368 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



TJune 5, 1884. 



ROD AND REEL ASSOCIATION. 



FOR the coming Tournament of the Association, to take 

 place on October 7 and 8, President Endicott has ap- 

 pointed the following Committee of Arrangements: 



Hon. Henry P. McGown, Cuttyhunk Club, Chairman; 

 James Benkard, South Side Club of Long Island; E. G. 

 Blackford, New York Fish Commission; S.' M. Blatchford. 

 Squibnocket Club; Dr. E. Bradley, Blooming Grove Park 

 Association; Martin B. Brown, Wa-Wa-Yanda Club; D. W. 

 Cross, President Oneida Club, Francis Endicott, President 

 (<\r-e,-ffjcw); C. B. Evarts, American Fishcultural Association; 

 Hon. James Geddes, Onondaga Fishina; Club; William C. 

 Harris, St Lawrence Fishing Club; Dr. J. A. Henshall, 

 Cvnthiana, Ky. ; Dr. C. J. Kenworthy ("Al Fresco"), Jack- 

 sonville, Fla. ; William Blair Lord, Oquassoc Club; Thatcher 

 Magoun, Jr., Massachusetts Game Protective Society; C. H. 

 Mallory, Ichthyophagous Club; Prof. A. M. Mayer, Stevens 

 Technological Institute: J. C. McAndrew, Restigouche Club; 

 Hon. R. B. Roosevelt, New York Fish Commission; Isaac 

 Townsend, West Island Club; James L. Vallotton, Pasque 

 Island Club; J. S. Van Cleef, Willowemoc Club; C. Van 

 Brunt, Willowemoc Club; Edward Weston, Greenwood Lake 

 Association; Locke W. Winchester, Restigouche Club; Louis 

 B. Wright, Westminster Kennel Club; Rev. H. L. Ziegen- 

 fuss, Christ Church, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 



Fred Mather. Secretary. 



Greenwood Lake. — The fun has begun. The black 

 bass season in New York and New Jersey opened June 1. 

 The season for nabbing poachers opened some days before 

 that date. The Passaic County Fish and Game Protective 

 Association sent a posse of officers to the lake. They had 

 warrantor the arrest of several notorious violators of the 

 law ; but these persons had taken fright, and one of them had 

 left the country for good and is not expected to return. In 

 fact, although the neighborhood of the lake was thoroughly 

 searched, none of those for whose arrests warrants had been 

 issued could be found. The lake was examined for setlines, 

 but the lines which were in the lake last week had been 

 removed, The weirs or traps for catching fish wei'e the next 

 attended to. A man named Jacob Ryerson had a weir in 

 the outlet of the lake and he was notified at once to destroy 

 it or be placed under arrest and taken to Paterson. He 

 agreed to comply with the request. Mr. Keenau then pro- 

 ceeded to a large weir run across the Wynockie River, im- 

 mediately below the outlet from the lake. This weir belongs 

 to a Swede, who was not to be found, having apparently 

 made himself scarce on hearing of the approach of the 

 officers. The fish warden proceeded at once to destroy the 

 weir. This weir consisted of two wings of stone walls built 

 in the Wynockie River, and joined together by a large trap 

 in the middle of the river. In this way every fish which 

 left Greenwood Lake was captured except the very smallest. 

 Mr. Keenan had cotne prepared and he and his assistants 

 waded into the stream, reached the trap and made kindling 

 wood out of it, which was allowed to float down the stream. 

 There was no opposition whatever to this work of the fish 

 warden's. The party then returned to Ryerson 's weir. It 

 was found that Ryerson had taken an axe and had apparently 

 destroyed the trap. Investigation showed that only a foot 

 below the surface of the water had been removed and that 

 the "basket" at the bottom still remained intact. In this 

 way some of the fish might escape, but the larger ones and 

 the larger portion of the smaller ones would still be caught. 

 Ryerson was informed that this would not do, and that he 

 would at once be arrested and taken to Paterson it he did 

 not make a good job of the work of destruction. He needed 

 no further urging and destroyed, in view of the party, the 

 whole trap. The association proposes to keep a close watch 

 on these traps and other contrivances about the lake, but 

 from present appearances the violators of the law have been 

 thoroughly impressed that the association means business and 

 intends to see that the law in relation to fish and game is 

 enforced. 



Amateur Rod Making.— I wish to thank Mr. Wells for 

 the information that his interesting articles in late numbers 

 of the Forest and Stream has conveyed, and by which I 

 have been benefited. 1 am an amateur rodmaker myself and 

 make, all my own fly-rods, and have made quite a number 

 for friends about here. I have just been fastening the fer- 

 rules on a rod with guttapercha gum as he recommended, 

 and believe it will hold them in place much better than any 

 thing heretofore found. This has always troubled me in the 

 past more than anything else in making rods. For the bene- 

 fit of amateur rod makers, let me say that T. H. Chubb, 

 whose advertisement is in the Forest and Stream, will 

 supply them with rod material and trimmings of the best 

 quality at prices about one-fourth of what most other dealers 

 in such articles charge, And those ordering by mail sending 

 money in advance, will get just as good an article as they 

 would were they there to pick it out for themselves. This 

 is more thau can be said of some dealers. Some time ago, I 

 ordered from a ceitain dealer by mail, some lance andbetha- 

 bara wood, and I found when I received it that a stick of 

 each kind of wood had a knot near the middle of each the 

 full size of the sticks, one being f and the other £ inch square. 

 The lance stick was marked on the knot with a cross X, and 

 the word "cull" was written with pencil on one side. I paid 

 the price of the wood in ad vane, besides paying postage and 

 registering fee, and the wood was perfectly useless to me. I 

 claim that doing business in this way is downright robbery 

 and nothing else, and that a dealer who serves a customer so 

 after receiving his money in advance and knows they cannot 

 help themselves, is actually a robber. But those who do 

 business in this manner are sure to lose more than they make 

 in the end, for no one will long deal with' any one who serves 

 them in such a manner. — Adiron Ondack. 



Trout and Bass Near New York. — If you can coax big 

 trout, and are not afraid of water and mud, take the North- 

 thern Railroad of New Jersey, to Cresskill. Just west of the 

 station you will find a good sized creek, keep on the east 

 bank and fish north for four miles. I have heard of several 

 two-pounders being taken from this stream this season and 

 know personally that there are large fish in it. One gentle- 

 man had 1,500 large trout weighing from one to three 

 pounds washed out of his ponds into the creek the past 

 spring, and one of the best natural streams in the State 

 empties into it just north of Cresskill. I have never noticed 

 you mention Rockland Lake in your paper. During the past 

 year some fine catches of black bass and pickerel were taken 

 there, one bass of eight pounds. The East Reef opposite old 

 ice house at the southern end of the lake, is best for early 

 morning, and West Reef, directly opposite, for afternoon 

 for bass, and crawfish is the only bait for them, though 

 they will sometimes take the fly. The northwest shore, just 

 on the edge of the hly pads, abounds with pickerel from one 

 to seven pounds, also yellow bass of large size. I have had 

 fine sport on this water; it is easy of access, and a few days' 

 fishing costs but little. Take Northern Railroad of New 

 Jersey to Nyack, four miles to lake, and either hire convey- 

 ance or do as I do, foot it. There is another place quite 

 near by which I have not seen you mention. The Hudson 

 River from Luzerne, on Adirondack Railroad, to Corinth, 

 seven miles of as fine black bass fishing as one can wish for. 

 Minnows or small suckers are the bait. On the west bank a 

 number of fine trout streams come in. My cousin and friend 

 took two hundred good sized trout from these streams one 

 day last week, none of the fish were trout hog size either, 

 and all were eaten. We get a fish in the Hackensack above 

 Oradel called "wind fish," from the fact that they are taken 

 most readily when the wind blows. In shape it resembles 

 the trout, also in gaminess, takes the fly readily and is a good 

 table fish. The back is dark olive, sides dull gold, belly 

 white, fins underneath edged with red, weigh from eight 

 ounces to two pounds. Can you tell from this poor de- 

 scription what they are?— N. 



Salmon.— Mr. S. J. Martin reports to the U.S. Fish Commis- 

 sion that a salmon weighing 211; pounds was taken in a trap 

 net at Kettle Island, on the Massachusetts coast, just south 

 of Gloucester, on the 21st of May. The Bangor, Me., Com- 

 mercial Bays: "The king of all the salmon is on exhibition 

 at A. E. Jones's market on Kenduskeag Bridge. The label 

 attached to the fish says it was caught by R. French, Sandy 

 point; the weight is forty-six pounds. Not even the oldest 

 inhabitants can remember of so large a salmon being caught 

 in the Penobscot. The salmon fishing at Grand Lake stream 

 is reported to be good." 



Trcut near New York.— Sing Sing, N. Y., June 2.— 

 The hills hereabout afford most excellent trouting. My 

 friend Mr. H. W. Ambler, of this place, a most devoted 

 Waltonian, made a creel of twenty good brook trout, the 

 largest of which measured 14 inches. — Oanonicus. 



Taking Big Trout.— Hallock, Minn., May 28— Editor 

 Forest and Stream: The fishing for the "whoppers," described 

 by "Homo," in the issue of May 15, with minnows forr>ait, 

 is legitimate and justifiable. These big fellows are gour- 

 mands, feeding on young trout from choice. Their appetite 

 is insatiable and demand a constant feeding to keep up 1 heir 

 appearance. We consider a flight similar to those invented 

 by Mr. A. N. Cheney, and used by him for lakers with a 

 minnow for a bait, will kill them every time. We have pur- 

 sued just this course when fishing for Salmo fario, and with- 

 out any lashing of conscience. These big trout are cannibals 

 in every sense of the word, growing ugly in appearance as 

 they grow older. They should be exterminated by all fair 

 and honorable means. Our system is to make a flight of 

 three hooks, using one for a lip hook, on this 1 put my 

 minnow for bait and then spin this across the hole. If 

 "Homo" wants to kill these big fellows let him cut out the 

 ventral fin of one of the small brook trout, put it on the lip 

 hook, and if he spins it carefully he can readily kill the 

 monsters. — Norman. 



Trout in Chenango Cointy, N. Y.— Smith ville Flats, 

 N. Y., June 2.— I reply to the inquiry of "Niagara," in 

 Forebt and Stream of May 29, relative to trout in Che- 

 nango couaty. There are very few trout left in any of our 

 Dublic waters ; however, some very fair catches were reported 

 in April. As a general thing there are two fishermen for 

 every three trout. What is known as the Wheeler Brook, 

 about a mile and a half below Greene, contains nearly all 

 the trout in the immediate vicinity of the town. "Niagara" 

 could find good bass fishiug in the river and excellent pick- 

 erel fishing in most any of the numerous natural ponds or 

 lakes of Greene or Smithville.— E. L. R. 



Bootless Business.— Grand Rapids. Mich., May 27. — 

 You will see by the inclosed clipping that we are doing some- 

 thing all the 'time to protect' for the legitimate use of the 

 people the public property represnted by our wild game ani- 

 mals. Yet it is a bootless business, to expend personal time, 

 money, and mental and physical labor for the protection of 

 public property in the hope of getting a fair share of the 

 benefits of such expenditure, aud then to see that property 

 gobbled up by lawless poachers is getting monotonous. — E. 

 S. Holmes. [The slip reports that one James M. Bryant 

 of Grand Rapids had been arrested and fined for taking trout 

 of less than the lawful size.] 



Little and Big.— The Manton. Mich., Tribune cf recent 

 date reports: "Some very fine specimens of the trout specie 

 are being taken from Cedar Creek this season. A Sherman 

 man caught £8 trout one day last week, and rumor says he 

 carried the entire lot home in a four-quart pail. Last Wed- 

 nesday, A. Newkirk succeeded in bringing in a trout which 

 turned the scale at three pounds and two ounces." 



Rainbow Trout in Greenwood Lake.— Mr. W. H. 

 Schiper brought to our office last Monday a specimen of the 

 California rainbow trout (Salmo iridea), which he caught 

 while fly-fishing for bass near the west shore of Greenwood 

 Lake. Several thousand fry were put into the lake three 

 years ago, and this is the first that has been heard of them 

 since. The fish would weigh about four ounces. 



is not w holly true, for a compensating element of great weight 

 comes in to disturb the calculation. Nature, perhaps more 

 aptlv speaking, providence, in the case of fish, as well as with 

 numberless other creatures, produces great quantities of seed 

 that nature does not utilize or need. It looks like a vast store 

 that has been provided for nature to hold in reserve against 

 the time when the increased population of the earth should 

 need it and the sagacity of man should utilize it. At all events 

 nature has never utilized this reserve, and man finds it already 

 here to meet his wants. 



If this were not so, if there were no reserved stock of seed 

 provided beyond what nature uses every year, or to apply the 

 hypothesis to the subject before us, if the salmon produced no 

 more eggs every year than what are needed to keep the places 

 of the parent, fish filled, then it would be time that a river's 

 stock of salmon would diminish just in proportion to the num- 

 ber of salmon or salmon eggs taken out of it. As it is, the 

 parent salmon in a state of nature probably produce three 

 thousand times as many eggs as would be needed jf ail became 

 full-grown reproductive fish. The calculation is a very simple 

 one. For instance, the quantity of salmon in any specified 

 river, before they were molested at all by man, unquestion- 

 ably remained constant from year to year. Making allow- 

 ance, of course, for exceptional years, the average of any one 

 decade has been, without doubt," about the same as that of the 

 previous or next succeeding decade. It follows, of course, 

 that every pair of full-grown fish have" produced during their 

 fives just two, or their own number of full-grown fish of the 

 next generation in order to keep the whole river supply good 

 from year to year. 



If they produced more uniformly, the salmon in the river 

 would increase till the river would ultimately become full of 

 fish ; if less, the stock for the reverse reason wordd be ulti- 

 mately exhausted. 



Now, as one pair of salmon produces yearly, say six thous- 

 and eggs, it follows that there are deposited each year three 

 thousand times as many eggs as would be needed/supposing 

 that every egg became" a full-grown, reproducing parent. I 

 should add that this computation is based on the supposition 

 that all the parent salmou die after spawning and never re- 

 produce again. This is true of the bulk of the Pacific coast 

 salmon. If any do live to get back to the ocean after spawn- 

 ing and reproduce again, it increases the ratio of the number 

 of eggs deposited to the number of salmon that reach maturity. 

 The value to food-requiring man, of this reserve seed stock, 

 becomes particularly apparent when we consider the effect of 

 the fishing of a salmon river. The first thousand fish taken 

 out of the river, though it deprives the river of three million 

 eggs, makes no perceptible difference with, the future supply, 

 because there are so many eggs left that this abstracted quan- 

 tity, great as it is, absolutely is relatively insignificant, the 

 number of eggs left being so vastly greater. 



The first hundred thousand salmon taken from the river 

 makes no difference, partly because there are so many eggs 

 left and partly because one of nature's compensations" comes 

 in by making the struggle for existence among the diminished 

 number so much easier that the eggs that are left go as far 

 toward .replenishing the river's stock as the larger number 

 did under the less favorable conditions of a comparatively 

 over-crowded river. 



So great is the reserve stock of seed originally provided, 

 and so effective are the compensations of nature, that even 

 the first million of parent salmon taken from a great river 

 li fee the Columbia seems to make no difference in the annual 

 run of salmon up the river. 



We might go further, perhaps, and say that the first two 

 million would make no difference, but we need not take the 

 trouble, to prove this, for it would not help to illustrate the 

 point if we did ; the point being that if the annual catch goes 

 on increasing, the limit will intimately be reached when the 

 number of eggs in the Hsfi that are left will not be enough, 

 even with the help of nature's compensating agencies, to keep 

 up the river's stock. 



I need hardly remind a body of fishculturists and Commis- 

 sioners that when this limit is passed, the decrease of the fish 

 proceeds at a rapidly accelerated rate. It is burning the 

 candle at both ends, for while the diminished stock of the river 

 keeps diminishing from an inadequate supply of seed, the 

 destructive capacity of the engines of capture are constantly 

 increased to offset the poorer fishing that results. 



Then begins a geometrical ratio of yearly decrease which 

 is startling, and of which the end is complete extinction. 



Some intelligent people thought that the limit just men- 

 tioned had nearly been reached in the Columbia several years 

 ago. Many more persons think it nas now. Still, the resources 

 of the great Columbia are. so woudei f ul that, although upward 

 of two thousand million eggs are annually abstracted from the 

 river, there seems to be a doubt remaining yet whether the 

 eggs that are left are not sufficient to keep up the stock. 



However, if the fish-eating world does not go backward, the 

 dagger limit, will soon be passed, if it has not been already, 

 and it is none too soon to consider the question of taking 

 measures to guard against the danger by artificial propagation. 

 What has been done in the Sacramento in this direction is 

 well known. I take the libertv to quote from an article bear- 

 ing on the subject, by Mr. C. A. Smiley, of the United States 

 Census Bureau: . 



Mr. Smiley, after mentioning some of the difficulties of nsh- 

 culture. says: , 



"I will close with citing one of the most remarkable of the 

 successes thus far attained. The salmon canneries of the 

 Sacramento River annually increased in number until by 

 1870 the entire rim of salmon was being caught and utilized. 

 The greatest natural capacity of the river under these cir- 

 cumstances may be considered to have been reached in 1875, 

 when the yield to the canneries was 5,096,781 pounds. 



The first possible fruits of fishculture were in 1870, when the 

 yotmg of 1873 may be supposed to have returned. 

 ' The United States hatchery was established in the latter 

 year at Baird, Shasta county, California, and a half a million 

 young released in 1873 and again in 1874. 



In 1875 the number was increased to 850,1)00, in 1870 to 1,500,- 

 000, and during each of the years 1878, 1S79, 1880, 1881, two 

 million young fry were placed in this river. From an annual 

 catch of 5,000,000 pounds the river has come up to the annual 

 catch of over 9,500,000 pounds, which figure has been main- 

 tained during the past four years. 

 The figures were: 



tgislfmltwe. 



COLUMBIA RIVER SALMON HATCHING.* 



BY LIVINGSTON STONE. 

 [Read before the American Fishcultural Association.] 



EVERY ONE has heard of the immense quantities of salmon 

 that are annually canned on the Columbia River. It is 

 not necessary to go into details. The general facts known to 

 all prove that an enormous number of salmon have been ac- 

 customed to ascend the Columbia River every year and it is 

 probably safe to say that the Columbia has been the most pro- 

 ductive salmon river in the world. 



This is one side of the subject. The other side is this: Such 

 enormous quantities of salmon taken from a river must ulti- 

 mately endanger the productiveness of it. The situation is 

 not, however, quite as bad as it looks, for it seems at first 

 sight as if the stock of a salmon river would be diminished in 

 proportion to the number of salmon taken out of it, but this 



"The salmon referred to in this paper is the Oncorhynchus chouika. 

 the spring salmon of the Columbia, the Chinook salmon, quinnat 

 salmon, the common salmon of the Sacramento River. 



1880. 

 1881. 

 1882. 



1883. 



Pounds. 

 .10,837,01)0 



. 9,600,000 

 . 9,605,000 

 . 9,686,000 



Allowing the three years which it takes for salmon to come 

 to maturity and enter the river for spawning purposes, the in- 

 crease in yield to the canneries for ten years has been almost 

 exactly proportionate to the increase in the disposition of fiy. 

 Taking into consideration the cost of hatching 2,000.000 salmon 

 annually, and the value of the increase of 4,500,000 pounds, it 

 will be seen," Mr. Smiley concludes, • 'that there is a very large 

 per cent, of profit in artificial fishculture, when conducted 

 under circumstances as favorable as these." 



What man has done man may do, aud what has been done 

 in the Sacramento can be duplicated in the Columbia, and in 

 as much larger proportion as the Columbia is larger than the 

 Sacramento. .,',#- ., 



An effort was made in 1877 to hatch salmon on the Clacka- 

 mus River, a tributary of the Columbia. 



This location seemed to combine every advantage, for the 

 hatching of salmon on a large scale. The nver heads, as you 

 are aware, in the perennial snows of Mc. Hood, and the cold- 

 ness of its snow-fed waters is very attractive to the ascending 

 salmon. Just above its mouth, on the Wilhamette, into which 

 it empties, are the impassable falls of Oregon City, which pre- 



