70 



TJie American Ampler 



a specimen of the Golden Trout of Whitney 

 Creek, in this State. Jordan and Gilbert think 

 it is a distinct species. I believe it is found 

 somewhere in Colorado. Prof. Jordan's theory 

 is that in some great disruption that has oc- 

 curred in this country, Whitney Creek, which 

 is a stream leading directly off of Mount Whit- 

 ney, and the Colorado stream in which the same 

 trciut are found, were separated; they, prior to 

 that time, having been the same body of water. 



" The California State Fish Commission took 

 out thirty-six of these fish last year, and placed 

 them in the hatchery at Sissons. Through ac- 

 cident they all finally lost their lives. They 

 were, however, at the Sissons' hatchery for 

 eight months, and there was no sign of a 

 change of color. 



"The true Golden Trout is found only in 

 about three hundred yards of Whitney Creek, 

 below a fall of a couple of hundred feet in 

 height, and in the main Kern River. I visited 

 the place in 1893, and meet Mr. Gilbert there. 

 He, with a party, had been making a close 

 study of the fish at the time. The colorization 

 is so high that it can be plainly seen in dried 

 specimens. It is the gamiest trout I ever met 

 with, and attains a size of two pounds and up- 

 wards. The place where the fish are found is 

 quite easily accessible through Visalia and 

 Porterville, in Tulare County. But if you were 

 going in there for scientific purposes, I would 

 suggest that you go by the route that my party 

 took in 1893, that is, by Kernville, and up the 

 east side of the Kern River. My reason for 

 this suggestion is that twenty miles from Kern- 

 ville you begin to take trout bearing some of 

 the marks of the Golden Trout, and you find 

 them continuously until you get to Whitney 

 Creek. The Golden Trout is all golden, about 

 the color of a brilliant goldfish. There are 

 faint signs of dark spots running along each 

 side of the fish, and the top of each of the fins 

 is pure white. The hybrid trotit that we met 

 with from Brown's Meadows, above Kernville, 

 up to Whitney Creek, all have a great deal of 

 black markings; the golden colors are about as 

 brilliant as on the true trout, and the black 

 markings are exceedingly black. 



" If you have never visited this part of our 

 State, you will also find some very interesting 

 specimens of sea fish at Catalina, Clemente and 

 St. Nicholas Islands. Shovild 3^ou determine 

 to visit Southern California I would be very 

 happy to meet you, and think I could be of 

 some assistance to you in finding some of tlie 

 rare fish of tliis coast." 



Again, the Obnoxious Carp. 



Maybe it would interest you to know that in 

 the Tolleston Marsh hundreds of tons of carp 

 are netted there every season, and has become 

 quite an industry among the local inhabitants 

 at that point. The heaviest carp taken last 

 spring weighed 481 lbs. Numerous others of 

 not quite that weight have also been netted 

 there. 



Tolleston is located on the Michigan Central 

 Road just across the line in Indiana. The 

 marsh is owned by a number of Chicago gen- 

 tlemen, who use it as a resort for hunting, they 

 having a very fine club-house adjacent to the 

 marsh. The membership fee in this club is 

 $1,000. They complain bitterly of the carp in 

 their waters, on account of their eating wild 

 rice, lily-pads and lotus, and one gentleman, 

 whose veracity is beyond question, assured me 

 that in being pushed through the waters on 

 their way to the marsh, that the carp were so 

 plentiful that the flapping of their tails against 

 the boat could be distinctly heard and that they 

 could also see their tails sticking out of the 

 water with their heads buried in the mud along 

 the edges of the bank, eating the roots of the 

 rice weeds. Pickerel are the only other in- 

 habitants of these waters. 



Chicago, 111. Fred G.vrd.nek. 



The Champion Tarpon — 209 1=2 Pounds. 



We have seen many photos of. the fish, and 

 read several affidavits of the " high hook " fish- 

 ermen with their big tarpon caught at Aransas 

 Pass, Texas, that weighed when beached ex- 

 actly 209 V^ pounds, and gave the matter full 

 credit at the time; for did not Captain Willard, 

 now of Homosassa, Fla., tell us, years ago, 

 that he personally weighed a tarpon of 363 

 pounds, for which he paid one cent a pound 

 for fertilizing purposes. This particular silver 

 king was, however, caught in a net, but its 

 capture prepared us for tarpon of % cwt. yet 

 to be killed on rod and reel, and it hardly 

 needed the testimony of Ex-Gov. A. C. Mellette, 

 of North Dakota, to corroborate the weight of 

 the 209!^ pound tarjjon, of which and other 

 good things of Aransas Pass fishing, he ex- 

 citedly tells his brother angler of the Iiid/aii- 

 apolis Journal as follows: 



"Aransas Pass? It is the new deep-water 

 harbor on the Gulf of Mexico, and you mav 

 write it down as the veritable sportsman's para- 

 dise of all places I ever saw, and I know some- 

 thing of sport from my boyiiood in the wilds 



