THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



Coast region are populated almost entirely by the Cutthroat, and though 

 Rainbow and Dolly Varden are abundant in the seas of Alaska, our trout 

 of these species, most in streams east of the Cascades, seem to be too remote 

 from the sea to descend from so great a distance in great numbers. A few 

 months given to careful investigation would solve many important ques- 

 tions pertaining to migration of trout to the sea and their return to the 

 streams. 



HABITS OF CUTTHROAT TROUT. 



Their habits change with their growth, as ours. The fry, as soon as 

 they have become free of the egg sac, live mostly in the shallows at the 

 margin of the streams. This is their only chance of safety, fur the big 

 trout and other fish cannot and dare not pursue the fry into these shallows, 



At six months old they have become able to take care of themselves 

 by darting and dodging out of the way of their enemies, but they still seek 

 comparative safety in shallow rapids, where they feed on insects and little 

 creatures of the water. In very favorable conditions a Cutthroat of one 

 year old is six inches long, but most are smaller. In cold and rapid waters 

 and little spring-brooks they grow slowly, but when full-grown in such 

 waters rarely exceed eight inches. This is true of all our trout in such 

 conditions, many being adult, spawning fish even of this small size. 



Until their second year all trout and salmon bear "parr" marks — six 

 to nine broad vertical marks of a bluish hue. Most of us know these parr 

 marks, for we catch more parrs than "fish." 



At two years old they are adult, eight to twelve inches long, and spawn 

 for the first time. Then the males are in darker and more vivid colors, 

 and often purple or rosy-sided, which confuses them with the Rainbows. 

 The males also acquire a considerable increase of length of jaw, and the 

 upper jaw becomes slightly crooked, like the jaw of the breeding salmon, 

 but not nearly so exaggerated. These trout and all their kind spawn in 

 the upper waters and small streams, in the fall months in most rivers, but 

 in some very high mountain waters — especially lakes — after the ice melts 

 m spring. 



The habits of the kind of Cutthroat which we most admire — say a fish 

 of a pound or more, may be said to be despicable. This fish is too wise 

 by far. He will not even rise to a struggling grasshopper on the surface 

 in streams much fished. In great pools ten feet deep or more you may see 

 him with a dozen of his kind, balancing and wavering in the clear green 

 flood, close to the bottom, darting out now and then upon some luckless 

 minnow or drifting insect. You try all your wiles in vain. He may start 

 upward a foot or two when your flies first touch the water, but even that 

 moment of hope soon passes. I shall not try to tell you how to catch him. 

 If I knew I should catch him myself. 



On some rare day you may find him off his guard. It happens once in 

 a while — quite too rarely. I remember one April day — but if I told the 



Fag-e ten 



