ON THE MANISTEE RIVER. 



A. ST. J. NEWBERRY. 



Two hundred miles Northwest of De- 

 troit, about half way between Lakes Huron 

 and Michigan, and almost exactly on the 

 watershed between them, the town of Gray- 

 ling stands, on light, sandy soil, of no value 

 for agriculture, and surrounded by miles 

 of stumps, all that the axe and saw have 

 left of once splendid forests of white pine. 

 Through the town itself flow the head 

 waters of the Ausable, "the river of the 

 sands," on their way to Lake Huron; and 

 a few miles to the West and North the 

 Manistee begins its course to Lake Michi- 

 gan. At one point the rivers are scarcely 



coarse, fighting with fury when hooked but 

 almost worthless when on the table, they 

 take the place and the food of their betters, 

 to the disgust of all right minded anglers. 

 They are a little better than pickerel, but 

 not much. This is hearsay evidence, but I 

 have no doubt it is true. 



The Westward stream, more fortunate, 

 contains no rainbows, and a good many 

 grayling, though the speckled trout predom- 

 inate. Visiting it in August, 1901, we took 

 trout and grayling in about equal num- 

 bers and size, and often alternately from 

 the same pool or riffle. Going there in 





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AMATEUR I^OTO BY A. ST. 



NEWBEKRY. 



OUR CAMP ON THE MANISTEE. 



more than a mile apart, being separated 

 only by a low, sandy ridge. Those streams, 

 like nearly all in that vicinity, are the orig- 

 inal home of the Michigan grayling, and a 

 few survivors of that beautiful species still 

 linger there, though logs have torn through 

 their spawning beds, and intruding fonti- 

 nalis, having worked its own way in from 

 other waters, and iridcus, unwisely intro- 

 duced by man into the Ausable, have har- 

 ried and persecuted their more timid and 

 delicate predecessors. My guides say that 

 today the Eastward river contains few 

 grayling, many speckled trout, and great 

 numbers of rainbows, which monopolize the 

 best water to the exclusion of their more 

 delicate and attractive associates. Big, 



June, 1902, and fishing the upper waters 

 only, 4 of us took in 4 days 150 good sized 

 trout, and not a single grayling. I fancy 

 that the spawning beds are lower down 

 the river, and that thymallus had not yet 

 ascended, after their spring nuptials, to the 

 part of the stream where we were camped. 

 The Manistee has a steady and moder- 

 ately rapid current, flowing over clean white 

 sand ; no rapids, but an alternation of pools 

 and shallows. The best trouting this spring 

 was on its course through a large tract of 

 cedar swamp, where the trees had all been 

 killed by fire or flood, and lined the water's 

 edges with a mass of fallen trunks and tops. 

 Among these the flies must be deftly placed, 

 using a rather long line; and a hooked fish 



359 



