Morning journal and courier., 1881-09-02
Why Some Fish are Large.

Seth Green in a recent talk with reporter of the Rochester Democrat said:
 Although doubt has recently been ex- pressed and published as to whether genuine brook trout ever develop in size or weight be- l yond six pounds, it is true that they do. have seen ten-pound genuine brook trout
 myself. The very large ones recently taken | from the Nepigon river by Messrs Chamber | lin and Angel of Rochester, were undoubt- | edIy regular members of this family of fish, | for large ones are taken from those waters | freouently You don't find any such great | speckled trout in this part of the 1 country, under any circumstances. The | largest one ever caught near here was one at Caledonia which weighed four and one | half pounds, and he seemed like monster of | his kind.
 Perhaps the difference in food may have | as much to do with the matter as any other single agent. My theory is that the giants | among fish are in one respect quite like the giants among men-they are more apt to de- | velop in certain chimes than others. For In. stance, you know California grows giant trees other giants in the vegetable world, l giant animals and giants generally. It Is no wonder, then, that they have fish which, | though of the same families as ours, grow four or five times as large as ours. Now, in | the streams of Long Island, yearllng brook, | trout will be twice large as the yearling grown in our own waters. Regarding the | difference in the development of salmon trout | in our various lakes of western New York, I | have satisfactory theory. Hemlock Lake, YOU know, was well stocked as Keuka l Lake some seven or eight years ago. But YOU can go to Keuka and catch plenty of | large, fine salmon trout now, while very few and those small ones-are taken from Hem | lock Lake. In the latter waters a trout can l get but little food. Most of the small fish in
 this lake are shore fish, which can and do live | in warmer water than the trout could survive | in: but in Keuka Lake there are lots of the little alewives, and they can live in cold water or warm, equally well. Consequently they do take largely to the deep, cold waters fre- uuented by the salmon trout. The alewlfe | is lazy little loafer of 8 fish, and all the | lively trout has to do is to gobble him down | until there is a complete satisfaction of his appetite. I have been down fishing at Keuka | or Crooked Lake recently. It was not an
 uncommon thing for me to go out before | breakfast and catch from dozen to fifteen
 of these big, solid, handsome fish. began | fishing at o'clock, or as soon as there was any daylight, and kept at it till or s. At | this season of the year it is between these hours that the trout feeds, and you will | hardly catch him at other hours of the day unless he has failed to fill up with food in | the morning and wants another alewife just | before sunset.
 s'The salmon trout likes good square | A
 caught a trout about , o'clock 8. and
 opened him. Inside I found four alewives only partially digested, four more considera-
 bly, further gone, and the bare, crumbling
 skeletons of four more. He had swallowed
 four alewives each day, and there were the
 three last days meals in their various stages
 of digestion. I caught one an hour later,
 and in him I found a couple of fresh ale
 wives, just swallowed, in addition to three
 days meals yet unremoved as in the. other
 trout. Carrying out this principle, if
 caught trout at or 8 in the morning
 would be sure to find in him three or four
 fresh alewives showing that every trout ate
 about his full days rations at about the same
 early hours of the day. always baited my | hook with single alewife, in such shape thai
 in trolling he would neither move round and
 round in the water nor straight ahead. This
 gave the little fellow, though dead, the ap
 pearance of cripple, and the trout were al
 ways sure to be deceived and gulp him dowI l-proyided there was nothing wrong witt
 the line or tackle to scare the trout away.
 He is gamey fish, I tell you, and it's {
 science to so understand his habits and pc
 culiarities as to successfully deceive and hool
 him. That's the kind of sport all men might
 have in fishing if it were not for the hoggist
 netfshers. '