178 Fish and Game Warden. [Bull. No. 1. 



with any kind of a net or seine. After the fish have reached a 

 size larger than three pounds it seems not only legitimate but 

 advisable to allow them to be caught by use of a seine and used 

 for food. 



At first people were inclined to make light of this provision 

 of the law. However, letters received from persons who have 

 used these seines indicate that many owners of such seines are 

 pleased, and they pronounce the law a good one, as it works for 

 the benefit of both the fish and the fisherman. One correspond- 

 ent writes that the farmers in his locality are pleased with the 

 law. He said that "the farmers do not have time to fish with 

 hook and line, and when they do they seldom catch anything." 

 "This law," he continues, "makes it possible for the farmers to 

 get fish without violating the law." 



You can especially help the interests of this Department and 

 your own interests by using your influence, not only for the 

 enactment of good laws for the management of the fish busi- 

 ness in the state, but also for their enforcement. It is no easy 

 matter to frame a law that will apply with equal fairness to the 

 different localities of the state. In fact, it can not be done. 

 The present law may be improved, and should be changed as 

 conditions change. We can never have a good supplj^ of fish 

 in our streams if nets and traps are used to catch the small 

 and undersized fish. The experienced and intelligent fisher- 

 men of the state are, so far as we know, all agreed that the 

 smaller and younger fish should be left in the streams until 

 they are of a reasonable size before they are taken out. By 

 reasonable size we mean that the different kinds of fish should 

 be left in the ponds and streams until they are large enough 

 and old enough to have spawned at least once before they are 

 taken for food. 



In 1911 the legislature passed a law that would prevent the 

 using of all kinds of traps and nets except seines with meshes 

 three inches square. A seine with meshes three inches square 

 will not hold fish, as a rule, that weigh less than three pounds. 

 This was rather a crude way of fixing the law, but it was the 

 best law that the committee on fish and game, cooperating 

 with the warden, could get at the time. 



THE HOOK-AND-LINE FISHERMAN. 



The present law places no restrictions on the hook-and-line 

 fisherman other than that he can have but one hook on a 

 line. We have fished for a lifetime, and never cared to use 

 any kind of contraption or artificial lure that had more than 

 one hook on it. So far as this Department is concerned, there 

 would be no objection to using more than one hook on a line, 

 if these hooks were used for legitimate fishing and not used as 

 grab hooks for snagging small and undersized fish, or any 

 kind of fish in their winter quarters. 



