THE CHARR OF WINDERMERE.
The confined localisation of this delicate fish renders its natural history somewhat difficult to ascertain. As little, or even less, is known of its proceedings during a great portion of the year as of the salmon itself during its sojourn in the sea. There are several varieties of the charr in the Lake district of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire; but undoubtedly they are merely the same fish changed by circumstances and general surroundings; just as the common trout varies in appearance, size, and condition according to the nature of the water in which it is found and the food obtained there. Charr are found in many of the Scotch and Irish lochs; whilst in the English Lake district they are more or less plentiful in Windermere, Coniston, Buttermere, Hawes-water, Ennerdale, Crummock-water, Goats-water, and one or two other tarns or meres. In the first-named lake it is by far the most numerous; and Coniston holds a good supply, though Sir Humphry Davy, writing thirty years ago, says: ‘The charr is now scarce in Coniston, and quite extinct in Ullswater.’ Now it is occasionally found in the latter; whilst in the former it is plentiful, and, with a comparative discontinuance of the working of the lead mines, the wash from which polluted the water, is increasing. Large quantities of very fine fish were taken during last year. It is similar pollution which has destroyed the fish in Ullswater. For this beautiful lake, let us hope for a return of the olden times, when charr and trout and skellies ‘peopled’ its waters, over which the kite and golden eagle often flew, and down whose slopes the red-deer from Martindale fells may even now find its way to quaff a morning’s draught. As regards edible qualities, the Windermere and Coniston charr are the best; those of Hawes-water and Goats-water being smaller and of inferior quality.
Local history tells us that the love of a dainty dish induced the monks of Furness to stock Windermere with charr, which were obtained from some lake in the neighbourhood of the Alps; hence the fish is still known as Salmo alpinus; but the correct nomenclature is Salmo umbla. The same history or tradition tells us that this fish was placed there only about two centuries ago. Against this, a manuscript has recently been discovered, bearing date 1535, to the effect that a certain Jacques Tallour was permitted ‘to catch and tol the fayre fish charr in Wynandermer, and also his son Gerald.’ There is no reason to doubt that the charr is as likely to be indigenous to some of our lakes as our ordinary trout. During a considerable portion of the year, the charr frequent the deepest parts of the lake, feeding upon and finding nourishment in the minute crustaceans and larvæ found in such places. In this respect the nature of this fish is actually the reverse of that of the trout, which delights in the shallows, and feeds on the flies and moths hatched on the gravel-beds and elsewhere. Nature would doubtless ‘people’ Windermere, Coniston, and other lakes with that fish which could best live in its deepest parts, and this fish is the charr. Probably, specimens were removed from here to smaller sheets of water, in some of which, however, it fails to thrive, though breeding and increasing in numbers. There is a vast difference in appearance between the charr of Windermere and the charr of Hawes-water: the latter thin and flabby; the former elegantly shaped, and more graceful in outline than the trout, not so fat and podgy as many of our spotted beauties are; a general and a uniform shade of pinkness appears, as it were, to shine through the skin; in some specimens, as it approaches the belly, this hue becomes a deep red; hence the ‘red-bellied charr.’ It has, of course, other distinctive differences, as in the shape of gill covers, number of fin rays, &c., which have often been described.
Unfortunately, our charr is mostly a bottom or mid-water feeder, and cannot take high rank as a sporting fish; but on the table it excels. In size it varies from a pound in weight downwards, though larger specimens have often been caught. The usual size is about three fish to the pound of sixteen ounces; though in Hawes-water and Goats-water, about eight to the pound is considered the usual run. In both these tarns the charr rises pretty freely at the fly, indicating an insufficiency of food below the surface; and it is this bottom-food which gives to them the excellent condition and flavour they attain in the deeper and larger lakes. The same may be said of the gillaroos, found in some of the Irish lochs.
It is surprising that more attention has not been given to the artificial rearing of charr. Some years ago, the Windermere Angling Association hatched and turned into that lake some thousands of the young fish; but the earliest note we have of their artificial rearing was by Dr Davy, then living at Lesketh How, Ambleside. This took place about thirty years ago, and was done in the most rough-and-ready fashion. Still the infant fish were produced from the milt-impregnated ova; and a few days after hatching, and with the ‘sac’ still in attachment, the delicate ‘infants’ were transferred to Easedale tarn. Too young to defend themselves, the fry no doubt perished. Yarrell says that in the autumn of 1839, several charr, of some half-pound weight each, were placed in Lily Mere, not far from Sedbergh. Twelve months later, two of these fish, when retaken, were said to have been two pound-weight each! They were served at the Queen-dowager’s table at Kirkby-Lonsdale. These reputed large charr were no doubt trout, for which the mere in question was famous. A few years since, charr were placed in Potter Fell tarn, which is connected with the river Kent (Westmoreland) by a small runner. One of these charr was caught with fly in the river itself, some miles from the tarn. It had increased in size from about four to some seven ounces in the space of twelve months. It was kept alive, and in due course returned to the Potter Fell. This is evidence that charr may live in a stream, and in the absence of suitable bottom-food, adopt the habits of the trout, and rise to the fly. On this account, they are worth cultivation; and their delicacy and fine flavour make them more valuable than the best trout—a fact which should be an inducement to their propagation. Potted charr is considered amongst the greatest fish-dainties that can be set before the gourmet.
The charr is usually taken in nets, though often caught with artificial baits, trolled at varying depths, after the style of the paternoster used in perch-fishing. Commencing at the beginning of March, the fishermen know the water the charr frequent, and soon find at what depth they lie in shoals or schools. As the season becomes warmer, the charr approach nearer the surface; and in genial weather, towards the end of May or beginning of June, are at times seen basking near the surface of the lake; not feeding, but ‘bobbing’ their noses out of the water, causing rises or bubbles, which in calm weather are easily discerned by the fishermen. If possible, the shoal is surrounded by a net or nets, and a rare capture ensues. Upwards of one hundred and eighty pound-weight of charr has thus been taken at one haul; and when one considers they are worth wholesale from sixteen to eighteen pence per pound, the employment cannot fail to be a lucrative one. We cannot, however, commend the practice of netting, which is not sport, but wholesale destruction.