Specimen of Steel Head Trout Cauqht in City Limits of Lewistown. 



twenty pounds, and in St. Mary's Lakes specimens have been taken 

 weighing twelve pounds, although from two to three pounds is about 

 the average size of the Montana whitefish. This fish is by many 

 people considered the best edible fish to be found anywhere, but it is 

 not a game fish; hence must be taken by means of the gill-net; it is 

 a very prolific fish, and a five-pound whitefish would yield fifty thou- 

 sand eggs, while a trout of that weight would not give to exceed one- 

 tenth this quantity of eggs. Some fourteen years ago this fish was 

 planted in Flathead Lake, and since that time whitefish fry have on 

 several occasions been planted in this and other lakes in Flathead 

 County, and during the past two years, five million eyed whitefish eggs 

 have been hatched at the Somers liatchery and placed in several of our 

 lakes. The attempt last summer to net whitefish in Flathead Lake, 

 while unsuccessful, was hardly a fair test as to whether these fish 

 existed in this rather large lake, for the reason that in the summer 

 season this fish is found only in the deep waters, while in the late 

 fall and early winter it seeks the more shallow reefs and bars, spawn- 

 ing in perhaps water from fifteen to forty feet in depth. The small 

 Rocky Mountain or Williamson whitefish is very plentiful in many of 

 our lakes and streams, especially in the Flathead Lakes, this is a most 

 delicious food fish and should be propagated more extensively at our 

 two hatcheries. This fish is one of the items of income at Sand Point, 

 Idaho, where forty thousand dollars worth of this fish were taken 

 through the ice in Lake Pend d'Oreille the past winter and largely sold 

 in Montana and Idaho. There does not appear to be any good reason 

 why this fish should not be treated as a commercial fish in Montana, 

 and thereby add to the means of obtaining a livelihood for a number 

 of our own home people. 



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