1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 95 



wlietlier the title of " sporting " would be accorded to any fish by the 

 majority of expert anglers which was not alike possessed of good fight- 

 ing and edible qualities, but the expert anglers are in a great minority 

 as compared with the masses who often or occasionally indulge in 

 angling, and it must, therefore, be conceded that under the term sport- 

 ing fisihes there might well be included all such fish as afford sport to a 

 fair pix)portion of the population, the more so as even amongst the ex- 

 pert rod anglers themselves there are to be found cases of considerable 

 divergence of opinion. The yellow pike or pickerel, for instance, has 

 only recently come to be looked upon as a sporting fish in this Province, 

 and even so only in certain localities, whereas in the United States it 

 has long been accorded high rank; while, again, trolling the deeper 

 waters for lake trout with powerful rod and heavy copper line, is by 

 some despised, but hj many regarded as a most delightful and exhilarat- 

 ing sport. 



The sporting fisheries of the Province should, therefore, not be con- 

 sidered as confined only to those classes of fish whose game and edible 

 qualities have resulted in their universal classification as " sporting," 

 but should be viewed as embracing other classes of fish whose pursuit 

 affords recreation and sport to thousands. Thus under this heading there 

 must be included, besides the bass, the speckled trout, the mascalonge, 

 lake trout and pickerel, such coarser varieties as the pike, perch and 

 rock bass, and perhaps even the more despised bullheads, carp and 

 mullet, for while the term " sporting fish " in regard to them may, in its 

 strictest sense, be a misnomer, their pursuit and capture, while despised 

 and neglected by the expert rod angler, is none the less esteemed a most 

 excellent sport either by the young or by the masses. 



For many of the coarser fish there is, of course, a steady demand on 

 the fish markets of the greater cities as a cheap food, and again both 

 lake trout and pickerel, while undoubtedly in a sense sporting fishes of 

 considerable importance, are none the less commercial fishes of the high- 

 est rank, and as snch of great economic worth to the Province both as 

 a food and as a commercial commodity. The commercial use of the black 

 bass, mascalonge and speckled trout is forbidden by law^, but it would 

 plainly be inexpedient arid impossible to prohibit the commercial ex- 

 ploitation of all those fishes embraced by the widest definition of the 

 term " sporting " throughout the waters of the great lake system. There 

 are, however, localities, botli in the great lakes and in other portions of 

 the Province, where the economic value of such fishes as a means of pro- 

 viding sport is already far in excess of the actual commercial value, such, 

 for instance, as the vicinity of cities and towns, and those regions most 

 particularly adapted for the entertainment of a large number of sum- 

 mer visitors. This latter fact was well emphasized by the Dominion 

 Royal Commission of the Georgian Bay Fisheries, which included among 

 its recommendations the setting aside of a very considerable area in that 

 region to be treated as an exclusive sporting fish preserve. There can 



