294 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 7, 1894. 



reason for not being out there that the recently quoted 

 Irishman had for not joining his neighbors in the "pro- 

 cession of the unemployed," "the boss wouldn't let me 

 off." 



A portly German entered and desired to see one of the 

 firm on an important business ma,tter. The gentleman 

 inquired for was engaged, and in order to hold my Ger- 

 man friend I commenced conversing with him about the 

 view from our windows, incidentally mentioning that the 

 shots we hear occasionally were fired by men shooting 

 ducks out on the pier. 



Previously listless he was now all attention, 



"Vat,"' he said. "Vild ducks?" 



"Yes." 



"Out on the pier?" 

 "Yes." 



He regarded me solemnly with evident distrust and sur- 

 prise in his manner. After a short reflection he said, very 

 deliberately and earnestly: "Dot is very singular. I 

 didn't know dot de vild ducks would ever light on de 

 pier." 



I just showed the above to another client, who read it 

 without changing a muscle. After a second, however, he 

 smiled. 



"Of course I see it," he said, "they wouldn't light on 

 the pier, they would light on the water." Algodon. 



ed m{A f^wqr fishing. 



NOW THAT APRIL'S HERE. 



Now that April's here, there are bird songs everywhere, 

 Floating ouc upon the lazy, hazy springtime atmosphere; 



The shallow, sandy brooks come leaping, laughing from their nooks, 

 Like children after school is done, now that April's here. 



Little flowerets peep from their beds of winter sleep, 

 Across the velvet lawn, at dawn, the annelids slowly creep. 



A time of smiles and blisses, for the sun throws happy kisses 

 Through the tears that the changeful skies of April weep. 



The piping robins come back to the quiet home 



From which the frosts unkindly, blindly drove them far away to roam, 

 The quail calls from the covers, safe retreat for feathered lovers; 



The plow turns to the sun the rich and yielding loam. 



Here sit I and ponder, if the swift stream over yonder, 

 Of happy days reminding, winding in its banks and under, 



As it murmurs down the valleys, holds some Salmo fontinalis, 

 Of all his tribe the peer, the great and glowing wonder. 



Now that April's here, I begin to question where 

 My wife has hid the tackle that I laid aside last year, 



For I hear a voice that's calling where the water's foam in falling, 

 And the eddies swirl and darken, now that April's here. 



J. H. LaRoche. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



Pronunciation of Ouananiche. 



Judge S. H. Greene writes me: "Through the columns 

 of Forest AND Steeam will you kindly educate us of the 

 'wild and woolly West' in the pronunciation of the name 

 of that game fish of yours of the East, 'ouananiche'? 

 Many of us who boldly, without the least hesitation, talk 

 freely about Skamokawa, the capital of Wahiakum 

 county; Humptulipe, Semiahoo, Stillaquamish, Wa 

 Wawai, etc., hedge on the word ouananiciie, by simply 

 spelling it, leaving each auditor to mentally pronounce it 

 to suit himself, or, at most, stammering out something so 

 entirely unsatisfactory that the attempted pronunciation 

 is invariably followed by the parenthetical remark, 'or 

 however you pronounce it.' " 



I am a little surprised that this question was not asked 

 long ago by some one of sumeboay, for common as this 

 rather queer-looking word has become of late years I 

 have known of but one attempt made to represent the 

 correct pronunciation in printed letters, and in that 

 single instance such dense ignorance was shown regard- 

 ing the genealogy of the fish that the given pronuncia- 

 tion mignt have been regarded with suspicion, particu- 

 larly as after representing the sound of the word the 

 writer thereafter, throughout his article, gave an English 

 rendering of the word entirely different from that which 

 he had just said was correct. Canadian angling writers 

 have sometimes spelled the word in English in one way 

 and at another time in another way , representing entirely 

 different sounds, but in the following I am contirmed by 

 Mr. E. T. D. Chambers, of Quebec, who has collected 

 fifteen mongrel forms of the word and who is an 

 authority upon the subject. 



Ouananiche is pronounced by the Montagnais Indian as 

 if it were spelled in English — whonaniske. The first "h" 

 is used because they pronounce the word as if it com- 

 menced with an aspirate, and the "o" is employed for 

 the broad sound of "a," as in the English word, wan. I 

 think the most common form of the word represented 

 in English spelling is "wininnish." and Mr. Chambers 

 explains how this has come about: "The French, having 

 no 'w,' and their 'ou' being nearly its equivalent, as in 

 oui, pronounced 'we,' the original French spelling 'ouan- 

 aniche,' for the employment of which in preference to 

 English forms of the word I have always strenuously 

 contended, is the best possible picture of the spoken sound. 

 Some of the French residents about Lake St. John pro- 

 nounce the word as if its first vowel was an 'i,' and give 

 it the English sound, and some anglers have carried this 

 pronunciation away with them, and so have arisen the 

 many mongrel forms of the word." 



Webster's dictionary, 1892, perpetuates the spelling 

 "winninish," and defines the fish as "the landlocked 

 variety of the common salmon (Canada)." This is not the 

 form generally or officially accepted in Canada, nor is the 

 fish a landlocked variety. 



Ouananiche or Landlocked Salmon? 

 It is rather agreeable than otherwise to have one differ 

 with you, when it is done so pleasantly as in Forest and 

 Stream, March 10, where Mr. Eugene McCarthy objects 

 to my description of ouananiche as weighing 251bs. But 

 have they not been caught weighing more than 251bs.? 

 1 did not say in Canada, nor did I even mean to intimate 

 that such was the case. Is Canada alone entitled to the 

 common name of a species of fish that exists elsewhere 

 and grows to a larger size than in Canada? About the 

 time of writing the note to which Mr. McCarthy refers, a 



friend wished to mention in a pamphlet the fish called 

 ouananiche in Canada (and, by the way, it is called land- 

 locked salmon by a well-known Canadian writer in an 

 article devoted chiefly to the Lake St. John fish), and 

 landlocked salmon in New England, and he desired to use 

 the most appropriate common name for the fish and con- 

 sulted me about it. Gorman had just said that the salmon 

 of Lake St. John, of Sebago, of Schnodic and of the 

 Atlantic coast streams were one and the same, namely, 

 Salmo solar. That whether they were called landlocked 

 salmon in the United States, or ouananiche in Canada, 

 they were not a variety, but the species itself. They are 

 not landlocked salmon, for wherever found they can go 

 to sea if they have the desire, as the way is open, and in 

 all probability they were called ouananiche before they 

 were called landlocked salmon. We really need but one 

 common name for a single species of fish, as a rule, but to 

 distinguish the salmon that go to sea from those thatremain 

 in fresh water, it is necessary to have two, and which is the 

 best for the fresh-water fish, ouananiche or landlocked 

 salmon? And which holds the age? I voted for ouananiche, 

 no matter where the fish is found, and so used the word. 

 "Trout" sufficiently describes fontinalis whether the fish is 

 2oz. in weightin Pike county, Pennsylvania, 8ibs. in weight 

 in the Batiscan, in Canada, or 121bs. in weight in Mooseluc- 

 maguntic Lake in Maine. The big-mouth black bass is 

 not to be envied because it is an Oswego bass in New York, 

 a chub in Virginia and a trout in Florida. 



If there is danger of international complications arising 

 over this name we could say the ouananiche of Canada 

 and the ouananiche of the United States, to separate one 

 from the other. When the country is in a depressed state 

 and economy is in order, it is a great time to reduce the 

 number of common names of some of our fishes that 

 lead only to confusion and bad language on the part 

 of some of our fishermen, as for instance when they find 

 that a pike-perch may be, according to the waters in 

 w T hich it resides, a dory or a dore; a yellow pike or a 

 green pike; a wall-eyed pike or a glass eye; a hornfish or 

 okaw; a jack-salmon or a plain salmon. 



Unless served with an injunction, I wish hereafter to 

 write of the fresh-water salmon, whenever I have oc- 

 casion to do so, as the ouananiche, no matter in what 

 waters it may be found. 



The Other Side. 



A gentleman who is a staunch friend of the ouananiche 

 as found in New England waters, read Mr. McCarthy's 

 letter in Forest and Stream, and wrote me in defense of 

 his favorite fish: "There is no difference anatomically 

 between the landlocked salmon of New England and the 

 ouananiche of Lake St. John — therefore they are the same 

 fish. 



' 'Environment, of course, modifies habits and conditions, 

 size and energies. Fish that spend their lives fighting a 

 'turmoil of waters' have no time to grow, and are, as Mr, 

 McCarthy says, usually washed off the hook when struck 

 in their native element. The current does three-fourths 

 of the fighting. Transfer such a fish to smooth water 

 and he will be more easily mastered. 



"Can it be that the vaunted fish of Eoberval, tearing 

 about in 'waters than which none can be wilder,' keeps 

 the angler busy for 15 minutes only? There must be 

 something abnormal here, some lesion of the fighting- 

 quality lobes, judging from the action of New England 

 ouananiche when hooked in those deep, quiet waters Mr, 

 McCarthy affects to despise. I have known anglers play 

 a New England landlocked salmon for an hour, the fish 

 leaping repeatedly, and it required all their experience 

 and strength to bring him to net. I have seen their 

 bloodless hands and noted the reaction in complete nerv- 

 ous demoralization. 



"Note their argument: 'The weight in the New Hamp- 

 shire lakes is still another indication that those landlocked 

 salmon are different from the ouananiche.' 



"A given fish will grow to three or four times the size in 

 one water that it attains in another. Every angler knows 

 this. Give the Roberval fish less fighting to do and more 

 food, and they will doubtless grow as large and as fast as 

 the New Hampshire salmon. Mr. Cheney is right, the 

 name , 'little salmon' does not correctly describe the fish in 

 question, which attains a weight of over 301bs. — not 

 where it is stunted from birth by a harrowing fight for 

 life in those terrible rapids we are told about. 



" 'Pseudo relatives of the States!' Big, flabby congeners 

 of that Canadian wonder, this fighting pigmy of the 

 Grand Discbarge, how dare you 'usurp' the name the red 

 man gave you? Aren't you ashamed to 'steal the 

 thunder' of this minnow of the Petite Decharge? 



"After all, Mr. McCarthy admits that he has never met 

 you, 'but formulates his ideas entirely from the experi- 

 ence of others' — who appear to have spooned for you, 

 doubtless in vain. When he makes your acquaintance he 

 will acquire a deep respect for you." 



In this connection I am reminded of a fight that I wit- 

 nessed and timed on a New England lake when it required 

 an hour and forty minutes, as I now recall it, for an 

 angler to kill an ouananiche of about 151bs. I thought 

 the time overlong in which to kill the fish, but as it was 

 not my fish perhaps I would better not air my views 

 about the manner of killing it. 



Spring Fishing. 



There is every prospect at this writing that the. ice will 

 be out of Lake George, N. Y., before April 1, as there are 

 miles of open water now. This is such an unusual thing 

 that no one can remember its like. Last year the ice 

 went out April 29 in the main lake, although there was 

 ice in the bays on May 1, on which date the open season 

 for lake trout fishing begins. 



The trout come to the surface as soon as the ice is gone 

 and remain on the top of the water rarely more than two 

 weeks, so that the prospect for good surface fishing this 

 year is not flattering, as there is yet a full month and 

 more before it will be legal to fish. It remains to be seen 

 whether or not the whitefish remain at the surface longer 

 than usual this year. If they do, the trout will stay also, 

 for they follow the whitefish and prey upon them. Just 

 now there is a heap of speculation about what will hap- 

 pen. 



Under date of March 18, one of the New Hampshire 

 Fish Commissioners writes: "One week ago to-day I was 

 at Newfound Lake, and while there saw a beautiful sight. 

 At the outlet of the lake where, I should judge, there 

 were some two acres of open water, I saw a salmon rise, 

 and a man living there told me that the day before he 

 saw six different salmon rising at almost the same time." 



This is another indication that the season is unusually 

 early this year, and that anglers may be disappointed 

 about the surface fishing when the season legally opens. 



A. N. Cheney. 



THE LEAPING OUANANICHE* 



BY EUGENE M'CARTHY. 

 "Felt the loose line jerk and tighten; 

 As he drew it in, it tugged so 

 That the birch hark canoe stood endwise." 



Aptly do the words of Hiawatha portray, in part, what 

 I wish to describe. 



"How!" A small word, indeed, but what a task its 

 explanation sets before me to perform. Should I begin 

 by confessing that I do not know how to catch ouananiche 

 myself, I believe that I would approximate the truth. 

 The more time one spends in this fishing, and the more 

 one studies the fish, the sooner one's belief is strengthened 

 that the knowledge which should follow practice grows 

 less instead of greater. With experience in catching 

 ouananiche, one formulates certain ideas as to the proper 

 way to strike them, to play them and to land them. Sud- 

 denly a change comes over the spirit of the fish, and the 

 supposed proper methods are far better to honor in the 

 breach rather than in the observance. These changes are 

 radical and oft-occurring; applying as well to just where 

 to find them as to their action when striking and when 

 hooked. 



I have before mentioned that the ouananiche are great , 

 fighters, surpassing even the trout and black bass in this 

 particular, and it would almost seem as though there was 

 method in their fight, they vary it in quality, but not in 

 quantity. 



To-day they are to be caught only in the white, boiling 

 water just under a fall, to-morrow in the more quiet . 

 water beyond; to-day they fight when hooked, by con- i 

 stantly leaping from the water, to-morrow by running 

 and sulking deep down; now they make prodigious jumps 

 for a passing darning needle cr some other member of the 

 mouche family, and are not to be tempted by any of our 

 flies. Again they rise quickly to any color or kind of cast 

 that we may give them. 



When an ouananiche is hooked, be is not even half 

 caught; as my guides would say, "Brebis eomptees, le loup 

 les mange;" truly one should not count their chickens be- 

 fore they are hatched, nor their ouananiche before they 

 are netted. 



The ouananiche has one mortal enemy in the pickerel 

 (brocket), with which Lake St. John abounds, and. which 

 grow to enormous size. I have frequently caught ouan- 

 aniche bearing large scars, both recent and old, showing 

 narrow escapes from the enemy. Perhaps feeling the 

 wound when hooked, and attributing it to their natural 

 enemy may have something to do with causing them to' 

 fight as they will. In any event, the fighting they do is 

 simply tremendous. 



In rough water the ouananiche is rarely seen when he 

 takes the fly, the choppy waves concealing bis strike. : 

 The first intimation will be to see it jump from the water 

 in the vicinity of the cast, and a severe tightening strain 

 on the line. If this occurs when the cast is being drawn i 

 m and the rod elevated back, something will break unless 

 it is possible for the tip to be rapidly given. If in smooth I 

 water, the strike can be seen, and the tip given at once, j 

 Strike the fish firmly, but without a sharp jei-k, as they: 

 usually hook only in the lip lightly, and the fly is easily, 

 torn out. Follow at once by drawing quickly an abso- 

 lutely tight line, never relax, even an inch. Stop the 

 reel, draw out between the reel and first ring from 3 to 

 4ft. of line taut in the left hand. Give the fish the butt' 

 of the rod as much as possible, hold it absolutely tight 

 without giving line except when it leaps; then slightly 

 draw the tip and follow the leap with the necessary line: 

 from that held in the left hand. Being held absolutely 

 in check without slack, the fish rtms only within a shorfci 

 radius, pulling usually with all its strength; this may re- 

 sult in laming the wrist, but more fish are saved. Ifl 

 preferred, the reel can be used and the ouananiche allowed 

 to run, but they turn and return so quickly that the slack 

 cannot easily be recovered; result, that another run with 

 the slack tightens the line with a jerk, the hook is torn; 

 out or broken, and the fish gone. Individually, I find an 

 automatic reel preferable, as it will take the slack as 

 rapidly as given, and to it I attribute the saving of many' 

 fish. Never hurry the fish, or attempt to lead it to the 

 net until satisfied that it is thoroughly tired out, and do 

 not relax the strain, or watchfulness, until safely netted. 

 An ouananiche of about 31bs. weight will require fully 

 fifteen to twenty minutes or more, to kill it, and it will 

 fight hard every moment. 



"Now it will leap from the water anywhere from two or. 

 three to a dozen times, rising fully 3 or 4ft. from the sur- 

 face, returning to the water only to make an immediate 

 wild rush toward the bottom. If near a fall it will make 

 many attempts to rush under the falling water, or in the 

 rough part of the rapids, there to sulk, pull, and often 

 shake violently to release the hook. Then perhaps, a! 

 rush toward the fisherman, a quick turn and deep down 

 again, a moment's rest and then a violent race to and fro, 

 as far as the line will permit. The jumps are quick, and 

 occur when least expected, often following one another 

 in quick succession. In fact, the fish are never at rest, 

 but change their tactics every moment; each fish fights 

 differently, the method pursued in catching one will 

 scarcely apply to the next. The hand and mind must act 

 in unison quickly, and both will be thoroughly occupied. 

 There are so many il ifs" that it is easy to understand how 

 questionable is the saving of the fish after being hooked. 

 If well hooked, if the hook shall tear out, or if the hook, 

 leader, line or rod shall not break. Be prepared to lose; 

 as a rule, more fish than you save; that is the common, 

 experience. « 



In regard to the selection of tackle, the greatest care 

 must be used. I find that an "E" silk line with a 6ft. 

 leader is best, and am always sure that my leaders and 

 flies are new, well made, and will stand a good prior test. 

 An "E" line being heavy, is less liable to break, and can- 

 not be cut by the rocks when drawn across them, as fre- 

 quently happens in playing a fish. A short leader u 

 necessary to prevent its being tangled in the rough water 

 of the rapids, or from the violent play of the fish. 



All anglers have their favorite rods, either split-bamboo,J 

 lancewood or greenheart. All are good — the lighter andl 



* From Mr. McCarthy's hook of this name just published by the 

 Forest and Stream Pub, Co. 



