American game fishes 1892

I shall not attempt to particularize further, for it will be. David Starr Prof. Jordan, and the veteran, B. Clarke, write of fish with which their names are associated the world over. The book as a whole is unequaled in the history of ang- ling literature, for the detail with which the various subjects are treated and grouped together, and no other volume pre- sents to its readers so much valuable information by such a galaxy of star writers upon American Game Fishes. Then, in addition to all this feast of intellectual pabulum, there is presented to the eye a rare treat in the way of accu- rate, truthful portraits of all the fishes treated in the volume, and besides these, there are many scenes that recall to the memory of the angler delightful dreams of days on lake, surf, or river, that will be green in his memory while reason holds her sway.

A from more or first to last, throughout its one thousand titles,. Albans," four centuries ago. Little in essence has been added which did not come within the scope of her speculative observation, whether it be technical, ethical, physical, metaphysical, logical, biological, or theological.

Thewas thoroughly inculcated then; its lesson application and improvement came subsequently. During the whole of this long lapse of four centuries, less advance was made than in the two last decades alone. The adept had not developed. The commonplace angler at first preferred to loll. But art improves as the passion grows. Gradually still-fishing developed into trolling; trolling into spinning; spinning into dapping; and dapping into fishing with the fly.

Silk-worm gut is first men- tioned in books "Saunder's Compleat Fisherman" in , and two years later Salmon-fishing became a new experience in England. In the use of the artificial fly was intro- duced. It was a lost art restored. At that date the ancient Jiippnnis emerges from its long obscurity, and behold!

Pursuit and quest were thereby stimulated and accelerated; and by and by they became ennobled! Primitive ichthyology comprehended little more than a superficial knowledge of the habits and habitudes of a few fishes, and their general characteristics.

Salmon and Trout were prominent among those which engaged early attention, for the Family Salmonidie are among the oldest of post-ter- tiary fresh-water fish-forms, long antedating the glacial. And his geographical range isas wide-spread as his fame. It extends around the entire. Northern Hemisphere, from latitude 40 degrees up into the extreme Arctic region, belting the continents of Europe, Asia, and America, in all three of which it is indigenous and equally abundant.

On the Pacific Ocean the belt dips down to the 30th parallel,and takes in the waters of Southern California on its eastern shore, and those of China and Japan on the west; but in all Atlantic waters the extreme southern limit is about 40 degrees.

These are divided specifically, as well as geographically, into two characteristic classes, of which one is known as Sabno the leaper , and the other as OncorJiynicJius hook-nose. Dog Salmon C. Humpback O.

Blueback O. The Quinnat,or King Salmon, is the most comely and valu- able of the and may justly be called the typical representa- lot,. He is a much heavier fish than his congener of the Atlantic, and in the rivers of Western Alaska will average fifty pounds, individuals often running up to seventy and one hundred pounds in weight.

This rush continues until the spawning season is over, by which time most of those which have reached the distant upper waters perish from the combined exhaustion of the long journey and the labor of spawning. The passage of the river is a sickening spectacle; maimed and decaying fish in myriads. Of course under such conditions the problem of fly-fishing, or any kind of rod-fishing, requires no solution. At tide- water there is always good fishing with bait and spoon, au' 'n California and Oregon and Puget Sound these methods a.

Fish-roe incased in a double thickness of mosquito-netting is the popular bait. There are exceptional rivers, notably the Clackamas, in Oregon, where fly-fishing may be practiced at certain favorable times in special locali- ties, the fluvial conditions being more like those of Atlantic rivers.

The shorter the rivers, the greater the possibilities for sport. Fourteen Salmon are reported as having been taken from a Clackamas pool in one day by a single rod. June, July, and August were found to be the best months for fly-fishing. All of these Pacific Coast fishes have their several peculi- ties very strongly developed. The snout in the adult mal " j summer and fall, is greatly distorted; the premaxillaries are prolonged, hooking over the lower jaw, which in turn is greatly elongated and somewhat hooked at tip; the teeth on these bones are greatly enlarged.

The body becomes deep and compressed, a fleshy lump is developed in front of the! The flesh, which is red and rich in the spring, becomes dry and poor then. They are in no respect hke the shapely, symmetrical, clean, lithe, and beautiful fish which dominate the Atlantic streams. Typically, Salmo Quinnat 9. Maxillary rather lender, the small eye behind its middle.

Teeth small, larger On sides of lower jaw than in front; vomerine teeth very few and weak, disappearing in the males. In the males, in late summer and fall, the jaws become elongated and distorted, and the anterior teeth much enlarged, as in the related species.

The body then becomes deeper, more compressed, and arched at the shoulders, and the color nearly black.

Preopercle and opercle strongly convex. Body comparatively robust, its depth greatest near its middle. Ventials inserted behind middle of dorsal, vential appendage half the length of the fin; caudal unusual in this genus strongly forked on a rather slender caudal peduncle. Flesh red and rich in spring, becoming paler in the fall as the spawning season approaches.

Head 4; depth 4. P3'loric coeca Body moderately elongate, symmetrical, not generally compressed. Head rather low. Preoperculum with a distinct lower limb, the angle rounded. Coloration in the adult brownish above, the sides more or less silvery, with numerous black spots on sides of head, on body and on fins, and red patches along the sides in the males; young specimens parrs with about eleven dusky cross-bars, besides black spots and red patches, the color, as well as the form of the head and body, varying much with age, food, and condition; the black spots in the adult often x-shaped, or xx-shaped.

Head 4; depth 4; Br. Weight pounds. North Atlantic, ascending all suitable rivers, and the region north of Cape Cod; some- times permanently land-locked in lakes, where its habits and coloration but no tangible specific characters change some- what, when it becomes, in America, var.

The natural southern limit of the Atlantic Salmon, within historical time,was unquestionably the Hudson River. It was so when Hendrik Hudson discovered it, but subsequent geological changes must have occurred in its upper tributa- ries to bar the passage to suitable spawning-grounds.

Its extreme northern limit has not been traced, but it has been found in a dozen of the rivers which empty into the Arctic Ocean, and its range from the Atlantic to the Pacific has been fully established. Between the Hudson Strait and Wager Inlet, the great Hudson Bay is projected southward in one tremendous indentation, and in its waters no Salmon are found only Sea Trout.

Some of the Arctic rivers, Hke the Mackenzie, are barren of Salmon, as is true also of some Atlantic coast rivers. In the physiology of the animal kingdom, naturalists have discovered that the quality of adaptation to environment plays an important part in bringing about and establishing those variations from original forms, which are called spe- cies.

Constancy of a primitive type depends upon the con- stancy of external conditions. Now, was long ago discov- it. On this basis scientists are readily able to account for that fresh-water variety of Atlantic Salmon known as vS. Salar var. Scbago, which in all respects, except the habit of anadromy, it so nearly resembles. So closely, indeed, are the generic traits maintained, that even the food materials of both the and fresh water species are analogous, one sub- salt sisting on caplins, and the other on its related species, the smelts, while the geographical ranges of the two are co-ex- tensive and conterminous.

Namaycush , whose flesh is white. Smith, of Strathroy, Canada, in London Field. The Wananishe of the Upper Saguenay River, which were long beheved to keep exclusively to fresh water, although they had direct access to the sea, have recently been ascer- tained to be simply a distinct class of the Sea Salmon, peculiar to its own waters, like all the others, and of precisely the.

In places the Saguenay is one thousand feet deep, with an extreme average depth for. Like other Salmon enjoying the John. They have a xx marking on their bodies, instead of the usual round spots; but there are Salmon in some of the other Laurentian rivers marked in precisely the same way.

Contrary to early notions, which made these land-locked fish an off-shoot of the Sea Salmon, naturalists now agree. But in obedience to the law of evolution which requires posterity to pass through the same biological changes as their progeni- tors did, all Salmon must be born and live for a time at least in fresh water; hence we find our Sea Salmon coming into the rivers and spending a large proportion of their time in fresh water, seeking there a change of diet and hygienic treatment against parasites and fungus.

Usually there is Salmon which follow the a spring run of sand-worms and herring-sile, and other shore food, into the estuaries and up into the rivers, often remaining until the water runs low and becomes too warm for comfort, when they drop back to the sea again. Later on come the Grilse, or Adolescent Salmon, some of them already in full sexual maturity, and after them the mid-summer and autumn runs of old fish.

The bulk of the Salmon run up in autumn for spawning purposes, only the earlier runs being for change of water and diet, and for sanitary purposes, as has already been stated.

A flood or a "spate" always starts the fish up-stream, and then the fish take the fly or bait best. They not only eat, but eat promiscuously and vora- ciously of a great variety of food, including young SabnonidcE and other salt and fresh water fish-fry, shrimps, prawns, sand- worms, crustaceans, cephalopods, and floating invertebrata.

Another impression is, or was, that Salmon could only be taken with fly, whereas they readily take natural minnows, prawns, worms, artificial minnows, spoons, and a dozen other kinds of bait, as has been abundantly tested and proven. Indeed, it would not be difficult to demonstrate that fly- fishing is the recent revival of an antique art, and that baits only were at one time used by anglers of low degree.

Hence their use becoming unpopular, the impression finally obtained that flies only would tempt a fish. Some of these baits, it may be observed, have been found to take best in spring, others in mid-summer, and others still in autumn. There are no conditions or stages, it would seem, when the Salmon will not accept one or more of the above-named baits at some time or other in the course of twenty-four hours, as observers have ascertained.

It is remarkable that this question should. Directly in this connection it may be mentioned that the annelids, or sand-worms, play an important part in influenc- ing the spring movements of Salmon. At that season they swarm in from the ocean to breed on the beach flats, either swimming free like eels, in great masses, or housed in their burrows.

Indeed they constitute a most important element in the economy of many fish not only of nomadic kinds of and littoral which constantly root for species, but of those them in their beds, like the Tautog, Haddock, etc. It is manifest that the pulpy bodies of these worms, as well as of much other delicate food which Salmon eat in the early spring, dissolve in their stomachs like glucose or starch.

As regards the spring run of Salmon, it would be impossible for them to sustain life for the five months intervening until autumn spawning season unless they fed, while in respect to the late autumn runs they but follow the instinct of all preg- nant creatures on the eve of parturition, eating a little here.

It would be inexplicable indeed if Salmon were not required by nature to fortify alone, of all creatures, and strengthen themselves for the supremest act of physical existence.

Pancritius, of Germany, has very intelHgently tlescribed the chemistry of digestion in fishes: so that these subjects are problems no more. Possibly one reason why there has been such a wide diverg- ence of opinion about the life-history of the Salmon is, that there is nothing constant about them, except their periodical visits to the sea and river, and these vary, not only with cli-.

In the Arctic rivers there is only a mid-summer run of Salmon. There is no autumn run, for the rivers are frozen tight by the end of September. In many Laurentian rivers there are a spring, sunnner, and autunm run, because the rivers are kept in full supply of cold water from the reser- voirs of melting snow In rivers of extreme at their sources.

If the fish have five hundred miles or more. High falls especially retard their progress. To sur- mount these they are obliged to climb their rugged abutments, which are full of pockets and crevices and projections, over which the lateral overflow is constantly spilling in greater or less quantity; and it is not altogether an impossible feat for a Salmon to mount a very high fall by these gradual steps, stopping betimes to rest his muscles and moisten his gills in.

How- ever, up the fish must go, impelled irresistibly by the instinct. The time of spawning often varies in the same river, and is determined by the period at which impregna- tion has taken place.

A portion of the run, therefore, being riper than the rest, spawn sooner, and, having fulfilled their. Gravid must halt in whatever part of the fish.

Such as are obliged to con- tinue on to the upper spawning-beds arrive in sorry plight, mutilated, crushed, and almost shapeless. Fortunate are those which have vitality enough left to be able to return to the sea. Indeed, so great is the mortality, that it has been generally believed that they never return at all. Speckled Trout are found in almost all eastern Salmon streams, and the angler who chances to try his luck in them will often pick out of the riffs fish of varying size which he looks at twice, being in doubt of their identity.

Some of. He thinks they are a new kind of trout, but they are really adolescent and baby Salmon, called Smolts and Parr. When the Smolt goes to sea, as he does his second year, he will gain a pound a month in the salt. As a Grilse he tarries in the upper pools till spring, and again returns to the sea a full- grown Salmon, grows fat and ponderous, and again ascends 9. Marked fish have been known to treble their weight in a twelve-month.

Late spawning fish generally drop down the river with the "June rise" in a most emaciated and ravenous condition, and are often picked up by the angler, greatly to his disgust, for their stomachs have shrunk entirely away, their skin hangs in ilabby folds, their scales have all sloughed and they off,. Such objects are called "Kelts," and they play havoc with everything that has fins, destroying great quantities of small Salmon in their ravenous raids for food.

Very different is the first-run Salmon, just from the sea, with his plump and shapely form, broad shoulders, and glisten- ing armature of blue and silver scales, leaping for joy at his escape from the dangers of the passage, and dallying with the pleasures and incidents of the way.

To catch one of these magnificent fish, to have him on your line, for an hour at a time, to be intimate with him, as it were, is an experi- ence which no one can appreciate who has not been through the ordeal: for an ordeal it is, of the most trying sort.

In his "Pleasures of Angling," Mr. George Dawson describes his sensations on capturing his first Salmon, in a most realistic way. It seems he had raised his fish once, and looked him.

My nerves thrilled and every muscle assumed the tension of well-tem- pered steel, but I realized the full sublimity of the occasion, and a sort of majestic calmness took the place of the stupid inaction which followed the first apparition. And during all this time my canoe-man rendered efficient service in keeping even pace with the eccentric movements of the struggling fish.

The result was an incessant clicking of the reel, either in paying out or in taking in, with an occasional flurry and leap which could have been no more prevented than the on-rushing of a locomotive. Toward the close of the fight, when it was evident that the 'jig was up,' and I felt myself master of the situation, I took my stand upon a projecting point in the river, where the water was shallow and where the most favorable opportunity possible was afforded the gaffer to give the struggling fish the final death-thrust, and so end the battle.

It was skillfully done. The first plunge of the gaff brought him to the greensward, and there lay out before me, in all his silver beauty and magnificent proportions,my first Salmon. He weighed thirty pounds, plump, measured nearly four feet in length, was killed in fifty minutes. It is said that when the good old Dr. Bethune landed his first Salmon, 'he caressed it as fondly as he ever caressed his first-born. With other fish in full view, ready to give me a repetition of the grand sport I had already experienced, I made no other cast, and retired perfectly contented.

The beautiful fish was laid down lovingly in the bottom of the canoe, and borne in triumph to the camp, where fish and fisher were given such a hearty welcome amid such hilarious enthusiasm as was befitting 'the cause and the occasion. In America there is no winter Salmon fishing, as there is in some rivers in Scotland, for our Atlantic streams are?

Once in a while, however, some tough old angler who has become inured to the vicissitudes of weather and hard knocks in general, and who "knows the ropes," will venture down to the Port Midway and other rivers of Nova Scotia in February, and capture some fine Salmon while the ice is running. The game, however, is hardly worth the candle. Most make professional anglers it a point to be on the Bay Chaleur streams by the first of June, and on the Lower St.

Lawrence River about three weeks later. John, Province of Quebec, about the same time. A month later the fish are plenty on the riffs of the Grande Discharge, or outlet of the lake; for which I would advise the use of light Salmon tackle, such as professiDual Salmon anglers keep for a second outfit, as also for the Land-locked Salmon of Sebago, Toed's Pond, and other waters, which are apt to run up into the twenty-pound weights.

For Salmon fishing, pure and simple the old-fashioned Salmon where the rod has fishing, to stand a racket would choose a sixteen to eighteen testful I. The man who talks "light rod" has never fished where heavy rods are needed, and is not com- petent to coach. He does not comprehend the first princi- ples of the situation. A wooden rod is apt to be heavier than a split bamboo in proportion to its length; but all else. Any rod whatever which is too heavy to wield without the ail of a waistband and thimble, should be discarded.

These long, heavy rods are in request for heroic work in wicked waters, when the wind is stiff, and the fishing may be called taxing. Second rods are better adapted for switching where casting room is restricted, and for use in calm days and quiet pools.

Whenever one can use this lighter rod, the climax of pleasure is reached. The reel should be heavy enough to balance the rod, made of nickel and rubber, with crank enclosed by a flange, so as not to catch the line, and the line should be as light as one can possibly make good casting with.

One hundred yards of oiled silk are enough, unless your fish flops into a rapid, when you will want a thousand. A as essential as a correct rod. As to selection of flies, the most killing for mid-season are the Josh Scott, Silver Doctor, and Turkey Wing the brightest later on.

These are chief among. Yellow Mohair and Golden Pheasant are the best for early rivers. In the evening, when the light goes off the water, large and brighter colors can be used with flies.

As to size of flies, one universal proverb will always stand: Large flies for heavy and deep water; larger flies for waters which run rapid and rough than for those which run shallow and quiet; large flies for evening fishing, and large flies for early spring fishing.

In these later years I have learned to use double snoods. Upon the whole, find Salmon less capricious than Trout. I The truth is, on a booming river, or when the Salmon are in a taking mood, they are not particular as to the kind of fly they take. There is a good deal of fresco work in the talk about killing- flies and favorites. Pedantry will often count for more than common sense, but it does not carry as far.

Fish rise best the moment when the river begins to come out. In some cases they will rise until the water becomes so dirty that they cannot see, but in general the spurt will not last over an hour.

This, however, is not the time to fish. Once, on a moonlight night, they made. Not a cloud or a whiff of wind. The river was alive with them. The best time to fish is the moment when the fish become and begin to choose quiet their resting-. In a colored river, the shallowest parts should be fished, be- cause the fish can see better there than in deep water.

An old angler, in one of the English sporting papers, observes that "many young anglers raise a great many fish and fail to hook them. Even some long-experienced anglers get into this habit, and never get out of it. The reason of this is, they cast too straight across the stream, and keep the point of their rod too high.

The fly travels round too fast, and the fish make a dash at it and fail to catch it. The fly should go straight out, the cast should be made well down the river, the point of the rod kept nearly touching the water, and the fly allowed to sink well down.

The rod should be worked slowly when the fly has nearly come over the cast. I am glad to quote here what Mr. Tod, an angler of world-wide reputation, has to say in the London Fishing Gazette, by way of instruction as to how to handle a Salmon when hooked. He says: "First of all, hold your rod pointing upward, so as to bring the spring of it to bear with all its power on the fish; then 'hang on' to the fish, and do not let him have any more.

If the fish is determined to run, he will take. I need scarcely say that a fish, if small,. Should he go to the bottom like a log, as large ones some- times do, get bclozv him if possible, and pull hard at him.

This will generally succeed, but sometimes more severe measures have to be taken, as on the Usk, last season. A Salmon weighing forty-two pounds, on being hooked, sank to the bottom, and was only moved by a gallant colonel, who was present, strip- ping and swimming in after it.

Speaking of this habit of sulking, here is what Parker Gil- more "Ubique" has to say about it. I had rather quote these two old worthies than to quote myself. He says: "Obtain the smallest hollow bangle procurable, having a hinge at the back, and closing with a snap on the opposite side. Have its inner surface perforated with numerous holes, the outer surface with a few only, each to be about the size of a No.

Partly fill the interior of the bangle with snuff or cayenne pepper. Place the bangle above the reel, around the rod and line, pass it up till it goes over the tip of the top joint, when,. The action of the water upon the snuff or pepper will be more than the delicate mouth and nose of the Salmon can stand, so off he will go for other haunts.

Stop the Salmon dare not now, for, when- ever he stops, the pungent stuff makes itself felt. In fact, the only possible relief to be obtained is by going, and go he will, with the velocity of a greyhound with a kettle attached. Verily, this is a wholesome way to hustle a Salmon that sulks! It holds over any scheme that I ever struck on this side of the Atlantic.

But Parker Gilmore has been over a great deal perhaps he happened on it here. This is all very well to start the fish, but the trouble would be to stop him.

This hint about holding the rod up reminds me that a differ- ent practice is required for river Salmon than for land-locked fish. I am convinced that anglers who have tried for the latter without success have habitually cast too long a line. Following the approved mode in rapid-stream fishing and broken water, they have laid their lines straight out, and kept the point of the rod nearly touching the water.

This is. On dead water a short line is requisite; the rod should be kept almost perpendicular, so that the fly can trail. Not more than six feet of the gut-length should touch the water at any time. The fish are so busy investigating the phenomenon of the line that they don't mind the fly.

Perhaps they don't see it. To attract his attention the point of the rod should be pumped up and down. This will move the fly a foot or more at each motion. Sometimes it is well to draw the line through the rings with the left hand while working the point. The whole pro- cess is Experienced anglers will appre- e. The only way is not to strike when a Salmon rises, but to let him pull the point of the rod down three or four feet, and then fix the hook in his jaw by a There is gentle lifting of the rod so as to bring the line taut.

It beats skittering with a spoon all hollow. It is obvious that this mode applies to tidal waters and still pools in rivers as well. It is much in vogue in Scottish lochs. I have patterns of Land-locked Salmon flies with yellow bodies, turkey wings, and claret body with mallard wings which I have always used with success wherever tried. Trolling for Land-locked Salmon with live smelts, or phan- toms, is a successful method in Weld and Sebago, and as a dernier resort, a buoy may be baited with chopped fish.

Set the buoy in thirty to forty feet of water, and fish with the same bait as you chummed with, or with live minnows, and use just sinker enough to carry the line to the bottom. When a fish is felt, let him have a pull at the hook, and then raise the rod-tip gently and firmly. This will generally fasten him, and the subsequent proceedings will be interesting.

The number of expert Salmon anglers in this or any other country is small, possibly because their experience is often confined to a single river, or to rivers of the same temper. Rivers are as different as horses. Some are wild, im- petuous, and untamable; others restive as an Arabian courser. Some plod like a plow-horse, and others buck like a broncho or kick like a mule.

Some dash Jo the sea in a straight-away course, with scarcely a break, and others wind with a sinuous and solemn monotony, like blind cobs in a tread-mill. Some are like circus horses, cavorting in many an eddy, and flying leap, and others tumble and plunge like colts at the hurdles. Some have breadth, and depth, and sweep, while others are pent-up, curbed, and narrow, churned into constant lather and foam.

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