20 FAMILIAR PISH, THEIR HABITS AND CAPTURE 



The red salmon, or " redfish " — or blue-back, as it is 

 usually designated on the Columbia Kiver — is most 

 plentiful in Alaska, and is the one mostly used by the 

 many canneries from Sitka northward. The king 

 salmon is the largest and most valuable, however, and 

 is canned in great numbers on the Columbia. It is a 

 curious fact that, while the Atlantic salmon takes the 

 fly readily in fresh water, its five relatives of the 

 Pacific do not. This is because they never feed in 

 fresh water. They are usually netted or speared as. 

 in vast schools, they run up the rivers to the spawn- 

 ing grounds on the Columbia. Sometimes they are 

 caught by means of large buckets attached to wheels, 

 which are revolved by the current. These buckets 

 scoop up the fish as they ascend, depositing them in 

 troughs. To the angler this appears to be a crime, 

 but any method of taking fish wholesale" is open to 

 that criticism. Year by year, from Alaska to Cali- 

 fornia, more salmon are caught than are born, and 

 each species is on the way toward partial extinction. 



As already stated, the most widely distributed 

 and most plentiful of the salmon family in the regions 

 of the East generally frequented by anglers — the one 

 with which all are familiar — is the brook or speckled 

 trout, red -spotted with markings of green. It is 

 found from Maine to Georgia in all clear waters 

 suitable for its life, westward throu^-li the Great 



