THE GAME FISHES OF THE WOELD 



I haTe never seen a salmon leap here, but am told that they do. 

 Several which I took rose to the surface and the water boiled 

 about them. The sport can be compared only to yellowtail 

 fishing, the play of the salmon much resembling that of the 

 yeUowtail. But it has several hundred feet of water beneath it ; 

 hence wiU go down and sulk if allowed. In September, or late 

 in August, the salmon move north and enter the Sacramento* 

 Klamath and other rivers which lead them hundreds of nules 

 from the ocean never to return, as all Pacific Coast salmon 

 die after spawning. I have referred particularly to the chinook 

 salmon as I believe it is the best game fish ; but it is but one 

 in a number of commercially valuable salmon of the coast. 

 The average rod 'catch was twenty-five or thirty pounders, 

 and the morning catch of the anglers often equalled thirty or 

 forty fish running up to fifty pounds. The fishing lasts imtil 

 eleven or twelve o'clock when the strong inshore wind begins 

 and ends the sport of the rod fisherman, so far as comfort is 

 concerned. 



There are five distinct species of salmon on this coast : the 

 king salmon or quinnat {Oncorhynchus tschawytscha), already re- 

 ferred to, which I have taken in the Williamson Eiver of Oregon 

 and in the Pacific Ocean at Monterey ; the blueback salmon 

 or red fish, or sock eye (0. nerka), which attains a weight of five 

 or eight pounds ; the silver salmon, or coho (0. milMscMtsch), 

 with a maximum weight of five or eight poxmds ; the dog salmon, 

 ealico salmon, chum or sakfe (0. Jceta), which reaches a weight of 

 ten pounds ; the humpback salmon, or piak salmon (0. gor- 

 buscha) ; a little salmon of five pounds, and the Masu (0. masou). 

 Nearly aU these salmon, in the localities in which they are found, 

 doubtless will afford some sport to the angler with a spoon or 

 bait. But there is nothing to compare with the fly fishing of the 

 Atlantic salmon, though I question if an angler could have better 

 or more spirited game than I did on the Williamson, and had the 

 fish been played with a heavier rod it certainly would have 

 afforded sport comparable with that afforded by an EngUsh salmon. 

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