“Rainbow!” answered Rob, across the stream. “He’s a buster, too!” And truly it was a fine one, for that night it weighed five and three-quarter pounds.
“Hurry, John—your turn now!” shouted Jess. “They’re the fightingest fish you ever saw.”
John began casting, while Jesse watched, working his fly to where he saw a heavy fish moving. An instant and he struck, the reel screeching as the fish made its run. This time the fish did not jump, but played deep, boring and surging, but at last John conquered it and Jesse slipped the net under it.
“My! It’s just like a big brook trout,” said he. “I’ll bet he’ll go over five pounds.”
“No,” said John, sagely. “That’s a Dolly Varden—looks a lot like a brook trout, but look at the blue ring around the red spots. They fight deep—don’t jump like a rainbow. But the steelhead out jumps them all! Did you ever see such fishing! This beats the Arctic trout on Rat Portage.”
They followed down the pond made by the dam, and literally one or other of the three was all the time playing a fish, and they all ran very large. When at last they answered the supper horn, Rob had five fish, John four, and Jesse two—the last a fine, fat grayling, the first he had ever taken below the Arctic Circle.
Uncle Dick’s eyes opened very wide. “Well, Billy,” said he, “you’ve made good! I never saw so many big trout taken that soon in any water I ever knew!”
“They get a lot of feed in that stream,” said Billy. “The watercress holds a lot of stuff they eat, and there must be minnows in there, too. I’ve heard lots of men say that, for big fish, this beats any water they ever knew.”
“Oh, maybe they don’t run as big as they did,” said Mrs. Culver; “I’ve known several rainbows over ten pounds taken here. One gentleman came for specimens to mount, and he caught a five-pound rainbow, but his friend made him throw it back because it was too little. Then they fished two days and didn’t get any more rainbow at all; they’re so savage, I think they get caught first. But you’ve got some good ones, haven’t you? Well, I like to see a person have some sport when he comes here.”
“How long have you lived here, Mrs. Culver?” asked Billy, that night at the dinner table.