620 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 
the river and which occasionally, indeed very often, get hold of the 
hooks, would break a smaller size. In the fall the salmon are all gone 
and smaller hooks can be used. We file off the beard of the hook to 
some extent to make it easier to extract the hook from the fish’s mouth 
without killing it. Sometimes when the hook cannot readily be drawn 
out the usual way, Mr. Green saves the fish by cutting the line and 
drawing the hook out the other way. Sometimes in clear pools (and the 
McCloud is a very clear river usually), the trout will take alarm at the 
line and will not bite, though they can be seen in considerable numbers 
about the hooks. When this happens, Mr. Green hides the lines under 
the sand on the bottom of the river and leaves only the hooks and bait 
visible. Then the trout will bite. When the trout are suspicious of the 
bait they disturb it with their tails and examine it before biting at it. 
Mr. Green is quite sure that these trout are all in the habit of stirring 
up the bottom of the river with their tails when they are foraging for 
food. They also have this peculiarity, so different from the eastern 
trout (Salmo fontinalis), viz, that they swim partly on one side when in 
search of food, with one eye inclined downward so that they see what is 
on the bottom. 
When a new place has been selected for setting a line we usually 
“salt the ground” pretty well with bait—that is, scatter salmon eggs 
over it for three or four days before we begin to fish the place. This 
attracts the trout to the spot and gets them familiar with it. The only 
bait we ever use is salmon eggs. This is by far the most “killing” bait, 
to use a sportsman’s term, which is rather inapplicable here, as we do 
all we can to avoid killing the trout. No other bait for trout begins to 
compare with salmon eggs in effectiveness in this river. It is used alto- 
gether here when it can be obtained, not only by usin capturing breed- 
ers, but by all the sportsmen who come here to fish. As fish culturists, 
however, we should feel some compunction about destroying so many 
salmon eggs did we not recall the many millions of them which we 
annually batch for the benefit of this river. 
When the dried eggs are used for bait Mr. Green puts two on each 
hook. This is in the fall when the small hooks are used. At this sea- 
son and with these hooks we do not lose over one trout in twenty from 
injuries in catching them. In summer, when large hooks are used, we 
kill about one in eight in getting the hook out. As soon as the fish are 
caught they are taken as rapidly as possible to the nearest corral. These 
corrals, of which we have a good many along the river, are temporary 
ponds made merely to hold the trout until we are ready to bring them 
to the regular trout ponds, and are used to save making a journey to 
the trout ponds every time a fish is caught at a long distance off. When 
the fishing is over, for the night or day, as the case may be, the trout 
which have been placed in the temporafy corrals are collected together 
and taken to the trout ponds, where they are deposited. 
We use for carrying the live trout the common five-gallon rectangular 
