RECLAIMING A TROUT STREAM
"I used to ketch trout that 'ud weigh two pound in that little crick back of my pasture when I 'uz a boy."
I used to ketch trout that 'ud weigh two pound in that little crick back of my pasture when I 'uz a boy."
Who has not heard old men say that? They seem to have just accepted the lack of trout as one other piece of bad luck, like wormy apples, blighted wheat, and other dispensations of Providence. The younger generation are not satisfied with this view. If good wheat can be grown by modern methods, and wormy apples prevented by spraying, why shouldn't trout be caught in grandpa's old brook? No reason in the world. In between you and grandpa there was a generation of neglect. Your father and his brothers probably went to town to seek their fortunes. Anyhow, everybody was too busy to fish, and something went wrong with the brook that needs to be righted.
Any stream that has been a trout stream once can be so again, provided that the water is not fed with poisoned drainage from some mill or factory. If the forest has been removed and natural conditions so changed that the brook that used to be perennial is now only semi-annual, going dry in time of drought, it will be necessary to build a series of dams to make sure that the water will always be deep enough for trout. A spring-fed brook is best; it is cool and constant. Lower the channel by digging where refuse has choked the natural course of the stream, but don't tidy it up enough to make it artificial.
The ideal brook, and the country is full of them, has gravelly or sandy stretches which serve as spawning beds, swift rapids where exercise is necessary, and deep pools for rest and quiet, shallow places where insects lurk in the overhanging vegetation, and once in a great while a real little waterfall where the water gets well churned and mixed with air. The brook ought to supply enough food for all, but I have seen fish so plentiful in well-cared-for streams that it was necessary to feed them. We would take great pans of specially prepared food to the water's edge; as we threw it broadcast on the surface the trout would leap entirely out of the water in their eagerness to get the morsels. We did not feed them liver because the epicure does not like his trout to have a liver flavour. The natural food of the trout should be encouraged to breed in the trout stream. You can restock your stream with the little crustaceans, insect nymphs, and similar fish food from other streams if you think it necessary. A few pails full of mud carried across will start them.
Photograph by Helen W. Cooke
Plenty of Trout in This Stream When Grandfather Was a Boy
The greatest necessity is to protect your fish from their natural enemies. Big fish will eat little fish, trout will eat trout, so will bass, pickerel, and suckers. You can keep the big fish out by screening the spillway at the upper dam.
There is good fun to be had in raising trout from the egg. This work has been regarded by most people as too complicated and too difficult for any but an expert. As a matter of fact, it is no more difficult than many of the occupations boys engage in, chicken raising, bee-keeping, and photography, for instance. Visit a fish hatchery if you have one near, get all the government bulletins on the subject, and, if you have available running water, you can try your hand at trout growing. It would not appeal to many, but it is really fascinating work.