i88 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



I have just received a most interesting confirmation of this theory — tliat the intro- 

 duction of black bass into a trout lake may improve the trout fishing in that lake — from Mr. 

 Arthur Merrill, of the Maine Inland Fisheries and Game Commission. Mr. Merrill 



writes from Monmouth, Maine, under 

 date of September 13, 1897 ■ — 



" The theory that the introduc- 

 tion of black bass changed the 

 natural conditions in Lake Sunapee 

 so that the saibling had a chance 

 to increase, seems to be substantiated 

 by well-known facts in the case of 

 many Maine lakes, notably the 

 Cobbosseecontee and Messalonshee 

 chains, in Kennebec County. These 

 lakes, twenty in number, with an 

 area of 50,000 acres, formerly 

 swarmed with trout ; but the intro- 

 duction of perch and pickerel so 

 reduced the numbers of fontinalis 

 that it was apparently exterminated. 

 The introduction of black bass, how- 

 ever, has been followed by an un- 

 expected increase in the number of 

 trout, and now these lakes afford the 

 best trout fishitig obtainable in the 

 settled area of the State. Lake Cob- 

 bosseecontee yielded over 500 brook- 

 trout this year, weighing from two 

 to seven pounds each, and the lake 

 was not persistently fished, as its 

 resources were known only to local 

 fishermen." 



The Sunapee saibling takes live 

 bait readily, preferring a cast smelt in 

 spring, when it pursues the spawning osmerus to the shores. As far as is known, it does 

 not rise to the fly, either at this season, or when on the shoals in autumn. Through the 

 summer months, it is angled for with a live minnow or smelt, in sixty to seventy feet of 

 water, over a cold bottom, in localities that have been baited. While the smelt are 



'■■:, 1)5. y-W 



TROUT FOR BREAKFAST. 



