FOREST AND STREAM 
110 
place of the big brook trout. On the contrary, 
the Rainbow fights it out in the deep pools of 
heavy running water where there is a swift rap¬ 
id followed by a pool of good heavy water either 
at the foot or the head of this pool—most always 
at the foot of it—I have found the Rainbow to 
lurk. It is surprising upon what a small fly you 
will get them. No. 8 and No. io sneck hooks 
are the sizes that I find will fetch up these finicky 
fellows when larger flies will not tempt them, 
while along in May the Whirling Dun, Cahill, 
Trucky Spinners or Mershon with a white body 
—all these small sized flies are my main reliance. 
The Rainbow trout’s mouth is tough and when 
once hooked, rarely does the fly pull out. It 
will break your light tackle but the fly will stick 
far better than in the brook trout. The char¬ 
acteristic of the Rainbow is first to make a ter¬ 
rific race and then leap into the alir. One knows 
instantly that he has struck the Rainbow in¬ 
stead of the brook trout by this instantaneous 
dash, taking out yards of line and immediately a 
leaping fish gives one the sensation of really hav¬ 
ing hold of a fighter. Ordinarily at this time of 
the year and in daylight we do not get big Rain¬ 
bows on the fly. 
“Unless they are well over ten inches I al¬ 
ways put them back for an eight or ten inch 
Rainbow trout is not a good pan fish. The larger 
fellows weighing i% and 2 pounds to 3 pounds 
and upward are very good. I have had them 
cooked so that they reminded me much of the 
striped bass of salt water when planked or nicely 
broiled. Twelve, fourteen and sixteen inches in 
length is about the limit of our expectations or. 
such fish as I have described. A little later in 
the season fishing after dark with large flies— 
A 
Wherein is Shown 
By invitation of Commissioner W. K. Mollon 
of Bridgeport, president of the Board of Fish 
and Game Commission, forty sportsmen from 
Danbury, Bridgeport, Long Hill, Norwalk. 
Trumbull, Branford, Newtown and Milford 
made a tour of inspection of the farm at Madison. 
If every sportsman in the state could visit the 
farm they would be pleased with the work the 
new commission is doing. No mistake was made 
putting John M. Crampton in as superintendent 
Under his management this is one of the best 
game farms in the country. The old commission 
purchased the farm two years ago when E. Hart 
Geer was secretary of the commission. When 
Mr. Crampton took hold of it last October there 
was 450 birds on the farm. Now he has over 
2,000 breeding birds, mostly pheasants. It is ex¬ 
pected 8,000 young pheasants will !be liberated 
this fall. The farm consists of 65 acres. Mr. 
Crampton says, if he carries out his plans for 
the future, he will want 100 acres. 
All were impressed with the neat and well kept 
appearance of the buildings. Frank Hopkins, the 
keeper, is thoroughly familiar with the work of 
caring for the army of 10,000 birds now har¬ 
bored at the farm, all of which are in a healthy 
and well fed condition. 
The party was escorted about the farm by Mr, 
Mollon, Mr. Crampton and Keeper Hopkins, all 
No. 4 or even bigger, I understand many big 
ones are taken. Especially is this true of the 
main Au Sable or the Pere Marquette. On the 
latter stream, Grand Rapids fishermen have 
learned how to string a Minnow on the hook 
and let it float down into one of the big pools 
and get the big fellows, 4, 5 or 6 pounds or more, 
and many of the stories that they tell of the 
broken tackle and how rarely do they succeed 
in saving them as they are powerful, active, fight¬ 
ing fish, in fact, the best fighter of any fish we 
have in Michigan.” 
So much for Michigan. Will the Rainbow 
keep on propagating himself until Michigan trout 
streams become mere spawning beds for this 
Pacific Coast visitor in his new environment, or 
has he achieved his natural maximum population 
limit? Let it be remembered that all the water 
drained into the Great Lakes does not come 
from Michigan streams. Will the Rainbow in 
migration work up into every stream emptying 
into that magnificent reservoir, the greatest body 
of fresh water in the world—-the whole Great 
Lake system? 
This is speculation purely, but viewing the 
matter in a reasonable light, will the Rainbow 
ever become a commercial fish like the lake trout 
once was, but now is not, owing to the greed and 
short-sightedness of men who neted Sahelinus 
namycushf The laker spawns in his own natu¬ 
ral environment, coming up to rocky shores and 
shallow water every fall, whereas the Rainbow 
follows his true salmon instinct and runs up 
fresh water streams almost to the very source. 
The serious-minded reader can study the prob¬ 
lem and come to his own conclusion. To the 
the Excellent Work Being Done in 
By E n N. Bailey. 
of whom displayed the keenest interest in the af¬ 
fairs and conduct of the place. The first place 
visited was the cellar of the main structure, 
where the pheasants’ eggs are kept in racks until 
set under the hens. Here also are kept the hens’ 
eggs on which the young birds are fed. 
The place which the sportsmen inspected next 
was the poultry yards, where they have several 
hundred hens which they use for hatching the 
pheasants; they also have them for the eggs. 
This covers a large tract of the farm. 
In hatching the quail, Mr. Hopkins uses ban¬ 
tams, and Mr. Crampton showed the party some 
Chinese Silkies which he says cost $5 a pair to 
hatch the quail, as they make the best mothers 
obtainable. 
The next place we were shown was the breed¬ 
ing pen of pheasants which covered over an acre 
of ground entirely covered over with wire to 
prevent the birds from escaping. It reminded 
one of a soldier camp, as there were rows of 
cedars placed in tent shape all over the enclos¬ 
ure to give the birds a place to hide and a shel¬ 
ter from the sun. There were about 500 pheas¬ 
ants in here and it was a beautiful sight to see 
so many. The gay plumage of the cocks made 
a picture hard to forget. The young pheasants 
are kept on a field of twenty acres, where there 
are 500 pens arranged in lanes all the way across 
average angler, the news will be cheering that 
he has nearer home than imagined an oppor¬ 
tunity to pursue one of the wildest fighting fish 
that America produces and one which seemingly 
is able to hold his own against all comers. 
The Rainbow is in every sense of the word, 
a true game fish. He needs pure water, for he 
is not of the carp family by disposition or specie. 
Civilization can kill him off as effectually as it 
has destroyed the Atlantic salmon in waters 
where once they came in multitudes. The pollu¬ 
tion of the streams is as fatal to him as to the 
brook trout; artificial dams he cannot leap spell 
death to him, and the future supply. 
Michigan will do well to think twice before 
taking the law off the Rainbow and putting him 
into the commercial list. As an anglipg proposi¬ 
tion, he is a delight, but the spectacle of violators 
of the law standing at the foot of difficult dams 
and rapids, yanking out this magnificent fish by 
means of a heavy-weighted line, strung with bare 
hooks and thrown into the middle of a pool and 
then dragged shoreward a la grappling hook, is 
not a pleasant one to contemplate, nor does it 
assure the future of the Rainbow. 
Getting fish for food is one thing, but making 
food for fish by killing or crippling a dozen to 
capture one is another proposition. Michigan 
has a good fish commission, ably officered, and 
the instance cited above is not common. 
As a sporting proposition, the Rainbow in the 
east has c'ome to stay. May his presence be a 
symbol of hope for the future anglers as the 
glorious arch that spans the heavens after a storm 
is also regarded as a promise and inspiration by 
man! 
Game Propagation 
the field. One hen is placed in each pen and each 
hen is given a family of from fifteen to seven¬ 
teen young pheasants to nurse into full-fledged 
birds. The grass inside the field is alive with the 
young birds and the party had to be careful not 
to step on them as they went through the field. 
Some of the older ones would fly a short way 
when approached too close. 
At frequent intervals inside this field are 
placed toll poles nine or ten feet high, on which 
are located small steel traps. It is the tendency 
of the marauding hawk to alight on a pole when 
on a depredation in order that it may better sur¬ 
vey his prospective prey. When he alights on 
one of these in the pheasant colony, he is pin¬ 
ioned by a trap, where he is held until human 
agency sends him to another existence. As an 
added precaution against depredations by hawks, 
foxes or mayhap humans, an armed watchman 
paces the boundaries of the field night and day, 
besides one of the ugliest yellow curs you ever 
saw. Snakes do a lot of damage also. A milk 
snake got into one of the coops the other da> 
and killed eight of the young pheasants. They 
set traps in piles of sawdust for foxes with 
carron meat in. When they dig around for the 
meat the trap holds them until the keeper kills 
them. 
Mr. Hopkins had the birds charmed, as he 
Visit to the Connecticut Game Farm at Madison 
