The Ouananiche 



As a game-fish, those who have had experience with the 

 ouananiche think it has no equal. They may be taken at any 

 time between the going out of the ice and the middle of Sep- 

 tember, though the best fishing is said to be late in May. 

 During the early part of the season it may be taken with bait 

 of worms, pork, pieces of chub, or even ouananiche itself along 

 the shore of Lake St. John. It is occasionally taken then with the 

 artificial fly, but fly-fishing for the ouananiche is usually not a 

 successful method of capturing it. 



According to Mr. Chambers, who has written a delightful 

 volume on the ouananiche, no better direction can be given for 

 angling for the fish in the lake itself than some of the quaint 

 instructions for catching salmon, of Thomas Barker, in Barker's 

 Delight, or the Art of Angling: 



"The angler that goeth to catch him with a line and 

 hook must angle for him as nigh the middle of the water as he 

 can with one of these baits: He must take 2 bob-worms, 

 baited as handsomely as he can, that the 4 ends may hang meet 

 of a length, and so angle as nigh the bottom as he can, feeling 

 your plummet run on the ground some 12 inches from the 

 hook: if you angle for him with a flie (which he will rise at 

 like a trout) the flie must be made of a large hook, which hook 

 must carry six wings, or four at least; there is judgment in mak- 

 ing these flyes. The salmon will come at a gudgeon in the 

 manner of a trouling, and cometh at it bravely, which is fine 

 angling for him and good. You must be sure that you have 

 your line of twenty-six yards of length, that you may have your 

 convenient time to turne him, or else you are in danger to lose 

 him: but if you turne him you are very like to have the fish 

 with small tackles; the danger is all in the running out both of 

 salmon and trout, you must forecast to turn the fish as you do 

 a wild horse, either upon the right or left hand, and wind up 

 your line as you finde occasion in the guiding the fish to the 

 shore." 



At the Grand Decharge the ouananiche will take the fly at 

 any time, but not so freely after the middle of July. In the 

 northern tributaries of Lake St. John they may be taken at the 

 surface during July and August. 



The Rev. Henry Van Dyke writes thus entertainingly of the 

 ouananiche: 



171 



