MORE FISH PLANTED

Followers of Isaak Walton will be pleased to learn that 289,000 fish were planted in many Park waters late last fall. Approximately 80,000 were planted in Lake Louise where many fishermen have made good catches in past years. Concerning the fish planting in this lake Asst. Chief Ranger Macy writes:

".... two ducks, too far away for positive identification, were swimming around on Lake Louise waiting to satisfy their appetites upon the small recently planted trout, which had had no opportunity to "learn the ropes" of defense after being taken from the hatchery. When first turned loose in the water dozens of the small fish literally crawled up on the bank almost entirely out of the water even though they had been transferred from the cans to the waters of the lake very gradually. But being accustomed to having the insurmountable walls of the hatchery troughs all around them they were something like "the country boy at the country fair"....

The second day of planting, while waiting for the horses to come up from Longmire to the Lakes Trail-Paradise road junction, I became somewhat chilled for the weather was quite cold and snow had been falling for some time. A short distance away was the garbage incinerator and so I decided to drop down and see what the bears were doing. No bears were in sight but the door to the incinerator was swinging wide and so I peered into the ebony darkness. As I did so, a black bear, invisible in the darkness, gave the typical bear "woof" which was my cue for a retreat.

Steelhead, Montana Blackspotted and Eastern Brook were the types of fish planted. The first two, being more desirable, were in greater number -- only about 17,000 of Eastern Brook being used.