April 22, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



247 



I as not over four or five inches long, not up to the law- 

 ful length of six inches, and after carefully extracting the 

 hook he returned it to the water with, "Shucks, ye aio't big 

 enough for good bass bait; hie off under yer log an' stay 

 theie till ye git big enough to make a smell in a fryin' pan." 



He took a couple more of about the same size and then 

 moved on up stream muttering something about "an old 

 crank a-ketchin' minners with a bass rod." We fished the 

 creek for balf a mile or more, counting in the "kinks." Ben 

 ahead and out of sight most of the time and found it literally 

 swarming with trout, but of small size. 



In one pool, however, where the water was near five feet 

 deep and almost hidden by closely packed drift and logs, I 

 saw four or five good sized ones— a half to three-quarters of 

 a pound in weight perhaps — lazily fanning the gravelly bot- 

 tom with theii fins, all unconscious of my presence, for I 

 had walked softly out on one of the tree trunks lying clear 

 across the stream to where I could see the bottom through 

 the only opening in the mass of drift that promised room to 

 lower the hook" into the water. Moving cautiously back a 

 step or two aad "shortening" the rod I dropped the baited 

 hook through the opening till it struck the water, when it 

 was instantly seized with a furious jerk that made my hair 

 bristle, and in a twinkling I had a splendid dark backed fel- 

 low half out of water through the rift, but a flirt of his tail 

 against the log tore the hook loose and he went out of sight 

 in a flash. lie must have left a streak of information after 

 him as he darted under the bank, warning his mates of the 

 narrow escape he bad made, for a half hour's patient 

 and persistent fishing failed to "restore confidence in the 

 pool." 



A cautious look through the opening revealed nothing in 

 sight but the crystal water and 1 took my way up stream 

 after Ben in the tangle and drizzle with a heart bowed down 

 with disappointment and defeat. 



We left the stream about the middle of the afternoon with 

 fifty six trout, a few of them quarter-pounders, and we had 

 besides put back in the water nearly as many more that we 

 thought were under the lawful size of six inches. 



I recall the score from the mental notebook: Hyperboler 

 twenty-nine, Hickory tweniy-seven, but the chief glory of 

 the day's sport rested with Hickory, for he had "lost the big 

 one." 



A due north course soon brought us out into the road, 

 w litre we were shortly overtaken by a couple of country 

 lads going after the cows down by the lake side, and in the 

 cour-e of atrouty conversation with them, Ben gathered 

 that the older one had taken a nineteen-inch trout with fat 

 pork bait a few weeks before out of the stream near the 

 point where we had just left it. There are no doubt many 

 good-sized trout in Maybert's Creek, although we got none 

 of them in fishing it three or four times while in camp. How- 

 ever, it is alive with small ones, and if the count fisher and 

 the trout-hog will let it rest for two or three years, an honest 

 angler could now and then get a day of "pure delight" with 

 rod and worm or plain side meat out of its shaded pools, and 

 think nothing of the loss of a section of cuticle from his shin 

 or the labor of working his way through the "bresh" along 

 its sinuous course. 



But it is idle to hope that it will be let alone. The trout- 

 hog and the "resorter" and the dude fisherman from the city, 

 with knee breeches and "mutton chops," will scent it from 

 afar, and the native mossback will diligently "thrash its 

 waters" with a total disregard of the beginning or ending of 

 the close season. The hog, the dude and the resorter will 

 fish it for numbers; the mossback for meat. To him a trout 

 is a trout whether two inches or two feet long, and repre- 

 sents so many mou'fuls, more or less, of "succulent susten- 

 ance." 



Verily the days of the wild Saheiinus (this will have to 

 stand good for trout till some aspiring half-fledged natural — 

 ist digs up a name from the original Choctaw with more 

 "priority" to it) are numbered, unless some better law is 

 enforced to give the fingerlings a chance to grow up. 



But how is one to tell the length of a trout in the water 

 when he takes the bait under a log and out of sight, and 

 how are you to prevent the little ones from taking the fly or 

 bait? The Michigan law says (I write from memory): "It 

 shall be unlawful for any person to take trout under six 

 inches in length " If we take one only five and a half inches 

 long, do we satisfy the law by returning it to the water? In 

 many cases, in freeing the hook from a small fish it is una- 

 voidably wounded so it will die even if returned to the 

 water. If we keep it and take it to camp, we violate the 

 statute; if we put it back in the water dead or hurt it so it 

 will not recover, do we not break the law by complying: 

 with it? yJ * 



Somebody show us the way out of the fog. 



But after all I don't see why trout fishing is to be classed 

 as the sport par excellencejor the angler, although there is a 

 fascination in it not to be accounted for, and I am not ready 

 to admit that a six-inch trout is superior in game qualities to 

 a six-inch small-mouthed bass. If there is more sport in 

 handling a pound trout than there is in handling a bass of 

 the same weight with the same tackle — and 1 deny it — it 

 must be solely because he is a trout and not a bass, and be- 

 cause he has the "priority" over the bass in the matter of a 

 fighting record. Micropterus dot. (the latest name out I be- 

 lieve, but it is getting a trifle old) is building up a reputation, 

 however, as a fighter of many parts, and he has come to 

 stay. 



And while in a fighting vein it might be mentioned that a 

 six-inch "blue gill" will kick up a fight with great celerity, 

 and to my notion is about as tough a customer to handle as 

 a trout of the same length, though not so long-winded, and 

 when you have taken one you can hold up your head and 

 exult over the victory, and not feel that you are a culprit in 

 the eye of the law, as you do after subduing a flngerling 

 trout. 



Old Ben says, "There's jest as much fun a flippin' out 

 good big chuhs an' shiners as there is in ketchin' them little 

 sucklin' trout;" and I am inclined to fall in with Ben's way 

 of thinking, even at the risk of having a figurative rock shied 

 at me for an old fogy who believes there are some othpr good 

 fish besides trout, and that plain bass fishing with fly, and 

 even minnow and frog, is "good enough for the Joneses." 



As we stepped back in the boat to start for camp Ben tied 

 the trout over the side to "freshen 'em up like," as he said, 

 and after bailing out a few gallons of water with an old 

 peach can, said with his usual gravity of speech, "Hickory, 

 'pears to me we've struck on to a new kind o' trout in that 

 crick. What's the matter with callin' 'em Sal-mo infantalis, 

 an' gittin' Jim to publish it in his paper fur a new species 

 discovered by his nibs, Professor Hyperboler Jones?" And 

 then the old bronze Jback scraped a match and hovered over 

 jt to keep the wind from blowing it, chuckling to himself, I 

 fancied, at the neat manner in which he had relieved him- 



self of this "fool notion" that had been weighing him down 

 for the last half mile. 



"We found the happy family somewhat out of sorts at the 

 state of the weather, for it still rained, and the wind was 

 cold and raw, and worse than all, the lake was most of the 

 time too rough to fish, but a yell of "trout" from Ben worked 

 a magic change in the camp. Rain, cold and wind were for- 

 gotten, as the girls came trooping out of the big tent to see 

 our "speckled beauties" (a brand new name for trout that it 

 is hoped will cause old "priority" to take a back seat) where 

 Ben had spread them out on the table in a manner to make 

 the best showing, as any other conscientious angler would 

 have done. The Editor lost interest in a game of cribbage 

 that old Dan and Muller were hotly contesting despite the 

 chill in the air, relieved his long suffering camp stool of its 

 burden, shook himself together, and came in under the fly 

 to cast a mouth watering glance at the spread out and give 

 vent to his feelings in a regretful, "wish I had gone with you 

 two old lunatics this morning;" aud then the Philosopher 

 came crawling out of the "Knots" tent, where he had been 

 cat-napping, and expressed his satisfaction at the catch ; and 

 finally from the big tent, in measured rumble from Muller, 

 "fifteen two, fifteen four, and a pair," and from the old 

 Pelican in a sort of "umpirish" tone that implied a strong 

 leaning to the "national game" even in matters of crib, 

 "game called on account of rain, let's go aud see the trout;" 

 and at last the entire Jones family were under the big fly, all 

 talking at once and all talking trout, utterly unmindful of 

 the weather and all happy, with Ben and the Skipper a 

 couple of lengths ahead in the matter of "complacent 

 serenity," notwithstanding we were "a trifle stiff in the 

 j'ints," as Ben said, "an' hungry as a sucklin' wolf." 



Bob and Kit were at once seized with a desire to catch a 

 trout, but when told of the difficulties a womau would labor 

 under iu getting through the "bresh" with skirts and the 

 other flummery they are usually oppressed with, their ardor 

 cooled somewhat, but I have no doubt had not the scheme 

 been discovered and the enterprise nipped in the bud, these 

 two mischievous madcaps would have "sneaked out papa's 

 two old pair of extra breeches," rigged themselves out for 

 the occasion and made a trip to Maybert's Creek or some 

 nearer stream the very first time I was out of camp for a 

 day with the bass. But "the best laid scheme o' mice and 

 girls are oft knocked higher'n a kite" (slightly altered from 

 Burns) and the twins are yet pining over that lost opportun- 

 ity to distinguish themselves as trout fishers. 



The trout were dressed and many of them, notably the 

 smaller ones, were found to be full of spawn, and this raised 

 the question, how long will the wild trout last in Michigan or 

 any other place, if they are allowed to be taken during at 

 least a month while the females are full of eggs? Is it any 

 more destructive to leave the season open up to the very day 

 of spawning? We fish for trout all through the month of 

 August, till darkness drives us from the stream on the 31st 

 day, when the season closes, because the law allows it, but 

 we don't seem to realize that we kill the goose that lays the 

 golden egg every time we take a fish that is in spawn, and 

 lessen our chance for sport for each succeeding year till the 

 streams will be utterly barren. But we all do it, and will 

 keep on doing it to the end, simply, perhaps, because it is 

 not unlawful, and yet I don't believe there is a solitary, con- 

 scientious angler in the land but will say it is wrong to kill 

 a flsh that is full of eggs. And this may apply as'well to 

 early spring bass fishing. 



This little digression may be something for the honest 

 angler to think over, but it is not intended to reach the trout 

 hog and the count fisher, nor yet the native and the dude; 

 they will flsh in season and out of season; they never put a 

 fish back in the water, alive or dead; some of them would 

 shoot a timid mother doe with a week-old fawn pulling at 

 the teat. 



At breakfast next morning the trout were so toothsome 

 that Ben was moved to say: "Ef there's ary fish that has 

 more of a flaver to it than another, strikes me it must be a 

 trout; beats side meat clean out o' sight," and as he deftly 

 extracted the backbone from his second one and dropped a 

 section of the savory flesh into the rift in his countenance, 

 he added, with a glance up and down the table, "guess 

 James Mackerel an' me'll hev to slip over an' ketch another 

 mess o' them minners in a day or two," and then, as Kit 

 turned to help Mother Jim to another "minner," the old 

 sinner hastily gathered all the fish bones within his reach 

 and furtively deposited them alongside of her plate. When 

 she faced around to replace the trout dish (a tin pan), she 

 discovered the sudden accumulation of bones, but aside from 

 a flash of color in her face and a quick glance at the old cul- 

 prit, she showed no sign of anything amiss. Ben stirred his 

 coffee in an absent-minded sort of way, meantime delighting 

 little Top with a yarn about "a famous place jest around 

 the pint, where he would take her some fine day when it 

 quit rainin', where she could hev dead loads o' fun with the 

 sunfish." 



As the yarn was finished, he solemnly passed the trout pan 

 to Kit with: "It's 'stonishin' what Michigan air an' a few 

 days' campin' out'll do in the way o' creatin' an appytitefur 

 fish in some gals. Ef Miss Kit keeps on the way she's started 

 in an' don't git a backset, it'll keep her daddy an' me a hust- 

 lin' aroun' to ketch trout enough fur her from the look o' 

 that pile o' bones. " 



Top clapped her hands and laughed in great glee (Top had 

 suddenly become Ben's fast crony on account of the prom- 

 ised frolic with the sunfish), and her happy laugh seeming 

 to be infectious, the whole camp "jined in," even the usual 

 gravity of old Dan's face relaxed into a broad grin, and Kit 

 was forced to follow the example of the others to hide her 

 confusion. 



A morning or two after, however, Ben inadvertently 

 sweetened his coffee with salt in place of sugar, and as he 

 emptied the cup behind him after the first taste, he looked at 

 Miss Kitty, who sat opposite, and remarked, without the 

 twitch of a muzzle in his mirth-provoking old face, "Must a 

 some o' them trout bones got into that coffee from the taste 

 of it, "and we knew that retribution had overtaken him at 

 the hands of Miss Innocence across the table, who was de- 

 murely stirring her coffee with a complacency that be- 

 tokened a keen satisfaction in getting even with "Hyper- 

 holer." 



Miss Top felt it her bounden duty to laugh at about every- 

 thing "Uncle Ben" said, and when she bubbled over it 

 started the others, older heads and all, and merriment and 

 hilarity reigned in the Klugfishers' camp despite the rain, 

 that kept up a steady, monotonous patter on the canvas 

 overhead. But it takes little to make one laugh in the woods, 

 when all the cares and worries of life have been left behind. 

 A whole camp will roar at an asinine remark that ought to 

 be the death warrant of the perpetrator. Old, stale jokes 

 that have been worked over and done service for years, that 



have lost all their edge and brightness from oft recurring 

 use, are brought forth and burnished up in the light of the 

 camp fire till they are almost as good as new and we laugh 

 at them and enjoy them with the same keen zest that we did 

 a score of years gone by. Some one has said all this before, 

 and I quote it, in effect, only because it is so true. The 

 camp in the woods, too, is a great equalizer. The clerk 

 stands as high as his employer, the owner' of a block 

 of bricks; the shover of the plaue sleeps and snores 

 under the same blanket with the dignified judge; the 

 undertaker cracks business jokes with the dispenser of phy- 

 sic; the sun-browned follower of the plow ranks equal to the 

 M. C. "from the flat-rock deestrick," and all partake with, 

 equal relish of the same stew concocted in the same old 

 blackened and battered camp kettle that has weathered half 

 a score of rough campaigns. In the woods social distinctions 

 are lost sight of; no lines of caste are there to mar good 

 fellowship, albeit lines are often cast, and all the certificate 

 required for admission to the circle around the camp fire is 

 a love of rod, gun and the woods, and to be possessed of the 

 instincts of a sportsman, which are always gentlemanly; and 

 I am going to record it that I don't take any stock in the 

 terms true sportsman and gentleman sportsman, for I take it 

 a sportsman can be nothing but a gentleman, however, a 

 gentleman may not be a sportsman, but "sportsman" covers 

 the whole ground, whether he be a respected Governor of a 

 State or the humblest woodchopper in the pineries. 

 But the trout bones have led into a digression. 



Kingfisher, 



CmotNNATi, Ohi o. 



THE TROUT OF SUNAPEE LAKE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Food makes trout grow. After the interesting letter of 

 Mr. Livingston Stone, in last week's issue, it seems needless 

 to cite instances from the experience of pisciculturists, anglers 

 and naturalists in this country and England to prove the 

 above. Abundance of digestible food is a condition which 

 Suuapee Lake meets in its countless millions of smelts, 

 which supply the black bass and the salmonidm. These fish, 

 two or three inches in length, are tender-fleshed and easily 

 disintegrate in the stomach of the trout, and there is prac- 

 tically no limit to a trout's voracity. Mr. Henry R. Francis, 

 in the recent pages of the Badminton Library, mentions a 

 trout caught by him, weighing a little more than f pounds, 

 that had "forty-six small minnows in its maw, the upper- 

 most freshly swallowed, while those furthest down were 

 more than half digested." The same author further instances 

 a brook trout, whose stuffed skin is in the possession of the 

 Driffield Club, that attaiued a weight of 17 pounds from 

 feeding upon minnows that swarmed in the neighboring 

 Beck aud its tributaries. 



It is every way probable that the oquassai taken in Sunapee 

 last fall attained their remarkable proportions in six years, 

 Mr. Livingston Stone seeks to account for four pounds more 

 than the steelyard proves. The largest trout taken, accord- 

 ing to the testimony before us, weighed but 6 pounds; that 

 there were 10-pounders on the spawning bed was a guess. 

 Now, according to Dr. Merriam, six pounds is not an un- 

 usual weight for oquassa} rapidly to attain in the salt waters 

 of the Lower St. Lawrence. The same little despised four- 

 ounce "blue back," give it an abundance of appropriate food 

 and the tonic effects of a favorable change of waters, de- 

 velops in the Godbout, the Miogan and the Trinity River, 

 as well as in Sunapee, into a giant worthy of the angler's 

 skill, in accordance with nature's simplest laws. I fully 

 agree with Col. Samuel Webber that our noble fish are 

 sprung from his 1879 plant. John D. Q0ACkenros. 

 Columbia College, New York, April 14. 



P. S — Permit me to add the following postscript ; in 

 reply to your correspondent who has seen fit to enter this 

 scientific discussion under the shadow of a pseudonym. It is 

 rather late in the day to speak of four ounces, as the 

 maximum weight of the Salino oquassa, it having been 

 repeatedly shown in the columns of this paper that oquasm 

 have attained a weight of six and eight pounds; nor is it 

 absolutely certain that the " blue-backs," of Rangeley, "do 

 not average a quarter of a pound." Let me engage our 

 opponents for a moment with their own weapons. They 

 gravely inform us that monster oquasm probably make their 

 home in a number of New Hampshire lakes. It would not 

 surprise me, therefore, at any time to learn that there are in 

 Rangeley Lake oquassa trout weighing from six to eight 

 pounds. The "blue-backs " swarming in the inlets during 

 October may be the callow offspring of astute giants that 

 rise annually from fathomless waters to spawn upon some 

 mid-lake shoal unknown to the genus homo, and after a few 

 days recede into depths where no lure can reach them. 

 Assuredly, it is as probable that such Solomons among 

 Salmonidm have eluded the vigilance of Caucasian man for a 

 few decades in Rangeley, as that they have reproduced their 

 species for a century in" Sunapee unmolested by the net or 

 spear ? What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the 

 gander. Your correspondent does not know that these 

 large oquassce have always been in Suuapee any more than 

 he knows they are not to-day actually in the lakes of the 

 Rangeley chain. If the latter be a fact, then the presence 

 in Sunapee of six pound fish from the 1870 plant would by 

 no one be regarded even as remarkable. 



The dime museum analogy is so absolutely inapplicable 

 as to be undeserving of serious notice. 



Once more, the largest Salmo oquassa taken from Sunapee 

 weighed six, not ten, pouuds. To quote Charles F. Imbris, 

 when the weight of a trout is in question, "I would rather 

 believe a poor pair of scales than George Washington." 



J. D. Q. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have lately noticed in the Forest and Stream remarks 

 on the different species of trout in Sunapee Lake, N. H. I 

 will say to the readers of Forest and Stream, and others, 

 that I began fishing for trout in that lake in 1857, and have 

 fished every year since, more or less, therefore am able to 

 state to, you the different varieties of trout in the lake. 

 When 1 first began to fish for trout in the lake there was 

 but one species of trout in it and that was the native speck- 

 led trout. We have at this time four different varieties of 

 trout in this lake, viz., the speckled trout, the white trout, 

 blue- back trout, and landlocked salmon. The speckled 

 trout sometimes weigh 5 or 6 pounds ; the white fish average 

 a little more than the speckled trout ; the landlocked salmon 

 average 8 or 10 pounds, and the blue-back not so much. As 

 to the white fish being a species of the speckled trout I 

 should say they were not, but are a species of the real St. 

 John River trout. These four varieties of trout are caught 

 in great abundance. Jacob R. Hutchinson 



Newport, N. H., April 0. 



