Atril i8, 1908 ] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
619 
Alaskan Fishing. 
j Booth, Ala., April 10 .—Editor Forest and 
7 ream: I am very fond of fishing and have 
iken smaJl-mouth black bass in the Allegany 
treams, a half-dozen different kinds of trout 
nd salmon on the Pacific coast and grayling in 
daska. I always prefer the fly, but have used 
1 innows and baits of different kinds, but on the 
•ccasion I will tell you about I used neither 
,f these and had one of the best and most qn- 
oyable days I ever spent. 
In the latter part of August, 1901, I was 
amped on Unalaska Island, which is the third 
sland of any size in the Aleutian chain from 
he end of the Alaskan peninsula which sepa- 
ates Behring Sea from the Pacific Ocean. I 
ound good fishing in any of the various streams 
oming down from the snow-covered mountains, 
atching the regular mountain, rainbow and 
ut-throat trout. I frequently noticed in the 
leepest pools large Dolly Varden trout, lying 
notionless except a slow movement of their 
ins to hold them against the current, but they 
vould not notice any kind of fly or troll and I 
iad about given up the idea of trying to hook 
,ny of the big fellows when I saw some Indian 
quaws cleaning salmon on the beach, and know- 
ng that the Dolly Varden is partly a salt-water 
ish and only goes up the streams late in the 
summer about the time the salmon run to feed 
on their spawn, I got a.couple of strings of the 
salmon eggs and started out one cloudy after- 
loon to give them a trial. I used a small trout 
took at the end of a three-foot leader, and after 
in hour or two of patient work, succeeded in 
anding two of the smaller ones. 
I continued up the stream several miles 
further than I had ever been before, and the 
further I went the thicker the Dolly Varden 
were in the pools. The water was as clear as 
crystal, and I could have seen a ten-cent piece 
in the bottom of an eight-foot pool. In some 
pools about 100 feet long and twenty feet broad 
there would be at least 500 fine fish, nearly all 
from twelve to eighteen inches long and all 
lying in a group near the head of the pools. 
Their peculiar dark silver backs .and lighter 
colored sides, their sides thickly covered with 
bright pink spots, harmonized well with the 
color of the water shaded by the cliffs. 
About five miles from the mouth of the creek 
I was stopped by a ledge of rock which ex¬ 
tended across the creek from side to side and 
over which the water made a clear leap of about 
eighteen feet. The water had worn out a deep 
pool under the falls and the shadows being very 
deep, the water looked black and was covered 
with foam and very swift in the middle, but 
there was a good sized eddy on each side. I 
made several casts in the swift water, but my 
bait would wash down to the shallows before it 
would sink, so I fastened a split shot a few 
inches above the hook, then cast well up under 
the foot of the falls, and on drawing my line 
rapidly through the water, felt a strike and for 
several minutes had a busy time. I at last 
worked him down to the shallows and found 
to my surprise I had hooked my fish through 
the back near the dorsal fin. I was afraid the 
hook would tear out, but by gentle persuasion 
got him started down stream, and after a chase 
of a hundred yards or more, got him penned 
up by wading around him in the swifter water 
and coaxci[ him into a shallow place, where 1 
secured him. He measured nineteen inches and 
was a beauty. 
I did not bother with salmon eggs again, but 
continued casting and allowing my hook to sink, 
then drawing with quick jerks toward me. I 
only had about one hour and a half to get back 
to camp before dark, but in that time caught 
twenty-nine more, hooking them just by acci¬ 
dent in the back, belly, or any old way. Some 
of them gave me great fights to land without 
losing them, as the small size hook could take 
only a slight hold. I could not tell how deep 
this pool was, but it was evident that it was as 
full of fish as any pool in an aquarium could be, 
or I could not have snagged them as I did with 
a single small hook. They were crowded up 
there trying to get over the falls, and there was 
hardly a moment some were not in the air 
tumbling back after a desperate run or leap. 
I saw some ascend to within a few feet of the 
top and was sorry I did not have time to go 
above the falls to see if there were any there. 
If any had been above the falls they must have 
gotten over them, as these fish all run down to 
salt water late in the fall and would not breed 
and live up there always. I had a tiresome 
walk back with my load of fish, and put the 
bunch of thirty-two on .the scales in a fur 
trader’s store and they weighed just forty-six 
pounds. The largest was twenty inches long and 
weighed two and three-quarter pounds. They 
are a most delicious table fish, with pale pink 
color, which is different from most trout, and 
makes them kin to the salmon, I think. 
I have seen tomcod caught on the beach at 
Nome, Alaska, when driven close to shore by 
larger fish preying on them, by simply throwing 
