56 PISHES AND FISHING IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 



are usually abundant, and it may be inferred that those species were 

 once more plentiful in the lake and perhaps contributed to the size 

 of the trout. Elsewhere in this paper it has been suggested that the 

 white trout was once small, as was formerly the case with the blueback 

 of Rangeley Lakes. If this hypothesis is true and the Sunapee 

 ''native trout" reached a large size prior to the advent of smelts, the 

 small white trout might have formed its principal food, as the small 

 blueback is said to have done to the Rangeley trout and to which fact 

 was ascribed the noted large size of the Rangeley trout of years ago. 

 However, after the introduction of smelts the records show that the 

 trout grew to a large size and were numerous in the lake, but decreased 

 in size and numbers, at first gradually, later rapidly, because of the 

 poacher and introduced carnivorous fishes. The introduction of 

 smelts then probably protracted the existence of the trout to some 

 extent, as it furnished abundant, easily obtainable food, which on its 

 part did little or no damage to other fishes. Whatever the cause, it is 

 evident that the trout is now comparatively rare and does not attain 

 the large size that it formerly did, because it does not have time before 

 it is caught. 



The smallest trout that the writer observed in the lake, or taken 

 from it, was one of 9 J inches in length, which was caught April 23, 

 1910, on live smelt bait, set over night at Curtis's Pier. Its stomach 

 was empty. On August 16, 1911, one about 10 inches long that must 

 have come up from the lake was seen m the mouth of Pike Brook in 

 the beach below a fyke net that completely occluded the brook. 



Stocking of the lake. — The habit of trout spawning iii brooks when- 

 ever possible and that of the young remaining in them for some time 

 indicates that the brooks afford the most natural conditions in which 

 to plant young trout. 



The fact that large numbers of trout descend to the lake late in the 

 fall durhig or after heavy rains offers no unfavorable argument 

 toward planting them in the brooks. Although small, the majority 

 of the trout thus migrating seem to be adult fish. It is at the time 

 of the year when the shore waters are cool and the fish are not, on 

 account of temperature, obliged to seek the deep water with its 

 attendant dangers. Trout fry undoubtedly remain in the brooks 

 over winter and food for such small fish is far more plentiful in the 

 brook than in the lake at that season. While fish, young or adult, 

 require less food and feed l^ss in the winter than at other seasons the 

 fact that hatchery-bred fish are liberally fed up to the time they are 

 planted would seem to indicate that they should bs planted where 

 they can obtain the most natural food in order that they may not 

 suffer from the sudden cessation of food supply. It has been sug- 

 gested that salnion fry planted m the brooks in the spring would pro- 

 duce more successful results than even larger fish planted in the lake 



