uamecl, duriuij^ certain seasons or the year, covering the spawning 

 period. During the spawning season the fish in their efforts to go up 

 the streams are obstructed from doing so by the dams, and congre- 

 gate there and are found to be an easy prey to the fishermen. The 

 use of the trammel net is proliibited in any waters and we have found 

 it difficult to enforce this provision, from the fact that some of the 

 courts hold that the trammel net is a seine, or rather a combination 

 of seines, as defined by best authorities. While this may be true, 

 they are in no sense a seine, and never used as such. The trammel 

 net as such should be clearl}^ defined and its use prohibited. Just to 

 what extent a net, (fyke or hoop) is an obstruction to the free i)assage 

 of fish up, down or through the water, should also be clearly set 

 forth, for if allowed to be used at all limit as to extent of leads 

 attached should be stated While every opportunity should be given 

 the fishermen to catch fish when lawful to do so, certain restrictions 

 are necessary and the law should be explicit enough so that no mis- 

 understanding or misapprehension could exist as to the use of the 

 appliances. 



TRAMMEL NETS. 



Perhaps no device has done more to bring fishermen into disrepute 

 than the trammel net. And certainly none has done no more mis- 

 chief to the game fish. A lake covered with moss can not be seined. 

 Such a lake is an ideal home for the black bass. Here, however, the 

 trammel netter gets iji his work, setting his net near the edge of the 

 moss, and in their efforts to escape they are driven into the trammel 

 net and caught. We have a law prohibiting its use, but it has been 

 so construed as to make the trammel net a seine, and as a consequence 

 we have failed to convict in several very plain cases of violation of 

 the law. 



We would suggest such changes in the law as would explicitly de- 

 scribe a trammel net and prohibit its use at all times. 



FISHWAYS. 



One of the most important parts of our work has been the enforce- 

 ment of the fishway laws. Each succeeding season develops a greater 

 necessity for properly constructed and protected fish ways over the 

 dams, and on this depends largely the equitable distribution of the 

 breeding fish. That the dams across some of our rivers have been the 

 principal causes for the partial depletion of our upper rivers, no one 

 who has any knowledge of the habits of our native fish can doubt. 



President Cohen has given the matter his special attention and has 

 had placed twenty- seven fishways over dams in the State during the 

 last two years, and was successful in doing so without litigation. 



Fishways or fish ladders are devices for enabling fish to ascend a 

 fall or go over a dam. Tliey consist usually of a chute with a sinuous 

 track for reducing the velocity of the water and assisting the passage 

 of fish to the level above the dam. A number of devices are used in 

 the several states, having laws compelling their use. That used in 

 Illinois, is in our opinion, one of the simplest made, cheap as to con- 



