552 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



Lakes as a famous locality for large fish and mentioned one obtained by Prof. Agassiz in 

 i860 that weighed 1 1 pounds. 



In 1905, in answer to an inquiry by Maine Woods, State Fish Commissioner H. O. 

 Stanley stated that the largest trout he had ever seen taken in Rangeley waters and 

 weighed, was caught by Luman Sargent, an Upton guide, which tipped the scales at 

 iiX pounds. The next largest was one that he, himself, had caught which weighed 

 loX pounds. Mr. Stanley said that this was the famous fish that George Shepard Page 

 took to New Jersey. Mr. Stanley continued that in his "boyhood days more than 60 

 years ago" he had seen larger fish that his father used to bring home from those famous 

 waters in the fall. The fish were not weighed, having been dressed and salted when 

 they were brought home, but as he recalled them they looked more like codfish than 

 trout. He said that he had no doubt but that larger fish than the first two mentioned 

 had been caught, but he had never known one to be weighed. 



The records and data referred to in the following pages were compiled from Forest 

 and Stream, the American Angler, and Maine Woods. Back numbers of the latter 

 previous to 1903 were not available, but it supplements the other two, which about 

 that time ceased to publish regular accounts. The information is probably far from 

 complete, excepting, perhaps, that relating to the very large fish. Probably all fish 

 above 9 pounds of weight that have been caught since the first issues of Forest and 

 Stream have been recorded and probably most of those of 9 and 8 pounds taken by 

 anglers; in other words, those that were large enough to attract attention in a region 

 noted for large trout. 



Aside from the fabulous monsters previously mentioned, no authentic record of 

 a Rangeley trout above 12^ pounds appears. There are four records of Rangeley 

 Lakes trout weighing from 12 to 12^ pounds, of which only two are authentic, the 

 others being more or less uncertain estimates. All but one of these were taken on the 

 spawning beds, and the exception is a 9^-pound fish reported as weighing 13 pounds. 



The first was the one caught by Mr. Stanley, with which George Shepard Page's 

 name has been associated. Concerning this fish, Mr. Page wrote in Forest and Stream, 

 June, 1883, that in 1867 he carried alive to his private pond in New Jersey a female 

 trout weighing 8ys pounds and a male that weighed exactly 10 pounds. They were 

 weighed after they had been three weeks in captivity, during which time the}- had 

 eaten nothing. In Mr. Page's words, "They had endured the discomforts of 9 miles 

 across Rangeley Lake in a fish car which contained 43 brook trout averaging 5 pounds 

 each, 35 miles by wagon road, 400 miles by railroad, across Boston and New York by 

 express wagon, and 2 miles by wagon in New Jersey. Describing this experience on 

 one occasion to the late Prof. Agassiz, I inquired what they probably lost in weight. 

 He replied, 'The male trout at least 2^2 pounds and the female 1)4 pounds.' " This 

 would make them 12^ and gj4 pounds, respectively. The male trout was 30 inches 

 in length, 18 inches in circumference, and 11 inches in diameter. In Forest and Stream 

 Mr. Page later stated that the male fish weighed after death 10 pounds and i ounce and 

 that according to Stanley and Atkins it would weigh approximately 12 pounds. 



This weight was not equaled until 1 1 years later, when two men dipping blueback 

 trout, in October, 1878, caught two trout, one of which, a female, according to Com- 

 missioner Stanley, weighed 12 pounds and a male that weighed io>^ pounds. Both 

 were returned to the water. This is possibly the record referred to by Capt. Barker 



