80 



FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



Fig. 2 0. A scene on the Klamath River above the Copco dam. 



J. O. Snyder. 



Photograph by 



particularly good fishing during the entire month of May. The river 

 was closed and the fish that were in the lagoon could not make their 

 way into the ocean. One Sunday there were 135 limits taken, the fish 

 measuring from 8 to 10 inches in length. Many limits were taken in 

 less than an hour's time. There were so many fish in the lagoon tliiit 

 by the first of June the fish caught were very poor, there being 

 insufficient feed in the stream to take care of them. 



The dry season will have a very serious effect on the trout streams 

 of the district. To bring conditions back to normal will require heavy 

 stocking on the part of the Commission. It is hoped that with the 

 return of normal rainfall the ocean steelhead will return and assist 

 in stocking the coast rivers. The shortage of rain, however, is not 

 entirely without some benefit. Predatory fish, such as suckers and 

 hardheads, have been cleared out of many trout streams, and if the 

 contention of many fishermen is true that these species prey largely 

 on trout, newly planted trout will have nothing to do but to grow fat 

 for the anglers. 



Duck shooting during the biennium was excellent everywhere except 

 in the San Joaquin Yalley, where water conditions were not normal. 

 In the Suisun marsh, the season of 1923-2-4 was as good as the most 

 enthusiastic duck hunter could desire. 



The Fish and Game Commission is severely criticized for not entirely 

 stopping the sale of ducks. Few hunters realize how^ great a task it is 

 to control a matter of this sort. There are bootleggers in ducks as 

 well as other things, we will admit, but as a matter of fact the number 

 of ducks sold in San Francisco now does not equal five per cent of 

 those sold before the nonsale law was adopted. In San Francisco in 

 the old days there were sold every season from three to five hundred 

 thousand ducks. There were game transfer companies in operation, 

 with the permission of the courts, that handled thousands of birds 



