Rainbow Trout 



where the individuals are small and brightly coloured, and 

 popularly regarded as a distinct species. 



It is thought by some anglers that the young fish hatched 

 in the brooks from eggs of the steelhead remain in mountain 

 streams from 6 to 36 months, going down to the sea with the high 

 waters of spring, after which they return to spawn as typical 

 steelhead trout. Those which are land-locked, or which do not 

 descend, remain rainbows all their lives. As against this view we 

 have the fact that to the northward the rainbow and the steelhead 

 are always distinguishable, and the scales in the latter are always 

 smaller than in typical rainbow trout. 



Salmo irideus reaches a weight of a half pound to 5 or 6 

 pounds, though in most of the streams in which it is found it 

 rarely exceeds 2 or 3 pounds. By many anglers it is regarded 

 as the greatest of all game-fishes. The consensus of opinion 

 among anglers, however, involves and is based upon experience 

 not only with typical irideus but with most others of the rainbow 

 series as well. While this is true, there is no doubt but that typical 

 irideus is a trout of exceeding gameness and is possibly a 

 greater fighter than any other of the group, when its weight is 

 considered. 



But the various forms of rainbow trout, wherever found, may 

 safely be said to have few, if any, equals among the Salmonidce. 



In beauty of colour, gracefulness of form and movement, 

 sprightliness when in the water, reckless dash with which it 

 springs from the water to meet the descending fly ere it strikes 

 the surface, and the mad and repeated leaps from the water 

 when hooked, the rainbow trout must ever hold a very high 

 rank. The gamest fish we have ever seen was a 1 6-inch rainbow 

 taken on a fly in a small spring branch tributary of Williamson 

 River in southern Oregon. It was in a broad and deep pool of 

 exceedingly clear water. As the angler from behind a clump of 

 willows made the cast the trout bounded from the water and met 

 the fly in the air a foot or more above the surface; missing it he 

 dropped upon the water only to turn about and strike viciously 

 a second time at the fly just as it touched the surface; though 

 he again missed the fly the hook caught him in the lower jaw 

 from the outside, and then began a fight which would delight 

 the heart of any angler. His first effort was to reach the bot- 

 tom of the pool, then, doubling upon the line, he made 3 jumps 



iq6 



