424 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



New York State Fish Commission, informed me that he 

 had hatched trout in February, had kept them in cap- 

 tivity until April three years thereafter, when the largest 

 weighed four pounds and ten ounces, while others of 

 the same hatching, to the number of about one hundred, 

 weighed three pounds and upward each. Having men- 

 tioned that he had a number of trout hatched under his 

 supervision in the spring of 1898, impounded near by, 

 he kindly offered to show me some and let me see for 

 myself how they had grown. The next day, May 7, 

 1899, he submitted thirty of them to my inspection. I 

 spread them out in a row, selected six as near the aver- 

 age in point of size as my eye would enable me to judge, 

 and weighed them on a set of scales graduated to read 

 to the half -ounce. These scales were of the balance 

 variety and were carefully adjusted to insure accuracy. 

 The six weighed one and a half ounces less than three 

 pounds, though but fourteen months from the egg. 

 These fish had been fed almost wholly on beef hearts. 



But all these seem to have been cases of domesticated 

 trout artificially fed. Some definite knowledge in re- 

 gard to the growth of wild trout is very desirable. From 

 the very nature of the case it must vary widely in differ- 

 ent localities, since the ultimate result is so different; 

 still it would be well if every angler who had any defi- 

 nite information on the subject, no matter how restrict- 

 ed in scope, should make it a matter of record. Ulti- 

 mately some enthusiast would collate these scattered 

 facts, and thus and only thus, as far as I can see, can 

 the desired information be obtained. 



That I may practise what I preach, I relate the fol- 

 lowing incident, one of the pleasantest in my fishing 

 experience. 



