Part I.] Fish Ponds. 5 



of my boyhood life were spent in Shawnee county south of 

 Topeka on the banks of the Wakarusa, fishing. Hundreds of 

 times I went fishing, and in those days almost always caught 

 fish Those were the happy days when the streams seemed to 

 be full of fish and it was possible for almost any one with pole 

 and line and a can of worms and a few live mmnows to catch 

 a good string of fish. It is one of my hopes, if I continue my 

 relations with the state's fish business, that I can be of some 

 service in helping in some way to bring back those good old 

 days when an ordinary, everyday, "plain, plug, good citizen 

 can go fishing in Kansas streams and catch a good string o± 

 fish with a pole and line. . , ^ + 



In those early days small-meshed seines and nets were not 

 used to capture and destroy the young fish before they were 

 large enough to spawn ; neither was dynamite used. 



THE BOY FISHERMAN. 

 It does boys good to go fishing. When fishing they are not 

 doing anything else. Watch a bunch of boys fishing and you 

 will usually find that the business not only takes all of their 

 time and attention but that it is excellent recreation and sport 

 for them. The same number of boys with ismall guns are a 

 positive danger to themselves and a menace to the neighbor- 

 hood where they operate. They not only shoot many birds 

 that ought to be spared on account of their value as destroyers 

 of insects injurious to agriculture and horticulture, but they 

 are liable to shoot and kill or cripple any animals that may be 

 running loose in the fields, or even each other. Since writing 

 the above, my own cow, while feeding in a small pasture a 

 few rods from the house, was accidentally shot m the knee by 

 a small boy with a .22-caliber rifle. The small boy and the 

 fishing pole may be considered a safe and harmless proposi- 

 tion; the small boy with a small gun is neither safe nor harm- 

 less. They— the ,small boy and the small gun— should be 



separated. .qrowN-UPS" LIKE TO FISH. 



Boys are not the only creatures that like to fish. I am not 

 ashamed to confess the fact that I really like to go a-fishmg 

 occasionally, as much now and at times even more than when 

 a bov I like to fish the old-fashioned way, with pole and line, 

 and I am not averse, when the fishing season comes and the 

 sfgns are favorable, to digging bait, the old-fashioned grub- 

 worms and fishworms, for "catties" and "sunnies" to nibble at 

 Tnd to catching a few minnows to tempt the rush of the crappie 

 and the black bass. I like to sit on a grassy bank m ;.V^ej=hade 

 of a tree, watch the floating corks on two or three line, and 

 wait for a bite. How suddenly I would answer the call of the 

 wild" catfish or the bass that is pulling the cork out of sight. 

 How I do like to feel that pull on the line made by a struggling 

 cat or bass! Say, fellows, it's great! I have a good notion to 



