THE PROPAGATION OF TROUT. 351 
the speckled beauties, hand over hand, and often carry them off by back 
loads. In this way they sometimes take some that weigh four pounds 
each. The most ordinary pupil of old Isaak can take them in the even- 
ing, when in the mood of rising, with the right miller, and with a small 
piece of angle-worm on the point of the hook, to induce them to hold on 
to the hook till the novice can make his twitch to hook them. But in 
the day time none can succeed but the expert. The water is so clear 
and they are so shy and so well educated, that it requires a 50- or 60- 
foot line, a fine 10 foot leader, and very small flies, or hackles, and those 
must be cast upon the water so gently and life-like, to induce them to 
rise and take the fly, and when they do take it they discover the decep- 
tion, and spit it out so quick that but very few are ever able to so cast 
the fly and to jerk quick enough as to hook them. The fishermen among 
the oldest inhabitants tell me that at the least calculation there are 4,000 
pounds of trout taken from the creek yearly, and yet they compute the 
number of trout now at 1,000 to each rod of the stream, or 320,000 in 
the creek, of all sizes, from lour or five pounds down to five inches in 
length. On the 18th of this month I took 110 fine trout in about three 
hours, with the fly, from the creek, and put them into one of Mr. Green's 
ponds. The day was bright, and the water so clear and transparent that 
T had to fish with a 60-foot line, which took the most of the time to get 
the line out to this length and to reel in the trout against the strong 
current after being hooked. 
The next day I took eighty-five splendid fellows from one 
place, hardly moving from my tract. These facts show how 
plenty they were, and how ready they are to take the fly in winter. 
These trout were as fat, active and gamey as ever I saw them in any 
other stream in May or June. 
Seth Green, Esq., the celebrated marksman and fly-thrower of 
Kochester, bought this creek a year ago last Fall, for the purpose of 
growing trout artificially as well as naturally on an extensive scale. He 
has since prepared ponds, races, hatching-house and hatching-boxes and 
troughs for 3,000,000 of spawn, which he expects to fill during the 
spawming season, which is, with him, from the 1st of November to the 
1st of April. Last winter his two best months for spawn were January 
and February, and he expects they will be this year. 
He has one pond, only 75 feet long, 12 feet wide and 5 feet deep, which 
has 9,000 trout in it from 9 inches to 20 inches long, that will weigh 
from a quarter of a pound to three pounds each, as fat as seals and 
as beautiful as trout can possibly be, all caught with the fly by his own 
hand, since he bought the creek, and all can be seen now, any day, at 
one view, by any person who will take the trouble to call upon him 
Only think what a sight — 9,000 such trout all in the eye at once. What 
a gigantic and magnificent aquarium ! 
I am certain that this is the largest and finest exhibition of trout in 
America, and, probably in the whole world. This alone would well 
o 
