ioo Salmonidae 



sprightliness when in the water, reckless dash with which it 

 springs from the water to meet the descending fly ere it strikes 

 the surface, and ^the mad and repeated leaps from the water 

 when hooked, the rainbow trout must ever hold a very high rank. 

 "Thegamest fish we have ever seen," writes Dr. Evermann, "was 

 a 1 6-inch rainbow taken on a fly in a small spring branch tribu- 

 tary of Williamson River in southern Oregon. It was in a 

 broad and deep pool of exceedingly clear water. As the angler 

 from behind a clump of willows made the cast the trout bounded 

 from the water and met the fly in the air a foot or more above 

 the surface; missing it, he dropped upon the water, only to 

 turn about and strike viciously a second time at the fly just as 

 it touched the surface; though he again missed the fly, the 

 hook caught him in the lower jaw from the outside, and then 

 began a fight which would delight the heart of any angler. His 

 first effort was to reach the bottom of the pool, then, doubling 

 upon the line, he made three jumps from the water in quick 

 succession, clearing the surface in each instance from one to 

 four feet, and every time doing his utmost to free himself from 

 the hook by shaking his head as vigorously as a dog shakes a 

 rat. Then he would rush wildly about in the large pool, now 

 attempting to go down over the riffle below the pool, now 

 trying the opposite direction, and often striving to hide under 

 one or the other of the banks. It was easy to handle the fish 

 when the dash was made up or down stream or for the opposite 

 side, but when he turned about and made a rush for the protec- 

 tion of the overhanging bank upon which the angler stood it 

 was not easy to keep the line taut. Movements such as these 

 were frequently repeated, and two more leaps were made. But 

 finally he was worn out after as honest a fight as trout ever 

 made." 



"The rainbow takes the fly so readily that there is no reason 

 for resorting to grasshoppers, salmon-eggs, or other bait. It is 

 a fish whose gaminess will satisfy the most exacting of expert 

 anglers and whose readiness to take any proper line will please 

 the most impatient of inexperienced amateurs." 



The steelhead (Salmo rivularis) is a large trout, reaching 

 twelve to twenty pounds in weight, found abundantly in river 

 estuaries and sometimes in lakes from Lynn Canal to Santa 



