, 1888-04-01
NOVEL METHOD OF FIsHINe..s
How Northwestern Indians Catch Trout
and salmon-Diving for Fish.

How Northwestern Indians Catch Trout
and salmon-Diving for Fish.
The two Indians were going to show us
their method of catching trout and
salmon. The stream runs between steep
mountains, is very rocky and the current
quite swift. The water was ice cold and
clear as crystal. 1t was alive with small
trout and the big holes were well filled
with salmon, or salmon trout, ranging
from five to twelve pounds. How l did
ache for my split bamboo, which / had
foolishly left down in the valley. These
fish, from the smallest to the largest,
would take the fly, or any kind Of bait
readily. Steiger proved this by losing
fly hooks to two Of the big fellows, put he
captured a nice lot of the smaller ones,
ranging from half a pound down. He
stopped when he had enough, but I verify
believe 500 could easily be taken in a day
by the Industrious and INSCRIPTIONS trout
hog. The Indians were fishing for them
selves and, Of course, we could not pre-
vent them from using their regular
methods of taking all the fish In their
power, which they salt and dry for future
use. While not sportsman like, It was
decidedly interesting.
They first select a suitable hole with fish
enough to be an object. In this case 1t
was about 200 yards long, thirty feet wide
and varying in depth to ten feet. AT the
bottom lazily swimming around were q
number of big fish. From a sack John
ME produced two light gill nets, which
were stretched across the stream about
forty yards apart. Then he produced the
tips Of a spear, which were bound to q
strong willow pole. These tips when
thrust into a fish come of the pole, but
are held by buckskin strips. Now we are
ready for business. Rocks are thrown
into the water and the startled fish dart
about, and in a moment the floats of met
are jerked violently under the water. The
fish writhes and twists, tangling himself
up hopelessly, and is soon taken out by
his dusky captors. Sometimes a heavy
fish would break the net and escape, but
not often. After a number had been
caught this way the frightened fish hid
under the rocks and sulked. Then the
spear came into play, several being taken
On receiving the barbs they would strug-
gle violently, and being hauled out by
main strength and awkwardness would
make q good fight.
Most OF the big fish had now taken
refuge under large rocks in the deepest
part, and were clear out of sight. Then
one of the Indians stripped of, and with
a small net eighteen inches in diameter,
in the mouth of which was bent a willow
pole, making 1t resemble the ordinary land
ing net, he slipped quietly into the almost
freezing cold water and disappeared under
a large rock. 1 held my breath in amaze
ment, and after he had been underneath
nearly a minute, l concluded he had
drowned. But, no; away down a dark
mass came slowly out and quickly rose to
the surface. With a snort his head
popped up, while in the net under his
arm a twelve pound fish was struggling.
He crawled out shivering and after a
sun bath was ready for another plunge.
Along the bank for thirty feet was a
shelving rock under which several fish
had taken refuge. Propelling himself
along frog fashion, the Indian cleared it
out at one dive, catching one fish and
driving out the rest.
Thus they kept at work, until, after
about three hours work, not a fish was
left in the hole that would weigh as much
as q pound. They caught about 400
pounds of these fish on this trip. During
the height of the fishing season the In
dams from the reservation visit this stream
by tribes, n for miles entirely clear the
river Of fish. They are also quite expert
with hook and line, using venison for
bait. Mr.. Steiger presented one of them
with q number of handsome fly hooks.
He looked at them in a comical way, then
took out his knife and deliberately trimmed
the fly off, saying that he "didn't care
for any of those new tangled flxin's:
venison was good enough for him for
bait."-W. F. Shattuck in Forest and