Oct. 10, 1889.J 



229 



THE STREAMS OF ALASKA, 



SITKA, Alaska, Sept. 12.— -I have spent a year now in 

 southeastern Alaska, which in that designation, em- 

 braces the narrow belt and the adjacent archipelago, 

 extending from the Portland Canal, which separates 

 Alaska from British Columbia on the south, to Mt. St. 

 Blias. In that period I ha ve made considerable study of 

 the fish of these waters, both salt and fresh; and as I 

 receive many letters from my sporting friends in the 

 States regarding the opportunities for such amusement 

 here, some of my observations and experiences may 

 interest others. 



It is becoming quite generally known that few of the 

 fresh-water streams of southeastern Alaska extend far 

 into the interior. All of them, both on the mainland 

 and in the numerous islands off the coast, originate only 

 a few miles from the shores of the bays and inlets in the 

 melting glaciers and snows which fill the. canons and clothe 

 the high mountains in winter and throughout a great part 

 of the summer. These streams, which seldom contain a 

 greater volume of water than an ordinary mill stream, 

 reach the sea in a succession of cascades, some of them 

 with a fall of lOOt't., but the most of them not more than. 

 30ft., the last of the series generally not more than a few 

 rods from the beach. The streams are so walled in with 

 rock that it is impossible, in most instances, to go above 

 these falls, though in the case of half a dozen of them, 

 which our party explored, we succeeded in getting two 

 miles from the point where they entered the sea. Where 

 there is any margin to the stream the ground is covered 

 with an almost unpenetrable jungle composed of thickets 

 of alder, salmonberry bushes, and a sort of a stinging 

 cactus called the devil's club. Here and there in this 

 jungle stand giant spruce, fir and yellow cedar trees, aud 

 occasionally a slender silver birch. 



In the upper pools, at the foot of the cascades, are 

 thousands of small mountain trout. Few of them are 

 more than six inches long. They are almost black in 

 color and have a few brownish spots on their sides. They 

 never take the fly, and utterly refuse to pay any atten- 

 tion to it, but readily take the hook when baited With 

 salmon roe, or small pieces of fresh venison, or halibut. 

 They are not gamy in the slightest degree, and when 

 once hooke l lie still until dragged out of the water and 

 are disengaged. The average length is about four inches, 

 and I haA r e known local fishermen to take two hundred 

 in a single pool of an area of an eighth of an acre in three 

 hours' fishing. When cooked as a pan fish, to a crisp, 

 they have quite a good flavor, but are somewhat disap- 

 pointing in that respect. 



The only zest there is in this kind of fishing here is in 

 overcoming the difficulties of getting up to the pools 

 whete the trout congregate. The extreme danger in 

 climbing along the faces of rocks almost perpendicular, 

 in the attempt to get above the falls, with the constant 

 peril of missing one's foot-hold and being hurled against 

 the dashing and roaring water, and being thrown fifty 

 feet into an icy cold pool of unknown depth, are some of 

 the sources of excitement in making the attempt to cap- 

 ture mountain trout in Alaska. It requires abundance 

 of nerve to attempt it, and no "tenderioot," whose ex- 

 perience in trout fishing has been confined to whipping 

 meadow streams and brooks in the States, should try it. 

 unless, at considerable hazard, he is resolved to acquire 

 a new and an exciting experience. 



The salmon trout, another sportsman's fresh-water 

 fish, are beginning to ascend these streams from the bays 

 and inlets in great numbers. They find their first rest- 

 ing places in the pools at the foot of the falls nearest the 

 sea. As they are now taken from the streams tbey re- 

 semble the common brook trout of the States in shape, 

 their sides are of a silver color, while the back and part 

 way down the side is of a very light green. When first 

 taken from the water faint green and brown spots i L t ,in. 

 in diameter are observable on the sides, but these almost 

 totally disappear in a few hours. The latter part of May 

 the salmon trout appeared in the deeper places in the 

 sea, near the beach, and within a mile of the mouths of 

 the fresh-water streams. For several weeks while they 

 were in this position the natives, the Russians, and others 

 either went out in canoes or walked into the water to the 

 depth almost of the highest rubber boot tops and fished 

 for salmon trout with hools and line. At first the bait 

 used was a small slender fish called the "needle" or 

 "sandfish," which is caught in great numbers in the 

 sands on the beach when the tide goes out. After a few 

 days this bait ceased to be tempting to the salmon trout. 

 About the middle of June salmon begin to make their 

 appearance in small schools among the inlets and are cap- 

 tured with seines, the fresh roe being used for bait for 

 salmon trout fishing At the same time the latter fish begin 

 to ascend the streams to the first pools. The first run of 

 salmon trout is of very small fish, the longest of them 

 not being more than a foot long. Neither have they any 

 gamy qualities, and they utterly refuse to take the most 

 skillfully thrown fly, but jump voraciously at a hook 

 baited with either salmon roe, pieces of halibut or bait 

 prepared by cutting salmon trout themselves. 



In July three of us visited one of these large streams 

 southeast of Sitka about six miles, going in a boat. The 

 first falls, about forty feet in height, had once been 

 utilized by the Russian- American Company to drive a 

 saw mill, which has now nearly all disappeared. The 

 pool below the old dam and waterfall has an area of 

 about the sixteenth of an acre. It is very deep, and 

 simply a boiling, foaming caldron. The roar of the 

 water can be heard for more than a mile. The foot of 

 the fall is less than forty rods from where the tide enters 

 the mouth of the stream. On the north side of the pool 

 a perpendicular rock a. thousand feet high rises out of the 

 water. On the south side the remains of an old. flume, 

 over the few planks of which a torrent of water rushes 

 at a fearful rate, is the only place where there is access 

 to the pool to fish. Perched on one of the high logs 

 thirty feet above the surface of the pool, with this torrent 

 over the flume at our backs, we sat for five hours, afraid 

 to move, lest by losing our balance one of us would be 

 carried off by the rush of water immediately behind us, 

 or dashed into the pool beneath. It was an intensely ex- 

 citing position to be in; but the fishing was of vastly 

 more interest. In five hours' fishing we took from that 

 pool 283 salmon trout, averaging Sin. in length. The day 

 before our visit to that stream a naval officer and his 

 companion took 205 salmon trout from the same pool. 



Later in July, when the larger of the salmon trout were 

 beginning to ascend the streams. I went with, a party of 



Indians to Katalanskie Bay, fourteen miles around the 

 northeastern side of tins island, Basanoff, to quite a large, 

 river which enters the head of the bay. Fifteen days of 

 clear, warm weather had melted the snows, and began 

 : to make some impression upon the glaciers among the 

 mountains which constitute the interior of the island, 

 I and the snow andicewater were flowing in great torrents, 

 ! so wildly and swiftly that it was impossible to ford the 

 stream at any point for two miles from its mouth. The 

 water which at ordinary stages is as clear as crystal, was 

 almost the color of milk. The Indians caught a dozen of 

 salmon trout, each weighing about a pound, in a small 

 pool half a mile from the mouth of the river, but the 

 water was too turbulent and murky to induce many of 

 the fish to ascend in great numbers. In coming out of 

 the bay, in a canoe, we found them congregated in large 

 schools about the mouth of the stream, in sea water, 

 a waiting the subsidence of the stream to go to their old 

 haunts miles above. August is the favorite month for 

 the taking of these large salmon trout in this and other 

 similar streams along this coast. 



As we were coming out of the bay we encountered 

 a school of more than one hundred porpoises chasing and 

 feeding on the salmon and salmon trout, off the months 

 of the fresh-water streams, where they lie in deep water 

 waiting the proper moment to ascend and spawn. Hun- 

 dreds of thousands of salmon and salmon trout are de- 

 stroyed every year by the three or four large schools of 

 porpoises which have their haunts at the upper and lower 

 ends of Sitka Bay. The same is true of points all along 

 this coast. When the porpoises start out to feed they 

 move in quite a straight line stretching across the bay , 

 with the salmon, the salmon trout or the great herring 

 school before them. Their appearance as they leap out 

 of the water and then sink again out of sight, to reappear 

 a few rods further on, is that of being at play, but iu 

 fact is the most serious business of their lives — getting 

 food. In their dash under water they never miss their 

 prey, and thus devour several tons of their victims in an 

 evening meal, and traversing several miles of water bo- 

 fore their appetites are satisfied. 



I had intended speaking of some of the sea fishing in 

 these waters with hook and line, but I tincl that I have 

 taken up so much space already that I must desist The re 

 is no fresh-water fishing in southeastern Alaska with 

 hook and line, except for mountain trout aud salmon 

 trout. It is impossible to capture salmon by that means. 

 The streams are too wild, short and rapid to become the 

 habitat of any other fish which resort to fresh water, or 

 which live in it, than the mountain trout and the salmon 

 trout, which I have named. J. H. K. 



BLACK BASS IN MAINE. 



J HAVE just returned from my vacation in Mount 

 Vernon, Maine. This beautifully situated village is 

 upon the shores of two ponds. One of these is among 

 the finest ponds of the. State famous for lakes and 

 streams. It has rocky shores, deep, clear water, shoals, 

 and a great amount of food for the larger fish. Not 

 many years since it was as well stocked with speckled 

 trout as now are the lakes on the northern border of the 

 Pine Tree State. Even now in the springtime it supplies 

 yearly some of the "speckled beauties," as do all of the 

 many clear water ponds in this vicinity. This pond we 

 began to stock with black bass about seven or eight years 

 ago. Now it is fairly well stocked, much to the "satis- 

 faction of the people in the vicinity. 



The other pond of the village I think is not of a char- 

 acter to be the home of black bass, though it has many 

 pickerel. Just above this Mill Pond is Flying Pond, a 

 large sheet of water dotted with many islands. It was 

 once the favorite home of large trout, only a few now 

 remain to tell the tale. But black bass are fast repopu- 

 lating their haunts. 



Two or three miles from here is the well known 

 Parker's Pond. For more than half a century I have 

 admired it as a resort of legions of pickerel and white 

 perch. Hundreds of barrels of pickerel from this pond 

 have been sent to the Boston market in years past. The 

 ever active Fish and Game Commissioners last spring 

 caused thousands of landlocked salmon fry to be put 

 into these waters. In good time they will be heard from, 

 If we go down stream from the village two miles we 

 come to Crotched Pond, and a Jittle below the series of 

 Wayne Ponds. This line of ponds, I am told, have large 

 numbers of pickerel and white perch. Indeed when a 

 hoy I took fish from nearly all these ponds, and then they 

 were homes of very large trout. 



Maranacook Lake is at the head of another line of 

 lakes, all now well filled with black bass, pickerel and 

 I think all have the favorite white perch. Certainly 

 some of the Winthrop and Monmouth ponds have. 

 Maranacook has become a great resort for taking the 

 black bass, and with its elegant accommodations, row, 

 sail and steamboats, I fear is giving the fish the worst of 

 it. Not far east of Maranacook is deservedly, perhaps, 

 the favorite lake for black bass in my native State, I 

 refer to Cobbosseconttee. It is large, has many islands, 

 points, rocky shores and bottoms, and clear water, with 

 plenty of food for black bass. It was stocked about 

 twenty years ago, and has some "old settlers" to delight 

 the enthusiastic angler for this prince of gamy fish. I 

 have never fished here, but in August I visited its shores 

 and saw a fine village of cottages on its banks built by 

 devotees of the dusky finny tribe, and these devotees are 

 from the large cities of New England. 



Another cluster of lakelets has in its number "The 

 Great Pond" of Belgrade and is also in Kennebec. Nature 

 stocked it with pickerel, trout and white perch, and many 

 years since man stocked it with black bass and land- 

 locked salmon. Thousands angle there every season 

 with great success. 



Not tar from this, with its east shore in Belgrade and its 

 west in Mt. Vernon, is Long Pond, Nature was as gen- 

 erous to this as to its larger neighbor, while man added 

 only the black bass. The conditions of this almost spring- 

 like cool, clear water are most propitious for the Trojan 

 fish, and here he has flourished for about fifteen years. 

 His reputation for fighting and for flavor have drawn 

 large numbers of sportsmen from different sections of the 

 State and many large cities elsewhere. This now is my 

 favorite angling place. Here I met from clay to day in 

 August and early in September representatives from some 

 of the largest mercantile houses in Boston and other 

 cities. Are the fLh gamy? Just like a black bass, full 

 1 of intelligent fight. Are they good for the table ? When 



from these sparkling waters they have no superior among 

 fresh-water fish, unless salmon or trout. Are they popu- 

 lar as a game fish ? Five or eight years ago they were 

 not; those having caught trout aud pickerel for years got 

 their tackle smashed and could not catch them, and with 

 an emphasis said " sour grapes ! " To day the young men 

 of the present generation think it the supreme point of 

 angling. Are they liked upon the table? Five or eight 

 years ago they did not know how to cook them and the 

 natives sighed for the white perch, their sweetest morsel. 

 To day they know how to cook them, and the multitude 

 cannot tell which is black bass and which perch when 

 placed upon the same plate and taken from the same 

 pool. But as I have indicated scores of fishermen are on 

 these waters each suitable day, and as on the northern 

 lakes of Maine rowboats, canoes aud sailboats are on every 

 shoal and reef and by every island seeking this fish. For 

 next year a steamboat is threatened. And unless the 

 Commissioners call a halt it is likely these grand reports 

 of the black bass will become abattoirs as have been the 

 trout lakes. I have not forgotten what I have said in 

 the past in praise of trout when enjoying him on the 

 artificial fly or on the table. I deplore the destruction of 

 the trout, yet 6ince his glory has departed 1 join with 

 two men I met on Long Pond (one from Connecticut and 

 one from Boston) in saying it is a world better for me to 

 take a 3-pound black bass with a minnow (and we 

 take many larger ones) than a dozen 6in. trout on a fly. 

 These two men have recently come from the trout regions 

 of northern. Maine, 



My wish is that the good days of trout fishing may be 

 restored, and that bass may still be increased, and that 

 both these fish may in the future be sources of joy to 

 sportsmen and of revenue to the good old Pine Tree State. 



J. W. T. 



Boston, Sept. 28. 



A MONTANA BIG ONE. 



T HAD been told that there were trout in. Big Spring 

 JL Creek "that long" (indicating something less than a 

 yard), and so, having no fish line, I twisted a formidable 

 cable of black linen thread, and for some hours I patiently 

 waded the icy stream, and tried to convince the fish that 

 my ponderous tackle was not so bad as it looked; still, 

 they wouldn't even consider the matter. I had my doubts 

 as to there being any fish there after all, but I threw a 

 grasshopper on the surface of the current, and as I 

 watched it drift down over a deep green pool under a 

 ledge of rock, an enormous trout rose majestically, much 

 as I have seen porpoises roll, and gathered in the grass- 

 hopper, thereby putting an end to my doubts at once. 



Well, thinks I to myself, that's a little the biggest trout 

 I ever saw or heard of, and I must certainly make 

 another effort. So with many misgivings I set about 

 twisting another line of white thread, when suddenly it 

 occurred to me that if I could make him jump like that 

 again, so coolly and easily, I would have time enough to 

 put a rifle bullet mighty close to him before he could set- 

 tle back to the safety of deep waters. Shooting trout on 

 the rise, too, would certainly be original if not exactly 

 lawful. 



So I threw away the thread and hooks, and taking my 

 rifle along, caught another grasshopper. This I threw 

 just as I had thrown the other, and the moment it struck 

 the water I sighted it and followed it along as it drifted 

 over the same pool. As before, there was a gleam of scar- 

 let and olive-green, the hopper was gone, and before I 

 knew it I had discharged the rifle into the mighty swirl. 

 No results at first, and I thought what a fool I was to 

 suppose I could shoot a jumping fish with a rifle; but 

 presently a huge pink belly made its appearance, coming 

 to the surface, and there floated my fish, larger even than 

 he had appeared before. I rushed in on a shallow riffle 

 and seized him as he came floating down. Oh! such a 

 beauty, and not a bruise on him; he must have been en- 

 tirely under water before the bullet got there, but he had 

 received such a shock that he hardly moved after it. I 

 had no means of weighing him, but his length was 20jjin. 



Deekeield, Montana. IPSARRAKA. 



Gentle Anglers.— Some young ladies, friends of 

 mine, went camping this summer, that is, they stopped 

 for a couple of weeks in a cottage five miles from civ- 

 ilization. One day when they were out fishing they 

 were in luck to the extent of a gigantic bullpout. They 

 started for the cottage with their hearts set on fried bul I 

 pout for breakfast next morning. Then the question of 

 dressing his bullpoutship arose. Of course, dressing him 

 before he was dead was out of the question, so after 

 pounding him on the head some little time with a stick 

 with no other effect than causing him to flop most 

 viciously, they held a council of war. They decided to 

 stab him. The most hard-hearted girl in the crowd now 

 stepped to the front provided with the sharpest knife in 

 camp. She put the point to the victim's throat — the 

 bullpout flopped. Her maidenly heart failed her, the mur- 

 derous weapon dropped from her nerveless grasp, and the 

 bullpout was saved. After the scheme of putting him on 

 ice and freezing him to death had been suggested, and 

 brought to a termination by the discovery that there was 

 no ice in the chest, it was resolved that the bullpout 

 should be put in a bucket of water, and in the morning 

 turned loose in the lake.— Darby (Brockton, Mass.). 



Hickory Shad Fishing at Providence. — Providence, 

 R. I., Oct. 1. — We have had sport for two weeks with the 

 "skipjacks" and hickory shad. There were about thirty 

 fishermen on Red Bridge last Sunday, and they caught 

 over 120 shad. It is great sport. The shad weigh from 

 1 to 31bs. and are caught in the swift cm-rent under the 

 drawbridge. Probably three fish are lost to every one 

 caught, as their mouths are so tender that a hook will 

 often tear out from the weight of the fish alone. They 

 are being caught nearly every tide now. The menhaden 

 are schooling here in the river almost in the center of 

 the city. Fly rods and live bait are mostly used for shad. 

 — H. B. Soule. 



Osakis, Minn., Oct. 4.— Messrs. J. D. Knight, John 

 McManigal and D. R. Sizer of Lincoln, Neb., have been 

 fishing in the lakes near here for the last four days, dur- 

 ing which time they have taken 156 black bass, ranging 

 in weight from 2 to lilbs. They shipped home SOOlbs. 

 , yesterday, besides having supplied their table ever since 

 | they came. Other parties who are fishing here are 

 equally successful.— G. O. Shields. 



