FOREST AND STREAM 
201 
are at rest, save for the heaving of their bosom 
after the storm of yonder passionate waterfall, 
and for the eddyings in circular motion of the 
larger patches of scum or foam over the sur¬ 
face of the pool. 
Amid such surroundings we frequently cast 
our flies during a long-remembered visit, the 
Colonel and myself. The Colonel is an English¬ 
man, and we had many American fishing neigh¬ 
bors, including a clever woman angler from New 
\ork who could give many of us points in rais¬ 
ing the fish to our gay deceits of color and 
feather. Do what we would we could not 
approach the number of her rises. We cast all 
around her and changed our flies frequently, 
finally trying duplicates of those upon her own 
line, with which she supplied us from her own 
fly-book. Still she beat us all. Once she struck 
and hooked two fish at the same time. Then it 
was excitement, indeed! One up, one down, or 
perchance it might be both of them out of the 
water together, their shimmering sides glisten¬ 
ing in the sun like flashes of silver. We all 
stopped fishing to see the outcome of the fight. 
The little three and a half ounce silver mounted, 
split-cane rod responded bravely to the demands 
made upon it, and never did its fair owner deign 
to lower the tip to relieve the strain, as one or 
other of the fish, or both of them together, 
dropped into the water from their many somer¬ 
saults. Acting upon the theory that the rod 
could stand the same strain immediately after 
the leap of a fish that it stood before it, the 
dainty little fisherwoman yielded nothing but 
line to her pair of captive ouananiche, and after 
allowing them a pretty free rein for about twelve 
minutes, she suddenly turned the tables upon them 
and led them where she listed. The line was 
reeled up until the end of the leader almost 
touched the upper ring of the rod, and then not 
another inch was given them. When they still 
attempted to dive, with the same amount of fight 
that yet remained to them, they sometimes arch¬ 
ed the rod until the whole tip was under water. 
Soon they were on their sides apparently ex¬ 
hausted. 
The man in the bow of the canoe slipped the 
landing net under the lower 'fish, securing it 
safely, but missed the other. Quick as thought 
the angler had reached over her arm, and with 
the scissors which she held in her hand had 
snapped the leader just below the upper fish. The 
latter was a four-pound ouananiche, and aroused 
to new life and exertion by the sight of the net. 
gave another three minutes of exciting sport be¬ 
fore it was again brought upon its side to the 
surface of the water. Then something happened 
for which we were totally unprepared. When 
one of the guides again took up the landing net 
to secure the prize, a sign from the angler made 
him lay it down again. Another minute was 
spent in thoroughly drowning the fish, and then 
as it was brought close up to the side of the 
canoe a dainty hand with a number of richly 
jewelled fingers quickly grasped the ouananiche 
in a tight hold around the tail, immediately in 
front of the caudal 'fin, and with a rapid move¬ 
ment of the arm the fish was lifted, or rather 
jerked from the water and safely landed in the 
bottom of the canoe. It was a capital act, and 
its execution was so sudden, so wholly unex¬ 
pected that some seconds elapsed before the 
spectators could recover their astonishment suffi¬ 
ciently to applaud the tact and the success of the 
Fifth Falls of the Mistassini, immediately below which is a famous Ouananiche pool. 
On the route to Lac a-Jim, north of 
Lake St. John. 
artistic fisherwoman. It was learned subse¬ 
quently, that the young lady is a successful 
salmon angler, who has so great an abhorrence 
of the ordinary practice of gaffing large fish, 
that she has practised the killing of her own fish 
by first drowning them and then securing them 
by hand. She has thus succeeded in landing, by 
these simple means, a salmon nearly half as 
heavy as herself. 
In the large patches of white foam, into which 
we cast our flies, there were thousands of natur¬ 
al insects which the ouananiche, hidden below 
were picking out of the scum, much as children 
might select the large, ripe berries out of a 
strawberry patch. Often they swam slowly around 
with their dorsal fins protruding from the 
water. One of our guides hooked one foul, the 
point and barb of the hook passing through the 
upper part of the back, a little in front of the 
tail. Then we had fun. First there came a series 
of leaps and dives and splashes upon the sur¬ 
gave way. Presently, a high leap from the fish 
at the end of the line brought its run to an end. 
. It was still several minutes, however, before 
it could be brought to the net, and once, in the 
course of its final leaps, it very narrowly escaped 
from landing in one of the other canoes. 
One must be prepared for all sorts of adven¬ 
tures when trolling for ouananiche, and well do 
I recall, amid the islands of the Grand Descharge, 
hooking upon a small spoon, with a light cane 
rod, a huge pike, or American pickerel, of 
seventeen pounds. 
But large and plentiful as are the ouananiche in 
the Metabetchouan river, and wild and beauti¬ 
ful beyond description as is the scenery of the 
Grand Descharge, the angler after sport and ad¬ 
venture of the most attractive kind will prefer 
to scale some of the mighty wild ouananiche 
rivers of the interior of Labrador. Take the 
Peribonca for instance, nearly three hundred 
miles from its mouth is Lake Manouan, contain¬ 
ing ouananiche from five to eight pounds in 
weight. Several years ago I ascended the Peri¬ 
bonca for fifty miles, as far as Lake Tschota- 
gama, and the trip occupied a week, nea' 1 '' 
four days being required to ascend the stream. 
In that distance ten large waterfalls had to be 
portaged around; it was necessary to pole the 
canoe up furious rapids and to camp in bear-in¬ 
fested woods, more than a score of miles away 
from any human habitation. But the scenery 
was of the grandest and most magnificent de¬ 
scription and the fishing in the pools below 
some of the falls was marvelously good. In 
Tschotagama it was wonderful. There it is no 
unusual experience to have a brace of ouananiche 
at the same time upon the rod, each five or six 
pounds in weight. There is a record of a 49 
pound pike having been taken here on a troll. 
E. J. Myers of New York killed one that meas¬ 
ured 52 inches in length and weighed 47 pounds, 
and the same angler has to his credit a pair of 
face of the water as vivacious and brilliant as 
a display of fireworks. Finding that its skyward 
somersaults and aerial gymnastics were unable 
to shake it clear of the hook, the fish started 
off with as near the velocity of a torpedo as it 
could command, to leave trouble behind. The 
guide had handed me the rod before the ouan¬ 
aniche had started on its journey in the direc¬ 
tion of the sea, and was now actively plying his 
paddle to enable us to overtake the fleeing fish, 
whose r<m was already depriving me of so much 
of my line that the reel was screeching as it 
eight-pound ouananiche and a ten pound speckled 
trout from the waters of the same lake. 
But it is quite unnecessary to go so far away 
from civilization to enjoy some ouananiche fish¬ 
ing in the early part of the season. In the end 
of May and the beginning of June, Indian or 
half-breed guides can be found at Roberval 
ready to convey the angler to fair fishing grounds 
in Lake St. John itself, where this much-discuss¬ 
ed fish is usually to be found a short distance 
off the mouths of the Ouiatchouaniche, the 
Ouiatchouan or the Metabetchouan rivers. 
