"Captain T.E. Donne, N.Z.F.,
New Zealand Government Offices,
Strand, London.
Sir,
In reply to your letter of enquiry, asking my views as
to the game qualities of the spring salmon, I may say
that the Pacific coast fish, with the exception of the
coho and the steelhead, have no repute as species which
take the artificial fly. The spring salmon, as you are
no doubt aware, is readily taken with the spoon bait,
especially in the sounds and straits outside the mouths
of the rivers, which it ascends for spawning purposes.
Dr. Rutter (United States Fisheries Bulletin, XXII,
1902, PAGES 125-126) says: 'Spring salmon in the
Sacremento River readily snap at bright, floating
objects, and can frequently be taken with a spoon
while on their spawning grounds, or while passing
up river.' He states that twenty-five specimens were
taken in this way in October-November, 1900. I have
never taken the spring salmon with the fly myself,
but in an official report, furnished by the
Attorney-General's Department, Victoria, British Columbia,
published in the (1911) Conservation Commission Report,
Ottawa (Lands, Fisheries, etc.), it is stated, page 190,
'that there were several cases of spring salmon having
been caught in a like manner' that is with the fly.
Mr. Livingstone Stone, the well known United States
authority, says (Salmon Fisheries of the Columbia River,
page 24): "The spring salmon takes no food in fresh water.
At the head waters of the rivers in the clearer water,
they (at least the males) will sometimes take an
artificial fly. In the ocean, they take a trolling
bait readily." As the Editor of the American Angler
says (August, 1892, page 50): 'We all know that most
fish, even the suckers, will take the artificial fly,
when moved slowly through water'; and he quotes a letter
in Land and Water which stated, that in 1890 in North
Wales, two anglers, in the very first cast, hooked and
landed each a flat-fish of about ½ lb. weight, using
a fly. Skill and clear water are essential to quinnat
fly fishing.
Even the whitefish and Ciscoes (Coregoni) which are
toothless and have no repute as sports fish have been
taken with the fly in Lake Winnipeg to my own knowledge.
Supt. M. C. Worts (New York State) reported in 1913 he
caught many ciscoes with fly. "it was surprising to a
great many people that the ciscoes would rise to a fly.
We had rare sport in taking these fish at the West
Breakwater, Oswego, N.Y. In Lake Ontario. The late
C. G. Atkins took whitefish (coregonus) in Moosehead
Lake, Maine, with a fly." (Dr. T. H. Bean's Fish Culture
Report, 1913, N.Y. Conservation Comm.)
The spring salmon may, indeed be regarded as a game
fish, but it cannot be relied upon to always take
the fly, and the general reason why this species,
and Pacific salmon generally do not take the fly is,
in my opinion, due to the muddy character of the
rivers. The melting of the snow, and the glacial
waters pouring down from the rocky mountains, renders
the waters in the various rivers very turbid, so that
the salmon ascending when the snow-water is coming
down in May, June, and later, cannot see the fly.
When they have been caught with the fly, it has
usually been in the clear, upper reaches, before
or after the snow-water has ceased to affect these
portions. This muddy character of the Pacific Rivers,
sufficiently explains, in my opinion, the lack of game
quality in the various species of western salmon.
Yours faithfully,
Edward E. Prince,
Doninion Commissioner of Fisheries."
