Haw-Ho-Noo; Or, Records of a TouristLanman, Charles
History
Haw-Ho-Noo; Or, Records of a Tourist
Lanman, Charles
Fishing -- North America; United States -- Description and travel
Another trouting region whose praises we are disposed to sing is that of
northern New York, lying between Lake George and Long Lake. All the
running waters of this section of country are abundantly supplied with
common trout, and all the lakes (which are quite numerous) with salmon
trout. The scenery everywhere is of the wildest and most imposing
character. The two branches of the noble Hudson here take their rise,
and almost every rood of their serpentine courses abounds in rapid and
deep pools, yielding common trout of the largest size. But the angler
who visits this region must not expect to be feasted with the
fashionable delicacies of the land, or spend his nights in luxuriantly
furnished rooms; he must be a lover of salt pork, and well acquainted
with the yielding qualities of a pine floor. To those of our readers who
would become better acquainted with the region alluded to, we would
recommend the interesting descriptions of Charles F. Hoffman, Esq., and
the spirited though somewhat fantastic ones of J. T. Headley, Esq.
In the “times of old” we have enjoyed ourselves exceedingly in making
piscatorial pilgrimages among the Catskill and Sharidaken Mountains, but
their wilderness glory is rapidly departing. We can now only recommend
this region as abounding in beautiful as well as magnificent scenery.
Now, while we think of it, however, we have one little incident to
record connected with Shaw’s Lake, which beautifies the summit of one of
the Catskills. Having once caught a large number of small common trout
in a stream that ran out of this lake, we conceived the idea that the
lake itself must of necessity contain a large number of full grown fish
of the same species. With this idea in view, we obtained the services of
a mountaineer named Hammel, and tried our luck at the lake, by the light
of the moon, with set lines and live minnows. During the night we caught
no less than forty-two trout, averaging in weight over a pound apiece.
We were of course greatly elated at this success; and, having enjoyed
quite a romantic expedition, we subsequently published an account of the
particulars. A few days after this, a party of anglers residing in the
town of Catskill saw what we had written, and immediately posted off to
Shaw’s Lake, for the purpose of spending a night there. They did so, and
also fished after the same manner that we did, and yet did not capture a
single trout. They of course returned home considerably disgusted, and
reported that the lake in question was covered with dead eels, that the
water was alive with lizards, that they saw the glaring eyes of a
panther near their watch-fire, and that _we_ had been guilty of
publishing a falsehood. It now becomes us to deny, and in the most
expressive tone, this rough impeachment, although we fully confess that
there still hangs a mystery over our piscatorial good fortune.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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