Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1882-08-03
Rangely Trout Fishing.
Never as Good 1T Has Been This Sea.
SON I'm Low er Richardson Lake.

Never as GOOD as 1T Haas Been TINS sea-
SON I'm Lower Richardson Lake.
from the New York SUM-
When the Lewiston Water Power company
finished its new dam the lower Richard
son Lake last year, and raised the level of
the water nine feet, it was predicted by every
one who knew anything about the homes
and habits of the Rapgely trout that the fish
ing in that particular lake was gone forever.
The trout, it was thought, driven from their
old feeding places, would either run the
sluices into the river and ponds below, or
would 60 up stream into Mooseluckmacutic
and the higher lakes on the head waters of
the Androscoggin. Precisely tho contrary
happened. The shore receded, of course,
with the higher water, and the famous fish
ing grounds of former years, Metallic and
Horsebeef Points and Winters Favorite, are
now deeply sunken, but the dead spruces and
birch trees, whose tops are in some instances
just visible above the water, make safe
hiding place for the young trout. and the
larvae and insects that were driven from
their cells under the bark by the sudden rise
of the water have attracted the fish from the
upper lakes, and even from the river below.
such at least is the theory of the guides and
the sportsmen who have put up at the An
glers' Retreat as regularly as the summers
have come. Certainly the fishing at the mid
die dam has never been SO good and fishing
on the upper lakes as poor as now.
The ice went out of the lower Richardson
this year about the 22d of May and the fish
ing began Immediately. From that time un-
til this hardly day has passed on which, on
moderate estimate, one hundred pounds of
trout have not been taken from the lake
alone. On the 18th of June Mr.. Samuels, of
Lowell, counted two hundred and fifty
pounds of trout as the result of ten days
fishing. This does not include the fish
weighing less than a pound. A dozen boxes
have been taken out of camp that weighed
175 pounds and score that weighed from
100 to $50.
Raising the level of the lake has had the
effect of retarding the fly fishing, and so late
| a rise in the Narrows. Even in the river the
| fish come up reluctantly, and the few that
| were struck were small. The older guides
| attribute this to the great increase in the
l volume of water in the lake and it's conse-
I quent lower temperature One of them said
1 to me: s'Nine foot o. water makes big diff
| ference in the time it takes for the heat =
| reach the trout. So longs the tops colder
than the bottom they'll hug land, and with
| this new depth to the lake it will take NOR.
| than month for the chill of the ice to 60
| The trout won't commence to take a bug rea
| lively till pretty we'll along into July, and
4 then, of course, it's too hot to fish in com
| fort. If you're comm up in June after this
| you can make up your mind to do your fish
1 in with minnies, but if you want to throw 6
| fly come up in September. ~
| The guide was probably right, and this
| years experience will be repeated SO long al
| the lake remains at its present level. Thor
| oughbred sportsnaen have always preferred
1 the September fishing, for the trout Their
| taken, though fewer are larger, and as heed
l less of bait as they are in early June of the
| fly. The climate too, in the fall is delight
I full, and those summer pests of the northern
| woods, the black flies and mosquitoes, have
| disappeared. There is one kind of bait
though that is taking at any season-trout Of
| salmon spawn So certain is it to kill trou
that it's use in Great Britain has been forbid
| den, and it would be we'll if a similar Law
| could be enforced in Maine.
The heaviest trout landed. this season
weighed on a pocket scale six and a hal
pounds. He was caught on the 10th of jun
| at the foot of the Narrows, opposite the nov
sunken Minter's Favorite, by Mr.. Charlie
johnson, of Montville, Conn. His mate
| weighing near six pounds, was caught at tn.
l same spot two days earlier by M. L. G. Tur
ner, of this city. The general experience
l has been in past years that the largest trou
have been taken in September, and usual.
| from the rapid water below the upper dam
| where they have gathered to spawn. Sine
the change in the level of the lake, however
I there is no telling when or where the big fsl
| will take hold. The only thing the guide
| are perfectly certain of is that the fishing il
| better now than it has been for years, ant
] enormous and constant drain upon it, S,
| long as the decaying and half submerged
| trees afford the trout feeding ground Sc
| cure against the fishermen. When the shore
| reappear the fishing, the guides predict, will
| decline.