Whitefish

“ It seems that the action of the Milwaukee common council in withdrawing the use of the water works from the commissioners, will put a stop to the hatching of whitefish. This is as it should be. The white fish is an aristocratic bird, that will not bite a hook, and the propagation of this species of fish is wholly in the interest of wealthy owners of fishing tugs, who have nets. By strict attention to business they can catch all the whitefish out of the lake a little faster than the State machine can put them in. ”

“ It is a known fact to those who have studied its habits that he will eat frogs, young ducks, musquash, in fact, anything that happens to be in front of him, not even barring his own offspring. How destructive they are in a trout or whitefish lake is well known.
One of the lakes on which I was stationed years ago was said to have been, formerly, good for whitefish, but was now almost nude of this staple food of the dwellers at the post, brought about by the increasing number of pike. ”

“ The Otsego Farmer in 1915 summed up the matter thus: "Otsego bass is not what is ordinarily termed whitefish, but is probably a species of the same family. As a matter of fact, Otsego Lake has been stocked with whitefish fry from the Great Lakes, and now the nets of fishermen are always filled with a mixture of whitefish and Otsego bass. Whatever Dr. Bean may think about it, any Otsego Lake fisherman can tell the difference, and any epicure having [Pg 373] once tasted Otsego bass is never again deceived by whitefish." ”

“ The poles are always hospitably left for the next comer, the Indian merely carrying with him the skin or canvas cover of his tepee. The location of the Hudson's Bay forts was in the beginning determined by the good fishing-grounds, although now there is but indifferent fishing near some of the posts. It would almost seem that the whitefish have in their chilly veins as variable blood as any vagrant horde of caribou. The whitefish contains all elements necessary for human nourishment, and it is a happy fact that it does, for men and dogs in the North often live for solid months on nothing else. ”

“ Whitefish are found in all the lakes and rivers. Green lake is stocked to repletion with as fine whitefish as will be found anywhere. Ile à la Crosse lake is also amply supplied. Canoe lake, Marten lake and all the immense water area comprised of the numerous lakes in this district are well stocked with this valuable food.
“Game of all kinds abound, the principal species being the moose, the caribou, the deer, the black bear, the cinnamon bear, the lynx, the wolf (timber) , the fox, the wolverine, the otter, the beaver, the mink, the marten, the muskrat, the rabbit, and the squirrel. ”

“ Tribes came from as far as the Mississippi River to fish here. But a net fisherman takes more in one season than a whole tribe of Indians used to, and often the fishermen cannot even take care of what they catch. I have seen whitefish, good eating whitefish, stacked like cordwood along the beach and left to rot there. I have seen them fed to pigs. The best fishing along Lake Erie is already gone, due to such excesses. ”

“ We may notice that these two are the species which ascend highest in the mountains, the whitefish inhabiting the mountain pools and lakes, the trout ascending all brooks and rapids in search of their fountainheads. In many cases the ultimate dividing ridge is not very broad, and we may imagine that at some time spawn or even young fishes may have been carried across by birds or other animals, or by man, or more likely by the dash of some summer whirlwind. Once carried across in favorable circumstances, the species might survive and spread. ”

“ In the early spring, a mess of pike could be secured at any time with very little effort; every inlet and creek seemed to be alive with them. The whitefish always has held first place among our merchantable fish. ”

“ WHITEFISH. One of the many important fishes of the genus Coregonus, of the salmon family, of which about fifteen species inhabit the lakes and streams of Northern Europe, Asia, and America. They have an elongated, compressed body, with a conical head, projecting snout, and a small, toothless mouth. The scales are larger than in the other salmon, the caudal fin is deeply forked, and the dorsal fin is followed by an adipose dorsal. They are bluish olivaceous above, silvery on sides and below. ”

“ And his word was harkened to, and we Whitefish became known for our dogs, which were the best in the land. But known we were not for ourselves. The best of our young men and women had gone away with the white men to wander on trail and river to far places. ”

“ Black bears are somewhat numerous, and beaver, otters, martens, mink, muskrats and red foxes are killed by the Indians in considerable numbers in the aggregate every year.
Whitefish Abound
in most of the lakes and streams, while the lake trout seemed to be moderately plentiful in the clear lakes near the head of Grass river. ”

“ Some of the larger forms attack fishes directly, and quickly kill them by sucking their blood away; others are true parasites. On the other hand the leeches of our lakes are fed on by the whitefish and similar fishes. They are a great pest to our fresh-water turtles. ”

“ The weight rarely, however, exceeds 4 or 5 pounds. Occasionally whitefish have been found weighing as high as 20 pounds, but this is very rare. The whitefish reaches its full average size about the end of the fourth year. ”

“ The output of young and adult fishes reached the extraordinary number of 1,164,000,000, which represent practically all the important food and game fishes of our rivers and lakes, and several marine species, those receiving most attention being the shad, the salmons of both coasts, the various trouts, the whitefish, the walleyed pike, the black basses, the cod, the winter flounder and the lobster. ”

“ They remain in deep water for the most part, but during the spawning season, which is in autumn, and at certain other times, for purposes which are not yet clear, they migrate to shallower water in great shoals. ”

“ This handsome and delicious fish, one of the Salmonidæ, is most valuable as an article of food to the Indians, west of the Rocky Mountains,98 the White-fish (Coregonus albus) , or ‘Attihawmeg’ (which means ‘reindeer of the sea’) , being of like importance to those residing east of the mountains. There the Indians frequently have to subsist entirely on white-fish, and, at many of the fur-trading stations, the traders get very little else to eat during nine months of the twelve. ”

“ You, reader, are one of those ignorant people who do so much discredit to our Public Schools. You fondly think that the whitebait is a special kind of fish, that there are father whitebaits and mother whitebaits and baby whitebaits. You are wrong. There are only baby whitebaits. At least there are baby herrings and baby pilchards, and these are called whitebait because they are eaten by the mackerel and because they look white when they are swimming upside down.
Anyhow Walter and John and Isabel and Margaret and Rupert and Stéphanie and little Foch began life as whitebait. ”

“ There are few better examples of predaceous, fish-eating fishes than the common gar-pike of our rivers, fishes with a slender body covered with very smooth scales, a strong tail, a short neck, and long jaws armed with numerous slender and sharp teeth. Such a fish, darting into a school of smaller fishes, by quick, sudden changes of movement, actively opening and closing its jaws, is sure to seize some of its sought-for prey. In a direct trial of speed with its victims it would most likely be worsted. ”

“ A minute generally suffices to cook them, then they should be laid on a hot dish, garnished with fried parsley, and sent to table instantly. It is absolutely needful to fry the whitebait the moment after it is floured; if allowed to remain on one side for only a few minutes, it becomes flabby and spoilt. Thin brown bread and butter and slices of lemon are an indispensable accompaniment to whitebait. For "Devilled Whitebait" lift out the basket of fish when only half cooked, pepper them with black or cayenne pepper and return to the fat to finish cooking. ”

“ Other sun-fish, seeing their fellow have all to himself a fine, fat worm which he seems unable to master, collect [221] round him, and by their numbers attract the bass, who dashes in among them, and while the rest make off, swallows the one with the worm, and of course himself falls a prey to the ingenious young fisherman. This like the use of cray-fish, mice, swallows, and many other baits, may be excellent, but I have never tried it or them; so long as the fish will take a fly, I fish with nothing else; it is infinitely more exciting to kill one fish on the fly than ten with bait. ”

“ Fish in great variety are caught by the natives in traps and nets, and by hooks and spearing. Whitebait fishing affords occupation to many men38 in the cataract regions. By day they sit on the rocks waiting for the gleam of a shoal; and when one appears, in an instant they have divested themselves of their scanty clothes, and rush into the strong shallow water with their nets—not unlike a shrimper’s net—each one a little beyond the other, and often are well rewarded for their trouble. Their take is then dried in the sun and sold in the market. ”

“ The capture of this fish is effected more in a spirit of mischief than from any good resulting from it; the sailor deeming him his natural enemy, and delighting in putting him to the severest torture. Their tenacity of life is remarkable. I have seen a red-hot iron run directly through the heart of one of the species, and still he turned and bit at the iron, grasping its seething surface between his huge jaws and craunching it, and, vexed at its non-impressibility, lashing his tail with rage. I have also seen them flayed, and still practising as many contortions as an eel ”

“ The white-fish of Lake Superior are larger, fatter, and of finer flavor than any others. In this lake they have sometimes been taken weighing fifteen pounds. At the Sault they are taken in the rapids with dip-nets, by the Chippewas who live in that vicinity, and are of very fine flavor; those of Detroit River and the Straits of Mackinac are also very good; but when you go south, into Lake Erie or Michigan, the quality of the fish deteriorates. Few travellers ever taste a white-fish in perfection. As eaten upon hotel-tables at Buffalo or Chicago, it is a poor and tasteless fish. ”

“ Parental interest is, perhaps, better evinced in the case of the “paidle-fish” standing guard over his nest with unwearied vigilance, exhibiting all the care of a brooding hen for his future offspring. Again, in the case of the dog-fish—the plague of fishermen—how different. Here the young are brought forth, after the fashion of mammals, fully developed. A common sight in fishing boats where these pests are brought on board, is to see the finger-long juveniles swimming briskly about in the bilge-water with the yolk-sac still attached. ”

“ Where the fish feels at its best the colors are the richest. There are some fishes, too, in which the male grows very brilliant in the breeding season through the deposition of red, white, black, [Pg 9] or blue pigments, or coloring matter, on its scales or on its head or fins, this pigment being absorbed when the mating season is over. This is not true of the sunfish, who remains just about the same at all seasons. The male and female are colored alike and are not to be distinguished without dissection. ”

“ Women carry small fine casting-nets in the hand, and throw them so dexterously as often to enclose a whole shoal of little fishes; some kinds are no bigger than whitebait. For larger fish, akin to herrings and salmon, various nets are made of different fibres, such as the hybiscus, banyan, or pandanus bark or flax, the two latter being the strongest and most durable. Sometimes two nets are thrown at the same time—an inner net with fine mesh, and an outer one much coarser—to resist any larger fish which might break through the inner one. ”

“ And in four or five hours with one net were ordinarily taken seven or eight; often more, seldom less. In the small rivers all the year there is a good plenty of small fish, so that with hooks those that would take pains had sufficient....
Of fish we were best acquainted with sturgeon, grampus, porpoise, seals, stingrays whose tails are very dangerous, brits, mullets, white salmon, trouts, soles, plaice, herring, conyfish, rockfish, eels, lampreys, catfish, shad, perch of three sorts, crabs, shrimps, crevises, oysters, cockles, and mussels. ”

“ They do not seem, except on rare occasions, to take the artificial fly, but with bait not only furnish pleasant sport for ladies, but an admirable dish for the table.
The lake herring is found in many of the extensive waters of the West, but being smaller than the white-fish, is overshadowed by the reputation of the latter. It is a pretty fish, bites freely and plays well, but having to contend in delicacy against the white-fish, and in vigor against the trout, it does not receive the attention it deserves. ”

“ The whitebait is a peculiarly delicious fish, and not an expensive one, for as it is very light, a pound will go a long way; it is sprinkled with flour and fried in a wire basket in deep fat and served with a bit of lemon and thin strips of brown bread. Smelts or small pan fish may be substituted for it, if it is not in one's market. Only the white meat of the chicken is to be used on the table in the next course, with a white sauce with oysters in it. ”

“ Some pelagic fishes, especially flying fishes and fishes allied to the mackerel, swim long distances to a region favorable for a deposition of spawn. Some species are known only in the waters they make their breeding homes, the individuals being scattered through the wide seas at other times. Many fresh-water fishes, as trout, suckers, etc., forsake the large streams in the spring, ascending the small brooks where they can rear their young in greater safety. Still others, known as anadromous fishes, feed and mature in the sea, but ascend the rivers as the impulse of reproduction grows strong. ”