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WEIGHT OF THE BROOK TROUT Record Goes to an Ontario Fish of Fourteen and OneHalf Founds How big do brook trout grow Verification of all the details will be insisted upon before the fish can be accepted as a record writes Alex Mel Stoddart in Rod and Gun in Canada CanadaThere There was much amazement two years ago when Edwin W Sanborn of Xew York announced through the Sun Forest and Stream and Outing the capture of a genuine brook trout of fourteen and onehalf pounds This fish was caught by Dr J W Cook of Fort William Ontario Canada on the evening of July 22 1915 at the foot of the McDonald rapids The bait used was a live minnow Dr Cook was one of a party of ten men Tlie fish was weighed in the presence of a large number of men at Xipi gon and Fort William WilliamIt It was skinned the skin being split along the back into two halves and each half was mounted after manner of the Xipigon Indians by stitching the skin flat on the birch bark panel Alexander Finlayson inspector of fish hatcheries of the Do ¬ minion declared the fish to be a genuine brook trout Incidentally the fish was on exhibition in Xew York a year or so ago agoFor For more than half a century the Rangeley lakes have been famous for their big brook trout Dr William Converse Kendall of the U S Bureau of Fisheries gathered data of big trout from the files of Forest and Stream which is incorporated in The Fishes of New England one of the memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History HistoryEdward Edward Seymour in his Sport With the Gun published by the Century Company in 1884 devoted a chapter to Trout Fishing in the Raugeley Lakes telling of big fish and Kit Clarke has written columns of material in the Sun telling of big fish taken in this region regionWhen When these big brook trout were taken just previ ¬ ous to the Civil War doubt was expressed that they were genuine salmon fontinalis It is said that a specimen sent to Prof Agassiz brought forth the comment The science of a lifetime knocked into smithereens by a fact He pronounced them genuine brook trout troutAmong Among the pioneers who made the Rangeley re gon famous was George Sheppard Page of New York whose brook trout of 12 pounds estimated weight can be seen on a Xew York office wall That fish held the record for almost fifty years and like the Dr Cook trout was taken by angling anglingMr Mr Page took this 12 pound male fish and a female of 9 7S pounds estimated weight in 1807 Their actual weights after being in cap ¬ tivity three weeks and having been transferred from Maine to Xew Jersey were as follows male fish 10 pounds female S 38 pounds poundsConcerning Concerning these fish Mr Page wrote in Forest and Stream sixteen years later laterThey They had endured the discomforts of nine miles across Rangeley Lake in a fish car which con ¬ tained fortythree brook trout averaging five pounds each thirtyfive miles by wagon ride 400 miles by railroad across Boston and Xew York by ex ¬ press wagon and two miles by wagon in Xew Jersey JerseyDescribing Describing this experience on one occasion to the late Pmf Agassiz I inquired what they probably lost in weight He replied The male trout at least two and onehalf pounds and the female one and onehalf pounds poundsThis This would make them twelve and onehalf and nine and seveneighths pounds respectively The male trout was thirty inches in length and eighteen inches in circumference and eleven inches in dia ¬ meter meterStanley Stanley and Atkins of Maine who had intimate knowledge of the Rangeley trout stated the male fish would weigh in life approximately 12 pounds After death the male fish weighed 10 pounds 1 ounce ounceA A ten days catch made in the Rangeley Lake re ¬ gion by Mr Page II O Stanley later Inland Fish Commissioner of Maine and Mr Fields of Gorham X H totaled fiftynine trout weighing 203 pounds or an average of five pounds each eachThe The record of fish weighing over five and one half pounds follow Trout Each Total Trout Each Total 2 5 11 2 7 15 5 6 30 2 8 16 2 6U 12 1 8U SVi 1 V 1 SV S 1 7 7 1 8 8 3 7 21 1 94 9 3 7 22 1 10 10 10The The record book of the old Camp Kennebec As ¬ sociation sjx days catch eleven members in 1ST 9 m nsh not being included showed twentynine fish averaging more than six pounds each Fish taken during that period weighing over 5J pounds follow Xo Trout Each Ibs Xo Trout Each Ibs 2 G 1 7A 2 6 3 8 G i SIA t 7 1 9 1 714 Two men dipping trout in the Rangeley Lake TCr gion in Maine in 1878 according to Commissioner Stanley caught two trout a female of 12 pounds and a male of 10J4 iwmds One year later a brook trout of 11 pounds was taken by a Mr Marble and his guide Steve Morse of Upton at Upper Dam on September 30 and a correspondent of Forest and Stream wrote saying It was a most ungainly fish a male with a won ¬ derfully prominent hooked jaw I saw the fish a few moments after its capture and had seen him several times on the spanwing bed which the trout had made at that time a few feet above the dam owing to the low water waterThe The trout evidently an old one was thin and flat but wide with a crooked back The numerous pictures on the covers of guide books and on the advertisements of the various railroads do him justice only in point of ugliness Still he had tiie bright spots and the vermilion side of the perfect salino fontinalis at the breeding time timeJ J Frederick Grote of Xew York City in Moosc lucmaguntic Lake Maine on June 11 1SS took a brook trout angling with Jerry Ellis guide that was 2CU inches long 17 inches girth 7 inches deep and 4 inches thick through the back The fish was a female fish and keyt in a car a week before it died After the entrails were removed it weighed SA pounds poundsThis This was said to be a 12 pound fish but ac ¬ cording to the dimensions it could not be so classed C T Richardson told Page that Ellis said it did not weigh 12 V pounds and Stanleys estimate was that a fish of that size would not go 91 pounds poundsRichardson Richardson however saw the brook trout that Dr S J Mixter of Boston caught on June 7 18S7 He viewed It after half a pound of snawn had run out of the fish and stated that the weight of 11 jKiunds was absolutely correct Dr Mixter was trolling with a minnow in Rangeley Lake when Ire took this and two other brook trout weighing 1 and 9M pounds His big fish Vas 27 inches long depth 8 inches thickness 4 inches and sirth 4Ti inches inchesKit Kit Clarke of Xew York was one of a party of three men to Lake Ambellish ia the deep woods of Chnmbord Quebec who took twelve trout weigh ¬ ing JjG pounds within two hours time timeOn On Sentember 1 1914 Sanborn in a stream in northeastern Quebec with a 5 ounce rod on one Parmacheene Belle fly took ten brook trout that weighed 75 iwunds One of them was thirty inches long the length of the Page record fish Tenpound trout taken on the spawning grounds have been numerous in the Raiigeley Lake region John Prentice angling near Brandy Point in Sep ¬ tember 18S3 took a brook trout weighing 10 916 pounds A trout of 10 58 pounds weighed nine hours after it was caught was the luck of Dr Charles Haddock of Beverly Mass Capt S Y H Slocum U S A on May 10 1908 caught a brook trout of 10 18 pounds poundsIn In recent years the largest brook trout taken in New England weighed 9 pounds and was caught by A Val Woodruff of Brooklyn The fish was taken from Pleasant Lak X II in April of 1911 and von the Field and Stream prize for the record brook trout of that year
