HISTORY OF SALMON ANGLING IN NEW ENGLAND. 103 



St. Croix River. 



The season at the pool below the Union Mills at Calais, Maine, opened in 1895 with 

 the taking of two fish in May. Local anglers fished the pool several years previously 

 but kept no records. Late in the above noted month Warden Albert French broke the 

 record for this spot with a catch of four fish weighing 17J^, 123^, 10 and eight and one- 

 half pounds. In 1896, the June run at the Calais pool was unprecedented, 20 fish being 

 hooked, though but seven were landed. There was good fishing in July and August. 

 The 1897 season must have been most satisfactory, as a July report gives the catch to 

 that time as 105 fish. The 1898 season opened with a landing by Frank Todd of St. 

 Stephen with an 113/2-pound fly fish. The record fish for this spot — the Calais Pool — 

 was landed in June, 1898, by Albert French. It weighed 29 pounds, was 38 inches long 

 and 12 inches between dorsal and ventral fins. The 1900 report on May 26 indicated 

 another good season, at last, after several years of poor fishing. Warden French opened 

 the 1901 season in early May by landing a 203^-pound fish. 



Aroostook River. 



Earliest reports of salmon fishing at Caribou came out in 1890 when an editor caught 

 an eight pound fish in the pool below the Caribou dam, the first fish that season, and 

 taken on a six-ounce bamboo rod with a five cent brown hackle fly after a three-hour 

 tussle. Several others were taken on flies during the summer but none were killed with 

 spears. The state planned a fish way over the dam this year. In 1893 salmon were 

 reported quite plentiful; in 1894 the season opened with the landing of a nine and one- 

 half pounder. In 1895, the new fishway over the Aroostook River dam was completed 

 to the delight of the anglers. Otter River, a tributary, was the scene of the landing of a 

 nine and one-half pound salmon and here too, in 1897, a 16-year-old boy, fishing for 

 trout, is credited with landing a 12 pounder. At the Caribou Pool the first fish of 1898 

 weighed 163^ pounds. 



In June, 1902, the author visited the region and fished the pool. A very few salmon 

 had been caught that season, according to report. The river was low and evidently no 

 salmon were then in the pool. It was alleged by those in position to know that poachers 

 killed about all the salmon down river, practically preventing any from reaching Caribou 

 pool. That salmon spawned to some extent in the river was indicated by the fact that 

 the author caught on a large silver doctor salmon fly a young salmon not much if any 

 over six inches long. The fishway by this dam was in a bad condition, each compartment 

 having been filled with rocks, by some unprincipled individuals of the neighborhood, 

 probably the above-mentioned poachers or some like them. Recent information con- 

 cerning this river as a salmon stream is wanting. 



