Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-09-01
FISHING FOR TROUT IN swift Water
Little Story About North Dakota Party on the Famous
Waters Of the NepiqOn
Over 100 Miles in Birch Bark Canoes Where Specked
Brook Trout Weighing From Two to
Ten Pounds Abide

used by the traders and trappers all
over this country In big game the
region abounds with moose and
carbon and an occasional black bear.
The fur trade is not now very ex-
tensive but the Indians, save the four
dollars per capita from the govern
ment, are self-sustaining. With
abundance of fish game and berries
and with birch and spruce at hand
for the construction of their canoes,
these remnants of the Ojibways are
pretty well fixed. They are a good
: natured, accommodating and honest
people and those who have fitted
themselves by experience on the
river, make splendid companions for
white tourists.
A license of SIS for two weeks or
s25 for a month is charged of all non
residents for special permit to fish
the Nepigon and its waters or hunt,
in season on this reserve. This fee
is paid to the government agent at
Nepigon and here are also firms who
make a business Of furnishing camp
ing outfits and supplies. Guides and
cooks cost $3.50 and other helpers 81
per day. The tourist has nothing to
do but carry his rod and walk across
the portages. Two Indians man each
canoe, one in each end of the boat,
and usually one, sometimes two
tourists sit low down in the center
of the canoe. The frequent portages
relieve the monotony and it is trip
that ladies accustomed to roughing it
!. in camp life elsewhere find great
/ pleasure, though they constitute but
a small percentage of the habitues of
}. this resort.
The great size attained by speckled
trout in these northern waters makes
the Nepigon one of the most famous
trout streams in all the world. Four,
five and six Founders are common
while frequently fine specimen
weighing eight or nine pounds is sue
cessfully landed. Indians declare
that fifteen pounds is the record
, breaker, caught in net in Lake
Nepigon, but old Donald Murchison,
the Hudson's Bay man at the Nepigon
; House says ten and half pounds is
. the largest he has ever seen
The strike of five pound trout, in
very swift water, where a small
canoe with two Indian paddlers is
with much difficulty held with it's nose
well up against the rapids or at the
bottom of 1eaping falls-a big trout
/. we'll hooked under such conditions
" will tax the ingenuity of the angler to
q the utmost and if after half an hours
play, the fish is successfully landed
+ one feels well repaid for the trip nc
l. matter how great the distance or the
!, cost. Two motives seem to actuate
+ the trout that mistakes a patent fly
II for the real thing-to at once proceed
= to more rapid water and to so cir
G cumvent the canoe as to obtain "a
G little slack line. The accomplish
v ment of either purpose is fraught with
4 great danger to the angler who wants
, to make good. The peculiar habits
C of the brook trout together with the
s great size of the stream and its
= tributaries makes the Nepigon an al
o most inexhaustible reservoir and
4 while there are hundreds of fishermen
I On the, stream every year there seem:
4 to be little diminution in the average
Z catch. a
q 1t is not the purpose of this articl,
q to relate any particular fish storie
" but to give briefly the conditions tina
d prevail in this region. The station o
e Nepigon contains perhaps fifty whit
r. residents and two or three times al
10 many Indians. Here is located one o
m the Hudson's Bay stations and ais
A. the rival French company. Hogan
.e International Hotel register contain
1t the names Of all sportsmen. going an
II coming and more cosmopolitan az
is gregation is would be difficult to fnf
re Here the dude, the lord, the prince
is the high official and the common
i'd everyday man meet on a commo
er level. Here the business suit
Of hung up" until the return trip an
d, the fisherman is made up. each d,
~ 49,. !. - IA
b, cording to his own fancy and th
sr elaboration of details in secursn
" guides, tents, canoes and supplies
is not the least OF the attractive feature
st LOT the trip. Here are located s,
,dIcalled .outdtterss who are wise mel
81 All you have to do Is to tell them ID
ct number in your party and the lengt
In LOT time expected to be consumed q
d. the trip They do the rest-exeel
u the settlement and registry d ii
IS, kicks On the return. The usual Tin
III for those whose time Is somewas