The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1900-08-09
STATESMEN FISHERS.
SENATORS WHO ARE SKILLED
ANGLERS.
Senator Frye Wears q Flannel Shirt
In the Maine WOods-Ouay Goes After
Big Game-Amusing Anecdotes and
Incidents. 81

Izaak Walton. The opportunities for
good fishing within a reasonable dis
lance of the national capital are album
dant. Two hours run in a parlor car
brings n to the home of the vicious,
courageous, small-mouth black bass of
the Shenandoah and the Potomac.
The big Four" among the congress
sional fishermen are Senator Frye of
Maine, the president pro tempore of
the senate; Senator Davis of Minneso-
ia; Senator Gear of Iowa, and Senator
Quay Of Pennsylvania. What they
don't know about fishing is not worth
learning, and what they nave not told
about fishing is not worth hearing.
Senator Frye is probably the most
consistent sportsman of the quartet.
He goes into camp in the Maine woods
every summer, wears a flannel shirt,
eats bacon and is glad to get it, and
leads the life of a woodsman. OF
course, he back to Washington
all the better for it. He can cast a fly
with the best of them. He often slips
up the river during the sessions of
OA6lCO III lanes d lily vi SOulG OI
the dainty, small-mouth bass before
mentioned. Presiding over the senate
of the United States he is the soul of
dignity. Seated in the stern of a big
batteau, rod in hand, an old straw hat
on his head and contentment on. his
face, he looks another man, and then
he doubtless is happiest.
Senator Cushman K. Davis of Min
nesota is an ardent angler. Let any
body suggest a fishing trip and he will
drop his cares as a ~schoolboy drops his
books to go a-swimming. Treaties
and conventions are forgotten by the
honored head of the committee on for
eign relations, for the time, and he is
all impotence to wet a line. Senator
Davis is as skillful as he is earnest
when fishing. He has had great ex-
perience in the lakes of Minnesota,
which abound in game fish. Whether
it is the agile trout that rises to the
fly, Or the big pickerel that takes the
bait on a troll, it is all one to him, and
every famous fishing water in his state
abounds with legends of his skill.
Senator Quay of Pennsylvania is adj
dicted to deep-sea fishing. The habit
of angling contracted in the trout
streams of Pennsylvania, has grown
upon him to such an extent that Ordi-
nary sport does not satisfy his craving
any longer. He needs must travel all
the way to Florida and spend days
seeking the fierce tarpon. He has a
charming little hunting lodge on the
Florida coast, and whenever he finds
the cares of craftsmanship or politics
expressing him he takes train and is
away for a week or two of sport. 1t is
a fearful and wonderful sight to see
the doughty senator from the Key
stone state standing braced in the boat,
battling with In immense tarpon, and
when he has landed his victim he
wears the look of a conqueror at the
close of a battle. When times are too
busy to go to Florida he does not dis
dain to take a whirl with the bass of
the country, and is ready any time for
an outing.
Senator Gear of Iowa is known to
every guide and boatman of the upper,
Potomac. In fact, there is one famous
spot in the river called Gears Hole,
after the IOwan. 1t is near an exclu-
sive rod and gun club which the SEN
ator visits. One day he was being
roWed up the river and had tried all
the fishing holes with Indifferent sue
cess. He directed the guide to row
him to a certain place Which he spied.
and after sounding the water, observ-
ing the lay of the land, the character
of the bottom and the drift of the cur
rent, said there was good fishing there.
The old guide pooh-poohed the idea.
No n had ever thought of fishing
there. But the senator insisted on try
ing, and within an hour or two had
caught thirty magnificent bass. So
they called it Gears Hole, and it is
ished every day in the season when
there are guests at the club house.
Speaker Henderson of the house of
representatives is a isherman-after a
fashion. The spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak. He has the instinct, but
his wooden leg interferes, so he sits on
the veranda of the club house all day,
reading and smoking and taking in the
glorious ozone of the mountains, chat
ting with the old guides and boatmen,
until "the boys" as he calls the 9TH
ers of the party, come back in the
is as much interested as anyone.