July 23, 1904,] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
78 
strain on the line would be equal at all times. To give 
the line any slack would be taking chances of losing the 
fish ; to pull too strong would break the line or pull Miss 
Sullivan overboard. But Bill knew his little book. After 
playing for perhaps ten minutes the maskinonge broke 
water. It was then seen that it was a monster fish. 
Other boats gathered around and volunteered all kinds 
of advice. One man saia, "Let me shoot him." 
Others, "Pull him on shore and beach him," 
and one man with a minnow net wanted to do the 
trick with that. But Bill was cool, and told everybody 
to keep away and give him a chance to play the fish to 
tire it out. This Bill knew from experience was the best 
way. When the 'longe broke water three or four 
times and didn't shake the hook from its mouth,' ' Bill 
knew he had it hooked good and fast, and the only chance 
of its getting away was to break the line or pull Miss 
Sullivan overboard. 
After the maskinonge had been played for about thirty 
minutes, it showed signs of quitting. On Bill's advice, 
Miss Sullivan began to pull the fish toward the boat so 
that Bill could gaff it. But, like all of its kin, it was 
game, and when near enough to see the boat, took a 
splurge, and was gone again with thirty or forty feet of 
the line. Unfortunately for the 'longe, Miss Sullivan's 
feet got tangled up in the line. Had it not been for Bill 
she would perhaps have gone overboard, so "fierce was the 
fish's rush for liberty. But after this, his final struggle, 
Miss Sullivan, with the assistance of Bill",, pulled the 
maskinonge close alongside and lifted it into the boat. 
It was the largest maskinonge of the season, weighing 
47H pounds. 
Fish Chat. 
Gamy Pollock. 
A year or more ago I gave in Forest and Stream an 
account of a day's sport I once had among the pollock, 
which fish, twenty or - thirty years since, were, and for 
aught I know, still are, abundant in the harbor of East- 
port, Me., and thence out. to Grand Manan. 
That was my first experience with this gamy salt-water 
species, and the sport I had was, I considered, well worth 
recording, partly because the story might prove interest- 
inging to some of my brother anglers, but chiefly that it 
might serve as a reminder to> those who are taking their 
outings at the seaside that there is a fish which is pretty 
abundant all along the Atlantic Coast, from Cape Cod to 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and which gives as good sport 
when handled with rod and reel as can be desired. The 
account that I then gave of the habits of the fish was so 
full, I will not dwell on them here, except in a general 
way. 
Distribution of the Fish. 
The distribution of the pollock is very wide, it being 
one of the most common species in European waters, as 
well as those of our Atlantic Coast, and it ranks second 
only to the cod in importance in the sea fisheries, or if not 
second it is a close third, the haddock outstripping it. 
Merits of the Pollock. 
While its economical value is well established, its 
merits as a game fish are not generally well known, but 
I find that anglers are becoming acquainted with them 
along Our shores, particularly in Maine and Nova Scotia, 
in whose bays and estuaries the fish congregate in very 
great numbers. 
I have recently had an opportunity to renew my ac- 
quaintance with the pollock, and I found it just as lively 
and full of fight as I remembered it as being thirty years 
ago. I was taking an outing at the quaint little town of 
Lockport, N. S., whose inhabitants depend for a liveli- 
hood almost entirely Om the harvests they gather from 
the sea. Of course I soon became acquainted with all 
the anglers in the place^-and by; anglers I mean those 
who handle the rod and reel — and quickly learned that as 
the season for tidal or sea trout had passed, those fish 
having ascended the rivers where they will remain until 
their spawn is cast in the autumn, the sportsmen were 
depending largely on the pollock for recreation, and I 
was invited to join them as often, as I desired. 
That I gladly accepted their invitations goes without 
saying, and I found them , to be capital fellows, and 
worthy disciples of good old Izaak Walton. The most 
sportsmanlike method of angling for pollock that was 
practiced was by casting the fly out into the surf from the 
rocky ledges which cover a long promontory south of the 
town, and bordering the inner harbor, the most success- 
ful fly being the red ibis. 
Casting the Fly from Cliffs. 
In casting the fly from those high standing places one 
needed to be constantly on the alert, for the breakers 
were always carrying the lure among the rock weeds 
which grew luxuriantly among the ledges. While one 
can put out a longer line from such high points, he can- 
not always put and move his fly as he would wish, and 
pollock angling is therefore,_ under such conditions, not 
an easy matter. It is practiced, however, all along the 
cliffs of Wales and Scotland, and Maine anglers are be- 
coming, versed in the method along the rocky shores of 
that State. As a rule, the pollock, thus taken are not 
large, their average length not exceeding a foot, although 
occasionally good sized fish accept the fly, but on. light 
tackle even these small fish give as exciting play in the 
heavy surges of the dashing breakers as would the most 
plucky sea trout. 
One of my friends insists upon it that all salt-water fish 
give better sport, pound for pound, than do any of the 
fresh-water species, declaring, as an example, that an 
8-pound Rangeley trout can easily be handled and landed 
with tackle that a bluefish or striped bass of similar 
weight would smash in a very short time. He is a gentle- 
man of very great experience, and his assertion ought to 
carry weight. 
The pollock taken from those cliffs never leaped above 
the surface of the water, but they often made long -runs 
out into the surf, and rarely came to the landing net with- 
out a rnpst deterrruped and protracted Struggle. 
Pollock in Deeper 'Water. 
I also found that no little sport was to be had in 
angling from a boat, the favorite locality being near the 
lighthouse at the entrance of the harbor. The boat was 
anchored in about four fathoms of water, and the hooks 
were baited with pices of clam and herring, preferably 
the latter. The pollock were of good size and very gamy, 
and as they took the bait near the surface of the water, 
one did not have to stretch his imagination very much 
to fancy he was among some lively sea trout. 
As I did not care very much for the bait fishing — it 
seeming much like pottering — I removed my bait hooks 
and substituted for them a short leader, to which were 
attached a red ibis and a silver-doctor fly, and with these 
I had quite exciting sport for an hour or two until the 
tide turned, when, as if by magic, the fish disappeared, 
and we were obliged to pull up anchor and return to the 
shore. 
I wish someone would explain why it is that squeteague 
and other sea fishes bite more freely on the flood tide, 
and why they decline all lures after it has fairly begun to 
ebb. ■■■ .-. • ■ 
Peculiarly Marked Trout. 
A curious story comes to the New York Sun from its 
Lachine, P. I., correspondent concerning the identification 
of a number of trout by their markings. A brief sum- 
mary of the story is as follows : 
A handsome lot of trout which were lying in a pan of 
ice in an office window in Montreal excited the admira- 
tion of all lookers-on. Among these was an elderly gen- 
tleman, who, on carefully examining them, accused the 
owner of the fish of poaching them from his private 
property, one of several lakes he owned among the 
Laurentian hills, basing his charge upon the coloration of 
the trout. The accusation was indignantly denied by the 
angler, who declared that the fish were taken in another 
lake, and to prove his statement he brought a number of 
witnesses, who substantially corroborated all he said; but 
greatly to their surprise, the owner of the lake also 
brought his witnesses, who all asserted that the fish were 
taken frohi his water, among them being an inhabitant 
of the district in which the lake was situated, who un- 
hesitatingly identified them by certain peculiar markings 
as. having been taken from the lake in question. The 
matter was warmly discussed at considerably length, but 
was finally settled amicably. 
Thirty-two Varieties of Trout. 
The correspondent further states that during the dis- 
cussion the owner of the lake boasted of being able to dis- 
tinguish between thirty-two different kinds of trout taken 
from as many separate stretches of water, and that a 
gentleman from New York who was recently invesigat- 
ing the fishing in the Laurentides was much astonished 
when he was shown the great difference between the 
trout taken in several lakes, each iake seeming to have 
a special variety indigenous to it, and the fish therein 
would not tolerate the introduction of any other trout. 
Quarrelsome Trout. 
As an illustration of this fact, the writer says : "The 
trout themselves appreciate these differences. An Ameri- 
can gentleman who greatly admired the violet spots upon 
the flanks of the trout in a friend's lake, was much 
pleased when his friend's little son brought him a dozen 
fine specimens of the coveted fish in a pail of water. As 
they were quite vigorous, they were quietly turned out 
into his own lake. There was a commotion in the water 
soon afterward. Presumably the regular inhabitants ob- 
jected to the visitors, for the next morning they were 
found dead at the shallow edge of the water, their 
bodies bearing signs of warfare." 
The whole story seems rather strange, particularly that 
portion, of it which relates to the introduction of the 
young fish into water not their own; they_ were pre- 
sumably young fish, since there was a dozen in a pail of 
water, but that they should show "signs of warfare," and 
finally find their way upon the beach to die in peace one 
can hardly believe; for, as a general thing, when a large 
trout succeeds in capturing a smaller one he pouches it 
without any waste of time. Furthermore, that there are 
thirty-two distinctly marked varieties of trout in as many 
Laurentides lakes is almost as incredible. So far as _ I 
have been able to discover, we have but one 6". fontinalis, 
and I have handled the fish upwards of fifty years, having 
taken them not only in the trout waters of many of the 
States, but also in all the Provinces of the Dominion, and 
have even creeled some from the Laurentides lakes above 
named, and have never been able to discover such 
peculiarities of markings and coloration as would be neces- 
sary to constitute a distinct variety. 
Variously Marked Trout in the Same Lake. 
In fact, I have taken a number of trout in any one lake, 
each of which was marked more or less differently from 
the others. Every angler in the Rangeleys or other 
similar chains of lakes has.had the same experience, one 
of his catch perhaps being dingy, almost of a dirty gray 
color, with quite obscure markings; another may be of 
silvery brightness, and the- next having almost the beau- 
tiful high coloration of the autumnal fish. 
In Lake Edward, P. I., where the trout are generally 
as highly colored as they are in any waters, one often 
takes a sombre gray or dirty brown colored fish, and in 
his creel he will have all shades of coloration, the bright- 
hued ones predominating, of course. One has a similar 
experience in fishing a mountain stream, some of his fish 
being almost as silvery as a fresh-run sea trout, and 
others, taken not three rods distant, bearing most beauti- 
ful hues. The Lachine correspondent, in treating of the 
varieties of coloration of trout, very truly observes : "No 
one attempts very seriously to reason why it is so, for the 
clear, soft water has every appearance of being alike in 
all the lakes, the vegetable growths are the same, and 
food conditions vary but little," and I shall not attempt 
to here. And yet a number of facts have passed under 
my observation which, in a way, seem to bear out the 
statements the correspondent has made. 
Coloration of Brook Trout. 
For: example: There is a mountain stream which 
empties into the Androscoggin Riyer near Gilead, Me., 
called the Wild River." It takes its rise far away among 
the mountains of New Hampshire. I have fished that 
picturesque stream many times with a great deal of 
pleasure, for I almost always was able to fill my creeV 
and the trout were most beautiful fish, being almost as 
silvery white as a sea trout, but marked in every other 
way tike the typical fontinalis. Emptying into ; that river 
is a good sized mountain brook, which one may follow 
with pleasure and profit a half dozen miles or more; the 
trout that live in its sparkling waters are almost in- 
variably high colored. Why the fish in these two streams 
are so dissimilar we cannot say, for the water in both is 
practically the same, and their rocky bottoms contain 
no sediment or decaying vegetation whatever. Another 
example : Between the two lower of the Rangeley Lakes, 
which are connected by a stream of considerable size 
called the "Rapid River," is a large pond a mile or so in 
length, and a half mile in breadth, which is called the 
"Pond in the River." The fish that make that pond their 
permanent home are* nearly always highly colored, and 
in form they are what might almost be called "hump- 
backed;" that is to say, their backs, instead of being al- 
most straight as they are in trout ordinarily, are arched 
very considerably upward; their rich coloration and 
peculiar form are so entirely characteristic of the fish that 
if you take a number of them and an old-time angler sees 
them, he will invariably say, "Ah, you got those trout in 
the Pond in the River, didn't you?" Now, the trout 
from the lake above pass freely up and down the fiver 
into and out of the pond, and they live in amity and 
peace with the others, neither being as combative as those 
described by the Lachine writer, but I doubt very much 
if they mate with the others, and the old race seems to be 
perpetuated in all its peculiarities of form. 
Another example: In the great Brook Pool in the 
Margaree River, Cape Breton, you will take troUt of 
every conceivable markings and coloration, from: the 
silvery white of the fresh-run fish to the yellow and 
brown of those which have been in the river a long time. 
While in the large pool, known as "Solomon's Cellar," 
every fish is most brilliantly colored even in mid-summer, 
and the pool is on a stream which empties into the." Mar- 
garee less than a mile from the other. *:-T " V; 
Another example of the diversity of coloration and I 
am done. Four or five miles from Malpeque, P. E. Lj is 
a pond which contains great numbers of trout. I never 
took one there that weighed over a pound, and they are 
not particularly gamy, although they come to the fly with 
the greatest avidity. Now, if you take a dozen of the fish 
at one end of the pond you will find that all of them are 
bright and handsomely colored, while an equal number 
caught at the other end will be of a dirty gray color, their 
backs and the upper portions of their sides being almost 
black. Why these fish should differ so in one not very 
large pond we can only conjecture, but the fact is there 
beyond dispute. 
A friend who was on one occasion fishing with me 
there, suggested that a certain number of the trout 
schooled by themselves in given localities, and that their 
coloration was affected by certain vegetable growths or 
by pigments absorbed by mineral deposits. That theory 
may be correct, but why all the trout did not absorb that 
pigment is a puzzle. Edward A. Samuels. 
John Haney and the Man from 
Creede. 
Denver, Colo., July 9.— The past week has been a dis- 
appointing . one for the angler. Too much rain ; the 
streams are far and away too high and muddy. There 
are a few notable exceptions, among them the catch of 
young Oscar Brinker in Platte Canon. He displayed a 
beautiful German trout of 6 pounds which he killed with 
that best of all flies for Colorado waters — the royal-coach- 
man. Captain Jack Harris, whose name carries with it 
the aroma of borderland days, comes up from Dallas, 
Texas, once a year and angles along the cool and inviting 
places of the Platte. Friday his industry was rewarded 
by a catch of five, whose total weight placed him pretty 
close to the limit for a day — 25 pounds. 
A. B. Mauff, a Denver alderman, and John E. Willard, 
a railroad man, therefore beyond cavil on the score of 
veracity, tell me the following. I can readily believe it, 
since some years ago, on Jackson River, Virginia, I suc- 
cessfully landed a full-grown mallard by means of a 
back cast, after an exciting fight of several minutes, in 
which a brindle dog and an irate farmer figured largely. 
"Jacob Housman was casting for trout in the Gunnison 
on July 4 at Tola.- - It was late in the afternoon — dusk, in 
fact, was falling- fast, and the ubiquitous bullbat or night- 
hawk was swirling and swooping up and down in search 
of winged prey. Mr. Housman almost jerked his arm out 
of socket just as he had completed a back cast and started 
to cast again. Recovering himself he was surprised to 
see his tackle go soaring into the air straight in the wake 
of a bullbat. He yelled for assistance and carefully played 
his catch until it was finally landed. The strange part of 
the tale is that the bat had been hooked in the mouth, 
showing that the catch had apparently not been an acci- 
dent, but was due to design of the feathered quarry, who 
had deliberately taken the fluttering bit of feather." In 
the case of my duck in Virginia, the hook, had accident- 
ally whipped into the under part of its neck.: 
One of my correspondents at Bailey, in Platte Canon, 
who is far better grounded in common sense than . 
orthography, sends me the following: 
"Yours of 24th inst at Hand. I hav not bin in Bailey 
mutch this seeson, but was tryin my luck at fishin a cup- 
pie of times. 1st time, in one and one-half hurs, my 
catche was 20 trout, weight 11^2 pounds, largest 2 
pounds; second' catch, y 2 hour, 7 trout, largest 2^ 
pounds. 
"I think there is good fishin in this cannon, but the; 
fishermen must not go & look to see if the fish is there 
before he cast his Hook well bated, and not keept his -rod 
on the fly all the time, but keept out of sight, as our trout 
has no eyebrows and can see up." 
It might be well for many of those who have not 
studied the habits of the wary speckled ones to. bear this 
physical imperfection in mind when approaching likeLy 
pools. ... . .. - „, 
Reports from the Big Laramie in. Wyoming are ; encpur- 
