FisJi and Fishing in Lake Chaiitanqtia^ N. V. 



,269 



came from the net. They can not be 

 handled ,too carefully or let go too 

 •quickly, after they get into the net, for 

 .the health of the fish. I had charge of 

 .the hatchery three years, and in that 

 time not a half-dozen fiish found dead 

 on the shore came from the net, al- 

 though people that were skeptical kept 

 watch for them, but were disappointed. 

 This year, people living along the lake, 

 in the vicinity of the nets, tell me that 

 upwards of fifty of these large lunge 

 have floated ashore, and people attri- 

 bute it to their being squeezed too hard 

 in taking the eggs. One thing certain ; 

 they were all large, female fish, no males 

 appearing among the dead. Whether 

 this is the cause of so many dead 

 lunge, I could not say ; but it looks like 

 it. The trouble is, some new man is 

 appointed to take charge of the hatchery 

 every season, and they have different 

 ideas, and, among other experiments, 

 try to confine them till they spawn, a 

 thing that can't be done, as they dry up. 

 The only thing that can be -done, is to 

 wait until it is time for them to spawn ; 

 then put in the nets, catch the fish, and, 

 when a spawner is found, take what 

 eggs come easy, not squeezing them to 

 see how many thousand you can get; 

 but, when one is found that is not ripe, 

 carefully place it outside the pound, and 

 at liberty. 



During the last three years, the nets 

 have been set from two to three weeks 

 too early, and a lot of fish caught and 

 handled that is needless, causing them 

 to leave the spawning ground, and, 

 when the proper time comes, they are 

 not there. If they are caught in the net 

 once they seldom, if ever, come back 

 again that season. There is no getting 

 around the fact that, as far as increasing 

 them, the hatchery has been a success ; 

 but setting the nets too early, and try- 



ing to confine them, is a useless piece 

 of business. Last Fall, there were more 

 lunge taken with live bait than any fall 

 since I can remember. There were in 

 our market, one day last Fall, over seven 

 hundred pounds of muscalonge, and 

 among them were twelve that would 

 weigh from twenty-five to thirty-seven 

 pounds. Nearly every day some 

 amateur or local fisherman would bring 

 in one of these mammoths, and they 

 are just as good eating as the small 

 ones. The dealers dress them now 

 and steak them up, the same as 

 they do halibut. I don't fish as 

 much as I used to, but had a little 

 fun last Fall, catching, in all, about one 

 hundred lunge. Last Fall, one cold, 

 sour day, that no one but a fisherman 

 would have picked out as being a good 

 day, I boarded a trolley car, at i p. m., 

 and rode up to Lakewood, where I keep 

 my boat, bait and tackle. I rowed out 

 on to the lake at 1.45, and I cast my 

 bait. Inside of half an hour I landed 

 a ten-pound lunge, and in another hour 

 one of five and a half pounds. It was 

 cold and disagreeable, and I was satis- 

 fied with my catch and started back 

 to the dock. When within fifty yards 

 of the dock, I had a strike and saw a 

 swirl, that I knew was made by a big 

 fish. He gorged the minnow at once, 

 and started for deep water. I struck 

 and hooked him. There was a circus 

 for the next fifteen minutes, but he 

 gave in, and I led him up to the boat 

 and knocked him on the head. This 

 one weighed thirty-five pounds. I 

 rowed ashore, and took the street car 

 for home, arriving in the city, after 

 an absence of three hours and fifteen 

 minutes, with three fish, weighing 

 fifty and a half pounds. The next 

 day I fished about the same length of 

 time, and caught two — one of thirty 



