66 FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



through uncultivated lands. This will encourage the counties to con- 

 demn right-of-ways for fishing purposes, and will discourage persons 

 desiring to close the streams to the public who may lease or own lands 

 in the wild state, not cultivated. 



We again reiterate our recommendation against the use of fish eggs 

 of any species for bait. A great many persons oppose this on the 

 grounds that many women and children would be deprived of the 

 pleasure of catching fish if not allowed to use salmon eggs and the 

 eggs of other fishes. We do not agree with these persons. It is true 

 that they can not take them so easily, but it is not only the women 

 and children who use them.. Hundreds of so-called sportsmen use 

 salmon eggs for bait to take the fish, and use them to chum the fish 

 or place them in ponds in the streams, as well as in the lakes where 

 the fish will congregate in large numbers and are so easily taken that 

 the use of any kind of fish eggs is detrimental to conservation. 



The use of spoons, spinners, artificial flies, plugs, and natural insects 

 and worms furnishes all that is necessary for persons to get a mess 

 of fish without using the most deadly and alluring bait that can be 

 found and that is the eggs of fishes, particularly canned or fresh 

 salmon eggs. 



RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING CLOSING LAKES AND BUILDING 



POND SYSTEMS 



Our foremen and field men have examined and studied every avail- 

 able source of egg supply in the state and there is no place of any con- 

 sequence that can be developed. We have a trap in Manzanita Lake, 

 also one being placed in Butte Lake. 



We had Mr. Firmin B. Hamor, an expert on egg-collecting stations 

 in the Rocky Mountains, make a survey of Lake Eleanor and several 

 other lakes in that region, and he reported, the same as our men, that 

 the lakes have been so heavily fished that they will no longer furnish 

 enough adult or spawning fish to justify the work of attempting to 

 install new egg-collecting stations until some of the lakes are built up 

 by closing them to fishing for a period of years. 



In selecting lakes for this, every detail as to the possibilities of 

 increasing the fish in a reasonable time must be taken into consideration. 

 Many lakes, even before there was any fishing, had only a limited num- 

 ber of fish in them. The only lakes that should be closed are lakes that 

 have physical conditions that will give the trout a chance to increase 

 and get to a size that will produce an average number of healthy eggs. 



As an illustration, I quote from Mr. Hamor 's report on Lake Eleanor : 



' ' Have just returned from Lake Eleanor and do not have a good 

 report to make. We caught over 200 females to get 50,000 spawn 

 and it took us 10 days to catch that number of fish. Seventy-five 

 per cent of the fish there are too old to spawn well any more, and 

 there are no young fish coming on. However, I saw twenty or 

 thirty little fish, rainbow, 2-§ inches long, which must be yearlings, 

 which show but little growth. There are fish there 18 inches long, 

 weight 1-| pounds, with heads as big as a saucer. 



"Some were spawning on the dam, which we could not catch, 

 and everyone was talking of , the millions of fish which, when counted 

 out, were less than one hundred. When the stream bed was cleaned 



