THE GAME FISHES OP THE WOELD 



I have had so many delightful hours with the rainbow on the 

 Pacific Coast in various streams, lakes and preserves, that it is 

 particularly gratifying to know that British anglers will have an 

 opportunity to enjoy this sport. As ' John Bickerdyke ' says in 

 the volume mentioned, if I may be pardoned for copying from him 

 to such an extent, ' So far as sport-giving quaUties are concerned, 

 JSalmo irideus is, I am inclined to say, superior to our river brown 

 trout when in good condition, fighting as gamely as OM/'.sea trout.' 

 Then follows a warm encomium of other qualities of the native 

 American trout which, unquestionably, wiU thrive, if given 

 favourable conditions, in cool slow-flowing rivers, with an abund- 

 ance of food and, as a suggestion, minnows. Some idea of the 

 size of the American rainbow trout can be gained from the 

 •catches of recent yearsi, particularly that of Mr. J. B. Lippineott, 

 of Los Angeles, California, who has a record in the shape of a 

 twenty-one-pounder, a description of which he kindly sends me 

 for this volume : 



' This trout,' writes Mr. lippineott, ' was caught on the morning of 

 June 20, 1906, from a boat on the clear water of Pelican Bay, which is an 

 arm of Klamath Lake. It measiu-ed thirty -four and three-quarter inches 

 in length, twenty -two inches in girth, and weighed twenty-one pounds. I 

 used a seven-ounce rod with an eight-foot single-gut leader, and an abalone 

 shell spoon. The spoon was about four inches long. It required thirty 

 minutes to bring the fish to gaff. Mr. Kendall, who owns the Lodge, 

 pronounced it a Silver Lake trout. Mr. Flynn of Sacramento, who holds 

 the Gold Medal issued by the Midwinter Fair for long-distance fly casting, 

 was with me in the boat when the fish was caught, and it would have been 

 impossible for me to have landed it had it not been for his skilful handling 

 of the boat and gaff. The fish jumped free from the water at least half 

 a dozen times, and took us twice across the arm of Pelican Bay where we 

 were fishing during the time we were fighting him. We cooked the fish 

 and found the flesh most excellent and finely flavoured, and it was suffi- 

 cient for eighteen people at a dinner given in its honour. An interesting 

 thing about this trout was, that when he was cleaned, a fish nearly ten 

 inches long was found in his stomach. 



' On the preceding morning the two of us caught twenty-eight pounds 

 of trout weighing six pounds and less each. I consider the fishing around 

 the Upper Klamath Lake the finest that I have ever found in the United 

 States.' 

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