The trout of Sunapee Lake

208 FOREST AND STREAM. ^[April

^{8, 1886.}

THE TROUT OF SUNAPEE LAKE.

EditorForest

and

Stream:

Mr. Livingston Stone,

whose name

is

well-known

toall

your

readers, called to

my

notice a

day

or

two

since, aletter

from

Dr. C.

A.

Kingsbury, of Philadelphia, in

which

he

pronounces my

suggestion, thatif theybe

Oquassa

trout,

which have

beenlatelydiscoveredinthe

Sunapee

Lake, they

may

bethedescendantsof the plant of4,000fry of that vari- ety

made by

Mr. A.EL

Powers

inJune,1879,

when we were

both

members

of the

N. H.

Fish

Commission,

as"quite im- probable,ifnotabsolutelyimpossible." Also anotherletter

from Mr. John D.

Quackenboss,of

New

York,

who

has

had

fora

dozen

years a

summer

cottage

on

theshoreof thelake

and

iswell versed in its inhabitants

and who warmly

in- dorses

my

suggestion, for

which

I hereby return

him my

thanks.

Now, Mr.

Kingsbury's statement astothe impossibility^ of

my

suggestion,seemstoberatheran ex-cathedia assumption

inasmuch

asthelandlocked

salmon from

theSchoodic eggs

have

increasedinweight

from two

totwelve

pounds by

the

same change

ofhabituation,

and

as I

now

believe that

what

Ifirstsuggestedasapossibilityisextremelyprobable. Iwill give

my

^reasonsfor

such

faith.

In the firstplace, let

me

premise that I

was born and

brought

up

inthisvillagewithinthirtymilesof

Lake

Suna- pee,

and

although I

went away from

here,

when

seventeen yearsold,

more

"than fortyyearssince, I have

always when

practicable

made an

annualvisitof

more

orlessdurationto

my

birthplace.

When

a

boy

I

was

familiarwith the Suna- pee trout,

and have

seen

them

of three or four

pounds

weight,

which was

considered verylarge

and

was, I think, as large astheyusedto

grow

inthosedays.

When Mr.

Stone

handed me

these papers,he asked me, "to

what

cause

do vou

attribute this

abnormal growth

of thesefish in

Sunapee Lake?"

"To

the

abundance

of smelt food,"I answered,

and

he thenasked

me when

thesmelt

spawned and what was

their size. Itold

him

earlyinAprilor assoonastheice

was

out ofthe lake,

and

their

ova were

not

much

largerthana

mus-

tardseedor a

No.

8 shot.

"They

are small

enough

then,"

said he, "forthe

young

trout just plantedin

May

or

June

to

swallow?"

I told

him

thattheywere,thata

young

troutcould easily disposeofhalfadozenofthem.

"Then,"

said Mr. Stone, "I thinkthis

may

account for theincreased size of the trout, iftheyare those

which you

plantedin 1879, for I

have

^noticedin

my

experienceinfish- culturethatthesizeof thefish

depended

very

much

on the quantityoffood

which

they could obtain during^the first six

months

of their existence,

and

ifthese

young

trout just plantedin the lake,could obtain an unlimited supplyof

young

smeltforfood, I

do

notsee

why

they should not

have grown

to thisunusualsize."

Mr. Stone has

promised me

togive

you

his

own

opinions

on

thematter, and. I willnotforestall

him any

further, but

simply

say,that the

growth

ofthe land-locked

salmon

in

Sunapee

has been surpassed

by

thatof the plant of the

same

datein

Squam, where one was

takenlastyearthat

weighed

sixteen

pounds from

the

same

lotofSchoodiceggs,

and

that inboth these cases the lakes arewell stocked

with

fresh- watersmelt,asisalso the casewith

Sebago

Lake,

where

the great size of theland-locked

salmon

has long been

known.

This plantof

Oquassa

trout referred to

was

part ofalotof eggs,20,000in

number, which

were divided

between Sunapee Lake

in the west,

New-Found and Squam

lakes in the center,

and

Cook's

Pond

in Brookfield

and

Lovewell's

Pond

in Wakefield, inthe east of the State.

The

firstpossiblediscoveryof

them

isthatofMr.

Hodge, when on

the

spawning

beds in

Sunapee

lastOctober; butit willbeinteresting to ascertain if theycan be

found

inthe other watersthe

coming autumn, and

I shallurgethepresent

Commission

to

examine

them.

Iftheycan be

found

of equal size in

Squam,

itwillgive

some

additional

ground

to thesmeltfoodtheory,

and

itwill then

become

desirable to stock all troutwaters

with

smelt also,fortheyareaveryprolific fish.

Iwillsay

no more

for the present,exceptthatif

any

extra- ordinaryvariety of trout

had

existed in

Sunapee Lake

forty yearsagoIshouldhave been as likely to

have known

it as

any

one,

and

I

am

verysure that the

swarm

ofpoachers

who have

infested the lake

would have found them

out

and

stripped the

spawning

beds,as they

have

thoseofthelake trout in

Winnepesaukeelong

^ago,

and by

lake trout I

mean Salmo

namaycush,for the dwellers

around

allthesewaters calltheirfishlake trout,

even

to little

Dublin Pond, which

hasbeen rechristened

Lake Monadnock.

Samuel Webber.

Chablestown,N.H.,March30.

Editor Forest

and

Stream:

Ten ^pounds

^{in sixyearsiscertainlya}

^{phenomenal growth}

for a trout,butisitimpossible or only

phenomenal? The

capac- ity of a

young

trout for digesting

and

assimilatingfoodisso great that it ishardly safe to set a limitto itanywhere.

When

a trout breeder has six boxes of

young

troutfryto feed,thefirstlotis

hungry and

readytofeed again

by

the time the sixth lot has been fed, so thatthebreedercould keep going the rounds^ofthesix boxesall

day

withoutfind- inga singlefishthat

had had enough

foodto satisfyit.

This digestive

power

of atrout is something marvellous

and

^itso rapidly destroys the animal tissuesthathave been takenintoits

stomach

asfoodthat, as Col.

Lyman

suggested, itsoperation

more

resembles that offire thananything one

would

expect

from any

kindoforganicaction.

Now,

the

more

thefisheat,the fasterthey grow. Indeed their

amount

^of

growth

seemsto bein direct ratio totheir

amount

of food, otherthings beingequal,

and

thisispartic- ularly true, or rather particularly noticeable in the^first

few months

of theirlives,

when

theircapacityfortaking

and

dis- pose.;:offoodissoenormous.

Infact the difference insize

between

wellfed

young

trout

and

poorly fed ones isfometimesso great as tobe almost incredible,

and

1cantestify

from

personal experiencethat I

have

seen

many

a well fed yearling trout thatcould

and would

eatfor his breakfast a

dozen

poorly fedtrout, such asIhavealso seen, of his

own

age.

Now

tobring

my ^remarks

^{toa point.}

Do we

^really

know

thatitisimpossiblefor

an Oquassa

trout to get aten

pound growth

in sixyears?

May

it notbe possible afterallthat

with

a trout's prodigious capacity for eating

and

growing, there

may

be favorable circumstances

which would

enable the fish toaccomplish this

growth

in thetimegiven.

My

friend, Col.

Webber,

to

whom

ISlew

Hampshire

fishculture isso

much

^indebted

^{and whose}

^{efforts to}

^improve

^thefish of

Sunapee Lake

are sowell

known,

hastold

me

of some- i$iiBg

wh&b

^{hascertainl/prepared(she}

^way

ⁱⁿ

SunapeeJ*ake

for thisextraordinary

growth

of ten

pounds

in sixyears

and

has

made

itpossible,ifanything can

make

itpossible. Col.

Webber

says that fresh-water smelts

have

beenplentifully plantedin

Sunapee

Lake. This being thecase

and

thein- troductionof smelts being supposed to be asuccess, I can hardly imagine anything

more

likely tofurnishforthe trout just the rightkindoffoodto give

them

a rapid

and

extraor- dinary growth.

The

smeltshatch outjust

enough

laterthan the trout

and

are just

enough

smallertoprovidethe trout in theirinfancy

and

earlylifewiththe verybest

growing

food that they could possibly have. This

must

increase their ultimate

growth

immensely,for thisdepends

more upon

the feed

and growth

theygetduringthefirstsixoreight

months

thanduring

any

other similar periods of theirlives. If after thisthey

have

allthefood they want,

and

ifsmeltsareabun- dantinthe lake, I

do

notsee

why

they shouldnot.

Then

I cannot help thinkingthatitisstill an open questionabout the extraordinary

growth

that isclaimedforthe

Oquassa

plant.

At

allevents I

do

not thinkthat

any

positiveevidence infavorofthe

Oquassa

theoryshould besetaside,or

would

be even

much weakened by any

aj>riori

argument

based

on

the supposed impossibility of the allegedgrowth,itbeing generallyconceded,I believe, that

a

priori

arguments

are at bestextremely hazardous

and

fragile

weapons

againstevi- denceresting

on

establishedfacts.

Some day

it

may

be

proved

that

Oquassa

cannot

grow

ten

pounds

insix years,but ithas not been provedyet

and

it

does not

seem

to

me

thatthe alleged impossibility can be fairlyused yetinthepresent state of thisgood-natured con- troversy against the advocatesof the

Oquassa

explanation of theappearanceofthe

new

fish.

On

theother

hand

thereappearsto be,

from Mr, Hodge's

statements,conclusive proof in his possession againstthe

Oquassa

theory,viz., evidencethat the fish

was

caughtin the lake beforethe

Oquassa were

putinin1879.

The

estab- lishmentof this fact

would

^{settlethequestionforever in}Mr.

Hodge'sfavor,

and

it

now

seemstobeinorderforMr.

Hodge

to

produce

thisevidence.

Livingston

Stone,

Charlkstown,N.H.

_

A TROUT ANGLER'S FIRST SALMON.

I ^HAVE

_always^{been a}

_had

an ambition^{troutfisherman}to try^for

salmon ^many

fishing,^years,but

and ^have

last

summer was

able for thefirsttimeto gratify thatambition.

My

friendB.

and

I are

members

of theSainteMarguerite

Salmon

Club,

and on

ourarrival at the riverlast

summer found

ourselvesassignedtothe

home

poolasourstation

on

the stream.

We

^{arrived atthe prettylittle cottage,}

which was

to beour

home

for

some

time,on

Sunday

afternoon, July5. After inspecting our verypleasant quarters

and

resting

from

our four-mile

tramp

overthe portage,

we went

tolookat thelower pool,

which

isjust in front of thecot- tage,

and found

itanideal placeto

hook and

play a large fish.

At

the

upper end

thewater

comes

rolling

and tum-

bling

from

the

heavy

rapidsabove,

and

allthroughthepool

it isswift

and

boisterous inmid-stream,

with

comparatively

smooth

water on eitherside.

While watching

thewater, outinthemiddleofthepoola largesalmon

came handsomely

outofthe water,

showing

his bright silverysides,

and

fell

back

witha splash, "like a

Frenchman

fallingoffawharf,"

asoneof the oldOswegatchie guides used to say. It

was

a sight to

make

a fisherman's heart beatalittle quicker ihan usual,

and make him

look

around

for his tackle;butit

was Sunday, and

the

Canadian game

lawsare strict,

and we

felt it

was

best toobserve them, although^it

was hard work

to sit still

and

not just trythose

new

rods fora

few

castson thatwater

where we knew

there

were

such

good

fish.

Monday morning

bright

and

early

found

usstirring,

and

after ahurried breakfast

we

carefully

examined

ourrods, lines,leaders

and

^flies,

which had

been

made

readythenight before,

and

started tokillourfirstsalmon.

The

lower pool^fellto

me

for themorning'sfishing,and, with

my

pulse beating ^rather

more

rapidly than usual,I begancasting

from

the shinglebeachatthe-

head

ofthepool.

At

thethird castoneofthe

Frenchmen

stopped me,

and on

reeling

up showed me my

beautiful

Jock

Scottbrokenoff at the

bend

of thehook.

Not

being accustomed to a rodsix- teen feetlong

and

weighing over

twenty

ounces, I

had

struck the flyagainst the stones behind

me and

thequick-eyed

Frenchman had

immediately noticedit. Puttingon another

Joek

Scott,I

began

casting again,

and

atthethirdorfourth cast

saw

^afish

come up

^{outof therushing,}surging water, not overthirty feet

away,

that lookedto

me—

atroutfisher-

man—as

large as a porpoise.

As

he turned to go

down,

in

my

excitement¹struck

hard enough

to

have

broken some- thingifhe

had

takenthefly, butfortunatelyhe missedit.

I sat

down and

rested

him

for theorthodoxfiveminutes,

and

then

when

theflyreachedthe spot

where

herose before,

up

he

came

again,onlytodisappoint

me

once more.

After"anotherrest,asthefly

went

over

him he came up

witha rush,

throwing

himself out of thewater

and

taking the

Qy back

with him,

and

startedwith afierce rush across thepool. It

was my

firstexperienceof therushof asalmon

when

firsthooked,

and

I

found

it something simply

mag-

nificent. It

seemed

almost impossible to getthe

rod up

straight

enough

to give thefishthe spring necessaryto

keep him from

breakinglineor leader,

and

therodin

my hand

felt as

though

I

had hooked

a"limited"expresstrain.

He went

straight across the^river,

and when

within twentyfeetofthe opposite

bank threw

himself outof thewater fully sixfeet.

Idropped the^tipof therodquickly, as I

had

been so sol-

emnly warned

to

do by

allthe old

salmon

fishermen,

and he

returnedto thewaterstillonthehook,

and

nothing parted.

Aftera

run

oftwentyfeetout he

came

again,

and

asthesun struck

him he

looked likea bar of burnished silver.

By

thistime

my

heart

was

beatinglike a trip-hammeragainst

my

ribs,

and

theexcitement

was

intense. After

some

lively rushes about the

upper

part of thepoolhestartedfor the rapidsbelow, I

making

quick lime overthe rocks, but just ashe reachedapoint

where

Ishould

have had

totaketothe canoethe

men had

readyforme, he

changed

his plana

and

rushing

up

streamfasterthan I could followto thepoint he first rosefrom,

he went

to the bottom

and

sulked. This gave

me

time to fill

and

light

my

pipe,

which

tendedto quiet

my

rather excited nerves.

When

at last,

he

started, it

was

torushto thesurface

and throw

himself out at very close

quarters—

not overthirty feet

away— and

itstartled

me

tremendously,

and

1

am

afraidthe rod

was

not lowered as quicklyasitshould havebeen,butthe tackle

was new and

strong,

and

as he started offI

found

he

was

still"thar,"

and

1begantofeel easier. After a

few more

circles about the pool

he

began to

show he was

not as fresh as

when

he

was

firsthooked,

and

as the^line

was

reeled in

he

finally

showed

himselfnot overfifteen feet

from

the shore,

where

it

was

quite shoal.

One

ofthe

meu

^{stole into the} water

with

the gaff,but before

he was

within,reach the Jjsh

saw

JiMft

and made

alast desperate dash out to the middle of the river.

My hands and arms

bythis time had

become

fairly sore

from

the longstrain,

and

it

was

really hard

work

to reel

him

inagainacross that strong current.

But

this time Pete

was

successful,

and

ashethrust the gaff inthe water, bubbles

and

blood

came up and

the pressure

was

taken ^off the rod.

He

raisedthestrugglingfish

from

the water,

and

I

would

notlet

him

stop until

he had

taken the

salmon

full twentyfeet

from

the shore.

And now

1had killed

my

first salmon!

Time

fiftyminutes fromstriketogaff.

The

scales

were

brought out

and

thefish

found

to

weigh

twenty-four

and

ahalfpounds.

Itook

my

salmon overto theshadeofa tree

and

told the

men

I

had had

allthe fishing I

wanted

for that morning, althoughit

was

then onlyhalf past seven. I lighted

my

pipe,

and

throwing myself on the grass,"visited"with

my

beautiful prize untilI

knew

every inchof

him

from headto tail,

and

ifI

had

beenanartistcouldhave

drawn

his portrait

from memory.

On

thetripIstruckaltogether28fish,saving 19 of them;

the largest

weighed

33 pounds,the smallest8,

and

the aver- age

was

17 pounds. 1

made up my mind

that a troutfisher-

man

couldreadily learn tokillsalmon,even on sucha rush- ing,tumbling streamas theSainte Marguerite ^isthe

whole

fortymiles

from Upper Forks

totheSaguinay.

Gard.

Oswego,N. Y.,March,1880.

DEATH OF IRA WOOD.

WE

^{arepained to}chronicle thedeathofourfrieud

and companion

of boyhood,Ira

Wood,

the well

known

angler

and

genialsportsman.

Mr. Wood

diedverysuddenly of bilious colic atAlbany,

N,

Y..

on Tuesday

last.

He was

bornatGreenbush,oppositeAlbany, abouttheyear1883,

and was

consequentlyclose tohis fifty-third year.'

While

yet a

boy

hisfamily

moved

toSyracuse,

where

for along timeira

was

chief of the fire department of that city.

He

served withcreditduringthewar,

and

a

few

yearsago returned to Albany,

where

he

was

inthe

employ

of a large housedeal- ingin stoves.

Within

a

month

he opened a store for the saleof fishing tackle,

and

hardlya

week

ago he

was

in our office,cheeryas ever,

aud

withbright hopesfor the future.

Those who met him

attherecent fly-castingtournamentsin this city

were

impressed with his manly, straight-forward

way, and

the unselfishnesswith

which

hecoached amateurs

and

helpedhisopponents

when

their lines

became

tangled,

Mr.

Wood was

abrothertothe late

Reuben Wood,

sore-

nowned

as

an

angler.

He

leavesa family.

To a Firm

inGloucester, Mass.,

who

have

named

a

new

schoonerinhishonor, Mr. Whittier hassent anotein

which

he writes: "I have alwa3^rs been interested in the

New

England

fisheries,

and am

glad

you

have honored

me

bygiv- ing one of your schooners

my

name. Ithank

you

forthe compliment,

and

send

you my

unasked-for autograph onthe sheet inclosed."

On

the sheet inclosedhe

had

writteo

:

Lucktothecraft thatbearsthis

name

ofmine, Goodfortune follow with the golden spoon.

Theglazedhat,andtarrypantaloon

:

And

whereso'er herkeel shallcutthe brine.

Cod,hakeand mackerelquarrelforherline.

Shipped with her crew,whateverwind

may

blow, Ortidesdelay,

my

wish with hershall go, Fishingby proxy. Wouldthatitmight t-how Atneed hercourse, in lack ofsunandstar,

Where

icebergsthreaten,andthesharpreefsare;

LifttheblindfogsonAuticosti's lee

And

Avalon'srocks:

make

populous the sea Round Grand

Manan

witheagerfinnyswarms.

Breakthelong calms,and charm awaytnestorms.

JohnG. Whittier.

Oak

Knoll, 3d mo.,1886.

What Fish Has This Habit?—

Editor Forest

and

Stream:

For

several years, in

my

fishing tours

around Montauk

Point, Oyster Bay, SeaCliff,

and

several placesabout

Long

Island Sound,I

have

noticedin small fishing that I

would

catch

two

fish

on

one hook, the cause of

which

I attributed to theirbeing frightened

by

largerfishof prey. Solastseason I determinedto find out, inordertobesure that this state-

ment would

beright. I

was accompanied

by anangler,

and by

careful

watching came

totheconclusion that,seeingone of theirschool takeninanopposite direction,they take hold ofthe unfortunate'stail to keep

him

back

from

asupposed current, astheyareusedto this habit instreamsofopposite currents;

and*

after being out of water, exhaustioncauses

them

to tightenthebite, thus enabling the angler to land them. I

would

like older anglers than myself topublish theirexperienceofthis.—E.

Frank

^Ross.

Maskinonge. —

Editor Forest

and

Stream: I see that

lam

quoted as using the spelling "muscallonge," but ⁱⁿ the manuscriptof

my

^article

^mentioned

^(see

^{Fokest and Stream,}

Vol.

XX.,

page490), I certainlywrote maskinonge, butthe printer

made

itread muscollonge. In^the Provinceof

Que-

bec there is a

Maskinonge

county, also several villages, rivers

and

lakes bythe

same

name,

and

asit istobe sup- posedthattheythere

have

the correct pronunciationof the word, itsglossieis asfollows: M+a-fS-f-k-f-i-i-n-fau'n-i-g-f-e.

(thesign

+

^{stands forthe glide}

^from

^{the soundof a letter}

tothenextfollowing).

Some

yearsagoIattemptedtolearn theoriginof theaboveword,

and

after

most

diligent inquir- ies

among

the best informed habitants, 1could only^learn thatit

was

theIndian

name

for the largest of thepike fam- ily,Esoxnobilior.

— Stanstead

(Sackville,

N. B),

Bass Flies.—

Will Mr. Holberton give^alittleinformation about the dressing of the bassflieshe mentionsastaking onesinalateissue of

Forest and ^Stream,

^{if it is}not ask- ingtoo

much,

so that

we

will

know what

topurchaseor

how

totie?

He

speaksofa "bass grizzly"

and

a "bassmiller."

Are

these

any

wisedifferentfromthe regular grizzlykingor whitemiller,savethattheyare tied on

hooks

ofasize suit- able for bass?

And

wherein doesa

"match-wing

ibis"differ

from

the red ibis,so well

known? And

willhe give the tyingof thesefliesthathe

mentions—

Holberton,post jungle, St.Patrick

and

Lottie?

These may

be

common

specie?,but thereis such a woeful looseness inflynomenclature,that they, in

name

atleast,are

new

to

me.— Percyval.

An Unique Angling Work —For

^{the past three years}

Mr. Wakeman

Holberton,

well-known

asan accomplished angler

and

artist, has been

engaged

inwriting a

book

onhis favorite sport.

The volume

is entirely engrossed

by Mr.

Holberton's

pen on

vellum. ^'

The

illustrations are in

pen and

ink

and

inwatercolors,while theinitial letters areillumin- atedin mediaeval style. Itis calculated that three

more

yearswillbe requiredto finishthisvolume,

which

willbe

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acesoIortueateas to see M,