Forgotten Treasures #19: THE SPECKLED BROOK TROUT--PART II

THE SPECKLED BROOK TROUT

PART II:

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BIG TROUT OF THE NEPIGON, LAKE EDWARD, LAKE BATISCAN, ETC.





Contemplative men who love quietness and virtue and to go a-fishing, attain
to such familiarity with the works of Nature, that it would indeed be
strange if each succeeding generation of anglers did not make some advance
from the previous store of scientific knowledge pertaining to the
interesting subjects of fish and fishing. For it is as true in our day as
in those in which Walton wrote and fished, that angling is "so like the
mathematics that it can never be fully learned; at least not so fully but
that there will still be more new experiments left for the trial of other
men that succeed us."



Indefatigable industry and rare, ripe scholarship have been devoted to its
literature, and though the art is not to be taught by book, yet it teaches
many things itself which are not so easily learned in any other school. And
since many men of great wisdom, learning, and experience now practise this
art, scientific accuracy demands that I should modify the title of this
little treatise, at least to the extent of frankly avowing, even at the risk
of a solecism, that neither big trout, not little trout, nor trout of any
kind whatever are to be found, either in Lake Edward, Lake Nepigon, or Lake
Batiscan; or, for the matter of that, in any of the meres, or lakes, or
rivers, of which it is my pleasant recreation to converse with the brethren
of the Angle.



The ever-beautiful fish of these waters, whose scientific name is Salvelinus
fontinalis, has been called a trout, it is true, ever since it became known
to the first European settlers of its environment. It came by its
vernacular name, says Professor Prince, through the Pilgrim Fathers; who,
when they first saw it in New England, mistook it for the same fish which
they had known in their own Devonshire streams, and which it resembles in
size, form, and other characteristics, although materially differing from it
in structure, and especially in the essentially distinguishing trait of the
arrangement of teeth upon the vomer. The newcomers were evidently delighted
to think that the rivers in the new land, like those of the old, were trout
streams, and they gave the fish found in them the name that most nearly
reminded them of a form which existed in the mother country, notwithstanding
some external differences, such, for instance, as those in the coloration of
the spots.



The fact that this charming so-called trout of American waters is not a true
Salmo, but a char, need not, it has well been said, occasion any sorrow to
the angler or to the lover of the attractive fish, since all the members of
this group of salmonoids are noted not only for their beauty and grace, but
also for their game qualities; and an eminent ichthyologist has declared
that "no higher praise can be given to a salmonoid than to call it a char."



Whatever disappointment may be caused the American disciple of the gentle
Isaak, by the knowledge that the trout of the "Complete Angler" is a
different fish from fontinalis, it must not be forgotten that Walton pays
quite a compliment to the char, testifying to its "high esteem with persons
of great note." The dear old Master Angler was wrong in his supposition
that this special Salvelinus was only to be found in Lake Windermere, for it
is now known to exist in many of the other lakes of the British Isles, and
the same variety is said to have been recognized in some of the waters of
continental Europe. Though an exceedingly handsome fish, like our own
fontinalis, Walton's char neither attains to the size of its close congener
of the New World, nor yet affords as good sport to the angler; only rarely
taking the fly, and being usually caught by trolling with a minnow, on a
long line, sunk deep in the water. Our own beautiful char may never succeed
in throwing off its domestic appellation of speckled trout, or American
brook trout, and since this is so, and that a rose by any other name smells
just as sweet, I shall, for convenience sake, make use of such common name,
as many others now do, who have no more intention or desire than I have to
intimate that this favorite fish is really a trout, or anything more or less
that a char, and one of the most elegant, most gamy, and in every way most
desirable members of that highly favored species.



Sir Humphry Davy has left us a description of the leading type of the
European char, from which we may glean some idea of its brilliant coloring,
though British testimony is not wanting to establish the fact that, in the
richness of its livery, it still falls short of the glorious apparel of the
American brook trout. In fact, no purely British fish, says the author of a
paper in Blackwood's on "Fontinalis in Scotland," can boast the hues which
deck the fontinalis. Never, he says, have we seen such gorgeous and
brilliant coloring in any finny creature, excepting, perhaps, in some of the
quaint topical varieties from the Caribbean Sea, which are shown to the
traveller by Negro fishermen in Jamaica.



Sir Humphry Davy had no personal knowledge of our American brook trout, and
it is therefore not surprising to read that he had never seen more beautiful
fish than the European char, "which, when in perfect season, have the lower
fins and the belly of the brightest vermilion, with a white line on the
outside of the pectoral, ventral, anal, and lower part of the caudal fin,
and with vermilion spots, surrounded by the bright olive shade of the sides
and back." Those who have been privileged to examine the brilliant flaming
red bands upon the lower part of the sides of some of Canada's Alpine char,
in the spawning season, and especially of the newly named
Salvelinus Oquassa Marstonii, will see that there is a close resemblance
between the appearance of some of the American and European chars, though
beautiful as all of these are, no other one of them that has yet been
described is arrayed in such shades of olive and purple and crimson and
gold, as the large specimens of fontinalis found in the cool, clear waters
of Northern Maine and the Dominion of Canada.



Let us carefully examine a newly caught specimen of the Lake Edward trout,
fresh from the rapids of the River Jeannotte-the outlet of the big
lake-where its monster fish descend in the latter part of August, in search
of their spawning-beds. During the heat of the midsummer months we angle in
vain for this beautiful creature upon the surface of the water. After the
manner of his near kinsman, the char of Windermere and Geneva-Salvelinus
Alpinus-the gay cavalier seeks the cool depths of the spring-fed lake,
whence the most deftly cast flies fail to attract him. Minnows compose his
daily menu, and with a cool summer-resort and plenty of good food, he has no
inclination to trouble himself with what is disturbing the surface of the
water. In the comparatively swift rapids of the picturesque discharge,
fontinalis, finding no minnows upon which to feed, is successfully tempted
by the fluttering fly to "spring from the deep and try aerial ways." Here
the giant specimens of the Lake Edward char, which attain a size rarely to
be met in running water, rise freely to the artificial lures which were cast
in vain over the bosom of the lake. Here, too, as in the Nepigon and the
Montmorenci, at this season of the year, the American brook trout is found
in his most gorgeous apparel. His whole being is aflame with burning
passion and nuptial desire, which reveal themselves in the fiery flushes of
deepest crimson upon his shapely sides and lower fins. The creamy white
margins of the pectoral, anal, and ventral fins distinctly mark the course
of the fish in the dark water, and form a striking contrast to his
olive-colored and vermiculated back and dorsal fin. Here, he has caught the
varying tints of the submerged rocks, and of the lake, and in the brilliant
brocade of his spotted sides he reflects the gold of the setting sun, and
the purple sheen of the distant hills. The partner of his spawning joys and
sorrows lacks much of his flaming indication of sexual ambition, but is
shapely and jewel-bedecked and beautiful beyond compare. If even Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these richly colored spawning
makes, the female fish, with the brilliant silver of its burnished sides,
marked with orange and purple spots-their centres often dotted with
crimson-is the very embodiment of grace and beauty.



Unlike some of the fickle fair amongst the fishes of Oppian's Halieutics,
the big trout of these northern lakes are always found in couples upon the
spawning-beds, and so closely attendant are they upon each other's
movements, that the spouse of a hooked fish may often be seen swimming
around the struggling captive, as though anxious to aid it to be free, and
has sometimes been taken in the same landing-net.



During the latter half of August and the whole of September, these large
fish rise very freely to ordinary trout flies in the Jeannotte, and have
been taken there over seven pounds in weight. Fish from two to five pounds
are quite common in all the upper pools of the river at this season, and
sometimes the angler may enjoy the sport of playing two or three of them at
the same time. They are extremely gamy, and often break water several times
before being brought to net. In spring and summer, not one of these large
fish is to be found in the stream, though there are plenty of fingerlings
ready to seize the angler's flies. The big fellows are all in the big lake.
They grow big because of the large extent of spring-fed water in which they
roam, and also because of the abundant food supply furnished them by the
innumerable shoals of minnows.



The lack of much insect food for fish at Lake Edward is perhaps responsible
for the habits of its trout. At all event, the large ones are not to be
seduced by insect lures until they withdraw to the shallower water of the
spawning-beds in the stream below. In springtime they often come pretty
near to the surface of the lake, when they chase the vast shoals of minnows
into somewhat shallow water. The frightened little fish fly by thousands in
front of their pursuers, and as they spring into the air and fall back into
the lake, the splash that they make resembles the sound of a heavy fall of
hail. A live minnow is a good bait, and catches of four and five pound fish
are of daily occurrence here in the spring of the year. Worms and other
ordinary bait are used with good result, and so are mice, frogs, and even
pieces of pork. Trolling, either with the spoon, the phantom minnow, or a
dead-fish bait, is also very successful. These monster char will readily
take a very large size pike-spoon, and will not even refuse to make a meal
of the young of their own species.



In all probability there are larger fish in Lake Edward than any that have
been taken out of it, and if reliance can be placed upon the stories of the
big ones which have been hooked and lost there, the size of its speckled
trout is not exceeded in any Canadian stream or lake.



Throughout the northern part of the continent there are a series of favored
waters where gigantic specimens of Salvelinus fontinalis, at least equalling
those caught in Lake Edward, in size and gorgeousness of coloring, and
sometimes exceeding them in gameness, are still to be found. These lakes
and rivers are situated, for the most part, amid the mountains of the
Laurentian chain, which extends from the north of Lake Superior to the
sea-coast of Labrador, though some of them occur on the north of the
water-shed dividing the waters of Hudson's Bay from those of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence. Much confusion has been caused by the application of the name
"trout," as well to the namaycush or christivomer as to Salvelinus
fontinalis, and many reports of large trout in northern waters have been
found, upon investigation, to refer to the so-called gray or lake trout, or
namaycush. Speckled trout of three to nine pounds in weight are reported,
however, to have been taken in nets in Lake Wahwanichi, a beautiful mere
about the size of Lake Edward, namely, twenty miles long by one to three
wide.



In the Hamilton River, above the Grand Falls, in the interior of Labrador,
there is, according to Mr. Low, the well-known explorer, the finest
trout-fishing in Canada-all large fish, none under three pounds, and from
this to seven pounds, and plenty of them in all the rapids. Several of the
rivers flowing from the north into Lake Superior also contain very large
trout. Professor Ramsay Wright, of the University of Toronto, is authority
for the statement that specimens of Salvelinus fontinalis have been secured
in the Nepigon up to seventeen pounds in weight. Accessibility to an
abundant food supply and a deep cold-water habitat contribute very
materially to the rapid growth of all the trouts and chars, and the Nepigon
River and the lakes by which it is fed contain large quantities of
whitefish, while the water is so cold that its average summer temperature is
not much above forty degrees. The fish have therefore no reason to keep
down in the lowest depths of the river, and they consequently rise freely to
the angler's flies. The best fishing is to be had there from the middle of
July through the months of August and September. The river is rather more
than thirty miles long to the Great Lake Nepigon at its head, and is broken
by fifteen chutes or falls, at the foot of all of which there is excellent
fishing. The average width of the river is two hundred yards, but it has
several large lake expansions, and its depth is from twenty to two hundred
and fifty feet. Fontinalis has consequently ample scope here for the
display of all his fighting qualities. Professor Wright's estimate of the
size of the Nepigon fish is probably based upon reports of several years
ago, when none but Indians fished the river, and there are many modern
authorities for the killing of nine and ten pound brook trout in its waters.
The standard flies for the Nepigon are the professor, queen of the water,
grizzly king, gray and green drakes, Montreal, silver doctor, coachman, and
hackles. Even Nepigon has its off days for the fly-fisher, however, and
upon these the phantom minnow usually does good work, thought it is a
question whether the use of any other lure than flies should not be
prohibited upon this magnificent stream, which has already become
considerably deteriorated.



The Michipicoten, the Jack Pine, and other streams in this neighborhood are
probably but little inferior to the Nepigon, and it is by no means uncommon
to take brook trout in all of them up to five pounds in weight.



Not only in the country north of the St. Lawrence are large brook trout to
be found. Six and seven pound specimens have been caught in some of the
rivers and lakes of the Squatteck country, in the vicinity of Lake
Temiscouata, which is not far from the boundary of New Brunswick; while
others, nearly as bulky, occur in the preserves of the Megantic Fish and
Game Association, on either side of the Maine and Quebec boundary line.

What was supposed to have been a record fish, at the time, was assigned the
place of honor in the department of Fish and Fisheries at the Centennial
Exhibition in Philadelphia. After it had been some time dead it turned the
scales at ten pounds. Professor Spencer F. Baird and Professor Agassiz are
both said to have given it as their opinion that when freshly taken this
trout weighed at least eleven and a half pounds. It measured thirty inches
in length and eighteen in circumference, and was caught in October, 1867, in
one of the Rangeley Lakes, in Maine. Some old anglers, and many younger
ones who are acquainted with the literature of the subject, will recall the
excitement which broke out in the angling world of America in 1863, when Mr.
George Shepard Page, of New York City, returned from a trip to the
Rangeleys, bringing with him eight brook trout weighing from eight down to
five and a half pounds each. Scores of letters were sent to the papers
which had presumed to call these fish brook trout-some of them
interrogative, more denunciatory, others theoretical, and some, again,
flatly contradictory. The Adirondacks had never yielded a brook trout which
weighed more than five pounds, and that, therefore, must be the standard of
brook trout the world over. But Mr. Page had foreseen the violent
skepticism which was sure to manifest itself, and had sent one of his
seven-pounders to Professor Agassiz, who speedily replied that these monster
trout were genuine specimens of the so-called speckled or brook trout
family, and that they were only found in large numbers in the lakes and
streams at the headwaters of the Androscoggin River in Northwestern Maine.
The big trout of Lake Edward, of the Nepigon, of Lake Batiscan, Lake Jacques
Cartier, and other Canadian waters, were evidently unknown to Professor
Agassiz at that time, or he certainly would never have attempted to so limit
the occurrence of the monster char. Many of the heavy trout killed in the
same waters during the next few years were caught upon trolling lines,
though some very large ones rose to the fly, and Mr. Henry O. Stanley, of
Dixfield, now and for over thirty years past one of the Fish Commissioners
of the State of Maine, has a record of several hundred brook trout taken
with the fly, and running from three to nine and a half pounds each.



Lake Batiscan, which is noted for its large trout, is about midway between
the city of Quebec and Lake St. John, and only a few miles distant from the
line of the railway. Dean Robbins, of Albany, N. Y.; Dr. Robert M.
Lawrence, of Lexington, Mass., and a number of friends secured twelve brook
trout in Lake Batiscan in 1895, whose aggregate weight was seventy-two
pounds. The dean caught, by trolling, an eight and a quarter pound trout,
and another of the party one of eight and a half pounds. The latter was
twenty-six inches long and seventeen in girth. The Hon. W. B. Kirk, of
Syracuse, N.Y., had to his credit a nine-pound trout taken from the same
lake. Mr. Alfred Harmsworth, proprietor of the London Daily Mail, saw a
number of seven and eight pound fish from this lake at the Garrison Club, in
Quebec, in 1894, and guessed their average weight at ten pounds, as related
at the time by the late Mr. A. N. Cheney, in the columns of Forest and
Stream. Almost all the waters of the Triton Tract, in which Lake Batiscan
is situated, are noted for the large size of the fontinalis which inhabit
them. The late Colonel A. L. Light killed fourteen trout in one hour on the
tract in 1892, their total weight being forty-five pounds. Mr. Cheney and
Mr. W. F. Rathbone, of Albany, took twenty-five speckled trout in the Moise
River, on the fly, in September, 1897, which weighed in all 101 pounds. Ten
of Mr. Cheney's fish weighted forty-five pounds and ten of Mr. Rathbone's
forty-one pounds.



Except in the fall of the year many of the heaviest trout caught in lakes
are undoubtedly taken upon the troll. Even those that killed upon a fly
often seize it as it is trolled behind a boat. One of the flies used in
angling for these heavy fish is the coarse bunch of hair known as the
moose-tail fly. It is usually trolled some distance under the water.



The Lake Batiscan trout are exceptionally handsome fish. They are almost
always in good condition. So, too, are those of the Montmorenci River,
which are among the gamy specimens known to Canadian anglers. They feed and
fatten largely upon insect food, and hence grow strong and lusty as well as
bold and gamy. All fish-culturists know how superior in coloring of flesh,
in flavor, and in gameness are those trout and chars which feed upon flies
or crustacea.



Mr. Stoddart, in his "Art of Angling as Practised in Scotland," mentions an
interesting experiment made with trout, some years ago, in the south of
England, in order to ascertain the value of different food. Fish were
placed in three separate tanks, one of which was supplied daily with worms,
another with live minnows, and the third with those small dark-colored
water-flies which are to be found moving about on the surface under banks
and sheltered places. The trout fed with worms grew slowly, and had a lean
appearance; those nourished on minnows-which it was observed, they darted at
with great voracity-became much larger; while such as were fattened upon
flies only, attained in short time prodigious dimensions, weighing twice as
much as both the others together, although the quantity of food swallowed by
them was in no-wise so great.



Lanman has stated that one principal cause of the great variety in color of
the brook trout is the difference of food; such as live upon fresh-water
shrimps and other crustacea are the brightest; those which feed upon
May-flies and other aquatic insects are the next; and those which feed upon
worms are the dullest of all. Trout which feed much upon larvae
(Phryganidae) and their cases are not only red in flesh but they become
golden in hue and the red spots increase in number.



Professor Agassiz has said "the most beautiful trout are found in waters
which abound in crustacea; direct experiments having shown that the
intensity of the red colors of their flesh depends upon the quantity of
Gammaridae (fresh-water shrimps) which they have devoured."



Mr. Cheney once wrote that "fishes are probably creatures of habit as well
as man, and if they are supplied only with food which is found at the
bottom, they will look to the bottom for it and not look to the surface,
where the angler casts his flies; so the food question is one that relates,
more than anything else, to the condition of the fish, as their habits may
be changed by a change of food that causes them to look up for it rather
than down."



This constant looking down for their food in the depths of Lake Edward no
doubt accounts for the general refusal of its trout to rise to surface
lures.



In Montmorenci, some twenty to thirty miles above its famous falls; in the
Ouiatchouan, the stream which carries the surplus waters of Lake Bouchette
into Lake St. John; in La Belle Riviere, and in other northern waters that
might be mentioned, fontinalis feeds largely upon insect food, and six and
seven pound specimens have not infrequently fallen victims to the
fly-fisherman's skill.



Space forbids lengthy reference to the huge trout of the great lake Jacques
Cartier, a splendid body of water now hidden in the almost impenetrable
depths of the Canadian forest; but those familiar with the works of Mr. John
Burroughs will recall the story, in "Locusts and Wild Honey," of the
six-pounder taken by him at the very source of the Jacques Cartier River,
when there was then a passable road for a buckboard from Quebec to the lake.
Since the building of the railway to Lake St. John this pathway has become
so deserted that it is in parts quite overgrown with shrubbery, while many
of its bridges have entirely disappeared.



A pack-horse may get through to the big lake, and here, in its discharge,
and in Lac des Neiges, only a few miles distant from it, are to be found
some of the best waters still open to anglers in which the big red trout of
Canada may be fished for, and may be caught, too, if good luck wait upon the
angler's efforts. The autumn fishing is surer, here, than any other, and
September is the best month to go. But the lakes mentioned, as well as all
the upper course of the Jacques Cartier River, are comprised in the
Government preserve known as the Laurentides National Park, which occupies
much of the interior of the country between the Saguenay and the Quebec &
Lake St. John Railway. The Government guards this preserve itself and
charges $1 per day for the right of fishing its waters, and $1 for the use
of canoes and camping equipment. Guides cost $1.50 and $1.25 per day each.
Owing to the rapid nature of the Jacques Cartier River in the upper part of
its course, and to its extremely wild, precipitous cliffs, it is dangerous
and well nigh impossible to ascent it to its source, but good trout-fishing
may be had in some of the waters that may be reached by canoes. A drive of
thirty miles from Quebec over good country roads brings the angler to a
farm-house, where he may obtain lodging and guides, close to the boundary of
the park, and a few hours' poling upstream brings him to good fishing
grounds. The afternoon of the second day should find him at pools where
three and four pound trout have been taken, and if he prefers a shorter trip
he may enjoy good sport in the Sauteriski, one of the tributaries of the
Jacques Cartier, which has yielded five-pound trout in the month of
September. Licenses to fish in the park, which covers over a million and a
half of acres, and all other information respecting it may be obtained from
the Department of Fish and Game, at the Parliament House in Quebec. Fair
fishing may be had in the rapids of the Jacques Cartier River in the latter
part of May and the first part of June, and though the largest fish do not
always rise to surface lures in spring-time, trout of a good size are
plentiful, and many anglers prefer to fight fontinalis in rapid water, even
though they may not secure the biggest fish. Smaller fish may be had all
through the summer in Jacques Cartier rapids, but the insect pests of the
Canadian forests detract largely from the sportsman's enjoyment there during
the month of July and the early part of August. The open season for trout
in the province of Quebec commences on May 1st, though it frequently happens
that the ice does not leave the surface of the northern lakes until several
days later. In some seasons the fish rise as early as the 5th to the 8th of
May; in others there is not much fly-fishing before the 15th of that month.
July is an off month, except for small fish or for trolling and
bait-fishing; and neither the last ten days of June nor the first ten or
fifteen days of August are as favorable to the sport as earlier and later
dates. The open season ends on September 30th.


Many of the best fishing waters already mentioned are entirely controlled by
private clubs. The angling in the Jeannotte belongs to the Orleans Fish and
Game Club, and that in Lake Batiscan, the river and lake Moise, and numerous
other lakes and streams, to the Triton Fish and Game Club. The Stadacona
and Laurentide Clubs, of Quebec, own waters containing very large fish,
within easy reach of the Quebec & Lake St. John Railway; the magnificent
angling in the Ouiatchouan is leased to the Ouiatchouan Fish and Game Club;
the Laurentian Club, which contains many New Yorkers in its membership, owns
much good water, supplied with heavy trout, in the valley of the St.
Maurice, while the fishing of the Nepigon is the property of the Government
of Ontario, which charges a license fee of $5 to residents of Canada, and of
$10 to non-residents, for the right to two weeks' angling. The fishing in
Lake Edward is virtually free to everybody, for it is leased by the
proprietor of the hotel there for the accommodation of his guests, and
visiting sportsmen have no other place to stay at the lake than either the
hotel or some of the camps on the lake shore controlled by its management.
Charges for hotel and guides are quite reasonable.



Outside of those of the Laurentides National Park, all unleased waters
belonging to the Province of Quebec may be fished by the people of the
province, and by any non-resident who pays the license fee of $1 per day, or
$10 for the season, which is required of all those non-resident anglers who
are not themselves lessees of Government fishing waters, or members of fish
and game protection clubs holding one or more such leases.



The angler for the big brook trout of Canadian lakes and rivers may make
choice of a great variety of tackle. I have had sea-run specimens of
fontinalis no larger than those I should love to kill on a five-ounce rod
seize the fly with which I was endeavoring to raise a thirty-pound salmon.
How spitefully have I dragged them by main force with my salmon-rod and
tackle on the sloping beach out of the water that they were so ruthlessly
disturbing! At other times, and under different circumstances, I should
have considered that I had drawn a prize out of the pool. On a seven to
nine ounce rod these freshly run sea trout give splendid sport. Many
anglers kill them with grilse rods, and enjoy the fun, too.



The big trout of inland waters may be killed none too soon for some
fishermen with just such tools as those already described. When light ones
will to the work I have no use for the heavy rods. One of nine ounces,
short and stiff, is not too heavy for trolling purposes. For bait I
recommend the use of one of seven to nine ounces; rather longer than the
trolling rod, and not necessarily quite so stiff. Even for fly-fishing in
heavy rapids I have used a nine-ounce lancewood rod, ten feet long. My
favorite weapon for this work, however, is a split bamboo made by that
prince of good fellows and of amateur rod-makers, Mr. Graham H. Harris,
chairman of the Chicago School Board. It weights seven ounces, is a beauty,
and has four or five pound trout to its credit. A five-ounce rod will do
the work equally well, but may take longer about it. Though I have never
handled such large fish on a tool of this size, I have killed one of three
and a half pounds on a rod that weighed only as many ounces, and that is
very much the same thing.



A light reel, holding not les than thirty to thirty-five yards of fine
waterproof line, with six to nine feet of good single-gut casting and a few
patterns of the standard flies already mentioned, will complete the angler's
outfit. Neither the large variety of artificial flies nor yet the fineness
of workmanship on the part of the tier, recommended by most angling
authorities for use in the small-stream fishing of the Eastern States, is
necessary to the taking of the untutored, uncivilized fontinalis of the
heavy water of Northern Canada. Flies tied upon No. 3 and No. 5 hooks are
usually not too large. Often the fish rise to salmon flies. If the water
is clear and the weather warm, and the smaller sizes are necessary to tempt
them, there need be no anxiety on the score of the hook if a heavy fish is
struck, providing the quality and the temper of the steel are good. I have
seen Mr. George E. Hart, the well-known Waterbury angler, kill a
thirty-pound salmon upon a fly that would not be considered large for a
fingerling trout.



Every part of the tackle should, however, be thoroughly tested, for a four,
five, six or seven pound trout is a wanton warrior. He is not unlikely to
break water, though his leaps as a rule are less frequent than those of a
smaller relative. As a matter of fact, there is no rule at all by which to
judge of a the probable nature or outcome of a fight with fontinalis. His
rushes, when he feels the hook, are long and violent; he rapidly changes the
scene of the struggle from the bottom of the water to the surface and back
again to the bed of the river or lake, neglecting no opportunity of
entangling the line about stones, or bushes, or weeds, or fallen trees, and
of cutting it upon the rocks. If the fish be too much forced, the hook may
readily be torn out of his mouth. If he contrives in the course of his
rushes toward the angler to gain the slack of the line, he may shake the
hook out of its hold and go free. Not infrequently the fisherman is
handicapped by a second and even a third fish seizing one or other of the
remaining flies of the cast, and in the see-saw game which follows he is
fortunate indeed if he preserves his tackle intact, no matter whether he
succeeds or not in saving his whole string of fish.



The huge sea-going specimens of fontinalis which run down out of Canadian
rivers into the salt water, to fatten upon the flesh-pots of the briny deep
and to burnish their mottled sides till they shine with a slivery polish
rivaling that of a freshly run salmon, are worthy of a chapter to
themselves. They are caught up to eight and ten pounds each, and when
impaled upon the hook of the angler offer just as good sport as that
afforded by grilse, played and taken under similar circumstances. Many
claims to a distinct variety have been made for some of these sea-run
specimens, but Jordan and Evermann have not yet been persuaded of the
incorrectness of their present classification. For further details
respecting these and other Canadian salmonoids the reader is referred to the
present writher's monograph on "Angling in Canadian Waters," in the
sumptuous new work of Dr. F. M. Johnson now in press.



Whether taken out of brackish water in the estuary of some Eastern salmon
river, clad in silvery sheen, or from the deep water of some large lake,
where the fish is found in its darkest of dark green and olive and crimson
apparel, or from the rapid of a clear, cold stream, where its coat of many
colors rejoices in the brightest and most brilliantly tinted spots, the
angler who feasts his eyes upon the newly caught monster char of Northern
waters will readily admit, that, though God might have made a more beautiful
object than the American brook trout, yet doubtless God never did, and his
heart will be filled with gratitude that such splendid sport is within his
reach.



And when the hour comes to fold up his tent and lay away his fishing-rod and
flies, he might well wish, like Walton's scholar, for some somniferous
potion to force him to sleep away the intermittent time until he enjoys such
sport again-which time would pass away with him "as tediously as it does
with men in sorrow"-were he not a philosopher and an honest man, who honors
philosophy by his virtuous life, and merits the friendship of those who are
lovers of virtue, who trust in Providence, who study to be quiet, and who go
an-angling.

END PART II.