Rainbow Trout 261 



and most perplexingly to the angler-naturalist, is 

 not always present on the last-named fish. 



The Shasta rainbow will rise freely to any of 

 the standard trout flies, and as it grows to a 

 stream weight of five or six pounds, it yields 

 exceptional sport, particularly in waters where 

 it is new to the angler's rod. The dressing of 

 the feathers, which it prefers when tied on No. 

 10 Sproat hooks, are those of the March Brown, 

 Coachman, and Brown Hackle used respectively 

 as tail or end flies and first and second droppers. 



The habitat of this trout is in the streams of 

 the Sierra Nevada, from Mt. Shasta southward, 

 but it is best known in the McCloud River, 

 where the United States Fish Commission main- 

 tains a hatchery for trouts and the quinnat 

 salmon. It is very abundant, and subject to 

 many variations in form and color in its native 

 streams, but not to so great an extent in waters 

 to which it has been transplanted. The limit of 

 its range southward is not known, and it may be 

 that it intergrades with other forms of the rain- 

 bows in middle and southern California. 



The Kern River trout (Salmo irideus gilberti) 

 is one of peculiar interest from the fact that it 

 has been found in no other water, and particularly 



