CAMP LIFE.
One of the most important matters that demand the sportsman’s attention,
is the equipment he should take with him to make his life in the woods
pleasant. He will have many annoyances and even hardships to encounter,
and should be as well prepared to meet them as circumstances will
permit. The following directions are founded upon the idea he intends to
retire to the wilderness, far from the abode of man, where he will have
to trust for his support to his own exertions, and although many of them
may seem superfluous, and to the robust may savor of effeminacy, to
those who desire real comfort they will prove acceptable.
The great pest of the wild woods is--not tigers nor panthers, not bears
nor wolves, not even snakes--but something far smaller but infinitely
more terrible--THE BLACK FLY! If it were possible for the uninitiated to
conceive or the pen to describe the horrors conveyed in these words, I
should endeavor to record them. Think of the rack, the boot, the
thumb-screw, the wheel; think of being rent asunder by wild horses, or
torn in bits with hot pincers; think of the tortures of the inquisition,
or the cruel fanaticism of India, and smile; they do not compare with
the black fly. When mosquitoes hover round you day and night, when they
fill the air you breathe and deafen your ears with their hum, when your
hands, face and body are covered with itching lumps, it is hard to bear.
But mosquitoes are comparatively quiet in the sun-light, and are
partially affected by smoke; they can be influenced by a smudge, can be
frightened off and sometimes killed; they do not compare with the
sand-fly.
The latter, almost invisible to the naked eye, comes in absolute
myriads; it settles upon every inch of exposed flesh; it creeps into
every crevice; it cannot be frightened away, but must be brushed off;
its worst attacks are at night, when tired nature is pining for a little
rest; its bite does not itch, but burns like fire, till face, hands and
neck feel as though they had been scalded. But the sand-fly, bad as he
is, can be persuaded out of your tent by a fire; he does not abound
except in sandy localities; his bite does not draw blood, nor raise a
lump, and is not permanent; he does not compare with the black fly.
The latter comes without a warning note; he bites till the blood runs in
a stream, and inflicts the sharpest pain; he clings fast till he is
absolutely rubbed off, and crawls up your sleeve or pants or down your
neck; he loves not the fire, nor fears the smoke; he cannot be enticed
nor driven away. The mosquito comes numerous as the rain-drops in a
shower; the sand-fly as the motes in sunlight; but the black fly like
the sand of the desert when the simoom is raging. Resignation can endure
the first, stoicism the second, but nothing the last.
All three of these pests are found abundantly in the woods, and without
being prepared for them, instead of pleasure, the sportsman’s trip
would be one long torture. People have been known to be completely
disfigured by their bites, and I have had my neck as thoroughly girdled
as though it had been done with a hot iron. Their bite inflames the
blood, and if accompanied with the free use of ardent spirits, may
produce unpleasant consequences. Let no man through foolhardiness brave
their attacks, thinking he can rough it and not give way before such
pitiful insects; as brave and strong men as ever lived have had their
pleasure destroyed by these curses of our country, and he will repent
his rashness, if not in sack-cloth and ashes, in blood and misery. I
have seen a hard-working man so worn out by their attacks as to fall
fast asleep standing up leaning against a rock in a hot July sun, that
by its excessive warmth had for the moment driven the torments away. He
wore a veil, but not being properly arranged, the flies could climb up
its folds, and it was little protection.
One may well ask how is it possible to defend oneself from such
irrepressible villains; nor can it be done perfectly; with the best
precautions there will be enough to try nerve and temper. Gauntlets of
leather drawn above the wrists over the coat sleeve will, though rather
warm, effectually protect the hand, and when oppressive, may be cooled
by being dipped in water. A veil is the best thing for the face; a piece
of elastic run round the top will enable you to slip it over your straw
hat and fasten it above the brim, which will keep it out from the face;
a spring wire or whalebone hoop sewed in a few inches below, will keep
it off your nose, and another piece of elastic round the bottom will
hold it tight around your cravat, so that the flies cannot make their
way beneath it; or the latter may be omitted to enable you to wipe your
face and rub off those stragglers that will find their way in,
notwithstanding your precautions. There is a light substance called
tissue, that makes a cool but delicate veil, and is preferable to the
ordinary barege, and for mosquitoes and black flies, bobinet is still
lighter, but sand-flies might pass the meshes.
Various ointments have been tried with partial success; among them, tar
ointment has lately become conspicuous, as also oil with a few drops of
creosote, but my favorite has always been a mixture of the oil of
penny-royal with an equal amount of almond or sweet oil; this is both
cleanly and effectual, and need only be renewed once a day. But remember
it must be the oil and not the essence of pennyroyal, which latter is
utterly worthless. Care must be taken with it, as with the others, not
to let them run into the eyes, as they will produce unpleasant smarting.
This composition is death on black flies, and quite successful against
mosquitoes; but it is well, also, to be provided with tar ointment,
which will not spill if the bottle is broken.
For clothes, the best suit is of strong duck, heavy enough to resist an
able-bodied mosquito, but as loose as possible, so that warm flannels,
of which every description should be taken in abundance, can be worn
beneath. Flannel coats, shirts and drawers or pantaloons can be crowded
into a small space, and are excellent for keeping out cold, and are not
rendered unpleasant by moisture. It must be borne in mind that the
Summers in Canada are occasionally absolutely cold, and for weeks in
July, I have shivered in every coat and flannel I had with me.
Moccasins are the things for the canoe, but if you try to clamber over
rocks or wade streams in them, your feet will be bruised and cut
severely. It is advisable to wear stout ankle gaiters that lace up, with
heavy iron-nailed slippers that may be fastened with a strap and buckle
over them, after you have left the canoe, and by means of which you can
cling to the rocks without slipping so frequently as you otherwise
would. You will wear a straw hat, of course, and where mosquitoes are
not innumerable, your flannel underclothes will make a delightful
boating suit. Never use anything but woollen socks for any sort of hard
walking, and by having your net handle shod with iron, and carrying it
in one hand, you will make your way among the slippery rocks with
comparative safety.
The bedding should consist of plenty of blankets, and one or two of them
coated with India rubber and rendered waterproof, to keep off the
moisture that will always rise from the ground at night, to wrap the
rest of your clothes in, and to protect them and yourself from rain and
wet. A stout leather strap and buckle is necessary for the latter
purpose. The best tent is a circular one without any ridge-pole, but
supported by a rope run through a pulley attached to three long poles
cut in the woods, and placed in the shape of a tripod above. The pins
are driven into the cloth itself, and hold it so close to the ground
that no insects can penetrate beneath, while a flap effectually closes
the door. There is a hole for ventilation at the top, which, in a rain,
may be closed with a canvas cap. A stout post may be set up in the
centre with a few nails on which to hang clothes. This tent should only
be used at a permanent camp; and for travelling, the ordinary tent with
a ridge-pole, as more accurately described hereafter, is preferable; a
piece of oiled cloth laid over sticks planted slanting in the ground,
will keep off the rain and dew.
A round tent of twenty-four feet in circumference will not accommodate
more than two men luxuriously, whereas one of double that circumference
will hold five times the number. A large tent is a great comfort and not
much trouble. A separate tent should of course be taken for your men,
and another simple one for a make-shift and a dining-room. To arrange
the latter is your first care on arriving at your permanent
camping-ground, the table is of bark, either birch or spruce, nailed
fast to posts, and shielded by some protection from the rain; the seats
are either a large log or the barrels you have brought with you to carry
stores and fish, or else stools ingeniously chipped from the trunks of
trees with the branches for legs. A dressing-stand is then arranged,
with a wash-basin made of birch bark; the fire-place is rigged up with a
ridge-pole supported on two notched sticks, and with a hooked withe to
support the kettle, and your sylvan home is furnished.
To support and gratify the inner man, it is well to have with you all
conceivable little delicacies, such as nutmegs, allspice, preserved
fruits, meats and vegetables, sweet oil, lemons and raisins, sardines,
chocolate, citric acid and ginger; but the necessaries are clear salt
pork, flour, rice, oat-meal and Indian-meal, coffee, tea, brown and
white sugar, red and black pepper, fine and coarse salt, butter, sauces,
preserved and fresh eggs, solidified milk, ales and ardents according to
consumption, potatoes, smoked beef, pickles, piccalilly, matches, the
essence of coffee, bacon, ham, dried beans and peas, hominy, cigars,
onions, bread, crackers, molasses, tobacco, desiccated meats and soups.
Many of these articles may be advantageously stowed in the barrels
intended for packing fish, but the butter should be put up in air-tight
jars in small quantities, and may in hot weather be buried under water
in the sand. The oil tried out of the pork is usually used for frying;
but if you have sufficient butter the latter is infinitely preferable.
For cooking you will need an iron pot and boiling kettle, tin kettles
fitting inside of one another, a frying-pan with a handle like the
kettle, a coffee-pot, some knives and tin plates, cups, spoons, forks
and deep dishes, and above all an oyster broiler. The latter has thin
wires, and, having two surfaces, can be turned more readily than a
gridiron. It should be used extensively: fish and game split open and
broiled, well basted with butter, are undeniable, and will be found a
pleasant change from the eternal fry. Large fish may be boiled and
served up with a little of the liquor strengthened with a teaspoonful of
Worcestershire sauce. The greatest difficulty will be found with the
bread; the latter may be kept a couple of weeks, and when excessively
dry, by steaming in the pot will be rendered eatable, but not good. Ship
biscuit must be the main reliance for a long tramp. Before taking your
departure, if you could obtain a few lessons in cooking from some
elderly lady friend whose youth has not been so entirely devoted to
dress as to prevent her knowing something of her household duties, and
will carry with you a few simple recipes, you will not regret it.
As no one can be certain of perfect health or freedom from accident, it
is well to be provided with plenty of sticking and court plaster,
cholera medicine and Rochelle salts; but generally the fine exercise and
open air are a brave preventive against sickness. Do not forget brown
soap to wash the dishes, candles for light in the evening, and cream of
tartar and soda to make the flour rise.
The most necessary tools are an axe, a hatchet, one of Aiken’s patent
diminutive awl tool-chests, with which to mend broken rods, needles and
thread to mend torn clothes, some rosin to mend the canoes, and a supply
of various sizes of nails for numerous purposes, while a file and
sharpening stone will be found useful additions. An india-rubber
water-proof bag is admirable as a receptacle for clothes or blankets,
which should be heavy, and a tin wash-basin and an air-pillow will be
great additional comforts. Fresh eggs may be conveniently stowed in the
barrels of coarse salt used for curing fish.
Of the foregoing there are none you can comfortably omit, and besides
them there are plenty you would do well to have; but the judgment and
taste of each individual will suggest the additions.
As one of the first objects will be to preserve the fish you catch, a
preparation of eight ounces of sugar, two ounces of salt, half an ounce
of brown pepper, well rubbed into fish from which the back bone has been
removed, and which are allowed to dry in the sun, will preserve them
over a month. They should be packed in barrels with layers of bark
between, and will prove more edible than when simply smoked; by smoking
they may be kept for years, and the fisherman long have the proud
pleasure of offering to friend at breakfast a little of the salmon he
killed and smoked himself the previous Summer in Canada.
In warm weather, fish merely salted cannot be kept long, and pickling in
brine utterly destroys their flavor; but if the latter method must be
adopted, a pickle of two parts salt and one part common brown sugar will
keep them forever. Before cooking, however, they should be well soaked.
Pickling in vinegar with a few cloves is probably the best mode where it
is possible.
The gum for mending the canoes--and it is surprising how large a hole it
will fill--is made of one part rosin to three parts balsam gum, fused
together. If the aperture is very extensive, a piece of linen saturated
with melted gum should be applied. In New Brunswick and Maine it is
usual to mix rosin and grease, which answers every purpose.
To smoke fish, it is necessary to salt them in a tub, where they can
form a brine, and leave them thus for two days, and then hang them in a
smoke-house, not too near the fire, for as many weeks, when they are to
be packed in layers, separate. Fish are soused by being partially
boiled, and having vinegar boiled in copper kettles mixed with allspice
and poured over them. Iron turns the vinegar black, and hence this mode
cannot be pursued in the woods. Small fish may be headed, cleaned and
packed in a jar, which is then filled up with vinegar and allspice and
baked all night. Next day fresh vinegar is added to make up for the
evaporation, and lard is run in to exclude the air. They keep well and
taste excellent.
An air-tight can is now made, with a cover that fits into a trough which
can be filled with melted rosin. This may be used over and over again,
and is peculiarly adapted to the woods. It must be hermetically sealed
while the contents are boiling, but without sealing might be
advantageously used to protect sugar and such things from the wet. The
same cover is applied to brown earthen jars, which are well suited for
carrying butter.
Literature will be found a great resource in the woods, and although
Harper’s last Monthly may be permissible on account of the shortness of
its stories, nothing should be taken of too interesting a character,
lest it divert attention from the main object in view. This work will be
found extremely safe.
In giving the foregoing directions it is assumed that the reader intends
to travel with canoes, and does not expect to make any extensive
portages, or, as they are called in American, “carries;” for if the men
are expected to back the traps for any considerable distance, the only
admissible articles are fishing-tackle, penny-royal, an axe, the tents,
pork, ship biscuit, tea, sugar, pepper, salt, tea-kettle, matches and a
frying-pan. The slightest weight becomes a mountain on such occasions,
and it will require stout muscles to carry enough for their own
sustenance. In salmon-fishing this is rarely necessary, unless a man
would be an explorer, and the adventurous are always sufferers.
As it is possible none of my reader’s female acquaintance have ever
soiled their rosy fingers--Heaven save the mark!--with domestic cookery,
an outline of the theory of that science may be advantageous. There are
certain well known rules that have no exceptions, unless in the hands of
a genius, and which apply to classes and divisions of edibles. For
instance, a little salt must always be thrown into the water before
anything is boiled in it. Thus, again, with the great class of fried
cakes: milk thickened with flour, and an egg or two, and a pinch of
salt, makes griddle: add squash, boiled and mashed, and you have squash
cakes; employ boiled and mashed rice in place of squash, and there is
produced the delicate rice cake; introduce Indian-meal, which has been
first scalded, and you have Indian cakes. This class of cakes is made by
pouring the preparation, in large tablespoonfuls at a time, on a greased
griddle or frying-pan. In broiling, frying, roasting, baking, or
stewing, salt and pepper are first rubbed on the article to be cooked;
in broiling, baking, or roasting, it is basted with butter or grease,
and in frying the butter is first put in the pan and heated. Potatoes
boiled, and cut thin when cold, are delicious fried. In stewing, a
little water is poured over the meat, and the cooking is done with a
cover on.
Frying is with butter or grease alone; stewing with grease and a little
water; and boiling with water alone. You determine when things are done
by the color and trying how they resist a fork. An excellent chowder is
made by putting pork, fish, cracker, meat, clams, and anything else that
is handy, with vegetables, sufficient seasoning, and a little water, and
stewing it well. Stewing can hardly be carried to excess, as from the
closeness of the vessel the nutritious particles cannot escape.
The best omelette the tyro can make, and excellent it will be found, is
by frying eggs, which are first beaten up and seasoned, till they are
not quite firm. They must be stirred all the while to keep them from
burning, and if they are done hard are ruined.
A white sauce is made of flour and butter well mixed together, stirred
into hot water and allowed to boil for a few minutes; a hard boiled egg
may be chopped up and added if desired. This is the appropriate sauce
for salmon. A brown gravy is made from the drippings of the meat, and
some burnt sugar or browned crumbs added and warmed up.
The following is an accurate recipe for griddle cakes: one pint of
boiled rice, three tablespoonfuls of flour, two tablespoonfuls of milk
and two eggs. While for fried cakes it will be observed that flour, milk
and eggs are used, for ordinary cakes flour, butter and eggs are
necessary, with sugar added for sweetening. Thus, a good cake is made of
five cups of flour, three cups of sugar, two cups of butter and four
eggs. This cake must be baked slowly, which could be done in a piece of
birch bark inclosed in heated stones, allowing room for it to rise.
The simplest and best way to boil a salmon is to slash him on the sides
with vertical cuts to the bone, having previously drawn, opened and
cleaned him, to wash him well in the nearest spring, put him into
boiling water sufficiently salt to bear an egg, and cook him seven or
eight minutes to every pound of weight, and serve him with some of the
water he was cooked in for sauce. The latter may be thickened with flour
and butter. He should, like all other fish, be cooked fresh.
Broiled fish, or, if they are large, slices of fish, cook better wrapped
in a piece of paper oiled; and the one-half of a salmon spread out,
tacked on a board and roasted by a hot fire is excellent; and in cooking
small fish suspended by a twig near the fire, Frank Forester recommends
that a small stick with a piece of pork threaded on it, should be
inserted to keep the belly open, and a biscuit placed below to catch the
drippings. A hot fire will cook a fish thus in ten minutes.
To bake a fish he is wrapped in oiled paper or birch bark, and placed in
an oven built of stones laid in a hollow, and from which the fire has
just been removed, other heated stones are placed above him, and the
fire is raked back over the whole.
It will be hardly necessary to remark, in connection with these
directions, that fish must be cleaned and have the gills removed and be
well washed and scaled before they can be cooked; that when the word
butter is used, and my reader have no butter, he must use such grease or
oil as he may have; that in all cases he can add such sauces and spices
to his condiments as he may relish and possess. Among all the variety of
prepared sauces, anchovy for salmon and Worcestershire for meats are the
best, but lemon alone gives an excellent flavor.
To bread anything, whether it be fried oysters or fried eels, dip them
in the yolk of egg beaten up, and then in cracker pounded fine, or they
may first be dipped in flour and afterward in egg and cracker.
Tea is made by pouring a little hot water on the leaves and allowing it
to draw by the fire for ten minutes and then filling up with hot water.
Coffee, by putting the coffee, mixed with the yolk of an egg, into
boiling water and allowing it to boil once--no more, on your life. If
you do not wish to use an egg, put in a teaspoonful of cold water
immediately on taking it from the fire. This is done to clear it.
Chocolate is made by melting a cake broken into small pieces in warm
water, adding a cup of milk after it is perfectly smooth, and boiling
for twenty minutes. An excellent tea is made of yellow birch bark.
Bread, especially if it is a little stale, is much improved by toasting,
which should be done by approaching it close to the fire, even throwing
it on the coals and burning the outside almost black. If buttered and
covered with brown sugar and eaten hot it makes an excellent dessert.
If salt pork is to be broiled, it should be cut thin, and may be soaked
well in water, dipped in Indian-meal, so as to bread it, and then
broiled or fried brown. It can be used in soup by being boiled in two
waters.
Smoked beef is good if stewed a few minutes with a lump of butter mixed
with flour and enough milk to cover the whole, which may be seasoned
with pepper. Fried fish that has become cold can be revived in the same
way; the flour may be omitted and some salt must be added.
An onion may be boiled in bread sauce, and removed before serving, or
pepper may be added; celery chopped and cooked in a stew or sauce adds a
peculiarly pleasant flavor. Tough meat of all kinds should be stewed,
and except salt pork, meat should be rarely fried. The foregoing are
soon acquired by practice, and experience will suggest many valuable
alterations; but they are all the directions necessary to make camp life
not merely comfortable, but by the aid of a good appetite extremely
pleasant. Cookery is no mean science, and a knowledge of it will prove
interesting and advantageous not only in the wilderness, but so long as
Irish cooks shall rule our kitchens and ruin our digestions, in the
realms of civilization.
To unite economy in space and weight with the utmost amount of
accommodation, the following sized tents will be found to answer for two
fisherman and five guides or even four fishermen.
The tent of the gentlemen should be four cloths deep, each cloth of
twenty-six inches, and cut twenty feet long, so that there should be ten
feet on each side of the ridge-pole; the wall takes about three feet, at
the upper edge of which a small piece is tabled in where the bolt-rope
passes, to shed the rain. There is an extra strip of canvas along the
ridge, with two small grummets in each end, inside the tent, to receive
the poles; but there is no bolt-rope except along the wall, and there
must be no cross seams, as they are sure to leak. A shoulder is left on
the poles, which are thrust into the grummets and a spreader is forced
up between them and sustained as a ridge-pole by a notch cut in each.
There are three tent ropes on each side, with a stout line and toggle,
or button where they join the tent, to trice up the walls in warm
weather; the doors, which are at both ends, lap well over, and are
secured by a strong galvanized hook and eye, and are closed with
strings. Along the bottom of the wall are rings to peg it down, and the
width is the same as the depth. This tent sets up eight feet high, and
is quickly pitched if the poles are retained, which can be readily done,
as they are convenient in the bottom of the canoe to keep other baggage
from the wet. The size may be diminished to eight feet square, but will
be found rather cramped, especially in wet weather, when the fisherman
is more or less compelled to stay indoors, and will not permit of what
is often desirable, accommodating a visitor.
For the men, a simple strip of canvas eight feet square, with sloping
sides, is all that is required. In fact, in cold weather an open tent
with a fire in front is preferable to all others, and can be kept as
warm as an oven. A Sibley tent has many advantages, but must be large,
and is troublesome to transport. In cold weather, logs should be cut
down and laid up with mud like a hut, or boards driven into the ground
close together to form the foundation, and the tent set over them. It
will be warmer and more roomy.
Where there is naught to be shot, and as little to be caught, no man has
any business in the woods; but as bad marksmanship or scarcity of game
may cause the first, or a rise of water the second, it is well to know
that a pound of biscuit and a pound of pork per day is all that a man
requires for his support. A fair allowance however would be, considering
it merely as an addition to the proceeds of the gun and rod, a pound of
biscuit or bread, and half a pound of pork. Where flour is taken the
amount of bread may be reducd; but as the staff of life occasionally
becomes wet and moldy, it is better to be well supplied. Half a pound
of solidified milk will last one man ten days, a pound of tea thirty,
and half a pound of tobacco one week. Eight pounds of brown sugar, the
same of butter, a bushel of potatoes, and two gallons of molasses are
sufficient for two anglers and five men one week. It is not customary to
give men milk, sugar or coffee; they are carried only for the gentlemen,
and the above calculations are made on that footing. These computations
may be relied on, and will be found extremely useful; although the
luxuries of camp life may fail, the necessaries must not be exhausted.
There is no fun in having to send a couple of your best men fifty miles
for provisions, when salmon are rising or a long journey is to be made.
Time devoted to pleasure is precious; a day wasted is indeed a loss.
* * * * *
And now, good reader, farewell. In looking over this book, I perceive
how far short I have fallen of my own expectations, and feel how greatly
I must have disappointed yours. Much has been badly said, much omitted,
and no doubt much unintentionally misstated. Opinions differ, and
experience leads to contrary results. There are game fish, and modes of
taking them, with which doubtless I am unacquainted, and yet I hope you
will find something here that has not been written before. My aim has
been to induce sportsmen to study the habits and proper designation of
the different varieties of game they pursue, to apply the appropriate
names and distinguish the various species. My hope is to elevate their
purpose above the mere indulgence of that peculiar innate pleasure
experienced in the chase, and at the same time, if possible, to press
upon the attention of naturalists the vast assistance they might obtain
from their humbler brethren by reducing their language to the standard
of ordinary comprehension; and above all, to insist, by every
consideration of humanity, upon the absolute necessity of preventing the
cruel, wanton, and untimely destruction of the beautiful inhabitants of
our woods and waters. These have been my objects; it is for you to judge
how far I have succeeded. But, reader, let me warn you: neither praise
nor dispraise overmuch. In either case I shall write another book, to
justify the former or disprove the latter.
[Illustration]
APPENDIX.
FLIES, RODS, REELS, AND LINES.
Since the body of this book was written, the tackle-makers have taken it
into their heads to give the fishing world the most wonderful assortment
of flies that the mind of man could have conceived, and far beyond
anything that nature could in her most festive moods have produced. I
give them not because I believe any such assortment to be necessary for
the angler or tempting to the fish, but because they are so wonderful in
themselves and so very attractive to the tyro who fancies that beauty of
tackle is going to produce fulness of creel. I am indebted for them less
to my own knowledge than to the kindness of Mr. W. Holberton who, to
excellence as a fly-fisherman, has had the good fortune to add
experience in the business. So firmly have some of them established
their reputation that a modern book on angling would not be complete
without them.
The strongest flies are tied with reversed wings, as they will last much
longer. Use highest-quality sproat hooks and selected white or
mist-colored gut snells. Salmon flies are now often tied on small double
hooks, instead of on large ones, as formerly. For salmon flies even more
care should be taken in choosing the gut, as not only is the fish
larger, but the loss of a salmon is more serious than the loss of a
trout.
The following list comprises all those of any value sold in the shops,
whether copied from nature or evolved from the inner consciousness of
the tackle-maker. For the smaller streams in the Middle and Eastern
States, the coachman, royal-coachman, grizzly-king, Abbey, Montreal,
Imbrie, brown-hen, white-miller, orange-miller, yellow-sally,
black-gnat, great-dun, queen of the water, Hooker, golden-spinner,
Cahill, silver-black, professor, march-brown, jenny-spinner, red or dun
fox, silver-brown, hare’s-ear or dark-fox, blue-dun, dusty-miller,
coch-y-bon-dhu or marlow-buzz, gray-gnat, cow-dung, Beaver-Kill,
grannom, Ronald’s stone, brown-stone, and the various colored hackles.
On some waters the addition of jungle-cock’s feathers to the above will
prove very killing.
On Long Island waters the favorites are the cow-dung, scarlet ibis,
Cahill, Imbrie, yellow-sally, great-dun, hare’s-ear, queen of the water,
black and gray gnats, golden-spinner, silver-black, grizzly-king,
professor, Abbey, Montreal, and the different colored hackles. Hooks for
the above lists should be numbers 8 to 12.
For the Adirondacks, Maine, and the Canadas, light and dark Montreal,
Abbey, scarlet-ibis, professor, great-dun, brown-hen, Brandreth,
cock-robin or Murray, silver-doctor, Parmacheeny belle, St.
Patrick, McAlpin, Lawrence, Holberton, Rangely, Molechunkamunk,
Mooseluck-maguntic, Beatrice, No. 8, Round-lake, Bemes, tinselled-ibis,
Elliot, Megalloway, silver-black, Canada, blue-jay, Jenny-Lind, and the
hackles. Also any of the above, with the feathers of the jungle-cock
added. They are to be tied on hooks numbered from 3 to 5, and may be
reinforced by a short piece of gut tied in alongside of the other and
extending above the hook, making the snell double for half an inch
beyond the head of the fly.
For black-bass any of the large flies previously named
[Illustration: SPROAT HOOK.]
[Illustration: O’SHAUGHNESSY FORGED HOOK.]
may be used, and the following are particularly good: turkey,
scarlet-ibis, Page, Brandreth, Fergusson, grizzly-king, Montreal,
silver-doctor, Rube Wood, Lord Baltimore, Whitney, Elliot, Rangely,
Holberton, humble-bee, Gov. Alvord, and white-miller. The hooks for
these should be from numbers 1 to 4. For trolling, the same tied with
double snells may be used on hooks from 2/0 to 1.
For salmon-fishing, the following are recommended: Fairy, Dovey-queen,
black-dose, Imbrie’s-witch, gipsy, butcher, fiery-brown, bonne-bouche,
silver-gray, silver-doctor, orange-doctor, black-doctor, lion, Dunkeld,
blue-tansy, gold-finch, dusty-miller, Wilmot, thunder-and-lightning,
blue-Highlander, parson, Wingfield-red, Popham, Jock-Scott, and
Durham-ranger.
Lines are now made in an endless variety and of a vastly improved
quality. For salt-water fishing, linen lines are generally used, as they
stand the action of the chloride of sodium better than silk. For heavy
work, such as cod-fishing, trolling for blue-fish, and deep sea-fishing,
braided and hawser-laid cotton lines are the best. The lines used by the
anglers at West-Island, Pasque, Cuttyhunk, and other localities where
large striped-bass are taken, are made of the choicest flax, hand-laid
of from nine to eighteen threads, and notwithstanding their fineness,
are marvels of strength.
For fly-fishing for salmon, trout, and black-bass, the polished
enamelled waterproof, tapered, silk lines have entirely superseded the
old hair, and hair-and-silk lines. For fresh-water trolling and
bait-fishing, there are the hard-braid linen lines and the oiled silk
braided lines, and pure boiled or raw-silk for minnow-casting for
black-bass, and so forth.
Good leaders are a very important portion for an angler’s outfit, and
more fish are lost through the use of poor gut and improper snelling
than from any other cause. The best silk-worm gut from which leaders are
made, comes from Spain, and should be carefully selected, only perfectly
round and even strands being used. Anglers should discard any leader or
snell that is at all rough or flat, or that has been dyed. Dyeing can be
easily detected by its decided color, generally either a blue or
greenish tinge, and the process injures the gut. A true mist-colored
leader should be without any tinge other than a faint mist or
water-color, which is obtained by staining, and not by dyeing.
The hooks now generally preferred by anglers are the highest quality
sproat and the forged O’Shaughnessy, the latter being used principally
for striped-bass, blue-fish, and channel-bass. For the heavy fishing at
Cuttyhunk, West-Island, Newport, and Narragansett Pier, the knobbed and
needle-eyed O’Shaughnessy is the favorite. The highest quality sproat is
used for black-bass, salmon and trout flies, and is rapidly becoming the
favorite hook among expert anglers. The advantage of the highest-quality
forged O’Shaughnessy hooks consists in the fact that not only are they
made of the choicest steel, but that the forging breaks every hook in
which there is the slightest flaw, while the difference in price between
them and inferior grades amounts to only one-third or one-half of a cent
on a hook, an amount not worth considering under the circumstances. The
old-fashioned kirbed hooks are rapidly going out of favor. The sproat
has been greatly improved lately, the line of draft is in direct line
with the point, which is small and keen, and penetrates a fish’s mouth
more easily than a clumsier hook. The barb, too, is small and gives less
room for play and does not tear so large a hole as a coarser hook. When
fishing with a light rod, this is a great advantage both in striking and
playing a fish. In fact it is almost impossible to drive a coarse large
barbed hook through the tough mouth of a black-bass with the light rods
that are now coming into favor.[19]
For fly-fishing there is no rod like a well-made round, split bamboo;
but to be well made, and no other is really worth having, a round
eight-piece split bamboo is an expensive implement and costs a high
price. But when well made it is not only a thing of beauty and a joy
forever, but will stand an amount of exposure and hard work not to be
obtained from inferior rods. It has not always been possible to obtain
such implements in their perfection, as some manufacturers who have not
had the necessary experience, or who in their anxiety to produce a cheap
article have slighted their work, have given the split bamboo rods a bad
name. They should be made from the upper part of the canes alone, as in
that part the nodes which give them their strength are the thickest. The
outside or glazed part of the cane should come on the outside of the
rod, and the joints should be so perfect that they cannot be traced by
the eye, as if there is the least opening water will get in and destroy
the rod. While if thoroughly well finished, they are the best article of
their kind, nevertheless greenheart, cedar and lancewood rods all have
their admirers, and in skillful hands will do efficient work.
Machine-made rods should be avoided by every angler who takes pride in
his casting or his tools, no matter how cheap they are. The best proof
of the superiority of the bamboo rod is the fact of its general use at
all public tournaments where its power has been proved by a cast of over
eighty feet with a four and a half ounce rod.
In giving the weight of a trout rod, it should be stated whether the
ordinary mountings are included, as they make a difference of several
ounces. The fly-rod that in a tournament would be called a four or
five-ounce rod, would in the hands of the sportsman be found to weigh
nine or ten ounces. When a weight is given in these pages, the full
weight of mountings is intended, so that a nine-ounce rod is what the
professionals would call a five-ounce rod.
Great strides have been made by professional fly-casters in the matter
of length of cast since this book was first written. Then a cast of
seventy feet was considered a very long reach, but now eighty-five feet
have been cast with a rod of four and seven-eighths ounces, and
eighty-seven feet with a twelve-ounce rod. The rods in these cases are
heavy at the tip, and are not well adapted to ordinary fly-fishing and
would soon tire out the strongest wrist. They are in all instances made
out of split bamboo. In bass-casting, that is what is called Cuttyhunk
fashion, the public trials have not been satisfactory, the casts not
having been scored at much over one hundred and sixty feet. But there is
no doubt that with the regulation weight of two and a half ounces, at
least two hundred and twenty feet can be cast. To make very long casts
with a fly, it is essential not only to have a stiff rod and to fasten
on the droppers with short snells, but to put double gut at
[Illustration: O’SHAUGHNESSY FORGED HOOK.]
[Illustration: SPROAT HOOK.]
the head of the stretcher-fly. Moreover, the flies must not be allowed
to sink, but must be retrieved immediately in order to get the line well
out behind, which is the great difficulty in distance-casting. In actual
fishing the angler is considered an expert who alone and unaided can
strike, play and land a five-pound trout or a fifteen-pound salmon.
Those are tests of skill that far exceed casting ninety feet in an open
pond with a top-heavy rod.
Reels have kept up with the march of improvement in fishing tackle, and
are now made much lighter and stronger than in days gone by. Hard rubber
has taken the place of metal to a great extent, making the reel very
much lighter. Aluminum has been tried, but, though very hard, it is a
metal of poor texture, so that the screws do not hold, and the reels
soon get loose and shaky, while at the same time it is expensive. There
are several patented trout reels for getting large barrels to wind the
line on quickly, or to expose it to the air so that it will not rot.
Most of the fine reels are made of German silver, and with works as
carefully constructed as those of a clock, for the striped bass reels
must run with absolute perfection. A valuable invention of Messrs. Abbey
& Imbrie provides for the adjustment of the bearings, so that any wear
can be readily taken up, and the reel kept in good condition without
expense. It consists of the use of steel-screw pivots easily adjusted,
which reduce the friction to a minimum.
There is an endless variety of spoon baits now made for the angler to
select from; among them the most admired are the “fluted spoons” and the
“mottled pearl,” including the new Florida pearl spinner, with a body of
white pearl, combined with a mottled revolving spoon. But the
old-fashioned revolving silvered plate in its various forms is by no
means superseded by these modern mysteries.
The introduction of black-bass throughout the country has created a
large demand for artificial baits. Live minnows are often difficult to
obtain, and the market is now well supplied with artificial minnows,
frogs, dobsons, crickets, beetles, and grasshoppers. Of these baits, the
“fairy” is the most successful. It is made of fish-skin, and has the
scales of the real minnow preserved. It is as soft and flexible as the
live bait, and will kill black-bass and pickerel when every other
artificial bait fails.
Of minnow gangs there is also a great variety, the latest and one of the
best being the “St. Lawrence” gang. This has a thin baiting needle,
which allows the most delicate minnow to live for hours, and has not the
usual great number of treble hooks to make it troublesome and unsightly
for delicate fishing.
INDEX.
A.
PAGE
Allowance of provisions, 312
Attihawmeg, 147
B.
Bass, black, 217
Otsego, 151
rock, 222
Baits for trout, 33
Black Fly, 297
Blue-fish, 153
Boiestown, 135
C.
Camp life, 297
stores, 302
_Centrarchus æneus_, 222
_fasciatus_, 217
Cisco, 149
Classification of fish, 7
Cooking, 303, 307
_Coregonus albus_, 147
_Otsego_, 151
Common Carp, 163
Crab bait, 205
Curing fish, 304
_Cyprinus carpio_, 163
E.
_Ephemera_, 292
_Esox estor_, 164
_fasciatus_, 187
_Elucioides_, 181
_reticulatus_, 182
_tredecem radiatus_, 184
F.
Flies and knots, 263
for bass, 283
for salmon, 263
for trout, 16
Flies, Rods, etc., Appendix.
G.
Ghost of Deadman’s Landing, 126
story of Abraham, 129
Glass-eye, 224
Green-fish, 153
_Grystes nigricans_, 217
H.
Horse mackerel, 153
I.
Insects, 285
K.
Knots, 263
L.
_Labrax lineatus_, 202
Landing fish, 28
La Val, 61
lake, 77
_Lucioperca americana_, 224
M.
Mascallonge, 164
Mascanonga, 164
Marshpee, 22
Miramichi, 120
Moose story, 131
N.
_Neuroptera_, 291
New Brunswick, trip to, 116
Nipisiquit, 140
O.
Ohio salmon, 225
Otsego bass, 151
P.
_Perca labrax_, 202
_flavescens_, 228
Perch, yellow, 228
Pickerel, 198
common, 182
great northern, 181
Long Island, 187
Pickering, 224
Pike, federation, 184
of the lakes, 224
perch, 224
Propagation of fish, 230
_Phryganea_, 292
R.
Roe of shad or salmon, 204
Rock-fish, 202
S.
Salmon, 88
Salmon fishing, 92, 102
habits of, 98
rivers, 167
rivers, how to reach them, 111
time for catching, 94
place for catching, 94
rod for, 91
Ohio, 225
_Salmo salar_, 88
_trutta marina_, 41
_Sciena lineata_, 202
Scollops, 207
Sea trout, 41
Shrimp bait, 205
Skipjack, 153
Smoking fish, 305
Snap-hook, 176
Snapping mackerel, 157
Spearing, 209
Spoons, 174
T.
_Temnodon saltator_ 157
Tents, 293, 311
Thousand Isles, 189
Trimmers for pickerel, 177
Trout, American speckled, or brook, 12
flies for, 16
fly-fishing for, 18
baits for, 23
sea, white or silver, 41
white, or Scoodic, 145
W.
White-fish, 147
trout, 145
FOOTNOTES:
[1] These periods do not refer to the game laws.
[2] If he is alive at this writing.
[3] Since that was written, many of these waters have been depleted,
and Long Island has been so thoroughly preserved that there is hardly a
free pond or stream from one end to the other of it.
[4] Since then passed away. Peace and happiness be with him.
[5] The old Stump Pond trout has of late years wholly disappeared.
[6] A fine hotel has been built at Tadousac.
[7] License is now required for fishing in the British Provinces
anywhere.
[8] Hon. Wm. F. Whitcher, late Superintendent of Fisheries of the
Dominion, and as skillful an angler as ever handled rod or wet a line.
[9] This is changed. There is no free salmon fishing in the Provinces.
[10] The best river now is the Restigouche.
[11] See Post as to modern fishways.
[12] Probably at least a year later than this.
[13] Travelling in the Dominion has been much improved since the
foregoing was written, and the hotels are better. The expenses of
living are higher than they were, but still much cheaper than in the
United States.
[14] Mr. Dominy has gone, but Mr. Royal Sammis keeps a large and
fashionable hotel at Fire Island, which every sportsman should visit at
least once in his life.
[15] The finer qualities of carp, the “leather” and “mirror” carp, have
been introduced into America by Mr. Spencer F. Baird, the scientific
and enterprising Commissioner of Fisheries of the United States, and
have proved a success.
[16] Prepared lines are sold now at all the fishing-tackle shops,
and linen lines are made so fine, beautiful, and strong, that for
bass-fishing nothing better is needed. For surf-fishing use a
nine-thread line.
[17] It is now generally accepted as the scientific conclusion that
the Oswego bass, the Southern black-bass--there called the chub--and
the big-mouthed bass, are one and the same. I know, however, that the
Southern black-bass, the _Grystes salmoides_, is a much finer fish on
the hook and on the table than his supposed compeer, the Oswego bass,
and takes the fly as freely and fiercely as the true black-bass. The
latter is now generally called the Small-mouthed bass, that being his
distinguishing peculiarity.
[18] For thorough instruction in the details of the artificial
cultivation of all varieties of fish, the reader is referred to a work
entitled “Fish Hatching and Fish Catching” written by Seth Green and
Robert B. Roosevelt which exhausts the entire subject.
[19] Some of the illustrations in this volume have been furnished us by
Messrs. Wm. C. Harris, and Abbey & Imbrie.