820 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[May 22, 1909. 
Trout Culture. 
Estes Park, Colo., May 14 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: In your issue of April 24 you pub¬ 
lished an article written by August Lauth on 
“Water Supply for Trout Hatching” in which 
I was very much interested, and yet Mr. Lauth’s 
views and mine will differ greatly in many re¬ 
spects. 
We will agree on the point that it requires 
water to hatch and raise trout; also that the 
water has to be charged with oxygen, for that 
is the life of the fish, but if I was to build or 
advise the building of a hatchery, I should surely 
advise the use of spring water at a temperature 
as near to 46 degrees in coldness as I could get 
it. I should by all means have the water so 
protected from the atmosphere that its changes 
would not affect the water as flowed to the 
hatchery, and I should use artificial aeration to 
impregnate the water with oxygen. 
It stands to reason that the more regular the 
temperature stands the better results you will 
have in your hatchery and also in the rearing 
of the fish. Spring water will not vary over one 
degree in temperature the year round, and for 
this reason you can operate your hatchery the 
entire year. If you have to depend on the 
atmosphere for the temperature, it will in the 
winter season fall below the freezing point, and 
then agdin in the summer months it will rise to 
where you cannot operate the hatchery and have 
any results with your fish, for either extreme 
will give sickly fish, and j sudden change either 
way in the temperature will cause trouble in the 
hatchery, and your fish will hatch head first, 
which is contrary to nature, and they will die of 
strangulation. 
Mr. Lauth states that “a fall of from ten to 
fifteen degrees in the temperature for the winter 
hatching of the brook trout will help the develop¬ 
ment of the eggs in hatching.” I do not know 
from what point he figures, but eggs placed in 
water at a temperature of 45 degrees will re¬ 
quire sixty-five days to hatch out. It will then 
take them fifty-five days to pass through the 
absorption stage, or 115 days from the time the 
eggs were placed in the hatching trough, and 
each degree of coldness of the water will hold 
them back ten days in hatching, so that a change 
of ten degrees would make a difference of 100 
days, or a sum total of 165 days in the hatch¬ 
ing, and in that case it would give you weakly 
fish when hatched out. 
The water that I am using stands at 46 de¬ 
grees taken right from a spring to the hatchery 
and aerated in the hatchery. I have the river 
water also, and if I want to hold back the hatch¬ 
ing I add a little of the river water and lower 
the temperature a couple of degrees, yet I have 
it where I can control it at my will, and for the 
benefit of the eggs hatching. 
The State of Colorado has eight different 
hatcheries, but four of them have been aban¬ 
doned as winter hatcheries for the reason that 
they have to depend on the atmosphere for the 
temperature. They are used in the spring and 
early in the summer, but when the water be¬ 
comes warm they have to place the fish in the 
streams even if they are in the absorption stage. 
After the eggs have reached the stage of eye¬ 
ing they can then be packed in moss and iced 
up, the temperature lowered gradually and the 
eggs kept in that stage. They can then be ship¬ 
ped. It is in this stage that the government does 
all of its shipping, but the temperature is kept 
regular and not permitted to rise. 
G. H. Thomson. 
The Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective 
Association is prepared to fill orders for finger- 
ling trout for delivery next October for the 
nominal price of $8 a thousand, delivered at 
the express office in Plymouth, in lots of 1,000 
or more. The State commission can raise finger- 
lings in only one of its four hatcheries, the one 
in Sutton, and it can furnish less than one-half 
the number called for. During the last three 
years the sportsmen of the State have procured 
through the State association for planting in 
Massachusetts streams 124,000 fingerlings, thus 
in some degree supplementing the work done by 
the State. But the combined efforts of the com¬ 
mission and the sportsmen have not furnished 
more than one-fourth the number of trout the 
streams require to meet the wants of the ever- 
increasing host of trout fishermen in Massachu¬ 
setts. The number of fingerling and adult trout 
supplied to the sportsmen of the State and to 
some other New England States by the National 
Bureau of Fisheries is as follows: Vermont re¬ 
ceived 167,500 fingerling and adult trout in 1908; 
New Hampshire, 23,780; Massachusetts, 8,900. 
Those desiring fingerlings for fall planting 
should send their orders at once to the Massa¬ 
chusetts Fish and Game Protective Association, 
H. H. Kimball, Secretary, Room 748, Tremont 
Building, Boston. 
Tournament Casting. 
Chicago, Ill., May 14.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Forest and Stream has been very in¬ 
teresting to me with its letters from tournament 
casters in regard to professionalism. It seems 
there are some who want to keep the sport 
strictly amateur, barriflg the few that come 
under a certain classification. I have yet to see 
a reason that appeals to me just why such a 
course should be followed out. Before barring 
or admitting any class to open competition, the 
question of their benefiting or hurting the cast¬ 
ing game should be carefully considered. It is 
yet to be demonstrated just where the profes¬ 
sional will hurt casting, and I think it is very 
apparent where the professional would be of 
great help; in fact, I believe nothing but good 
will result in admitting the professional on equal 
footing. 
It is the professional’s enthusiasm and liking 
for things piscatorial that brought about the 
conditions that now bar him according to the 
present rulings. I do not think there is one 
professional in ten that made himself a pro¬ 
fessional for mercenary consideration alone. His 
liking and inclination toward better tackle, better 
fish and game laws and better all around condi¬ 
tions was his first step toward professionalism. 
If this led him into making some rod, bait or 
reel, he now finds himself barred from the very 
sport that he has done so much to make popular. 
The professional has done a great deal more 
to help the game than the average amateur, and 
it was not done for the money there might be 
in it for him, either. 
You rnay differ with me? Think it over. Say 
the professional under consideration is a manu¬ 
facturer of reels. That there is not a tourna¬ 
ment bait reel made in this country to-day alone 
answers that.* The so-called “special club reels” 
are by no means a park reel, but are “fishing” 
monstrosities. How is the reel manufacturer 
going to pay expenses if he sends a representa¬ 
tive to the tournaments, as the gun people do 
to shootfests, when the tournament casters are 
not numerous ? The tournament casters con¬ 
stitute a very small per cent, of the actual reel 
buyers. But suppose that it would pay the manu¬ 
facturer to have his representative there using 
his reel. Where is this manufacturer going to 
get a consistent performer who can be depended 
on to finish in front? It would be hard to find 
a caster that would be a good advertising in¬ 
vestment. This fear of the professional boost¬ 
ing some tackle seems, to be poorly taken when 
you notice that the amateur winner is used as 
an advertisement either with or without his per¬ 
mission. 
Is the objector now afraid of the professional 
competitor, and if so, why? What advantage 
has the professional? Some say that he has a 
whole store full of tackle to select from and 
that his equipment is better as a result. We 
might just as well bar all rods over a certain 
price. From what I have been able to observe 
the amateur generally has a better equipment. 
As rods and reels, like shoes, are matters of in¬ 
dividual tastes and fits, the chances are the 
amateur would not use the same rods or reels 
the professional does, even though he could have 
them as a present. We can all have anything 
made to our order and every whim satisfied same 
as the professional. 
I would not like to think that the amateur 
wants the prizes for their catalogued value alone. 
I would rather think 
“It’s not the quarry, but the chase, 
NoJ the winning, but the race.” 
And is the race worth running when some of 
the good men are ruled off? It must be a source 
of satisfaction to win over a good field. I never 
did it, but I know that should I be so fortu¬ 
nate I would get more real satisfaction and en¬ 
joyment out of it to know that the competition 
was open to all. Particularly when I know that 
many of those barred from competition would 
have been worthy opponents and possibly would 
have changed conditions had they competed. 
Considering the common end desired by both 
amateur and professional, why not let them all 
in? We need them; they will give us as much 
or more than we give them. The present ruling 
bars many good fellows. Do not bar them for 
their enthusiasm. The future may develop some 
abuses, but not likely, and it is safe to say the 
professionals will not be conspicuous offenders. 
I might add a little note that will be of in¬ 
terest to the amateur rod builder. I have tried 
in every way that I know to get some good 
Calcutta cane. I have written to twenty-two 
leads that I got in various ways. I have failed 
to locate one single piece that could be guaran¬ 
teed. It seems that it is a very hard article to 
find. Those that have it will not sell it or say 
that they will not stand for its quality, and very 
few—three I think—even had it of any kind. I 
went to a large firm in this city and told my 
tale of woe. As a result they have ordered 
seven hundred sticks, much of which has already 
been spoken for. R. W. Crompton. 
*There are several such reels made.— Editor. 
