90 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 23, 1888. 



SUNAPEE LAKE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



If your inquirer signing himself "Swirl," of Worcester, 

 Mass., -will take the trouble to quiz Col. Hopkins, district 

 attorney of that city, he can get all the information he 

 desires without, a fee (probably), as the Colonel has pulled 

 five or six of those lake trout that weighed in total SOlbs. 

 For the information of others, Sunapee Lake lies — see 

 Pathfinder railroad map — west of Concord, N. H., .on the 

 Concord & Claremont Railroad. In the summer round 

 trip tickets are sold from Boston at about $5. Leave rail- 

 road at Newbury and take steamer for Sunapee. From 

 New York go via N. Y., N. H. & H. to Springfield, 

 thence to Brattleboro, Claremont junction and Sunapee 

 station. The town and lake lies tlnee miles from the rail- 

 road station. For camping there is abundant opportunity 

 anywhere along shore, the lake being about six miles 

 long and somewhere about a mile wide or less. There 

 are country stores in Sunapee (a small town), also hotels 

 at Sunapee, Sunapee Mountain and Newbury. There is 

 plenty of bass fishing there, and every season there are 

 lucky parties who bring in these lake trout, which are 

 usually caught in very deep water — still-fishing I think. 

 Boats can be hired at Sunapee landing. Mr. George 

 Bartlett, manufacturer of hames, is a very courteous, 

 reliable, Christian gentleman, not interested in booming 

 hotels, and without consulting him I say that I am sure 

 any reasonable inquiry (with stamps) will be kindly 

 answered by him; address simply as above, Sunapee, 

 N. H. Bay State Feller. 



FLY-TYING AND ANGLING DEVICES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The main purpose in writing this is to introduce to 

 anglers a new device in fly-tying, which many may pre- 

 fer. This is a method of concealing the hook, and as it 

 is explained by an old fly-tyer, it will no doubt be of in- 

 terest to many of your readers. The tying of fliesns a 

 pleasant and profitable way of spending the long even- 

 ings of winter and the beginner will need some advice 

 about the modes of gathering material for his work, as 

 this will have to be picked up or bought. Poultry shows 

 are good places to collect chance feathers and hackles, 

 the latter being the neck, ramp and tail feathers of the 

 cock. Reject the softer ones, but any feather too soft to 

 wind alone can be wound back on a cock's hackle. The 

 thread must be strong and fine and well-coated with 

 shoemaker's wax, and the hook3 should be turned up and 

 flattened at the end. A few good flies are necessary for 

 patterns, and large flies are better than small ones for 

 the beginner to practice on. Use washed silk for the 

 brighter colors, and having arranged the materials to our 

 satisfaction we will proceed to tie in a white moth. 



Grasp the hook between the thumb and forefinger, op- 

 posite the point, and, with waxed thread . take five or six 

 turns around the hook up to the head; then back hard 

 and close iip, finishing opposite the point with four half 

 hitches. Now tie in a piece of white embroidery silk, or 

 cotton twine, and wind the thread out of the way to the 

 head of the hook and fasten temporarily; wind the silk 

 down the hook nearly to the' barb, leaving small spaces 

 between, and wind back in the same manner. Now, try 

 to work the silk down the hook as far as possible with 

 your finger nail, if it comes hard you have wound it too 

 tight and it should be unwound and tried again. Tinsel 

 and gut can be wound on, but I would not advise the use 

 of feathers.* 



"Wind firtnly from the starting point to where you tie 

 in the hackle, tie in the hackle with the tinsel, or gut, 

 with four half hitches, if a larger body is required tie in 

 silk or cotton and wind over it, take a half turn around 

 the hook with the hackle, hold it in place with your fin- 

 ger to prevent overlapping, bring it around wide near 

 the point, remove the finger and pull firmly down to the 

 hook; replace the finger, using the same precautions 

 against overlapping, bring it over to the opposite side, 

 repeat the operation nearly to the head of the hook and 

 secure it well. Now take a strip of white feather and 

 fold it once or twice, stroke the fibres together and lay it 

 on the hook. Add another strip of feather if two wings 

 are wanted, which is seldom the case, take two or three 

 turns around the head of the fly and finish with four 

 half hitches and a little varnish or warm wax over the 

 head and fastening; trim off neatly about the head, and 

 if necessary use a pin to set aright stray hackles. 



The fly is now ready for the sliding loop (see Forest 

 and Stream of July 14, 1887), provided it resembles the 

 description, especially in the head, which should be large. 

 In using one or two small feathers for wings, strip off the 

 fluffy part, break down the stem between the thumb and 

 finger nail, and tie in without folding. A hackle can be 

 tied opposite the point and wrapped up to the head, or 

 tied in anywhere between these two places, Wind in 

 peacock herl, tinsel and hackle, in the order named; the 

 tail i3 tied in first, the butts of the herls are tied together 

 and wrapped close toward the head, and if one hackle is 

 not sufficient tie in another where you left off. A large 

 hackle can be trimmed off and tied on a small hook; do 

 not cut across the fibre, but work the scissors alongside 

 as much as possible, but avoid this if the proper sized 

 hackle can be obtained. Do all the work with your 

 fingers, if possible, otherwise a small vise will be useful. 

 For all practical purposes flies tied after these directions 

 will be found to give a great range of choice, barring 

 salmon fishing. I have caught a number of fish with 

 this device, including some black bass, and even a turtle. 

 The body, hackle and wing can be varied to suit the 

 angler's fancy. 



Always use two flies except m cases where your tackle 

 might be endangered in playing two fish at the same 

 time. My reason for this is based on a discovery which 

 I made in this way: In raising the fly from the water I 

 noticed the wing and hackle close, but they expanded the 

 instant that the fly dropped back to its former position. 

 The stretcher fly soon sinks, and in doing so helps to 

 buoy up the upper fly, which is easily kept on the surface 

 and can be raised and lowered at pleasure. 



I have given the sliding loop a most thorough trial since 

 writing the last article, and I have no reason to regret 

 anything I have said in its favor. If the loop works hard, 

 from any cause, pull on the knotted end, working it a 



*A sample and drawings show that the hook is covered to the 

 barb, and that when the hook enters the jaw of a fish 1 lie winding 

 is shoved back. 



trifle back and forth. I have done with snelled hooks, 

 for all kinds of fishing, and I would advise anglers to 

 follow my example. For bait-fishing you can put in six 

 or seven half hitches of gut, if you prefer it to the sliding 

 loop, and this makes the hook a fixture, unless you use 

 short snells. 



Every angler should learn how to repair broken tackle, 

 and Norris's "American Angler's Book" will give the in- 

 formation required. If not too badly fractured a broken 

 tip, neatly spliced, may be made as good as new. With 

 plenty of waxed thread, matches and a good knife, the 

 skillful angler is prepared for most any emergency, and 

 in writing this I have merely endeavored to lend a help- 

 ing hand to all brothers of the angle, whether they use 

 bait or cast the graceful fly. Artist. 



Rahwat, N. J., Feb. 10. 



THE POETRY OF ANGLING. 



A H ! who can number the bewildering joys 

 That cluster round the angler's pursuit! 

 He follows his rare sport 'mid lovely scenes, 



Where nature spreads her foliage and her fruit; 

 He hastens forth when first the pearly light 



Of morning flushes all the fields of air; 

 When first in hazy mounts and tufted wood 



The sunbeams glitter with effulgence rare, 

 When all the valleys with their flowery plain. 



When all the forests with their foliage green, 

 Twinkle with dew drops, that the rosy beam 



Kindles like diamonds on the brow of queen. 



The xVngler tracks the windings of the stream, 



He knows its leapings in the white cascade, 

 Knows how it bubbles in the rapids swift. 



How it sleeps tranquil in each woodland shade; 

 Knows all the solitudes of its green sides, 



Knows all the glitter of its shallow tides. 

 He can greet Nature in her spring-time dress. 



When she trips gleeful thro' the blooming grove; 

 He can salute in her deep wilderness, 



As thro' her flowery haunts he loves to rove; 

 There where the eddies o'er the pebbles spout, 



He casts his humming line and luring flies, 

 'Mid the swift ripples takes the springing trout 



Or salmon, where o'er river tides they rise. 

 Then in brown autumn-time he seeks the scene 



Where the salt billows chafe the ocean shore, 

 And from a rock engarlanded with weed, 



Casts the long line where angry currents pour; 

 Takes the strip'd bass in his convulsive leaps, 



Or shapely bluefish swimming heedless by, 

 Or weakfish glittering in the middle deeps, 



Or blackfish that in low abysses lie. 



In all fcbese seasons of the rolling year, 



The angler moves amid enchanting scenes. 

 Where wreaths of flowers on bush and tree are hung, 



Ivies and woodbines twine their bowery greens, 

 Roses and lilies charm with rare perfume, 



Great orchards drocp with wealth of golden globes, 

 Daisies and clovers iu the meadows bloom, 



And every floweret flaunts its color'd robe?. 

 Song bids salute him with the dawning light, 



The bobolink, robin and the minstrel thrush; 

 They chant their carols all the sur.imer day, 



While chirps the whippoorwill in evening hush; 

 All the blithe sights of Nature cheer his eyes, 



All Nature's voices charm with glad surprise. 

 Greenpobt, Long Island. Isaac McLellan. 



SUNAPEE TROUT./ 



/ 1HARLESTOWN. N. II., Feb. lti.—Edffor Forest and 

 V^' Stream: When it was first decided by Dr. Bean that 

 the new trout of Sunapee Lake was an oquassa I stated 

 through your columns that there was good reason for 

 finding this variety of trout in that lake, as a plant of 

 bluebacks was made in it in 1878 or '79 by Commissioner 

 Powers and myself from eggs obtained by us from Com- 

 missioner Stanley, of Maine, hatched at the State hatch- 

 ery at Plymouth, and the young fry carried to the lake. 



I afterward suggested through your columns that the 

 much greater size to which these fish had attained in 

 Sunapee over that of the original in Androscoggin Lakes 

 might be due to the ample amout of smelt food, which 

 they had obtained in the waters of Sunapee and which, 

 with the change of water and other causes had increased 

 the size and weight of the landlocked salmon, planted 

 about the same time from the Grand Lake Stream stand- 

 ard, of from 2 to Slbs. to one from 12 to I61bs. as now 

 found in Sunapee. 



These, however, were merely thrown out as sugges- 

 tions, and my attention has again been called to the 

 matter by Dr. Bean's letter in Forest and Stream of 

 Jan. 26, in which he makes the suggestion that the blue- 

 backs, as known in the Androscoggin Lakes, are merely 

 the immature form of Salvelinus oquassa, of which the 

 new trout of Sunapee may be the fuller growth, and 

 suggests that "the origin of the Sunapee trout may be 

 tracked to some early introduction of the bluebacks into 

 New Hampshire." This is improbable, if not impossible, 

 unless the plant made by Dr. Fletcher in 1869 should 

 turn out to have been of this species. In regard to that 

 plant the inclosed letter from Mr. Gould gives all the in- 

 formation I can obtain: 



"Father and myself in '69, 1 think, placed 45 fish in the 

 little brook that runs into Sunapee Lake at Newbury. 

 They were very small, just old enough to transport. N. 

 S. Batchelder got them in Maine. I understood and said 

 they were landlocked salmon. Afterward Dr. Fletcher 

 said they were not salmon, but were trout taken from 

 St. Johns River. I never knew, or if I did I have for- 



fotton, his proofs. We had no eggs, but the young fry. 

 Whether Batchelder got the eggs and hatched them here, 

 or brought the fry from there, I don't remember: perhaps 

 I never knew. Batchelder is now dead, has been for 

 several years. Considering how small the plant was, I 

 cannot conceive that the 'new trout' of Sunapee could 

 have come from it. But, of course, I know nothing. The 

 above are all the facts in our knowledge. Yours, Fred 

 H. Gould." 



Now, unless these trout above described were also of 

 the oquassa variety, it is not probable that any such trout 

 were ever introduced before the plant made by Mr. 

 Powers and myself. 



The question is a puzzling one, and the dilemma has 

 several horns. First, either this new trout which Dr. 

 Quakenbos and myself have called Salvelinus sunapee 

 two years since, and for which we claim priority of 

 nomenclature, has always been an inhabitant of the lake, 

 and has remained undiscovered during a hundred years 

 of steady fishing; or second, it is as Dr. Beau suggests, 

 the matured form of the blueback; or third, it is as Dr. 

 Quackenbos suggests, a "hybrid," sprung from the con- 

 junction of the native trout with some of the new varie- 

 ties which have been introduced. 



With regard to the first theory, while I doubt its prob- 

 ability, I will admit it is not impossible, for my friend 

 Mr. Powers tells me that the "old-timers" now find it 

 very difficult to distinguish between the two varieties, 

 which it seems to me can hardly be the case if the varie- 

 ties are so distinct as to require a new name for one of 

 them. The second theory will agree very well with my 

 suggestion of increased growth due to a rr ore abundant 

 supply of food, and the third, of hybridization, seems 

 highly probable from the great variety of shapes and 

 colorization which, I am told, characterizes the newly- 

 discovered species. I have as yet seen but one living 

 specimen of the fish, and Plumbeus would have been a 

 far more fitting name for him than Aureolus. When at 

 Sunapee Harbor last November on business which did not 

 give me time to go to the spawning beds, I saw Mr. 

 Hodge with a couple of exquisite oil portraits of two of 

 these fish, one for the Governor of the State and one for 

 some other gentleman whose name I now forget. Neither 

 of these fish had the least claim to the title of Aureolus, 

 but were simply very handsome dark trout, much like 

 the trout of Lower Diamond Pond, which, I think, I have 

 already stated in your columns to be. in my opinion, also 

 of the blueback variety. I have never seen one of these 

 trout in that pond over 41b. in weight, nor either any very 

 small ones, they having a very uniform average of from 

 3 to 4oz. They are blue-backed, tail slightly forked, car- 

 mine spots very small and vivid, and more cylindrical 

 than the brook trout, and have the deep red flesh which 

 characterizes the trout of the Androscoggin water shed. 

 I have never captured a trout in the Upper Diamond 

 Pond, but Dr. Prime can tell you ail about them" if 

 needed. 



I have never seen any description of the color of the 

 flesh of this new variety, and do not know if it is a red 

 or a white trout, but if an oquassa, it ought to be a red 

 one, although the general coloring of the trout of the 

 Connecticut watershed is white or pale yellow. 



I consider this question still an open one, and believe 

 that some experiments on hybridization should be made 

 to assist in determining it, as I learn from Dr. Quakenbos 

 that the male trout of the lake have been seen in attend- 

 ance on the female salmon at spawning time, and as the 

 Howietown experiments show the possibility of fertile 

 hybridization. 



Some three or four years since, before the discovery of 

 this variety on the spawning beds, Mr. Powers informed 

 me of the discovery of a new "white trout" in the lake, 

 the origin of which he attributed to the plant referred to 

 in Mr. Gould's letter. I hope to be able to catch some of 

 these fish myself the following summer, and make a close 

 comparison between the two varieties in the lake. 



Saml. Webber, 



THE COLOR OF TROUT FLESH. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I would like to ask some one who has been interested 

 enough in the subject to study it, are the red-meated 

 trout in Diamond Ponds and other places of the same 

 species as the trout in the same ponds that have 

 white flesh? In other words, would the spawn of a red- 

 fleshed trout invariably produce fish whose flesh would 

 be red, in. whatever stream or pond they might be placed? 

 There is a slight difference between the fish. One who is 

 accustomed to catching them can tell at a glance whether 

 it is a white or a red fish that he has landed, the red fish 

 being heavier in proportion, showing darker colors, with 

 smaller fins and a shorter tail. Generally the white trout 

 is found in one part of the pond, as for instance on the 

 sides and in shoal water, while the other is only found in 

 deep water. They are frequently found in the same 

 stream, but very seldom or never together. Are they 

 a different species or has different food and habits 

 given their flesh a different color, and their outline a 

 different shape? C, D. C. 



Is OliTHTTMBERLAND, N. H. 



[The difference in color of flesh is mainly due to food, 

 but the color of the bottom also affects the general hue. 

 A trout which feeds upon small fish is usually stouter in 

 proportion to its length, and is of a redder color than one 

 which feeds entirely upon insects and their larvte. A 

 diet of crustaceans also produces a deeper color. Trout 

 fed upon liver are usually light in color.] 



The Sault de Ste. Marie Bridge.— Feb. 14.— Since 

 the completion of the International R. R. bridge at this 

 place, which crosses the Ste. Marie River just at the point 

 where it breaks into one of the most beautiful rapids in 

 the world, several attempts have been made to catch the 

 great brook trout, which abound in the falls, by hand 

 line. But local Game Warden Moore "nabbed" two 

 fellows and had them fined, which has put a stop to the 

 game on the American side at least. By mutual agree- 

 ment the Canadian warden watches the five north spans 

 of the bridge, and the American warden the five southern 

 spans. It is said that an Indian spy acts as proxy for the 

 Canadian warden, and that he drops a line in frequently; 

 however, Mr. Moore keeps a watchful eye on our side and 

 says that the male trout of the largest size could be easily 

 taken from the bridge at this time'of the year with baited 

 hook. I heard it whispered yesterday that a certain 

 hotelkeeper here bought several pounds of trout which 

 were speared through the ice, near Sugar Island, six 

 miles below the falls. This is a shame, for every summer 

 many anglers spend weeks here casting the fly. I never 

 saw so many large brook trout anywhere east of the 

 Rocky Mountains as were taken here last summer. It 

 was an every day occurrence to see four or live strings of 

 brook trout, with some half dozen in each string that 

 would run from 2-ilbs. to 41bs. each, and many are brought 

 down from Lake Superior to the fish market here which 

 are taken in gill and other nets, that weigh 31bs. or 41bs, 

 each.— E. H, B. (Sault de Ste. Marie, Mich.). 



