Kind. 



No. Pounds. 



•Oari' 



Buffalo 



Cattish 



■Criii'pie 



Black bass 



Striped bass ... 



Sunfish 



White perch ... 



Pike 



White bass 



AVall-eyed pike 



Total 



151,500 



155, 457 



16, 112 



7,405 



7,852 



1,652 



14,265 



4,000 



200 



200 



200 



358.843 



Percentage. 



42.41 

 43.29 

 4.54 

 2.12 

 2.16 

 0.44 

 3.74 

 1.12 

 0.06 

 0.06 

 0.06 



100.00 



Considering the carp, buffalo and. white perch as coarse fish, they 

 represent 86.82 per cent, of the whole as against 13.28 i)er cent, of 

 tine fish, consisting of black bass, crappie, striped bass, sunfish, pike, 

 white bass and wall-eyed pike. The same conditions exist all over 

 the State, and figures taken at any point would vary but slightly 

 from above. 



FISH LAWS. 



Taken as a whole, our fish laws, as they now stand, are too verbose, 

 are not sufficiently explicit, and even seem, in some respects, contra- 

 dictory, and while it might be out of j)lace here to discuss them 

 section by section, it might be well perhaps to take up a few of the 

 clauses which occasion the greatest difficulty in their enforcement. 



One of the principal objections which we have to offer is the fact 

 that, in order to make a case of violation, the parties using the seine, 

 or other device used as a seine, must be taken in the act of taking and 

 killing fish. The difficulty of doing this is apparent, as most of 

 such work is done at night or at such times as it would be extremely 

 unlikely that the commissioners or wardens would be near enough 

 to interfere, and it is very rarely that peopla locally interested will 

 give such information as would make conviction even probable. 



Under these conditions seines of any sized mesh can be used. 

 To make the law operative in this particular, it would seem that the 

 only remedy would be to make the possession of an illegal seine 

 unlawful, and the proven use of it a violation of the law. The 

 possession of a seine of illegal mesh is, generally speaking, an evi- 

 dence of intent to use it. and should be so constrvied. Seines or 

 nets so placed as to prevent the free passage of fish at any and all 

 times should, and does, constitute a violation of the law, but the 

 courts that have interpreted and passed upon the clause differ widely 

 as to what constitutes an obstruction. We hold that when nets are 

 set. such as the ordinary bait net. with out- wings or guides to lure 

 the fi.sh to the bait, they are not particular!}- objectionable, unless 

 these nets are set with long wings or leads which force the fish for 

 the greater part of the stream's width to follow such leads into the 

 net. when it does obstruct the free passage of fish, and we think 

 that such nets should be taken up when fouiul and disposed of under 

 process of law. 



