Sept. 29, 1900.] 
FOREST _ AND STREAM. 
261 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Ouananiche in the Toils. 
A French Canadian was .fishing on Lake George for 
pike, called there pickerel. His tackle consisted of hand 
line and trolling spoon. A fish took the spoon, and 
then followed the greatest fight our French Canadian 
iriend ever had with a fish, for, as he afterward explained, 
tlie fish was as much out of the water as in the water, 
and in his long experience as a pickerel fisherman he 
liad never known a pickerel to act in this peculiar man- 
ner. The line was pulled in by the man and taken out 
by the leaping fish until it was somewhat snaiied, but 
finally, with a supreme effort, an attempt was made to 
yank the fish into the boat, when the hooks of the spoon 
broke and the fish fell outside of the boat. In the strug- 
gle the long, snarled line had also fallen outside ®f the 
boat, and into this tangle of line the fish fell and with a 
few struggles wrapped the line about his body until it 
was helpless and the fisherman hit it on the head with a 
club and reduced it to stupor and possession. The fish 
was taken ashore at the cottage of my old friend Mr. 
Z. I. De Long, where it was promptly identified as a 
landlocked salmon and the scales pronounced its weight 
lol'i pounds. After this, who will say there is no such 
thing as luck in fishing? 
A Fair" Black Bass. 
While writing this evening, the telephone rang, and the 
maid said I was wanted. There was a friend at the other 
end of the line, and this conversation followed: 
"A big black bass was caught in Glen Lake, and it is 
now at the Turf Exchange if you wish to see it." 
"How big is it?" 
"Seven and one-half pounds." 
"I Imve one of that size on my dining room wall." 
"But yours is stuffed." 
"The fish you are talking about may be stuffed for all 
that I know." 
"No; this was just caught, and it . Oh! I know 
Avhat you mean now, but I think this fish is all straight." 
"I am much obliged to you for calling me up to tell 
me about the bass, but it is not big enough to cause me 
to walk four blocks to see it, for I have caught larger 
black bass from the same lake, and have seen them up to 
TO pounds in weight. Whenever you know of a black 
bass that weighs over 10 pounds, call me up. Good night !" 
Germaa Brown Trout. 
For years I have inveighed against the use of tlie term 
German brown trout, because it was absolutely improper. 
As well call our native brook trout New York brook trout 
or Connecticut brook trout, because they happened to come 
from either of the States named. Over and over I have 
written that the brown trout is the conmion brook trout 
of Europe. In Germany it is called brook trout, and in 
Great Britain it is called brown trout. We cannot adopt 
the translation of the German common name, as we have 
a brook trout of our own, but we can call it by its English 
common name, brown trout, the trout of Izaak Walton, 
and the first brown trout eggs that ever came to this 
country came from England, though the first eggs that 
came here to a State or national hatchery came from 
Germany, and the name German brown trout has stuck 
to the fish in one of the State hatcheries ever since. The 
State of New York made a fish exhibit at the State Fair 
in Syracuse, and when I reached the building where the 
fish were and read over one of the tanks, "German Brown 
Trout," I felt that I was wounded in the house of my 
friends, as well as stabbed in my vitals. It required but 
two seconds to pull down the cards bearing this misinfor- 
mation, and it required at least five minutes to talk to the 
man who prepared the cards and put them over the tanks, 
and the tail end of the talk was that such an offense should 
be deemed just cause for the dismissal of the offender 
from the service of the State. 
Effects of Restocking. 
Coming from Syracuse to Albany on the Lake Shore 
Limited, I sat at dinner with Senator John Raines, when 
he told me that fishing in Canandaigua Lake had not been 
so good in many years as it was at the present time, and 
he read to me some scores made by lake trout fishermen, 
and said that with little effort a man could take 20 to 50 
pounds of trout in a day with hook and line, and this 
condition he credited to the efforts of the State Commis- 
sion to restock the lake. 
Harry W. Watrous, ex-president of the Lake George 
Sportsmen's Association, whose summer residence is 
Camp Inn, near Hague, on Lake George, is credited with 
catching a lake trout of 24 pounds in Lake George. This 
is a much larger trout than was ever before taken from 
the lake, 19 pounds being the record up to the time that 
Mr. Watrous made his catch. 
What a Few Fingerlings Will Do, 
Three years ago the United States Fish Commission 
assigned me a carload of fingerling landlocked salmon 
to be planted in Lake George, N. Y. Hon. Wm. R. 
Weed, then one of the Fisheries, Game and Forest Com- 
missioners of the State, heard me speak of the assign- 
ment and asked that a few of the fish be sent to Spring 
Pond in the Adirondacks. This is a pond about half a 
mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, and situated not 
far from Bog River. T did not know anything about the 
suitability of Spring Pond for landlocked salmon and I 
thought the Commissioner knew no more than I did; 
but when the United States fish car reached Albany a 
flerk in the office of the Commission who had never 
taken charge of a shipment of fish was detailed to meet 
the car and take a few salmon to Spring Pond. Two hun- 
dred and sixty fingerling salmon were planted in the 
pond and I imagined that this would probably close the 
incident; but I am very glad to sav that i was wrong m 
my surmise, for Mr. Weed has told me the past season 
that -several salmon had been taken from the pond 
weighmg between 2 and 3 pounds, and one evening latelv 
Mr. Charles Sisson, of Tupper's Lake, met me in a club 
m Albany and told me of the stocking of an Adirondack 
lake with salmon; that a dozen or more fish up to ^ 
pounds h3(J been caught and that more had b?en seen, and 
it was considered that the pond was well stocked with 
this species of fish. It finally developed that he was 
speaking of Spring Pond, in which the 260 fingerlings, 
the only plant, were deposited. Even now I can find out 
nothing about the food conditions in the pond, but it is 
evident that the salmon are thriving, for 3 pounds at 
three years is a fair rate of growth. The same species 
of fish, when planted in Lake George, grew to 6 pounds 
in weight at three years of age, as they had an abundance 
of whitefisb food and other food to grow fat and large on. 
To Mr. Hough. 
Last Friday, which was yesterday, I had a desk clean- 
ing in x\lbany, and to my astonishment 1 found in a 
pigeonhole a sheet of Forest and Stream with the 
date June 23. In blue pencil at the top was, written, 
"Will Mr. Cheney answer? E. Hough." What he de- 
sired answered was indicated in blue pencil below. How 
long that sheet has been in my desk or how it came 
there I cannot say. My stenographer was off on a vaca- 
tion and no one in the office could explain why what 
was probably sent to me personally should have been 
opened by a clerk, for I did not open it and it was never 
called to my attention by the person who attended to 
my mail in my absence. 
Mr. Hough wishes me to answer some qtieries about 
fish wheels and screens to prevent trout from running 
up stream, and I did not happen to read his notes of that 
particular issue of Forest and Stream. If it is not too 
late I may say I have had no experience with fish wheels 
for the purpose indicated, but fish screens can be made 
to answer the purpose if the inlet stream can be confined 
in a trench or sluice of wood; or you may call it a race- 
\yay. The screens should be double, so that when one is 
lifted for cleaning the other would remain in place and 
keep the fish from running up stream. Above the double 
screens there should be a third screen of larger meshed 
wire to catch heavy drift that may puncture or otherwise 
injure the double screens during seasons of flood. Over 
the double screens there should be a hood projecting 
down stream. Otherwise the trout when the impulse 
seizes them to go up the current will jump the screens. 
In stock ponds at the State hatcheries the red-throat 
trout are the worst offenders in this respect, but all spe- 
cies will qualify as hurdle leapers when the desire is 
strong upon them to go up stream for spawning pur- 
poses. Last summer such an arrangement as I have de- 
scribed \yas made for a hatchery in the North Woods, 
but in this case I put in two sets of double screens some 
distance (about 15 feet) apart. The inlet stream was 
confined within a race for a distance of 25 feet, the sides 
of plank being at right angles to the plank bottom. 
The screens worked in grooves in sides and bottom. 
Beginning at the up stream end was the single screen 
of heavy wire and large mesh, 5 feet from the up stream 
end of the raceway. This was to hold dead limbs, for it 
was in the forest, .and other floating materials of a heavy 
nature which could be removed or raked from the screen 
before it was lifted for cleaning. Five feet down were 
the first double screens, and 15 ft. further the second 
set of double screens, each set about i foot apart. This 
space of 15 feet was to be covered to make a spawning 
race when it was needed. Above the raceway a dam was 
built across the stream with one spillway leading into 
the bed of the stream and then into the race, and on one 
side a second spillway, with a gate on a lower level to 
draw the water down from the pond if it ever proved to 
be necessary in time of flood to relieve the pressure on 
ihe race. The water from the second spillway would, 
when the gate was opened, flow around the race and re- 
enter the stream below it. This was simply a precaution 
against flooding. . 
As to the second query, I cannot understand why a 
man should require any apparatus to take spawn from 
trout 3 or 4 pounds in weight. If the spawn taker has a 
good hold of the tail with a yarn mitten on his hand 
and the head of the fish under his arm he should be able 
to take the spawn without injury to the fish. In this 
State, when the men are taking muscalonge eggs and get 
a 30 or 40 pound fish, a second man bears a hand in 
holding the fish; but muscalonge of 40 pounds are much 
more passive at spawning time than they are in the legal 
open season when they are hooked at the end of a troll- 
ing line, when it requires a strong harness to hold them. 
In this State an unusually big fish at spawning time needs 
only the hands of the spawn taker's assistant, and it is 
common for the men to handle alone much larger fish 
than those mentioned by Mr. Hough. If Mr. Hough's 
friend wfll dispose of his big trout and breed from fish 
to three years of age he may not get as many eggs 
per fish, but he will get stronger fry and the aggregate 
of eggs can be brought up by breeding a greater number 
of smaller fish and there will be no need for any apparatus 
to hold the big trout \yhile taking spawn. 
There is, however, a box used to confine salmon when 
takmg spawn. I described it several years ago in For- 
est AND Stream as something designed by the late John 
Mowah for this purpose. A cut was made by Forest 
AND Stream of the box from a drawing I sent with my 
notes, but it was overlooked and never used, and this 
may be a good time to fish it out and run it. The box 
was made long and narrow and open on one side and at 
one end. The other end had a hood into which the sal- 
mon s head was placed. Midway from the head to the 
foot was a strap to hold the fish in place, and the sides 
of the lower end of the box were cut away in parts for 
convenience m stripping the fish, which was placed 
belly up m the box. The last annual report of the U. S. 
J-ish Comrnission for 1899, just issued, has two half-tone 
cuts of such a box with a salmon in it in the position for 
spawning, so I have gained something by waiting for 
had I replied to Mr. Hough last Julv I would not have 
been able to refer him to the illustration in the Fish 
Commission s report, for the volume came onlv yesterday 
In fact, I wondered if this was another coincidence. 
Salmon for Salmon River. 
In connection with my notes on the fishways in Sal- 
mon River. N, Y I think I said that it was generally 
under.qtood that the planting of fry which resulted in a 
run of hah last year was made in 1895 or '96, and the 
U. S. Fish Commissioin has promised to give nieamcm- 
ori^ndum of j^ll tlie salmon planted in tj^is strean], \ i,va§ 
of the opinion that a plant of salmon fry was made in 
Salmon River long before '95, and I will back my mem- 
ory on matters pertaining to fish, when I know it is not 
worth one sou for other things. This evening, after a- 
diligent search, I found one record of a planting of sal- 
mon in Salmon River on May 14, 1884. Forty thousand 
fry were planted from the Long Island hatchery fronii 
eggs furnished by the U. S. Fish Commission. That 
year 443,700 salmon fry were planted from the same sta- 
tion and all but the 40,000 mentioned went into the Hud- 
son River. I planted a good part of these myself, and- 
now I wish they had all gone into Salmon River. 
Last week Mr. Von Bayer, the engineer and architect 
of the U. S. Fish Commission, met me in Syracuse, and 
after a visit to Salmon River and an examination of the 
sam.e he made all the measurements necessary for prepar- 
ing plans for four fish passes. The lowermost dam is to 
have an iniproved Call fishway, the improvement being 
made by Mr. Von Bayer, and the other dams will have, 
covered chutes, with arms to return the water and ice 
heads to prevent the chutes from being qarried away or 
injured. The U. S. Fish Commission was kind enough 
to give Mr. Von Bayer leave of absence that he might 
visit the dam and prepare the plans for the construction 
of a fishway with his own improvements. The appro- 
priation was small — less than half that in an ordinary 
fishway bill — but it will suffice to build the four fish 
passes, and I hope that six weeks hence I can say that 
they are completed. 
Caddis Larvae. 
Having answered the queries propounded by Mr. 
Hough to the best of my ability, I will return the com- 
pliment by asking him a question. He says on the 
sheet of Forest and Stream already specifically men- 
tioned: "One discovery Mr. Wood made which is 
interest. He found his trough full of little sticks of wood 
at which his baby trout nibbled eagerly. He broke open 
the supposed sticks and found each to be the case of a 
big grub or worm. Breaking up these things, he found 
his trout eagerly eating them. Then he discarded liver 
and the like and fed on these larvse. He had no dead 
lake trout 'after that, and this last year he raised nearly 
the entire hatch, whereas last year he lost half." 
Indeed this is of interest, but I would like a few frills 
added to the bald statement that baby trout were fed 
on caddis larvffi. How old were the trout when they 
were first fed on the larvae? — for they cannot eat solid food 
for some little time after the yolk sac is observed; and 
if Mr. Hough will turn to page 109 of the report of the 
Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission for the year 
189s he will find the figures of an assortment of caddis 
cases— shell, bark, sand, wood, etc. — and also an en- 
larged caddis worm; but I had a line put by the side of 
the enlarged figures to show the exact length, and a 
foot-rule will show that the line is three-fourths of an 
inch long. Baby trout will eat the worms all right 
enough, but they must be larger than fry that have just 
absorbed the umbilical sac. Furthermore, how many 
trout were reared on this kind of food, and how big were 
the trout before they took the case and the worm in its 
entirety? Adult trout do not require to have their worms 
shucked, and I once explained in this paper that trout 
with sand in their stomachs did not take the sand for 
ballast, as was claimed, but had been eating caddis worms 
encased in sand. 
Last season a friend furnished me with a lot of cad- 
dis larv£e from his private trout pond to transplant for 
trout food, and recently I mentioned the great flight of 
caddis flies that I found on the Niagara River and a sim- 
ilar flight on the St. Lawrence; but I would hesitate 
about taking the contract to suply caddis lara: for two 
or three millions of young trout in the State hatcheries; 
and as for breaking up the cases, I fear the men would 
elect to grind. liver instead, even if the larva: could be 
procured in abundance. If the liver, after grinding, is 
forced through a fine sieve to remove all stringy portions, 
there should be no great danger of killing young trout— 
at least there is no trouble of that sort in the New York 
hatcheries. Caddis larvs is a great food for trout and 
other fish, and there are some fifteen species of caddis 
flies, and while I have advocated the transplanting of 
the larva; to stock waters where the insect is not found 
naturally, I never heard of feeding larvae in a hatchery 
to young trout, and the man who has an abundance of 
this food in his hatchery is fortunate; but I fear it will 
not serve to feed fish on a great scale; but if it will I 
desire to know more about the details. The expression 
"Found his troughs drifted full of little sticks of wood" 
IS confusing. Supply pipes to a hatchery trough should 
not admit sticks of wood, for every effort is made to 
keep the water free of foreign substances by using screns 
and cheese cloth, but troughs are certainly the abiding 
place of trout fry after they are hatched and for a part 
of the time that they are fed on liver emulsion. This 
subject of natural food is one of the hobbies I ride, and 
Mr. Hough will place me under obligations if he will 
get from his friend more of the details of how the larvje . 
is procured, prepared and fed to the rout, as well as the 
age of the trout that he feeds. . . . 
Rescuing Trout. 
The streams in Sullivan country have been extremely 
low in the vicinity of the State hatchery at Rockland, 
N, Y., and the men from this hatchery have been en- 
gaged in rescue work. With the streams running lower 
• and lower, forming pools with only threads of water be- 
tween or no water at all, no one could tell when or 
where the drought would end or what might become of 
the trout left in the pools, so the men went to work 
taking the trout from the pools and conveyed them to 
other streams or parts of the stream where they would 
be safe. This work was continued until rain came and 
raised all the streams in that vicinitv to a degree that 
made the trout in them safe for the present. 
Steelhea(fs in Tuxedo Lake. 
Mr. Edwin Clark JKent writes me an interesting letter 
concerning the steelhead trout in Tuxedo Lake, supple- 
menting which I have already quoted from a letter of 
Mr. Stokes, also a member of the hatchery committee of 
the club. ^ T quote from the letter in part: 
"Yqh will be interested in knowing ^hg V^^vHt of our 
