our waters. This will also be true of many of onr inland streams, 

 as from the product of such ijianting we have distributed liberally 

 the young fry throughout the State, and reports are quite frequent 

 of fish of this variety and of fair size being taken. 



We found considerably less opposition to our methods than in 

 former seasons. At first we wjre frequeatly molested and consider- 

 able fault found on account of • the fact that we were taking tish 

 from this section to take to others, it being alleged by people along 

 the river that we were depriving o;ie part of the State of fish to 

 benefit another; but an examination and explanation of our work 

 showed that, instead of bsing a detriment to the section in which 

 we were working, we were, as a matter of fact, making the rivers 

 and lakes in the vicinity of which we worked, the flats and sloughs, 

 richer by far in quantity of hsh than if they were left to perish, as 

 they must have done, by drouth or winter, if not taken out and 

 ■cared for. 



Only a small portion of the fish so caught could be successfully 

 used for transportation. As the catch would often aggregate hun- 

 dreds of thousands daily in early season, such, of course, as were 

 not used for distribution were at once placed in the nearest deep 

 water, and added very materially to the future supply for either 

 rod and line or net. The angler found better sport than had been 

 the case for many seasons previous, and large strings were the or- 

 der of the day. Better fish and better qualities were taken from 

 all the old grounds, which for many previous seasons were pro- 

 nounced "played out." 



- In this connection we wish to say that one great evil, which has 

 much to do with reducing our fish supply, is the practice of catch- 

 ing large strings of bass and croppie too small to eat, averaging 

 not over four inches in length lor bass and three for croppie. 

 TheSf, which a true sportsman would at once throw back when 

 taken, are left to die on the banks or carried away, only to be ulti- 

 mately thrown aside as worthless. It is an unwarranted destruction 

 ot fish, and when the number so taken is considered it is readily 

 seen that it must be equally destructive in its effects as are many 

 <»f the methods used by seine fishermen. As bafore said, no one 

 who has any of the elements of a sportsman would keep such fish, 

 jind our attention has frequently been called to the practice by the 

 ^narket fishermen themselves, as a practice as detrimental to the inter- 

 est of preservation and protection of fish as any against which we were 

 trying to legislate for in their instance —in trying to prevent the destruc- 

 tion of young fish. It might not be deemed practicable, but it certainly 

 would result in great good if some means could be provided, either 

 by enactment or education, to prevent the practice. Bass and crop- 

 pie take the bait when very young, oftentimes before they are but 

 little larger thnn the bait offered them. The practice of taking the 

 young fish with hook and line cannot but create a bad impress^iou 

 in the minds of the fishermen, whom we hope to educate up to the 

 idea that a protective law and prohibition of the use of the seine 

 for a time is intended and calculated to benefit them, as well as 

 others, by a material increase of fish. It will be a ditticult prob- 

 lem to solve, but the fact that it is a great and growing evil can- 

 not be denied. At Murdock Lake, the headquarters of one of the 



