THE RAINBOW TROUT IN MICHIGAN 



By Seymour Bower, 



superintendent michigan fish commission, 



detroit, mich. 



The few points I desire to present in regard to rainl)ow 

 trout cannot be considered as rising to the dignity of a for- 

 mal paper, Ijut are offered for what they are worth and 

 mainly with a view to calling- out discussion as to the relative 

 \'alue and comparative merits of one of the gamest of Amer- 

 ican fishes. In speaking of rainbow trout I wish to explain 

 that I also include steelheatl trout, which for practical pur- 

 poses may be considered one and the same species. Indeed, 

 so high an authority as Dr. Da\'id Starr Jordan told me 

 within the past thirty days that he now considers the rainl)ow 

 and steelhead as one species, although he was formerly in 

 doubt and at one time regarded them as separate. 



The introduction of rainbow trout into Michigan streams 

 dates back to the early eighties, in fact, a small planting of 

 rainbows was made in the Ausable River in the middle seven- 

 ties by the late N. W. Clark, of Clarkston, and the late 

 lOaniel Fitzhugh. of Bay City. Prior to that time the rain- 

 bow was a total stranger to Michigan waters and was en- 

 tirely unknown throughout the east and middle west. For 

 nearly twenty years after the first planting by the Michigan 

 h'ish Commission, the distribution was exceedingly limited 

 in numbers and w^as confined to a few streams. The total 

 number planted by the Michigan Fish Commission from 1880 

 to 1889, inclusive, was only 67,000 fry. During the next 

 decade the total of the plants was 437,000, or an average of 

 less than 50,000 per year. Beginning with the year 1900, 

 however, the distribution of rainbows by the ]^.Iichigan 

 Board was made on a somewhat more generous scale. From 

 1900 to 1903, inclugive, a total of about 5,500,000 fry and 



