Hal.—I am surprised to hear a salmon fisher talk so: yet he is too large to take a fly, and must be trolled for. We must spin a bleak for him, or small fish, as we do for the trout of the Thames or the salmon of the Tay. Ornither, you understand the arrangement of this kind of tackle—look out in my book the strongest set of spinning hooks you can find, and supply them with a bleak; and whilst I am changing the reel, I will give you all the information (which, I am sorry to say, is not much) that I have been able to collect respecting this fish from my own observation or the experience of others. The hucho is the most predatory fish of the salmo genus, and is made like an ill-fed trout, but longer and thicker. He has larger teeth, more spines in the pectoral fin, a thicker skin, a silvery belly, and dark spots only on the back and sides—I have never seen any on the fins. The ratio of his length to his girth is as 8 to 18, or, in well fed fish, as 9 to 20; and a fish, 18 inches long by 8 in girth, weighed 16,215 grains. Another, 2 feet long, 11 inches in girth, and 3 inches thick, weighed 4lbs. 2¼oz. Another, 26 inches long, weighed 5lbs. 5oz. Of the spines in the fins, the anal has 9, the caudal 20, the ventral 9, the dorsal 12, the pectoral 17: having numbered the spines in many, I give this as correct. The fleshy fin belonging to the genus is, I think, larger in this species than in any I have seen. Bloch, in his work on fishes, states that there are black spots on all the fins, with the exception of the anal, as a character of this fish: and Professor Wagner informs me he has seen huchos with this peculiarity; but, as I said before, I never saw any fish with spotted fins—yet I have examined those of the Danube, Save, Drave, Mur, and Izar: perhaps this is peculiar to some stream in Bavaria—yet the huchos in the collection at Munich have it not. The hucho is found in most rivers tributary to the Danube—in the Save and Laybach rivers always; yet the general opinion is, that they run from the Danube twice a year, in spring and autumn. I can answer for their migration in spring, having caught several in April, in streams connected with the Save and Laybach rivers, which had evidently come from the still dead water into the clear running streams, for they had the winter leech, or louse of the trout upon them: and I have seen them of all sizes, in April, in the market at Laybach, from six inches to two feet long; but they are found much larger, and reach 30, or even 40, pounds. It is the opinion of some naturalists, that it is only a fresh water fish; yet this I doubt, because it is never found beyond certain falls—as in the Traun, the Drave, and the Save; and, there can be no doubt, comes into these rivers from the Danube; and probably, in its larger state, is a fish of the Black Sea. Yet it can winter in fresh water; and does not seem, like the salmon, obliged to haunt the sea, but falls back into the warmer waters of the great rivers, from which it migrates in spring, to seek a cooler temperature and to breed. The fishermen at Gratz say they spawn in the Mur, between March and May. In those I have caught at Laybach, which, however, were small ones, the ova were not sufficiently developed to admit of their spawning that spring. Marsigli says, that they spawn in the Danube in June. You have seen how violently they pursue their prey: I have never taken one without fish in his stomach; yet, when small, they will take a fly. In the Kleingraben, which is a feeder to the Laybach river, and where they are found of all sizes—from 20lbs. downwards—the little ones take a fly, but the large ones are too ravenous to care about so insignificant a morsel, and prey like the largest trout, often hunting in company, and chasing the small fish into the narrow and shallow streams, and then devouring them.—But I see your tackle is ready. As a more experienced angler in this kind of fishing, you will allow me to try my fortune with this fish. I still see him feeding; but I must keep out of sight, for he has all the timidity peculiar to the salmo genus, and, if he catch sight of me, will certainly not run at the bait.
Orn.—You spin the bleak for him, I see, as for a great trout. O! there! he has run at it—and you have missed him. What a fish! You surely were too quick, for he sprung out of the water at the bleak.
Hal.—I was not too quick; but he rose just as the bleak was on the surface, and saw me.
Poiet.—I think I see him moving in another part of the pool.
Hal.—You are right; he has run again at the bleak, but only as it shone on the surface. He has taken it.
Orn.—He fights well, and runs towards the side where the rock is.
Hal.—Take the net and frighten him from that place, which is the only one where there is danger of loosing him. He is clear now, and begins to tire, and in a few minutes more he will be exhausted.—Now land him.
Poiet.—A noble fish! But how like a trout—exactly like a sea trout in whiteness, and I think in spots.
Hal.—He is much narrower, or less broad, as you would immediately discover, if you had a sea trout here. But now we must try another pool, or the tail of this; that fish was not alone, and at the moment he took the bait, I think I saw the water move from the stir of another. Take your rod and fit your own tackle, Ornither; half the glory of catching this fish is yours, as you prepared the hooks. I see you are in earnest; the blood mounts in your face. Oh! oh! Ornither! you have pulled with too much violence, and broken your tackle. Alas! alas! the fish you hooked was the consort of mine: he will not take again.
Orn.—The gut was bad, for I do not think I struck too violently. What a loss! How hard, to let the first fish of the kind I ever angled for escape me!