The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1915-05-13
WILL MAKE
THE ARKANSAS
TROUT STREAM

The fish and game committee of the
Canon City Chamber of Commerce.
consisting Of Theodore NJ. Harding.
David L. Robson and C. r. c. Dye,
have worked cut a plan for stocking
the Arkansas river with trout by
means of which they expect to con-
vert it into one of the best fishing
streams in the state. The members
of the committee have given great
deal Of thought and hard work to the
matter and are confident of the ulti-
mate success OF the undertaking.
They have been working on the prop
osition for the last three or four
months. but have not been ready un-
I'll now to make their scheme public.
Having convinced itself by careful
Investigation that the river was not
being polluted any longer by hydraulic
mining, mill tailings or from other
artificial sources along the upper
course and that the stream was capa-
BILE of supporting an abundant fish
life the committee entered into me-
gotiations with W. B. Fraser of Dem
yer. state game and fish commission
er, with view of stocking its waters
with trout fry. Convinced that prob
ably eighty or ninety per cent of all
fish placed in the river directly from
the hatchery would die because of
their inability to take care of them
selves at that stage of their existence
the committee decided to establish
ponds for them where they could be
kept and nurtured until large enough
to forage for themselves. A nursery
pond, or rather two of them, contain
ing in the aggregate something like
two thousand square feet of surface.
was arranged for with Miss Martha
Philip on the Albert Phillip place at
Coaldale. forty miles west of Canon
City, and one hundred and fifty dol
lars in their development to meet the
requirements of the situation. Miss
Phillip very generously donated
piece of meadow land, about two
hundred yards back from the river.
and on it the ponds have been con-
structed. The ponds are each one
hundred and twenty feet long, six
teen feet wide, four feet deep and are
fed by a spring from which the water
As the same temperature at all sea-
sons of the year. The ponds have
been inclosed by a wire fence and
and their banks gravelled. The wire
fencing was donated by the firm Of
Hendricks & Worth Of Cotopaxi. and
the barbed wire for the top by Mr..
Alexander of Coaldale.
The people of Cotopaxi and Coal
dale are interested with the COM
mittee in the stocking of the river
with fish and are assisting it in max
ing a success of the nursery ponds
where the fry are big enough to be
liberated. Miss Philip. in addition
10 donating the land for the ponds,
has very kindly agreed to look after
the feeding of the fish until they are
big enough to be turned loose. They
will be fed with raw liver. ground up.
1t is believed that the fry, placed in
the ponds day or two ago. will be
four or five inches long by next Oc-
tober or November. when they will be
turned into the river.
The first of the week Mr.. and Mrs.
Harding and children motored up to
Coaldale and placed $1,000 trout fry
in the ponds. On Thursday of this
week w. Z. Galley and David L. Rob
ison had planned to go there and re-
lease $4,000 more of them in the
ponds, but on account OF the disagree
able weather and bad roads they did
not make the trip and o. b. Hope OF
the state fish hatchery at Buena Vista
and Joe Boyer of Coaldale did the
job for them. In about six months
these fish will be four or five inches
al length and will then be dumped in
IL the river. Next fall another allo.-
ment OF fry for the ponds has been
promised by Mr.. Fraser and they will
be kept there until the following
spring before being released in the
river.
The chamber of commerce commit
tee is enthusiastic In it's work Of
planting fish in the Arkansas river
and express the conviction that in
the course of the next three or four
years 1t will be one OF the very best
fishing streams in Colorado. That por-
finn of the river from Cotopaxi to