A Sportsman 435 



The trout of the Rangeley Lakes probably average 

 larger than from any other waters. I should estimate 

 the average weight of those caught in the lakes at a 

 pound. I have not kept any particular record of my 

 catches of late years, but did until some twenty years 

 ago, when I had a record of over 6000 trout, which aver- 

 aged over a pound, but my catches then included 

 those of winter fishing through the ice, when the lakes 

 were but little visited, and before it was any infraction 

 of the law to so fish. I was very fond of those excur- 

 sions of two or three weeks at the lakes, with trout for 

 the object, and the auxiliaries of the robust open-air 

 life, the shooting, skating, and other sports. 



With a few companions, we would have no difficulty 

 in securing an average of fifty pounds of trout a day, 

 which, well frozen up, were carried out for distribution 

 among our friends. These winter trout would average 

 a full pound and a third, seldom taking under half a 

 pound, and up to an occasional seven- or eight-pounder. 



I have given considerable attention to the freezing of 

 fish, especially trout, during the winters when I have 

 been at the Rangeleys, during former years, when the 

 season was open for winter fishing through the ice. 

 Insensible to cold as the Rangeley fish seem to be, 

 they will invariably die in a short time when confined in 

 a car and pushed down under and next to the ice, while 

 they will live a long time in a weighted car if sunk to the 

 bottom. The sluggishness of the trout is clearly ap- 

 parent in the last part of the winter, and I have often 

 caught them in this advanced condition, when I have 

 wondered at their ability to take the bait. I am of the 

 opinion that many of them go into the mud along-side 

 the other fish. 



