Like in that portion of this work devoted to the game birds, this also
is written in popular language, avoiding, as far as possible, all
technical words and phrases, with the intention of furnishing a plain
description of the game fishes of the Coast which anyone, unlearned in
the science of ichthyology, may understand, and by which be able to
identify any of the fishes he may capture.
With fishes, like with birds, there are certain parts that must be
referred to in order to show wherein one species differs from
another. Wherever these parts have a common English name, that name
has been used. But as there are a few parts that can only be referred
to by their scientific names, a diagram has been added showing the
location of all parts referred to in the text.
In scope it treats only of such varieties as rise to the fly or are
caught by trolling with rod and reel, whether from the stream, lake,
bay or ocean, and furnish sport to the angler who fishes for the
exhilarating pleasure their capture affords.
The Pacific Coast is rich in game fishes, not only in the varieties
found in its lakes and streams, but as well in its bays and estuaries,
while the broad ocean furnishes varieties whose size and fighting
qualities are not surpassed, even if equaled, in any other part of the
world. To place in the hands of the young angler, and others who may
not have given the subject the necessary attention, a convenient
handbook by the aid of which even the novice may readily recognize the
species of fish he has landed, is the object of these pages.
* * * * * * *
All of the salmon, the trout, the chars, the white-fish and the lake
herring have been classed by the naturalist in one family and given
the name, =Salmonidae=; but it is only with three genera of the
subfamily, =Salmoninae= that we are concerned. These are the Pacific
salmon (=Oncorhynchus=), the true trout (=Salmo=) and the Eastern
trout and the dolly varden trout (=Salvelinus=). The Atlantic salmon
belong to the genus Salmo, the same as the true trout, and have but
one species (=Salmo salar=), which partake more of the habits of the
trout than do their Pacific cousins.