—••-•—- I I II, II I zimm (§ xtttxxm DECEMBER 1965 Ljmetmad of the S^eeadon wwt the l^enndutienndutvama ^jrish Ccommiteion • • ME* PENNSYLVANIA FISH COMMISSION Pimnsjjhiama Angler DIRECTORY Published Monthly by the PENNSYLVANIA FISH COMMISSION EXECUTIVE OFFICE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA ROBERT J. BIELO William W. Scranton, Governor Executive Director • GOHDON TREMBLEY Assistant Executive Director PENNSYLVANIA FISH COMMISSION ROBERT M. RANKIN, President Galeton EDWARD R. THARP HOWARD R. HEINY, Vice President ...Williamsport Assistant Executive Director GERARD J. ADAMS - Hawley JOHN W. GRENOBLE ..- Carlisle Watercraft Safety JOSEPH M. CRITCHFIELD Confluence DOUGLAS MCWILLIAMS Bear Gap WALLACE C. DEAN ... •Meadville WARREN W. SINGER R. STANLEY SMITH Waynesburg RAYMOND M. WILLIAMS .- East Bangor Assistant to Executive Director PAUL F. O'BRIEN Administrative Officer JOHN M. SMITH DECEMBER, 1965 VOL. 34, NO. 12 Comptroller • •^^^^ DIVISION DIRECTORS KEEN BUSS Research and Fish Management R. D. 1-Box 200-C QoidsunJtA Bellefonte, Pa.-16823 HOWARD L. FOX 2 Merrie Anglers All—Jim Hayes Propagation and Distribution Bellefonte, Pa., R. D. 3-16823 4 The Star In The East-Wilbert Nathan Savage GLEN SPENCER 6 Winter Fishing Is Wonderful Along The Allegheny—Edwin L. Atts Real Estate Harrisburg 8 Water And Fish-Eugene R. Slatick EDWARD MILLER Engineering 10 Tying The Golden Blazer—Chauncy K. Lively Bellefonte, Pa., R. D. 3-16823 12 Angler's Shoppe—Don Shiner WILLIAM W. BRITTON Law Enforcement 16 Midges For Tough Trout-Ed Koch Harrisburg 18 Pennsylvania's Fishing Wonderland—James E. Becker, Jr. ARTHUR BRADFORD Pathology Bellefonte, Pa., R. D. 1-Box 200-C 19 Modern Camping—Del and Lois Kerr 16823 20 Boating With Robert G. Miller GEORGE FORREST Public Relations 22 Notes From The Stream Editor Harrisburg 26 Art Clark's Fishin' Diary • 26 Of Course There Is Something You Can Do—Hank Rosen REGION ONE 27 Tip-O'-The-Month-C. Boyd Pfeiffer S. CARLYLE SHELDON Warden Supervisor Tionesta 16353 Phone: 814-755-8811 29 School's Out-Ned Smith Art—Front cover—John F. Clark REGION TWO Back cover—Owen Penfield Fox JOHN I. BUCK Warden Supervisor R. D. 2, Somerset, Pa Phone: 814-445-4913 POSTMASTER: All 3579 forms to be returned to Dunlap Printing Co., Inc., REGION THREE Cherry and Juniper Sts., Philadelphia, Pa. 19107. CLAIR FLEEGER Warden Supervisor The PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER is published monthly by the Pennsylvania Fish Commission, 351 Terrace St., Honesdale, Pa., South Office Building, Harrisburg, Pa. Subscription: One year-$2.00; three years-$5.00; 25 cents Phone: 717-253-3724 per single copy. Send check or money order payable to Pennsylvania Fish Commission. DO NOT SEND STAMPS. Individuals sending cash do so at their own risk. Change of address should reach us promptly. Furnish both old and new addresses. Second Class Postage paid at Harrisburg, Pa., and at additional mailing offices. REGION FOUR Neither Publisher nor Editor will assume responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or illustrations while in their possession or in transit. Permission to reprint will be given provided we receive HAROLD CORBIN Warden Supervisor marked copies and credit is given material or illustrations. Communications pertaining to manuscripts, R- D. 2, Annville, Pa., material or illustrations should be addressed to the Pennsylvania Fish Commission, Harrisburg, Fa. r r- w = ,„„Phone: 717-273-2601, Ex. 86 NOTICE: Subscriptions received and processed the 10th of each month will begin with the I. G. M. R. 19003 second month following. Menfe Mglws M ~<=>.~j-.-~ an interlude, an interruption at most, with always the Mere's to you a hearty draught, promise of great fishing to come. In his great classic, The Compleat Angler, Izaak And to all that love us and the Walton describes an evening in an angler's inn that captures the spirit of the holiday mood that always prevailed when fishermen assembled. After coming in honest art of angling. following a day on the stream, the anglers first whet their appetites with a drink, then gathered around the - Jzaak Walton table for a supper of freshly-caught trout. As the son of an alehouse keeper, Walton must have been at least a moderate imbiber practically all his By JIM HAYES life. During Piscater's stay at the inn at Amwell, and again during his first evening at Bleak Hall, Walton has him enjoying a "cup of good barley-wine." He praises barley-wine as "the good liquor that our REFERENCES to Christmas are scarce in angling honest forefathers did use to think of; the drink which literature. One reason, of course, is that mid-winter preserved their health and made them live so long> is a dull time in the angler's calendar. Charles Cotton and to do so many good deeds." summed up the feelings of many of us when he penned: Walton always advised moderation in drinking- // the All-Ruling Power -please, "Let's go merrily to supper," he says, "and then have We live to see another May, a gentle touch at singing and drinking, but the last We'll recompense an age of these with moderation." Later we find him setting forth Foul days in one fine fishing day. this excellent advice: "I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next Yet it is impossible to imagine the anglers of merrie morning; . nor men that cannot well bear it, to old England failing to keep Christmas well. Like fisher­ repent the money they spend when they be warmed men in all ages, they loved nothing better than a joyous with drink. And take this for a rule: you may pic* occasion. Good food and plentiful drink, shared in out such times and such companies, that you may cheerful company before the blazing fire, with many make yourselves merrier for a little than a great deal a reminiscence of a hefty trout—this was the staff of of money; for, 'tis the company and not the charge life to them. that makes the feast." What matter then if ice crusted the river's edge and Walton's lively, appreciative interest in good foo" hoar frost lay ghostlike over fields. Winter was but and drink is a theme that runs throughout The Cof1' 2 PENNSYLVANIA ANGLE? -pleat Angler. Like all fishermen, he paused to admire our whistles, and so sing away sad thoughts." The the natural beauty of the fish he caught before placing songs they sing are as lively and bright as the candle­ them in his cresl. He noted the variation in color and light casting its golden glow upon the twenty ballads shadings of trout taken in different parts of the stream. hung about the walls. He mentions that in a particular meadow he had caught Coridon gives voice to "Coridon's Song," a ballad in many a trout "that the very shape and enamelled color praise of country life. Piscator, in his turn, sings "The of him hath been such as hath joyed me to look upon Angler's Song." As Piscator concludes, another mem­ him: and I have then with much pleasure concluded ber of the company, Peter, rises to applaud. "I marry, with Solomon, 'Everything is beautiful in his season.'" sir, this is music indeed," he exclaims. "This has Being also a practical man, he was never so car­ cheered my heart, and made me remember six verses ried away by the esthetic as to be unmindful of the in praise of music, which I will speak to you instantly." ultimate glory that is the trout's. Describing a twenty- In some of the older editions of The Compleat Angler two inch Brown trout as it was being served on the may be found the score of one of Walton's favorite table, he remarked that "The belly of it looked some songs, or "ketches," as he calls them—"The Angler's parts yellow as a marigold, and parts of it white as Song," by H. Lawes, a simple yet delightful madigral a lily; and yet methinks it looks better in this good arranged for two voices. sauce." The final evening at the angler's inn, marking the For both sport and food, Walton esteemed the trout conclusion of the fishing trip, is a repetition of the first. above all other fish. "The most dainty palates have Following supper, and after several rounds of drink allowed precedency to him," he declared. Perhaps the and song, Piscator announces, "Come, we will all join trout served before the gathering of anglers in Bleak together, my host and all, and sing my scholar's catch Hall had been prepared in the gourmet fashion of over again; and then each man drink tother cup, and Walton's good friend, the hearty and cheerful Charles to bed; and thank God we have a dry house over our Cotton: heads." This then is the picture of anglers gatherings that Take your trout, wash and dry him with a clean Walton presents to us in such days and times as he napkin; then open him, and having taken out his laid aside business and went a-fishing—long days by guts, and all the blood, wipe him very clean within; the stream, a friendly inn to retire to in the evening, but wash him not, and give him three scotches the cheerful glass, a hearty supper of fresh-caught trout, with a knife to the bone, on one side only. After and several rounds of drink and songs shared amidst which take a clean kettle, and put in as much hard honest friends around the fire—blessings, as he tells us, stale beer (but it must not be dead), vinegar, and that "rich men cannot purchase with all their money." a little white wine and water as will cover the fish you intend to boil; then throw into the liquor a good quantity of salt, the rind of a lemon, a hand­ ful of sliced horse-radish root, with a handsome little faggot of rosemary, thyme, and winter savory.