308 
remove it to find the beautiful flesh at 
hand. Appreciation of their merit is 
manifest by the numerous boxes one 
sees at the Truckee station en route for 
the gourmet of San Francisco. 
In Lake Tahoe, a large body of ex- 
ceedingly deep. water, this trout has 
been known to reach the 
weight of 30 ib. They are not infre- 
quently taken there, weighing I2and 15 
fb. The fishing there is all done by 
deep-water trolling. A stout hand line, 
a huge spoon with a large hook, drag- 
ging some eighteen inches behind it, 
on which is placed a good sized min- 
now,areemployed. The fish, however, 
are said to be without much life, and 
are pulled aboard like so many. cod. 
enormous 
It was a great pleasure to meet so many ~ 
of the expert anglers of San Francisco 
and San Jose at Webber; good com- 
panions all, and many of them highly 
skilled in the art. 
The fish commissioners of the State of 
California, under the able and ener- 
getic administration of their chairman, 
the Hon. Henry F. Emeric, have done 
worlds of service in stocking the rivers 
and lakes. All true anglers owe to 
them, and the generosity of their State, 
a debt of gratitude. Webber has a 
large yearly supply of young fish from 
this source, which, with the natural 
breeding in the brooks flowing into it, 
keeps the lake teeming with trout. 
They have introduced our Eastern 
brook trout as well as black bass, into 
various waters of the State, and numer- 
ous other food fishes, such as striped 
bass, whitefish from the great lakes, 
lake trout, and, unfortunately, carp. 
There appears to be a prejudice 
against our brook trout in California, 
such as we at first manifested toward 
the “rainbow” when first introduced 
into Eastern waters. This, however, 
The American Angler 
will probably disappear when the sub- 
ject is more thoroughly investigated. 
The rainbow was first placed by us in 
the still-water ponds of Long Island; 
waters entirely unsuited to his nature, 
and we found him a gameless fish, from 
the anglers’ point of view. Afterwards 
a number were freed in the streams 
which flowed from the ponds into the 
salt water of the great South Bay. The 
change was at once apparent. The 
fish, which now run up and down the 
rivers in the spring time, are as game as 
their brothers of the McCloud. They 
have found acongenial home. So will 
it be with the Eastern brook trout intro- 
duced into California waters. 
The present prevailing prejudice 
probably comes, in a great part, from 
the fish placed in the lakes of the 
Country Club of San Francisco and the 
little Lake of the Woods close by 
Webber. In both places, with a super- 
abundance of food, they have grown 
enormously, and one may say enor- 
mously homely to look upon. Fat and 
stubby and coarse, almost beyond rec- 
ognition, they neither rise to the fly 
with avidity like our home-bred fish, 
nor give much play when taken with 
bait or spoon. 
The reason is clear. The waters are 
unsuited to them. Up in the Webber 
region this is made manifest. <A few of 
these brook trout were placed in Lake 
Webber when the Lake of the Woods 
was stocked. The waters of Lake 
Webber are especially suited to trout, 
as is shown by the fact that while the 
cut-throat is a poor, sportless thing in 
Lake Tahoe, once placed in Webber he 
becomes a jumper and a fighter. So 
with our Eastern brook trout. In Web- 
ber he is a fighter too. 
I happened to witness the struggle 
made by one of those trout taken by 
