376 
FOREST AND STREAM 
AUGUST, 1917 
SALMON IN LAKE MICHIGAN 
PLANTED DURING THE CHICAGO EXPOSITION, 
THEY HAVE BECOME A COMMERCIAL FACTOR 
By HERMAN HAUPT, Jr. 
D URING the year of the World Col¬ 
umbian Exposition in Chicago, in 
1893, the United States government 
planted in Lake Michigan spawn of the 
steel head salmon ( Saltno gairdneri ) and 
the Chinook, or King salmon ( Oncarkyn- 
chus tschawytscha ) or quinnat. Then they 
were forgotten. 
Some eigth years ago Charles Leapp, 
while seining for herring off the lighthouse 
at Evanston, Illinois, saw a fish jump out 
of the water. He saw that it was not a 
whitefish, nor a lake trout, and he felt 
sure it was a salmon but wast not abso¬ 
lutely certain so he related the occurrence 
to a friend who had fished on the Col- 
.umbia river, who told him he had seen sal¬ 
mon in the lake. Later fishermen off the 
shore caught salmon in their gill nets (set 
for herring, perch and whitefish). Today 
it has become quite an industry with Mr. 
Leapp and others. 
The salmon is a great fighter, and plays 
havoc with nets set for other fish, so that 
heavier twine must be used in those de¬ 
signed to hold him. They begin to run in 
the Spring as soon as the ice breaks up 
and continue for about six weeks, or until 
the water gets warm, when they disappear 
entirely until the next Spring. It seems 
that while the southwest wind blows there 
is good fishing, as the water keeps cold. 
When running, they swim near the surface 
and are always caught in the upper meshes 
of the net. 
On the east shore of the lake, in the cold 
waters that empty into it, they are said to 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
Calling during mating season does not 
meet approval in hunting. Common sense 
tells us that this is not desirable. It is true 
the law allows hunting of the members of 
the deer family during rutting season; per¬ 
haps some day this will be changed. 
My own experience shows still-hunting 
to be the most sportsmanlike. The rutting 
season over, the bull begins to move around, 
feeding freely. The hunter who under¬ 
stands the arts has the opportunity to see 
what he is shooting at. He does not need 
to shoot at any bull that he may be able to 
approach, whether the horns are a trophy 
worth securing or not. 
Then again the meat at that time is 
palatable and should be utilized, which in 
most cases it is not in rutting season. 
Still-hunting is more certain of success. 
I never visited a country where moose 
would rush out in the open in answer to the 
call; on the contrary, the bull is very care¬ 
ful not to expose himself until he makes 
sure of his ground, as it is possible for him 
crowd so densely that farmers spear them 
with pitchforks. And the “Pentwater” is 
especially plentiful with them. They are 
becoming each year more abundant, and 
are now caught weighing from one and a 
half to ten and a half pounds. The steel- 
heads are the most common off Evans¬ 
ton ; the Chinook salmon is quite rare, and 
only a few are caught during the season. 
I T is held that these species of salmon 
must get to the ocean, but it is a prob¬ 
lem to know how they can do so from 
Lake Michigan, and it is possible that in 
their life history the lake may serve them 
instead of the ocean, cold water streams 
furnishing the spawning grounds—for it 
is observed they are not found in the warm 
streams. 
The meat of these fish is pink, while in 
the Pacific waters it is red, at this season 
of the year (Spring). Later in the year 
it changes to pink and white and some¬ 
times the flesh of a given fish will be 
red, pink and white. The Lake Michigan 
salmon are of a beautiful steel gray color, 
and much resemble the gamy bluefish of 
the Atlantic. 
It is too early in the record of the sal¬ 
mon fishing in Lake Michigan to know 
much about this fish, but it will before long 
attract the serious attention of ichiologists. 
There is no record as yet of a fish hav¬ 
ing been caught with hook and line, but 
there is no reason why they should not in 
time be added to the list of game fish of 
the Great Lakes. 
to do. Most of us will agree that he is 
pretty good at hiding, for such a large ani¬ 
mal, and takes his time to reconnoiter. 
Is it not largely a matter of personal in¬ 
clination? The hunter who likes to take it 
easy is likely to take to calling, while the 
active sportsman will find the higher satis¬ 
faction in still-hunting. Old Reader. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
I have been deeply interested by the 
discussion of the question whether moose 
calling by a guide is sportsmanlike. One 
correspondent thinks calling by a guide 
and shooting by another unsportsmanlike. 
Another correspondent, while not agreeing 
with the last view, inclines to the opinion 
that all shooting of moose, sex-crazed as 
he is claimed to be, whether by calling or 
otherwise, is not so sportsmanlike or so 
fair as waiting until the forests are cov¬ 
ered with snow and then tracking him to 
his lair. This correspondent frankly ad¬ 
mits that he experienced as much pleas¬ 
ure in the many hunts in which he failed, 
as when he succeeded in gaining the prize. 
Without criticising this rather idealistic 
view of sport, it might be well to say at 
the outset that the average man in the 
street is not able to go hunting in Novem¬ 
ber or December, particularly moose hunt¬ 
ing. We may admit that hunting the 
moose by tracking him in the snow is 
much more picturesque, but it does not 
follow that it is more sportsmanlike. As it 
is, we think the moose has the advantage. 
The moose hunter generally is in a totally 
strange country, surrounded by thick bogs 
and dense brush where the walking could 
not by any one even with the most vivid 
imagination be called good. 
Sex-crazed though he may be, the moose 
is an exceedingly wary beast. It is abso¬ 
lutely necessary, where there is any wind, 
for the hunter to keep to the leeward of 
the moose, or the latter is very much on 
the alert and is protected by his speed, 
strength and keen scent. Let no one sup¬ 
pose that it is a simple matter to shoot 
a moose by mere calling. The writer has 
known of cases where gentlemen, excel¬ 
lent shots, have tried for several succes¬ 
sive seasons with guides thoroughly expert 
at calling, who failed to get their moose. 
The moose does not by any means always 
run right up to the caller, as one would 
often suppose from reading accounts of 
moose hunting. He is much more wary. 
In Nova Scotia the writer succeeded in 
shooting a moose after the guide had 
called, four days for four hours each day. 
The guide, an expert woodsman, insisted 
that the moose answered our call the sec¬ 
ond night of the hunt, yet Mr. Moose was 
afraid to leave the shelter of the forest 
and come out in the clearing. His curios¬ 
ity finally overcame his discretion and he 
circled our tent from north to east and 
then to south, continually answering our 
calls until he showed himself in the clear¬ 
ing on the fourth morning directly in 
front to the north of our tent about one 
hundred and twenty feet away. The 
moose, when he hears the call of the cow, 
locates the sound as accurately as pos¬ 
sible, and if there is wind works around 
to leeward to get the scent. He is a very 
suspicious and wary animal. 
In all sport it is fair to use subterfuge. 
Man matches his skill and ingenuity against 
the speed, strength and wariness of the 
game. Duck and geese are decoyed within 
gunshot. Clever dogs assist gunners to 
bring down grouse, woodcock and quail; 
and while the moose hunter and his guide 
may play upon the sex passion, so does the 
hunter of the silver-tip grizzly, or Kadiak 
bear, or even of the lion and tiger, play 
upon the sense of hunger by placing the 
dead carcass of some deer or antelope to 
attract his quarry. In duck hunting we 
have live decoys and wooden decoys, and 
blinds of various assortments are common. 
The same rule applies to goose shooting 
where the geese are tricked and lured 
within range by sending among them tame 
geese. The writer knows of one duck 
blind down among the sand dunes on the 
way to Cape Cod entirely covered with 
grass and straw, behind which is room for 
a battery of ten guns. Out on the beach 
on the Plymouth bay side are placed tame 
and wooden decoys. When the wild ducks 
are listless and cannot be lured close 
THE SPORT IN MOOSE CALLING 
ONE HUNTER DEFENDS IT; ANOTHER CLAIMS 
IT IS NOT DESIRABLE IN THE MATING SEASON 
