THE ANGLER'S GUIDE 61 



edible fishes they and their marketmen allow to rot in the 

 sun, and their taking of millions more for the mere making 

 of oil or for fertilizing purposes. 



Of late years a new spoiler, the most desperate and 

 destructive of all, has developed the hand-line fisher 

 who competes with his brothers in an endeavor to excel as 

 a butcher of quantity, who fishes for fish alone, and who 

 breaks every law and ignores every rule and axiom of the 

 angler, the fish commission, the nature-lover, the citizen 

 and the gentleman. 



Parties of this rough element go forth daily in and out 

 of legal season time, and slaughter whole boat-loads of 

 baby striped bass, spawn-laden flounder, fluke, weakfish, 

 bluefish, sea bass, blackfish, cod, porgie, etc., according 

 to the season's yield, in the majority of instances far ex- 

 celling the kill of the average market net fisherman. 



Shamed or rather frightened by exposure a few of this 

 wasteful gentry affect a huge, coarse so-called rod and 

 reel outfit in their murderous exploits, but their giant tools 

 are not legitimate tackle in the angler's conception, and the 

 slaughter is by no means lessened in fact, it is seriously 

 heightened by the application of this sure-killing, 

 wholly inappropriate rigging. 



There is a legal limit in the taking of game birds and 

 quadrupeds, and a law that restricts the catch of fresh 

 water fishes, so many to the single rod in a day, but, to 

 the shame of our lawmakers, the noble game of the ocean 

 and salty bays and rivers is unprotected, and its numbers 

 cannot long survive the prevailing murderous onslaught of 

 the tubman and the trawler. The laws should limit the 

 catch in salt water as it is limited in the rivers and lakes 

 of the upland, and thus preserve the game and the noble 

 pursuit of honest angling. 



The angler doesn't take more fishes than his own table 

 or the table of the sick-room can consume, and he takes 

 these in season in true angling form with proper tackle 

 properly manipulated. 



A dozen small fishes, or a half-dozen medium-size fishes, 

 or three of fair size, or one or at most two of large size, in 

 a single day, are enough to satisfy the most ardent angler, 

 if he be of the true spirit if he feels like a gentleman and 

 acts like a sportsman. 



O, ye gentleman legislators and all ye men of personal 

 power, reform this poisoning of our drinking water, this 

 destroying the natural beauty of the world, and this 

 slaughter of the seaside, this tub and barrel filling of the 

 boy bungler and blood-buying bayman ; stop this slaughter 

 that means the utter annihilation of the fishes if allowed 

 to flourish even a few years more. Then, with continued 

 restrictions upon the netter of the market, and with these 

 restrictions enforced, we shall have health and life, and we 

 shall have sea food galore, and, equally gratifying, the 

 pleasures of chivalricly angling for it. 



