could leap five feet high, when as a matter of fact they leap but a few inches, usually, and occasionally one, or at most three feet, though I think two feet nearer the limit. By an examination of Mr. A. Radcliffe Dugmore's photograph, reproduced herewith, it will readily be seen that the leaps are not very high ones. A black bass is in the air but a second or two, and to catch him in the act as Mr. Dugmore has done must be considered a wonderful achievement. The picture shows the bass returning to the water, with either the head or the shoulders at, or beneath, the surface, while the displaced water at his point of emergence still shows plainly--standing up, as it were. This proves that the bass regains the surface as soon as the displaced water, or rather before the upheaved water finds its level, which could not be the case were the leaps three or four feet high.

[Sidenote: Why the Bass Leaps]

Why does a hooked bass leap from the water? This question is sometimes raised, though the answer is plain. He leaps into the air to endeavor to dislodge the hook; this he tries to do by violently shaking his body, with widely extended jaws. He does not "shake his head," as is often said, for having no flexible neck, his head can only be thrown from side to side by the violent contortions of his body, often using the water as a fulcrum, when he appears to be standing on his tail. A dog or a cat will shake its head vigorously to eject some offending substance from the mouth, and a bass does the same thing; but as he cannot shake his body to the extent required beneath the surface, owing to the resistance of the water, he leaps above it. And if he succeeds in throwing out the hook he disappears beneath the surface and is seen no more; his object in leaping has been accomplished.

Usually, it is only surface-feeding fishes that leap when hooked. Bottom-feeding fishes bore toward the bottom or struggle in mid-water. Every fish has its characteristic way of resisting capture, but any fish is more easily subdued if kept on the surface by the skill of the angler and the use of good and trustworthy tackle.

[Sidenote: Their Way with a Bait]

The manner of taking a bait also varies considerably with different fishes; and the character of their teeth is a good guide to what they feed on. For instance, the cunner and sheepshead are expert bait stealers. With their incisor teeth their habit is to pinch off barnacles and other mollusks from their attachment to rocks and old timbers, and so they nip off the clam or crab bait from the hook with but little disturbance. A trout takes a fly or bait with a vigorous snap, without investigation as to its nature, and a black bass does much the same, giving immediate and unmistakable notice to the angler that there is "something doing."

[Sidenote: Breeding Habits]

The black bass is one of the few fishes that protects its eggs and young. It forms its nest on gravelly or rocky shoals or shallows, usually, but when such situations are not available, clay or mud bottom, or the roots of aquatic plants are utilized, especially by the large-mouth bass. During incubation the eggs are guarded and tended by the parent fish, and hatch in ten days or two weeks, the fry remaining on the nest, guarded by the male fish, for several days, when they disperse to find suitable hiding places, feeding on minute organisms that abound in all natural waters.

[Sidenote: Spawning Season]

The spawning season of the black bass varies considerably, owing to its extensive range and consequent variation in the temperature of waters. In Florida and the extreme South it is as early as March or April, in the Middle West in May or June, and at the northern limit of its distribution as late as July. Owing to this variation, laws to protect the species during the breeding season must vary accordingly. As the brooding fish are easily taken from their nests with snare, jig or spear, the laws for their protection should be rigidly enforced, otherwise a pond or small lake might soon be depleted where the poacher is much in evidence.

[Sidenote: Size and Weight]

The large-mouth bass grows to a maximum weight of six to eight pounds in Northern waters, where it hibernates, but in Florida and the Gulf States, where it is active all the year, it grows much larger, in Florida to twenty pounds in rare cases. The small-mouth bass has a maximum weight of five or six pounds, though several have been recorded of fully ten pounds, from a lake near Glens Falls, N. Y. As usual with most other game fishes, the largest bass, as a rule, are taken with bait. For instance, the heaviest I ever took in Florida on the artificial fly weighed fourteen pounds, and with bait, twenty pounds. In Northern waters the heaviest catch with the fly, of small-mouth bass, seldom exceeds three pounds--usually from one to two pounds, and for large-mouth bass a pound or two more, while with bait larger fish of both species may be taken.

[Sidenote: Season for Fishing]

Owing to the variable conditions mentioned the season for black-bass fishing varies likewise in different sections of the country. Thus, both bait- and fly-fishing are practiced in Florida during winter. In the Middle West--Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, etc.--bait-fishing is available in the early spring, and fly-fishing as well as bait-fishing in mid-summer and fall. In the Northern States and Canada both bait- and fly-fishing are at their best during late summer and the fall months.

[Sidenote: Distribution]

The original habitats of the black bass, either of one or both species, were the hydrographic basins of the St. Lawrence, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Only the large-mouth existed in the seaboard streams of the South Atlantic and Gulf States. By transplantation the black bass is now a resident of every state in the Union. It will thrive in any water the temperature of which runs up to sixty-five degrees or more in summer. It is one of the best fishes to introduce to new waters where the proper conditions exist, but should never, for obvious reasons, be planted in the same waters with any species of trout.

[Sidenote: Increase in New Waters]

As instances of new waters in which its increase was rapid, the Delaware, Susquehanna and Potomac Rivers may be mentioned. In 1854 thirty small-mouth bass, about six inches long, were taken from a creek near Wheeling, W. Va., and placed in the Potomac near Cumberland, Md. From this small plant the entire river above the Great Falls, and all its tributaries, became well stocked, and has afforded fine fishing for years.

[Sidenote: Commercial Fishing]

In former years the black bass was quite an important commercial fish in the Middle West, but since the enactment of laws prohibiting seining and net-fishing of streams it is not often seen in the markets, and then it is mostly from private ponds. In the States of Washington and Utah, however, where it was planted in some rather large lakes years ago, the markets are pretty well supplied with this delicious fish, for, barring the lake whitefish, it is the best food-fish of fresh waters. Owing to the well known improvidence of market fishermen it would be well to prohibit its sale entirely in all sections of the country when taken from public waters.

[Sidenote: Propagation]

Owing to the desirability of the black bass for stocking waters, the demand for both private and public streams and ponds is far in excess of the supply. Undoubtedly the best plan for stocking is that of planting adult fish, as already alluded to. But owing to the difficulty of obtaining adult fish, the energies of fish culturists have for years been directed to a solution of the question of supply. So far, however, their efforts have been but partially successful.

[Sidenote: Character of Eggs]

The eggs of the salmon, trout, grayling, shad, whitefish, etc., can be stripped from the fish, can be separated and manipulated as easily as so much shot, and made to respond readily to fish-cultural methods. But the eggs of the black bass are enveloped in a gelatinous mass that precludes stripping, and their separation is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Consequently any attempt at their incubation by the usual hatchery methods would prove futile.

[Sidenote: Pond Culture]

The only feasible and successful plan is that of pond culture. Of this there are several methods. One either allows the bass to proceed with their parental cares in a natural manner; or early separates the parent fish from the young fry, which are then fed and reared to the desired age for planting. The United States Bureau of Fisheries and several of the individual states pursue this plan, and supply the fry to applicants free of charge.

[Sidenote: Millions Saved]

There are certain bayous and depressions along the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and other streams in that section which are overflowed during high water. When the water recedes many black bass and other fishes are left in the bayous, which would eventually perish upon the drying up of the water. It is the practice of the National and several state fish commissions to seine out the fish and transfer them to suitable waters, or to applicants, free of expense. In this way many waters are stocked and millions of fish saved that would otherwise perish.

[Sidenote: Fly Fishing]

The black bass rises to the artificial fly as readily as the trout or grayling, if fished for intelligently. The trout takes the fly at or near the surface, while it should be allowed to sink a few inches at nearly every cast for black bass, the same as for grayling. As to flies, any of the hackles, brown, black or gray, are enticing to bass, and such winged flies as Montreal, polka, professor, coachman, silver doctor and a dozen others are very taking on most waters. The most important rules for fly-fishing, or casting the minnow, are to cast a straight line, keep it taut, and to strike on sight or touch of the fish; that is when the swirl is seen near the fly, or when the fish is felt. Striking is simply a slight turning of the rod hand while keeping the line very taut. But more important than all other rules is to keep out of sight of the fish. The flies should be lightly cast, and by slight tremulous motions made to simulate the struggles of a live insect, and then allowed to sink a few inches or a foot. From five o'clock in the afternoon until dusk is usually the best time for fly-fishing.

[Sidenote: Bait Fishing]

The best natural bait is the minnow--a shiner, chub, or the young of almost any fish, which is well adapted for either casting, trolling or still-fishing. In waters where it abounds the crawfish is a good bait, especially the shedders or soft craws, to be used only for still-fishing. The hellgramite, the larva of the corydalis fly, in its native waters, is also successful for still-fishing. A small frog is a capital bait on weedy waters, where it is usually cast overhead with a very short and stiff rod. Grasshoppers and crickets are sometimes employed with a fly-rod in lieu of artificial flies, and with good results. The salt-water shrimp, where it is available, near the coasts, is also a good bait for still-fishing. Cut-bait is also sometimes useful.

[Sidenote: Artificial Bait]

In the absence of natural bait a spoon or spinner, with a single hook--and more than one should not be used by the humane angler--is well adapted for casting or trolling. It should be remembered that all baits, of whatever kind, should be kept in motion. A dead minnow answers as well as a live one for casting or trolling, but should be alive for still-fishing. With crawfish, worms, shrimps or hellgramites a float should be employed to keep them from touching the bottom.

[Sidenote: Bait-Casting]

In casting the minnow it should be hooked through the lips, and reeled in slowly after each cast to imitate the motions of a live one as much as possible. A spoon or spinner should be reeled in much faster in order to cause it to revolve freely. The most effective way of casting, either with minnow or spoon, is by the underhand method; nearly as long, and more delicate casts can be made as by the overhead cast with short, stiff rod. The mechanics of fly- or bait-casting can hardly be expressed in words or explained without diagrams or cuts. The best plan for beginners is to accompany an old hand to the stream and witness the practical demonstration of the art.

[Sidenote: Fishing Rods]

A trout fly-rod answers just as well for black bass, with a weight of from five to eight ounces, according to the material and plan of construction, and whether employed by an expert or a tyro. The rod for minnow casting, or indeed for any method of bait-fishing, should be from eight to eight and a half feet long and from seven to eight ounces in weight, as larger fish are taken with bait. For casting the frog in weedy waters a short, stiff rod of five or six feet is used by many. A few words in reference to the origin of this short rod may not be amiss, especially as I wish to make it a matter of record.

[Sidenote: The Short Bait-Casting Rod]

At the time of the Chicago Fair, in 1893, my old friend, James M. Clark, a good angler, was superintendent of the fishing-tackle department of a large sporting goods house in that city. He informed me that he had devised a rod especially intended for casting a frog for black bass and pike on certain weedy waters not far from Chicago.

The said rod was made by reducing the regular eight-and-one-fourth-foot Henshall rod to six feet, and it soon became popular on the waters mentioned, for by casting overhead, instead of underhand, more accurate line shots could be made into the small open spaces. As the weedy character of the waters rendered the proper playing of a bass difficult or ineffectual, the short, stiff rod proved itself capable of rapidly reeling in the fish, willy nilly. Of course the pleasure of playing a fish in a workmanlike manner, as in open water, would be lost, to say nothing of denying the fish a chance for its life by depriving it of a fair field and no favor--the only sportsmanlike way.

[Sidenote: Casting Baits]

Eventually the short rod and overhead cast became popular at casting tournaments, where it was also demonstrated that by reducing its length to five and even four feet longer casts were possible. Unfortunately the use of this very short and stiff rod was extended to practical fishing, and with its use was evolved a number of casting baits that out-herod anything yet produced in the way of objectionable artificial baits. They are huge, clumsy creations of wood or metal, of an elliptical form or otherwise, and bristle with from three to five triangles of cheap hooks; they are painted in a fantastic manner, and most of them are also equipped with wings or propellers.

[Sidenote: Twin Evils]

The extremely short tournament tool of five feet, called by courtesy a rod, when employed in angling, and the cruel and murderous casting baits with twelve to fifteen hooks, are, in my opinion, twin evils which should be tabooed by every fair-minded and humane angler. So far as the short rod itself is concerned, I have always commended its use for tournament work, but I do not favor it for open-water fishing, for reasons already given. This use of it is a matter for the consideration of those who choose to employ it. For myself, I have always found the eight-foot rod and horizontal, underhand cast equal to all emergencies of fishing for black bass, pike and mascalonge. In overhead casting the bait is started on its flight from a height of ten or twelve feet, and necessarily makes quite a splash when it strikes the water. On the other hand, with the horizontal cast the minnow is projected to the desired spot with very little disturbance.

[Sidenote: Lines and Hooks]

The only line that fulfills all requirements for fly-fishing as to weight and smoothness of finish is one of enameled, braided silk, either level or tapered. For casting the minnow the smallest size of braided, undressed silk is the only one to use with satisfaction. For trolling or still-fishing a larger size may be employed, or a flax line of the smallest caliber.

Among the many patterns of fishhooks the Sproat is the best and the O'Shaughnessy next, as being strong, well-tempered and reliable, and of practicable shape. The modern eyed-hooks, if of the best quality, can be used for both bait-fishing and fly-tying. Sizes of hooks for bait-fishing in Northern waters, Nos. 1 and 2; for Florida, Nos. 1-0 and 2-0; for artificial flies, Nos. 2 to 6.

[Sidenote: Leaders and Snells]

Leaders for fly-fishing and still-fishing should be four, or not more than six, feet long, of good, sound and uniformly round silkworm gut. A leader is not used in casting or trolling the minnow or spoon. Snells should likewise be made of the best silkworm fiber, three to four inches long for artificial flies, and not less than six inches for bait-fishing. It is no advantage to stain or tint leaders or snells, as they are more readily discerned by the fish than those of the natural hyaline color; and the more transparent, the less they show in the water.

[Sidenote: Fishing Reels]

And now as to reels. A light, single-action click reel is the best and most appropriate for fly-fishing, and may be either all metal or hard rubber and metal combined, the former being preferable. It can be utilized for still-fishing also, where long casting is not practiced. But for casting the minnow a multiplying reel of the finest quality is required, and the thumb must be educated to exert just the right amount of uniform pressure on the spool during the flight of the minnow, to prevent its backlashing and the resultant overrunning and snarling of the line. This can only be mastered by careful practice. As most fine multipliers are fitted with an adjustable click, it can be utilized also for fly-fishing, but it is rather heavy for the lightest fly-rods. While an automatic reel answers very well for trout fishing on small streams, its spring is too light to control the movements of a fish as large and gamesome as the black bass.

[Sidenote: Something More About Reels]

It may not be amiss, in this connection, to venture a few remarks on reels in general. Elsewhere I have made the statement that the most important office of a rod was in the management of the hooked fish, and not in casting the fly or bait. _Per contra_, the chief function of the multiplying reel is in casting the bait, and not in reeling in the fish. The office and intention of the gearing of the multiplying reel is to prolong and sustain the initial momentum of the cast, in order that the bait may be projected to a greater distance than is possible with any single-action reel. This is proven by the fact that there have been several devices invented whereby the handle, wheel and pinion of the reel are thrown out of gear to allow greater freedom to the revolving spool in casting. The theory looked feasible enough, but actual practice demonstrated that without the sustaining aid of the gears the momentum was soon lost, with the result that the bait could not be cast so far. All such devices have now been abandoned as utterly futile.

[Sidenote: The Reel in Use]

So far as the skillful management of a hooked fish is concerned, the multiplying reel is no better than the single-action click reel. For tarpon, tuna, and other very large fishes, where "pumping" is practiced on the hooked fish, the largest multiplying reel is of advantage in rapidly taking up the resultant slack line. And so far as "power" is concerned, in reeling in the fish on a strain, the single-action reel has the advantage, for the force applied to the crank acts directly on the shaft of the spool, while in the multiplying reel much of the force is lost by being distributed through the gears to the shaft.

[Sidenote: Position of Reel on Rod]

[Sidenote: The Reel on Top]

There is a tendency of late years, especially with the heavy rods for tuna and tarpon fishing, and also with the very short rod used in overhead casting for black bass, to place the reel on top with the handle to the right. While that plan is, in most cases, a matter of choice or habit, it is essentially wrong. Neither multiplying or click reels were intended to be used in that position, and because some anglers prefer to place them so is no argument that it is right.

[Sidenote: The Reel Underneath]

Placing the reel on the top of the rod, on a line with the guides, and grasping the rod loosely where it balances, the reel naturally, and in accordance with the law of gravitation, turns to the under side of the rod. No muscular effort is required to keep it there, as is the case where the reel is used on top, which with heavy reels is considerable. The reel and guides being on the under side when playing a fish, the strain is upon the guides, and is equally distributed along the entire rod, while with the reel guides on top the strain is almost entirely on the extreme tip of the rod, and the friction is much greater.

[Sidenote: The Right Way]

With the multiplying reel underneath and the handle to the right, the rod is held at nearly its balancing point, with the rod hand partly over the reel, with the index or middle finger, or both, just forward of the reel, to guide the line on the spool in reeling. The click reel being entirely behind the rod hand, and underneath, at the extreme butt, the rod can be grasped at its balancing point by the left hand, and the line reeled with the other.

[Sidenote: The Wrong Way]

Where the multiplying reel is placed on top, with the handle to the right, and the thumb used for guiding the line on the spool, there is a constant tendency of the reel to get to the under side, where it properly belongs. To overcome this wabbling of the reel, and to insure more steadiness, the butt of the rod is braced against the stomach by the reel-on-top anglers--certainly a most ungraceful and unbecoming thing to do with a light rod. With the tarpon or tuna rod, and with the reel either on top or underneath, a socket for the rod butt becomes necessary in playing a very heavy fish.

[Sidenote: Casting and Playing]

In casting from the reel with a light rod it is turned partly or entirely on top, with the right thumb on the spool. When the cast is made the rod is at once transferred to the left hand in the position for reeling in the line, with the index finger pressing it against the rod. The fish can be played with the left hand, leaving the right hand free to reel when necessary. Or in case a fish is unusually heavy and its resistance is great, the rod can be taken in the right hand, with the thumb on the spool to control the giving of line. When the opportunity occurs for reeling, the rod is again transferred to the left hand.

It is very much easier to use the reel underneath when one becomes accustomed to it, and it has been used in this way for centuries by the British angler. As the reel originated in England, it is to be presumed that the manufacturers and anglers of that country know its proper position on the rod.

[Sidenote: Trolling]

While fly-fishing and casting the minnow may be practiced wherever the black bass is found, on stream or lake, there are other methods of angling that depend somewhat on local conditions. Trolling with the minnow or trolling-spoon is sometimes practiced on lakes, as in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. There is no skill whatever required for trolling with handline and spoon, as the bass hooks himself, when hooked at all, and is simply dragged into the boat without ceremony. It is a method of fishing that would better be "honored in the breach, than the observance." And as the rod generally used for trolling is rather stiff and heavy, it does not require the skill and cleverness to play and land the fish that are demanded by the light and pliable rods employed in casting the fly or minnow.

[Sidenote: Other Methods]

Skittering with a pork-rind bait is practiced on some Eastern ponds, and casting the frog overhead with a very short rod is a method that originated with some Chicago anglers. Fishing with one or a group of hooks dressed with a portion of a deer's tail and a strip of red flannel, forming a kind of tassel and known as a "bob," is practiced in the Gulf States. A very long cane rod and a very short line comprise the rest of the equipment. The bob is danced on the surface in front of the boat in the weedy bayous, and is certainly effective in catching bass.

[Sidenote: Still-Fishing]

[Sidenote: Ad Infinitum]

Still-fishing from the bank or a boat may be practiced wherever bass are found. Any kind of rod is used, from a sapling to a split-bamboo, with almost any kind of line or hook, and natural bait of any kind may be employed, with or without a float. It is the primitive style of angling. I think the paradise of the still-fisher may be found on a Florida lake. Anchoring his boat near the shore, just outside of the fringe of pond-lilies and bonnets, he splits the stem of a water lily, takes from it a small worm that harbors there, impales it on his hook, and casts it in a bight amid the rank growth of vegetation, where it is soon taken by a minnow of some sort, which in turn is cast into the deeper water beyond the border of aquatic plants, on the other side of the boat, where a big bass is lying in wait for just such an opportunity. And so he proceeds, _ad infinitum_, casting on one side of the boat for his bait, and on the other side for his bass. "First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear."

THE GRAYLING: THE FLOWER OF FISHES

THE GRAYLING: THE FLOWER OF FISHES

St. Ambrose, the good Bishop of Milan, in a sermon to the fishes, apostrophized the grayling as the "flower of fishes," as being the most beautiful, fragrant and sweetest of all the finny tribe. The saintly bishop was quite right in his estimation of the graceful, gliding grayling. It possesses a refined beauty and delicacy that is seen in no other fish, and it well merits its appellation of the "lady of the streams."

[Sidenote: Dame Juliana Berners]

Dame Juliana Berners, prioress of the nunnery of Sopwell, near St. Albans, England, was the author of the first book on angling in the English language--printed in 1496. This "Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle" has served as the inspiration and model for all subsequent angling authors from Izaak Walton to the present day. Dame Juliana was really the first author to mention fly-fishing in a definite sense, though Ælian in his "History of Animals," A.D. 230, says that the Macedonians fished in the river Astræus with an imitation of a fly called _hippurus_.

Dame Juliana in her treatise gives a list of "XII flyes wyth whyche ye shall angle to ye trought and grayllyng"; and now, after the lapse of four centuries, artificial flies constructed after her formulas would prove as successful as any of the new fangled, up-to-date creations. In fact, most of her flies are in use to-day under various names; and any of them tied on very small hooks would answer admirably for the graylings of America.

[Sidenote: The Graylings]

There are three closely allied species of grayling in America, and two or three in Europe. Wherever found they inhabit the coldest and clearest streams. Their distribution in this country is restricted to well-defined and limited areas. One, known as the Arctic grayling, is abundant in Alaska and the adjoining Mackenzie district of British Columbia. A second species is native to Michigan, and the third is found only in Montana.

[Sidenote: The Arctic Grayling]

The first mention of the grayling and grayling fishing in America was that of Sir John Richardson, in the narrative of the Franklin Expedition to the North Pole, in 1819. Dr. Richardson called it "Bach's Grayling" in honor of a fellow officer, a midshipman of that name, who took the first one on the fly. He gave it the technical specific name of _signifer_, meaning "standard bearer," in allusion to its tall and brilliant dorsal fin.

Regarding the gameness of the grayling, Dr. Richardson says: "This beautiful fish inhabits strong rapids.... It bites eagerly at the artificial fly and, deriving great power from its large dorsal fin, affords much sport to the angler. The grayling generally springs entirely out of the water when first struck by the hook, and tugs strongly at the line, requiring as much dexterity to land it safely as it would to secure a trout of six times the size."

[Sidenote: The Michigan Grayling]

The Michigan grayling, in early days, was known to lumbermen and trappers as "Michigan trout," "white trout," "Crawford County trout," etc. It was first described by Dr. Edward D. Cope, in 1865, who gave it the specific name of _tri-color_, in allusion to the gay coloration of the dorsal fin. Until recent years it was abundant in streams of the lower peninsula of Michigan rising from an elevated sandy plateau and flowing into Lakes Huron and Michigan and the Strait of Mackinac. In a few streams flowing into Pine Lake and Lake Michigan, as Pine, Boyne, Jordan, etc., it co-existed with the brook trout, but farther south, especially in the Manistee and the Au Sable rivers and their tributaries, the grayling alone existed. In the upper peninsula it also existed in Otter Creek, near Keweenaw.

[Sidenote: The Montana Grayling]

The Montana grayling, though mentioned by Lewis and Clark from the Jefferson River (to which fact I have recently called attention), was not recognized until seventy years later, when Professor J. W. Milner discovered and named it _montanus_, in 1872. So now we have the three species, _Thymallus signifer_, _Thymallus tri-color_, and _Thymallus montanus_. The generic name _Thymallus_ is a very ancient one, and was bestowed originally because an odor of thyme was said by the Greeks to emanate from a freshly caught grayling. In our day the odor of thyme is not apparent, though when just out of the water it diffuses a faint and pleasant odor not unlike that from a freshly cut cucumber.

[Sidenote: Morphology of the Graylings]

The structural differences between the three American graylings are so slight that they would be scarcely recognized by the lay angler, therefore a general description will probably answer. It is a slender, gracefully formed fish, with a body about five times longer than its depth, and rather thin, or compressed, on the order of the lake herring or cisco, or the Rocky Mountain whitefish. From this slight resemblance there is an erroneous notion quite current in Montana that it is a cross between the whitefish and the trout.

[Sidenote: Characteristic Feature]

Its characteristic feature is the tall dorsal fin, beautifully decorated with a rose-colored border, and oblong spots of various sizes of rose-pink ocellated with blue, green or white. The height of the fin is about one-fourth the length of the fish; I have several specimens of fins that are four inches tall, from fish not more than sixteen inches long.

[Sidenote: Coloration]

When first out of the water the grayling might be compared to a fish of mother-of-pearl, owing to the beautiful iridescence, wherein are displayed all the colors of the spectrum in subdued tints of lilac, pink, green, blue and purple, with the back purplish gray, and a few dark, small spots on the forward part of the body. The graylings are closely allied to the trout family, having an adipose second dorsal fin.

[Sidenote: Its Peculiar Eye]

The eye of all graylings is peculiar, the pupil being pyriform or pear-shaped. In all illustrations of American graylings that I have seen, except photographs, the artist has drawn the pupil perfectly round, as in most fishes. The only exception is that of the painting of the Montana grayling, by A. D. Turner, that accompanies the magnificent work, "Forest, Lake and River," by Dr. F. M. Johnson.

[Sidenote: Food and Haunts]

The grayling having but few teeth, and those small and slender, its food consequently consists of insects and their larvæ. It prefers swift streams with sandy or gravelly bottom, and loves the deep pools, where it lies in small schools. Occasionally it extends its search for food to adjacent streams strewn with small rocks and bowlders. Its maximum weight is one and a half pounds, very rarely reaching two pounds.

[Sidenote: Comparative Abundance]

[Sidenote: In Michigan]

The Arctic grayling is still abundant in the Yukon and other rivers of Alaska. On the contrary, the Michigan grayling, though plentiful twenty years ago, is now nearly extinct, owing to the extensive lumbering industry. All the graylings spawn in April and May in very shallow water, and the eggs hatch within two weeks. As this is also the time when the saw-logs descend the streams on the spring rise, they plow through the spawning beds, destroying both eggs and newly hatched fry. The annual recurrence of these circumstances for many years has resulted, unfortunately, in the passing of the Michigan grayling. Overfishing and the incursion of the trout have been mentioned as probable causes, but neither factor could possibly have produced the present state of things. The streams have since been stocked with brook and rainbow trout, and efforts are being made to introduce the Montana grayling.

[Sidenote: In Montana]

In Montana the grayling is restricted to tributaries of the Missouri River above the Great Falls, except where recently planted. Until within the past few years it inhabited only the three forks of the Missouri--the Gallatin, Madison and Jefferson rivers and tributaries--and Smith River and tributaries below the three forks. It is still abundant in these waters and lives in amity, as it has done for all time, with the red-throat trout and Rocky Mountain whitefish.

[Sidenote: Distribution]

That the grayling should inhabit only the widely separated regions of Alaska, Michigan and Montana is remarkable. The Arctic grayling is regarded as the parent stock, while the others are possibly relics of the glacial period. This seems probable in connection with the fact that in the mountains where the sources of the Jefferson River arise, there is a deep lake, some four miles long (Elk Lake), that in addition to grayling is inhabited by the Great Lake, or Mackinaw, trout. This trout is found nowhere else west of the Great Lakes except in Canada.

[Sidenote: Propagation of the Grayling]

Beginning with 1874 numerous attempts were made to propagate the Michigan grayling artificially, but after repeated failures all effort in this direction was abandoned. When a station of the U. S. Fish Commission was established at Bozeman, Montana, in 1897, the Commission, under my supervision, began a series of experiments in grayling culture, resulting in complete success, so that for several years millions of grayling have been hatched and planted, and millions of eggs have been shipped to other stations of the Bureau, where they have been hatched and planted in Eastern waters. It is hoped that they may find a suitable home in some of the streams thus stocked. At the Bozeman station they have been reared to maturity, and eggs taken from these domesticated fish have been hatched. This is considered a triumph in fish-culture. Grayling eggs, by the way, are smaller than trout eggs, while the newly hatched fry are only about one-fourth of an inch long, and are quite weak for several days.

[Sidenote: Origin of Name]

The English name "grayling" is doubtless derived from its appearance in the water, where it glides along like a swiftly moving gray shadow. In Germany it is called _asche_, from its gray or ash color in the water. One of its old names in England on some streams was "umber," a name of like significance.

[Sidenote: As a Game- and Food-Fish]

As a game-fish, the grayling is considered by those who know it best, both in this country and England, when of corresponding size, equal to, if not superior to, the brown trout of England, the brook trout of Michigan, or the red-throat trout of Montana; while as a food-fish it is also better, its flesh being firmer, more flaky, and of greater sweetness of flavor. Likewise one can relish the grayling for many consecutive meals without the palate becoming cloyed, as in the case of the more oily trout. It never has a muddy or weedy taste.