Among the Ciscoes of Lake Geneva. 
that grand old angler and fish culturist, 
Seth Green, had to say on the subject 
of the cisco and catching them. On 
November 30, 1884, he wrote us: 
‘‘The ciscos can be caught during 
the months of May and June, by using 
the artificial fly, the same as in trout 
fishing. They come to the surface 
during those months to feed on the 
flies, which are usually very abundant. 
The artificial flies should be made to 
imitate the flies on the water. They 
are caught in this way in Geneva lake, 
Wisconsin, and I have taken them in 
Irondequoit bay, in the vicinity of 
Rochester. They require cold water, 
and are never found near the shore, or 
on the surface when the water becomes 
warm, at which time they settle into 
deep water. They could then be taken 
by fishing with very fine tackle, using 
a small minnow, which should not be 
more than one and a half to two inches 
long, or worms for bait. The minnow 
would be liable to be the most success- 
ful. These fish travel in schools, and 
the great difficulty would be to find a 
school. If you succeeded you would 
surely take them. 
‘«T would advise having several hooks 
baited and attached to a fine gut leader. 
Have some of the hooks baited with 
worm and some with minnow. Ishould 
prefer Sneck hook, size No. 6 or 7. In 
the fall they come into the shallow 
water to spawn, and that is the reason 
you see them now.” 
We could fill many papers with ex- 
cerpts from letters received during the 
past ten years anent the cisco and the 
‘‘herrings’”’ so called, in all of which, 
however, there is but one opinion and 
experience, that the cisco, in average 
waters, rises in May and June to the 
natural fly, but is not a hard fighter; is 
caught at other times with live minnow 
251 
bait and comes into shoal water in Oc- 
tober and November to spawn, at which 
time they will not take a lure of any 
description. The consensus of the re- 
ports received is that the ciscoes or 
‘‘herrings ”’ of the Great Lakes vary in 
size and, whilecommercially in demand, 
possess no special flavor of flesh to at- 
tract the gourmet. 
With the above facts in hand, the 
anglers of Lake Geneva can set aside 
for their beautiful fish its own ichthic 
niche of honor. ‘Certainly it has above 
its congeners many qualities of a grade 
worthy of such award. It rises eagerly 
to a floating fly, fights with the vigor, 
if not the strength, of a lusty trout; it 
is a bottom riser, like the grayling, and 
is gifted with great range of vision, 
for it will come a hundred feet to seize 
an ephemera not more than half an 
inch in length. It is an exceptionally 
colored fish, with a metallic sheen of 
mingled green, blue and rose tints above 
the lateral line, and silver sides glow- 
ing in lustre equal to that of the molten 
metal on the tarpon, the acrobat of the 
Southern seas. The fiavor of its flesh, 
flaky and creamy, is peculiarily sweet 
and appetizing, and can only be de- 
scribed by calling it of cisco savor, for 
no other fish, to our tongue, except the 
pompano, has such a characteristic and 
pleasing taste. It commands, during 
the season, $1 per pound, an equal 
price with that of the brook trout, the 
fad fish of the aristocrat’s table, which, 
unlike the cisco, is only fine in flavor 
when cooked fresh from the water. 
The Lake Geneva fish runs almost 
mathematically uniform in size, ten to 
eleven inches, thus differing from those 
of its kind found in other waters, and 
if the habit of fall spawning in the 
shoal waters, like all other ciscoes or 
‘herrings ’’ of the lakes, is not a trait 
of the fish of Lake Geneva, they cer- 
tainly are an unique fish, and entirely 
worthy of what is proudly claimed for 
them, ‘‘a fish peculiar to our lake,” 
by the residents on the banks of this 
beautiful water. 
