The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-05-05
TROUT FISHERMEN!
The Season is About to
Open in the Yer
mont Waters
WHY THE FISH DECREASE
Suggestions as to Various Kinds OF
Bait to Use-Habits OF the Trout
The Perfection of Sport.


Trout fishing in Vermont ponds
and streams will legally open
May Is, and the season is so advance
ed this year that there should be
good catches when the time arrives
that the law permits fisherman to
drop a line in the water.
In Maine, where is some of the best
fishing for lake trout and landlocked
salmon in the country, there is no
fixed date for the opening of the fish
ing season. AS soon as the ice has
left the lakes, and it usually leaves
Sebago first, the season opens. The
telegraph operators about the fishing
resorts report to the headquarters of
their railroads the progress of con-
ditions and the prospect of open wat
er. When the ice leaves this news is
flashed along the wires, and in a
short time copies of these telegraph
dispatches will be posted in dozen
or more different places in Boston,
and in other places in New York and
smaller cities. The ice is out and
the movement lakeward begins.
Some careful observers believe that
the fishing season in Vermont should
open when conditions are proper, not
on certain fixed date. A law passed
in 1908 permitted fishing in Windham
county month earlier than else
where in the State, and people in
that county claim that the Law has
worked well. Many, perhaps most
men who fish but little, feel that they
must go out the first day of the sea-
son, and having gone once they are
satisfied. If the opening of the sea-
son is delayed until the waters are
lily and the catches are larger. In
Windham county it was no unusual
thing before the change in the law,
for a brook to be skinned" on the
first day of fishing.
New York and Massachusetts reg
ulate the opening of the fishing sea-
son according to the conditions that
exist in different parts of the State
instead of applying single rule in
discriminatory to all sections.
The trout is generally esteemed as
the finest game fish IN the country and
is the most widely distributed Of any
game fish. What we call trout is
said by the scientists to be not a real
trout, but a char. However may be
orally mean when speaking of trout
is the equal of any scientifically rea
trout, as a game or a table fish.
Why Trout Are Fewer.
That trout are growing less plenty
is partly due to the greater number
of fishermen but more largely to tn,
changed conditions of the streams
The trout prefer clear, cold anC
clean water, but will thrive in streams
of higher temperature than it's us
ual habitat if the water flows rapid!
enough to be well aerated 1t thrive
best in clear, shallow streams with
steady current and gravelly bottom
AS the forests have been cleared from
the Vermont hillsides the flow of wat
el' is not SO well regulated. TIL
heavy rains of spring and fall flow
quickly into the streams and there i
no storage among moss and fallel
leaves and humus to maintain the fioy
in the dryer times of summer. TIL
saw mills have spoiled many breedin
places. Sawdust thrown into tn
forms covering of the gravel o
which the trout will not pawn. Othe
mills deposit different kinds of re
fuse which befoul the waters an
make them less desirable for trou
and again, the spelling of the forest
makes the water warmer and les
agreeable.
Stories of the quantities of tror
that swarmed the waters hereabor
when the first settlers arrived and tn
voracity with which they took ba
seem lhNltulDlc lOudy, YET III dNliCdii
the same conditions may be found no
in many lakes and streams in Canad
and Maine. Occacsianlly ar artificial
stocked piece of water will yield thu
kind of fishing, as Darling's pond di
a few years ago, but generally art
fically stocked water furnishes on
moderate sport Yet the true fisherma
does not care for such slaughter {
these wild waters afford but prefer
to pit his skill against the wiles
~he fierce and resourceful beauties.
Trout are found In all the waite
about here except those inhabited
bass and perch and these latter we
originally trout ponds A two-pouI
brook trout is an unusually large OF
for this section, but rainbows a
taken running as high as five or MOI
The best weight of the brook trout
New York State Is placed at abo
two pounds, while in the Rangeley +
gion of Maine they sometimes run
high as 10 pounds. Prof. Agassz HI
stated that the brook trout was new
found weighing more than TO
pounds. but Senator Frye, who W
An ardent fisherman and visited 4