FISHES AND FISHING IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 



41 



1907 no salmon were taken; in 1908, 4 salmon were taken, 3 of which 

 were females, but no eggs were obtamed; in 1909, 1 female only was 

 caught. An unsuccessful attempt was made to fertilize the eggs 

 with chinook milt. 



In 1910 the Nashua fisheries station party began setting gill nets 

 September 15, attempting to get chinooks. Up to October 14, 

 only a few small trout and two landlocked salmon of about 5 or 6 

 pounds each had been taken. 



October 17 thres gill nets, each 100 feet long, set in a string offshore 

 in water from H to 4 or 5 feet deep, near the mouth of Pike Brook, 

 just about dusk took two salmon, one a female estimated to weigh 

 8 pounds, the other a male of about 6 pounds. The male has a 

 strongly hooked lower jaw, and was more slender than the female. 

 The female was plump and pretty, full of roe, but not ripe, although 

 well advanced. The abdomen was plump and hard, contracting 

 about the vent. The male had a short gash in its side which was 

 somewhat fungus-gi^own. 



In 1911, on September 24, Mr. DeRocher caught in a gill net 

 off the ''Banks," in about 30 feet of water, a female landlocked 

 salmon; on November 6, m nets off mouth of Pike Brook, one ripe 

 female of strong 5 pounds was taken; and on November 10, at the 

 ''Reef," the fisheries party took in a gill net one landlocked salmon 

 17J inches long, apparently a male. 



The following is a record of the plants of young landlocked salmon 

 m Sunapee Lake, as shown by the New Hampshire and United 

 States Fish Commission reports: 



1867 50 



1877 700 



1878 6,000 



1879 ]0, 000 



1881 4, 000 



1882 (by United States) 15, 000 



1882 (by State ?) 5, 000 



1884 15,000 



1885 10,000 



1886 25,000 



1887 40,000 



1888 45,000 



1889 75,000 



1890 95,000 



1891 65, 000 



1892 34, 000 



1894 105,000 



1896 30,000 



1898 50,000 



1900 35,000 



1902 (by United States) 59 



1903- .^ 20,000 



1904 3,000 



1904 (by United States) 8, 250 



1905 (by United State?) 1, 120 



1906 (by United States) 13, 640 



1907 12,000 



1907 (by United States) 12, 905 



1909 -. 4,000 



Total 739, 724 



The catch of "a large number weighing from 5 to 7h pounds" 

 in 1883 must have been from the plants of the years 1877 to 1882, 

 inclusive, the extreme period of growth to these weights being about 

 five years. In about 12 years from the first plant in the lake 

 Sunapee salmon stock was considered self-sustaining. The fish 



