ANGLING AND PROTECTION OF GAME FISHES. 197 
instances seem devoid of an appreciation of the law in its relation to game or 
game fishes. They not only do not seem to think it is wrong to break the 
law but to imagine it is entirely justifiable, their only concern being to avoid 
detection and capture. This type of offender usually reforms, particularly if 
he comes under the educational influences of some friend possessing the true 
sportsman’s instinct, but his activities would be materially lessened and his 
education in sportsmanship hastened if the laws of the United States hung 
over him. 
Would it not be possible, feasible, and advisable to have a federal law in 
relation to all of these abuses and concerning the proper protection and con- 
servation of game fish? And would not the lawbreaker under such circum- 
stances face the more serious difficulties always attendant upon federal prose- 
cutions? Would not his respect for the law be greatly enhanced and his fear 
of the consequences of his ill doing increased? To-day, at the best, the law- 
breaker confronts simply a state law enforced by a petty officer more or less 
subject to influences of an irregular sort and oftentimes in a community not in 
touch with the spirit of the law. Would not a federal law establishing a lati- 
tudinal closed season during the spawning period be of inestimable value? 
This would permit of the legal and sportsmanlike capture of game fishes imme- 
diately after the spawning season and would protect the fishes in those sections 
where spawning occurs earlier than in others and so on up through the different 
latitudinal sections from south to north. These divisions could easily be estab- 
lished from our knowledge of the spawning habits of game fishes and naturally 
apply more to basses than to trout, but in the latter case proper sectional 
provisions could be made. 
Regulations restricting the number and size of game fishes to be taken in 
a given time in the open season by any one person and governing the type of 
appliance permitted for their capture—the number and kind of hooks used, etc., 
cuts an important figure—in the minds of many of us should be very stringent. 
The sale of game fishes at any time, except for stocking purposes, should 
be absolutely prohibited, and in many quarters it is conscientiously believed 
this is the crux of the situation, and that if such a condition could be brought 
about the problem of depletion would be almost if not fully solved. 
Another serious matter which threatens the welfare of the game fishes of 
our rivers and lakes is the introduction and rapid increase and spread of coarse 
types alien to the waters they now infest. Their ready adjustment to the new 
environment and their destructive habits are too well known to need comment, 
and their extermination is assuredly expedient, even at the expense of the 
small commercial value they represent, for this is surely of no moment as against 
the inestimable value of clear, undefiled streams, well supplied with noble food 
fishes, the rightful heritage of all the people and for their honest use in an 
honest way and as originally given by the Giver of all good. 
