78 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[July 39, 1893, 



water and bright light, never gladdened the heart of a 

 fisherman. We all know the dangers to which the salmon 

 is exposed in fresh water, and from which but few sur- 

 vive, as it is doubtful if but very few if any ever return 

 from the upper streams which they ascend after the 

 spawning season, at least when such upper waters are 

 far removed from the sea. If they have tlie exposures 

 in the deeper waters of the sea which follow them in the 

 shoal water of Monterey Bay, their lives are indeed beset 

 with constant risk. I saw daily in the bay on the fishing 

 grounds, the enemies and consumers of the salmon at 

 their deadly work in the form of seals, porpoises, sharks 

 and cow fish. One day when I was out, which was very 

 foggy, I was startled by the uprising of a curiously peaked 

 hump, two boat lengths ahead. • It seemed to me hke a. 

 boat's end elevated with a black cloth over it, but a 

 moment later revealed] the half of an enormous bewhis- 

 kered sea lion, which raising itself half out of the water, 

 revealed a form which must have weighed at least a ton. 

 In its mouth was a large salmon which it had evidently 

 just caught. The insatiable appetite of these monsters of 

 the deep, of which hundreds abound in the vicmity, 

 would indicate that they are not slow to avail themselves 

 of the salmon invasion. Well, I thought, the part which 

 man plays in the devastation of the salmon in the sea, is 

 but trifling compared with that which occurs from their 

 natural enemies beneath the waters. One of my oarsmen 

 told me that the sea lions at times made great havoc with 

 his fish nets, as well as aU the fish they contained. 



He told me also that one day as he was hauling in his 

 salmon he found his haul temporarily checked, after 

 which, in completing his haul, he found half his salmon 

 bitten off by a seal, and shortly after saw the seal swim- 

 ming off with the half of a salmon in its mouth. 



On the Pacific coast there are five distinct varieties of 

 salmon, some of which are not highly esteemed for food. 

 Of the latter it is probably because they are not of the 

 spring run, but autumnal fish, and deteriorated by being 

 out of condition. 



Those of Monterey Bay are of the highest class, the 

 king salmon or quinnat {Oncm-liynclius tfichawytsclia). 

 These are of the Sacramento, San Joaquin and Columbia 

 rivers. As an article of food they are probably of more 

 inrportance than all the other fish of the Pacific coast. 



In the Columbia River the average weight is 221bs. In 

 the Sacramento River the average is 16ibs. Occasional 

 instances are quoted of from 60 to lOOlbs. In addition to 

 the enormous quantities which are seined on the coast and 

 in the rivers for immediate eating, there are annual packs 

 from the Sacramento, Columbia and up the Yukon, of 

 fully 1,500,000 cases of 481bs. each, representing fully an 

 annual pack of more than 70,000,0001bs., or some 4,500,000 

 fish. There is no apparent diminution in quantity. The 

 other varieties of salmon are known as the blue back 

 (O. nerka), which weighs from 5 to 81bs. , which predomi- 

 nates in the Fraser and Yukon rivers; the silver salmon 

 (O. IdsuteK), weighing from 8 to Slbs. , which is found in 

 nearly aU of the salmon rivers of the coast; the dog sal- 

 mon (0. heta), from 8 to 121bs., fovmd in the Columbia 

 and Frazer rivers; the hump-backed salmon (0. gorbuscha), 

 found in the northern streams. The latter is the smallest 

 salmon^on the coast, seldom running over B or 41bs. The 

 salmon~of the Pacific coast differ but slightly from the 

 general salmon family, the difference being in an in- 

 creased number of gill rakers, as well as glands about the 

 stomach, and the nimiber of rays in the anal fin. 



The quinnat or king salmon is as perfect in form, color 

 and activity as any salmon could i^ossibly be. Its silvery 

 gleaming is as brilliant as any of the salmon family. On 

 the sides of the head it has a distinctive coloring, a 

 pecuhar metallic lustre of a pale olive cast, that which 

 might arise from a mixtm-e of lead and silver highly 

 burnished. A feature which has strongly attracted my 

 attention has been the changing colors of the quinnat in 

 salt water. With every changing angle of the sunlight 

 the flasliing, iridescent hues have varied with kaleido- 

 scopic rapidity, from the deepest olive green to a light 

 green, and a gleaming white to a silvery, and from a dark 

 brown to black, and then so neutral as to be lost for a 

 moment from view. Changed indeed are the salmon, or 

 the few which sm-vive to retm-n from the spawning season 

 in fresh water to the sea. From the day of estuary 

 - passage a falling off in eveiy respect commences. Food 

 is no longer sought or taken. The silvery sheen and 

 iridescent hues slowly disappear. The stomach and its 

 aixxiliary glands shrink away to one tenth of the normal 

 size. The color gradually changes to black. The flesh 

 becomes dry and insipid, and if the fish ever returns to 

 the sea after a long passage to the headwaters of its 

 stream, it comes in a sadly demoralized condition, with 

 its fins and tail worn away, bruised, blotched, distorted 

 and often blind. It is not probable that the salmon is a 

 very deep water fish, or that it goes far from its native 

 stream, but seeks its food from the small fish which keep 

 tlie vicinity of the shores. The fact that they are seined 

 every month of the year on the Pacific coast, to a con- 

 siderable sense evidences this. 



It is clear that the salmon of Monterey Bay are those 

 which belong to the Sacramento or San Joaquin River 

 group. Their average weight confirms this, and that 

 they are not of the Colmnbia River. The distance from 

 Monterey Bay to San Francisco Bay, into which the Sac- 

 ramento and San Joaquin rivers pour, is about ninety 

 miles. Monterey Bay and that of Santa Cruz, a few miles 

 north, and at some of the sounds and bays north on the 

 , coast, are the only j)laces known where the salmon is 

 found engaged in taking his food, and where it can be 

 caught with fresh-fish bait. It certainly presents a favor- 

 able oi)portunity for studying the salmon in its normal 

 condition, in its prime, engaged in seeking its natural 

 food. Here its manners and peculiarities can be exam- 

 ined with ease and some knowledge obtained of the class 

 of food upon which it best thrives. All this can be ob- 

 tained and the salmon brought to gaff in his superior con- 

 dition before the advanced condition of the organs of re- 

 production have reduced its delicious flavor or weakened 

 the vigor of its efforts. 



It may be claimed hy those fishermen who are so wed- 

 ded to the artificial fly that trolling wath a spinning an- 

 choA^ or sardine is not the proper deceit for the king of 

 fish, but it may be a question if such a view is not of the 

 fanciful and fantastic order, rather than the resulting 

 conclusions of the experienced all-around fisherman, who 

 disdaining an tmfair advantage over his game, does not 

 decline the acceptance of a lure, which may to an extent 

 compensate his victim for the risk which it undergoes. 

 MoNTKEET, July IS, J. Pakker Whitney. 



SALMON ANGLING IN THE HUDSON. 



A GREAT many times during the past ten years I have 

 written in Forest and Stream about salmon in the Hud- 

 son, but it has been about planting salmon fry, or year- 

 lings, or the capture of salmon in shad nets, or something 

 of that sort, and never until this time have I been able to 

 use the caption that I do now, which means killing salmon 

 with the flj^. In former years a few, A^ery few, salmon 

 have been killed on spoon bait Avhen the fishermen were 

 seeking other fish below the dam at Mechanicville, but I 

 believe that until this year not a single salmon has been 

 killed by fair angling with a fly in the Hudson River. 

 There was an account — rather misty, to be sure — of one 

 being taken with a fly a few years ago in the tidal portion 

 of the river, but I think the story was never taken seri- 

 ously, and last year it was reported that three or four or 

 five salmon were killed with the fly at Mechanicville, 

 but I inquired about the details of the capture, and found 

 that the fish were taken by trolling a hook or hooks on 

 wliich a bunch of deer's hair was fastened to make what 

 is called in the South a "bob" or "mop," and this does 

 not properly come under the head of salmon flies. When 

 I was at Mechanicville with Mr. R. C. Lowry early in 

 June I know that he left with Mr. Pratt salmon leader 

 and flies (black-dose and Jock-Scott, I think), that he 

 might try the fish when the water was right. It was not 

 to be expected that the flshermen there would all of a 

 sudden understand fully about salmon fishing, and tliey 

 were not prepared with proper tackle, Mr. Pratt was 

 quick to avail himself of the opportunity to try the 

 salmon and was among the first to kill a salmon with a 

 fly. The following is the score of salmon killed at Me- 

 chanicville up to the date of writing. The fish marked 

 with an asterisk were killed on a fly, as Mr. Pratt assures 

 me, and those not so marked are said to have been killed 

 with a fly, with the addition of a piece of salt pork on the 

 hook. 



Date, Fisherman. No. Lbs. Lbs. 



June 20, W. H. Vandenburgh, Mechanicville 1 11^ 



June 23, T. L. Pratt and H. S. Miller, Mechanicville. .. 2 *9>4 *10?4 



July 7, Louis Boucher, Mechanicville 1 9)^ 



July 1,3, Louis Boucher; MechanicviUe 1 8]^ 



July 14, Louis Boucher, Mechanicville 1 IGJ,^ 



July 14, Chas. H. Wilson, Troy I 1014 



.July 18, Louis Boucher, MechanicviUe 2 17),^ 8 



July 18, Dr. K. D, Bloss. Troy 1 *d)4 



July 18, T. H. Diitcher, Troy 1 10 



,July 18, Oscar Barnes, Mechanicville 1 8 



July 18, T. L. Pratt, Mechanicville 1 *]2 



,July 18, Albert Barnes, Mechanicville 1 10^ 



July 19, W. H. Vandenburgh, Mechanicville 1 *10!4 



July 19, E. A. Starks, Mechanicville 1 10 



July 20, Piatt Burk, Mechanicville 1 Si4 



July 20, Oscar Barnes, Mechanicville 1 914 



July 20, Name not given 1 13 



July 21, F. J. Tompkins, Lanslngburgh 1 10^ 



Total 20 202M 



I am not to blame because a salmon which has appeared 

 in several newspaper items as being captured by another 

 angler does not appear in the foregoing hst, or more cor- 

 rectly the fish is in the list although the angler's name is 

 not. This is explained in this extract from a Mechanicville 

 letter: "Mr. Blank is a thorough fisherman, and has 

 been here a number of times, but has not killed a fish yet, 

 though he tried faithfully to throw his fly over the back 

 of a rising fish on Friday and hook him, but was unsuc- 

 cessful. I saw him doing this and he also told me tliat 

 he tried it. The fish he took away with him, mentioned 

 in inclosed newspaper clipping, is one that Louis Boucher 

 killed." 



Whatever others may do, there should be no excuse 

 for one who pretends to be a fly -fisherman and attempts 

 to foul-hook a rising salmon. Kill them fairly or let 

 them go for some one who wUl! Another gentleman 

 writing to me on this subject says: "You should come 

 down here and see how the salmon are caught, and 

 doubtless you would get points that would enable you to 

 write a chapter on 'pork-eating salmon.' If you should 

 bring a camera you might get something for Forest and 

 Stream to reproduce. You should have first a photo- 

 graph of the cast— a gang of three hooks and one or two 

 flies tied to the leader above them, and on the points of 

 the flies a small piece of salt pork. One piece of pork 

 goes a long way, for the salmon are taken on the gang." 



Mr. Dutcher was credited in a Troy paper with killing 

 a .salmon of 201bs., and if this was so it was the largest 

 salmon killed at Mechanicville, and I sent there to make 

 sure before I included it in the score. My correspondent 

 writes under date of July al: "The 201bs. fish you have in 

 3- our list credited to Mr. Dutcher is the IT^lbs. fish caught 

 by Mr. Boucher. Mr. Dutcher bought it. The salmon 

 caught by Dr. Bloss was an honest catch. I saw the fish 

 rise to the fly, and as I landed the salmon I was in a way 

 to know. There is great excitement here over the fish- 

 ing, and I think there were at least fifty anglers here 

 yesterday from out of town. The majority fish at one 

 place, from the bank, and not less than seA'enty-five 

 people were fishing there yesterday in a space of about 

 300ft,, and this afternoon I will have them photographed. 

 E. A. Starks, of this place, hooked a fish yesterday morn- 

 ing below the bridge at 6:15 and lost him at 8:25 within 

 100ft. of the dam. The fish did not break water at all or 

 show himself in any way, and I am of the opinion that it 

 was a large sturgeon, for it did not act in the least like a 

 salmon. When they got to the dam the men were ex- 

 hausted, and the fish seemed to be on the bottom stirring 

 up the mud, and when they reached for him with the 

 gaff he broke away. 



"Mr. Starks also hooked a salmon this morning early and 

 sent to the hotel for me to come and help him land the 

 fish. I came down and found Mr. Starks and his friend 

 and his boat on one side of a ledge and the salmon on the 

 other. I took Mr. Starks into my boat and then got the 

 fish into deep water, where he was played for 30 minutes 

 and lost. Mi-. Starks was using an Boz. rod, and the fish 

 had played the men out, but was as lively as ever when it 

 got away. There are a great many fishing to-day, but 

 not a fish has been killed yet." I had written so far when 

 I received a message stating that a lOjlbs. fish had been 

 taken on the 31st by Mr. F. J. Tompkins, of Lansingburgh, 

 and I have added it to the score. 



The result at Mechanicville, as shown in the score, 

 demonstrates that Mr. Lowry, whom I quoted in Forest 

 AND Stream, June 29, was wrong in his theory, which was 

 acquiesced in by Mr. Ramsey, of Montreal, that salmon 

 would not rise to the fly so far from salt water. They 

 will rise, because they have risen and been killed in a 

 sportsmanlike manner, and I have no doubt that in a 

 short time, with tackle better suited for salmon fishing, 



all who engage in the sport will abandon methods adopted 

 perhaps in the excitement of the moment, and adhei'e only 

 to legitimate fly-casting. 



Last week the New York Fish Commissioners had the 

 fishway at Mechanicville cleaned out and put in working 

 order, so that the salmon can now proceed up stream 

 should there be a freshet in the river. The break in the 

 Troy dam undoubtedly permitted a hu ge number of fisli 

 to run up to Mechanicville, and now that the dam is about 

 repau-ed it is hoped that means may be found to place the 

 fishway in working order also, 



Mr. Rogers, of Amherst, Nova Scotia, inventor of the 

 Rogers fishway, in use at Mechanicville and Thomson's 

 Mills, wrote me tha4: he would pay for cleaning the fisli- 

 way of drift, which should not have entered them if the ; 

 slats provided had been kept in place, but the Fish Com- 

 missioners have made a personal outlay by Mr. Rogers 

 tmnecessary. There are good pools above Mechanicville, 

 and another year anglers will have more room to display 

 their skill in tempting the king of game fishes to his de- 

 struction Avith rod, reel and fly, cast in an orthodox man- 

 ner, for if a salmon wfll rise to a fly baited with salt pork, 

 it will rise to the fly without the pork. Pork is not a 

 factor in fly-fishing for any kind of fish. 



A. N. Cheney. 



PORK BAIT FOR SALMON. 



For those Avho are credulous as to what salmon eat and 

 what they take for bait, I beg to refer them to the follow- 

 ing statement contained in the Troy Times of July 1.5. It 

 is a bit of solid testimony which wipes out hypothesis and 

 conjectm-e at one stroke. It is to this effect: "Of the 

 four or five big salmon caught at Mechanicville piudson , 

 River] this year, pork Avas the bait with which each was 

 captured." 



Now, most anglers who are interested in the subject 

 actually believe that salmon in the rivers wiU. take no 

 lure but fly, and that they eat nothing at all in fresh 

 water. Doubtless they have gathered these notions from 

 irresponsible writers of angling books, or i)ossibly they 

 may have uiherited them from a goodly line of piscatorial 

 ancestors who had generations before them been ridiculed 

 hj dilettanti anglers who alT'ected to be "gentlemen sports- 

 men," into eschewing the vtdgar bait because it was "not * 

 the correct thing." None of these, I dare say, have ever 

 thought of testing rising fish with bait of any kind, yet 

 bait-fishing was the primitive method, just as it was for 

 trout lang syne. We in America are beliind the times. 

 Let me quote from a Scottish journal which prints the • 

 comments of a resident observer. It says: 1 



"More than ever is bait-fishing becoming the vogue now 

 in Scottish salmon rivers. Not so very long ago an angler 

 detected in the act of using any other lui-e than the fly 

 would, in most districts, have been looked upon as a pot- 

 hunter and poacher, and shunned by ti-ue sportsmen ac- 

 cordingly. Now, however, Avith the march of progress, 

 tenipora mutant ur, and the minnow, prawn or worm is 

 unblushingly motmted, and salmon and trout are killed 

 by men who know as much about fly-fishing as does a 

 jackass," 



These fishermen are merely reverting to original 

 methods. Reversion is always warring against progress, 

 and thus history repeats itself. For all who are credulous 

 as to what salmon eat, and what they accept for bait, I 

 beg to refer them to pages 37-42 of my last work, entitled 

 "The Salmon Fisher." Views of anglers on many points 

 will undergo a change as soon as ever popular errors are 

 controverted and corrected, Charles HAlluck. 



Hat>lby, Mass. 



Fishing in Ijake Champlain. 



Westport, N. Y., July 19.— For the last few years, by- 

 adopting the St. Lawrence methods and using live bait, I 

 ha\'e had no ti'ouble in making good catches of black bass, 

 wall-eyed pike and pickerel. 1 have not the least doubt ! 

 that anybody keeping rim of fisli as St, Lawrence boat- | 

 men do would find the fishing compare very favorably h 

 with that out of Clayton, We run more to pike and less ■ 

 to pickerel than they do there, and I find the black baas , 

 about the same. Black bass Avill take a fly readily early s 

 in the season, and then go into deeper water and need live 

 minnows to tempt them. The yike and bass run about the 1. 

 same weight and feed on the same grounds. You are apt ■ 

 to find them oft' any of the points along the New York \ 

 shore in from 10 to 30ft, of water on the rocky ledges. 



Seven miles from Westport, at the mouth of the creek '■ 

 on the sandbar known as the Drop-off", there is an excel- ' 

 lent ground for all fish, and from there south on the Ver- 

 mont shore there is always a good chance of taking good , 

 pickerel and bass. A reef about a half mile south of But- 

 ton Bay Island on the Vermont shore four miles from 

 Westport is another fine ground, and Barber's Point, on 

 the New York shore two miles from Westport, a fine pike 

 ground with a good bass shore for several miles to the 

 south. 



I have taken a bass of 6ilbs. , but they are not plenty . 

 over 21bs. Pike run about same weight. Pickerel up to 

 lOlbs. , but not common over 41bs. Chub minnows are ■ 

 abundant in New York streams and a demand would in- 

 sure abundance of bait at reasonable figures. 



There are few fishermen here who know the grounds, j 

 but there are one or two aA^ailable boatmen who do know < 

 them well, and I have no doubt that any one knowing the 

 habits of fish would find sport sufficiently good to repay 

 them well for breaking in a boatman and contending with 

 the difficulty of getting new men to understand Avhat is 

 wanted. 



I regret to say that dynamite has been much too freely 

 used in these waters for a number of years, but with stop- 

 ping of blasting flux limestone on lake shore I hope car- 

 tridges Avill become less accessible and a method of fishing 

 so destructive to all interests be discontinued. Tliis is an 

 abuse our game protectors seem unable to cope with, and 

 wherever it occurs one may expect to find dead bottom , 

 and the best of grounds ruined for several years, I saw ' 

 no signs of dead fish last summer and hope we may soon 

 see the end of it. T, L, 



Tarpon Weights. 



St. AtrausTlNE, Fla,, July 16,— A letter from my friend, 

 Capt, John Smith, an old fisherman, of St, James City, 

 on the Gulf Coast, tells me that the largest tarpon caught 

 last month was 6ft. llin. long, and weighed ll.i,51bs. 



John Veddbe, 



