Morning journal and courier., 1881-02-10
Price Four Gents.

will come, too, from Mr. F. N. Clark's fish
 matching works at Worthwhile, Mich. Of course they are native in California, and
 those in Mir. Clark's matching works were
 produced from spawn brought from Califor4 mia.
 sIt is only two years since fish culturists
 in the East have received the eggs of the
 trout. This is to be the first year in which
 the United States Fish Commissioners are to
 turn loose small California trout in our streams. The culture of these fish has hither-
 to been carried on entirely by private enter
 prise.
 1.-The California mountain trout takes it's name rainbow trout, from the beautiful
 band of colors that runs along theeside of the fish, and is about fourth as wide as the fish
 There are no red spots on the body, as in our
 brook trout, but there are a few black dots near the head. When the fish is first taken from the water this band has all the tints of rainbow. After it is dead it becomes uni form red color, but shading to lighter color underneath. We had a rainbow trout about a year ago, sent by B. B. Bedding, Commis- sioner of Fisheries in California, that was male, over 21 feet long, and that weighed 55 pounds. It was we'll shaped and plump with large black dots thickly sprinkled on the shoulders and tail. The operculum was dec- orated with bright red tint, blending into greenish brown, or olive, towards the eye. broad red dash, or strip, of color stretched from the tip of the tail to the cheek. It was @ gaudy-looking fish.
 "They are more gamy, and they fight far more than the common brook trout. At the fish matching ponds in Caledonia, N Y last spring, caught with fly several rainbow trout weighing from a quarter to half pound. Each time that the trout struck myv hook I thought that had a pound trens on my line. Why, they strike hook like that" Mir. Blackford, to illustrate, brought the palms of his hands together with vigor
 ''Then they are off in fash with the line running out rapidly that the reel fairly smokes with the friction. Although the aver age weight when full grown is about four pounds, yet they have been taken as large as six pounds, while in a lake near Bellingham Bay, on the Pacific slope, the trout are said to grow to be ten twelve pounds in weight'
 'As to their reproduction in New York State waters, the New York State Fish Com mission in 1875 obtained 800 eggs from the St. Cloud river, from which in 1880 there were 16, GOO trout two years old, and 34, ,OOO one year old. They can be raised from the egg much more easily than the common brook trout, and experience shows that the rainbow trout is the hardest fish in every way. Not half so many rainbow trout die in artificial life as their cousins in the East They grow rapidly, too. In 1878, in the Cal edonia Spring Creek, 2,000 young rainbow trout were set free, and last year fisher man had no difficulty in landing dozen with a fly inside of an hour. They remain in good condition for the table much longer than our brook trout which spawn in the late fall or beginning of winter, and are lean, slabsided, and tasteless from September to February, while the California trout begins to spawn about two months later than the eastern brook trout. The female produces about ,5O0 eggs. The males are ferocious. They fight with one another all the time. It is kIo{ hook so savagely."
 Are they as handsome as the eastern brook trout ?"
 ''No," the Commissioner replied, 'tno fish is handsomer than a Long Island brook trout, unless it is the Dolly Warden trout. They are also California trout, and are frequently found in the same stream with the rainbow trout, and are of about the same shape, plump, round and full. They differ from the rainbow trout in having all over their sides brilliant vermillion spots from one eighth to three sixteenths of an inch ln di- ameter. The spots on the Eastern brook trout are only one-sixteenth of an inch in di- ameter This season, think, there will be distributed in New York streams from 75,O00 to 100 OOO small rainbow trout. They min gle amicably with the eastern brook trout, but they will not be put in streams where these run in great numbers, because we want to keep the spec es distinct from each other.
 aAs to their habits, they are, unlike our trout fond of moderate currents of water or still places with the surface of the water shaded The eastern trout, on the other hand love to hover under waterfall or to skip from ripple to ripple in the most dash ing rapids. Fishermen who have killed them on the Pacific coast say that the rainbow trout is most plentiful along the western coast of California and northward. All of the true brook trout west of the Mississippi river have black spots. Fishing is very fine in nearly all of the rapid streams of the Coast Mountains and the Cascade Mountains in Oregon At Fort Dallas trout fishing Is good in April, May, June and July. The rapid anow water streams that flow from Mt. Hood abound in these trout, but the innumerable rattlesnakes interfere with and, in places, prevent angling. The fisherman has al so another foe in the cottonwoods, willows, and squaw bushes that make fly casting al most impossible. When fly does touch the water though it is snapped up greedily. The fish is delicious eating. In that section u ost of the fishing is done with bait. The fish takes common raw meat the tougher the better. Crow meat is generally used and crows are shot for bait This flesh combines a vivid redness with rank smell and power full toughness. All of these qualities are de- sirable for bait that is most taking. Like their eastern relations. the California trout are sometimes capricious, and then piece of red fin from dead fish will often lure them to estruction."