White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-05-27
'STEETHEADS TO BE PLANTED
IN WHITE PINE STREAMS

S~teelheadS, the nfSt III NSfsdd,
have been imported in the form of
spawn to the White Pine fish batch
cry and in due course will be planted
In the upper reaches of several of the
larger and colder fishing streams of
the county. Game Warden A. {.
Powell, IN charge of the hatchery in
hurry canyon, is in receipt of So
900 steelhead spawn from Grants
Pass, Ore, which is the home CT the
big hatchery on Rogue river.
1t is cot anticipated that these
steelhead in the smaller streams of
White Pine county will attain the
size that they do in the rivers of
Oregon, Washington and British Co
lumbia There they have lots of
room to come and go and to feed, be
sides they are anaromous, which
means that they travel upstream
from salt water to spawn. The steel
heads of the northwest come up from
the oeean every spring and deposit
their eggs In the upper reaches OF
the rivers that empty into the ocean.
They can live the year round IN fresh
water, but it is their nature 10 spend
their winters in salt water and their
habitat is in streams of the size that
take the classification of rivers. Tho
Truekee or Carson rivers would be.
natural spawning grounds for them
we're those streams tributaries Of the
go fT14. 10 .Nz,lI N... -. go
Columbia, Willamette, Chehalis. VIII
lipa, Cowlitz, Snohomish, Fraser and
other northwest coast rivers are their
summer retreats. They also ascend
the smaller streams on Vancouver
island and along the mainland coast.
In Oregon steelheads are censid-
cred the gamiest OF al fish. Ii is
against tie law there to take them
except by hook ard line. though they
arc as large as the smaller varieties
of salmeE and ere caught in salmon
seines but are supposed to be thrown
back in the water where SEEMING is
allowed. For many years a cannery
was run at the mouth Of Rogue river
by a California millionaire named
Hume. There was something of n
town and some of his employees had
lived there all their lives and owned
their homes. In 1910 the Medford
fruit LAND boom occurred and a great
movement TO sell orchards to eastern
millionaires for the colonization of
their more or less wayward IONS was
engineered, one of the inducements
being the fine fishing in Rogue river.
But the Medford boomers claimed the
steelheads were almost reaching ex-
tinction through their being taken
contrary to law by the Hume can
merry An initiative Law was submit
ted to the people closing Rogue river
to commercial fishing. More on ac-
count of Hume being a millionaire
and taking Oregon money TO Califor.
MIA to spend than upon the Issue of
giving the eastern millionaires' sons
a chance TO catch fish nea their or
ehards the law was carried over
whelmingly. Governor Oswald West
ca%mpaigned in it's favor, with Hume's
nonresidence as the effective issue.
From that time forth the river has
been iammed with schools of salmon.
which do not take The hook and line
except by trawling. and whether or
not the steelheads have become more
plentiful or are easier to catch Is still
an unsettled question.
To catch a steelhead an angler
there must be an artist. Wading with
vast length Of line and a reel Is the
system employed. They are caught
only In the big rifles and special flies
are used. When a large one Is
hooked 1t Is then necessary to use a
landing net. In British Columbia
spearing Is allowed in which man
ner they are easily gotten in the
smaller streams.
1t Is a mooted question whether a
steelhead Is a salmon or n trout. or
both. Their scientific name is salmo
rivularlis. The word salmo applies
to both salmon and trout and riyu-
laris to river, or probably to feeding
on the fungi of a river.
Mr.. Powell has a large number of
rainbow and other trout to be plant
ed in White Pine stream9 when the
time comes. They are not planted
until the high water subsidies and
the water Is clear. which will be in
June.
There are no closed streams in
White Pine county under the admin
istration of Mr.. Powell. He says
closing them only means their being
hshed out illegally by a few persons
and the solution Is to continually re-
stock them.