i8o 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. x, 1908. 
Colorado Trout Fry for Planting. 
Denver, Colo., July 21.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I expect to have ready for delivery 
in August and September about 2,000,000 native 
trout fry. I offer them for sale to the first 
applicants at the following prices, viz.: 
50,000 or over, per 1,000.$3 00 
25,000 to 50,000, per 1,000.4.50 
10,000 to 25,000, per 1,000. 5.50 
This includes free delivery at any railroad 
station in Colorado. 
I suggest that the native trout are much the 
best for planting in the upper reaches of the 
streams and high altitude lakes, where, on ac¬ 
count of the low temperature, the rainbows and 
brooks do not care to stay, and that such plant¬ 
ing has not been sufficient to keep the supply 
equal to the demands of the fishermen, many of 
whom prefer the native fish, and are going to 
Idaho and Montana streams, where natives are 
more numerous than in Colorado. 
I believe it is especially important to the rail¬ 
roads of Colorado to look after this before the 
native trout are wholly exterminated. 
The United States and State hatcheries have 
been of late giving more attention to the rain¬ 
bows and brooks than to the natives, because 
easier to obtain, and the latter are becoming 
fewer with each succeeding year. 
In order to arrange for proper distribution, 
orders should be sent in at once, and will take 
preference in the order of receipt. 
The fry referred to are from spawn taken by 
the United States Bureau of Fisheries, from fish 
in the lakes of the company on Grand Mesa, 
Colorado, and hatched at the United States 
hatchery at Leadville, and will be in care of an 
experienced attendant from the hatchery until 
delivered to the purchaser. 
The purchaser will be advised by letter or 
wire from the superintendent of the hatchery 
when the shipment will arrive at the railroad 
station at point of delivery, and a team, driver 
and attendant should be ready to receive and 
transport them to place of planting without any 
delay. The purchaser will be allowed to use 
the cans (which belong to the United States, 
and contain 5,000 fry each) for conveying the 
fry to the place of planting, but must return 
them promptly to the station, at his own ex¬ 
pense. They will then be returned by the rail¬ 
road company to the hatchery free of charge. 
Lack of success sometimes attends efforts at 
trout propagation. This comes generally from 
improper handling and injudicious planting. I 
have been for the last fifteen years engaged in 
the cultivation of trout in Colorado waters, and 
believe that trout fry can be shipped almost any 
distance under proper care, and when judiciously 
planted will nearly all live. The things that 
lessen the vitality of the trout are careless hand¬ 
ling in transit, being planted in water either 
much colder or much warmer than that in the 
cans, and, where there is deep water, too much 
current and no shade. If the following sugges 
tions are heeded there should be but little loss. 
1. In case the distance from station to place 
of planting is more than one mile, or there is 
likely to be delay in transit, ice should be pro¬ 
vided and placed in the cans in small quantities 
from time to time as required to keep the tem¬ 
perature of the water about the same as when 
received. In case the water where they are to 
be planted is known to be warmer than that 
in the cans, the latter may be allowed to slowly 
warm up while en route from the station, but 
the cans should be protected from the sun. 
2. If the temperature of the water is kept 
substantially as when received, and the wagon 
kept moving, the fry will require nothing more 
while in transit, but if a stop exceeding ten 
minutes is made, the attendant (having provided 
himself with a dipper) should every few minutes 
dip water from the cans and pour it back into 
the cans, from a height of one foot to thor¬ 
oughly re-aerate the water. This is better than 
to change the water and substitute some water 
possibly unsuitable for fish life. 
3. At time of planting there should be not 
more than three degrees difference in the tem¬ 
perature of the water in the cans and that in 
which the fry are planted. This equalization can 
be accomplished by dipping up the water from 
the stream or lake in which it is proposed to 
plant them, and pouring it into the cans, until 
the temperature is about the same in both, as 
the water being poured into the cans, and per¬ 
mitted to run over for a few minutes, will prac¬ 
tically substitute the stream or lake water for 
that in the cans, and do it so gradually that the 
trout will feel no ill effects. A thermometer is 
desirable, but not necessary, as the equalization 
can be tested by the hand. 
4. In planting, pour out the fry and water 
from the cans gently, and not too near together, 
and if possible in small channels or bayous of 
gently running water, where there is grass and 
willows, as the fry will there be in less danger 
from larger fish, get feed and shade and stay 
until they have strength to tackle the current 
in the main stream; otherwise plant in shallow 
places near the shore, where there is shade. 
D, C. Beaman. 
Pennsylvania Fish Distribution. 
Greenville, Pa., July 21.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your issue of July 11 I read the 
article, “Pennsylvania Fish Distribution,” by W. 
L. Allison, Waynesburg, Pa. As he is anxious 
to know the experience of others who have ap¬ 
plied to the Pennsylvania hatcheries for fry, I 
will tell what we have received. The Green¬ 
ville Bait- and Fly-Casting Club—not as a club, 
but by the individual application of its members 
—placed in the Shenango River last summer 
20,000 blue-gill sunfish fingerlings. These could 
not have been any finer. This year we planted 
2,000,000 yellow perch and pickerel fry and 
sixteen cans of black bass. The b&ss were what 
Mr. Allison complained of, and I will say that 
we have never seen any stronger or hardier 
bass; they were lively and in prime condition. 
They came from the Conneaut Lake hatchery 
and were taken from the ponds and shipped by 
Mr. Safford, superintendent of the hatchery, 
along with the general run of applications. As 
for the tadpoles Mr. Allison mentioned, it is 
impossible when removing bass from the pond 
to pick out all the tadpoles, and as they do no 
harm we have never objected to have them come 
along; in fact, we have made application for 
them. 
While we cannot explain the conditions Mr. 
Allison writes of other than that the cans may 
have been tampered with in transit, we believe 
the complaint, if there was to be one, should 
have been made to Mr. Meehan, Commissioner 
of Fisheries, or Mr. Safford himself by the per¬ 
son to whom the can was consigned, not by 
those who received it for him, for the consignee 
is the only person who has a right to complain. 
We know of a great many cans that have been 
received throughout western Pennsylvania from 
the Conneaut Lake hatchery, and Mr. Allison’.-; 
is the first complaint we have heard. A great 
many have expressed their satisfaction with the 
number and quality of the fish. 
Quinton J. Burnett. 
Water Snake and Trout. 
Percival B. Nash, in a private letter to a 
friend, describes a contest witnessed between a 
water snake and a trout, which, but for the in¬ 
terference of human beings, would undoubtedly 
have had a different ending. He says: “Helen 
came in and asked me if I wanted to see a 
snake and trout having a fight in the stream. 
We went down and sure enough there was the 
fight. The snake had a trout nine or ten inches 
long by the back and was trying to get it ashore, 
but could not do so. Wilbur and I got the snake 
jammed between stones and he let go of the 
trout. Then we got the snake ashore and cut 
off his head.” Contests such as these are not 
very uncommon and almost always result in the 
death of the trout, which is tired out and then 
brought to shore and devoured. Water snakes 
are common enough in lakes and along brooks 
and are very destructive to trout. 
Fly-Fishing in Muddy Streams. 
Hendersonville, N. C., July 15 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: We have taken some trouble to 
stock our streams in this and adjoining counties 
with brook and rainbow trout, and the fly-fishing 
is improving. 
Now, I want to ask you, and any interested 
readers of Forest and Stream, something about 
fly-fishing in muddy water on streams naturally 
clear. My reasons for asking are first: because 
it has been claimed here that as many as thirty- 
seven nice rainbow trout were taken with white 
miller flies in less than two hours on water in 
Green River just after a very heavy downpour 
of rain, all in one pool and the water red from 
the color of clay in adjoining fields. 
That same afternoon a friend and I quit the 
stream because of its color, the fish not taking 
any fly we offered. We believe some other 
means was used to take those trout, and so I 
want to know if any of your readers have ever 
had ' success with the fly on absolutely muddy 
water just after a rain. I would like most es¬ 
pecially to hear from Theodore Gordon as to 
what he thinks about it and his experience. One 
colored man claims the catching of the thirty- 
seven trout above mentioned. 
Ernest L. Ewbank. 
Camping Companion Wanted. 
Westfield, Mass., July 20. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I wonder if there are any of your 
readers who are in the same fix that I am. As 
the season progresses that irresistible longing 
for a sojourn in the woods increases in inten¬ 
sity, but this year can find no companion to ac¬ 
company me. I would like to spend a month 
or so on a camping trip in the Adirondacks or 
Canada and am anxious to find a camp mate 
who is similarly situated. Stanley Cobham. 
