Jan. 24, 1889.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



9 



\ea m\d |?/wr fishing. 



NEWFOUNDLAND FISHING SEASONS. 



Cap. lOiS.—Coauiliflnterl Statutes. 



Sue. 1.— No person shall at any time catch, kill or take any kind 

 of trout or other non-migratory fresh-water fish m any inland 

 lake, river or stream within this Colony, by the UBe ot any net, 

 hallow, weir, fishing otter, lime, or other deleterious compound. 



2.— No person shall cat ch, kill or take any kind of trout, char, 

 w hit efish. landlocked salmon, or any fresh- water or migratory 

 fish in anv lake, river or stream of this Colony between the 15th 

 day of September and the 1st day of December in any year. 



* Cap. 102.— Consolidated Stat ute*. 



5,_No person shall by spearing, or sweeping with nets or Bcines. 

 take, or attempt to take, any salmon, grilse, par or trout in any 

 bay, river, stream, cove or water course, above where the tide 

 usually rises and falls, or in any pond or lake. 



8.— No stake, seino, weir or other contrivance for taking salmon 

 shall be set, except nets placed so as not to extend more than one- 

 third across such river, stream or water course. 



7.— No person shall construct any mill dam, weir, rack, frame, 

 train gate or other erection or barrier in or across any river, 

 stream, etc., so as to obstruct the free passage of salmon, grilse, 

 par. trout or other fish resorting thereto, for the purpose of 

 spawning. 



No person shall permit any sawdust or mill rubbish to be east 

 into any such river, stream, cove, lake or water course. 



MAINE TROUT NOTES. 



r CANNOT learn that a heavy run of blueback trout 

 was observed this fall in the Mill Brook and other 

 brooks running into Richardson Lake. Maine. It will be 

 remembered that a great run of these fish was observed 

 in the fall of 1887, especially in Mill Brook, by guides 

 and others, and soon afterward mentioned in the Forest 

 and Stream. The bed of the stream was literally covered 

 with these fish, and hosts of them could be taken out of 

 the water with almost any sort of a net. It was also 

 curious to note that they were working up tlva same 

 stream over the bed of which hundreds of brook trout 

 had gone onlj- a few days before, and evidently for the 

 same purpose! that of spawning. So far as the man who 

 saw the bluebacks observed, there were at that time no 

 brook trout in sight, and it was also a matter of some 

 comment as to where the brook trout had gone in so short 

 a time. It is, however, highly probable that the same 

 run of trout took place this fall, though it failed of being 

 observed for the good reason that careful observers were 

 not there at the time. Indeed, a run of these peculiar 

 fish has for several years been observed at the Upper 

 Dam. where the trout come up from the same lake as in 

 the case of the Mill Brook run. Neither have I any 

 doubt but what a run might also be observed as well in 

 Beaver Brook, and in fact in any of the brooks which 

 run into Richardson Lake, were careful observers on the 

 grounds at the time. 



Blueback trout are to be found in Richardson Lake as 

 well as Mooselueinaguntic. Some authors rely greatly 

 upon color and teeth at the root of the tongue as a matter 

 of: distinction of species; but they admit that specimens 

 of the brook trout are occasionally found with these teeth 

 at the root of the tongue. Well /if they had fished the 

 streams and ponds of Maine a little more thoroughly than 

 they evidently have done, and fished with an eye to the 

 peculiarities of the trout they were taking, they would 

 have observed that teeth at the root of the tongue are 

 really very common in this species of trout. Any one 

 who "will take the trouble may become convinced that 

 coloring in the brook trout, or shades of coloring, beyond 

 the red spots, are very uncertain. There is a pond in 

 Somerset county. Maine, where the trout are so black as 

 to often be mistaken for chub or some other fish, till close 

 examination shows that they are really trout. At the 

 same time one of the inlets of this pond has a clear stony 

 bottom, and a trout taken from this brook is noted for 

 the lightness of its coloring. Again, this inlet to the 

 pond happens to run out of another and a smaller pond. 

 The upper pond has remarkably clear water with a stony 

 bottom. In this pond the trout are remarkably light 

 colored, and yet, in the spawning season, the larger trout 

 of the lower pond, which, by the way, has a very black 

 and muddy bottom, ran up the inlet to spawn, and often 

 into the upper pond, across it and up its inlets, there to 

 spawn. At least the very black trout of the lower pond 

 have been found in the inlets of the upper pond. Now, 

 what conclusion do we come to from these facts? Simply 

 that these trout are one and the same species, regardless 

 of the pond in which they are found, and that the bottom 

 of the home of the trout has very much to do with its 

 coloring. 



My wife has for a long time been interested in trout 

 painting, and the peculiar colorings of individuals of 

 the brook trout have been a special study with her. I 

 have been aware from my boyhood that in a particular 

 stream in Oxford county, in Maine, the trout are particu- 

 larly beautiful as to coloring. Not only are they mottled 

 in a very distinct and beautiful manner, but they are 

 also painted with waves of color along their sides to an 

 extent greater than any other trout I have ever seen. In 

 the summer of 1883 I determined to procure one of these 

 trout for my wife to paint, and if possible to get the 

 peculiar coloring for which they are noted. We went to 

 our friends, within some twenty miles of the stream in 

 question, and with a team my brother and I started the 

 next day for the mountain stream. We had procured a 

 tin pail "with a cover, and we were determined to bring 

 home specimens of those beautifully-marked trout to be 

 copied in painting. We procured several. By carefully 

 changing the water every few miles, from wells and 

 streams, we got two of them over the drive of twenty 

 miles alive. We put them into a well that night in an 

 improvised car for the inspection of my wife the next 

 day. In the morning one of them was dead. The other 

 was lively enough, but alas for his beautiful coloring of 

 the day before! It was all gone. It was about as pale 

 and colorless a specimen of a trout as I ever saw. 



There is a lady living a few miles from Rumford Point, 

 Maine, who has a tame trout. That is, she has a trout 

 that the family has kept for several years in an aqueduct 

 tank in the house. The water runs from a mountain 

 spring int o the tank at all times. The trout has become 

 very tame. It readily comes up to the top of the water 

 at call; suffers its back to be rubbed, in fact seems to like 

 this sort of treatment. It takes food from the hand 

 readily; often jumping out of water for earth worms or 

 grasshopper, of which it is especially fond. But as to 

 coloring, what has this trout? Simply nothing, except 

 almost an entire absence of the wavy brightness that 



characterizes the trout from the same brook from which 

 this specimen came a few years ago. 



Many brook trout of 10 and lO^lbs. have been recorded 

 by careful and truthful anglers. One of 11 fibs, was 

 taken in Mooselucmaguntic Lake a year ago last June. 

 In the fall of 1880, Sept. 29. a brook trout was taken at 

 the Upper Dam which weighed llilbs. This trout was 

 at once forwarded to Prof. Baird, who had the skin 

 mounted, and it is, or should be, in the Smithsonian 

 Institution to-day. If that specimen has been destroyed, 

 another specimen can probably be obtained next season, 

 that will weigh lOIbs. at least. Indeed, if the Govern - 

 ment will furnish the jar and the alcohol, and have it at 

 the Upper Dam next summer, there is no doubt that one 

 or two specimens of these great trout would be con- 

 tributed to the Smithsonian by sportsmen who happen to 

 be so fortunate as to take them. 



Even the lovers of the rod and reel are sometimes the 

 recipients of Christmas remembrances. In one case Mr. 

 Geo. B. Appleton, for several years a fellow salesman 

 with the lamented and much beloved Prouty, was made 

 happy on that happiest day of all the year. He received, 

 much to his surprise, the very gold watch that Prouty 

 used to carry. Mrs. Prouty accompanied the gift with 

 an explanation, stating that she had for some time con- 

 templated the gift, well knowing that it would be the 

 wish of her husband, could he speak from the land where 

 gifts are not needed. Inside the watch is inscribed. •My 

 companion, and my own familiar friend." 



Even "Special" himself was not forgotten on that day, 

 and a gold trout now ornaments his watch chain , a gift 

 from Geo. T. Freeman, the Court street jeweler. It is all 

 the more a welcome trout from the fact that George and 

 "Special" have camped together and fished together 

 many a time, taking trout other than golden, but bright 

 and shining all the same. Sproiajl. 



NOTES ON SALMON, TROUT AND EELS. 



^pHE following notes from the returns of 1887 of the 

 JL Board of Conservators of the Dart Fishery District, 

 England, are of interest to us because we have the fishes 

 mentioned, and know very little of their habits and 

 movements: 



Young of salmon twelve months old are termed spawn; 

 they go to sea at this age at various periods from March 

 to June; they vary in length from 6 to Sin. : maximum 

 weight, 2oz. On their first return from the sea in July 

 and August of the same year they are termed peel [The 

 Inspector thinks the observer has confused migratory 

 trout (Salmo trutta) with salmon, yet he has known a 

 grilse of lib. weight, and Yarrell records one of 15oz.], 

 and weigh from \\h to 1-Ubs. The following summer 

 they come up the river again, about July and August, 

 weighing from 4 to filbs., and are then termed harvest 

 fish, being about two and a half years old. The following 

 summer, about three and a half years old, they run about 

 8 to 121bs. each. Besides these there is a small fish 

 throughout the year in the fresh water termed a hepper. 

 I consider this is the young of peel [Salmo trutta]. T 

 have seen these latter* spawning under lib. in weight. 



I notice that whenever there is a good freshet in the 

 river, salmon will ascend to the fresh water, and they 

 quickly drop back again to the tidal water. They cer- 

 tainly do not come up then for spawning, and. I believe, 

 only for a change, a taste of fresh water. 



Sea lice are the only parasites I have seen on salmon, 

 and I have not seen these ahove TotneB Weir (the highest 

 point the tide flows), about twelve miles from the sea. 

 Possibly they may at times carry them to the fresh water, 

 but it is generally believed they die and drop off within 

 twenty-four hours of the time the fish enters the river. 



Formerly, while the fish were obstructed at Totnes 

 Weir, very few salmon were seen in the river before 

 May. For some years they were netted early in Sep- 

 tember and put over the weir. These fish spawned in 

 October, returned early to sea and came back in March 

 as fresh run fish, and always the largest caught during 

 the season, 15 to 201bs. each. This continues, though 

 the fish -pass at Totnes Weir renders netting now un- 

 necessary. 



Since salmon have been able to get over Totnes Weir 

 they get to the highest water on Dartmoor, and spawn 

 about the middle of October: this has continued for many 

 years, but this last season was an exception; the dry 

 weather continued late and very few r salmon got up the 

 river till the end of October. There is an old saying 

 among the fishermen on Dartmoor that very few salmon 

 are ever seen there after Christmas, and that unless fish 

 can spawn there early they are afraid of being left by 

 failing waters. This theory is fully confirmed this last 

 season; very large numbers of fish have spawned in 

 November in the lower parts of the river; they could 

 then have got to the moor, but not one was seen in the 

 East Dart and very few in the West Dart above the junc- 

 tion at Dartmeet. 



Most of the salmon spawn from the middle of October 

 to middle of December, and a few down as late as April. 

 Brown trout spawn early in October and November. 



The Dart is a very swift flowing river, and most kinds 

 of Crustacea get washed away. The trout in winter are 

 short of food, dependent a great deal on worms, not a 

 fattening diet, but they get rapidly into condition when 

 the natural flies appear. The better the food the earlier 

 the fish spawn. A remarkable instance of this occurs in 

 this district. A small brook empties into the Slafton 

 Lea, a sheet of fresh water close to the sea coast between 

 Dartmouth and the Start Point. The trout in this brook 

 are in first-rate condition as early as January; the owner 

 will not allow any fishing after June 80, and the fish 

 spawn in July. I consider this is caused by abundance 

 of food in the winter at the spot where it enters the Lea, 

 where thousands of young perch and roach abound. 



The trout in the fresh water of the Dart are all white 

 flesh except when they drop down to the tidal water 

 below Totnes Weir, and all of them get pink flesh from 

 the difference in food — shrimps, etc. 



Salmon ran mostly on spring tides and freshets, and 

 with a northwest wind blowing off-shore, causing smooth 

 water at the rocky entrance of the river at Dartmouth. 



Eels are very abundant both in the fresh and tidal 

 portion of the river. They are taken occasionally by 

 "clotting" (a bunch of worms strung on worsted, which 

 they hold fast on), as many as 30 to 40 dozen at a time. 



Oneouta, N. Y.— The Fish and Game Protective Asso- 

 ciation members propose to put out some quail in this 

 vicinity. — X. 



BLACK BASS IN PONDS. 



TAUTON, Mass.— Editor Forest and Stream: We have 

 near here a large pond that has been stocked with 

 small-mouth black bass for seventeen years, and yet it is 

 the exception and not the rule to catch one out. When 

 one is caught it is always a large one. I have fished it 

 for ten years and never saw a small one. The pond has 

 an outlet into the river by way of numerous mill dame, 

 etc. What is the reason they ' are so scarce? Can it be 

 they have run the dams to the river? Perhaps the pond 

 is not well adapted to them. There is another pond near 

 by of spring water but small outlet, Borne sand, a good 

 deal of mud, and some email boulders for bottom. Is 

 there anywhere I can get bass fry or spawn to stock this 

 pond? Would not the large-mouth be more likely to suc- 

 ceed than his brother the small-mouth? There is very 

 good feed in it for bass, as it is alive with shiners and 

 small perch, etc. I would willingly go to a little expense 

 and trouble to see this pond stocked. 1 think that it 

 would make good sport without going too far for it. I 

 have tried the other pond with all the lures that I know, 

 including the fly, which is the most successful, but I have 

 very indifferent success. In the Fall River ponds the 

 bass are very plentiful and I have good success. They 

 have not been stocked any longer than our ponds here. 

 I would be more than pleased to hear of anything that 

 would catch them. G. E. W. 



[ft is difficult to tell why small bass are not caught in the 

 Taunton pond. Perhaps they may be present, but remain 

 in seclusion and refuse to bite. If they have access 

 to the river they will go into it, and the dams, unless pro- 

 vided with fishWays, wil 1 pre vent then- re turn to the pond. 

 Possibly there is not enough food for the bass and the big 

 ones have eaten the small ones. If there is an a bundance 

 of m innows there should be plenty of bass. The other pond 

 described should certainly grow good bass of both kinds. 

 The two species thrive equally well in Massachusetts. 

 Waban pond, at Wellesley, Mass. , has the same peculiar- 

 ity with regard to its bass. It has been stocked twenty 

 years. There are plenty of large small-mouthed bass, 

 but it is a rare thing to catch a small one. A resident of 

 Wellesley, who has fished in this pond both before and 

 after it was stocked, informs us that he has seen as many 

 as a hundred large bass at a time on the bottom, but they 

 would not bite. In his long experience of nearly a quar- 

 ter of a century he has caught only one half-pound bass on 

 a hook, but he has captured many large fish. The fry are, 

 common in shoal water near the shore. Shiners are very 

 abundant. He has caught minnows on one side of his 

 boat and used them in a little deeper water on the other 

 side to catch bass. This pond empties by a brook into 

 Charles River. Bass of all sizes are found in the river. 

 The biting of the bass in Waban pond is extremely capri- 

 cious and disappointing. Our informant has been most 

 successful trolling with a frog, having his line sunk a 

 little below the surface. Farm pond, in Sherborn, has 

 plenty of bass of both kinds, and a good catch can be 

 made almost any day. A permit is necessary for non- 

 residents. This pond has no shiners in it; there is no inlet 

 and only a small outlet. Barker's pond , Wellesley, Mass. , 

 is artificial, and has neither inlet nor outlet. It contains 

 no minnows, but has plenty of small bullheads or catfish. 

 This pond has many small bass, but no large ones appar- 

 ently. In the spring one can take all the small bass of 

 1 to 41b. he wants with worms. In these ponds bass take 

 the hook best where there are no minnows. Besides frogs 

 we know that small catfish are very tempting to bass. In 

 the Susquehanna River they are used sometimes in prefer- 

 ence to all other baits. Small bass can be had from Mr. 

 R. Winsford Denton, Wellesley, Mass., at a reasonably 

 price in the spring.] 



LAKE TROUT, 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have always been mixed up in the matter of lake 

 trout, and since reading Mr. Cheney's letter I am more 

 so. "Forester" records three distinct lake trouts — the 

 lake trout (Salmo confinis); the siskawitz or northern 

 lake trout {Salmo siskawitz), and the greatest lake trout 

 (namayeush). Mr. Cheney tells us a great deal about his 

 lake trout being known by so many different names in 

 different places: but he fails to make the most important 

 matter clear by not dwelling upon the three kinds of 

 lake trout. "Forester's" "lake trout," "greatest lake 

 trout" and "siskawitz" are all different. Are there three 

 lake trouts? Does "Forester" enumerate them correctly? 

 You will see by the outlines I send you that his lake 

 trout and greatest lake trout, according to his drawings, 

 are as different as any two fishes that swim. I am not 

 the only one who is puzzled in this direction, and I think 

 a short but clear item from you on the subject would 

 prove an appropriate, interesting and instructive feature. 

 Which of these three fishes is commonly called "Mack- 

 inaw trout," "Mackinaw salmon," "lunge," "longe," 

 "togue," "forked- tailed trout," "tuladi," "red trout," 

 "gray trout," "lake salmon," "salmon trout," if these are 

 vulgar names ? Kahkahlin. 



[Only one lake trout is recognized at present by stu- 

 dents of the salmon family — the namayeush of Wal- 

 baum. The siscowet or siskawitz is regarded simply as 

 a local race of the navutyeash differing only in being 

 shorter and fatter. "Forester" took his ichthyology 

 principally from De Kay and some of his figures of lake 

 trout are poor copies of illustrations in "The Natural 

 History of New York." This was considered an excel- 

 lent work several decades ago and is now one of the 

 classics, but it is not accepted as a guide to the present 

 state of knowledge concerning fishes. The names given 

 in the closing paragraph, with the exception of red trout, 

 refer to the common form of the lake trout with its color 

 variations. Tuladi is the New Brunswick name; togue is 

 heard in Maine, and some togue are nearly black; longe. 

 is attributed to Vermont; namayeush is the Indian name 

 in the far North; trout is the appellation in Winnipiseo- 

 gee; Mackinaw trout appears on lakes Huron, Michigan, 

 and Superior: lake salmon, lake trout, and salmon trout 

 are names used in northern New York; peet is the most 

 curious name of all and its locality for the moment is 

 forgotten. 



If we were to describe the variations of color and 

 form observed in the lake trout through its wonderfully 

 wide range from both sides of Arctic America southward 

 to Idaho, the Great Lakes, and New York, we might be 

 charged with romancing, but in tins case "truth is 

 stranger than fiction."] 



