188 
THE FISHING GAZETTE 
[Makch 18, 1893 
HOW TO BREED AND REAR TROUT. 
{Gonlinued from page 493.) 
By T. Andrews, Guildford. 
TENTH PAPER. 
A'ery much more than could he condensed in 
these papers remains to be said concerning the 
rearing of fry to yearlings, and I also think we 
have much more to learn respecting this branch 
of fish culture. If it were possible to practice 
all the year round with successions of fry just 
corning to feeding point, perhaps the question 
would be more satisfactorily settled; but we can 
only get a short time each season to experiment 
in the matter of feeding young trout. I mean, of 
course, very young trout, viz., those having just 
absorbed the umbilical sac, and this is a matter 
which entails many years of practical experience. 
The following amusing letter, written by Mr. 
Fred Mather, was published in the twentieth 
annual report of the American Commissioners of 
Fisheries, 1892, p. 64. In writing to a friend 
who enquired of him concerning the rearing of 
fry, he says :— 
“ Dear Sir,—In your letter of September 21st, 
you propose to build a tank and feed your fry, 
and ask me about the proportions of it. I will 
echo the advice of Punch to those about to get 
married, ‘ Don’t.’ The feeding and rearing of 
trout fry is a most delicate thing, and what is 
known of it by the few successful fish culturists 
has been acquired at great loss of time, fry, and 
money, and can no more be told in a letter than 
I can tell you how to play on a musical instru¬ 
ment. 
“ Thousands of people try this every year, 
men who would not attempt to run a farm, a 
bank, or a hotel without previous experience, 
yet they seem to think that fish culture may be 
undertaken without any special knowledge of it, 
or of training in it. 
“ This error is not confined to private indivi¬ 
duals or clubs, but extends even to men who 
have a theoretical knowledge of fish culture, 
gained by reading everything that has been 
published on the subject; and its literature is 
voluminous. 
‘•My advice is, ‘Don’t.’ But if you do, please 
keep an account of the fry put in; the dead 
taken out during the first three or four months, 
say to June I5th; and then, when you weaken, 
and think of turning the remainder out to shift 
for themselves, again I say, ‘ Don’t.’ What you 
will have left will be only the ‘ tough cusse.s,’ 
which, like myself, have withstood the horrors 
of prison life, where a simple bowel comp'aint 
meant death, and you will be sure to kill your 
fry from some cause that I cannot foresee. I 
regard my profession as akin to that of law or 
medicine, only to be learned by study, and I 
cannot tell ycu all I know on a sheet of paper, 
only this—do not attempt to feed your fry or 
you will be sorry. We can beat Nature in fer¬ 
tilising fish eggs and in hatching healthy fry, 
but our food is strange, and we cannot beat 
her in feeding. I do not believe that the best 
fish culturists, men who have learned their 
business by years of patient toil and failures, 
and who could be easily numbered, can profitably 
raise trout to be yearlings for planting, and I 
have been at it nearly a quarter of a century, 
and so have a few others.” 
Now, with the greatest deference to such an 
authority as this, and agreeing that in point of 
numbers fry can be turned out at very much less 
cost, I am quite sure that some trout breeders 
in this country raise yearlings profitably, and I 
can name four or five men in Great Britain 
whose accounts will show a margin of profit, even 
though it be small, on the yearling growing. In 
this country persons who own or rent trout water 
require sport in the shortest possible time, and 
are willing to pay a good price for good yearlings 
and two-year-old fish for that object. It most 
certainly is a very considerable item in the cost 
of construction of a fish breeder’s establishment, 
this making of rearing ponds and feeding the 
fish, and I do not mean to say that any British 
fish c’ulturist has made any considerable amount 
of money over it. 
As to the advantages of planting yearlings, I 
do not think any one will doubt that it is gene¬ 
rally wiser to place 100 yearlings in a stream 
than 10,000 or even 50,000 fry, for the simple 
reason that most of our streams considered 
suitable for trout have already a few fish in them, 
and the loss from cannibalism will naturally be 
less when larger fish are introduced. It is 
simply a question of cost in production and value 
to the purchaser, and persons who can afford the 
time to “go a-fishing” can generally afford to 
spend something annually on stocking, and to 
keep up the fishery it is almost always found 
necessary to do so. 
At all events, at the present time the principal 
trout breeders in this country have such a 
demand for their yearlings and two-year-old fish, 
that they are increasing their rearing grounds 
as quickly as possible, and the man who rears 
most yearlings will make most money. I will 
readily grant that if a fish breeder’s ponds 
are in some remote, out of the way place, 
many miles from a railway station, and far away 
from the centres of angling, the risk of loss in 
removing the fish, and the expense attending it, 
are very heavy, leaving scarcely any margin as 
profit. 
I look at trout culture in two ways—Does it 
“ pay ” from a money point of view ? and does 
it “pay” as materially increasing the number of 
trout in our rivers and lakes, so that there is a 
probability of affording more sport to the fly- 
fisher? There cannot be a doubt that trout 
fishing is becoming more and more popular 
every year, nor can there be any aoubt that the 
facilities for indulging in it are greater, although 
perhaps it is getting rather expensive, and trout 
are now to be found in places where they were 
never seen before fisb culture came into operation, 
and where it was supposed they could not exist. 
I believe there have been very many more trout 
caught in the river Thames, and with the “ fiy,” 
too, since artificially fed fish have been turned in. 
There always have been a few large fish caught 
every season, but from what I have seen in print 
lately I do not think I am wrong in saying that 
there have been many times the number of good 
fish taken from the Thames since the intro¬ 
duction of good-sized two and three-year-old 
trout—but to attempt to stock the Thames with 
fry is extreme folly. What excellent sport has 
been obtained up to the present time on Lake 
Vyrnwy, the new reservoir for Liverpool, which 
has been stocked exclusively, I believe, with 
artificially bred fisb, and as it was supposed to 
contain but few, if any trout, it was stocked with 
fry only. What might not have been done with 
one splendid section of the River Test, whose 
capacity for holding trout has in my opinion 
never been fairly tested (excuse the joke) ? I 
have walked up the river and seen but a dozen 
fish where there should have been hundreds—No 
wonder they were a Utile shy. Why every fish 
must have been kept in a constant state of 
nervousness and watchfulness, and must almost 
haveknownthe names of the fishermen,if notof the 
artist who had dressed the flies ! No wonder they 
“ bulged ” and “ shrimped,” and fed on larv® with 
their noses down and tails up, and declined to 
feed on the surface ; and small blame to them for 
refusing to have anything to do with food at all, 
when past experience may have taught them that 
it was not safe as long as a man was in sight. 
Partridges get somewhat wild af er being shot 
at a few times, why should not trout possess that 
same instinct of self-preservation which is so 
strong in all of us, and observe in their own 
language (whatever that maj^ be) that it “ won’t 
do to feed on anything at all, so long as those 
men are looking at us.” “ No, we must dine very 
late this evening, after those people have given 
up fishing, being too dark for their dull eyes; 
then, when the coast is all clear, we will use our 
eyes to some purpose, and that purpose shall be to 
fill our stomachs while they are in bed and asleep, 
for they will be at us again to-morrow morning ! 
“ When the sun first appears in the sky, 
And illumines the depth of the T . . . ,’ &e., &o.” 
There is an excellent story told by an old Test 
keeper, which I heard whilst grayling fishing last 
autumn. He says a man was standing one day on 
the bridge over a grand shallow, and a trout put 
his head up and asked him if there was any nearer 
way up to Stockbridge. ‘' Why?” said the man. 
“ Because it ain’t safe for to travel up this way, 
the blooming river is so full of fish-hooks,” replied 
the fish. 
Now “trout culture” comes to nothing after 
all unless yearlings can be raised in numbers 
sufficient to warrant the time and money spent 
over the hatchery and ponds, and this will apply 
as forcibly to the operations of an amateur, as to 
the more extensive and costly establishment of 
a professional trout breeder. 
I have said that amateurs will find an immense 
amount of amusement and most interesting occu¬ 
pation in endeavouring to rear their ovn fry, 
but I also said (in other words) that they must 
often be content to get a few hundred fry out of 
a few thousand eggs, and a few dozen yearlings 
out of their fry. It has often occurred that a 
very respectable number of yearlings has been 
raised; and I can give several instances of 
amateurs having a rearing pond or two, and 
raising a sufficient number of yearling fish for 
their wants, continuing their experiment year 
after year; but taking into consideration the 
cost of construction of the ponds, and the time 
required attending to the hatchery and feeding 
the young fish, I am disposed to think that from 
a money point of view, most amateurs would be 
able to buy their stock fish at far less cost. All 
depends on the character of the water, the care 
bestowed in hatching and feeding, and the suit¬ 
ability of the rearing ground. If a place can be 
found where the “ fall ” is sufficient, and where 
the water is of a suitable quality and sufficient in 
quantity, there appears to me no reason why 
they should not rear a fair number of fry to 
yearlings, and so keep up their stock of store 
fish; but—here comes the point—as a rule, 
amateurs’ ponds are so badly constructed that 
there is a probability of their runniug dry from 
insecure building, or the water supply fails ; or 
the levels are so incorrect that the pond cannot 
be drained off so as to ensure the removal of 
every yearling fish. Then again, they are not 
always careful that no fish-eating birds can get 
at their fish. Then comes the feeding question, 
for fed the young fish must be, either artificially 
or else by the cultivation of natural food, and 
this again involves considerable time in col¬ 
lecting, and some knowledge as to where it is to 
be found and how to move it, and so, from one 
cause or another, after a year or two of anxious 
work and considerable expense, they decide that 
they will no longer continue to hatch their own 
ova or rear the fry. 
I do not presume to teach my old friends, the 
experienced trout breeders of this country, but 
for the benefit and instruction of amateurs and 
novices these papers are written, and if I can 
explain the ways and means to ensure some sorb 
of success I shall be only too glad. 
I will now give some of my experience with 
regard to the natural food of trout, and I firmly 
believe that we shall all rear more yearling fish, 
and these of a larger size, when we provide the 
natural food of trout in greater quantities, and 
to this end I am aiming by the construction of 
rearing grounds for the insects. 
The chief natural food of trout consists of 
Gammarus pulex, Limnos, the larvm of all aquatic 
insects, and the perfect fly. I will take first the 
insect which, in my opinion, is the most valuable 
as flesh-making food, viz., the Gammarus pulex, 
Gammarus Pulex. 
or fresh-water shrimp. This insect is not found 
in all fresh water, and will not exist in some, 
even when introduced; but where there is much 
vegetation, particularly “ water-cress,” or “ star- 
wort,” and a plentiful supply of water, it generally 
thrives, and it can be transported either in water 
or in damp weed without any great difficulty. In 
moving this, as well as any other insects, there 
must be no crowding, and metal or earthenware 
vessels should be used, or they will find their way 
out of the bottom ; therefore, hampers or baskets 
must not be used. The “ Gammari ” breed freely, 
and I have seen them in pairs at all seasons; but 
the early spring is their principal breeding time. 
1 have never found more than about forty young 
shrimps to one female, although I have examined 
and taken the young away from very many. 
The young shrimp is carried about by the 
female in the folds of the swimmerets, in nearly 
