24 Tz'.'oity-sci'ciitJi Annual Meeting 



this favorable showing for tlic ^Michigan waters is (hie t(i tlie faet 

 that the Canadian Government has not planted as many wliitefish 

 ■fry in the waters which we have been considering as the Michigan 

 Fish Commission has plantetl. 



What has been said of depleting onr waters of whitefish by 

 catching the voting immature fish, is also true of lake trout, though 

 the manner of taking the small lake trout is different. During the 

 last few years the fishermen have found it profitable to reduce the 

 size of the mesh of the gill nets used in catching chubs, blue-fin, 

 and herring. With these small meshed nets, they are catching- 

 large quantities of small, undersized lake trout. This should not 

 be permitted to continue if v.e are to keep the lake trout in our 

 waters and on the market as a commercial fish for future genera- 

 tions. 



The conditions existing in Michigan waters in relation to a 

 close season, the planting of whitefish fry, and the taking of small 

 whitefish and lake trout, as herein set forth, appl}' with ecjual 

 force to Wisconsin waters. 



Last year! had the pleasure of taking a trip up Lake Winnipeg 

 and looking over the fishing industry, picking up wbat informa- 

 tion I could relative to fish and fishing on that lake. 



Taking into consideration the laws in force relati\'e to catch- 

 ing whitefisli, to an onlooker, it would seeni that the whitefish 

 could never be exterminated from Lake Winnipeg. No pound 

 nets are permitted in the lake, and no gill nets of less than five 

 and one-half inches mesh. Fishing with nets is not allowed 

 within ten miles of the mouth of any river. All nets are taken 

 out of the water on Saturday and are not reset until the following 

 Monday. No small fish are caught. The whitefish caught will 

 average four pounds each. The government permits but a cer- 

 tain number of fathoms of nets in the lake at one time, and these 

 must be set on certain grounds. 



With these restrictions on fishirig, it would seem that this 

 lake should be productive of whitefish for all time to come. 

 However, such does not ajipear to be the case. In talking with 

 the foreman of one of the fish companies at Selkirk, I asked him 

 if whitefish are as numerous now as when he first went there, 

 which was some twelve years ago. He replied: "When I first 

 came up here, we would go out in the lake with a tug, and I 

 would hold up my fingers to the Indians to indicate the number 

 of fish that I wanted. Every finger that I held up would mean 

 one hundred fish, and they were ofi with their canoes and dip- 

 nets and would get us all the fish we could carrv on the tug. 



