Photo by Frederick Slocum 



TWO OF A KIND 



SUMMER ON HIGHLAND LAKE 



BY JOHN HARRINGTON KEENE 



N MY experience of forty 

 years of angling I have 

 never spent with more 

 pleasure any summer in 

 either of two continents 

 than that of nineteen 

 hundred and five on the 

 shores and waters of 

 Highland Lake, of Winsted, Connecticut. 

 This lake is the reservoir of crystal springs 

 that furnishes the water supply of the beauti- 

 ful town of Winsted, both for drinking and 

 extensive manufactures, and the lakes, 

 divided into three large bays of over a mile 

 each long, are about eight miles in circum- 

 ferential extent, around which a perfect 

 driving and pedestrian road circles, and is 

 surmounted by the most luxurious and 

 glorious tree vegetation, tier on tier for 

 miles on every side. 



Secluded from the public sight, but not 

 hidden, are some seventy-five cottages of 

 summer dwellers, mostly the inhabitants 

 of Winsted and the neighborhood, but many 

 of them guests of the proprietors, from New 

 York, Boston and other large cities. By the 

 end of June these commodious cottages are 

 all engaged or in order for habitation, and 

 many hundreds of families find summer 

 breezes and sunshine by daytime, and cool 

 rest at night, absolutely for the most part 

 without mosquitoes, and quite free from 

 malaria. 



The fishing on this lake is, of course, the 

 great attraction for the men folk, though it is 

 not confined by any means to the fathers and 

 sons of the families present. The fair sex 

 have their share in the piscatorial sports, 

 and many ladies have, to my certain knowl- 

 edge, surpassed their lords and masters, 

 making the latter look insignificant with 

 their successful prowess. 



Highland Lake is well stocked with the 

 following fish, to wit : pickerel, up to six or 

 seven pounds ; the small-mouthed black bass 

 up to eight, and even ten pounds, on rare 

 occasions. A friend of mine took one of the 

 latter weight on a Montreal fly and a five- 

 ounce fly-rod ; the usual size is, however, from 

 three to five pounds, for the Micro pterous 

 dolomieu. These two fish are the most plenti- 

 ful, but there also abound fine perch up to a 

 pound and more, at times. Occasionally the 

 lordly lake-trout is taken with the live-bait 

 or by trolling in deep water. Nearly all the 

 New England mountain lakes contain the 

 spike-tailed lake trout (Salmo namaycush), 

 and they have been taken this summer in 

 lakes not far from W T insted in large quanti- 

 ties by a friend of mine, Deputy-Sheriff 

 Rhoades, from ten to sixteen pounds in 

 weight. He and a friend, took no less than 

 eleven large trout from Twin Lake, Conn., 

 none of which were less than seven pounds. 

 In Highland Lake, Winsted, however, these 

 fish are more scarce, apparently, or the num- 



