842 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 9, 1911. 
The Landlocked Steelhead Trout. 
Tuxedo Park, N. Y., Dec. 2. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: For the sporting club, private pre¬ 
serve or hotel men’s association having lakes fed 
by streams of considerable volume, no better 
fish can be selected for propagation than the 
steelhead of the Pacific coast. This fish land- 
locks readily into Eastern waters, makes a rapid 
growth with suitable food, is a bold and fear¬ 
less biter, taking the fly or spoon with a vicious¬ 
ness second to none, and fights long and hard, 
testing the ability of the angler by every con¬ 
ceivable tactic known to the finny tribe before 
allowing itself to be netted. 
While this trout grows on the coast to a 
weight of twenty-five or thirty pounds, the land¬ 
locked variety—unless in lakes like Michigan or 
Superior—seldom exceeds the five-pound mark, 
and in our Eastern lakes and smaller streams 
would probably not average more than a couple 
of pounds. But to the angler accustomed to 
carrying a rule, or having a six-inch mark on 
his rod butt, a two-pounder is a veritable 
monster. 
. In structure, habits and general appearance, 
the steelhead is very closely related to the rain¬ 
bow trout, and is distinguishable only by its 
more silvery coat, smaller and more numerous 
spots and more elongate form. During the 
breeding season it has the same conspicuous 
crimson band down the side, and is a spring 
spawner, although somewhat later than the rain¬ 
bow. This spring spawning is what makes this 
fish a less expensive one to handle for the small 
club, summer colony or preserve that is closed 
up during the winter, as spawn can be col¬ 
lected late in April and the trout planted as 
fingerlings in the fall, while with brook or 
lake trout the hatchery would have to be in 
operation the entire year. Although many of 
the mature fish would not be in the best of con¬ 
dition when the spring fishing opened, there are 
always plenty of the silvery coated ones—fish 
not sexually mature and ones that have spawned 
last year—to be taken, and all are in the best 
of condition by midsummer. 
The spawning fish ascend the streams shortly 
after the ice breaks up in the spring, and drop 
back shortly after finishing reproduction, but 
a month or so later they make a second run to¬ 
gether with the silver colored ones, and remain 
in the streams all summer if there is sufficient 
water, dropping back on a lowering temperature 
in the autumn. 
They take the trolling spoon very freely early 
in the spring in the lakes, but it is in the rush¬ 
ing currents of the streams that this fish is at 
its best, and here the fly-fishermen will find a 
worthy adversary that will rise almost greedily 
under the most unfavorable weather conditions. 
As it is one of the most nervous of all the trout 
family, its capture is characterized by frequent 
leaps and mad eccentric rushes, and its many 
original and entirely unlooked for moves will 
keep the angler on the jump from the time it 
is hooked until safely within the creel. 
I have handled this fish continuously for 
twelve years, domesticating it through four gen¬ 
erations, and have found it to take more kindly 
to artificial propagation than even the native 
brook trout, and with far greater results than 
any of the other introduced species. It is par¬ 
ticularly free from most of the parasitic troubles 
that continually harass the fish culturist, and 
on account of the extreme thickness of the 
body slime, is less susceptible to attacks of 
fungus than most of the species usually handled. 
A hatchery and pools for the propagation of 
this trout could be constructed at a slight ex¬ 
pense. Two standard sized hatching troughs 
would comfortably carry 100,000 eggs through 
the short incubation period, and as the weather 
is warm and well settled by the time they hatch, 
it is better to put them right out into the nursery 
races as soon as they have completed hatching. 
I have found they do better than to hold them 
in the troughs until the sac is absorbed. 
These nursery races will be all that is neces¬ 
sary to carry them until planted in the fall if 
the races are built about fifteen feet in length 
and three feet wide. They make their best 
growth in water of a temperature of 60 degrees, 
and after the sac is absorbed and they begin 
heading up in the current, hardly too much water 
can be turned on to suit them. I shall be only 
too glad to go more into the detail of their 
propagation with any reader of Forest and 
Stream, and I am sure any angler who has taken 
this fish, especially in streams, will agree with 
me that for gameness and edible qualities the 
steelhead trout is unsurpassed. W. M. Keil. 
Why Not Eat Dogfish? 
Salt water commercial fishermen have been 
complaining of the ravages of the dogfish for lo 
these many • years, and for many years it has 
been replied that one way to get rid of dogfish 
was to catch, kill and cure them, since there 
probably is now, as there used to be, a market 
for dried dogfish. A writer in the London Fish 
Trades Gazette declared that half a century ago 
fisherwomen on the coast of Scotland used to 
cure dogfish for home consumption. They were 
dressed and dried according to the following 
method: 
The fish were first headed and then split down 
the back, commencing at the shoulders of the 
fish and keeping the knife running close along 
the upper side of the backbone, half of which 
might afterward be removed in the case of a 
large fish, as in cod curing. The offal was re¬ 
moved and the fish were well washed in clean 
sea water, after which they were spread out to 
dry upon the rocks or beaches, as near the sea 
as possible. Frequent turning was necessary, 
especially the first day. As no salt was used in 
curing, special weather conditions had to be 
chosen. What was wanted was dry, breezy 
weather, preferably with sea winds. The fish 
had to be taken indoors before there was any 
risk of dew falling on them in the evening. 
With a few days of suitable weather, however, 
a nice, palatable article was produced, rivaling 
sweet salted cod or haddock. They were gen¬ 
erally roasted on a brander over a clear fire, 
some people preferring to give them in addition 
a hasty scalding in boiling water. 
It is almost unnecessary to say that fish cured 
in this way could not be regarded as a safe 
article to store for any length of time or to 
send abroad. From twenty-four to forty-eight 
hours in pickle, according to the length of time 
they were likely to be kept in store, or the 
climate of the country to which they were likely 
to be exported, would be required before dry¬ 
ing if the fish were to be kept for any length 
of time, but pickling or salting, in the opinion 
of many people, detracts from the flavor of the 
dogfish or ray. 
Tribute to Anglers’ Patience. 
The fisheries of Frankfort-on-the-Oder pos¬ 
sessed from the most ancient times the right of 
fishing in the Oder, in the stretch of river from 
Fiirstenberg to Garz. On Oct. 4, 1510, Joachim 
I., Elector of Brandenburg, gave the Bishop of 
Lebus the privilege that his subjects alone should 
have the right of fishing in the length and breadth 
of the Oder from the Frankfort-Lebus boundary 
to the Gortz-Custrin boundary. But the Frank¬ 
fort fishers refused to recognize the right of the 
Lebus fishers to fish in the “free Oder stream.” 
The Fishing Gazette says the dispute culminated 
in an action at law in 1511, brought by the 
Frankforters against the Lebusers; the first de¬ 
cision in the case was arrived at 186 years later, 
on June 24, 1697, and was in favor of the de¬ 
fendants. This decision was appealed against, 
and the case went on through the centuries down 
to this year, 1911, when it was at last finally set¬ 
tled in the Supreme Court of the German Em¬ 
pire and again in favor of the fishers of Lebus. 
The 1912 Sportsmen’s Show. 
The second annual international trapshooting 
tournament and sportsmen’s exhibition will open 
Saturday, March 2, and close Saturday night, 
March 9, at the Sixty-ninth Regiment Armory, 
Lexington avenue, Twenty-fifth and Twenty- 
sixth streets, New York city. The Sportsmen’s 
Show offices are at No. 339 Fifth avenue, where 
Stephen M. VanAllen and William J. Poth, its 
managers, are busy with plans which will make 
the 1912 show memorable for its scenic and 
spectacular attractions and ceaseless action. Be¬ 
sides the showing of the latest novelties and fads 
in guns, and ammunition, fishing tackle and arti¬ 
ficial bait, tents, canoes and every kind of 
sportsmen’s equipment through the trade ex¬ 
hibits made by leading American and foreign 
manufacturers and dealers, there will be trap¬ 
shooting and fancy rifle and shotgun shoot¬ 
ing by famous shots, including Annie Oakley, 
who was a popular star of last year’s exhibition. 
The anglers will have full scope for their fly- 
and bait-casting contests. 
A Clock for Timing Casting Competitions. 
Dr. Arthur Cox, of Sydney, has designed a 
useful and ingenious clock for the use of the 
timekeepers of the New South Wales Anglers’ 
Casting Club. When a competitor has five 
minutes allowed [dm on the casting punt, the 
clock automatically records the time and rings 
an alarm bell at its conclusion.—Anglers’ News. 
