FISHING NOTES

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20104, 6 December 1930, Page 11

FISHING NOTES

SHRIMPS AND TROUT. TO THE TRESS. J [By Black Gnat.] These Notes, which are written oy a. fisherman of long experience and considerable theoretical knowledge, will appear e™ r y Sat ; mday. Letters containing ncwa ■ or will receive prompt attention each v.t,c/. On anv warm night now when the last of the floating brown beetles lias been taken and the rise has drawn to a close, the larger trout start shrimping" all along the Cam, ISxDrth Branch, and Stvx. The fish come up under ovenianging vegetation in the immediate vicinity of snags, making, as they rise, what may best be described as » sucking sound—a noise about half-way between the sound of a normal trout rise and that of an eel '"bark." Whereas in the ordinary way, the moon spoils the rise, unless it is particularly bright, it does not make a great deal of difference to "shrimpers," for their activities are confined to the shaded waters. As "shrimpers" are usually two pounds or more in we iglit and also because of i the fine eating qualities of these red-fleslied trout, it is worth any angler's while to make a special effort to catch them. Many anglers, and particularly the more conservative who keep religiously to one method of angling, consider these fish untakable. Admittedly the capturing of shrimping trout presents some difficulties, but none of them is insuperable. The first essential is a natural shrimp or, failing that, an imitation one. Sufficient shrimps for an evening's fishing can be taken with tVo or three sweeps of a hand net in the marginal vegetation. As a natural shrimp is difficult to keep on a hook, it is advisable to whip it on to the hook with a few turns of white cotton. Anglers proferring artificial lines will find it a very simple matter to fashion a good imitation from a piece of quill. If the quill is first soaked in hot water it can lie shaped with a pair of scissors without risk of splitting. The line is best worked by casting it upstream along tho bank with a short line. As shrimps are amazingly plentiful in the marginal waters the feeding fish usually has so large a number to choose from that it is often necessary to cast repeatedly before getting a take. It is a difficult matter to work a line m such a way that it fairly imitates the action of a shrimp under water. With the aid of a torch one will see that a shrimp travels forward at a steady pace and not backwards by a series ot tail flins as is believed in some quarters.

A discussion of "shrimping" fish leads naturally on to the popular and probably correct theory that it is a diet of shrimps that accounts for the fact that in certain localities trout have red flesh. Jt is the salmoncoloured flesh that nrompts people to call such fish by the misleading name of "salmon-trout": misleading because this name would imply a cross between a salmon and a trout, whereas these fish are undoubtedly ordinary brown trout. The pigment that accounts for the red colour is known as carrotine and is present in most vegetable matter, including the vegetable substances in which shrimps feed. Apparently it is neutralised in tho bodies of shrimps and other crustaeea and only becomes apparent under the influences of heat or of such chemical substances as the digestive fluids in a trout's stomach. If "a shrimp feeder is examined it will be found that while freshly taken shrimns are of normal colour tlios that have been digested have turned into a brick red mass. * . * Although the bottom of Lake Ellesmere is crowded with shrimps, these ill species are different from those found in the Cam and other streams and feed on different forms of vegetable matter. This probably explains ivhy Ellesmere fish usually have white flesh, despite the fact that they must eat enormous quantities of shrimps.

In the back country lakes trout are taken having flesh of a yellowish-pink colour rather than salmon pink. Most of such lakes contains fresh-water crayfish in large quantities, and the plausible theory has been advanced that thuss account for the flesh tint of the trout. The whole question ol flesh colours is beset with difficulties, for why should land-locked salmon retain in many cases, their salmon-col-oured llesh, or why should eels which, in the North Branch, feed to a certain extent on shrimps, have white flesh, or why should a large proportion of the quinnat salmon caught in American waters have white flesh instead of rcd? * * Last week-end' excellent sport was obtained at Coleridge, a number of anglers securing half a dozen rainbow of "from thrse to eight pounds each. A fair number of quinnat were also tiken The rainbow captured in the intake side of the lake were in oxccllent condition, while those on the peninsula side seem to hnve been poorer Possibly these fish in the shaded side of the lafeo spawn later. # * At least four more Atlantic salmon were taken during the week, and it seems most likely that they are now nronerlv estab ished in Coleridge. The is a very slimly-mnde fish, wiiii a deeply-forked tail. Like tho lake quinnat it is silver in c ° lo ." r -. it's lines are so graceful and it is so obviously built for speed is no possibility of confusing the more heavily-built quinnat.