$$$ —— 

Jury 6, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 


21 

Brook vs. Brown Trout. 
WILLAMSBURG, Pa., June 1.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: With your permission I would like to 
enter the columns of your most valuable paper 
with a few more words regarding the brown 
trout. I notice these words in your editorial 
column of last week’s issue: “Of course it 
would be unwise for anyone to claim that brown 
trout can ever take the place of our native trout 
in the estimation of fly-fishermen.” : 
I would say it is this way: It is doubtful if 
you could ever find or hatch:a species of trout 
that would take the place of. our native trout in 
the minds of the ardent disciples of Walton. So 
far so good. Now, as to filling the wants of the 
fly-fisherman, I would say from what I have 
learned by actual experience in regard to fly- 
fishing for both the native and brown trout, that 
I think the brown trout take the fly just as 
readily as the native trout, and that you catch 
more large brown trout with flies than you do 
of the others. And as to the fighting qualities, 
all I have to say is just hook a brown beauty 
about fifteen inches long with a five ounce rod 
and see if he does not keep you guessing as to 
which is going to win the battle. 
With a number of gentlemen I have been en- 
gaged in stocking the different streams in this 
vicinity for the past twenty years with native 
trout and, notwithstanding this, they seem to be 
growing scarcer each year; all due, no doubt, 
to the heavy freshets, cutting away of the timber, 
etc., not from the numbers caught by the anglers. 
The stream I took my first brown trout from 
is within two and one-half miles of our town 
and has always had more or less native trout in 
it, but as the timber disappeared heavy freshets 
in the fall destroy the spawn and again in the 
early spring wash the fry out to die. Trout 
got so scarce that it hardly paid any one to try 
for a rise from a trout. 
Since the brown trout have been placed in 
this stream anyone who knows how to fish can, 
under favorable conditions, get a fair basket of 
trout, and if he is not very deliberate and cool- 
headed have some excellent tales to tell his 
friends about snapped off flies, broken leaders, 
ete., and will usually wind up the story with a 
remark something on this order: “When I go 
again I'll do differently,” which means that he 
has seen enough to induce him to return to the 
stream again when he feels the need of outdoor 
exercise and recreation. ; 
I hope the commissioners will again take up 
the hatching of brown:trout in the near future 
and that we may all have the pleasure of land- 
ing some old scorchers. Se Dai. 


Brown Trout. 
SaRANAC Lake, N. Y., June 22.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: Having made up my mind a few 
days ago to try a brook near this place, which 
I had supposed to be fished out, I met with an 
agreeable surprise. In three hours’ casting, dur- 
ing which I covered perhaps a mile of the brook, 
I basketed nineteen trout, the largest 13% inches 
long and several others from eleven to twelve 
inches. They were nearly all taken on a No. 8 
cowdung amid weather conditions which many 
anglers would consider unfavorable, for light- 
ning was flickering and thunder rattling all the 
afternoon, although the rain was at no time 
heavy. 
But the purpose of this letter was not to tell 
of my luck. Rather I have two questions to ask 
suggested by my catch; questions which you or 
some of your correspondents can doubtless an- 
swer. The first query concerns my largest trout 
which was unlike any trout I have ever captured 
before and was certainly not Salvelinus fontinalts. 
This fish, which was very lively and strong, was 
a beautiful golden brown with larger and more 
distinct red spots than those of our brook trout. 
An hour or two after being taken from the 
water the brown had become almost white. There 
was not nearly so marked a distinction in shade 
between the sides and belly of the fish as is true 
of the brook trout, although the brown was 
lighter underneath. In shape the fish was thicker, 
especially from the anal fin to the tail, than is 
common with our brook trout of the same size, 
although of course there is much variation in 
this respect even with fontinalis. Now I suspect 
this trout to have been a specimen of the Eng- 
lish brown trout Salmo fario, but as I have never 
seen a brown trout and have no books here for 
identification, I should like to know whether 
there is any record that these fish have been 
planted in the Saranac Lakes or Saranac River 
into which the brook in question flows. If it 
was a brown trout I can add my testimony to 
that lately printed in Forest AND STREAM in 
favor of the gaminess of these fish. I have never 
caught one of our native trout that, inch for 
inch, was so strong as this fish. I was using a 
very light rod and it was several minutes before 
I considered it safe to slip the landing net under 
him or rather her, for the fish was a female. 
As a table fish, however, this trout was not to 
my taste quite up to fontinalis. The flesh was 
not so fine grained and lacked that peculiar 
woodsy tang which is the best quality of our 
native brook trout. But it was excellent, never- 
theless. 
My second query concerns an apparently para- 
sitic affection which I noticed on the gills of some 
of the fish in my catch. The edges of the gills 
seemed, to be covered with small, light yellow 
grubs or parasites of some kind. In other ways 
the fish seemed to be in good condition. What 
is this disease and does it injure the fish for 
table purposes? The water of the stream seemed 
perfectly pure and good and I could see no pos- 
sibility of pollution arising from the water which 
might have affected these trout. fon, ee We 
_ [While not quite explicit enough to make its 
identification certain, our correspondent’s descrip- 
tion fits the brown trout -(Salmo fario) nicely. 
In it the red spots are larger and brighter than 
those of fontinalis, red spots below and brown 
spots above the median line—Enprror. | 

Fishing With Slump. 
Mitnurst, N. J., April 30.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Some years since, while living in South 
Jersey, early one splendid morning in June, 
while making preparations for a full day’s 
fishing in Crosswick’s Creek, along came three 
citizens in a much dilapidated wagon attached 
to a still more dilapidated specimen of horse- 
flesh and bones (mostly bones). These men 
had also started on a fishing exeursion, but 
in a different direction,» being headed for a 
pond some fifteen or twenty miles off in the 
pines, but “a bully place for pike,” so they 
said. As they gave me a very pressing invita- 
tion to accompany them, I accepted; so put- 
ting my rod and outfit aboard I mounted the 
rickety vehicle with the rest and we set off 
through the toughest looking and most sandy 
country imaginable. When we came to a 
rough piece of road, all except the driver 
would get out and walk for fear the wagon 
would collapse, and when we came to any 
kind of a hill we would again do the same 
for fear the old plug would collapse. So to 
save the conveyance we hoofed it more than 
half the distance that day. 
As the weather became about as 
tophet, and the sand for a good part of the 
distance ankle-deep, and also as we got lost— 
having gone some two miles off our course 
away into the brush and swamps—one can 
imagine what a tough time we would have 
had if it had not been for the fun we had on 
the way, and the bright prospects ahead - of 
splendid fishing, 
In the crowd was a queer 
humanity who went by the sobriquet .of 
“Slump.” Now Slump liked to fish as. well 
as he did to eat, and consequently was an 
adept at that sport.. While we were strag- 
gling along behind the wagon up a hill near 
a house, a medium-sized dog came out near 
to Slump, who had his bamboo fishing rod on 
his shoulder and several feet of line with the 
ganghook dangling from the end. When the 
pup came suitably near, Slump raised the rod 
and brought it down kerwhack where the dog 
would have been had it not jumped aside. 
After making several attempts to get a lick 
specimen of 
hot as. 
at the cross animal, the ganghook somehow 
got caught in its flank, and it then tried to re- 
treat instead of bite, but Slump commenced 
pulling in hand-over-hand at first with the pole 
until all of the line was unwound, and then 
with the line, with the yelping cur tugging 
with might and main at the other end. 
Slump’s eyes bulged out until they looked 
like a couple of peeled onions; the pup yelped 
and pulled, and the rest of us roared at the 
free show! 
Just then the line broke, and away went the 
dog kiyi-ing like all possessed with a gang 
hook sticking in its hide. Slump stood a 
moment looking as solemn as a deacon, and 
the first words he said were, “Well, I swear, if 
that cussed dog hain’t gone off with the only 
hook I’d got. I thought I had him sure.” 
Seeing no chance of recovering the fish- 
hook, and seeing the family all piling out into 
the road to ascertain if possible the cause of 
its using such “loud and vociferous language,” 
we hurried up the hill after the wagon, and in 
due time came to the pond, which we found 
to be as near nowhere as one could possibly 
get in this world; and we put in the rest of 
the day and the early evening in fishing with 
first-class results, and no mishaps to speak of 
except one; then Slump, while going through 
some of his tomfoolery, tumbled into the 
pond, and we snaked him aboard the scow 
with more vim than care. 
By exercising great care and with the loss 
of some shoeleather, neither the rickety 
vehicle nor the emaciated motive power col- 
lapsed, so we managed to get back to our 
respective homes about sunrise the next morn- 
ing. Nolo by 



THE TOP RAIL. 
Evidently there are some big fish still left, or 
it would not be necessary to use such large bait 
as the Louisville Courier-Journal mentioned the 
other day. It said: 
“Black bass are so large in Texas streams, ac- 
cording to the Houston Post, that Texans go 
fishing with rabbits for hait. A Louisvillian was 
seen upon the fa]ls the other day fishing with his 
nineteen-year-old son.” 
Another turtle with a carved back! This time 
the allegation comes from San Diego, Cal., where 
it is said Julius Solissa captured the big fellow, 
whose length is given as 5 feet 2 inches, weight 
1,902 pounds. Sts shell bears this inscription: 
“British ship Sea Brine, Aug. 12, 1881, 3 south 
86 west. If found please notify Thomas Fletcher, 
Brawley Road, Rivingston, England.” 
te ne 
A policeman made an unusual shot recently— 
unusual -because, while he hit a bystander, as 
was to be expected, he also hit the dog-at which 
he aimed, and killed it. A young woman who 
happened to be watching the attempt to rid the 
vicinity of a stray dog was struck by the spent 
bullet, but was not hurt much. 
This reminds me that I'saw a policeman shoot 
a horse on the street one day, and the animal 
fell dead instantly. Which astonished the man 
in blue so much-that he stared at the anima! in 
amazement. But professional pride almost im- 
mediately sent color back into his usually ruddy 
face, and he replaced the empty shell in his re- 
volver with a fresh cartridge, replaced the 
weapon, smoothed his coattails, replaced his 
white gloves, threw out his chest and was off to 
report—one of the finest still. 
GrizzLy KING. 







































































