CARE AND BREEDING OF TROUT
"The water, more productive than the earth, Nature's store-house,
in which she locks up her wonders, is the eldest daughter of the
creation, the element upon which the spirit of God did first
move."--IZAAK WALTON.
=Transporting Trout.=--To bring your fish home, first clean them
carefully, taking pains to remove that little dark blood streak along
the backbone. Then, after wiping them dry, pack them in ferns,
separately, and free from ice. Never send your fish home by express;
take them with you. A box cannot be checked on the train. Use an old
packing trunk. In this you can also transport your heavy
outfit--wading boots, oilskins, landing-net, etc.
=Trout in Captivity.=--Trout in artificial ponds should be fed three
or four times a week in the winter time during the very warmest part
of the day. There is no natural food in artificial ponds, and feeding
is necessary in order to keep the big fish from eating their small
companions. In natural trout ponds fed by springs so much care need
not be exercised in winter. Air holes need not be cut in any ice that
may form, as the springs afford a proper temperature, and but little
food, if any, need be given the fish.
=Killing the Trout.=--Kill your trout the instant they are landed;
don't let them suffer slow death. The game deserves humane treatment,
and the meat tastes better by quick killing.
=Trout Destroyers.=--Eels are ruinous to trout. They eat trout spawn,
and they should be removed from all trout waters.
=Live Frozen Trout.=--Trout packed in ice for several days and carried
forty miles by stagecoach and two hundred and fifty miles by railway
(Feb., 1914) from the State of Washington to Montana, says the
_Lewiston Democrat_ of Butte, Montana, came to life and swam spryly
when placed in a tank of water at the end of their journey--Hennessy's
meat store at Butte.
=Water Plants.=--Aquatic plants, besides affording protection and
shade to the fishes, supply oxygen to the water.
=Growth of Trout.=--"Mr. Tomkin of Polgaron put some small river
trout, 2-1/2 inches in length, into a newly made pond. He took some of
them out the second year, above twelve inches in length; the third
year, he took one out of sixteen inches in length; and the fourth
year, one of twenty-five inches in length: this was in 1734."--Carew's
_Survey of Cornwall_.
=Ducks Eat Trout.=--Arthur A. Woodford and S. W. Eddy, of Avon, Conn.,
say that ducks eat trout and destroy the trout's breeding places by
digging in the banks along the ponds and streams.