Bass, Pike, Perch, and OthersHenshall, James A. (James Alexander)
Science
Bass, Pike, Perch, and Others
Henshall, James A. (James Alexander)
Fishes; Fishing
Either a light trout bait-rod or the fly-rod may be employed for
bait-fishing for grayling, with fine silk line, leader, and hooks Nos. 6
to 8 with a split-shot sinker a foot above the hook. English anglers use
a small float, but in fishing down-stream it is not advisable, as the
current prevents the bait from touching the bottom, and renders the use
of a float for this purpose unnecessary. The bait should be kept from
six inches to a foot above the bottom. The best bait is the larva of the
caddis-fly, a small worm or caterpillar encased in a bag or covering
composed of bits of bark, sticks, etc.; it is known in the Rocky
Mountain region as the "rockworm." Earthworms, small grasshoppers,
crickets, and grubs of various kinds are also useful.
When it became known to fishculturists, about 1874, that the grayling
existed in Michigan, attempts were made to propagate it artificially,
but without success, as the same lines were pursued as with the
brook-trout. It remained for the United States Fish Commission to
successfully cope with the problem in Montana, under my supervision.
Beginning with 1898, we have hatched millions at Bozeman Station and the
auxiliary station near Red Rock Lake, at the head of the Jefferson
River. We have also shipped millions of eggs to different parts of the
Union, as far east as Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, mostly to
United States Fish Commission stations, where they were hatched and
planted in suitable streams. It is to be hoped that some of these
plants will result in the permanent establishment of this beautiful and
desirable fish in eastern waters.
The eggs of the grayling are smaller than those of the trout, being but
one-seventh of an inch in diameter. When first extruded they are
amber-colored, owing to a large oil-drop, which renders them lighter
than trout eggs, almost semi-buoyant, and for this reason are best
hatched, or at least "eyed," in hatching jars. My plan is to keep them
in the hatching jars until the eye-spots show, when they are removed to
hatching-trays until incubation is complete.
In a few days after extrusion the eggs become crystal-like or hyaline in
color, when the embryo can be seen in motion. The period of incubation
is from ten days to two weeks. The fry when hatched are very small,
about the size of mosquito "wigglers" (larvæ). Their umbilical yolk-sac
is absorbed in a few days, when it becomes imperative to supply them
with stream water, which contains the small organisms (_Entomostraca_)
on which they feed at first. Afterward they can be fed artificially the
same as trout fry, which they soon outgrow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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