The American Fly Fisher · 2016-09-26 · trout. By process of elimination, Green-wood believes...

FALL 2010 VOLUME 36 NUMBER 4

American

Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing

The

Fly Fisher

FROM BROWN IN the Falklands to brookin Massachusetts to cutthroat inMon tana—this issue of the American

Fly Fisher is proof of our ongoing attemptsto be genus inclusive when it comes totrout. Salmo, Oncorhynchus, Salvelinus . . .they’re all here.

The Falkland Islands, a thousand milesnorth of Antarctica, boast excellent sea-trout (sea-run brown trout) fishing. In“Brown Trout, Sea Trout, and Zebras”(page 2), Peter Lapsley tells the story of therather recent introduction of brown troutto the islands. The story, he says, “raisesalmost as many questions as it answers butis intriguing for the insight it provides intothe brown trout’s readiness to establishitself in suitable surroundings, into the del-icacy of the boundary between browntrout and sea trout, and into the fragility ofnative species when confronted with com-parable—but more successful—interlop-ers.” Lapsley asks: Are all brown trout actu-ally sea trout? And can zebra trout—nowprotected—survive where brown trouthave become established?

Willard P. Greenwood, on the otherhand, has questions about a particulartrout. When Henry David Thoreau brieflynoted in both Walden and his journal thatConcord resident Gardiner Heywood hadspeared a 5-pound trout in Walden Pond,he left out the detail as to what kind oftrout. By process of elimination, Green -wood believes this to be “one whopper of abrook trout.” Whether the trout could havebeen a native is another question. For moreabout Thoreau, how his life and workshave inspired anglers and fishing writers,and “Walden Pond’s Mystery Trout,” turnto page 10.

Captain Frederick Benteen, says RichardLessner, may be the only American soldierever to go into combat armed with a flyrod. But a year before that particular inci-dent, Benteen was under the command ofGeneral George Custer on the trail ofSitting Bull. Custer dispatched bothBenteen and Gen. George Crook withtroops to search out and converge on theIndian confederation, and (spoiler alert!)things ended badly for Custer. In “HowMeriwether Lewis’s Cutthroat Trout SealedCuster’s Fate at the Little Bighorn” (page16), Lessner discusses the importance andallure of trout during the exploration andsettlement of the American West.

About a year and a half ago, John Mundtbrought to my attention that 2010 marksthe one hundredth anniversary of the pub-lication of G. E. M. Skues’s first book,Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream, a mile-stone that should not slip by unnoticed. Inhonor of the centennial, Mundt reflects onwhat this defining volume in the letters ofangling has meant to him as an anglertoday (page 20).

In Notes from the Library (page 22),Jerry Karaska reviews R. A. Lawrence’sSilver Streams. Museum News (page 26), asusual, is a roundup of what we’ve been upto of late.

And August, once more, brought with itour annual Fly-Fishing Festival, filled withfishy vendors, fishy equipment, fishyfriends, and overall fishiness. Take a look atour coverage on page 24.

KATHLEEN ACHOREDITOR

Peter BakwinRobert BruckerC. Austin Buck

Donald C. ChristJohn Croddick

Jon GibsonTom Gravina

Terry HallTim Hixon

James HoughtonPitch JohnsonFred KambeitzPeter KelloggRandy LabbeSteve LampeSteve Myers

Grant E. NelsonWalter Noonan

John OliverJoseph R. Perella

E. Lee PerrySeth Pierrepont

Joseph and Usha RobillardRichard Scarlett III

Pat WelshGreg Wheeler

Catherine E. ComarExecutive Director

Yoshi AkiyamaDeputy Director

Sarah MooreProject & Administrative Coordinator

Kim MurphyEvents Coordinator

Patricia RussellAccount Manager

Sara WilcoxDirector of Visual Communication

denotes additional levels of giving

THE AMERICAN MUSEUMOF FLY FISHING

Preserving the Heritage of Fly Fishing

Kathleen AchorEditor

Sara WilcoxDesign & Production

Sarah May ClarksonCopy Editor

F R I E N D S O F T H E M U S E U M

S T A F F

THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER

Troutful

The Battenkill, photographed by John Atherton in 1948,from our latest exhibition, Memories on the Water: A

Photo graphic Journey through Fly Fishing’s Past.For more information, see the inside back cover.

F A L L 2 0 1 0 V O L U M E 3 6 N U M B E R 4

the American Museum of Fly FishingJournal of

Brown Trout, Sea Trout, and Zebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Peter Lapsley

Walden Pond’s Mystery Trout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Willard P. Greenwood

How Meriwether Lewis’s Cutthroat TroutSealed Custer’s Fate at the Little Bighorn . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Richard Lessner

The Hundred-Year Ripple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20John Mundt Jr.

Notes from the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Gerald Karaska

Fly-Fishing Festival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Museum News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

ON THE COVER: The Malo River, from which Mr. N. K. Cameron caught thefirst recorded sea trout in the Falkland Islands in 1956. Photo by Peter Lapsley.

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Michael BakwinFoster Bam

Pamela BatesDuke Buchan III

Peter CorbinE. Bruce DiDonato, MD

Christopher GarciaRonald Gard

George R. Gibson IIIGardner L. GrantJames Hardman

James Heckman, MDArthur Kaemmer, MD

Woods King IIIWilliam P. Leary III

Douglas F. MacKenzieWalter T. Matia

John R. McMahonWilliam C. McMaster, MD

Bradford MillsJohn Mundt Jr.David Nichols

Wayne NordbergErik R. Oken

Raymond C. PecorStephen M. PeetLeigh H. Perkins

Frederick S. PolhemusJohn Rano

Roger RiccardiKristoph J. Rollenhagen

Philip SawyerFranklin D. Schurz Jr.

Robert G. ScottGary J. Sherman, DPM

Ronald B. StuckeyRichard G. TischDavid H. WalshJames C. Woods

T R U S T E E S

Charles R. EichelW. Michael Fitzgerald

William HerrickDavid B. Ledlie

Leon L. MartuchPaul Schullery

Chairman of the BoardPresident

Vice Presidents

SecretaryClerk

Treasurer

David H. WalshJames Heckman, MDStephen M. PeetRichard G. TischJames C. WoodsCharles R. EichelRobert G. Scott

O F F I C E R S

T R U S T E E S E M E R I T IWe welcome contributions to the American Fly Fisher. Before making a submis-sion, please review our Contributor’s Guidelines on our website (www.amff.com),or write to request a copy. The museum cannot accept responsibility for state-ments and interpretations that are wholly the author’s.

2 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER

On 25 March 1992, in driving sleetand rain, Alison Faulkner caughtnineteen sea trout (sea-run brown

trout) for a total weight of 126 pounds, 4ounces. When weighed two days later,the biggest fish tipped the scales at 22pounds, 121⁄2 ounces—21⁄2 ounces heavierthan the then–United Kingdom record.Fish lose weight quite quickly whenremoved from the water, so it probablyweighed about 25 pounds when caught.

As a day’s fishing, this one was extra-ordinary by any standard. It was all themore so because, quite simply, it wouldhave been impossible fifty years earlier.Ms. Faulkner’s fish were taken in theFalkland Islands (known to Argentinesas Los Malvinos), where neither browntrout nor sea trout existed until 1940.

The excellence of the Falkland Islands’sea-trout fishing has become well knownto British anglers but is perhaps less so toAmericans and others. What is generallyless well known, too, is the story of theintroduction of brown trout into theislands, the way in which the runs of seatrout developed, and the effect the intro-duction of brown trout has had on theislands’ indigenous freshwater fish spe -cies. The story raises almost as manyquestions as it answers but is intriguingfor the insight it provides into the browntrout’s readiness to establish itself insuitable surroundings, into the delicacyof the boundary between brown troutand sea trout, and into the fragility ofnative species when confronted with

comparable—but more successful—interlopers.

A thousand miles north of Antarctica,400 miles northeast of Cape Horn, witha land-surface area only slightly smallerthan that of Connecticut (4,700 squaremiles as against Connecticut’s 5,543) anda population of just more than 2,500(1,800 of whom live in the capital,Stanley), the Falkland Islands are amongthe few remaining reasonably hospitablewilderness areas in the world.

The two main islands—East and WestFalkland, separated by Falkland Soundand with countless bays and inlets—aresurrounded by some 700 smaller islandsand islets. The countryside is bleaklybeautiful: wild, peat-based moorlandwith jagged rocky outcrops rising to morethan 2,000 feet.

The Falklands have several significantriver systems, the most important amongthem being the Murrell, Malo, and SanCarlos rivers on East Falkland and the

Brown Trout, Sea Trout, and Zebrasby Peter Lapsley

Map of the Falkland Islands.

Aplochiton zebra—the zebra trout—is one of only twofreshwater fish indigenous to the Falkland Islands.

Robert M. McDowall

FALL 2010 3

Warrah and Chartres rivers on WestFalkland. The rivers are rain fed, some-times peat stained, and generally pH neu-tral. It was from the San Carlos River thatAlison Faulkner took her remarkable bagof sea trout.

The climate of the Falkland Islands isless extreme than many people imagine.The air is crisp and clear. Although theweather often changes very quickly andthe wind is sometimes irritating, thetemp erature can climb into the low 70sFahrenheit in summer (November toMarch) and rarely falls below 24 degreeseven in winter (June to August). Oncebased on sheep farming, and with sheepfarming continuing to thisday, the islands’ income isnow derived chiefly from thesale of squid fishing licencesto Korean, Japanese, and Tai -wanese fishing boats; fromlocally registered fishing com-panies; and from tourism.Hopes of offshore oil produc-tion have yet to materialize.

FALKLAND ISLANDS

FISH, FISHERIES

When Charles Darwin vis -ited the is lands in 1833 and1834, he recorded only twoindigenous species of fresh-water fish: Aplochiton zebra(which, for the purposes ofthis article, I shall refer to byits colloquial name, “zebratrout”) and Galax ias macula-tus, a so-called minnow. Ze -bra trout were apparentlywidespread, living both inthe rivers and in at least someof the many freshwater lakeswith which the islands arestudded. Two of the threespecimens caught by Darwinin East Falkland from a fresh-water lake connected to thesea by a short brook are preserved in theNatural History Museum in London.

Other fish found in brack ish creeks inthe Falk land Islands include the codlikespecies Eleginops mac lovinus, knownlocally as “mullet,” and smelt (Odon testhesspp.). But both are marine fish that sim-ply migrate into river mouths to feed.

Although a member of the salmoni-form order, and superficially troutlike inboth appearance and behavior, the zebratrout is only distantly related to thesalmonidae (the trout, salmon, chars,whitefish, and grayling of the northernhemisphere). It is found exclusively alongthe Chilean side of the Andes, fromValdivia in the north to Tierra del Fuegoin the south, and in the Falkland Islands.

Its nearest relative, Lovettia sealii, also amember of the family Aplochitonidae, islimited to the rivers of Tasmania inAustralia, which suggests that their dis-tant ancestors were probably a singlemarine species that migrated into riversrather than a freshwater species thatwent to sea and then crossed vast tractsof ocean. The same applies, of course, tothe salmonid species in the northernhemisphere.

Relatively little is known about the lifehistory of the zebra trout, but it seemsthat they spawn in the austral spring(Sep tember), that their ova are sticky andadhere to rocks or aquatic vegetation, and

that many river-bred fry are washed outto sea soon after hatching, returning torivers when they are still small—aninteresting selection-of-the-fittest pro -cess. Thereafter, they remain in freshwater for the rest of their lives, feedingon freshwater and wind-born terrestrialinvertebrates and preying on minnows.They grow to an apparent maximumlength of about 12 inches. Some zebra-trout populations live in ponds and lakesunconnected to the sea and thereforecomplete their entire life cycles in freshwater. Zebra trout are long lived, with lifespans of between ten and twenty years.

The stickiness of zebra trout ova mayaccount in part for the way in which theyhave spread throughout Falklands rivers

and lakes. The islands abound withwaterfowl, and it is easy to envisage theminadvertently transporting adherent ovafrom watercourse to watercourse. It hasbeen speculated also that being relativelyweak swimmers, juveniles washed out tosea may return to any source of freshwater rather than necessarily to thestreams in which they were born. All thiscontrasts sharply with brown trout(Salmo trutta), the ova of which are notsticky, the young of which do not go tosea until they are between one and threeyears old, and which return eventuallyand almost unerringly to the rivers inwhich they were born. All of this ac -

counts for the quite gradualspread of brown trout fromwatercourse to watercourseand for their apparentlycomplete absence from theFalkland Islands’ landlockedlakes.

In 1939—brown trout,brook trout (Salvelinus fon -tinalis), and rainbow trout(Oncorhynchus mykiss) pop -ulations having become es -tab lished in several rivers inTierra del Fuego—the Falk -land Islands government de -cided to see whether thesesame species could be intro-duced successfully into someof the rivers in East and WestFalkland. In 1940, small quan-tities of eyed brown-, brook-,and rainbow-trout ova wereimported from Chile and in -cubated in a makeshift hatch - ery just outside Stanley. Thebrook and rainbow troutdied, but the brown troutthrived and were released,probably into Moody Brook,which runs into the westernend of Stanley Harbour, andpossibly into the nearby Mur -rell River. (Re gret tably, rec -

ords of these earliest attempts to es tablishtrout in the islands were lost in a fire.)

The Second World War interruptedthe Falklands’ fisheries program, but in1947 the Chilean government presentedthe Stanley hatchery with 30,000 brown-trout ova as a gift, and more ova wereimported from Britain: 10,000 inJanuary 1948, 15,000 in January 1949, and10,000 each in 1950, ’51, and ’52. It isunderstood that no sea trout had accessto the rivers, lakes, and lochs from whichthe brood stock came. The alevins thathatched from the ova were exclusivelythe progeny of nonmigratory browntrout.

It is a pity that there are no clearrecords to show how many of the ova

Stone runs are widespread in the Falklands and make fordifficult cross-country driving to fishable stretches of the rivers.

Photos by Peter Lapsley unless otherwise indicated.


hatched, how many of the alevins grewto releasable size, or precisely where thefingerlings or fry were released. Gen erally,they were transported around the islandsin galvanized iron tanks on the deck of theisland steamer or carried in milk churnsslung as panniers on mules or horses, andthey were released into waters whereverthey and their offspring might be expectedto provide sport and food for the inhabi-tants of the rural settlements. Substantialnumbers of the small trout thus releasedsurvived and thrived, not least, presum-ably, because there was nothing to prey onthem, apart from the relatively timid zebratrout.

In 1954, anglers fishing for zebra troutbegan to catch brown trout. Exam -ination of the fishes’ stomach contentsshowed that they had been feeding large-ly on freshwater shrimps, supplementingtheir diets with occasional caddis larvae,midge pupae, ostracods, and water snails,and with a few terrestrial insects, includ-ing beetles. Scale readings showedgrowth rates similar to those for brown

trout in rain-fed rivers in Britain. One-year-old trout were 5 to 61⁄2 inches long,two-year-olds 6 to 81⁄2 inches, three-year-olds 10 to 121⁄2 inches, and four-year-olds9 to 141⁄2 inches. Some fish older thanthree years had spawned.

On 25 February 1956, Mr. N. K.Cameron caught a 31⁄2-pound trout in theMalo River on East Falkland on a wet fly.He went on to catch nine more fish ofbetween 11⁄2 and 2 pounds—all significant-ly larger than would be expected from ariver with so relatively sparse a food sup-ply. During the 1957/1958 and 1958/1959seasons, anglers fishing the Murrell Rivercaught between 300 and 400 trout rang-ing in weight from 11⁄2 to 12 pounds. Mostof these were sea trout—proof, if everproof was needed, that a brown trout is asea trout is a brown trout. The interpreta-tion of the Fresh water Fisheries Labor -atory at Pitlochry in Scotland was that itwould be extremely difficult to differenti-ate between Falkland Islands and Scottishsea-trout scales.

It is clear, therefore, that the importa-

tion of brown-trout fry into FalklandIslands rivers between 1940 and 1952resulted in the establishment of substan-tial, self-sustaining populations of bothbrown trout and sea trout. The subse-quent introduction of 28,000 “sea-trout”ova in 1961 and 1962, of which 22,000survived and were planted out as fry inthe Malo and San Carlos rivers on EastFalkland and the Warrah River in WestFalkland, was superfluous. Sea-troutstocks were already well established whenthey arrived.

As an aside, an attempt between 1960and 1964 to introduce Atlantic salmon(Salmo salar) suffered the same fate as allother similar attempts in the southernhemisphere. Unlike sea trout, whichrarely stray far from the rivers in whichthey were born, Atlantic salmon travelgreat distances when they go to sea. TheAtlantic salmon introduced into a coupleof Falkland Islands rivers vanished with-out a trace, presumably be cause theirbuilt-in navigation systems were unableto cope in the southern ocean.

Above: The Murrell was probably one of the firstrivers in the Falklands into which brown troutfingerlings were introduced in the early 1940s.

Right: Two images of Falkland IslanderDon Bonner playing a 41⁄2-pound “slob

trout” in the Murrell River estuary.

FALL 2010 5

So, why do some brown trout developa migratory habit, becoming “sea trout,”whereas some do not?

A simple soul, I used to suppose thatdownstream migration by trout was astraightforward response to a shortage offood and that this accounted for the factthat the biggest runs of sea trout tend tobe found in the least fertile rivers. That isto say, sea trout are sensible: “There’s notmuch food here; let’s go downto the sea and find somethere.” Conor Nolan, PhD,then the chief scientist withthe Falkland Islands FisheriesDepart ment, a keen fly fisherhimself, provided me with avery much more detailed andcoherent explanation.

Brown trout (and manyother salm onids) are aggres-sively territorial. Their objec-tive is to establish and then todefend areas large enough toprovide them with the foodthey need to reach maturity.Where the number of troutexceeds a river’s capacity toprovide sufficient food, sometrout will be unable to takeand hold such areas. It is easi-er to drift down with the cur-rent than to swim against it.Therefore, these unsuccessfulfish will tend to move down-stream, eventually reachinges tuaries and coastal waters inwhich they will find an abun-dance of food. The leastadventurous of them willremain in the estuaries as“slob trout.” The more adven-turous will roam furtherafield as “sea trout.” Both

strains will return to the rivers of theirbirths to spawn. Imagine the chagrin ofthe brown trout that have re mained in therivers, eking out meager livings fromtheir hard-won territories, when their“less successful” siblings come home, fit,fat, and happy, fresh from the sea.

It has often been noted that the greatmajority of sea trout are female—typical-ly, both in Europe and in the Falkland

Islands, at a ratio of almost 3:1—and ithas been suggested this is accounted forby a migratory strand in the fishes’ mito-chondrial DNA. However, in all the riversin which sea trout are found, sea troutand resident trout invariably coexist, andsuch research as has been done shows lit-tle if any genetic divergence betweenthem. A more likely explanation may bethat male trout are more aggressive thanfemales and better able to take and holdthe feeding areas they need, leaving thefemales to wander off to sea.

In the northern hemisphere, brown-trout and sea-trout appearance andbehavior vary widely, but certain behav-ioral characteristics are common to allstrains. Females lay their ova in shallowredds in loose gravel in clean, reasonablyfast-flowing, well-oxygenated streams andrivers, usually in November or December(early midwinter) but occasionally as lateas February or even March. When a seatrout has cut one redd with her tail andlaid a proportion of her ova in it, the ovabeing fertilized by an accompanying maleas they are shed, she moves a short dis-tance upstream and cuts another, the grav-el displaced from it covering the ova in thefirst one, and so on. She may cut as manyas four or five redds, depositing up to 200fertilized ova in each one.

Sea-trout ova can be fertilized by cocksea trout, slob trout, or non-migratory brown trout. Thisis a further persuasive argu-ment in the de bate as towhether the migratory habitis inbred in sea trout orwhether migration is aresponse chiefly or exclusivelyto environmental pressure.Because such indiscriminatemating can serve only to gen-eralize the genes of successivegenerations of fish, it seemsreasonable to suppose that allbrown trout must be potentialsea trout—or vice versa.

BROWN TROUT =SEA TROUT?

This poses an intriguingquestion. Could it be that allbrown trout are actually seatrout, with a built-in migrato-ry instinct that they set aside,remaining in their home riversthroughout their lives, butonly if they find themselves ina sufficiently comfortable en -vironment with plenty offood? It would seem so.

Further circumstantial evi-dence to support the theorythat Salmo trutta is a natural-

The Malo River, from which Mr. N. K. Cameron caught thefirst recorded sea trout in the Falkland Islands in 1956.

Another look at the Malo River.


ly migratory species is to be found in thehabits of brown trout living in all sorts ofwaters. Vivid examples are to be seen inlarge Irish and Scottish lakes—waters likeLoughs Melvin and Neagh in Ireland andLochs Awe, Ericht, and Rannoch inScotland. Many of the trout born in suchlakes’ feeder streams migrate into thelakes themselves to grow and mature,running back up the streams to spawn.Their urge is not to migrate to salt waterbut simply to better feeding grounds.Whether their migration takes them tosea or not is entirely a matter of geogra-phy—and of their ability, unusual in thepiscine world, to move from fresh waterto salt and back again. (All of this applies,of course, to almost all salmonid species,the great majority of which have migra-tory and nonmigratory strains.)

Falkland Islands brown trout show aremarkable variety of characteristics,depending upon the lifestyle they adopt.

Moody Brook, just to the west ofStanley, is full of fierce little nonmigrato-ry brown trout, as are all the rivers in theFalklands that also have runs of sea trout.Fishing just upstream of the old RoyalMarine barracks, I have caught as many asa dozen of these diminutive brown troutin a couple of hours. Fit, lean little crea-tures, dark bronze with dull red spots,snapping at little wet flies, indifferent topattern, and weighing in, I guess, at threeor four to the pound. I have caught verysimilar fish in numerous Falklands rivers.

Fishing on the dividing line betweenfresh water and salt near Port Howard onWest Falkland, I have taken trout ofbetween 1 and 11⁄2 pounds apiece. Thesewere young fish, maybe three years old,enjoying for the first time the rich feedingto be had beyond the streams in whichthey were born. They looked like perfect

chalk-stream brown trout, with clean,white bellies brightening to glittering goldon top, flecked with bright vermillionspots within sharp, dark haloes.

Some of these trout are easily satis-fied, never leaving the estuaries at all.Having grown into very handsome fish,rather unkindly named slob trout, theymay come to the net at between six andeight years old weighing between 3 and 5pounds, contrasting sharply with truesea trout of the same age.

It seems likely that, in the FalklandIslands, even true sea trout do not wan-der far in salt water, either remaining inhuge, food-rich “inland seas” like Sal -vador Water, or browsing among the kelpin inshore areas along the coast. Whenthey return to fresh water to spawn forthe first time, weighing between 2 and 6pounds, they are clean, deep, and fiercely

fit, glittering silver, freckled with sharpblack spots. In subsequent years, theymay weigh twice, thrice, or four times asmuch, an eight-year-old being among thecoveted double-figure fish.

AN IDEAL LABORATORY

From all this, it is evident that browntrout having been introduced into theirvirtually fishless waters (pace the zebratrout and minnows), the Falkland Is -lands are an ideal laboratory in which tostudy the fishes’ responses to environ-mental variation. For example, it is wide-ly known among those who fish in theFalklands that numbers and sizes of seatrout from the Warrah and Chartresrivers on West Falkland differ greatly.

The two rivers are very similar in sizeand character. Both rise within a coupleof miles of each other on Muffler JackMountain, and each flows about 30 milesthrough the same sort of countryside:the Chartres westward, eventually run-ning into Christmas Harbour; the War -rah northward, entering the sea in RiverHarbour.

The Warrah produces rather fewer fishthan the Chartres but, at average weightsbetween 4 and 6 pounds apiece, they arerelatively big. In contrast, the Chartresproduces large numbers of relativelysmall sea trout, typically of between 3 and4 pounds apiece. For a long time, those ofus interested in this supposed that theremust be a relationship between “morebut smaller” and “fewer but bigger.” Therewas not.

What we discovered was that at StarFarm, at the head of the Warrah, there isa pit into which the farm owner tips upto 1,000 sheep carcasses a year. Thisenriches the nascent river, increasing theA fine Falklands sea trout, tipping the scales at 121⁄2 pounds.

At 5 pounds, a modest sea trout by Falklands standards.

FALL 2010 7

biomass it can sustain and thus the avail-able food for trout. As a consequence,relatively few of the trout go out to sea.As evidence of this, one can catch goodnumbers of Warrah brown trout to 14inches (about 1 pound)—handsome,well-fed fish that show no signs of smelt-ing. The Chartres River has no suchenrichment and offers poor feeding.Most of its brown trouttherefore go to sea, and itsnonmigratory trout aresmall, lean, and hungry. It isthese factors that probablyaccount for the “more andfewer” side of the equation.

What we realized also wasthat fish migrating to seafrom the Warrah immediate-ly found themselves feedingin the warm, shallow watersof the archipelago that ex -tends from the northernshore of West Falkland toPebble and Kepple islands—averitable soup of smelt andkrill. One the other hand,those leaving the Chartreswere literally being thrown inat the deep end. ChristmasHarbour opens directly intoKing George’s Bay—a cold,deep, exposed, fjordlike ex -panse of water with a narrowlittoral zone in which the seatrout would have to workhard for their food—which iswhy they tend to be smallerthan fish from the Warrah.

This is also, of course,why the Rio Grande inArgentine Tierra del Fuegoproduces such large num-bers of very large sea trout,

averaging 9 pounds apiece and withspecimens quite frequently caughtweighing between 25 and 30 pounds. TheRio Grande itself is unusual. Brown troutbreed prolifically in its fertile tributaries,but the main channel into which manyof them migrate has a paucity of food, somost of the fish that move into it thenmove downstream. As they approach the

sea, they find themselves in a large, shal-low, sheltered estuary, 6 miles long, half amile wide, with an abundance of krilland smelt and with an almost completeabsence of predators. Those that turnnorth along the coast continue to enjoyrich feeding, and some may continue onto the Straits of Magellan, sheltered andwith a wealth of food. By the time theyreturn to the Rio Grande to spawn, theyhave put on more weight than compara-ble sea trout anywhere else in the world.

LESS WARY

In Europe, sea trout are notoriouslywary, being difficult to catch in daylightunless there is a peat stain in the waterand a ripple on it to conceal the angler’swiles from the fish. The great majority ofEuropean sea trout are therefore taken atnight. Falklands sea trout seem markedlyless wary than their European counter-parts, but it would be wrong to supposethat they are not shy. They can easily befrightened by people skylining them-selves on the bank and by careless wad-ing. Interestingly, though, they will take afly readily in daylight, provided they areapproached with reasonable stealth, andpeople who have fished for them at nighthave had remarkably little success.

When one has caught asmany as ten sea trout fromone short stretch of water inthe course of a morning, ascan happen in the Falklands,it is tempting to suppose thatthe fish stocks in the islands’rivers are inexhaustible. Theyare not.

In April 1998, when largenumbers of sea trout mighthave been expected to be pre-sent in the rivers, Pete King (akeen conservationist, angler,and student of trout) andStuart Wallace (also a keentrout conservationist), walkedthe Murrell River from itssource to the sea. There arefew hiding places in the river,which is generally narrow,and the water was clear. Theycounted a total of 180 fish.Rough extrapolation suggeststhat no more than 1,000 seatrout run the Murrell duringthe course of an entire sea-son. Other rivers—like theMalo, San Carlos, Warrah,and Chartres—are larger andmay be expected to supportproportionately larger fishstocks, but those stocks arestill finite and fragile, andthey must be protected if the

Game on. An angler (Nick Gooderham) plays a fine seatrout on the Warrah estuary. The Warrah produces ratherfewer but larger sea trout than its sister river, the Chartres.

Airborne! An angler (Jonathan Straw) playing a good sea trout on the Warrah estuary.


quality of the Falkland Is lands sea-troutfishing is to be maintained.

For reasons that could form the basisof a separate and lengthy article, non-U.S. anglers tend to be more pragmaticand less evangelical about catch-and-release than their North American coun-terparts. One of the original reasons forthe introduction of brown trout into theFalkland Islands was to provide theinhabitants of rural settlements withrelief from the monotony of a mutton-based diet; not for nothing is muttonknown to Falkland Islanders as “365”!And that the sea-trout populations cansustain the taking of quite modest num-bers of fish for the table is evidenced bythe way in which they have survived andthrived. For that reason, no restrictionsare placed on local residents in respect tofishing methods used (many spin for seatrout), and they are limited only tokilling no more than six fish a day.Visiting anglers are different, and a veryreasonable responsibility is placed onthem for helping conserve stocks. Theyare required to fish with barbless singlehooks, with tackle strong enough toenable them to bring fish to hand quick-ly, and to release fish with as little traumaas possible—ideally, without removingthem from the water or touching them.The only fish they may kill are the veryoccasional ones that are bleeding andwould therefore die if returned, and fishrequested by the lodge.

EFFECTIVELY DISAPPEARED

But with so many brown and sea troutin Falklands rivers, what of the zebratrout?

The sad fact is that zebra trout haveeffectively disappeared from virtually allthe waters in which brown trout havebecome established. Brown trout domi-nate the northeastern half of EastFalkland, and there are very few remain-ing zebra-trout populations there, all ofthem in lakes.

Lafonia, the southern half of EastFalkland, is almost completely cut offfrom the northern half by ChoisuelSound and Brenton Loch, the two“islands” being connected only by a nar-row strip of land on which stand the set-tlements of Darwin and Goose Green.Lafonia is low lying, with slow-flowingstreams and ditches, and is largely unin-habited. It seems unlikely that any

attempt has ever been made to introducebrown trout to the area.

The 1999 survey showed zebra trout tobe present and brown trout to be absentthroughout much of Lafonia, includingthe north-coast streams running intoChoisuel Sound and the west-coast onesrunning into Falkland Sound.

Nine years later, the 2008 surveyshowed brown trout to have taken overthe Choisuel Sound and west-coaststreams. Zebra trout were still presentand reasonably abundant along a linerunning from northeast to southwestthrough central Lafonia. Interestingly,though, brown trout and zebra troutwere found coexisting in three locations5 or 10 miles inland from ChoisuelSound, suggesting that brown trout hadrecently moved into the area but werenot yet dominant there.

Zebra trout were found to be morewidespread in West Falkland, the southof the island being a particular strong-hold with populations in most streamsand rivers. They were also found aroundPort Howard and in Red Pond, a large,shallow, landlocked lake just above thehead of Green Hill Stream, a tributary ofthe River Warrah.

The Port Howard population demon-strates graphically how brown trout canoust zebra trout when they colonize ariver, and how zebra-trout populationscan survive when there are no browntrout present. Above the settlement,House Stream has been dammed to forma small reservoir. The dam is impassableto brown trout, which are present belowit in substantial numbers, whereas zebratrout are the only fish to be found aboveit. Similarly, North Lake Sullivan andSouth Lake Sullivan, in the middle of

The River Chartres produces more sea trout than itssister river, the Warrah, but their average weight is lower.

The introduction of fry from sea-trout ova into rivers like the Warrah in 1961 and 1962was superfluous. Sea-trout stocks were already well established when they arrived.

FALL 2010 9

West Falkland, are separated by a strip ofland less than a quarter of a mile wide.Although there are healthy zebra-troutpopulations in North Lake Sullivan andthe rivers flowing into Port Philomel,South Lake Sullivan and the West MaloRiver contain only brown trout.

So, where to from here?By the early 1990s, little if anything

had been written about the fate ofFalkland Islands zebra trout. I took somesatisfaction from being told that it was apaper of mine, published in the FalklandIslands Journal in 1994, that led directlyto their being accorded specific protec-tion under the Falkland Islands Conser -vation of Wildlife and Nature Ord -inance, 1999, and to the inclusion of thezebra trout as the subject of one of a setfour World Wildlife Fund endangered-species stamps issued by the FalklandIslands Philatelic Bureau.

It may be that zebra trout would sur-vive in the Falklands without formal pro-tection. Unlike the imported brown troutthat prey on them and compete withthem for food, they are able to breed andto live out their lives in many of theislands’ landlocked still waters. Some maysee them as little more than a curiosity.After all, they do not make up significantproportions of the diets of birds or otherfish, or occupy any key position in theFalkland Islands’ ecosystem. And unlikebrown trout, which provide food andsport for Falkland Islanders and incomefrom angling tourism, they have no realsocial or economic value. All that seemsto me to miss the point, though: that it iswe who introduced into the islands thespecies that threatens them, and it is for

us, therefore, to do what we can to mini-mize the harm we have done.

!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted to Robert M.McDowall, PhD, for permitting me touse his excellent photograph of a zebratrout in this article; and to the late JonClark; Pete King; the late Robin Lee;Conor Nolan, PhD; Terry Spruce; andKen Whelan, PhD, for sharing theirknowledge of brown trout, sea trout, andzebra trout with me in numerous con-versations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lapsley, Peter M. “Alas, Poor Zebra,” The Falk -land Is lands Journal (1994, vol. 6, no. 3),26–34.

———. Fishing for Falklands Sea Trout(London: Falkland Islands Tourist Board,2000).

McDowall, Robert M. “Conserving andManaging Falkland Island FreshwaterFishes,” The Falkland Islands Journal(2001, vol. 7, no. 5), 68–78.

———. “Fishes of the Family Aplo -chitonidae,” Journal of the Royal Society ofNew Zealand (1971, vol. 1, no. 1), 31–52.

O’Neal, S. and J. A. Stanford. Population Statusand Ecology of Brown Trout: Rio Grande,Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Flathead LakeBiological Station Report No. 193-06,2006.

Pauly, Daniel. Darwin’s Fishes: An Ency clo -pedia of Ichthyology, Ecology, and Evo lution(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UniversityPress, 2004).

Ross, Katherine. Freshwater Fish in theFalklands: Conservation of Native ZebraTrout (an unpublished report to the Falk -land Islands government and FalklandsConservation, 2009).

Stewart, L. The Fisheries in the Falkland Islands(a paper for the Falkland Islands gov -ernment, 1973).

Thorpe, J. E. Migration of Salmonids. Paperpresented to the Salmon and Trout Mi -gra tory Symposium at the University ofWashington, Seattle, June 1981.

The settlement at Port Howard. The fishing on the rivers Warrahand Chartres is managed from the lodge, seen in the center of the picture.

The zebra trout was made the subject of one of a set four World Wildlife Fundendangered-species stamps issued by the Falkland Islands Philatelic Bureau.


PERHAPS THE PREDATORY nature offishing has caused the majority ofpast and present scholars to over-

look its importance in Walden, which hasbecome such a seminal work of protoen-vironmentalism. For example, LawrenceBuell’s Environmental Imag ination usesWalden as a touchstone for his historicalanalysis of American environmentalism;yet, he does not mention fishing.1 HenryDavid Thoreau himself may be to blamefor Buell’s critical omission because hepersonally refutes fishing in the “HigherLaws” chapter of Walden. Nonetheless, inchapter after chapter of Walden, Thoreaugoes fishing even after his refutation.2

There is much more to Walden than fish-ing, of course, but scholarship on thissubject is rather sparse compared with itsubiquity. Robert Sattelmeyer’s article is acompelling and thorough analysis offishing in Walden.3

What current scholarship also doesnot account for is the variety of ways inwhich Thoreau’s life and works haveinspired fishermen and fishing writers.The transcendental attachment to natureand reverence for the outdoors is partial-ly due to the ethos expressed in Walden.Even though Thoreau mentions severalkinds of fish in Walden, it is the briefappearance of a large trout that is partic-ularly interesting. The presence of thistrout, described both in Walden and inThoreau’s journals, gives rise to an eco-logical, literary, and historical mystery.

THOREAU’S SENSIBILITIES

AND THEIR CONNECTION TO

MODERN FLY FISHING

Thoreau refutes the act of fishing, buthe does so inconsistently; he states yearslater in The Maine Woods that “I couldspend a year in the woods, fishing andhunting, just enough to sustain myself,with satisfaction.”4 In his trip to Maine,we see a growing reverence for livingthings and an increasing ambivalence

toward killing them; in that regard, TheMaine Woods resembles Walden. JohnGierach and David James Duncan ex -press the same kind of ambivalence aboutkilling and eating trout. Thoreau under-stands that to live in proximity withNature, some bloodshed is inevitable.Fishing, which is predatory, is inextrica-bly linked to Thoreau’s desire to freehimself and others from the uncivilizingaspects of civilization, which is evident intwo accounts of night fishing in Walden.

The first episode, in “Solitude,” identi-fies night fishing as a practice of the localsthat Thoreau invokes in order to intensifyhis own solitude. Gierach and Ian Frazierhave both written about night fishing andhow fishing in the dark amplifies solitude.Thoreau notes that some people come toWalden to fish and that they “baited theirhooks with darkness.”5 Thus we see fish-ing, especially night fishing, as a rarefied

and mysterious undertaking that remainsunexplored by Thoreau until “ThePonds.” Thoreau himself explicates themetaphysical importance of “catchingtwo fish with one hook,”6 which is his wayof describing the pleasure of the medita-tive state that fishing produces. To furtherilluminate Thoreau’s sensibility here, werecall Ralph Waldo Emerson’s claim thatNature “arms and equips an animal tofind its place and living in the earth, and,at the same time, she arms and equipsanother animal to destroy it.”7 Thoreausees a connection between fishing’s preda-tory reality and its transcendental appeal.To this day, we see this transcendentalappeal alive and well in fly-fishing litera-ture.

In the enumeration of species, Thor -eau establishes a place in the mainstreamof fishing literature, which will alwaysand rightfully be an odd offshoot of

Walden Pond’s Mystery Troutby Willard P. Greenwood

Walden Pond topographical map. Courtesy of Massachusetts U.S. Geological Survey.

FALL 2010 1 1

American letters. Walden is a place-spe-cific fishing text, which to some degree isthe mode of many contemporary how-tofishing books. The specificity of suchbooks is their main allure; the particular-ity of knowing a specific place adds akind of vicariousness to the readingexperience. That place-specific elementaligns Thoreau with mainstream fishingliterature, but the fact that women havevirtually no presence in Walden showshis worldview to be deficient. (In hisactual life, Thoreau was close with hismother and sisters.) Although this lackof female presence may be a deficiency, itemphasizes, accurately, the split thatexists between the sexes in the practice offishing and, consequently, in fishing lit-erature.

One of Walden’s early reviewers aptlyasks: “Did he never people that barehovel, in imagination, with a loving andbeloved wife and blooming children, ordid he imagine that to know what life ishe must ignore its origin?”8 One coulddescribe this avoidance of romanticdomesticity as a certain kind of asceti-cism, yet the criticism must be acknowl-edged because Thoreau is clearly tryingto espouse a worldview that establishes anew relationship between the individualand the natural world. As a work of fish-ing literature, his solitude becomes quiteunderstandable, for fishing is almostalways done alone or with other men,which makes Walden seem quite normalgenderwise in relation to fishing.

Gierach acknowledges “that it’s entire-ly permissible to miss the girlfriend whileon a fishing trip, especially betweenhatches . . . .”9 An examination of thesexes will always show fishing literatureto exhibit a mildly eccentric version ofmasculinity. It is worth noting that manywomen do like Walden—not because ofThoreau’s cosmopolitan understandingof men and women, but for his ecologicalethics. Thoreau inspired Anne LaBastilleto undertake a Walden-like project in the1960s in a remote area of the Adiron -dacks, where she worked as a commis-sioner of the Adirondack Park Agency.She claims, however, that “As a woman, Iam not touched at all by Walden.”10 Theway in which Thoreau draws on thecommon interest of the sexes is in hisdesire to perfect “the art of life.”11 Thisperfection of the art of life achieves fullbloom in modern fishing literature,which refutes Buell’s observation that“Thoreau is not deemed to have engen-dered any canonical progeny, at leastwithin the field of literature.”12 Buell’sstatement is a little misleading, becausethere is a small but significant branch ofAmerican literature that has been direct-ly influenced by Thoreau.

As we can see from many current fish-ing writers, there is a transcendentaldesire attached to fishing, especially inDuncan’s work. Thoreau, living at Wal -den, anticipates the contemporary idealof the modern angler insofar as the pur-suit of fish and the fishing trip is a meansof organizing the interior and exteriorlife—fishing provides conviviality andsustenance. The interest and disinterestin natural history is a part of Thoreau’scanonical legacy—Duncan’s protagonisttakes up residence at a particular place, asmall coastal river in the PacificNorthwest, which is notable for its soli-tude, abundance of trout, and a previous-ly abandoned cabin—a one-room placethat is strikingly similar to Thoreau’scabin.

Because of its history and its connec-tion to entomology, fly fishing is anuanced branch of fishing. The writingsof Thomas McGuane, Duncan, TedLeeson, Gierach, Ernest Hemingway, andmany others add to the rich lore of flyfishing for trout. It is in this historicaland contemporary literary context that

we now revisit Thoreau as he provides uswith an ecological and historical mysteryin the form of a 5-pound trout thatConcord resident Gardiner Heywoodspeared in Walden Pond.13 The spearingof this trout reveals a fascinating nexusbetween the natural history of Waldenand its past and present fish populations.

THE MYSTERY OF THE

TROUT’S ORIGINS

Modern American trout anglers arefascinated with native strains of trout,which are deemed “superior” to stockedfish.14 It is worth noting that todayWalden is stocked with rainbow trout,brown trout and a few brook trout.15 Infact, the spearing of the fish represents aconnection to an even more ancientmode of fishing. I am interested in thetrout’s origins, but Heywood and theman shown in N. C. Wyeth’s A PrimitiveSpearman (above) were interested inWalden’s trout as food, as survival itself,which can be artistic.

N. C. Wyeth, A Primitive Spearman (1913).


We know that fish stocking did notstart in America until 1850s whenTheodatus Garlick, a Cleveland doctor,published Artificial Propagation of Fish.16

Garlick was the first person in the UnitedStates to breed brook trout and otherfish under artificial conditions. What iseven more interesting is that we knowthat Thoreau owned a copy of Garlick’sbook.17 Given the date of the spearing ofthe trout (1857), however, it is quiteunlikely that this brook trout was artifi-cially created and then stocked inWalden.

As for this trout being one of anotherspecies, we can take a cursory look atthe timeline of stocking in this coun-try. Rainbow trout are native to theWest Coast and were not stocked inthe East until the 1880s, which isalso the case with the brown trout.Yet, the presence of a 5-poundtrout is of current interest becauseto any modern-day angler, a 5-pound brook trout would consti-tute a trophy. The current recordfor a brook trout in Mass a chu -setts is 6 pounds, 4 ounces, whichwas caught by Thomas Laptewfrom Otis Reservoir in 1968.18 Apond that would support a nativepopulation of brook trout wouldbe highly desirable. According toJohn Sheedy, a fisheries manager inthe Acton (Massachusetts) office, afew brook trout are stocked in Walden.In fact, one weighing 3 pounds, 6ounces was caught through the ice lastwinter.19 Even though water conditionsin Walden are not the same as they werein 1857, Heywood’s trout would suggestotherwise.

It is possible that this mystery troutcould have been a salmon, but Thoreauwas very familiar with them from hisexperiences in Maine—he ate salmonand trout during his travels in the Maine

woods. He makes a clear distinctionbetween these two species in A Week onthe Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Hementions that salmon were abundant inthe Concord, and that if he and hisbrother “had leisure this afternoon wemight turn our prow up the brooks inquest of the classical trout . . . .”20 I wouldsuggest, therefore, by process of elimina-

tion, that this fish can only be one whop-per of a brook trout, which at this pointin history would have been the only kindof trout in New England.

Walden Pond is well within the natur-al eastern range of Salvelinus fontinalis,which extends to northern Virginia andas far east as the headwaters of theChagrin River in northeast Ohio. Thebrook trout did not receive the afore-mentioned Latin classification until 1814,so it is possible (though unlikely) thatThoreau might not have heard of it yet.Garlick refers to the fish as Salmo fonti-nalis, so Thoreau would have been awareof the term. I wonder, though, aboutThoreau not ascribing a Latin classifica-tion to this fish, because in the sameparagraph that Thoreau mentions thistrout, he also mentions Leuciscus pul-chellus, which he calls a “chivin orroach,” and Pomotis obesus, which is atype of bream.21 The absence of Latinnomenclature in relation to the brooktrout is a little curious; New Englandershad been fishing for and eating brooktrout since the 1700s.

Thoreau states, in a journal entrydated 14 November 1857, that this troutwas put in Walden by Henry and JohnBigelow “some ten years ago,” whichwould also predate artificial propagationtechnology.22 In addition to the one thatwas speared, there was another one inthe pond about the same size. He won-

ders if this fish is one of those sameones. This brings us back to the issueof the trout being native or trans-planted. At this time, we know thatthe fish could not have beenstocked, simply because artificialpropagation was only invented afew years earlier and was not car-ried out in large operations foranother twenty-five years or so.

It is possible that this fish mayhave been “stocked”—that is,transferred from another body ofwater—by an enterprising Con -cor dian trying to establish brooktrout in Walden Pond, but we arenot ruling out the possibility that

this fish might be a native. It is eco-logically significant that Walden has

the physical conditions necessary tosustain a brook-trout population. The

pond has cool waters and a partiallygravelly bottom, making the existence ofthis large trout even more complicated.A brook trout’s longevity in the wild isusually four to five years—in someinstances, brook trout have lived fromten to twenty years, but these are modernoccurrences in the more temperateAmerican West and in ideal eastern habi-tat found in Québec and Labrador.23

Therefore, it is possible that the speared

Theodatus Garlick held the brook trout in such high esteem that he titled this illustration“Naiad Queen” (none of the other fish in the book receive such a label). Thoreau would

have seen this picture and therefore would have known how to identify a brook trout.From Theodatus Garlick, A Treatise on the Artificial Propagation of Certain Kinds of

Fish with the Description and Habits of Such Kinds as Are the Most Suitable forPisciculture (Cleveland: Tho. Brown, Publisher, Ohio Farmer Office, 1857), 81.

Henry David Thoreau, c. 1879. Photo byGeo. F. Parlow. From the Library ofCongress Prints and Photographs

Division, LC-USZ61-361.

FALL 2010 13

fish was an offspring of the original fishput in ten years ago. The fish would havebeen “wild” insofar as it was the result ofnatural propagation. Regardless of itsorigins, whatever they may be, Thoreauis utterly silent on the natural history ofthis large brook trout. In the rest ofWalden, we see a variety of other fishcaught, but no other trout.

THOREAU’S CONNECTION TO

MODERN FISHING

LITERATURE

Thoreau’s antipredatory stance, whichis deemed to be a more perfect and thuscomplete version of transcendentalism,may be why Buell puts him at the centerof the ecocentric American canon; in sodoing, Buell describes literary criticismas “metropolitan-based.”24 The reason Imention this is twofold: not only is Buellsilent about the structural and thematiccentrality of fishing to Walden, but healso claims that Thoreau has not left anycanonical progeny. By not writing aboutfish or fishing, Buell exhibits a kind of“metropolitan bias” toward the relation-ship between fishing literature andThoreau’s predatory stance in relation totranscendence. Fishing, as Thoreau prac-ticed it, was a blood sport. Such an overtpredatory stance does not fit into thevision of American environmental litera-ture that Buell is creating. Thoreau knewexactly what he was doing when he tem-

porarily quit fishing. Buell and others donot analyze what Thoreau himself reject-ed, a fact that does short shrift toThoreau’s transcendental ethics con-cerning fish and fishing.

This lack of critical concern for fish-ing makes it possible to claim thatThoreau has not left behind any canoni-cal progeny. Here is where the matter offishing and literature collide. The canon-ical influence of Thoreau is that he hascreated the ideological archetype for themodern fly fisher.25 His simultaneousrejection and embrace of society whilepursuing the “leisure” activity of fishingis seen in Duncan, Hemingway, Gierach,Leeson, Nick Lyons, and many others.For all of these writers, fishing is a deeplyparticipatory act that can but usuallydoes not result in the death of the fish.

As far as I can tell, Thoreau never letfish go, but he understands fishing as akind of correspondence between theindividual and the natural world (andbetween person and fish) that is quiteremarkable. In Walden, as in his otherworks, he is fascinated with natural his-tory, giving us the Latin names for allsorts of flora and fauna, which brings usto the habitat of the giant brook trout.Had Thoreau known the natural historyof glaciers, he would have been fascinat-ed by the fact that Walden is a kettle-holepond; it was formed when a piece of aglacier broke off and sunk into theground, creating a large depression.Walden as a kettle-hole pond is unique in

that it has no tributaries. If the troutwere native, Thoreau therefore wouldhave been agog at the fact that thosebrook trout in Walden were the descen-dants of an unbroken line of indigenoustrout dating back 10,000 years.

At this point, it is crucial to rememberthat Thoreau was not a fly fisherman. Hewas like Hemingway’s protagonist, NickAdams, in the Big Two-Hearted River sto-ries: a bait fisherman. Nick used livegrasshoppers on a fly rod, though; fromwhat we can tell, Thoreau used reels andhand lines for perch, pouts, and pickerelin open water and through the ice.

Ice fishing, although very popular inmany areas, is still considered obscureand arcane by many mainstream anglersand fly fishers. In fact, winter is the timeof year when one repairs reels and tiesflies. In Walden, Thoreau writes aboutthe mechanics of ice fishing and de -scribes the color of the pickerel as “daz-zling and transcendent.”26 Pickerel seemto be the most prized and popular fishfrom Walden during Thoreau’s time.This ice-fishing episode, like the afore-mentioned river-fishing episode, takesplace after Thoreau has refuted fishing.Even so, what draws him to ice fishing isnature and the conviviality of those par-taking in the sport. I would add thatThoreau does not feel a need to socializewith them, yet he clearly admires theirfriendship. Thoreau describes looking atthe pickerel on the ice, but he does notrecount specific conversations with thesemen.

Thoreau has written about fishingwith one of his neighbors, the IrishmanJohn Fields, but there is something aboutthe brotherhood of fishermen that keepshim distant. However, he stands back inawe of the anonymous ice fishermanwhose “life itself passes deeper in Naturethan the studies of the naturalist pene-trate . . . .”27 Thoreau’s interest in human-ity and nature reveals an appreciation ofall kinds of fishing and fish. This is veryunlike fishing today, when one mostlylikely falls into a certain category ofangler (e.g., bait, fly, bass). A cursory sur-vey of fishing literature will readily showthat divisions in method are quiteobservable. Despite these distinctions,the modern American fly fisher is quitelikely to fish for a wide variety of species.

Thoreau’s criticism of Fields—that hedecides not to fish with Thoreau eventhough his wife wants him to—demon-strates that fishing could reduce the eco-nomic pressure on Field’s family. This isan excellent point, and Thoreau is rightto make it; but this plea to sustain oneselfby fishing is probably why there were noor very few brook trout in Walden Pondat this time. Fishing, which arouses

A cairn marks the location of Thoreau’s cabin at Walden, c. 1908.Published by the Detroit Publishing Co. From the Library of

Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-39828.


Thoreau’s predatory instincts, can beseen as one aspect of his environmental-ism that is now quite flawed. He doesadvocate temperance in relation to coffee,personal belongings, and even clothes, yethe does not think that others shouldrestrain themselves from catching andeating everything that they catch. We cansee that his repudiation of fishing is per-sonal; he does not recommend that oth-ers quit fishing.

It is possible that brook trout were liv-ing and spawning in Wal den withouthim knowing it. First, we know that thesprings kept the water coolenough for brook trout tosurvive the hottest part ofthe summer; brook troutexperience substantial mor -tality in water above 65degrees Fahr en heit. Thor -eau claims that a bucket ofpond water that sat in hisroom from five o’clock tonoon the next day did notget warmer than 41 degrees,despite the fact tempera-tures had been as high as 70.From a piscatorial perspec-tive, this is quite interestingfor several reasons. First, itmeans that Walden has coldwater. Cold water containsmore dissolved ox ygen thanwarm water, and such waterwould probably stay at aroughly uniform tempera-ture all year long. Brooktrout can survive in waterbetween 32 and 72 degrees.Second, op timal brook-trout growth conditions arebetween 55 and 65 degrees.Third, Wal den definitelyhad enough cold water andreasonable spawning habi-tat for brook-trout survivaland natural reproduction.Thoreau writes: “You may seefrom a boat, in calm weath-er, near the sandy easternshore, where the water iseight or ten feet deep, and also in someother parts of the pond, some circularheaps half a dozen feet in diameter by afoot in height, consisting of small stonesless than a hen’s egg in size, where allround is bare sand” (italics mine).28

Because “there are no suckers or lam-preys here, I know not by what fish they[the circular heaps] could be made,” hewrites.29 Thoreau likes their “mystery”and inquires no further. It is possible thatthese are brook-trout redds. A brook-trout redd “is usually over gravel thatranges from pea to walnut in size” (italicsmine ).30 Brook trout prefer to spawn in

or near moving water, but they willspawn “where there are large springswelling out of the bottom in shoal (2 to 6feet) water.”31 Remember that Thoreausees these stone nests are in water that is8 or 10 feet deep. Interestingly enough, arecent geological study shows thatWalden Pond “gains water from theaquifer along the eastern perimeter,”32

where, coincidentally, Thoreau noticedthe mysterious rock piles.

Curiously, Thoreau does not investi-gate the rock piles any further; in fact, asis the case in several places in Walden, we

see a conscious effort to avoid naturalhistory. This avoidance for Thoreau isquite significant in that investigating thephysical properties of Walden (somelocals thought it was bottomless) pro-vides an understanding that gives accessto transcendence. By determining thedepth of Walden, Thoreau destroys thelocal mystery about the pond. However,the transcendent link between physicali-ty and natural history is not explored inrelation to the nests nor in relation to thebrook trout. An obvious response to thisis that the trout was simply not thatinteresting to Thoreau.

It might be very significant to thoseinterested in the history of native troutpopulations, though. Such a fish meansthat there would be the possibility ofrestoring Walden to its natural state, inwhich brook trout could reproduce nat-urally.

Now that the mystery of this giantbrook trout has been mostly accountedfor, we need to take final stock ofThoreau’s (and ours) environmentalsensibility. We have a lot in commonwith Thoreau in that we want theDepartment of Natural Resources to take

care of fish for us in manystates. In fact, this is a mod-ern necessity so that troutfishing can be enjoyed byeveryone. In Thoreau’s will-ful avoidance of the brooktrout and their nests, we cansee a nascent stage of anenvironmental sensibilitythat does not have humansat the center of its vision. Wecan see that the currentstocking policy of Waldenpond has humans as central,because the fish are putthere for human entertain-ment rather than for repro-ductive compatibility withtheir environment.

With the mystery of Thor -eau’s trout partially solved, anew mystery has emerged:Are Walden’s current brooktrout reproducing? ToddRichards, a wildlife fisheriesbiologist for the state ofMass a chu setts, claims thatwild spawning is highly un -likely, but, he added, “neversay never.”33 What ever thecase, it occurs to me thatpeople have deliberately andsporadically been puttingtrout in Walden Pond sincethe 1840s. The fact that therewas a 3.6-pound brook troutcaught through the ice lastwinter indicates that Walden

Pond provides good habitat. Eventhough they share the pond with bassand rainbow trout, brook trout are capa-ble of surviving alongside other species.In his journal entry for 4 May 1858,Thoreau relates a secondhand storyabout a one-and-a-half-pound brooktrout biting the pectoral fins off a 5-pound pickerel. For as much as we havealtered Walden Pond, it’s fascinating toconsider that brook trout not only thrivethere but might be able to become “wild”and reproduce.

!

A statue of Henry David Thoreau stands next to areproduction of his cabin at Walden Pond.

Paul Sumner Downey

FALL 2010 15

ENDNOTES

1. Lawrence Buell, The EnvironmentalImagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, andthe Formation of American Culture (Cam -bridge, Mass.: Belknap-Harvard Uni versityPress, 1996). I mention this fact about Buell’sbook simply because the absence of any men-tion of fishing in a book that addresses suchfundamental issues about American litera-ture and Walden is a compelling omission.

2. Henry David Thoreau, Walden andResistance to Civil Government, 2nd ed. (NewYork: W. W. Norton & Co., 1992). There arepassages that relate to fish or fishing episodesin the chapters “Sounds,” “Solitude,” “Visitors,”“The Ponds” (which is the chapter that has thegiant trout), “Baker Farm,” “Higher Laws,”“Brute Neighbors,” “The Pond in Winter,” and“Spring.”

3. Robert Sattelmeyer, “‘The True In -dus try for Poets’: Fishing with Thoreau,” ESQ(1987, vol. 33, no. 4): 189–201. Sattelmeyer’sarticle demonstrates how important the sym-bolic and literal activity fishing was forThoreau. It supplied him with a criticalmeans of material independence, and it alsoprovided specific moments of transcendence.However, Sattelmeyer does not address theissue of the brook trout.

4. Henry David Thoreau, The MaineWoods (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co.,1961), 155.

5. Thoreau, Walden and Resistance toCivil Government, 88.

6. Ibid., 118.7. Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Essays of

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Cambridge, Mass.:Belknap Press, 1987), 323.

8. D’A, “Review of Walden,” in ed. JoelMyerson, Critical Essays on Henry DavidThoreau’s Walden (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co.,1988), 32–36, 35.

9. John Gierach, Death, Taxes, and LeakyWaders: A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury(New York: A Fireside Book, Simon &Schuster, 2001), 246.

10. Anne LaBastille, “Fishing in the Sky,”in ed. Robert F. Sayre, New Essays on Walden(New York: Cambridge University Press,1992), 53–72, 67.

11. Thoreau, Walden, 35.12. Buell, The Environmental Imagina -

tion, 9.13. Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau’s Wri -

tings: Journal X, August 8, 1857–June 29, 1858,Bradford Torrey and Francis H. Allen, eds.(Boston: Riverside Press–Houghton MifflinCompany, 1949), 180.

14. Although many fishing writers ad -dress the subject of native fish and stockedfish, the collection of essays In Praise of WildTrout (The Lyons Press, 1998, edited by NickLyons) exemplifies the modern sensibility offavoring the wild fish over the native fish.Simultaneously, the collection also acknowl-edges the reality that fish stocking is here tostay, and I would add that stocked fish prob-ably ease the pressure on some wild popula-tions. Stocking fish in waters in which theycannot reproduce causes us to rely too muchon man-made nature. We are less likely to be

conservation minded if we can just makemore trout.

15. Telephone interview with John Sheedy,fisheries manager, Massachusetts Division ofFisheries and Wildlife, 15 March 2010.

16. Theodatus Garlick, A Treatise on theArtificial Propagation of Certain Kinds of Fishwith the Description and Habits of Such Kindsas Are the Most Suitable for Pisciculture(Cleveland: Tho. Brown, Publisher, OhioFarmer Office, 1857).

17. Robert Sattelmeyer, Thoreau’s Reading:A Study in Intellectual History (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1988), 184. Thoreaualso mentions having read Garlick’s book inJournal X (p. 379 in the 21 April 1858 entry).Garlick’s book is a fascinating read, especiallythe chapter on brook trout. Garlick has veryinteresting illustrations of early fish-stockingmethods as well as a great picture of a brooktrout, which I have included in the article (p.12) with Garlick’s caption to show his prefer-ence and reverence of this particular species.Thoreau differs from Garlick in that he doesnot seem to favor one fish species over another.

18. Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame,Official World and USA State Fresh WaterRecords (Hayward, Wisc.: Fresh Water FishingHall of Fame, 2007), 71.

19. Telephone interview with John Sheedy,15 March 2010.

20. Henry David Thoreau, A Week on theConcord and Merrimack Rivers, new and rev.ed. (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Com -pany, 1881), 40.

21. Ibid.

22. Thoreau, Journal X, 180.23. Nick Karas, Brook Trout: A Thorough

Look at North America’s Great Native Trout—Its History, Biology, and Angling Possibilities(New York: Lyons Press, 1997), 67.

24. Buell, The Environmental Imagina -tion, 36.

25. Mark Browning, Haunted by Waters:Fly Fishing in North American Literature(Athens: Ohio University Press, 1998). Brown -ing’s book, which surveys the subject of flyfishing in American literature, downplaysThoreau’s influence on fishing literature. Yethe does acknowledge the manner in whichThoreau links fishing with the “primacy ofdirect experience” (p. 53). I would say thatThoreau is the most powerful source of thisethos for modern fishing writers. Fly fishingis seen by many as the ultimate way to inter-act with nature in the modern world.

26. Thoreau, Walden, 189.27. Ibid.28. Thoreau, Walden, 125.29. Ibid. 30. Karas, Brook Trout, 63.31. Ibid., 62.32. John A. Colman and Paul J. Friesz,

“Geohydrology and Limnology of WaldenPond, Concord, Massachusetts,” Water-Resources Investigations Report 01-4137(Northborough, Mass.: U.S. Department ofthe Interior and U.S. Geological Survey,2001), 1.

33. Telephone interview with Todd Rich -ards, fisheries biologist, Massachusetts Di vi -sion of Fisheries and Wildlife, 15 March 2010.

Walden Pond in 2006.

Paul Sumner Downey


TROUT FISHING WAS an importantpart of European settlement in theAmerican West from the very

beginning. Explorers, trappers, pioneers,soldiers, and homesteaders all broughtalong fishing tackle as they pushed west-ward across the Great Plains and into theRocky Moun tains, where they foundrivers and streams flowingwith clear, cold water andfairly bursting with new andexotic members of the familySalm on idae. Angling for trout(and salmon) had a signifi-cant place in the Lewis andClark expedition and alsoplayed an improbable role inthe outcome of the one of themost famous Indian battleson the nineteenth-centuryfrontier.

The Corps of Discovery(1803–1806) led by CaptainsMeriwether Lewis and WilliamClark was the first to scientif-ically describe several newspecies of fish, including theYellowstone and Westslopecutthroat trout. The captainsand their men mostly wentfishing for food to supple-ment their diet of buffalo, elk,deer, pronghorn, and bearmeat, but they also pursuedwhat today we would callsport or recreational fishing.The Corps’s designated fish-erman, Silas Goodrich, wasan avid angler, and accordingto the expedition’s journals, hewas a man of extraordinaryability. Paul Russell Cutright,in his authoritative bookLewis & Clark: Pioneering Nat -uralists, describes Good rich as“the Izaak Walton of the expe-dition.”1 There were placesalong the trail where gamebecame scarce and meat wasdifficult to come by. During

these lean times, the Corps often came torely on Goodrich’s notable angling skillsto hold hunger at bay and provide need-ed sustenance so the men could push ontoward the Pacific.

Silas Goodrich’s prowess with rod andline is mentioned throughout the jour-nals of the various expedition members.

On the day that Meriwether Lewisreached the Great Falls of the Missouri,13 June 1805, Goodrich is reported in thecaptain’s journal to have caught “severallarge trout,” which the advance scoutingparty cooked for dinner.2

The trout the men dined on that nightnext to the majestic Great Falls (today

much reduced in splendor byhydroelectric dams) were un -doubtedly cutthroat. In hisjournal entry, Lewis describedthe trout Goodrich caught forsupper as resembling “ourmountain or speckled [brook]trout in form and in the posi-tion of their fins, but thespecks on these are of a deepblack instead of the red orgoald colour [sic] of thosecom mon to the U. States. these[sic] are furnished long sharpteeth on the pallet and tongueand have generally a smalldash of red on each side ofbehind the front ventralfins.”3 Almost anyone who hasfished in the Rocky Mountainswould instantly recognizeLewis’s description as a cut-throat. The record in Lewis’sjournal of Goodrich’s catch isthe first scientific descriptionof the cutthroat trout by anAnglo-American. Of course,the trout was already wellknown to the Native Amer icaninhabitants of the Rockies.

The discovery and descrip-tion of the cutthroat by SilasGoodrich and MeriwetherLew is at the Great Falls of theMissouri is justly celebratedin the natural history of theWest. But perhaps no episodein the long and colorful histo-ry of western trout fishing ismore bizarre than the one

How Meriwether Lewis’s Cutthroat TroutSealed Custer’s Fate at the Little Bighorn

by Richard Lessner

From A. C. Laut, Pathfinders of the West (New York: TheMacmillan Company, 1904). Retrieved from Project Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18216/18216-h/18216-h.htm#img-317.

FALL 2010 17

that occurred in Montana seven decadeslater and not too far from the very placewhere Silas Goodrich pulled his first cut-throat trout from the pristine waters ofthe Missouri River.

On 13 September 1877, Capt. FrederickBenteen led a company of the 7th Cav -alry into the Battle of Canyon Creekarmed . . . with a fly rod! An inveteratefish erman, Benteen led a wild cavalrycharge against the Nez Percés Indianencampment near the Yellowstone River,madly waving a rod and urging his menforward as bullets whizzed about his head.All the troopers engaged later agreed thatBenteen had demonstrated considerablecoolness and courage under fire.

A few weeks later, at the surrender ofthe Nez Percés following the Battle ofBear’s Paw, Chief Joseph, their legendaryleader on the heroic but ill-fated flight to

Canada, asked to meet the man his war-riors had tried so hard to kill at CanyonCreek. The Nez Percés warriors clearlywere impressed by their opponent’s brav-ery, if not his eccentricity. Chief Josephidentified this courageous soldier as anofficer wearing a buckskin jacket, chew-ing on a pipe, and madly waving a fishingrod.4 The two men were duly introducedand had an amiable chat. No record ofthe conversation is known to exist, butone cannot help speculate that perhapsthe erstwhile enemies swapped storiesabout their respective fishing exploits. It’sprobably unlikely given the circum-stances, but it’s pleasant to think thatmaybe they traded tall tales, as fishermenalmost universally are so inclined to do.

A native Virginian who remained loyalto the Union, Benteen fought withnotable courage both during the Civil

War and in the wars with the PlainsIndians. He was a popular commanderamong his troops who appreciated hisunpretentious informality and obviousconcern for his men’s well-being. One ofhis troopers later recalled fondly, “I sawhim wade over his boot tops many timesinto cold water to get mountain trout.”5

By all reports, Benteen took full advan-tage of his military service in the West toexplore the virgin streams of the RockyMountains and to pursue trout wheneverhis duties permitted.

Despite his dashing charge at CanyonCreek and well-deserved reputation forcourage, however, Benteen had mademore than his share of enemies in thearmy because of his loathing for—andvery vocal criticism of—his command-ing officer, George Armstrong Custer.Benteen regarded Custer a braggart, a

Captain Frederick William Benteen, Troop H, 7th U.S. Cavalry,no date. Photo by D. F. Barry. From the Montana Historical

Society Research Center Photograph Archives, Helena, Montana.Catalog #940-855. Used with permission.

General George A. Custer (holding a buffalo tail inhis right hand), circa 1872. Photo by D. F. Barry,

From the Montana Historical Society ResearchCenter Photograph Archives, Helena, Montana.

Catalog #941-834. Used with permission.


blowhard, and a vainglorious incompe-tent. Worse, Benteen made little effort toconceal his opinion. In fact, he onceboasted that he was proud to say he thor-oughly despised the flamboyant Custer.Benteen believed Custer was recklesswith the lives of his troops in pursuit ofpersonal glory.

In June 1876, a year before his fly-rod–waving heroics at Canyon Creek,Benteen was with Custer on the trail ofSitting Bull. As is now well known, at theLittle Bighorn Custer twice divided forcesbefore an enemy of unknown strength, amajor military blunder. Without makingany effort to determine the number ofthe Indians in the huge encampment onhis front, Custer dispatched Benteen andthree companies of troopers on whatturned out to be a wild goose chase.Some historians suspect Custer did notwant his bitter enemy, Benteen, to sharein the glory of defeating Sitting Bull andCrazy Horse. Everyone knows theinevitable result of Custer’s dubiouscommand decisions.

Returning from his long and pointlessexcursion around the right flank of theLakota–Cheyenne encampment, Benteenarrived back near the scene of the cele-brated Last Stand just in time to witnessthe disaster unfolding. He coolly ralliedthe panic-stricken and retreating compa-

ny of Maj. Marcus Reno, who had lostboth his composure and control of hismen. Although Reno outranked him,Benteen effectively took command andrestored order. He mounted an effectivefighting retreat and perimeter defenseagainst the Indian onslaught. Having fin-ished off Custer, the combined Indianforce fought for a day and a half in aneffort to wipe out the battered remnantsof the 7th Cavalry. Benteen’s coolheadedleadership is generally credited with hav-ing saved the balance of Custer’s com-mand from annihilation.

After the ignominious de ba cle at LittleBighorn, Custer’s widow mounted a pub-lic relations campaign to exonerate hermartyred husband of responsibility andtransform him into a tragic hero—andequally to blame Benteen for not leadinghis troops into the maelstrom at LastStand Hill to rescue the reckless boy gen-eral. Had Benteen done so, almost withoutdoubt, both he and his men would havealso been lost.

Incredibly, Custer’s fate actually mayhave been sealed as much by the allure ofMontana’s trout fishing as his own fool-hardy, glory-seeking bungling. As KenOwens details in his excellent article,“While Custer Was Making His LastStand,”6 while Custer was blunderinginto Sitting Bull’s camp and getting him-

self and his men massacred, a column ofreinforcements under Gen. George Crookthat might have saved the day was com-fortably camped close by on Goose Creeknear the Tongue River—fishing!7 It seemsthat Capt. Benteen was not the only sol-dier to be awestruck by the remarkabletrout fishing available in Montana thatfateful summer of 1876.

Crook’s column was one of three thatcommanding Gen. Alfred Terry had dis-patched to search out and converge on theIndian confederation: one under Terryhimself (including Custer), and two oth-ers under Gen. Crook and Col. JohnGibbon. On 17 June 1876, a week beforethe nation-rattling events at the LittleBighorn, the column commanded byGen. Crook stumbled into the Battle ofthe Rosebud near the Yellowstone River.Crook was manhandled by Crazy Horse,and he withdrew to an earlier encamp-ment on Goose Creek, where his troop-ers previously had enjoyed some spec-tacular trout fishing while on the marchto join up with Custer.

As Custer rushed headlong toward hisdestiny at the Little Bighorn, Gen. Crookand his beleaguered men were only toohappy to take a break from the messy,dangerous, and unpredictable business ofIndian fighting. The command settleddown on Goose Creek for more than a

Horse Shoe Falls (part of Rainbow Falls in the distance), height 20 feet(no date). From the Montana Historical Society Research Center Photograph

Archives, Helena, Montana. Catalog #949-579. Used with permission.

FALL 2010 19

week of R & R. And what better way torest and relax than indulge in a little fish-ing? Occupying themselves thusly, thecompany produced some truly prodi-gious catches. Using a combination of ar -ti ficial flies and natural bait—live grass -hoppers impaled on a bare hook werefound to be especially effective—thegreedy troopers caught huge numbers ofeager Yellowstone cutthroat. They mightnot have been able to defeat the Sioux onthe Rosebud, but by God, they could puta whipping on the trout in Goose Creek!Three days after Custer’s Last Stand, forexample, Crook’s men bagged no fewerthan 500 trout! According to Capt. JohnBourke, who authored a book on hiswestern adventures with Crook, the gen-eral was every bit as caught up in the fish-ing frenzy as his troopers. Most anglerstook fifteen to thirty trout daily. Capt.Bourke recorded that one fellow officer,aided by two troopers, bagged 146 troutin a single day, so willingly did the cut-throat rise to the bait. Bourke’s On theBorder with Crook, published in 1891, is aninvaluable primary source and firsthandaccount of the general’s controversialfishing expedition during the Sioux–Cheyenne campaign of 1876.8

Although Crook’s column was sup-posed to advance to unite with Custerand Gibbon near the Little Bighorn tocorner the elusive Indians—and therebyreinforce the 7th Cavalry before it en -gaged the Lakota–Cheyenne warriors—instead, the general and his commandspent a leisurely week not in pursuit of

Sitting Bull, but chasing trout. All thoughtof pursuing Indians was put aside asCrook and his men idled away the days onthe banks of Goose Creek, which was atthat time brimming with trout.

Historians ever since have speculatedhow events might have turned out differ-ently that summer had the cutthroatbeen a little less eager and had Crook notdallied for a week of splendid trout fish-ing while Custer hurried to his doom.On the other hand, had Custer been a lit-tle more interested, like Gen. Crook, inexploring the angling opportunitiesfrontier Montana afforded and a littleless bent on seeking personal glory, hemight not have blundered into his dubi-ous place in history.

As with all “what if” history, we willnever know if Crook could have reachedCuster in time to prevent the disaster atthe Little Bighorn. Most fly fishers, how-ever, will understand and perhaps for-give Gen. Crook’s reluctance to saddle upand take premature leave of such extra-ordinary fishing. Few fly fishers wouldwillingly abandon the stream when thefish are on the bite, as they were that fate-ful June week in 1876.

And what of Custer’s nemesis, theheroic but impolitic fly fisherman Capt.Frederick Benteen? Well, his enemiesfinally caught up with him. He wascharged with drunkenness on duty andconvicted by a court marshal. Reduced inrank and pay, Benteen maintained hisinnocence—both of the alleged drunk-enness and his failure to ride to Custer’s

rescue—until his death in 1898. He isburied in Arlington National Cemetery.Frederick Benteen remains, so far as isknown, the only American soldier everto go into combat armed with a fly rod.

!

ENDNOTES

1. Paul Russell Cutright, Lewis & Clark:Pioneering Naturalists (Lincoln: University ofNebraska Press, 2003), 66.

2. Bernard DeVoto, ed., The Journals ofLewis and Clark (New York: HoughtonMifflin, 1953), 138.

3. Ibid. 4. Jerome A. Greene, Nez Perce Summer

1877: The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me-PooCrisis (Helena: Montana Historical SocietyPress, 2000), 227.

5. Charles K. Mills, Harvest of BarrenRegrets: The Army Career of Frederick WilliamBenteen, 1834–1898 (Glendale, Calif.: TheArthur H. Clark Co., 1985), 299.

6. Ken Owens, “While Custer WasMaking His Last Stand: George Crook’s 1876War on Trout in the Bighorn Country,”Montana: The Magazine of Western History(vol. 52, no. 2, Summer 2002), 58–61.

7. John H. Monnett wrote about this forthe American Fly Fisher in “Mystery of theBighorns: Did a Fishing Trip Seal Custer’sFate?” (Fall 1993, vol. 19, no. 4), 2–5.

8. John G. Bourke, On the Border withCrook (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,1891), 329–32.

Crook Battlefield at the big bend of Rosebud Creek in 1901, twenty-five years after the fight (Battle of the Rosebud, 1876). Left toright: Two Moons (Cheyenne Indian), interpreter William Roland, and Olin D. Wheeler. Photo by L. A. Huffman. From the

Montana Historical Society Research Center Photograph Archives, Helena, Montana. Catalog #981-800. Used with permission.


—G. E. M. Skues, dedication, Minor Tac ticsof the Chalk Stream and Kindred Studies(London: Adam and Charles Black, 1910)

One hundred years ago, a revolution-ary title splashed into what had been theplacid waters of British chalk-stream flyfishing. The ripples broaden to this day.

George Edward MacKenzie (G. E. M.)Skues’s Minor Tactics of the Chalk Streamwas a compilation of his evolvingthoughts and previously published let-ters and articles concerning the presenta-tion of a submerged insect imitation to afish feeding below the surface when all

was quiet on top. This innovative bookand the growing acceptance of its preceptseventually led to formal lines being drawnin what would become a bitter battle ofideas concerning what constituted properangling on a British chalk stream. Thededication above suggests that tensionshad been building for some time and thatSkues was prepared to follow his convic-tions wherever they led him.

What was the ruckus about? It camedown to whether nymph fishing was“proper form” and should be permittedon a “dry-fly” stream. Opinions grewdivisive enough that twenty-eight yearslater, the famous nymph debate was heldat the Flyfishers’ Club of London.

Much has been chronicled about therelationship and philosophies of G. E. M.Skues and F(rederic) M. Halford, one ofthe dry-fly purists to whom Skues defer-entially dedicates his first book (if notthe dry-fly purist). The intent of my few

words here is to honor the centennial ofa defining volume in the letters ofangling and reflect on what it has meantto me as an angler today.

My personal journey to understandmore about how all this transpired was afascinating one thanks to the efforts ofhistorians such as Robert Berls, TonyHayter, John Waller Hills, Ken Robson,and Paul Schullery. Their research andanalysis delve deeply into matters of per-sonality, sociology, science, and tradition,and how these played out on Britishchalk streams and continue to influencethe practice of fly fishing worldwide.Late-nineteenth-century industrializa-tion—with its newly created wealth,changing class structures, and sensitivi-ties toward status and behavior—intro-duced complexities to the streamside thatIzaak Walton could not have envisionedduring his tranquil days on cowslip bankstwo and a half centuries earlier.

The Hundred-Year Rippleby John Mundt Jr.

FALL 2010 21

It was somewhat startling for me toconsider that the exhilaration of tighten-ing into a large brown trout that dartedup to slurp down my floating Mayfly wasseen by some as representing dogmaticoppression, just as dropping a water-logged nymph in front of a bulging riseform was viewed by others as a symbolof liberation or a descent toward anglingbedlam. Such was the case duringSkues’s lifetime, and variations of thesesentiments still linger.

Based on my own experiences, Iwould prefer to take a trout with a dryfly: for an instant the subject fish isenticed to break out of its subaqueousworld to seize something residing inmine. It’s disappointing when a hatch ison and a river’s surface remains calm.Conversely, it’s been inspiring to watch aveteran angler wade methodically up afreestone stream, cast a delicately placednymph into swirling pocket water, andstrike a decent trout you were convincedwasn’t there. Skues’s inventive spirithelped make such skills attainable.

The octogenarian Skues and his sup-porters were apparently outmanned bythe late Halford’s adherents during theFlyfishers’ Club debate in 1938, but histo-ry has proved him right in asserting thatthe nymph was equal to or often moreeffective than the dry and had its rightfulplace in the angler’s arsenal. Andalthough Skues inspired generations ofinquisitive anglers to pursue fish underchallenging circumstances, Halford’sghost looms large as his ideal of casting adry fly upstream to a rising fish remainsthe rule of the day on many British chalkstreams. Dogmatic or not, it’s a thrillingex perience when the weather, water levels,

hatches, and one’s tackle are aligned foran intended purpose and Salmo truttadevours your drifting fly. It’s also nice tohave a few Hare’s Ear and Pheasant Tailnymphs on hand when things aren’t socertain.

Minor Tactics is a major milestone inthe angling record, and it was producedby one of the greatest minds that everstalked a trout.

!

SOURCES

For those readers wishing to soundthe depths of the Skues and Halfordlegacies, the following titles will get youinto the fray:

Tony Hayter, F. M. Halford and the Dry-Fly Revolution (London: Robert Hale,2002).

John Waller Hills, A History of FlyFishing for Trout (London: PhillipAllan & Co., 1921).

Kenneth Robson, The Essential G. E. M.Skues (London: A & C Black [after-word by Robert Berls], 1998).

G. E. M. Skues, The Way of a Man witha Nymph: The Nymph Dressings ofG. E. M. Skues (England: Moreton -hamp stead, Devon, U.K.: Flyfisher’sClas sic Library [introduction by TonyHayter and includes reprint of “TheDebate on Fishing the Nymph in ChalkStreams” from the Spring 1939 issue ofthe Flyfishers’ Journal], 2007).

G. E. M. Skues (ed. Paul Schullery), Skueson Trout: Observations from an AnglerNaturalist (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stack -pole Books, 2008).

From G. E. M. Skues, Itchen Memories (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1951), 57.

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IFIRST MET Richard Lawrence some twenty-five years ago when I discovered his sport-ing art, especially his use of egg tempera.

Then I lost track of him until very recently when hesent the museum a copy of his new book, whichincluded many of his paintings. I have always pre-sumed that talented artists who were sensitive to thewilderness and especially rivers and streams wouldalso be equally talented in their prose, but this has not

always been the case. However, Lawrence’s book,Silver Streams, matches his brilliant art. The bookhas seventy-one images, which are small pencil orink drawings.

The book is a series of vignettes of his experi-ences fly fishing for salmon on the streams andrivers of Down East Maine. These are briefglimpses of the region’s streams, focusing on thelegends and common folk who have cherishedfishing for wild salmon. Individually, each chapteris extremely insightful not only because of

Lawrence’s artistic skill but also because of hisextensive research and his detailed diaries.

However, the chapters are more than fishing tales;they are, in fact, an artist’s story describing the saga of

the death of Maine’s salmon streams. Starting in his early teens,Lawrence spent almost forty years fishing the Down Eaststreams. His diaries noted not only his fishing but especially thepeople he met—the “river keepers”—who schooled him andshared their devotion to fly fishing. Here is a rich firsthandchronicle of a wild salmon fishery, its dedicated fly fishers, andits ignominious demise.

Lawrence, obviously, got to know these legends, and he ismasterful in capturing their personalities and quirks and hon-oring their contributions to preserving the vibrancy of thestreams. Lawrence writes: “Just as the running water inscribedthe stones of the stream, the minds and souls of the river keep-ers revealed the life and spirit of the stream and its inhabitants”(p. 37). The legends, the folklore, and the traditions set thestage for a sincere love and appreciation of the region, leadingup to the disaster that was soon to follow.

Another cast of characters in Lawrence’s saga are the broth-erhood of the angle. They were fishermen and -women, fromall walks of life, who gathered regularly on the home streams,especially for the opening day when, after days of careful anddiligent watching for the first signs of the salmon entering thelower pools, they eagerly and joyfully cast their flies.

One of the most interesting aspects of this brother- and sis-terhood was the rotation shuffle, as a position was secured in aline to take a turn through the pool. There was often to beheard the yell “Rotate!” as the law of the stream was forcefullyobeyed—or not obeyed, as Lawrence reveals.

He beautifully describes the entry of salmon into the homepool:

With the midday mist falling to the surface of the pool, thestream is singing a song that I’ve heard on streams before—asong often accompanied by the sights and sounds of salmon.There is something magical that occurs when a pod of salmonthat have traveled the expanses of the ocean without boundariesenter a stream and encounter the drastic changes of the envi-ronment and then come to the first pool. Once settled in, it is ajoyful sight to see bright salmon frolicking in the new sur-roundings, playing with and testing the currents as they leap androll. There is also a feeling of dominance that Atlantic salmonhave over a pool, as if it cannot contain them. Every time I visita pool, there is the imagination of such a moment—when activesalmon occupy the lies. (p. 115)

Lawrence’s contribution to our literature is his ability—inprose, poetry, and art—to tell a meaningful yet tragic story ofthe death of salmon streams in one region of the NorthAtlantic and to subtly warn us that this can happen elsewhere.

There is a river keepers’ code among the fly fishers of DownEast Maine that goes beyond not revealing to outsiders wherethe productive salmon pools are located; it also includes thelament of what happened. Lawrence’s extensive research hasnot allowed him to assign blame for the death of the streams.Nonetheless, he mentions the devastating effects of the abun-dant seals in the estuaries; the proliferation of cormorants andtheir prey on parr; pollution from acid rain and spills fromindustry; unwise construction of dams and ineffective spill-ways; the poor policy decision on stocking; the proliferation offish farming; and, especially, poaching. Although never devel-oped in any detail in the book, it is apparent that catch andrelease was not widely accepted.

N O T E S F R O M T H E L I B R A R Y

FALL 2010 23

The new millennium brought an enactment by the federalgovernment that announced that the wild Atlantic salmon onDown East streams was an endangered species to be protected.The brotherhood of river keepers was prohibited from fishingfor salmon on their home streams.

Lawrence comments that in retrospect, many of the riverkeepers had not seen the beginning of a sequence that led tothe endangerment act because they had often heard stories ofan earlier winter and then seen the blossoming and renewalthat spring brings forth. He continues that their time on thestreams of Maine had begun during what may have been con-sidered the bounty of midsummer, with year after year ofexcellent runs of salmon matching and surpassing the bestever recorded. They came to expect endless summers ofsalmon. It took several years to even notice that those dayswere waning and then another few years to realize that thosedays had vanished (p. 277).

Of the seasons of a salmon stream, the days of fall were like theweather itself, with highs and lows, highlights and struggles. Allhoped that the cycle would be reversed and the salmon wouldbounce back, but days of Indian summer were like a deceitfultrick, and as expected, fall returned and, as the season pro-gressed, took hold with a vengeance. As is typical of autumn,signs of life dwindled to a point where an adequate run ofsalmon was a thing of the past. There was a remnant of salmon,and the fishers of the past had also dwindled to a handful. TheDown East streams became a shadow of their former glory, andthe season became like a stark and barren winter landscape. Itwas like the seaman’s description of that first abandoned settle-ment of Down East Maine. (pp. 277–78)

Lawrence’s poem “Doc Remembered” reveals the dreams ofDown East fishers:

In the beginning on a May-Day, at the time when the morning mist rises—and the rays of the sun meet the flowing waters, Doc quoted his verses of “Silver Streams.” “There is also a time just before the sun sets,” Doc said, “when the sun’s last rays meet the riffles and runs of the stream.” It is also a “magical time” as Doc described it. “A chance to meet one last salmon, before the ‘Silver Stream’ fades into the twilight of eternity.” (pp. 190–91)

—GERALD KARASKA

R. A. LawrenceSilver Streams Illustrations by the authorBloomington, Ind.: Xlibris Corporation, 2010328 pagesAvailable from the publisher: [email protected] or (888) 795-4274$29.99 (hardcover), $19.99 (paperback)

A variety of illustrations from Silver Streams,all drawn by author R. A. Lawrence.


OUR THIRD ANNUAL Fly-Fishing Festival was a grand success. More than forty vendors andcraftspeople shared their wares with and demonstrated their talents to more than 275 visitorson August 14. Many of the visitors were able to take the opportunity to have their equipment

appraised by Carmine Lisella and Bob Selb, who donated their appraisal services for the day. Visitorsenjoyed the addition of live music as Wayne Canney and Friends entertained with classic folk tunes.This year’s festival also played host to the museum’s first casting competition. Several joined in thefun to test their casting accuracy, using a classic Leonard bamboo rod from our vintage collection,in what proved to be a tough course. The entrance fee collected for the competition was donated toCasting for Recovery.

We wish to thank the following community businesses who sponsored this event: Orvis, Finn &Stone, Vermont Country Store, r.k. Miles, Berkshire Bank, Mulligan’s of Manchester, Mrs. Murphy’sDonuts, and Discount Beverages. Media sponsorship was provided by WBTN of Bennington. We arealso grateful to all the volunteers who helped move tables, chairs, and tents; worked in the food con-cession; scored the casting contest; and warmly welcomed our visitors at the main entrance: Bill andJudy Cosgrove, Cheryl and Ron Wilcox, Jim Heckman, Steve Murphy, Wanda Robinson, RoseNapolitano, Tish Russell, and Mike and Robert England.

!

Fly-Fishing Festival 2010

The Newfound Woodworks of Bristol, New Hampshire,has attended the festival each year since 2008.

Rodmaker Jim Becker (left) talks with author Mike Valla.

Carmine Lisella (far right) of Jordan MillsRod Company speaks with visitors at his booth.

Photos by Kim Murphy except where noted

FALL 2010 25

The stunning artwork of sporting artist Dan Daly.

A variety of vendors were on hand offeringantiques, books, rods, flies, artwork, and reels.

The day ended with a casting contest by ourcasting pond, and the competition was fierce!

Fly tier Peggy Brenner demonstrates her art.

The museum’s vintage demonstration rod collectionwas available for everyone (of any age) to enjoy!

Photo by Quinnlynn MurphyThese clown flies are a great way to beginto teach kids about fly-tying techniques.

Photo by Quinnlynn Murphy


Cleveland Dinner AuctionThank you, Cleveland supporters, for your warm hospitality

and generosity at the Chagrin Valley Hunt Club on May 20.More than seventy people came and enjoyed the fine meal pro-vided by the club, as well as a presentation outlining the impor-tant community contributions by the museum. The highlightof the evening was, by far, the “Fund-a-Need” auction. The goalfor this special fund-raiser was to complete the refurbishing ofour casting pond. We raised more than $3,000, which will beused to add wheelchair-accessible ramps to the pond bridge.

This year’s dinner saw a record seven table sponsors! Thanksto Brent Buckley, Elisabeth Holmes, Woods King III, LeighPerkins Sr., Molly Perkins, Jim Sanfilippo, and Hewett Shaw fortheir sponsorship support. Thanks also go to DinnerChairman Woods King III for his help organizing the dinner,and to all of the auction donors and contributors.

River MuralThe American Museum of Fly Fishing welcomed Maureen

Chaffee’s third grade class from Maple Street School of

Manchester, Vermont, on June 7. After a tour of the museum'sexhibitions, the students enjoyed a sunny morning recreatingportions of their class river mural along the sidewalks betweenthe museum and Orvis. The mural, based on the class’s studiesand observations of the life in and around the Batten Kill, wasthe culmination of the rivers and streams curriculum requiredby the State of Vermont. Some of the colorful images includedin the final work were rainbow trout, brown trout, nymphs, andfawns. The project was coordinated by the American Museumof Fly Fishing with assistance from the Orvis Company.

Gallery ProgramThe American Museum of Fly Fishing celebrated our new

exhibit on June 19 with a special gallery program: Photographyof Nature. Visitors were not only able to browse through someof the best rods and reels in our collection, but also explore theways travelers documented their trips and vacations—fromthe early days of journals, sketching, and painting to moderntimes when photography is the norm. Guest photographerGeorge Bouret from Hebron, New York, offered photographictips and displayed some of his landscape works. For those feel-

Above: Attendees of the Cleveland dinner auctionchat as they examine the various items up for bid.

Right: Students from the Maple StreetSchool recreate their class river mural on the

sidewalk between the museum and Orvis.

Kim Murphy

Sara Wilcox

FALL 2010 27

ing more old-fashioned, artist Traci Hubbell showed how tocapture a vacation memory through painting and sketching.

Memories on the Water: A Photographic Journey through FlyFishing’s Past will be on display through May 2011.

In the LibraryThanks to the following for their donations of 2010 titles

that have become part of our collection: Skyhorse Publishingsent us William G. Tapply’s Every Day Was Special: A FlyFisher’s Lifelong Passion, and Amato Publications, Inc., sent usRay Rychnovsky’s Fishing Guide to Central America’s ProlificPacific and Boots Allen’s Snake River Fly Fishing: Through theEyes of an Angler.

Recent DonationsAllan Poole of West Haven, Connecticut, donated a collec-

tion of Edwards “Quadrate” bamboo fly rods: #65, a three-piece, 9-foot; #40, a two-piece, 7-foot; #40, a two-piece, 8-foot;and #41, a two-piece, 7-foot. He also donated a four-piece, 9-foot, 8-weight Redington graphite fly rod, a Hardy “TheFeatherweight” 3-weight fly reel, a Hardy “The Husky” 9-weight fly reel, an Orvis “Turbine II” 5-weight fly reel, aWheatley Silmalloy metal fly box containing twelve salmonflies, a Wallace W. Dork & Son Ltd. Fishing Tackle catalog, andcollection of twenty copies of the Atlantic Salmon Journal.

Upcoming EventsOctober 28–29Friends of Corbin ShootAndover, New Jersey

November 6Annual Membership MeetingManchester, Vermont

December 4Gallery Program: Hooked on the HolidaysAmerican Museum of Fly FishingManchester, Vermont

Always check our website (www.amff.com) for additions,updates, and more information or contact Kim Murphyat (802) 362-3300 or [email protected]. “CastingAbout,” the museum’s new e-mail newsletter, offers up-to-date news and event information. To subscribe, lookfor the link on our website or contact the museum.

Above: The American Museum of Fly Fishing celebratedNational Ice Cream Day on July 19 with our third annualIce Cream Social. Each year we invite local residents andvisitors to share a cone or cup with us as we offer family-friendly activities and introduce them to all the museum

has to offer. Thanks to Mike Wilcox of Silver SpringsCreamery for dishing up the ice cream. Sprinkles, anyone?

Left: This early-to-mid-twentieth-century image of a youngman in fly-fishing gear, featured in the new exhibitionMemories on the Water: A Photographic Journey throughFly Fishing’s Past, embodies the thrill of the first parent-and-child fishing excursion. The fashion has changed, the equip-ment has changed, but the priceless smile remains the same.From the collection of the American Museum of Fly Fishing.

Kim

Mur

phy


C O N T R I B U T O R S

Willard Greenwood teaches American literature and cre-ative writing at Hiram College, as well as a course called “TheEthos and Practice of Fly Fishing.” He is chair of the Englishdepartment and editor of the Hiram Poetry Review. Whenwaiting for spring steelhead season, he ties flies and plays GoFish with his wife, Beth, and sons Robert and Michael.

Richard Lessner, PhD, is executive director of the MadisonRiver Foundation in Ennis, Montana. He and his wife Pamelaand their two cats live a short walk from the Madison inCameron, Montana. Lessner earned a doctorate in religiousstudies and American history from Baylor University.

John Mundt Jr. has been a regular contributor the pages ofthe American Fly Fisher since 1991 and serves on the museum’sboard of trustees. A keen interest in the history of the sportand its traditions has led him to some great places and into thecompany of many remarkable people. He is presently serving atwo-year term as president of the Anglers’ Club of New Yorkand chairs the museum’s New York Dinner/Auction commit-tee. John and his family reside in Simsbury, Connecticut, andhe’s occasionally been spotted on the Farmington River duringworking hours.

Peter Lapsley is semiretired but still works part-time as edi-tor of the Flyfishers’ Journal, the house magazine of theFlyfishers’ Club in London; as a freelance angling journalist;and as an editor with the BMJ (British Medical Journal). Helives in London and fishes for trout, sea trout, and grayling,chiefly on the English chalk streams. He has visited theFalkland Islands on numerous occasions since the opening ofthe airport at Mount Pleasant in the 1980s made them accessi-ble. Among his ten books on fly fishing is Fishing for FalklandsSea Trout, written for the Falkland Islands Tourist Board.

Liza Lapsley

Carolyn Chadwick

Dana Valleau

Pamela Lessner

EXHIBITION PLANNING, PREPARATION, and installation timeis always fun around here. Once an exhibition subject isselected and researched, it takes a lot of teamwork by the

entire staff to execute all of the details. From start to finish,even a small exhibition will take four months to complete.Now, after many months of work, we are pleased to announcethe opening of our latest exhibition, Memories on the Water: APhotographic Journey through Fly Fishing’s Past.

The focus of this exhibition is the way people have docu-mented and recorded their fly-fishing trips through pho-tographs. The black-and-white images are all from the twenti-eth century (1907–1960) and include fly-fishing locations inthe United States, Canada, and Europe. You will also see otherexamples of how memories were recorded through diaries,sketches, prints, and full manuscripts. Each image is accompa-nied by a contemporary color photograph and general histor-ical background.

For all you rod and reel buffs (and we know there are a lotof you!), we have brought out the best of the best from thesecollections, too. What memories would there be without theequipment? Some featured rod and reel makers are Garrison,Mitchell, Chubb, Orvis, Farlow, and Leonard.

We pored through our archives to identify, select, and repro-duce images that have not been published since we acquiredthem, and we hope you take this opportunity to visit the galleryand marvel over the depth of our important collections.

CATHI COMAREXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Ah, Sweet Memories

Above: Fishing on the Trancura River, Chile, 1952. Photographed by Lee Richardson. From the collection

of the American Museum of Fly Fishing.

Right: Etching of a fishing trip from the fly wallet of RobertLaRhett and Robert Forsyth Livingston, c. late nineteenth century.

From the collection of the American Museum of Fly Fishing.

The American Museumof Fly Fishing

4070 Main Street • PO Box 42Manchester,Vermont 05254

Tel: (802) 362-3300 • Fax: (802) 362-3308E-MAIL: [email protected]: www.amff.com

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF FLY FISHING, anationally accredited, nonprofit, education-al institution dedicated to preserving therich heritage of fly fishing, was founded inManchester, Vermont, in 1968. The museumserves as a repository for and conservator tothe world’s largest collection of angling andangling-related objects. The museum’s col-lections, exhibitions, and public programsprovide documentation of the evolution offly fishing as a sport, art form, craft, andindustry in the United States and abroadfrom its origins to the present. Rods, reels,flies, tackle, art, books, manuscripts, andphotographs form the basis of the muse-um’s collections.

The museum provides public programsto fulfill its educational mission, includingexhibitions, publications, gallery programs,and special events. Research services areavailable for members, visiting scholars, stu-dents, educational organizations, and writ-ers. Contact Yoshi Akiyama at [email protected] to schedule a visit.

VOLUNTEER !Throughout the year, the museum needs vol-unteers to help with programs, special pro-jects, events, and administrative tasks. You donot have to be an angler to enjoy working withus! Contact Sarah Moore at [email protected] tell us how we would benefit from yourskills and talents.

JOIN!Membership Dues (per annum)

Associate $50Benefactor $100Business $250Sponsor $500Friend $1,000

$5,000$10,000

The museum is an active, member-ori-ented nonprofit institution. Membershipdues include four issues of the American FlyFisher; unlimited visits for your entire fami-ly to museum exhibitions, gallery programs,and special events; access to our 7,000-vol-ume angling reference library; and a dis-count on all items sold by the museum onits website and inside the museum store, theBrookside Angler. To join, please contactSarah Moore at [email protected].

SUPPORT !The American Museum of Fly Fishing relieson the generosity of public-spirited individu-als for substantial support. Please contact us ifyou wish to contribute funding to a specificprogram, donate an item for fund-raising pur-poses, or place an advertisement in this jour-nal. We encourage you to give the museumcon sideration when planning for gifts, be -quests, and memorials.

The American Fly Fisher · 2016-09-26 · trout. By process of elimination, Green-wood believes...

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Transcript of The American Fly Fisher · 2016-09-26 · trout. By process of elimination, Green-wood believes...