The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-10
TROUT, PICKEREL, BLACK BASS.
A Succession OF Dynasties in the Lakes Of
the Delay ware Valley.


Owing to Its superior natural advantages,
the Delaware Valley from the Water Gap
to the head Of the river Ia to this day barely
excelled elsewhere In the favors 1t offers
to the sportsman. So strongly did that
region appeal to the Indians who inhabited
it formerly that for years after they had
been forced out struggling bands and
individuals annually returned to the Della
ware Valley to hunt and fish A visit Of
this kind resulted in what might be called
fish calamity, for because OF it most Of the
mountain lakes in the region were despoiled
OF their trout through the introduction Of
the sharklike pickerel.
One of the prettieet OF Delaware Valley
ponds Is Lake Culver, in Sussex county.
N. j. Eighty years ago an Indian, whose
tribe fed TO Canada At tho clone Of tho Revo-
lutionary War, made his last visit to the old
hunting ground, and with the persistence
and skill characterzins his race carried
with him all the way from Oneida Lake.
made OF birch bark, In which were number
Of small pickerel. He turned them into
Culver's Pond
| That act OF the lone Indian was the be-
ginning OF the end OF the trout dynasty
Of the mountain lakes Of the Delaware
Valley; Seventy years ago johnson Wells
transplanted numbers Of pickerel from
Culvers Pond to Big Brink Pond. in Pike
county, Pa. They prospered and increased
ana from Brink Pond most Of the other
lakes in Pike county. as we'll a. OF adjoining
counties, were stocked with this ravenous
| fish, so that no less than 100 mountain lakes
! with one or two exceptions the homes OF
the finest native trout, owe the existence
Of p!ckerel in their waters to-day to the
successful transportation in birch bark
| bucket OF those half dozen or 40 OF Oneida
Lake pickerel TO Culver's Pond by that
| persistent Indian.
The trout disappeared from all those
lax ,axo ,,a long age, killed OF by the Pcker.l
DUCT ion of black bass into those waters
during the past twent y-fve years. that fish
was monarch Of them all.
IT Is believed that the last representative
o., Il me n, race OF TROUT trout that once teemed In
taken from White Oak Pond. in Wayne
| county, Pa, in 1874. From that water
and from Little Walker Pond, in Pike
county, occa. ional trout Of very large size
were taken for years after their kind had
lakes. In the summer of 1874 Miles L.
| Tracy, paymaster OF the Delaware and
Hudson Canal Company, fishing in White
YAK POND for perch, landed trout such as
lev peope IN al that region had ever seen
five pounds. It was the last OF the great
! race of trout whoee natural home had been
in the mountain lakes Of the Delaware
Valley country, which the cannibal tribe
Of alien piokerel had annihilated.
Nearly all the mountain lakes referred to
were some years ago stocked with black
bass When the bass grew and increased
they seemed to be more than a match for
the ,pickerel, for after few years pickerel
fishing began to be attended with poor
results. In one Pike county pond. Lake
Laura. in Blooming Grove Park. the bass
annihilated the pickerel, and not in twent '
years has pickerel been taken there.
OF late years, however, In most OF tho
public lakes OF the region. pickerel fishin z
has returned to it's former excellence, and
as black bass fishing in the came waters
remains as good as ever, it would seem that
either the pickerel has braced up and made
itself match for the bass. or a truce has
been made between those two fighting
ps catorial families.