THE KANSAS FISH LAW 

 By L. L. Dyche 



The last legislature passed practically a new law to govern 

 the fishing interests in the state of Kansas. This law con- 

 tains a number of new features. However, the intent and 

 purpose of the law is to protect and increase the supply of 

 fish in the ponds, lakes, and streams of Kansas. 



One of the features of the law not well understood is the 

 provision that only one hook can be used on a line. The 

 object of this clause in the law was to prevent catching fish 

 with a bunch of hooks tied on a line and used as a snag or 

 grab hook. When the water is cold, and especially when it 

 is covered with ice, it frequently happens that the fish bed 

 in deep water beside an old log or in some other convenient 

 place. This makes it possible for certain persons with a 

 bunch of hooks on the end of a line, to drop the hooks into 

 such schools of fish and to snag the fish by giving the hooks 

 a quick jerk. Great numbers of fish are sometimes taken 

 in this way. Many cases have been reported where fish 

 have been taken below a dam, or other favored place where 

 fish naturally congregate, by the use of grab hooks or snag 

 hooks. 



There could really be no objection to fishing in the old- 

 fashioned way, with two or three hooks on a line. It is 

 hard to frame a law that will prevent using three or four 

 hooks on a line as grab hooks and at the same time allow 

 a person to fish in a proper way with three or four hooks on 

 a line. However, twenty-five hooks may be used on a trot- 

 line provided they are a reasonable distance apart and used 

 in a stream as a trot-line. Most sportsmen use but one 

 hook on a line and prefer this method of fishing to using 

 three or four. The law does not prevent using several lines, 

 each with one hook on it. 



Another feature of this new fish law provides that any 

 citizen of the state of Kansas who gives a fifty dollar bond 



