FISHES AND FISHING IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 81 



fishiiig is unexcelled need only be cited to controvert the contention. 

 One of these is Grand Lake, in the western St. Croix waters. In any 

 body of water one principal reason that lish are not taken on the fly 

 is that they are not fished for with the fly. Notwithstanding the 

 prevalent opinion that salmon never take the fly in Sebago Lake 

 owing to the smelt, whenever anyone has pez'sistently fished with a 

 fly salmon have been caught by that means, and one usually has to per- 

 sistently fish by any method to land many fish. Furthermore, the 

 writer has examined hundreds of Sebago salmon, and while the 

 majority, when they contained any food at all, have smelt in their 

 stomach, many have been found havmg insects only, and some con- 

 tainmg both insects and smelts or some other fish. 



These remarks apply mainly to tlie landlocked salmon and it may 

 be added that the writer has still-fished for smelts and salmon on 

 the same "ground" and used live smelt, live shiners, and pieces of 

 smelt for bait for salmon, and has caught just as many on shmers 

 as on smelt and nearly as many on the cut bait as on the live bait. 

 The scarcity of ''native trout" in Sunapee easily accounts for the 

 poor fishing with bait or fly. 



Wh'le the white trout has been taken on the fly, it is primarily a 

 deep-water fish and is taken mainly by bait. But m the way of 

 bait it does not seem to prefer smelts to some other bait. In Floods 

 Pond in Maine, where there are plenty of smelts, a small piece of 

 fresh uncooked lobster is an unexcelled bait. 



Apropos the scarcity of native trout and the growmg scarcity of 

 white trout, it might be well to say that which is suggested elsewhere 

 in this report, that had not Dr. Fletcher in his (or some one's else) 

 wisdom planted smelts in Sunapee Lake, the trout would have dis- 

 appeared before the salmon long ago, and the salmon would not have 

 lasted as long as they have. 



Smelts were first introduced into Sunapee Lake by Dr. Fletcher in 

 the spring of 1870. These, 700 in all, were obtained in Wimiepe- 

 saukee or a tributary lake. Another plant of 1,000 v/as made in 

 1872, but it is not stated from what water they were obtained. 

 The New Hampshire Fish Commissioner's report for this year states' 

 that several smelts were caught that spring in a brook running into 

 Sunapee Lake, where they were mtroduced two years before, and in 

 the report for 1873 it is said that smelts were seen in the streams 

 running mto the same lake, "attendmg to their propagatmg duties." 

 In two years the smelts manifested themselves in the brooks and the 

 next year were there m apparently increased numbers. In 40 years 

 they fairly swarmed in the lake; in fact, they have abounded there 

 for years. While the adult smelt easily succumbs, its eggs are hardv, 

 especially after they are ''eyed," and may, with reasonable care, be 

 transported long distances. 

 97705°— 13 6 



