A Sportsman 429 



that he must weigh 1 5 Ibs. Well, he was taken one day 

 by an old guide, who would have scorned to have taken 

 him any other way than fairly, but most curiously 

 he was taken while everybody was at dinner, and ac- 

 cording to the guide's account he had allowed his worm- 

 baited hook to rest on the bottom for a while, from which 

 it was seized by the old patriarch, and in natural 

 sequence completed his foraging adventures and he 

 soon lay gasping on the green grass. He did not 

 prove to be 15 Ibs. in weight, or 3 ft. long; in fact, was 

 a very short trout for his weight, measuring exactly 

 27^ in. in length, and of magnificent color. His photo- 

 graph, life-size, is before me. 



A remarkable and well-authenticated catch was 

 made by my friend the Hon. H. O. Stanley, of Dixfield 

 Me., some years ago, in the large lake, of five trout in 

 one day, and all with a fly, which weighed 42 Ibs., the 

 largest weighing 10 Ibs. and the smallest 7 Ibs. It is 

 doubtful if this catch with a fly has ever been exceeded 

 by any fisherman at the Rangeley Lakes in a single day. 



We find in men the characteristics peculiar to cli- 

 mate, soil, and food. So with trout, excepting that they 

 show much more prominently than with the human race 

 the disparities occasioned by their surroundings. Once 

 when fishing through the ice for several days with a 

 friend at a certain place on the lake where we had re- 

 markably good luck in getting short, thick trout, and 

 which place, by the way, produces the heaviest trout in 

 the lake for length, and after pulling out a fat 4-pounder 

 which hardly measured 16 in. in length, I remarked to 

 my friend that he would probably be surprised to catch a 

 i J lb. trout which would exceed the 4-pounder in length. 

 In demonstration of this we set a dozen lines in 30 ft. 



