10 THE KEPOKT UPON Xo. 13 



GAME AND FISHEEIES INSPECTOES. 



Inspector's Office, 



Toronto, 1911. 



E. TiNSLEY, Esq., 



^Superintendent of Game and Fisheries. 



Sir, — I have the honour to submit my report for the season of 1911. 



Commercial Fishing. 



The season just ended has only been an average one and will show a small 

 decrease in the catch of wliitefish. Lake trout appear to be holding their own or 

 nearly so. The extension of the open season this year will cause the showing to be 

 somewhat better than it would have been if the season had closed as usual on the 

 1st., but not to any extent, the weather during these ten days being so stormy 

 that the catch did not amount to much, many fishermen telling me that the re- 

 sult of the extension was a loss financially. The market has not been as good as 

 in former years, consequently there is now a large stock of frozen fish of all kinds. 

 Nearly all the cold storage being filled. This is causing a depression in the Lake 

 Erie -herring trade. The catch is as good as last season, the price being only about 

 half. 1 am pleased to report that during the year tw^o new hatcheries have been 

 built in the Province and are being operated this season, one at Southampton, the 

 other at Port Arthur, both of these hatcheries make a specialty of lake trout, and 

 will, with ordinary good luck add twenty or thirty million to the number of young- 

 trout planted in former years, and should in a short time show good results. I 

 would like to see more attention paid to the propagation of whitefish. 



The placing of a gasoline launch on Lake Superior has resulted in a great, 

 deal of good work being done that could not be done with a larger boat. What you 

 now need is a similar boat for the west end of the lake. The replacing of the 

 " Vega " with a much better boat will allow the officer in charge to patrol the 

 North 'Channel and the North Shore of Georgian Bay in a more satisfactory man- 

 ner, and if your officer on the east shore of the same bay is provided with a suitable 

 boat and another one is procured for the Detroit and St. Clair rivers I believe it 

 will allow your Department to dispense with the boat you have chartered for a 

 few years past without interfering with the work. In some ways the smaller boats; 

 are more suitable. 



The need for reliable information about our inland lakes is growing with every 

 year. There is no doubt that in many of these lakes are fish that are pf no use 

 for angling purposes, and some way should be provided by which the people living 

 near these lakes could procure their needed supply of fish legally. , The opening- 

 of new lines of railways increases the number of lakes about which information is- 

 needed very rapidly. 



The water powers of the Province are being developed and every development 

 means a change in the stream, possibly making it unfit for the fish that formerly fre- 

 quented it, but at the same time providing for a larger supply of food fish if the 

 conditions were investigated and the ponds were planted with the right species. 



Angling has been better in most of the waters that I have visited than in for- 

 mer years. Nearly all the visitors being well pleased with their catches. 



