FOREST AND STREAM 
145 
The Mystery of the Maine Blueback 
Have the Rangeley Trout and Landlocked Salmon Finished Him or has He been Translated into the Sunapee ? 
\ ERYBODY is familiar with the streams are actually 'filled with this crowding, we last met at Rangeley, some four years ago, Mr. 
disappearance of the passenger springing multitude, gathering as do smelts and R. waited with deep .interest the advent of the 
pigeon and the depletion if not alewives, to deposit their spawn. They do not Blueibacks. They came at the appointed day in 
total extinction of other forms make a ‘spawning bed,’ like the salmon and millions. Our friend had caught nearly every 
of wild life before, and even trout, but deposit their eggs in all parts of the species of fish that swims in salt or fresh water, 
contemporaneous with the pres- stream, remaining about ten days, when they re- and he insisted that these beauties could be 
ent generation. In this con- turn to the lake, and are never seen until the tempted by the gaudy fly. So day after day he 
nection it might well be asked: loth of October the following year.” stood on the apron of the old dam and fairly 
What has become of the little Blueback trout, In Forest and Stream for December, 1874, Mr. exhausted the treasures of his famous fly book, 
which once inhabited the Rangeley lakes of Maine E. S. Merrill says : “Five or six years ago I I shall never forget his overflowing enthusiasm 
in immense quantities? The Blueback was not a spent the month of October in the Maine woods, and boundless joy as he entered camp, bearing a 
Young Specimen—Oquassa, Aureolus, Marstonii or Fontanalis? 
sportsman’s fish; it did not rise to the fly, and only 
occasionally was it captured on a hook by some 
patient and persistent angler. When one of the 
latter succeeded in taking the Blueback, he felt 
rather proud of his skill—although the achieve¬ 
ment did not bring him anything extraordinarily 
good in the line of an edible capture or even a 
fish which fought desperately. 
At any rate the old flies of Forest and Stream 
contain reference now and then by some dis¬ 
tinguished contributor to the catching of a Blue- 
back, with 'full account of the circumstances as a 
rare event. It was not because od his scarcity so 
few fell victims 'to the angler’s lure—it was be¬ 
cause he would not bite. 
A most “pecooliar” variety of fish was the 
little Blueback, with strange habits and mysteri¬ 
ous ways. Once a year, usually three days either 
side o<f October idth, he and his tribe appeared 
in almost inconceivable numbers in some o'f the 
streams running into the Rangeley lakes and 
sought their spawning beds. In Forest and Stream 
o*f November 26th, 1874, appears the following: 
‘On the 10th of October—-or within three days 
of that date—the outlets of Gull Pond and Dodge 
Pond, both emptying into Rangeley Lake at points 
six miles apart, and the outlet 'of Rangeley Lake, 
six miles 'from Dodge Pond, are thronged by 
myriads of this exquisite fish. The waters of the 
and for the first time saw the Blueback trout, of 
which I had heard. This was in Androscoggin 
River, between Indian Rock and the darn. The 
trout came from the Cupsuptic or Mooselucmag- 
untic Lakes. They came up from Indian Rock to 
the dam. In the pool below the dam there were 
myriads, the water being literally black with 
them, and under every stone, slab, or 'log in the 
stream, scores would shoot out when disturbed; 
you could scarcely step anywhere in the stream 
without starting some, and so of the streams 
emptying into Rangeley Lake.” 
Another Forest and Stream correspondent, Mr. 
George Shepard Page, in 1874 wrote: 
‘‘Notwithstanding the great number of anglers 
who have frequented the ‘Rangeleys’ during the 
recent years, fishing all portions of the lake with 
all manner of bait on the surface and down in the 
deep, no one has ever caught a Blueback. They 
have never been at the surface. Among the set¬ 
tlers the ‘Blueback mystery’ has been an annual 
subject of discussion at the husking, quilting and 
fishing parties, and the country store, for over 
forty years. They never take a fly or bait. I 
state this as a fact, notwithstanding the possi¬ 
bility o'f contradiction by as good an authority as 
our worthy president o'f the American Fish Cul- 
turist Association and my esteemed friend, that 
expert angler, Hon. Robt. B. Roosevelt. When 
single Blueback attached to a diminutive fly hook. 
He loudly declared ‘the beauty bit’ but we who 
had watched the angler casting the trio of sharp 
baited 'lures among the swimming thousands in 
the pool, wondered that such exquisite skill in 
casting had not resulted in hooking out three at 
a time.” 
Again quoting from Forest and Stream, Mr. J. 
G. Rich states: 
“In 1844 they were taken in large quan¬ 
tities by the Rangeley people, mostly the poorer 
classes. The fish were never fished for with a 
baited hook but either netted or speared. The 
method of netting was usually with ‘nets’ 
consisting of bags with ash bows and 
handles which were set at the ends of sluice ways 
made for the purpose of guiding the fish into the 
nets. In this way several bushels would be se¬ 
cured by each man in a night.” In the American 
Angler of April 14, 1883, Mr. Rich says that they 
run up the brooks at night and back in the morn¬ 
ing, so that the only time to get them was during 
the might, and large quantities of them were se¬ 
cured. Fish ways were made through which they 
had to pass, and improvise! hand nets were used, 
and an equal chai.ce was given all the settlers 
that went for them. Mr. Rich continued : “These 
fish were sometimes taken with a baited hook, so 
I am informed by our Fish Commissioner, Mr. 
Stanley; yet I have tried them time and again 
