Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-09-27
THE DAILY RECORD UNION.
WHY SOME FISH ARE LARGE.
Seth Green IN recent talk with a re-
rter of the Rochester De1oocTot said

Seth Green IN a recent talk with re.
porter of the Rochester Democrat said:
Although doubt has recently been
expressed and published as to whether
genuine brook trout ever develop in size
or weight beyond six pounds, it is true
that they do. have seen ten. pound
genuine brook trout myself. The very
large ones recently taken from the Nepi-
gon river by Messrs. Chamberlin and Angel,
of Rochester, were undoubtedly regular
members OF this family OF fish, for large
ones are taken from those waters ire
quently. You don't fad any such great
speckled trout in this part OF the country,
under any circumstances. The largest one
| ever caught near here was one at Caledo-
MIA which weighed four and 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. Ny theory is that the
giants among fish are III one respect quite
Ike the giants among men-they are more
apt to develop in certain climes than 9th
ers. For instance, you know California
grows giant trees, other giants In the veg
etable world, giant animals and giants
generally. 1t 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, yearliLg brook trout will be
twice as large as the yearling grown in our
own waters. Regarding the difference in
the development cf salmon trout in our
various lakes of western New York, l
have satisfactory theory. Hemlock lake,
you know, was as well stocked as Keuka
lake, some seven or eight years ago. But
you can 90 to Keuka and catch plenty of
large, fine salmon trout now, while very
few-and those small ones-are taken from
Hemlock lake. In the latter waters a
trout can get but little food. Most of the
small fish in this lake are shore fish, who
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, eqnally
well. Consequently they do take largely
to the deep, cold waters frequented by the
salmon trout. The alewife is lazy little
loafer of fish, and all the lively trout has
to do is to gobbie him down Hntil there is
a complete satisfaction of his appetite. l
have been down fishing at Keuka or
Crooked lake recently. 1t was net an un-
common thing for me 30 go out before
breakfast and catch from a dozen to fifteen
of these big, solid, handsome fish. | began
fishing at 5 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 ale.
wife just before sunset.
"The salmon trout likes a good, square
meal, and I'll tell you how l found it out.
l caught trout about o'clock A. NJ, and
opened him. Inside found four alewives
only partially digested, four more consid-
erably further gone, and the bare, crumb
ling skeletons of four more. He had
swallowed four alewiyes each day, and
there were the last three days meals in
their various stages of digestion. l caught
one an hour later, and in him | found
couple of fresh alewives, just swallowed,
in addition to three days meals yet unre-
moved, as in the other trout. Carrying
out this principle, if I caught trout at
or in the morning | would be sure to find
In him three or four fresh alewives, show
ing that every trout ate about his full days
rations at about the same early hours of
the day. l always baited my hook with
single alewife, in such shape that in troll.
ing he would neither move round and
round in the water nor straight ahead.
This gave the littls fellow, though dead,
the appearance of cripple, and the trout
were always sure to 'be deceived and gulp
him down-provided there was nothing
wrong with the line or tackle to scare the
trout away. He is . gamy fish, tell
you, and it's science to so understand his
habits and peeuliarities as to successfully
deceive and hook him. That's the kind of
sport all men might have in fishing if it
were not for the hoggish net fishers.