NH's Native Fish

By Jack Noon Adapted from “Native Fish and Virgin Forests,” the first chapter of Fishing in New The brook trout is a true New Hampshire native. Many believe that the “speckled Hampshire: A History. beauties” followed the glaciers’ retreat north at the end of the last Ice Age. Classic fish prints in this article are by Sherman F. Denton from the turn of the 19th century, courtesy of Dr. Robert Averill collection. See more Denton prints online at www.moosecountry.com. ISH HAVEN’T ALWAYs been in or brackish water and migrated either Editor’s note: New Hampshire. It is indisput- inland up rivers to spawn (anadro- Jack Noon has spent the last 25 years able that while the last glacier mous fish) or, in the case of the silver getting sidetracked. It all started when the F eel, downriver and out to sea (cat- Sutton writer began researching a few was here, there were no fish whatever scenes for a novel set along the Connecti- living within the current borders of adromous); and those which spent cut River in the 1760s. He needed to show the state. The fish available to the their entire lives in fresh water. what the salmon and shad fishing scene Abenakis and to the first European The migratory fish in the was like around Walpole and Bellows settlers had managed to migrate in, Piscataqua watershed included striped Falls, Vt. The first distraction was about survive and reproduce over the bass and enormous Atlantic sturgeon, how largemouth and smallmouth bass millennia as the landscape changed and in New Hampshire’s portion of came to be introduced to New Hampshire from barren, glaciated wasteland into the Merrimack River both of these in the 1800s; that resulted in his book, tundra and then eventually into forest. species were reported in the eigh- “The Bassing of New Hampshire.” The When the first white settlers teenth century as far up as Amoskeag second sidetrack is a comprehensive arrived in the Piscataqua region in the Falls in Manchester. There, Matthew overview entitled, “Fishing in New Hampshire: A History,” to be published 1620s, the native fish found within the Patten recorded in his journal catching this fall by Moose Country Press. borders of what would later become a (small) 6-foot 2-inch sturgeon on Look for more fishing history articles New Hampshire fell into two groups July 6, 1761, that weighed 94 pounds by Jack Noon in upcoming issues of of roughly equal significance: those and a bass on June 12, 1766, which he Wildlife Journal. which spent parts of their lives in salt traded for a salmon. Atlantic salmon, 4 July/August 2002 • WILDLIFE JOURNAL shad, lampreys, alewives, blueback herring and silver eels complete the list of species that split their time between fresh water and salt water. Natives and Imports The coldwater native fish of the interior that are of interest to today’s anglers included at least three species of char — brook trout, lake trout and Sunapee golden trout. Winnipesaukee When European settlers arrived, native lake trout populations were in at least held cusk and two kinds of whitefish. eight New Hampshire lakes. Their populations here suffered during the early 19th The warmwater species of pickerel, century when lake trout were speared through holes in the ice and sold to Boston yellow perch, sunfish and horned pout markets. were present in at least the southern New Hampshire portion of the Enormous Sturgeon Connecticut River, in the mainstem Among Josselyn’s reports In 1634 William Wood published Merrimack River and up the an account, New England’s Prospect, for the New England region Winnipesaukee River into Lake that showed fishing by Englishmen Winnipesaukee, in a few ponds of he claimed sturgeon 16 feet for anadromous species already well easy access near the rivers and underway and confirmed that barrels long and two men catching probably in a number of freshwater of preserved sturgeon — ten years ponds near the coast. Otherwise, 10,000 alewives in after Levett’s report — were being waterfalls or cold water had kept them sent back across the Atlantic commer- two hours. from moving further inland. Black cially: bass, brown trout, rainbow trout, “The sturgeons be all over the landlocked salmon, northern pike, books: New England’s Rarities country, but the best catching of them walleyes, carp and many other species Discovered, published in 1672, and is upon the shoals of Cape Cod and in now found in New Hampshire were An Account of Two Voyages to New- the river of Merrimac, where much is all 19th century imports. England, published in 1674. Among taken, pickled, and brought for From the time the white settlers Josselyn’s reports for the New England. Some of these be 12, 14, 18 arrived at the Piscataqua in the 1620s England region he claimed sturgeon foot long. I set not down the price of until the 1720s, when the Scotch-Irish 16 feet long and two men catching fish there because it is so cheap. ” settlers began fishing at Amoskeag 10,000 alewives in two hours. He also As 17th century Massachusetts Falls, information on the freshwater wrote, “Trouts there be good store in river towns became well established, fisheries of what is now New Hamp- every brook, ordinarily 2 and 20 fishermen learned the most efficient shire is sketchy at best. The mainland inches.” ways to catch anadromous fish in white settlements during most of that Before inland commercial fishing their seasonal runs (the sturgeon in century consisted only of Portsmouth, began or dams hindered fish migra- particular) because of the strong th Dover, Exeter and Hampton (all with tions or forerunners of the 19 century commercial value of a single fish. different boundaries than today). The “fish culturists” began moving fish Shore-bound fishermen without the three or more varieties of char present species into waters they hadn’t swum capital investment or inclination to go and the pickerel, perch, sunfish, into by themselves, the inland fish after codfish or mackerel might have horned pout and other inland species populations of New Hampshire held heavily targeted sturgeon (and salmon had long since settled into the to the habits and numbers and life too). The fish on their spawning runs established patterns of their life cycles cycles of centuries. The six docu- were particularly vulnerable to minimally affected by humans. mented anadromous species ranged overfishing with nets in the narrow Christopher Levett, writing about up the river systems in what must confines of a river. his observations along the coast of have been tremendous annual runs. Maine in 1623 or 1624, reported a bay A Good Store of Trout Fishermen went after them with nets by the mouth of a river where herring and spears then, and they probably fishermen at the time had taken four The last 17th century writer I will never even considered using hooks sturgeon in their nets. cite here is John Josselyn for a pair of and lines. continued on next page WILDLIFE JOURNAL • July/August 2002 5 continued from previous page dams, overfishing and sawdust the Merrimack’s lower tributaries to pollution. spawn in their source ponds. Simi- A common size for spawning larly, they ran up some of the tributar- Stripers and Salmon salmon in New Hampshire was in the ies within the Piscataqua drainage to The striped bass in the Merrimack range of 8 to 12 pounds. Salmon that source ponds there. that ascended as far as Amoskeag were much larger than this average Alewives ran up the Merrimack in Falls at Manchester were probably in weren’t spawning for a third or fourth huge numbers at least as far as Cohas pursuit of spawning alewives. They time, but were in fact first-run Brook, just downriver from would have ranged freely through the spawners that for some reason had Amoskeag Falls, and spawned in many branches of the Piscataqua stayed at sea for up to four or five Lake Massabesic. They were common system until they were blocked by years longer than was usual and had in the Great Bay area of the impassable falls. On the Connecticut kept eating year round. Spawning Piscataqua drainage and would have River they probably never got beyond salmon in New England went on a spawned, like shad, in the source Massachusetts or perhaps even out of virtual fast for about half a year while ponds of some of the tributaries. Connecticut. they were in fresh water. Before their Alewives in their outward appearance Atlantic salmon were the greatest next spawning, their feeding at sea let so closely resemble their cousin travelers. Some of them in their them recover lost weight. Some blueback herring that modern fisher- spawning runs ascended the Connecti- Connecticut River salmon were ies biologists commonly lump the two cut for more than 380 miles into its reported at weights of 35 to 40 fish together as “river herring.” uppermost reaches and were also pounds. So far the largest New Silver eels, New Hampshire’s only reported in its Ammonoosuc tributary Hampshire salmon I’ve found an catadromous species, were — and are practically up to Crawford Notch. account of was a 42-pound fish — found nearly universally in the Where the Merrimack River begins speared in the Merrimack River near state’s lakes and ponds (even up into (in Franklin) at the junction of the Franklin. the Connecticut Lakes), though only Pemigewasset River and Winnipesau- the females ventured very far into kee River, salmon continued up the Shad, Alewives and Eels inland waters. At the end of their life Pemigewasset, again to its furthest Shad ascended the Connecticut no cycle they descended rivers in the fall reaches.

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