Bass, Pike, Perch, and Others Part 11

The fly-rod, reel, line, and leader ordinarily employed for trout-fishing may be used also for grayling, though I would advise some modifications. While a first-cla.s.s split-bamboo rod of three and a half or four ounces may be advantageously used by an angler who knows how to handle a very light rod, I prefer one of five or six ounces. Such a rod is certainly light enough to be used all day without fatigue, and it is well to have the resourceful reserve of an ounce or two for emergencies. In any case it should not exceed ten and one-half feet in length, if built on the modern plan, where most of the pliancy is in its upper two-thirds, the lower third being stiffish and springy, const.i.tuting its backbone. A very good rod can be constructed with ash b.u.t.t, and lancewood, greenheart, or bethabara upper pieces, and one that will be almost as light as split-bamboo, and certainly more serviceable in the long run. I would also advise flush, non-dowelled joints, and reel-bands instead of a solid reel-seat, the latter being of no advantage and only adding to the weight of the rod; moreover, it is now put on the cheapest rods to make them sell. A plain groove for the reel, with bands, is very much better.

As a matter of course the line should be of braided silk, enamelled, and suited to the weight of the rod, as small as size G, but not larger than size E. It may be level, but a tapered line is better for casting, and is also better adapted for the delicate leader that must be employed.

A tapered leader six feet long is best, but should not be shorter than four feet. It must be made of the very best silkworm gut fibre, round, clear, and unstained. The distal end should be made of the finest drawn gut, known as gossamer, and taper to the larger or proximal end, which should be the smallest undrawn gut.

In England the most delicate leaders and extremely small flies are employed for grayling. The flies are usually tied on Pennell hooks, turndown eye, sizes 0, 00, 000, Kendal scale, which are smaller than No.

12, Redditch scale, the latter being the smallest size commonly used in America. The favorite flies in England have yellowish--lemon to orange--bodies, and bodies of peac.o.c.k harl, either green or bronze.

Flies with purplish, black, or slate-colored bodies are more sparingly employed. They are either hackles or split-winged flies. The formulas for some of the favorites are as follows:--

_Red Tag._ Body bright green harl from the "moon" of a peac.o.c.k's feather; hackle, bright red c.o.c.k's hackle; tag, bright red wool; hook, No. 0, Kendal scale.

_Orange b.u.mble._ Body, orange floss silk, ribbed with a strand of peac.o.c.k's sword feather and fine flat gold tinsel; hackle, honey dun c.o.c.k, wrapped all down the body; hook No. 0, Kendal scale.

_Green Insect._ Body, bright green peac.o.c.k's harl; hackled with a soft silver-gray hen's feather; hook No. 0, Kendal scale.

_Bradshaw's Fancy._ Body, copper-colored peac.o.c.k's harl; hackled with a feather from the neck of a Norwegian crow; tag, bright crimson wool or silk, with a couple of turns of the same at the head; tying silk, dark purple; hook No. 0, Kendal scale.

_Claret b.u.mble._ Body, claret floss silk, ribbed with a strand of peac.o.c.k's sword feather; medium blue dun c.o.c.k's hackle; hook. No. 0, Kendal scale.

Most of the foregoing are fancy flies, but are considered the best killers on English waters. In this country it has been demonstrated, also, that flies with bodies of peac.o.c.k harl, or with yellowish bodies, have been more uniformly successful than others. From this it would appear that the predilection of grayling for certain colors in artificial flies is much the same both in this country and England. From my own experience I can recommend the following well-known flies, adding, however, that their construction should be a little different from the conventional trout flies of these names in having a red tag or tail of scarlet wool, instead of the usual tail, and in having narrow split wings instead of the regular style of full wings:--

Yellowish-bodied flies: professor, queen of the water, Oconomowoc, Lord Baltimore. Green-bodied flies: coachman, Henshall, and grizzly king.

Other useful flies are black gnat, cinnamon, iron-blue dun, oriole, red ant, gray hackle, and black hackle. They should all be tied on Sproat or O'Shaughnessy hooks, No. 12, Redditch or common scale. Two flies only should be used in a cast, and of different colors.

Bearing in mind that the portions of a stream mostly used by grayling are the sandy and gravelly pools in swift, smooth water, they are fished for in much the same way as trout, except that the flies are allowed to sink below the surface, very much as in black-ba.s.s fishing. It is very important that the line and leader are always taut, inasmuch as the rise of the fish is not always seen, except as a quick flash or shadow beneath the surface. With a tight line the fish will be more apt to hook itself. With the small hooks of grayling flies, it is not wise for the angler to attempt to "strike," as in trout or black-ba.s.s fishing.

Upon hooking the fish it should be led sidewise from the pool, if possible, so as not to disturb or frighten the others of the school; and for the same reason it should be kept near the surface until taken into the landing-net.

Either a light trout bait-rod or the fly-rod may be employed for bait-fishing for grayling, with fine silk line, leader, and hooks Nos. 6 to 8 with a split-shot sinker a foot above the hook. English anglers use a small float, but in fishing down-stream it is not advisable, as the current prevents the bait from touching the bottom, and renders the use of a float for this purpose unnecessary. The bait should be kept from six inches to a foot above the bottom. The best bait is the larva of the caddis-fly, a small worm or caterpillar encased in a bag or covering composed of bits of bark, sticks, etc.; it is known in the Rocky Mountain region as the "rockworm." Earthworms, small gra.s.shoppers, crickets, and grubs of various kinds are also useful.

When it became known to fishculturists, about 1874, that the grayling existed in Michigan, attempts were made to propagate it artificially, but without success, as the same lines were pursued as with the brook-trout. It remained for the United States Fish Commission to successfully cope with the problem in Montana, under my supervision.

Beginning with 1898, we have hatched millions at Bozeman Station and the auxiliary station near Red Rock Lake, at the head of the Jefferson River. We have also shipped millions of eggs to different parts of the Union, as far east as Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, mostly to United States Fish Commission stations, where they were hatched and planted in suitable streams. It is to be hoped that some of these plants will result in the permanent establishment of this beautiful and desirable fish in eastern waters.

The eggs of the grayling are smaller than those of the trout, being but one-seventh of an inch in diameter. When first extruded they are amber-colored, owing to a large oil-drop, which renders them lighter than trout eggs, almost semi-buoyant, and for this reason are best hatched, or at least "eyed," in hatching jars. My plan is to keep them in the hatching jars until the eye-spots show, when they are removed to hatching-trays until incubation is complete.

In a few days after extrusion the eggs become crystal-like or hyaline in color, when the embryo can be seen in motion. The period of incubation is from ten days to two weeks. The fry when hatched are very small, about the size of mosquito "wigglers" (larvae). Their umbilical yolk-sac is absorbed in a few days, when it becomes imperative to supply them with stream water, which contains the small organisms (_Entomostraca_) on which they feed at first. Afterward they can be fed artificially the same as trout fry, which they soon outgrow.

There is an erroneous opinion that has gained considerable currency among anglers to the effect that grayling and trout are antagonistic, and that to this cause is to be attributed the decrease of grayling in the waters of Michigan. My observations have led me to the conclusion that this opinion is not supported by any evidence whatever. When I fished the streams of that state, years ago, both trout and grayling were plentiful in the same waters, and were living in harmony as they had done from time immemorial. Their habits and choice of locality being different, the trout hiding under cover and the grayling lying in exposed pools, their struggle for existence or supremacy does not bring them much in opposition, or cause them to prey on each other or on their eggs or fry in an unusual degree, or to such an extent as to effect the marked decrease of either species. Honors are even. It is the same in Montana. In that state the red-throat trout and grayling seek out such portions of the streams as are best suited to them; but very often they are found together on neutral ground, where they live peaceably and not at variance with each other. As no disturbing element has yet been introduced, their numbers still bear the same relative proportion that has existed since the days of yore.

Likewise in England, in such historic waters as the Wye, the Derwent, the Wharfe, or the Dove, hallowed by "meek Walton's heavenly memory,"

the grayling and trout still coexist in about the same relative proportion that has been maintained since and before the days of Dame Juliana Berners, Izaak Walton, and Charles Cotton in the fifteenth century. On those quiet streams no cause has ever been allowed to militate against the well-being of either species, or to disturb the natural conditions to any considerable extent.

In a recent number of the _London Fishing Gazette_ is one of the best articles on the English grayling that I have ever seen. It is written by Mr. E.F. Goodwin, who is undoubtedly fully conversant with his theme and well acquainted with the habits of that fish. Among other things he says:--

"When in season I maintain that the grayling will give excellent sport on suitable tackle, is splendid eating, and is as handsome a fish as any angler need wish to gaze upon. What more can one want? How Charles Cotton could have written in such terms of condemnation of the sporting qualities of this fish as to call him 'one of the deadest-hearted fishes in the world, and the bigger he is the more easily taken,' pa.s.ses my understanding, although we must remember that this remark was pa.s.sed to 'Viator' on his catching a grayling in the early part of March, when the fish would be out of condition in all probability. I confess to a feeling of disappointment at the summary way in which Walton dismisses the grayling, showing that he did not think very highly of him either from an edible or sporting point of view.

"Grayling will rise readily to the artificial fly, and although they will come again time after time if missed (or perhaps I should say if they miss the fly, which is more usual), they require the neatest and finest tackle and the most delicate handling to secure them; and as Francis truly says, 'when you have hooked a grayling, your next job is to land him.'--There is a lot of difference between the way a well-conditioned trout and grayling fight after being hooked, and this may account for some of the condemnation heaped upon the latter as to its non-sportive character; for although not so lively as the trout with its mad rushes for liberty, yet the kind of resistance is more dangerous to the hold you have on him, for the grayling tries the hold of the hook in every possible way, and from every possible point of that hold.

To my mind a grayling is much more difficult to land than a trout, and the more I fish for grayling the more convinced I am of his gameness and sporting qualities. Certainly there are a great many more grayling lost after being hooked than trout, and this is accounted for princ.i.p.ally not so much from the reputed tenderness of the mouth as from the fact of the fish not being so firmly hooked as the trout usually is.

"The ideas of grayling not heading up-stream and of being deleterious to the trout have been perpetuated by author after author, just copying one another without really ascertaining the facts.... As regards the advisability of introducing grayling into a trout stream, that depends entirely upon the nature of the river. As far as my experience and observation go, grayling only become detrimental to the trout in that, being active and voracious feeders, they consume the food that otherwise would have belonged to and been partaken of by the trout. It is certain that these fish live together in general amity. The grayling is but seldom a fish eater, and therefore any accusation as to its being destructive to the fry of trout is untenable. That it, in the trout-sp.a.w.ning season, may help itself to what it can find of the superfluous ova which float down the stream no one can object to, but as to its burrowing in the redds and disturbing the hatching ova. I very much doubt it. Both the late Dr. Brunton and Dr. Hamilton were very strong in their a.s.sertion that this was a matter of impossibility with the grayling, and yet we are a.s.sured by Dr. James A. Henshall that the fry of grayling are as much addicted to cannibalism as the pike-perch fry."

After giving a brief s.p.a.ce to natural bait-fishing, he goes on to say: "But after all there is only one way in which this fish should be caught, and that is with the fly. This ground has been gone over so many times that it only remains for me to say that, the grayling being a bold and daring riser, never be discouraged if you fail to hook him, even if he rise at your fly time after time. He lies very low in the river when watching for his prey, and therefore is not so easily disturbed; and if you remain quite still when he has risen and missed the fly and gone down to his lair, he will surely rise again. His rise, too, is different to a trout. A trout, from lying close to the surface when feeding, takes without effort the flies floating over him, and also is easily scared.

A grayling, from lying deep in the water, quite close to the bottom, comes up with great rapidity, and seldom takes the fly until it has pa.s.sed him; and should he miss it, which often happens, disappears so quickly that he may well be compared to a shadow--hence the name of 'umber,' from _umbra_, a shadow. Should you hook him, up goes his great dorsal fin and down goes his head in his determination to get to his hiding-place, and it depends on his size and gameness, as well as the skill of the angler, whether he succeeds or not. I have often heard anglers complain that grayling are more difficult to hook than trout.

Experienced anglers are all aware that grayling are not so easily hooked on the rise as trout, but he offers the best compensation in his power by consenting to rise over and over again until if you do not hook him the fault is yours, not his. When he rises at a pa.s.sing fly he must ascend at lightning speed in order to cover the distance in time to catch it; having done so, he turns instantly head down and descends at the same speed. This is really the 'somersault' so well known to grayling fishers.

With a long line it is next to impossible to strike a grayling on the instant, and a taut line in this fishing is of even greater importance than in trout-fishing."

[Ill.u.s.tration THE MORE SPORTSMANLY WAY OF CATCHING MASCALONGE]

I have given the above liberal quotations because the article agrees so well with my own practice in grayling fishing, and accords with the habits of the American graylings as I have observed them.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 1: SPECIFIC CHARACTERIZATIONS OF THE GRAYLINGS +--------------------+------------------+---------------+---------------+ T. signifer T. tricolor T. monta.n.u.s +--------------------+------------------+---------------+---------------+ Head in length 5-1/2 5 5 +--------------------+------------------+---------------+---------------+ Depth in length 4-2/3 5-1/2 4-1/2 +--------------------+------------------+---------------+---------------+ Eye in head 3 4 3-1/2 +--------------------+------------------+---------------+---------------+ Maxillary in head 6 (?) 2-1/2 3 +--------------------+------------------+---------------+---------------+ Scales 8-88 to 90-11 93-98 8-82 to 85-10 +--------------------+------------------+---------------+---------------+ Gill-rakers 12 below the angle 7 + 12 5 + 12 +--------------------+------------------+---------------+---------------+ Dorsal rays 20-24 21-22 18-21 +--------------------+------------------+---------------+---------------+ Height of dorsal fin 3-1/2 in length 5-1/2 in length 4-1/2 in length +--------------------+------------------+---------------+---------------+]

CHAPTER VII

THE SALMON FAMILY

(_Salmonidae_)

This is quite an extensive family, embracing the salmons, trouts, and whitefishes, and is characterized princ.i.p.ally by an adipose fin and small, smooth scales. It is my province to consider only the Rocky Mountain whitefish and the cisco, as the salmons and trouts are described in another volume of this series. There are a number of whitefishes, but none of them can be considered game-fishes except the one about to be described, as they rarely or never take the fly or bait.

_Coregonus williamsoni._ Rocky Mountain Whitefish. Head 4-1/2 to 5; depth 4 to 5; eye 4-2/3; D. 11 to 14; A. 11 to 13; scales 8 to 10-83 to 87-7 to 10; body oblong, little compressed; head short, conic, the profile rather abruptly decurved; snout compressed and somewhat pointed at tip, which is below the level of the eye; preorbital broad, 2/3 the width of the eye; maxillary short and very broad, reaching to the anterior margin of eye, and is contained 4 times in length of head; mandible 3 times; gill-rakers short and thick, 9 + 15; pectoral fin 1-1/5 in head; ventral 1-2/5; adipose fin large, extending behind the a.n.a.l fin.

_Coregonus williamsoni cis-monta.n.u.s._ Montana Whitefish. Head 5; depth 5 to 5^1; pectoral fin 1^1 in head; ventral 1-4/5; scales 90. Otherwise like the typical form.

_Argyrosomus artedi sisco._ Cisco. Head 4 to 5; depth 4 to 4-1/2; eye 4 to 5; D. 10; A. 12; scales 8-65 to 80-8; body long, slender and somewhat compressed; head long, pointed and compressed; mouth large, lower jaw somewhat projecting, maxillary reaching to pupil; mandible 2-1/3 in head; dorsal fin high, its rays rapidly shortened; caudal fin forked.

THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN WHITEFISH

(_Coregonus williamsoni_)

This fine fish was first described from the Des Chutes River in Oregon by Dr. Charles Girard in 1856, who described most of the fishes collected during the Pacific Railroad Survey, and named the one under consideration in honor of Lieutenant R.S. Williamson, who had charge of one of the divisions of the Survey.

Its general form is not unlike that of the grayling, which has led to the absurd opinion, held by some, that the grayling is a hybrid, or cross, between this whitefish and the red-throat trout, its body being rather long, nearly elliptical in outline, and somewhat compressed. It is found in the clear streams on both slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and on both sides of the Cascade Range. In the tributaries of the Missouri River in Montana it differs slightly from the typical form, and is known as the variety _cis-monta.n.u.s_. It is bluish or greenish on the back, sides silvery, belly white. All of the fins are tipped with black; caudal and adipose fins are steel-blue.

I know this fish only from the streams of Montana, where it coexists with the red-throat trout and grayling. It sp.a.w.ns in the fall. It feeds on insects and their larvae, small crustaceans, and the eggs of other fishes. It grows to about a foot in length, usually, and to a pound in weight, though I have taken much larger specimens. It is a very fair food-fish,--as good, I think, as the red-throat trout, as its flesh is firmer and flaky, and devoid of any muddy or musky flavor.

It rises to the artificial fly as readily as the trout or grayling, and to the same flies, though a little more partial to small, dark, or grayish ones, as black, brown, and gray hackles, black gnat, oriole, gray drake, etc. When the streams are higher and not so clear, lighter-colored flies are useful, as professor, coachman, Henshall, miller, etc. Light trout fly-rods and tackle are used both for fly and bait-fishing by Rocky Mountain anglers,--the bait, when used, being the larva of the caddis-fly, and known as "rockworm." Gra.s.shoppers are employed in the late summer and fall. Fly-fishing, however, is the most successful method.

Large baskets of whitefish are made in the three forks of the Missouri River, especially in the lower Gallatin River, where it is taken with the grayling, the red-throat trout not being so plentiful in that part of the stream. The tributaries of this river are also well supplied with whitefish. Bridger Creek, one of the tributaries of East Gallatin River, has some large whitefish. I have taken them in that stream up to two pounds; for gameness they were equal to trout of the same weight, and just as good for the table. They are at their best in the early fall months, before sp.a.w.ning, when they are fat and in fine fettle. At this season they must be looked for in deep holes, especially in August and September, when they are gregarious, and one's basket may be filled from a single hole when of considerable extent. Later they depart for the shallows and pair off for sp.a.w.ning, when they seldom rise to the fly.

There is a sentiment among trout fishers, and among people generally in a trout region, that no other fish is quite so good to eat, or possessed of as much gameness, as the trout. While I concede beauty of form and coloration to the trout, far excelling all other fresh-water fishes, there are others equally as good for the table, or even better. When camping by mountain streams, freshly-caught trout, fried to crispness in bacon fat, has a happy combined trout-bacon flavor that is certainly delicious, especially when one has the sauce of a camping appet.i.te to favor it; but under similar conditions the mountain whitefish, in my opinion, is fully as good. Nine out of ten persons who are prejudiced in favor of the trout will declare that it has no scales, thus showing a lack of comparison and observation. In the Rocky Mountain region, where there are so few species of fish for the angler, usually only trout, grayling, and whitefish, the latter should be better appreciated.