RANGELEY LAKES, MAINE: FISHES, ANGLING, AND FISH CULTURE. 545 



but in this case the best fishing is in the latter part of the winter. Therefore, it would 

 seem that to some extent its abstinence, if any, is enforced partly by scarcity of food. 



There seem to be instances, judging by the behavior of the fish toward anglers, 

 when the fish do not feed much during the summer months, especially at the surface in 

 warm bodies of water, and such feeding as there is occurs during the night or on over- 

 cast or rainy days. Moreover, during the recognized fishing season there are often days 

 when the fish will not take bait or fly, and during the day when feeding the time is usually 

 early in the morning or in the cool of the evening. 



It is a matter of common remark that on some days trout will bite ravenously and 

 on the following day or for days it will not bite at all; also, at times the fish will rise to 

 a fly freely for some time and then suddenly cease to rise, although there are many 

 fish still there. Pertinent to this subject at the Rangeley Lakes, an angler wrote 

 regarding September fishing that for lo successive days he cast steadily, "whipping 

 every nook and comer" of the pool at Upper Dam, without a single rise, yet he could 

 see the big fellows breaking water every little while. He said that on September 15 

 he fished Cedar Tree, Minters Favorite, and Metallak Brook without getting a rise. 

 Then he tried Brandy Point, Sandy Cove, and Trout Cove with the same result. 

 "The fish were there — I saw dozens break water — but they would not bite." 



In contrast to the foregoing experience was that of another angler, who, speaking 

 of the pool below the old stone dam at Upper Dam, said that it was a cold, blustering 

 gusty day, with occasional sleet, late in September, so cold that he frequently had to 

 go ashore to a fire to warm his benumbed hands. He stated that he caught on a fly in 

 rapid succession 10 fish, ranging from 3 to 8f^ pounds and aggregating 57 pounds. 



Referring to the celebrated Marble-Morse fish mentioned in another place in this 

 report, an angler present at the time of its capture wrote that he remembered how for 

 several years in the autumn the great trout came alone to the same place in a moderate 

 swirl of water above the dam. He said that the fish became the target of many ambitious 

 efforts of both fly casters and bait dabblers. On occasions he would signify his presence 

 by rising to the surface, and with a quiet surface and the sun's rays in a favorable quarter 

 he could be observed lying quietly or slowly moving about. Flies were cast and sunk, 

 also worms, grasshoppers were lowered and trolled in vain, until one day an old guide 

 "who would have scorned to have taken him any other way than fairly, allowed his 

 worm-baited hook to rest upon the bottom for a while, from which it was seized by 

 the fish, which soon lay gasping on the grass." 



It is evident that the apparent caprices or idiosyncracies of trout are too much 

 individualized to permit of much generalization. There are several things that may be 

 assigned as at least partial causes of some of the phenomena exhibited by the fish. 

 It has been noticed that when feeding it will fill itself to repletion and then periods of 

 varying length ensue when the fish will not take food at all. Apparently having become 

 surfeited, it puts in the rest of the time in utilizing what it has acquired. Changes of 

 temperature and barometric pressure and other meteorological conditions may also be 

 assignable explanations, and there may be more truth than poetry in the old rhyme 

 relating to the direction of the winds. 



Habitats. — In the spring of the year the trout begins to scatter and often may be 

 found at almost any point in the lake, its location being controlled by its food supply to 

 a great extent. But as the hot weather approaches it becomes more and more restricted 



