THE BROOK TROUT
"Then, give me the trout of the mountain stream.
With his crimson stars and his golden gleam;
When he, like a hero, on the moss lies.
The Angler has won his fairest prize!"
AUTHOR UNKNOWN.
=Trout Taking Flies.=--"Trout invariably strike the insect first with
their tails, knocking it into the water and then devouring it with a
swift dart which can hardly be distinguished from the original
movement, so quickly does one succeed the other."--W. C. Prime.
=Trout Colors.=--The color of a trout's back depends on the color of
the bottom of the river. Rapidly growing trout differ greatly in spots
and color from those which grow slowly and thrive badly. A middle-aged
trout differs in color from an aged trout. Speaking generally, the
young, healthy, fast-growing fish will have silvery sides, white
belly, and plenty of well-defined spots. The poorly fed fish will have
few or no spots, a drab belly, and muddy yellow sides. Old trout are
particularly lank and large-headed.
=Tame Trout.=--An English gentleman has two brook trout that take
flies from his fingers, and that ring a little bell cord when they
are hungry. They were taught this latter performance by having bits of
food tied to the cord when it was first introduced.
=Wild Trout and Tame.=--"Somehow the catching of, as it were,
stall-fed trout has not the same charm as the fishing for the wild
trout. The domestics lack that fierce rush and dash of the wild
beauty."--John B. Robinson.
=Sight, Hearing, etc., of Trout.=--"There is no question ... as to the
high development of the senses of sight, taste, and hearing in
trout."--Wm. C. Harris.
=Trout at Play.=--"Many times have I leaned over the sides of my boat
in Northern waters, where the trout lay beneath me, and seen the
mottled beauties chase each other, and race and leap in rivalry of
sport, until their bright sides irradiated the dark stream with
glancing light, as if the rays of the sun had taken water and were at
their bath."--W. H. H. Murry.
=Trout in Hungary.=--The streams of Hungary afford excellent angling
for trout and grayling.
=Unidentified Trout.=--M. P. Dunham of Ovando. Montana, a sportsman's
guide of many years' experience, writes me: "We have two trout here in
Montana that I do not find pictured in _The Angler's Guide_ or any
other book I have seen containing the technical portraits of the
fishes. One of these trout weighs up to forty-nine pounds and its
average weights are twelve pounds to fifteen pounds. The other is a
small trout that averages less than one pound in weight, and it has
no spots. The large trout has a few spots, these being particularly
brilliant in the mating season--September and October. The best time
to fish for this large species is in August and September. Both of
these unidentified trout will rise to the artificial fly, but in
fly-fishing I have never taken a specimen of the large species that
weighed over six pounds, the fish ranging beyond this weight favoring
small fish and red meat for bait. The waters are overstocked with the
large variety; the small unspotted variety is only in one stream."
Undoubtedly these two trout are odd forms of well-known species. Mr.
Dunham should send specimens of each to the United States Fish
Commission at Washington. The small trout will undoubtedly prove to be
the common mountain trout, whose peculiar habitat--the one stream Mr.
Dunham mentions--is responsible for its peculiar coloring. The large
fish that ranges up to forty-nine pounds is no doubt a form of lake
trout which has been known to attain a weight of eighty pounds and a
length of six feet.
=The Trout's Symmetry.=--"Few humanly designed lines are more graceful
than those of the yacht. The trout is made up of such lines. It is a
submarine designed by the Almighty. It makes the most of the simple
elements of artistic beauty--symmetry of line, suggestive of agile
power, and delicately blended harmonies of rich color."--New York
_Evening Telegram_, editorial page, July 17, 1915.
=The Beautiful Trout.=--"Of all the many species of trout,
_Salvelinus_ or _Salmo_, the brook trout, _fontinalis_, is by far the
most beautiful."--Charles Zibeon Southard.
=A Loving Trout.=--At the Wintergreen estate, Highland Lake, Winsted,
Conn., a brook trout was kept in captivity in a deep spring for seven
years. When the fish was fifteen inches in length two other brook
trout, a male and female, each ten inches long, were placed in the
spring to keep the old fellow company. He promptly fell in love with
the lady trout and killed and swallowed her escort.
=Albino Trout.=--The fish hatchery in St. Paul, Minn., had at one time
twenty thousand albino trout in stock. This species was discovered in
1893. There is something peculiar in Minnesota waters which aids
propagation of this species. The fish are white mottled with red and
yellow spots; the fins are white with red bands mottled with yellow.
The eyes are red and the trout has apparently a transparent skin so
that the bones are visible through it.
=Rainbow Trout.=--Dr. A. E. Buzard, of Hayward. Calif., fishing in the
Spokane River within ten minutes' walk of the city of Spokane, Wash.,
creeled eleven rainbow trout weighing, collectively, seventeen pounds.
=Rocky Mountain Trout.=--H. E. Peck, of Kenman. North Dakota, and H.
N. Stabeck, of Minneapolis. Minn., enjoyed good trout fishing last
summer in the Crow West country of the Rocky Mountains. A catch of
thirty-one trout weighed, collectively, fifty-one pounds. The largest
specimen weighed three and one fourth pounds.
=Flood-water Trout.=--When the trout stream is flooded, the trout find
plenty of food and they gorge themselves with worms, etc. Then they
refuse the Angler's bait for several days--"trout feed on a rising
stream, not on a falling stream."--E. Curley.
=A Tame Trout.=--"Sunbeam, the pet speckled trout in the fish hatchery
at Estes Park, is very fond of being stroked and petted, and will swim
around and rub itself against a person's hand whenever a chance is
given it."--Estes (Calif.) Correspondent New York _World_. I'll
warrant this fish only rubs its lips against the hand of man. No fish
will willingly allow its body to come in contact with a man's hand,
because fishes are covered with a slime that protects them when they
encounter rocks, logs, etc., and they naturally would not voluntarily
waste this valuable armor.
=Traits of the Trout.=--The brook trout (_Salvelinus fontinalis_),
using its tail with vigor and precision, will splash water into the
midst of a mass of flying insects (midge, black gnat, mosquito, etc.),
and thus disable these insects so that they will fall on the surface
of the water, where they become easy prey to the voracious trout.
_Fontinalis_ will also use his tail in striking to disable larger
insects (butterflies, beetles, cricket, potato-bug, etc.), and the
Angler's artificial flies when they are floating in or upon the water.
=Rainbow Trout.=--"The rainbow takes the fly so readily that there is
no reason for resorting to grasshoppers, salmon eggs, or other bait.
It is a fish whose gameness will satisfy the most exacting of expert
Anglers, and whose readiness to take any proper line will please the
most impatient of inexperienced amateurs."--Prof. Evermann.
=The Tactful Trout.=--"Trout are emblems of quiet, calm, and
gentleness, such as love not to be in troubled waters or to be tossed
to and fro by the blustering of wicked and malevolent spirits, but
rather live quiet at home than enjoy abundance through labor and
trouble."--Randal Holme.
=Double-headed Trout.=--A two-headed brook trout is the product of the
fish hatchery at Colebrook, N. H.
=Trout in Side Currents.=--"As a general rule although many trout are
taken near, very near the rough, white water of a stream, they do not
as a rule lie in the very swiftest portions, but in adjacent and
quieter side currents."--Samuel G. Camp.
=The Angler's Joy.=--"The brook trout always will be the Angler's
greatest joy, but the German brown trout [introduced in American
waters] and the rainbow trout add variety to the social life of the
streams."--Neal Brown.