Trout Fishing 
in Lakes 
Notes on Food Habits and 
Methods of Taking 
Lake Dwellers 
piyeows OUiLS RiALE A D 
O describe so wide a subject as 
T trout fishing in lakes requires 
that it be divided in several 
parts: large lakes fed by rains and 
snow from higher lands without inlets; 
lakes fed by stream inlets, also small 
lakes fed by springs or inlets, and a 
combination of both. If trout can as- 
cend inlets to spawn, and descend for 
migration to other waters, the food 
consumption is of a different character 
to that of lakes which are landlocked. 
‘Most large lakes contain an abundant 
supply of natural fish food that will 
breed and thrive in lakes without inlet 
or outlet. In many regions there are 
so-called chain-lakes—numerous bodies 
of water connected by streams, swift or 
slow according to the altitude of each 
water, such as are common in Maine 
and the mountain regions of California. 
In every case the food sitution is the 
controlling factor as to the size and 
abundance of trout the waters contain. 
This food supply must also be divided 
into three different parts—insect food 
taken at the surface, fish food taken at 
different heights of the water, and bot- 
tom food taken at the lake bed. In all 
lakes, with very few exceptions, the 
young of large species, or adults of 
smaller species of fish of a numberless 
variety furnish almost all the food of 
trout which move from place to place 
to follow after the small fry to feed on 
them according to season, at or near 
the surface in spring, at or near the 
lake bed in the remainder of the sea- 
son. 
AKE bed food is varied in character, 
many species of bottom creepers 
live and breed in the mud, sand, or on 
aquatic vegetation, and trout abide 
near each situation according to the 
quantity and variety of food to be ob- 
tained. Of these three foods, insect 
Page 521 

Louis Rhead landing a brown trout on the Beaverkill 
food is the least in quantity taken at 
the surface, because insect rises, while 
vast in quantity are limited in the 
periods of their rise, and very often do 
not induce trout to rise from the bot- 
tom and feed at the surface, because at 
the time bottom food is more than suf- 
ficient to satisfy them. There are ex- 
ceptions to this rule in both Western 
and Eastern lakes, whereby artificial 
flies cast on the surface are used with 
great success only when trout do rise 
up to feed on the vast hatches of May 
flies and other insect species that cover 
the lake’s surface from one to several 
days’ duration, which happens mostly 
in shallow parts of the lake when the 
insect in the creeper state lived on the 
lake bed for a year or more. 
N some exceptional waters, trout are 
to be caught with artificial flies as a 
lure, early and late in the season. But 
in most instances the flies are not cast 
on the surface like river fishing, but 
rather by a method of trolling the fly 
along just under the surface and 
often sunk some distance below, and the 
most favored flies, like the Parmachanee 
Belle and others like it, attract trout 
more as an imitation of fish food, 
rather than an insect food. As a rule, 
artificial flies are not the most success- 
ful lure when cast upon the surface, for 
trout in lakes, no matter what species, 
are nearly always attracted and caught 
by live bait, or artificial imitations. Of 
these imitations there is a wide and 
varied assortment; spoons, big and 
little, attached to every conceivable 
lure and live bait, each and every one 
different and used according to locality. 
The common live worm sunk to the 
bottom of many landlocked lakes early 
in spring is a deadly bait, although at 
times in the same water it is useless. 
In lake fishing we are never sure, even 
if we make previous trials, or get in- 
formation from those who are familiar 
with the water. It is-this uncertainty 
in the effectiveness of lures for trout 
in lakes that makes it inferior as a 
sport to stream fishing in quick water. 
N addition, trout caught in streams 
are invariably much more gamy 
and on the fly infinitely more difficult 
to get in the net. The rainbow of swift 
waters is another fish far more lively 
than when caught in lakes, and the 
same rule holds good with natives, 
brown and other species. This is due 
to the fact that in lakes it requires no 
effort on the fishes’ part to get food; 
in rivers trout must be forever on the 
alert, rapid in movement to capture 
food. 
Many anglers, however, take great 
delight in boat or canoe fishing for 
many species of trout in lakes of every 
State in the Northern Continent, where, 
in some favored localities, native and 
other trout are caught up to ten pounds 
weight in very deep water, where they 
feed exclusively on a fish diet, con- 
sequently, the almost universal bait is 
worms or a live or artificial minnow 
used either by still fishing or trolling. 
N such large deep lakes, shiners and 
other species of minnows, young sun- 
fish, perch, catfish, suckers, and even 
young trout, all breed with astonish- 
ing fecundity, so thick indeed do 
they lie on the lake bed nearby the 
shore that big fish move at night-time 
up from deeper sections to feed without 
effort. At early morning I have taken 
from the stomach of a five pound fon- 
tinalis as many as twenty-seven young 
sunfish in addition to a large mass of 
bettom creepers. In consequence of 
this over-abundance of food the trout 
(Continued on page 563) 
