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FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 1, 1885, 
— * 
Jack ventured the opinion that suckers were only good for 
hogs to eat, or bait for better fish, but the driver held that 
they were quite good in the spring of the year, while the 
water was cold and were ‘‘a heap better than no fish.” [ 
tather agreed to the latter proposition but did not consider it 
worth arguing. We crossed the stream at a good ford, and 
while the horses were drinking a kingfisher dashed headlong 
into the water within a few feet.of them and tooka ‘‘red-fin” 
almost under our noses. The bird did not sound his click- 
reel as it few up toa limb with its prey, and this afforded 
me food for wonder if that sound is an indication of dis- 
appointment, and only made to score a miss. This is a mat- 
ter on which I have been undecided for many years. ‘The 
bird is so quick that it does not often happen that one can 
tell whether its dive has been successful or not. 
To Jack it seemed proof positive that the kingfisher ex- 
pressed its sentiments in Halcyonic profamty when it failed 
to strike his prey, because he had seen one go to a limb with 
an empty bill and give vent to its feelings after a miss, while 
this one, as he said, ‘‘had his mouth full and couldn’t chirr.” 
Very true,” said I, but is it an absolute rule? One or two 
instances will do to form a theory on, but it takes many to 
prove it.” The driver was appealed to buf said he ‘didn’t 
neyer take no notice of them kind of things,” and intimated 
that such questions were below the range of his thought. 
He gave the off horse a flick with the whip, remarking that 
“that there roan would stand and drink all day out of pure 
laziness,” and we rolled on to the little settlement called Inno- 
vation, where we knew a warm supper and a good bed 
awaited weary travelers. FrReD Matus. 
‘LANDLOCKED SALMON. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I find an article from a Bridgton correspondent, in Forrnsr 
AND STREAM, going ithe rounds in our Maine. papers, giving 
such a dreary outlook for the future of “the royal fish,” that 
a few facts on the subject may not come amiss at this time, 
for I do not feel reconciled to having such a wholesale 
slaughter with pen and ink go on without a remonstrance, 
1 think if the correspondent referred to had waited a few 
days he might haye softened down some of his closing para- 
Graphs: or, if he had heen more familiar with the habits of 
the Salmo sebago, this might not haye been written at all. 
Ido not doubt that ‘‘six salmon” got away from him, but 
from what I can learn of the facts, and what I knew of them 
at the time, 1 am of the opinion that the fish are safe to-day. 
For some reason that gentleman has interested himself in 
salmon this season. Tt seems that he visited the brook for 
several days with different results. One day he found in 
certain pools thirteen salmon, which, I think, he says were 
nearly all females. The next day he found seven only, and 
1 believe the third day only four. I was knowing to some 
of his visits to the brook from other sources, and awaited 
results, About the fourth day a friend of his came to me, 
with a discouraged look in his face, and informed me that 
somebody was stealing the salmon, and gave me the result: 
of their researches. I told him that the fish had probably 
yvone up or down the stream, as they are in the habit of 
doing—most likely up stream. The next-day | saw said 
correspondent and a companion coming down the street, 
armed with a tin wash boiler and a dip-net, and to my in- 
quiry if they were ‘‘going a-fishing,” replied that they were 
going to the brook to pnt back into the pond what salmon 
they could find, to keep them from being stolen. I smiled in- 
wardly and joined the procession, when, arriving at the 
brook, but 1wo salmon were to be found. These were netted 
and duly conyeyed to the pond, The correspoudent gave a 
sigh of relief, and said, ‘“I'wo of them at least are safe.” 
Lremarked that there was danger that the fish would come- 
back the first warm day, and that I thought it worth some 
risk to have them spawn in the stream. Finding no more 
fish to conquer we came home. 
Within a day or iwo L went, to a section of the brook some 
distance above where the ‘‘lost tribe’ had been seen, and 
found a goodly number of salmon on their spawning 
grounds, paired off, and apparently happy and contented, 
None had been found in the lower section for a day or two, 
and only a few at this time. And I conclude that the 
females that so mysteriously disappeared were on their 
way to joiu the males; which I understand usually, if not 
invariably, take the lead by several days. These pools serve 
as resting places tor the fish as they pass up and down the 
stream, and during the spawning period the tenants are as 
changeable as the lodgers at a wayside inn. As the fish do 
not all go to their beds at the same time, passengers from 
both up and down trains may occupy one pool at the same 
time, The number of fish in any stream will yary, or seem 
to, from day today. I doubtif any two persons following 
that brook carefully, within one hour of each other, would 
record the same number of fish. Twenty-two salmon, 
ranging from one and a half to twelve or fifteen poundseach, 
were counted in that little brook, in a single day, and that 
since the article in question was written. So it seems that 
they are not all dead yet. The stock does not appear to me 
so limited, that the loss of “six salmon” of any given weight, 
would materially endanger the whole family, even if there 
Was good evidence that any had been taken, I found plenty 
of spawning beds far up the brook, and haye watched the 
fish on them by the hour. One fine pair of ten or twelve 
ponnders had their bed where it was so shallow that the 
backs of the fish and part of the caudals were out of water. 
Such a rubbing of sides, rolling and twisting as they made 
was curious to witness. Some of the fish are as wild as 
Comanches, others perfectly stupid. I found them in the 
eddies, apparently as stiffas a stale, with little or no per- 
ceptable motion to gills or fins, and perhaps asleep, and 
would tickle their sides roughly with a stick before they 
would move; but when they did start it was like a flush, and 
as though they had ‘‘just waked up.” 
The poacher is the hane of the business, and it puts our 
Commissioners to much trouble and expense to guard our 
sireams properly, or as well as they do. Few wardens get 
sufficient compensation to put in all their time, even when it 
is all needed. So the work goes on, the best we can do, and 
the fish continue to thrive, and are increasing in numbers 
from year to year, as I can testify after nine years’ service 
on our local streams. 
The fact that. a doz collar was found by the stream, though 
indicating that some fisherman’s bark had gone to pieces on 
that shore, is hardly sufficient evidence that six salmon 
weighing fifty pounds had been taken by the owner in a 
single night. Nor can any facts be sustained to show that 
“the time is not far distant when not a landiccked salmon 
will be found in these lakes.” ~The contrary would, I think, 
receive the unanimous vote of those best able to judge. 
Each year more people are getting interested in the matter 
of protection, and I can see no reason why our landlocked 
salmon have nof a bright future before them. And may 
their shadow never be legs, 
If one goes away and carelessly leaves both ends of a 
brook open, he should not be too much surprised if he finds 
that any salmon that he may have left in a certain pool has 
availed itself of the opportunity to start out on business, in 
whichever way that may call him, is the moral I drew from 
the latest sensational chapter on this wily fish. 
Nor is it best to be over hasty about arraigning everybody 
and the cook on “‘the matter of protection,’ when there is 
no law in ihe State to prevent our Satmo sebago from running 
up or down stream at his own sweet will and pleasure, for 
you may get left. Jno, MEAD. 
Norra Briperon, Me., Dec, 18, 1884. 
PECULIARITIES OF RAINBOW TROUT. 
|NLIKE Eastern trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), the 
McCloud River trout of California (Salmo irid@) feeds 
off the bottom of the stream, Their method of looking for 
food is peculiar and wholly unlike that of their Bastern 
cousins. Eyery trout fisherman in the Eastern States has 
noticed that the speckled Pontinalis is always looking up- 
ward for food, as if expecting, as he really does, that his 
food will come from aboye. He is also generally evenly 
poised in the water, and sits in it like a well-trimmed ship 
on a quiet day at sea. The California trout, on the contrary, 
roams about bis watery hunting grounds partly on his side 
with one eye directed to the bottom. He is quite as depend- 
ent, and probably more so, upon the supply of food that is 
beneath, as for the supply that falls from above or floats on 
the surface. Consequently he spends as much of his time 
looking down for food as he does looking up for it. He has 
another peculiarity also about feeding. When he sees any 
food on the bottom that looks to him out of place, or has 
from any Cause a suspicious appearance, he wheels past it, 
and as he passes the suspicious object he strikes it a vigor- 
ous blow with his tail and then turns to observe its move- 
ments. If there appears to be anything ‘‘crooked” about it 
he will not touch it, and will, after striking it once or twice 
more, perhaps, with his tail, abandon it altogether. This we 
have occasion to notice yery often on our fishing grounds, 
because before setting the lines at any particular spot we 
“salt” the ground for two or three days before, by freely 
strewing bait about the place where the lines are to be set 
When the trout first come up and see the bait—usually sal- 
mon eges—scattered about so lavishly in such an unusual 
place, they seem to suspect at once that there is something 
wrong about it, and they knock the eggs about vigorously 
with their tails, and watch the bait yery cautiously and 
suspiciously, and it often lappens that they will repeat this 
a day or two before they will decide to swallow this unex- 
pected but tempting food; and unless the trout had had their 
suspicions set at rest by this false and harmless bait, they 
sometimes could not be persuaded, except with difficulty, to 
take the real bait in which is concealed the fatal hook, 
‘From this last mentioned peculiarity of the California 
trout 1 have been led to think that possibly the speckled 
trout of the Hastern States bas the same end in view when 
he strikes with his tail the fly-hook that he sees lying on the 
surface of the water. I do not think that he tries to toss the 
bait Inte his mouth with his tail, as was held by some in the 
much-written about controversy on the subject, but it seems 
to me that the cautious fish hits the snspicious-looking thing 
a vap with his tailto see if it is allright. If he thinks it 
acts as a harmless piece of food on the water ought to act 
on being rapped, he undoubtedly takes it with his mouth 
when he feels satisfied that itis safe. On the other hand, if 
the result confirms his suspicions, he doubtless abandons it, 
or returns to some sheltered nook to watch it at his leisure. 
Livyineston Stone. 
FISHING THROUGH THE -ICE. 
HAYE too much age on my shoulders and, I hope, too 
much sense in my head to fish through the ice at any 
time, If there is sport in it, I am too blind to see it, 
Yet, yesterday (Dec. 20) three members of our gun club, 
three of our best wing-shots, and two or fhree other citizens, 
went out on Tanner’s Pond and in the Delaware River, near 
Eagle's Nest, to catch suckers through the ice. 
The thermometer was 12° below zero and a northwest gale 
was blowing fresh and sharp. The ice was clear as crystal 
and about four or five inches thick, 
The modus operand: of catching suckers through the ice is 
novel, if not comfortable. The party cut boles every rod or 
two, in as straight a line as possible, along the channel. To 
every hole a man is stationed, with a hook fastened to a stick 
about three feet long. Men strike the ice above and below 
these holes heavily with the back of the axe. The jar or the 
noise, if fish have ears, scare all the fish in the vicinity, and 
they swim past the holes. Bass dart past thé holes soswiftly 
it would be impossible to hook them, Trout the same, even 
if they were in season. But the suckers are a lazy fish; they 
take the scare easy and are captured—hooked out by the 
hundred without trouble, ‘so far as getting at them is 
counted. 
But in such a cold snap every drop of water from axe, or 
hook, or fish freezes when it touches you. In half an hour 
these fishermen were a sheet of ice from head to foot, but 
they had a bushel basket full of large white suckers, and 
felt happy. All but one, ‘Handsome Ben.” He froze his 
hand, and the probability is he will losc one finger and long 
be a sufferer. 
And this is fishing through the ice as in yogue just now, 
By and bye, with live bait, thesame parties will go for pick- 
evel in deeper waters, and I may talk about that. 
Nep Bunriine, 
The Hartford Times reports: The ponds are frozen over 
and pickerel fishing will bein order within a few days, 
Several Hartford gentlemen are well prepared for business. 
A tobacco dealer has several thousand minnows for bait in 
the cellar of his State street store. Captain Sherman g‘ener- 
ally has a good supply, <A north end gentleman has 10,000 
at least in tanks in his cellar, captured out in the Blue Hill 
road section. The little fish sell at $1 per hundred usually. 
Mr. Lane, ‘‘Ted” Naedele and several other gen(lemen have’ 
fine lots of tip-ups of improved models. A well known den- 
tist has had fifty new ones made this winter. Favorite places 
in this section for pickerel fishing through the ice are Weth- 
ersfield Cove, Bolton Reservoir, Snipsic Lake, Shuttle Meadow 
Lake, Cranberry Pond and Farmington River, P*ckerel 
will not bite on Sundays. Down New London way there is 
good sport ‘jigging’ frost fish on the Thames. The fisher- 
man uses no bait. He takes a couple of sticks two feet in 
length, Upon the end of one he ties a cluster of oak Jeayes 
and at the end of the other a sharp hook, making a minia- 
ture gaff. Hetakeshis ‘‘bushed” stick and puts it down in 
from eight inches to a foot and a half of water, and 
begins to oscillate it patiently, and ihe frost fish come 
toit. They swim slowly beneath it, robbing against the 
leaves, when the ‘‘jig” is lowered, and they are jerked out 
With a suddenness that must astonish the fish. The fish do not 
seem to get frightened, but continue to swarm beneath the 
leaves and be ‘hooked up” as long as the jigger has patience 
to pull them, 
THE MOST KILLING FLY. 
Hiditor Forest and Stream: 
“Kokomo” asks, in the Formst AND Stream for Dec. 11, 
what is the best fly at all seasons for trout. Ihave kept an 
accurate account for several years of the fly with which I 
have caught each trout, and T agree with ‘‘Kokomo” that the 
coachman is the fly for the Colorado trout (Salmo virginulis). 
My fishing was done in Colorado and New Mexico. I find 
the coachman to be by far the best fly at all times of the 
day and in all weathers. Out of all the trout caught by me 
in five seasons’ fishing (up to date) 58 per cent. were caught 
by the coachman, The next best fly was the black hackle 
with peacock body, which caught 14 per cent. (The com- 
mon black hackle with black body was way down the list, 
catching only seven-tenths of one per cent.) The list is a 
long one, as I have tried a vast number of flies and haye 
pushed my inquiries as to flies to what may seem to some 
anglers the verge of folly; for I haye often, when the trout 
were rising freely to a fly, changed it merely to experiment 
with another, 
In most books on fishing the coachman is recommended 
for the Eastern brook trout (so-called, as it is not a trout but 
acharr), Swvelinus fontinalis, toward nightfall, and after 
dark, But I find for the Colorado tront, that it is the best, 
fly ut any time of day, morning, noon or evening. We haye 
but few cloudy days in this section, The sun is generally 
shining, but it never gets too bright for the trout to rige to a 
coachman. The coachman I refer to is the plain coachmian, 
not the royal, 
I use larger flics (No. 8) than “Kokomo,” and only two on 
a cast, The majority of the trout are caught on the stretcher 
or end fly. OCyRTONYS. 
Fort Stanton, New Mexico. 
ADIRONDACK FISHING. 
UR reports from different parts of the Adirondacks 
show that the past season was a very fair one in those 
parts where there are trout left. In the Brown Tract the 
trouting was good about the ulton Chain, and very fair in 
parts of Raquette, in spite of the black bass. North, 
the fishing varied much, the St. Regis waters haye not 
yielded many fish for years, the Saranacs gave the usual 
amount of sport, while the fishing at Meacham improves 
yearly by reason of the hatching operations of Mr, Fuller 
and his enforcement of the fish and game laws. The Blue 
Mountain region shows no sigu of improvement, but on the 
southwest side the trout brooks of Oneida county have fur- 
nished as much sport as usual, if not more. The West 
Canada Creek has giyen better fishing than in years before. 
The lakes owned or protected by clubs will always give the 
members of the club good fishing, for they are protected 
from unreasonable fishing. 
Speaking of trout protection, Gen. R. U. Sherman, of 
New Hartford, Secretary of the New York State Fishery 
Commission, said: ‘'The destruction of small trout injures 
the fishing probably more than any other one thing. Men 
g0 into the woods and fish the little brooks, and of course 
catch nothing but very small trout, These young trout 
when fried crisp are yery palatable, but it takes a hundred 
or more of them to make a meal for a hungry man. They 
are, however, about the only ones served at many 
of the hotels, and when we consider the number thus con- 
sumed, it is no wonder that the fishing is not improving very 
rapidly. There have probably been enough small trout con- 
sumed at Trenton Palls alone to stock all the waters of the 
country.” 
Of the fishing at the Bisby lakes, General Sherman gaid: 
“The fishing last season was better than any previous year 
since the club took charge of them. Previous to 1877 there 
were no brook trout in the Bisby Jakes, but in that year 
5,000 young fry were placed in the waters by the club, and 
others have been put in every year since. This year 100,000 
brook trout spawn were taken from the spawning beds with- 
in a few rods of the hatching house. These were put in the 
troughs, and as soon as the young trout are large enough to 
lake care of themselves they will be returned to the lake,” 
The Geueral says he does not know of a more marked in- 
stance of successful hatching and stocking. Only seven 
or eight years ago there were no trout in the lakes, whereas 
now there are tons of them, 
Tue Restigoucne Saumon Crius.—The famous Resti- 
gouche Salmon Club, whose membership comprises Gen. 
Chester A. Arthur and many of the eminent fishermen of the 
country, held a meeting last week, at which the annual re- 
ports of the treasurer, superintendent and board of direc- 
tors were presented. The board of directors reported that 
in March Messrs, Daniel T. Worden and Oliver K. King, the 
secretary, yisited Fredericton and took a lease for three 
years of twenty-two miles of the Upper Restigouche, and a 
lease of the Patapedia Branch for one year. New leases 
were also taken above and below the club house, the latter 
controlling the fishing on Willie Belle Island, for- terms of 
three and five years, so that at present there 1s fishing in that 
neighborhood for from nine to eleven rods, while the upper 
waters, Including Indian House and Tom’s Brook, and ex- 
clusive of the Patapedia Branch and Cross Point, will afford 
angling for from eight to nine rods. The board also re- 
ported that Messrs, Sage, Lawrence, Rogersand Drummond 
had very kindly given the club the use of their waters «ur- 
ing the latter half of the past two seasons, and that about 
fifteen members and guests availed themselves of these privi- 
leges during the last summer. The board recommended the 
purchase of that portion of the Restigouche River in New 
Brunswick between Toad’s Brook and Tom’s Brook, in- 
cluding the Kedgwick and Patapedia rivers, which will 
probably be offered by the New Brunswick Government for 
sale next spring, if it can be purchased fora reasonable sum, 
Tt was anuounced that a reciprocal arrangement had been 
made with Sandford Fieming for next year that will allow 
members of the club to fish in his waters, thus affording ad- 
ditional angling for four additional rods, Steps are now 
being taken to purchiat, if possible, Mr. Drummond's valu- 
able waters at the mouth of the Patapedia with one.er two — 
