19th century fishing — Season regular

S.P. White of New York City was vacationing for the twenty-third consecutive season at the Ondawa hotel at Schroon Lake.

“Mr. White is the most successful trout fisherman who visits this place, and on Monday last, in company with his old and tried boatman, he spent the day at Paradox Lake, returning with the biggest catch of the season — three trout whose weight was 14 1/2, 12 1/2, and 8 pounds,” the Schroon Lake correspondent to The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on July 19, 1890. “This is a fish story, but a truthful one.”

One truthful fish story begets another.

“Clark Fismer, of the Lake House, and William Young, a guest, on the same day, caught a fine string in Schroon Lake, the largest being a 4 1/2-pound bass.”

Following are more 19th century fishing stories collected from historic newspapers of the region:

• The headline read “Boss Brook Trout.”

It was a big one, alright, but perhaps premature in the season to proclaim it a record.

“Fred Newberry may be credited with having captured the biggest brook trout of this season,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on May 5, 1890. “It measured thirteen inches in length.”

• “G.L. Crandall, son of W.H. Crandall, captured a fine lot of trout in Halfway Brook Sunday,” The Morning Star reported on May 6, 1890. “One of the number weighed one pound and another three-quarters of a pound.”
• Fish did not give preference to age.

“Charles and George Van Antwerp, aged thirteen and fourteen years, caught five trout weighing nine-and-three-fourths, six, five, eight and three pounds each,” The Morning Star reported on May 7, 1890. “D.J. Brayton caught a trout weighing eleven-and-three-fourth pounds. Fishermen, as a general thing, have been very successful.”

• No word on the loaves, but he shared the fishes.

“George McMurray, of this place (Fort Edward), and George Bascom, of Ticonderoga, went trout fishing in Lake George on Wednesday, and secured 18 ‘fine’ trout weighing about five pounds each,” The Morning Star reported on May 9, 1890. “Several of McMurray’s friends enjoyed a trout dinner yesterday.”

• “New moon last night. Dog days have begun. Bull head begin to bite in Lake George,” The Commercial Advertiser of Sandy Hill reported on July 27, 1881
• A seventeen-pound pickerel and two of lesser weight were pulled out of Lake George on Monday by a Bolton fisherman,” The Commercial Advertiser reported on Aug. 24, 1881

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