984 
FOREST AND STREAM 
The Shortness of the Streams in Their Rush to the Sea Makes Canoeing a Hard Job Except on 
Lake Waters. 
chilly brooks of April, or else he must postpone 
it for the equally chilly and perhaps somewhat 
questionable phenomenon known to the trade 
as the “September Rise.” As I have said, it is 
a fact rather than an hypothesis that the brook 
trout in the United States and to a great extent 
in Canada, flatly refuse to rise to the fly during 
these beautiful mid-summer months, save on the 
rarest and most unexpected occasions; and this 
coupled with the fact that our local trout season 
usually expires around the middle of July, ex¬ 
plains only too well the depressing condition of 
the average trout fisherman—who is uninitiated. 
I say uninitiated because there is at least one 
alternative open to any man who will listen to 
facts, and by this I do not mean a mere substi¬ 
tute or expedient, but rather such trout fishing as 
would appeal to the most aesthetic and fastidious 
dilettante who ever wet a fly. I am referring to 
the so-called Canadian “sea-trout,” in reality our 
own familiar Salvelinus Fontinalis who, as Mr. 
Shakespeare so prettily and aptly quotes, has 
“Suffered a sea change 
Into something rare and strange.” 
Inexplicable as most of the doings and habits 
of the sea-trout are, it will suffice us here to 
state formally that he is no more than a sailor 
brook trout with a red-blooded lust for the sea 
which he visits in the spring, returning in June 
and July to ascend his home river in the pink of 
condition. He is then in the very height of his 
season during those usually unprofitable months 
of July and August, and may be taken in fresh 
water in the same way and under similar condi¬ 
tions as the brook-trout. 
As a game fish the sea-trout, if anything, is 
more of a scrapper even than his fresh water 
cousin. The salt of the ocean turns him a bright 
iridescent silvery color and seems to invest him 
at the same time with a marvellously abundant 
supply of energy and pluck. In June the sea- 
trout may be caught in the salt water near the 
mouths of the rivers on bright flies, and by troll¬ 
ing with a minnow. As the season progresses the 
fish gradually ascend the stream in several “runs” 
so that by late September they are well up in the 
spawning grounds. In July and August, how¬ 
ever, they may usually be caught along almost 
the entire stream. 
The sea-trout average perhaps somewhat heav¬ 
ier than the brook-trout in Nova Scotia, fish of 
two or three _ pounds being quite common on 
many.of the rivers. They are marvellously abun¬ 
dant if you strike them, but are quite dependent 
on weather conditions, especially the height of 
the water. After a rain is invariably the best 
time for sea trout in the hot season just as it 
is for salmon. I have seen the water under such 
conditions literally boiling with great lusty fel¬ 
lows, fresh run from the sea with bright silver 
coats, and bodies ice cold and hard as a rock. A 
bit of moss thrown on the surface would imme¬ 
diately cause three or four of them to leap clear 
of the water in their mad efforts to appease their 
apparently insatiable appetites. 
In addition to the sea-trout, the genus Christi- 
vomer (the gray like trout) flourishes in many of 
the larger lakes of Nova Scotia together with a 
rather peculiar species of landlocked salmon fre¬ 
quently referred to by the natives as “grayling.” 
These deep water fish, however, are usually 
caught on the troll here as elsewhere, and pre¬ 
sent no particularly novel or interesting problems 
of local significance. 
There is one general rule quite peculiar to 
Nova Scotia, as far as I know and applying to 
both brook- and sea-trout fishing that I think 
should be referred to here. It is a rule that most 
persons learn only through experience because it 
is a thing that would naturally occur to nobody, 
experienced anglers on other waters being espe¬ 
cially apt to go astray. This is the rule that or¬ 
dinary pools between rapids in the running bed 
of the stream practically never contain trout (ex¬ 
cept a few small fry). This is because small 
Nova Scotia streams almost universally contain 
long deep stretches which are known as “still 
waters,” where the stream winds in and out 
among the marsh lands and barrens with a bare¬ 
ly perceptible current. In these places, strangely 
enough the sizeable trout, both brook and sea 
will almost exclusively be found. It is absolutely 
a waste of time to fish the pools no matter how 
seductive they may look. Ten to one you will 
put this to the test and ten to one you’ll be sorry 
for the time you wasted. Of course in the larger 
rivers there are often no still waters, but neither 
are there usually any trout worth getting after. 
This principle may not be effective in Prince 
Edward Island and a few other places, but it is 
certainly general elsewhere. 
It is another point worthy of note that as indi¬ 
cated above, the larger streams and salmon rivers 
are not usually good for trout (unlike many of 
the New Brunswick salmon rivers). The best 
places for brook-trout are nearly always the 
smaller tributaries and particularly the head 
waters of river and lake systems where there are 
plenty of “stills.” The best places for sea-trout 
are the short unobstructed streams flowing di¬ 
rectly into the sea, rather than the tributaries of 
the larger rivers. This is undoubtedly true of 
Nova Scotia, although it does not apply to most 
other places where the sea-trout frequently col¬ 
lect in the lower branches of the larger rivers. 
Actually to list the places in Nova Scotia where 
good trout fishing can be had would be a task too 
severe for the limited purposes of this article. 
A few of the districts where the writer has actu¬ 
ally enjoyed good sport must suffice. Thus for 
brook-trout the head waters of the Tusket River 
in the south, the great Rosignol system reached 
from Liverpool and the Medway on the south¬ 
west and the vast bodies of lakes stretching, from' 
Halifax to Guysboro are all localities which it 
would pay any angler to visit. 
For sea-trout there is scarcely a little river 
emptying into the salt water between Halifax 
and Guysboro which does not plentifully provide 
them. Likewise, west of Halifax there are many 
good sea-trout streams, but they do not equal' 
the wilder and better stocked streams of the east, 
though the latter are, of course, less accessible. 
Often very fair salmon fishing may be had at the 
same time when one is after trout, and this is 
particularly true of the larger sea-trout rivers, 
nearly all of which contain some salmon. For 
this reason it is well for the angler to equip him¬ 
self with an outfit elastic enough to kill a salmon 
and play a trout. This can usually be provided 
simply and surely by having plenty of thin linen 
line backed to your casting line of enameled silk, 
so that in cases of emergency a run of fifty or 
sixty yards may be anticipated and met. Other¬ 
wise the experienced fly fisher will find that his 
outfit will probably serve him in as good stead in 
Nova Scotia as anywhere else. Indeed the un¬ 
sophisticated and aboriginal Canadian trout is 
far easier to seduce as a rule than the finicky and 
comparatively speaking anaemic specimens which 
we have at home. When “they are rising” they 
will take practically anything that moves. I have 
slain scores of fish on such anomalous mon¬ 
strosities as the Ibis and the Alexandria, though 
I think that a much greater meet of success has 
been due to the more subdued and life-like 
patterns. 
Brown is nearly always an effective color, es¬ 
pecially with a glint of red or tinsel. The brown 
hackle with a red body and the cinnamon and 
cowdung are nearly always effective. Also claret 
colored flies are often great killers, like the Mon¬ 
treal and grouse and claret. Sometimes that 
good old couple, the silver doctor and parma- 
chenee belle are the best flies on the stream. As 
is usually the case, the choice of a fly is a ques¬ 
tion to be met and decided on the facts of each 
actual occasion, and talk doesn’t really help very 
much. 
Similarly, in Nova Scotia, it isn’t necessary to 
use drawn gut and No. 14 hooks which are rapid¬ 
ly becoming “the thing” on English and American 
streams. Instead, the old reliable Nos. 7 to 12 
will catch all the fish you will care to keep and 
leave a few over besides. Of course you can 
have your leaders as gauzy as you like, the gauz- 
ier the better, for that matter, but it isn’t really 
necessary. 
A good ten foot rod will be found serviceable 
and any old reel will answer which doesn’t 
“foul.” 
Landing nets are always unsportsmanlike 
abominations in the writer’s humble opinion, and 
especially is this so in the wilderness where they 
are merely something more to carry and are al¬ 
ways tearing in the bushes and, anyhow, you can 
get plenty of fish without ’em. An extra long 
creel isn’t a bad addition, however, for even when 
it isn’t holding extra long fish there are lots of 
other things which it will hold. 
The rest of your outfit, of course, depends ab¬ 
solutely on your taste and on where you are go¬ 
ing. If you intend to foot it along one of the 
eastern rivers, it means “going light” through a 
fiendishly rough country with maybe a three 
pound lean to, a bit of a hatchet and accessories 
in proportion. If on the other hand you mean 
to put up at one of the well appointed camps of 
the southwest shore, you may limit your outfit 
only by your conscience, and take along anything, 
from your mandolin to your wife. 
To some people the charm of angling consists 
in going out on short tramps day by day and re¬ 
turning each evening to a comfortable lodging. 
To others the only joy commensurate with their 
more strenuous natures is a rough and tumble 
grapple with nature in one of her most Tom-boy¬ 
ish moods. To all Nova Scotia will prove a 
haven and a delight, and above all, a place where 
fish may not only be talked about and lied about, 
but actually caught. 
