1911 GAME AND FISHERIES. 8S 



cau.f'ht 26 weighing 270 lbs., and there were lots of bass also. But he would 

 recommend that the day's catch be reduced to two maskinonge and four bass, 

 and the close season to be from the 1st April to the 15th June. He thinks that 

 the large sluiceway in the new dam at Lindsay will admit the free passage of the 

 fish in the spring. 



Re Game. He would advise the open season for mink to be from the 1st 

 November to the 31st December, as this would allow them a chance to increase. 



Ducks are becoming more plentiful every year, as they stay and hatch in the 

 marshes, on account of the close protection in the spring from shooting and driv- 

 ing them out. 



Regarding the prohibited hours for shooting game: He finds that the over- 

 seer cannot cope with this matter, and he would suggest that the time be changed 

 to sunrise and sunset, and then if a man is found on the hunting ground after 

 sunset, and not in the act of getting out, that he be liable to a fine. 



Partridge are on the increase all over his division. 



Now as regards open season for snipe, rail and plover, and all other birds 

 known as shore birds or waders, he thinks that the season should open on the 15th 

 September with the duck season, as the birds will be in better shape, and it will 

 save a lot of work to the overseers, and also save a lot of disbursements. He also 

 thinks that all trappers should pay a license of at least $5 each for trapping and 

 shooting. He thinks that they should have a gun license of tAvo dollars, except to 

 farmers on their own lands. This of itself would do away with a lot of pot hunt- 

 ing or poaching, and prevent accidents with small boys using guns. 



He would recommend that the taking of muskrats, frogs and speckled trout 

 be prohibited for the full year of 1911, at least that is in the Counties of North 

 and South Ontario, North and South Victoria, the united counties of Northum- 

 berland and Durham, and Peterborough County, as they are becoming very scarce 

 in those counties. 



Overseer John Watt of Peterborough reports that the fish run this year was 

 unusually long, commencing early on account of the very warm weather in the latter 

 part of March, first of April. The cold weather setting in a little later on seemed 

 to drive the fish into deep water for a time to return to the shallow waters towards 

 the end of the close season and the early part of the open season. 



There was not as large a catch during the open season this year as in some 

 previous years owing he thinks largely to the fact that the Government dredge 

 was taken below the C. P. Ry. bridge, necessitating the drawing off of about five 

 feet of water from the river and lake. For some time after this the fishing was 

 very poor, but some fine catches were made later in the season. 



By keeping a constant patrol on the waters here is the only way we can pos- 

 sibly preserve the fish during the close season and hope to have any good fishing 

 when the open season comes in. 



Part of the fishing ground in his territory is within the limits of the City of 

 Peterborough, and along this portion of the river front there are fifty or more 

 boathouses each containing from two to five boats so you may understand the 

 amount of trouble he experiences in trying to enforce the fishery laws. If the lovers 

 of angling among the owners of these boathouses would assist in any small degree 

 in endeavouring to compel others to observe the law there would be no better 

 maskinonge and bass fishing anywhere, but he gets very little information as to in- 

 fractions of the law from them. 



