^76 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Sept. 30, 



THE STEELHEAD SALMON. 



Salmo gairdneri. 



In a recent copy of Forest and SxitEAii I think I noticed 

 the somewhat unexpected statement that very little was 

 known of the life history of the steel head of the" Columbia, 

 especially in regard to its spawning habit«. This may apply 

 to people on the Atlantic coast, but here on the Pacific 

 there is hardly a fish, except the Chinook salmon (quinnat 

 salmon, Oncoryhncus cJiouioa) tha,t is better known than 

 the steelhead. I also saw it reported somewhere that the 

 spawning grounds of the steelhead had been recently dis- 

 covered. This is also a misapprehension. Its spawning 

 grounds have been known for nearly twenty years. I 

 myself saw them eighteen years ago spawning in vast 

 numbers below Oregon City Falls, on the Willamette. If 

 I remember rightly they beghi to spawn there in February 

 and continue till the middle of May. It was the first week 

 in May when I saw them spawning in 1875, and they were 

 then nearly through and appeared almost in a dying con- 

 dition. Their spawning season is at about the same time 

 in all the accessible tributaries of the Willamette and 

 lower Columbia. Higher up the Columbia the spawning 

 season begins earlier, and further north it begins and ends 

 later. The steelhead was first described by Gairdner and 

 Suckley about thirty years ago, and their description may 

 be found in the earlier Pacific R.R. reports of these dis- 

 tinguished observers. They described the fish under two 

 different names, having the erroneous impression that the 

 steelhead on its spawning grounds was a different fish 

 from the steelhead in tide water. To the steelhead in tide 

 water and below they gave the name Salmo gairdneri. 

 and to the steelhead on its spawning grounds they gave 

 the name Salmo truveatus, or square-tailed trout, but 

 Salmo gairdneri of salt water and SaMo ti uncatus of the 

 spawning grounds are the same fish. It acquired the 

 popular name of steelhead from the steely appearance of 

 its head and back. Its name when spawning, Salmo 

 irunoatus, w-iis given to it because its tail at that season, 

 when stretched, is not forked, but truncated, having a 

 straight edge as if it had been cut off with a broad-as. 

 The names Salmo truncatus and square-tailed trout were 

 dropped, of course, when it was found that the fish called 

 by these names was only a temporarily changed form of 

 Salmo gairdneri. 



The reports of Doctors Gairdner and Suckley contained, 

 so far as I am able to learn, all the authentic informa- 

 tion concerning the steelhead, possessed at that time, but 

 after the salmon canneries were started on the Columbia, 

 the steelhead soon became a well-known fish. Thous- 

 ands of them are caught every year at the Columbia 

 River canneries, and they are very abundant in their 

 season in all tlie tributaries of the river. They can be 

 seen every spring spawning in great numbers in the Wil- 

 lamette, .just below where the Oregon City Falls prevent 

 them from going up the river any further. They are 

 frequently mentioned in the earlier reports of the writer 

 to the United States Fish Commission, and except as re- 

 gards the question of their identitj^ with the rainbow 

 trout, concerning which a few words will be said further 

 on, there is no mystery whatever about them that I 

 know of. 



They arrive in the Columbia from the ocean in October 

 and November, and gradually pursue their way up the 

 Columbia and its tributarie.s, toward their spawning 

 grounds. They do not seek sucli small streams to spawn 

 in as the Eastern brook trout {S. fontinalis), but after 

 they have ascended a stream they are very persistent in 

 maintaining their position in it. They ascend all the 

 tributaries of the Columbia, and are abundant in their 

 season in all the streams of the Pacific Coast emptying 

 into the ocean, north of Mendocino county, and they 

 occur to some extent in the streams of that county. 

 They arc rare in the Sacramento and south of the Sacra- 

 mento. They differ from most of the other sea-going 

 salmon of the Pacific Coast in tiie fact that they do not 

 die immediately after spawning, and before they return 

 to salt water, as the humpbacks (0. gorbuscha), the Chin- 

 ook salmon (O, chouica) and the bluebacks (0. nerka) are 

 known to do, but on the contrary the steelheads are very 

 eager to return to salt water after spawning. They are 

 then very thin, indeed, and very hungry, but their coat 

 is still bright and silvery, and they look perfectly 

 healthy, wliile the other salmon just mentioned are sick, 

 slimy, covered with white blotches, often blind and mu- 

 tilated, and very unwholesome looking, and also without 

 the slightest disposition apparently to return to the ocean. 



The reason that the steelheads are so much more desir- 

 ous to return to the ocean than the Chinooks and other 

 varieties is, probably, because they continue to feed in 

 fresh water, while the Chinooks and other salmon do not. 

 They get very hungry after spawning, and as the fresh 

 water streams that they spaAvn in furnish no adequate 

 amount of food for them, they want to hurry back to their 

 well-stored, and probably well-remembered, feeding 

 grounds in the sea. 



At this period, if they can be intercepted on their 

 return journey to the ocean, they furnish the very best 

 possible sport to the angler. They are so hungry that 

 they will, I believe, take any bait or fly, and they will 

 fight like a bulldog after being hooked. I have seen 

 fishermen reel them in all day on Ihe Clackamas River, 

 in Oregon, without losing thirty minutes time the whole 

 day between casting tlieline and hooking the fish, or in 

 other words, there was not a half an hour all day long 

 when there was not a salmon on their hook, and, usually, 

 the moment the fly touched the water a salmon cauf lit 

 at it. When I had charge of tlie Clackamas Station" of 

 the U. S. Fish Commission the army officers from Fort 

 Vancouver used to come over to the station to fish for 

 steelheads, and 1 will guarantee that they never had bet- 

 ter sport in their lives. They would get so enthusiastic 

 a.t times that they would wade in the river up (o their 

 necks, and in one instance a gentleman well known in 

 the higher circles of national poHtics, and who wears tye- 

 glasses, was pulled off his balance by a gamy steelhead 

 and taken vmder water and down a dangerous piece of 

 rapids; but he hung to his fish all the time and finally 

 emerged to view with his eyeglasses in their place and 

 with a firm grip on his rod, and a steelhead at the end of 

 his line. 



When it comes simply to catching fish for spoi-t. I 

 doubt if the angling for htmgry steelheads is surpa'-sed 

 by any fishing in the world; but when it comes to eating 

 them, it is another thing. It must be confessed that they 

 are not valued here very highly as food. Boiled steelhead 

 is pretty dry eating, and broiled steelhead is dryer yet. 



They make a very good chowder, and that is about the 

 best that can be said of them. They are all thrown 

 away at the Alaska canneries, and they used to be at the 

 canneries on the Columbia, but I am informed that in re- 

 cent years when the catch of quinnat salmon is unprofit- 

 ably small, some of the canning men liave used steel- 

 heads to fill up their cans with. They are not good for 

 canning, however, as their flesh is too white to be salable 

 and too dry to be very palatable. 



• In size the steelheads average much smaller than the 

 quinnat salmon (0. chouica), but larger than the hump- 

 backs and bluebacks. As well as I can remember, those 

 I saw in the Columbia averaged about 12lbs. in weight 

 and did not vary much in size. Indeed the wonderful 

 variation in size of tlie quinnat salmon (O. c]iouicu)'m con- 

 fined to that variety; I have taken ripe eggs from a spawn- 

 ing quinnat salmon in the McCloud River that weighed 

 S^lbs. , while in the Yukon there are spawners that weigh 

 1001 bs. Such variation occurs in no other variety of the 

 Salmonidce. The steelheads, however, like the quinnat, 

 grow larger as you go north, and in Alaska are found 

 weighing nearly 301bs. 



In shape, the steelhead is more slender than the quinnat 

 salmon (0. chouica) ar>d less graceful in form than thp 

 Atlantic sain on (S salar). and has the appearance of being 

 too heavy about the shoulders, so to speak, to be perfectly 

 synimetrical. Its range is chiefly from Mendocino coimty, 

 California, north to the Arctic, though stragglers are 

 sometimes found south of this southern limit. 



Its eggs are smaller than those of the quinnat, are less 

 richly colored and fewer in number, compared with tlie 

 size of the fish. At the writer's recommendation, the 

 Fort Gaston Station of the United States Fish Commis- 

 sion, in Humboldt county, California, was kept up chiefly 

 on account of the prospect of obtaining steelhead eggs. 

 There is a branch of the Fort Gaston Station on Redwood 

 Creek, which large numbers of steelheads ascend to 

 spawn. 



There has been a suspicion for a number of years that 

 the steelhead is the same fish as the rainbow trout of Cali- 

 fornia {S. iridea), and the question of their identity can 

 hardly be considered settled yet. Dr. Tarleton H. Bean 

 thought for some time that the two fish were identical; 

 but I believe he does not urge that opinion now. Dr. 

 David S. Jordan, president of the Stanford University, 

 California, and one of the most distinguished scientific 

 authorities on fishes, is still in doubt, and proposes soon 

 to make an exhaustive study of the subject and settle tlie 

 question whether steeUieads are sea-going rainbow trout. 



The following letter from Dr, Jordan bearing on this 

 point will, I think, be read with interest: 



Office of the President ) 

 Leland Stanford Junior University, } 

 Palo Alto, Cal., Feb. 32, 1893. ) 

 Mr. Livingston Stone, Baird, Sh^iMa Co., Cal.: 



Deaii Sir— The collection of trout reached us in perfect 

 condition. The rainbow trout are, of course, as they always 

 have been, but the question of whether they are different 

 species from the steelhead seems still hard to determine. 

 My present belief is that it will be found that the steelhead, 

 rainbow and salmon trout of this coast, including the Kani- 

 loops trout, which I recently described, are forms of one 

 species, and that there are only two really distinct species of 

 trout on the coast— the cut- throat trout in the north and east 

 and the rainbow trout. This of course leaves out the Dolly 

 Varden, which is not a true trout. 



It seems, however, that the trout of McLeod River have 

 larger eyes and shorter auxiliary scales to the ventral fins as 

 well as more profuse spotting than any of the trout of this 

 part of the State. 



The "No-Shee" is a decided puzzle to us. I can hardly be- 

 lieve that it is a different species from the rainbow trout. It 

 is, however, different in color, having all its spots gathered 

 together on the posterior part of the body, and its scales are 

 much smaller than those of the rainbow trout. There are 

 1.55 i a the lateral line instead of 125. 



In the San Francisco market a while ago I found among a 

 lot of so-called salmon-trout one specimen which seems to be 

 identical with the No-Shee, having small scales, though not 

 quiie so small as those in the one you sent, and its black 

 spots collected about its tail. I should be glad, if you ever 

 catch another, to see it in order to detei-mine if 'possible 

 what degree of constancy these characters have, Verv truly 

 yours, David S. Jordan, 



To recapitulate briefly, let me add that .steelheads are 

 rare south of Mendocino county, California, but abundant 

 nortli of it; that south of Alaska their spawning season 

 is from February to May, inclusive; that they spawn in 

 the numberless small streams that flow into the" rivers they 

 ascend and also in the rivers themselves; that when re- 

 turning to sea they are very gamy and furnish fine sport 

 to the angler; that their flesh is dry, of a vvliitish color 

 and undesirable for canning and not particularly desira- 

 ble for the table; and that some doubt still exists whether 

 they are not sea-going rainbow trout, 



Livingston SiONEi 



"Lake Champlain Trout." 



Not brook trout nor lake trout, nor anything in the 

 shape of a speckled beauty, but just about as good a fish 

 when pruperly cooked. That is wliy the natives give the 

 above name to what we call the humble bullhead. The 

 average angler deems him beneath notice, for he clings 

 to the hook too honestly for much sport, and sculls him- 

 self up to the boat without the swift lunge and sharp 

 break of the true member of the Salmo family. But 

 when the summer boarder has cleaned out all the trout fit 

 for food, then the fish hunger is well appeased by the 

 firm, mi aty fl sh of tire pout taken from cold waters like 

 Lake Champlain, Mr. Charles Parrish. of Bridport, Vt., 

 while fishing recently with two friends caught 180, weigh- 

 ing from a half to a full pound apiece. W. H. R. 



Mr. McCarthy's Ouananiche. 



Those who have read Mr. Eugene McCarthy's interest- 

 ing accounts of ouananiche fishing in Forest and Stream 

 will be interestt d to know that we have on exhibition in 

 this office a fine example of this superb fish taken by Mr. 

 McCarthy, The specimen, which weighed 7Albs., is 

 beautifully mounted on an oak board, and has in its jaw 

 the identical fly with the leader on which it wris taken, 

 and a foot or two of the line. 



"Forest and Stream" Fishing Postals. 



Three Lakes, Wis., Sept. 13.— Mr, W. H. Upmire, Mr. 

 Weller and Mr, F. Sebel, of Milwaukee, caught in two 

 days' fishing at Butternut Lake 218 black bass, largest 

 4ilbs., total 2761bs.; also three maskalonge at Medicine 

 Lake, largest SSlbs. F. R. F. 



Trout in Rhode Island. 



Providence, R. I., Sept. Q.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 In to-night's Bulletin I find this item: "Thomas R. 

 Hewett, of New York, an owner of a trout pond in North 

 Stonington, Conn., has been troubled by the large fish 

 eating the trout, To do away with this evil he had the 

 water drawn off' in hope of saving what trout remained. 

 Pickerel, bullheads andTeels were found in large numbers, 

 but there was only one trout. One of the pickerel weighed 

 over 41b3." 



Talk about buUheadsI Why, Rhode Island ponds swarm 

 with these and eels. The preserve club recently organized 

 here have a large pond on their premises and calculate to 

 stock it well with trout, but if the bullheads play such 

 havoc as the above clipping would indicate, it will prob- 

 ably be a case of drawing off another pond or building a 

 new one. 



There are ponds in the southern part of this little State 

 that swarm with bullheads, but we have taken good- 

 sized trout from them, too. There are good trout in our 

 waters here, but vAt\\ the brook-damming "Canucks" and 

 mUl hands, the fingerUng fiend, and their natural enemies, 

 the pickerel, eels and bullheads, they have a sorry time of 

 it That poor solitary trout in the pond above mentioned 

 in the newspaper clipping, must have had a busy time of 

 it. He was probably a thoroughbred fighter and deserved 

 a better death than the inglorious way in which he was 

 captured. 



Shades of night! Are we coming to the necessity of 

 going to tlie hatching farms for our trout ? The man who 

 invented that novel device for "fishing at the trap" has a 

 fortune waiting for him if "real" fishing don't pick up in 

 these parts. Or else we've got to have artificial ponds on 

 our lawns, fill them with metal fish and use a magnetized 

 hook to get them with. 



Well, we hope Mr. Hewett will clean out his pond, re- 

 stock from the commission and have better luck. TODE. 



Bass at Crystal Lake. 



Ionia, Mich., Sept. U.— Editor Forest and Stream.: I 

 had been out several times this season for bass, but this, 

 considering the short space of time devoted to fishing,was 

 the best trip I made. Some friends of ours, Mr. and Mrs. 

 C. W. Parsons, were camping on the banks of Crystal 

 Lake, twenty-six miles north of here, and my wife and I 

 determined to join them. 



The lake by the way is rightly named, for the water is 

 so clear you can eaijily see a white pebble in 15ft. of 

 water, and the banks go so far out and the water so shal- 

 low a team can be driven around the entire lake without 

 the water going over the hub. But you can find deep 

 water by going out far enough. 



On Tuesday, Sept. 5. my wife and I started from home 

 at 7 A, M. and drove the twenty-six miles, arriving at the 

 lake at 12:30. I drove up to cauip and left ray folks, took 

 dinner, a,nd after half an hour spent at table took my 

 horse one mile to a stable, walked back to camp and took 

 out my bethabara lOoz, and Myhin reel, I rowed out alone 

 for the resort of the gamest of all the finny tribe, the 

 black bass. I Jiad not gone over twenty rods, when ray 

 reel began to whizz and I soon landed a beautiful 2lba, 

 lake bass, and wlien the gong sounded for mess at i);4.'5 I 

 pulled into shore with ten lovely black bass and two 

 small pickerel, having been out two hours and fnrty-five 

 minutes. This is a sample of our excellent fishing in old 

 Michigan, E. R, B. 



Big Maskinonge. 



Belleville, Ont,, Sept. 18. — Maskinonge, which were 

 very numerous in Mosquito Bay three years ago, but have 

 not since been found in their former haunts, were redis- 

 covered by Messrs. L. A. Appleby and A, N, Reid on Fri- 

 day last, when they caught three which weighed 40^1bs.,, 

 291bs. and 281bs. respectively. The largest one measured! 

 4ft. 6iu. in length and girthed 2ft. These lucky fish' rmeui 

 reported plenty more where those came from. R. S. B, 



^tBlicttltmt, 



FISHERS AND SPORTSMEN AT THE FAIR. 

 The World's Fair Fisheries Congress. 



Chicago, 111., Sept. 20 — One of the features of work on 

 which Capt. .To.s. W. Collins, chief of Fisheries at the Fair, 

 had set an especial iuterest was the Congre.s.s of Fisheries, 

 earlier announced for .Sept. 19-20. lu these days of many 

 congresses it is source of much pride for any event of this 

 nature to show a large attendance, but in view of results of 

 this convention the effort may be called a worthy one in a 

 way. It was of course a convention not of sporting fishers 

 and anglers, but of commercial and scientific fishermen. 

 Representative men from both coasts and fi'om the Great 

 Lakes were in attendance. Capt. Collins called the meeting 

 to order Tuesday morning. President T. W. Palmer follow- 

 ing with an address. Hon. William Smith, of Canada, Min- 

 ister of Marine Fi.sheries, spoke on the "Pi.sheries of Canada," 

 and Lieut. F. W. Bassett made an interesting talk ou the 

 "Polk Lore of Fishing." In the afternoon a co.smopolitan 

 procession of fishing boats passed through the lagoons, among 

 which the following craft appeared: 



A life-saving boat, with all the crew wearing cork life-pre- 

 .servers, a Rhode Island striker boat, the Blake's sounding 

 boat, whaleboat from cruiser Illinois, Turkish caique. Nor 

 wegian boat, Lofoten Islands fishing boat, Norway; plea'^ure 

 fishing boat, Norway; doxy, with lobster pots, Massachusetts; 

 canoe from West Alaska, kliukit canoe from Alaska, mod- 

 ern skiffs, outrigger canoes from Ceylon, balsa from South 

 America. Esquimau cayoks, Dahomey canoes, Samoan 

 canoes, Egyptian boat, ordinary canoe, hragozza, fishing 

 boat from Venice; Jangada fishing raft from Brazil, Cana- 

 dian boat, .St. Ijawrence skiff, angler's boat, water bicycle, 

 land and water motor, aluminum shell, canvas folding boat, 

 angler's boat yawl, Japanese Phcenix boat, with net casting, 

 -Japanese boat with fish balloons, birch canoes with Western 

 ludiajis, birch canoes manned by Penobscot Indians, native 

 boats from British Columbia, dugout manned by Iroquois 

 Indians, kaiak from whaler Progress, float with fishing camp 

 and sturgeon boat. 



On Wednesday the congress reassembled at 10 A. M. Capt. 

 Collins read his paper on "The Relation of Fisheries to Na- 

 tional Prosperity," showing how important the fi.shermau 

 has been in history from the time of the Phcenicians down. 

 Mr. John Hudson, of Washington State, read a paper on the 

 "Fisheries of Washington." Mr. John Tobin, of Chicago, 

 made some interesting reiuai'ks on the subject "How to Scale 

 Fish." Mr. Hart, of Chicago, presented valuable results 

 of his study on the "Manufacture and Uses of Fish Glue." 



Ou Wednesday there were some boat races, the most inter- 

 esting being those between the canvas boats, Osgood boat 



