Tillamook headlight., August 03, 1899, Image 30

SPECIAL EDITION OF THE TILLAMOOK HEADLIGHT.
FISHING RESOURCES OF TILLAMOOK.
Beat any Place in the Known World for all Sorts
of Fish.
“ I have lived,” exclaimed the immortal Kipling, when he had
taken a young salmon in the Clackamas river, but that pastmaster
of the language must have failed to express his emotions, if instead
of a 14lb. fish, he had made the pilgrimage to Tillamook, and
instead of a grilse had captured a silverside weighing 25 or 30
pounds, or perhaps a royal chinook, such as I once saw, which
tipped the beam at 49Va pounds, and took three boys in a small skiff
a mile and a half in the hour’s fight before they could bring him to
the gaff.
As a means of recreation, fishing is only less important than as a
source of industry. No pursuit known to civilization combines all the qualities of
rest for the overworked brain, exercise for the underworked muscle, development of
the fagged appetite, and stirring up of the clogged digestion so requisite to the
man of sedentary occupation, which can be enjoyed by the disciples of Izak
Walton.
Considered economically, no calling affords so great a field for human industry
as the fishery.
From both standpoints Tillamook is peculiarly favored by nature. Her com­
mercial fish yield an unfailing annual harvest, while her game fish are a perennial )
joy to every lover of the gentle art.
First, always, is the Royal Chinook, royal par excellence, ofall the finny trilies,
both as a food fish, as the basis of a great industry, and as the gamest fish that
ever took a fly. This fish variously classified bv the few scientific men who have
studied our coasts, but probably best named salmar scouleri, arrives in our waters
late in June, and spends the time from then until about October in becoming
acclimated to fresh water, and then starts for the spawning grounds up the small
streams in the coast mountains. It weighs from 30 to 70 pounds, is not quite so
oily as its brother in the Columbia River, but fat enough for any palate. During
the month of July it can be taken with a fly or on a spoon, but the man who lands
one always knows he has been fishing From the middle of August to the middle
of November it is taken in gill nets for canning purposes, furnishing with the
Silver sides, an annual output of from $125,000 to $200,000 from the waters of
this county.
The Silversides (Oncorvhnchus Chavicha) arrive a little later, and go through
the same process. They are smaller than the Chinook, not so oily in their meat,
and not so fierce in their resistance to the angler. Still they are an excellent fish,
weighing from 15 to 35 pounds, beautifully scaled, with firm pink meat, take a fly
or spoon greedily, and then fight for about a quarter of an hour. In addition to
canning well, these fish are salted in brine for shipment and can be dried and
smoked.
Still later in the season, say about October 20th, comes the Chum or Dog
Salmon (Oncoryhnchus Keta) smaller than the Silversides, a dull stupid sort of a
fish, which runs in immense schools, and can be taken in any kind of a net. It is
not highly thought of as a food fish, though many are canned for a cheap grade of
goods, and it is also very useful for drying and smoking, doing better thus thaq the
fatter species of salmon. On its first arrival the flesh is bright and firm, but
deteriorates rapidly. All salmon begin to go down hill the moment they leave the j
sea; the change of habitat is so great that they cease feeding and lose flesh, and
change color and form. They then ascend the fresh water streams and spawn
and die, perhaps very rarely one may float out to sea and revive, but these are the
exceptions which prove the rule.
Scattered along with all the runs of salmon comes the little Blue Back (Oncor-
hvnchus Nerka) often called a Salmon Trout. He will weigh from 3 to 10 jiounds,
will take a spoon or a hook baited with fish roe and is a splended table fish.
With the fall rains come the Grilse, immature salmon, called by some Salmon
Trout. They are of all species, and what they come for is a puzzle. They spend a
little time destroying tv spawn of their elders and then disappear on one of their
mysterious journeys to the sea. They weigh from 2 to 6 pounds and ure excellent
fish to dry-salt or to pickle. They take ground bait greedily, but afford no sport
as they are a stupid heavy fish of which any one can easily take a hundred pounds
weight in a few hours, no skill being required, just a hook and line and a bit of
salmon roe, and pull them out of the water.
Many young salmon (smolt or parr) are also taken with a hook and line. They
are called Sea Trout, though they are not trout, and have never been to sea. They
are from 7 to 10 inches in length and have all the distinctive marks of their species.
One singular feature of these little fellows is that the males sometimes have some­
what well developed milts and actually fertilize the roe of the adult salmon should
opportunity offer.
In December and at periods all through the winter come the Steelheads, some­
times called a salmon, but really the Rainbow Trout (Salmo Gairdneri), a good
sound flesh fish specially adopted to salting and to ice-packing from the absence of
oil. This fish weighs from 15 to 40 pounds It will sometimes take a fly, though
as it is usually a flv cast for trout of reasonable dimensions, the results are hardly
ever satisfactory to the fisherman. The big brute snaps up your No. 4 coachman
or professor and starts off, the only question left for you is where will the tackle
break and how much of it will be left for you and how much will the fish take
away with him ?
These are all the commercial fish of the inland fisheries They also form a
stable supply of home food. But the deep sea fish are as yet almost an unknown
quantity. Our shore is uniformity shelving, carrying a forty fathom curve well
out to sea. and on this bank have been taken cod, halibut, skulpins, groupers and
dozens of other varieties of fish which will some day furnish good employment for
a large force of food seekers. At present they are only taken when some vessel
happens to be lying off for a tide or on some such occasion.
When we come to consider the game fish we see that nature has been equally
bounteous in her gifts to this favored spot.
The eight rivers of this county which take their rise in the coast mountains
and flow to the ocean support several varieties of trout. Chief among these are
the famous Oregon Trout (Salmo Oregonensis) which is found in every stream and /
tributary, varying in color according to his habitat, and in size from zero up to a
length of 20 inches, and a weight of 4 pounds. This fish rises to a fly with the
first bright days of spring, and affords the finest of sport to the angler from that
time until the tall rains set in. The large fellows are very wary, but when a cast is >
made just to their notion, seize it with a rush, and then make such a fight as to
endanger litfht tackle, and to call for a high degree of skill in the handling. If
the ancient writer was correct in his assertion that the fish enjoys the contest as
much as the fisherman, the Tillamook trout must have lots of fun.
Well up the streams an abundance of Brook Trout (Salmo Fontinahs) fill
every stream large enough to float them Sometimes one will take a genuine
Salmon Trout (S. Trutti), and again a Dolly Varden (S. Malma), and a sprinkling
of half-a-dozen other varieties.
Besides the ordinary perils, our trout are threatened by two great pests, the
Merganser, often called summer duck, which ought to be killed off, and the
dynamiter for whom killing would be too good. The former spend their entire lives
on the rivers and eat thousands upon thousands of young fish every day, and the
latter come over the mountains in the spring and ruthlessly slaughter thousands
of young and old in order to obtain a !,big catch” without the trouble of fishing
for them legitimately. There ought to be bounty for the destruction of both these I
pests, and wheuthat is accomplished we will always be supplied with the best fish
known to civilized man.
-
The estuaries of our streams all produce flounders (Platichthys Stellatus).
These fish breed in June, when they become poor and soft, but in September their
flesh hardens, and during the winter months are an estimable table fish. They
formerly abounded in Tillamook bay, but are nearly extinct there. They are most
plentiful in Sand Lake and Nestuccn.
Sturgeon are taken in Tillamook and Nehalem bays and sand-sharks (Carch-
arodon obscurus) occasionally in any of our waters.
About once in three years we have a visit from the candle fish (Thaleicbthv's
Pacificus). These fish rush upon the shores in such numbers as to lie left piled
along the entire length of the coast. Those who are at the time so situated as to
save them are amply rewarded for their labor.
Our sardines (Clupea) are much more like the French sardine (C. Pilchordus)
than our California neighbors (C. Sagax). They furnish a beautiful spectacle oil a
bright day when the myriad sides of a school reflect a thousand inverted rainbows
from beneath the waters.
A great curiosity is the little pipe fish found among the rocks near the mouth
of the bays. Another is the squid or cuttie fish which has but eight arms, and (
attains a size of five or six feet across.
But we are not yet done with the bounties of nature spread to our hands for
the taking. Shellfish and crustaceans are by no means to lie overlooked.
First comes the razor shell clam all along the sea beach stuck, up on end with
his sharp edge pointing to the waves he is an easy mark for any one and a delicacy )
on any table. Then the big blue-clam, with his rubberneck that would set a
chappie wild with envy, stretching up a couple of feet to the surface and with­
drawing at the first sign of danger Then the Eastern or ttue little-neck clam,
the quahang or New Jersey little neck, cockles and mussels galore, with u sprink­
ling of scallops and limpets.
Netarts bay produces an excellent oyster. Thirty years ago these luscious
bivalves were well known in the markets. 1 have seen large signs in Portland and
in San Francisco announcing "Netarts flay oysters" as a special attraction.
Schooners wers loaded there regularly and many were carried to Astoria in a
little sloop. But one winter a schooner was wrecked on the voyage; the oyster,
men got discouraged and were crowded out by the dairy men and now the oysters
have been neglected until they are partially run out. Still there are fortunes in it
for the man who will again bring this useful product of the water to a business
basis. Rock oysters aie found principally at Netarts, Cape Lookout und Nestuccn.
Crabs swarm in every harbor. Crawfish of both fresh and saltwater varieties
in every place where there is water, and a few shrimps are to lie found along the
coast, though not in sufficient numliers to justify taking them.
Space forbids more than a passing sketch of the principal denizens of the deep,
and this is neither a treatise nor a catalogue but it is enough to justify the assertion
that Tillamook with her 70 miles of sea shore, 45 miles of bay shore and 200
miles of rivers with their scores of tributaries can bent any place in the known
world for all sorts of fish combined, and is without doubt pre-eminently the fisher­
man's paradise.
T. B. HANDLEY.
TILLAMOOK AS A SUMMER RESORT.
The County has Fascinating Attractions for the Camper,
Hunter and Health Seeker.
‘‘One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
j
Than all the sages can.
Enough of science and of art,
Close up these barren leaves;
Come forth and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.”—Wordsworth.
To the lover of nature, Tillamook county presents many charms. Bounded on
the East by the summit of the Coast Range of mountains, on the West by the
Pacific ocean and intersected by a generous number of mountain streams, every
variety of scenery is provided for the appreciative eye. Five rivers, namely, Tilla­
mook, Trask, Wilson, Kilchis and Miami, flow into the Tillamook bay, which lies
about midway lietwecn the North and South boundaries of the county. To the
North, the Nehalem river, a still larger stream than those first mentioned, flows
into the Nehalem bay, and to the South, the Nestuccn river flows into Nestuccn
bay. All these rivers are excellent trout streams. The upper reaches of the water
courses flow through immense forests of giant fir and cedar, while on the lower
levels they run in quieter mood, through green pastures, where fat cattle gorge
themselves, and where the butter and cheese factory is a corner-stone of
civilization.
The busy toiler of the city and the inland resident, who desire to throw cares
and vexations to the winds, and for a season breathe the untrammeled air of the
mountain or the sea, will find here their heart’s case. Every summer a small
colony of pleasure seekers come to this favored section, and all find themselves
more than repaid for their crip across the mountains, which trip is of itself suffi
ciently bracing and refreshing to add a year to the lite of an office drudge. An ex
cellent stage service is maintained the year round from North Yamhill, on the
Southern Pacific Railroad to Tillamook city, and besides there is the Wilson river
road from Forest Grove. Many come in private conveyances, with their own
camping outfits, prepared to wander from place to place, as fanev may dictate. In
the mountains there arc bear, deer, wild cats and cougars for the hunter; in the
many charming streams, trout fishing galore, and on the ba vs, salmon trolling is
a rare and fascinating sport. Of course the sea I »each is close at hand, with its
many attractions which never grow old. On Nehalem l»each one may dig bees wax
from the celebrated bees wax shit) wrecked there in olden times, and besides one
may visit Carney mountain and ponder over the mysterious characters graven
upon its rock and pointing, as a hermit of the place will tell you, to the hiding
place of old Spanish doubloons, buried a century ago by bloody Spanish jnrates
If you are a man with a conscience seared and a heart sick of this world and its
ideals, you mav refresh your soul by an hour’s talk with the hermit who spends
his days digging for this gold and his nights deciphering curious hieroglyphics and
diagrams whicn, he believes, dencribe its secret hiding place
The quiet simple
life of this man, his faith which looks though all obstacles, will I* a balm to you.
if vou but come near. But tl esc things are already ceh brated in story.
On Nehalem, Tillamook, Netarts and Nestucca bays shell fish abound. At
Netarts, which is a fa vorite resort tor campers, are found an abundance of rock
oysters, which are highly prized.
To the cam|»er,it mav be said that he may always find convenient to his camp a
choice supply of vegetables, milk, butter, honey and small fruits in season
The
county is celebrated for its honey, and this is found in perfection in the Nestuccn
country.