The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-08-20
WONDERS OF sEBBo WATERS.
Smells and Eels that Rise TO Troll
some Mammoth Turtles.

usually cool weather, the frequent heavy
rains, thunder storms which send the Ash
to the bottom and keep them from biting,
and constant high water. the landlocked-
salmon fishing In sebec Lake has been I'M
usually poor so far this summer. There have
been days in which fifteen or twenty sal
mon have been taken by five six troll
lines on the lake But for every such day
there have been ten where not salmon has
been landed among all the lines let out and
few fishermen have captured more than one
or two in their luckiest days There have
been better returns from black bass and
pickerel, but these are far below the ave-
rage.
There Is a general mix-up in the fishing
conditions at the lake this year. Every va
riety of fish ever found In the lake seem
now to make a stamping ground of the
Narrows, where In past years only salmon
have been taken. In one trolling trip OF
DR.. H. C. Vaughans boat, the Kinghsher,
there were caught successfully by one line
In the Narrows a salmon, an eel. and a
black bass. In a second trip Of this boat
in the same water a single line caught, one
after another a smelt. white perch, and
two black bass. In an afternoons trolling
trip OF another boat in the lower part OF
the lake, out OF flve pckerel caught, three
had snapped at red fly attached to the
leader above the minnow. When bass in
wade the Narrows, and cells come up from
the bottom in a hundred feet OF water to
seize a troll, and smelt trihe larger
than the bait snaps at hook with all the
airs of a salmon and pickerel forsake min
nows for red flies, there seems reason for
the inquiry that old-time fishermen make
nowadays as to what fishing Ia coming to
in Sebec Lake Their pessnism is natural
under the circumstances, but the salmon
are still in the lake and only await the re-
establishment OF normal conditions OF tide
and weather to take their turn In the Bit
ing. The water is falling daily in the dry
weather that has prevailed for the last
week, and 1t needs now only few hot days
to put the salmon In evidence. The fisher
men who have their lines in the water
when they set to biting should make some
fine hauls OF the silver-scaled fish.
Sebec Lake In all It's history has been re-
gion Of wonders among the inland water
sheets. The Tarratine and st. Francis Ink
dams. on their Journeys between Canada and
Penobscot Bay, padded its waters in fear
of Pomooa the Indian devil. whose home
was Mt. Katahdin, and who ranged the
mountains southwark to the Sebeo shores.
The lake In modern narrative has had Its
sharks and sea-serpents. The mammoth
turtles though a matter OF common know
ledge to fishermen on the lake, create ever
fresh surprise and sometimes CONSERVATION
to the angler who comes unexpectedly upon
them. Last June boating party landing
near the mouth Of the Wilson Stream sur
prised female turtle which had come ashore
to deposit her eggs. This one showed no dis
position to retire within her shell or to re-
treat In undignihed haste. but squared away
and faced the party, lifting herself on her
legs to the height Of mans knee, and de-
family swapping a pair Of jaws that could
have closed like hear-trap on human
shinbope had one imprudently been put
within their reach. In this attitude she back
ed away from the spectators holding their
attention until having drawn them some dis
lance from the place where they had first
encountered her she made exit by roll
Ing down a twenty flve-foot bank into the
stream and swimming away. Then they rea-
lied that the turtle had drawn them very
cleverly away from the neighborbood OF her
nest. and though they hunted diligently for
an hour they failed to find It.
1t has been some years since the Grape
vine turtle has been reported. Thirty years
have passed since John Lander OF Dover
saw this big reptile In the bog through
which the Grapevine Stream flows In its
course into Sebec Lake, and was impressed
by it's size Fifteen years later Sam Guern-
sey and Henry Warren. fishing the same
stream, saw what they took to be partly
submerged claphoard aioat in the still
U
moved OF through the water, leaving n
wake like that OF n rowboat and they saw
that 1t was giant turtle. It's most notable
appearance In recent years was to Bernard
Warren Of Dover who in fishing the Grape
vine. came upon the turtle In the open bog
away from the water. that a full idea OF
the creatures bulk was obtained It's shell
was as large around as a washtub, and the
head and legs were Of proportionate size
At sight Of the fisherman the turtle started
10 nd War
tain 1t, by seizing his tail, was taken in
tow as summarily as II the turtle had been
expressly chartered for the purpose. Find
Ing the tapering tail 'nconvenient to hold
warren jumped on the turtles back, hut
the creature carried him easily without SO
much as slackening It's gait. On coming to
the aldera, along the edge OF the stream.
Warren. finding his bareback position dif-
fcult to maintain, slipped off behind. and
caught hold once more of the tail, but the
turtle, quickening pace, jerked him from
his feet, and the man let go his grip at the
bank, not caring to follow the turtle into
the two feet Of water and twenty feet OF
soft ooze that lay beyond. The turtle went
way. and Warren went back to his fishing,
convinced that II was not his day for
turtle-catching. As the Grapevine is now
closed by law to fishermen. there have been
no reports OF the big turtle this year. but II
is safe to say that It will he heard Of when
the stream is opened three years hence
Fifteen years ago Capt Ansel Crockett
Of Sebec, steering his sidcwheel passenger
steamer The Ripping Wave, up the lake.
encountered midway in the trip a swimming
turtle so large that to avoid a collision he
altered the course OF his craft so as to pass
It on the starboard side. The turtle, which
was seen by all the passengers. was de-
scrihed as being as large round as a hogs
head, and a paddle wheel striking It would
have been broken as surely as II II struck
a rock In the autumn Of that year n Penob-
scot Indian caught a turtle at Sebec Lake,
perhaps the same one, which measured thir-
tynine inches from tip to tip. and the up
per shell was described by one who saw II
as being large enough to serve for the
cradle Of child
A remarkable feature OF Sebec Lake Is
the existence In Its waters Of certain vari-
eties Of Ash which are seen only at long in
tervals Such Is the "laker" trout, OF togue
which is abundant In certain tributary lakes
but Is 30 rarely found In Sebec that most
old fishermen of the lake do not believe that
It is ever there. Yet twenty nine years ago
one weighing eight pounds was caught by
salmon fisherman Mt the head OF the lake,
and at other times several have been caught
In the same waters off the mouth OF Rear