THE THAT GOES TO SEA By ELWOOD COLAHAN It Is Only a , but Somehow It Has Acquired a Taste for Salt Water

OR a fish of so many exceptional tifically established at least that the sea- qualities, combining gameness and trout and the regular fon- F resourcefulness with such beauty tinalis, or eastern brook trout,* are iden- of color and symmetry of outline, it tical save that the former has the in- seems amazing indeed that so little is clination as well as the opportunity to known or written of the Canadian sea- visit the sea,—a sort of wild, eccentric, trout. But perhaps on account of the vagabond whose bump of adventure is sea-trout's habitat being identical with perhaps more thoroughly developed than that of the larger and more sought af- those of his more retiring brethren who ter salmon, or perhaps on account of his prefer to remain quietly at home. comparative inaccessibility, his name con- The sea-trout is not only unknown jures in few minds visions of anything abroad but he is unknown at home. His more thrilling than vague notions of color and size vary so considerably from rolling about in a dory full of codfish, that of the brook trout in the same flounders, and unpoetic handlines; or at waters that there is scarcely a native of most, perhaps some occasional devotee the Maritime Provinces, including of our local , which is sometimes guides and sportsmen, who would not unfortunately and unpardonably called assert as a positive fact that the sea-trout "sea-trout," may recall a day spent in was a distinct and superior species. search of that unsatisfactory and, com- Indeed, in some of the districts of Nova paratively speaking, prosaic imposter. Scotia the ordinary brook trout, which It is only the elect and the very few abound in all the streams, are called to whom the mention of the word sea- "mud-trout" and are believed to be trout will mean a rush of enchanting unfit for food, the natives confining recollection of clear, sweet brooks, deep their own fare to the larger but no less black pools, great forests, green fields, abundant sea-trout; which shows the fragrant flowers, and the many added tremendous extent to which popular wonders of the wilderness by the sea; prejudice may prescribe a man's view- but whoever has seen these things must point. forever treasure them away among his It is true that a sea-trout when fresh most enduring memories of delightful is slightly stockier and heavier than a days. brook-trout of equal length, and totally Yet among all the great game fish of different in coloration. The sea-trout is North America, including the salmon, olive green on the back and bright there is probably not one so little under- iridescent silver on the sides, with no red stood as the Canadian sea-trout. His spots as a rule, and few, if any, yellow comings and goings arc always baffling ones. A careful study of the habits of and mysterious, his history is pricipally a ———— *As long ago as 1834 Hamilton Smith described matter of speculation, and his very iden- this as a new species and called it Canadensis. Sixteen years later the name of salmo immaculatus tity is the subject of constant and heated was given it by H. R. Storer. Later and better argument, although it seems to be scien- opinion, however, agrees with Mr. Colahan. [713] 714 OUTING the sea-trout, however, discloses a grad- Lawrence and northward, the sea-trout ual change in the color variations as the comprise, besides the S. fontinalis of the fish ascend the streams, the spots and maritime provinces, the Greenland charr, more brilliant colorations slowly reap- or S. arcturus, which occurs in the same pearing until the spawning season, when waters as S. fontinalis, and may be dis- one can no longer distinguish the species. tinguished from it, but not without some This, coupled with the fact that no difficulty, by its somewhat larger scales, technical or anatomical distinctions have more forked tail, and slightly advanced ever been discovered, makes it quite clear position of the eyes. There is only the that the colors and sizes vary, as in other one species, however, south of these geo- trout, merely with the environment of graphical limits. the individual fish, and not because of Trout somewhat similar to the Cana- any racial or structural characteristics. dian sea-trout also occur nearer home in This inclination to visit the sea is a few of the streams of the New Eng- therefore probably the only feature that land states and even Long Island, and distinguishes the sea-trout. It occurs not they are frequently found in the brackish only in the fontinalis, but in nearly all waters near the sea where they become the other , including, besides silvery in color. Comparatively speak- the (Salmo salar ), both ing, however, these last are quite insig- charrs and , such as the rainbow nificant in both size and abundance. But trout (Salmo irideus), steelhead trout northward from the Bay of Fundy, well (Salmo gairdneri), into the Arctic Circle, nearly every river (Salvelinus malma), Greenland charr both great and small which empties into (Salvelinus arcturus), and the European the salt water is visited by the sea-trout, or (Salmo fario). With some by incalculable hordes, and others all of these species there are the indi- by only a stray individual now and then. viduals who visit the sea, and others, often in the same streams, who do not. It is merely one of the many inexplicable Gathering for the Journey facts about this greatest of fish families. Usually the sea-trout congregate in However, in most of the Canadian June about the mouths of the streams sea-trout rivers the great majority of the and rivers in great shoals, awaiting a fa- trout are anadromous,* although there vorable opportunity to commence their are some ideal sea-trout streams contain- journey upstream. Their bright silvery ing only brook-trout, and others, by no sides and dark olive backs now form a means so ideal, containing only sea-trout, sharp contrast to the brilliant hues they and still others containing both in nearly are later to attain. All during July and equal quantities. The further one at- August the trout seize upon every rise of tempts to investigate the causes of these water to advance upstream. There are mysterious phenomena the more hope- usually several runs, lasting sometimes lessly muddled one becomes. But, as has well into September when the vanguard been wisely said, it is no use trying to of the June run will have already explain personality, and there is certain- reached the spawning grounds. Thus ly no denying the fact that the principal one may find fish along nearly the entire asset of the Canadian sea-trout is per- course of the river during these two sonality. months. The mottlings on the backs and The range of the sea-trout includes the yellow spots on the sides with per- practically the entire eastern coast of haps a faint rosy tint first gradually be- British North America, including the gin to appear, and by September eventu- Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, ally give place to the familiar red spots New Brunswick, and that part of Que- and the deep, flaming, coppery crimsons bec abutting upon the St. Lawrence of the full-fledged brook trout. River and Gulf and the Baie de Chaleur. The trout spawn in the headwaters On the north shore of the Gulf of St. between September and November, re- ———— *As applied to fish, those species that ascend turning to the sea in the spring to re- rivers from the sea for spawning. cuperate and gather new strength for THE TROUT THAT GOES TO SEA 715

the next ascent. The salt water seems small in New Brunswick, Labrador, to act as a remarkable stimulant, com- Newfoundland, and even in Nova Scotia, pletely rehabilitating the depleted fish in where sea-trout of five or six pounds and an incredibly short space of. time, for it even more are by no means uncommon, is generally believed that the sea-trout while frequently one may obtain an ac- do not remain in the salt water for two tual average of between two and three years or longer as the salmon do, but pounds. On a whole, the sea-trout can that they re-ascend the stream each year. not be said to attain to any greater size Like the salmon they always choose the than the brook trout has been known to same stream, and this, at least in the sea- reach in certain localities like the Range- trout, may be explained by the fact that leys. and the Nipigon country, but it is the fish seldom venture far from the safe to say that they average decidedly mouths of their home streams, preferring heavier. to congregate in the spring and early But the number of sea-trout are per- summer in the estuaries and tideways haps more amazing than their size, and within, at most, a distance of a few this is especially true of the Nova Scotia miles. "still waters" and the many great rivers The fresh run sea-trout, whether of Labrador and Newfoundland. The caught in a swift or still water, is always trout approach the rivers in great schools a marvel of energy and activity, his containing many thousands of fish which quickness is electrical, and his resources may often be seen in the shallows at the and endurance almost inexhaustible. mouths of the streams awaiting the rise The trip to the sea seems to impel every of water necessary for their ascent. The fish to strike viciously at nearly anything natives, who are usually relentless pot- moving on the surface in a perfect frenzy hunters, number their catches in dozens. of eagerness, often leaping clear of the Seventeen or eighteen dozen is not con- water in its desperate lunges for the fly. sidered unusually "good sport" for one Even the rise of a sea-trout is as dis- day's work! tinctive as everything else about this anomalous, silver-clad warrior of the The Need for Protection north. There is a short, quick boil in the water—so different from the slow On account of their location near the suck of a salmon—exactly as though sea, salmon and sea-trout rivers are pe- some one had hurled in a heavy, flat culiarly subject to poaching expeditions stone, edge downward, with that pe- from the nearby villages, which are like- culiar "chug" so familiar to all boys who wise usually situated on the coast. That have ever tried to "skim" a piece of slate these rivers continue to yield the num- on the water and missed! With the lit- bers of fish that they do is the best evi- tle fellows, as with the small brook dence of their enormous productivity. It trout, one should strike lightly and on should be. remembered, however, that the the instant of the break, but with the blue-back trout and probably the salmon larger fish one can be too quick. It is were once just as abundant in some of easy enough to tell from the character of our streams as the sea-trout now are in the rise whether or not the fish is a those of the Dominion, and, although the large one. Like everything else, it is depletion of the latter is by no means purely and simply a matter of faithful imminent, the Canadian government practice. could do no better work than to insure In size, of course, the sea-trout vary the efficiency of its wardens and other- immensely. In some of the streams of wise conserve one of the most wonder- Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island ful of its natural resources. the fish average a scarce half pound, After all, perhaps the unique charm with a pounder a rarity. Other streams about the sea-trout is his mysterious un- in the same places will provide plentiful certainty and his infinite variety, never pounders and occasional fish of two or the same, here to-day and there to-mor- even three pounds. On the other hand, row, in ocean, river, brook, pool and there are many rivers both large and rapid—according to a thousand obscure 716 OUTING causes too subtle for the mind of mere How well I remember the first cast— man, but calling from the angler the ex- it was the first one of the season—with ercise of every intuitive principle of his its even more than usually tense and ex- art. You should count upon surprises, pectant thrill. What a vast amount of and, as the diplomats are saying, be pre- potential, emotional psychology is put pared for eventualities, for from your into that first cast! All the old mem- first day with the sea-trout to your last ories of other days and other streams, you will never be able to account for all the accumulation of the winter's ex- your luck. True, the higher art of pectant inactivity, all the excitement of angling will always produce results realizing one's fondest ambitions, are sooner or later, but one is, nevertheless, fused into that one immortal moment. almost more interested in the baffling I remember how the fly floated out dexterity of one's opponent than in his some ten feet or more as the coils of the ultimate defeat. new leader uncurled, and how it finally But the greatest facts of all about the lighted like thistledown on the -trout are the very ones which I can- water; how, on the instant, there came not give—I mean the actual, indescrib- a mighty lunge, a huge splash, a tre- able glamor of a day on the stream. It mendous yank on the end of my rod, the is only this, after all, that differentiates whirr of the reel and the quick tension angling from fishing, and nowhere is as the fish doubled and played beneath one more sensible of this peculiar charm my eager hand. How certain I was that than in the Maritime Provinces. I had a monster! Each moment he I shall never forget my first day with seemed to double in size until finally, the sea-trout—and strangely enough one with a mighty spurt, he fairly bolted into of my most successful ones, too. I had the net, and I lifted out, to my utter the particular good fortune to be intro- amazement, a little half-pounder, silvery duced to them on a little stream far and sparkling from the sea. How beau- down the east shore of Nova Scotia in tiful he was, too, with his lithe, perfect the very heart of one of the best of the lines, the sunset tints in his silver sides sea-trout districts, a location more than and the faint rose color of his fluttering sufficient to counterbalance my lack of fins. experience and tactical skill. Years have I don't remember how many like him gone by since then, but I can remember I put back that day, for there was a run every moment of that wonderful walk of little fellows in the big pool. But in through a veritable fairyland of deep, the late evening we worked up to the damp forests of canoe birch and balsam, head of the still where the stream nar- overhung and carpeted by luxuriant rowed down and where we finally found arctic moss that covered even the trunks the big fellows literally in droves. Every of the trees and, like an unbroken fall time the fly landed the water surged of bright green snow, obliterated rocks and boiled like mad around it. and windfalls until they became mere Each of us was fast to a pair in less hummocks. time than it takes to tell it, but I shall Then came a long fight through a not take up enough time to tell you of dense grove of little white birches and the wild fights that followed, of the hor- then a solid bank of almost impenetrable rible moments of sudden, despairing bushes and alders where suddenly the slackness, of the ubiquitous perils of ground under foot grew soft and moist overhanging bushes and treacherous lily until we found ourselves on the wet mar- roots, and of the ecstasy of completed gin of a wide still water, dark, mysteri- conquest—a dozen beauties side by side ous and inviting. There was a heavenly on the moss, half visible in the twilight, atmosphere of troutiness about the whole not one of which would fit in my seven- place. It was a late afternoon in July, teen-inch creel. No, I shall not try to one of those gray Nova Scotia days when tell you of all this, especially in view of the water had begun to subside after a the fact that my impressions of what a rain, altogether the ideal condition for little half-pounder could do have already sea-trout. quite exhausted my verbal resources.