Fish Culture in Inland Waters 319 



it is the whole cause, in spite of the " past intensive " efforts to 

 maintain a stock, the pikeperch in Minnesota surely has its " back to 

 the wall." The method of handHng the situation must be modified 

 in the light of positive knowledge concerning the lakes and the fish, 

 and by regulations of the fishery. 



Without basic knowledge concerning all conditions pertaining to 

 fish and fisheries, legal regulations and restrictions, while they may 

 sometimes help, in the long run often prove ineffective. A regula- 

 tion that may be effective in one locality may not be in another ; or 

 one that will apply to one kind of fish is quite sure not to apply to 

 another even though it be a closely related form. Yet one general 

 law is often made to cover a whole group of fishes, such as the 

 blackbasses and other members of the sunfish family, or it may be 

 the pikes or even the trouts. 



Concerning the trouts it may be said that a law protecting the 

 brook trout in its breeding season will not afford protection to 

 spring spawning trouts unless the closed season is extended to cover 

 the breeding seasons of those forms. 



There are often purported protective laws applying to fish at 

 other seasons than the breeding season. These may pertain to 

 place of capture or method of capture, or something else. Some 

 of these laws frequently appear to favor one or another class of 

 fishermen, as for instance the restriction to fly-fishing, which meets 

 with objections from the users of natural baits. The custom of 

 fishing with bait in certain places where fish are known to con- 

 gregate at some season of the year has been a matter of con- 

 troversy among fishermen in some localities, and laws prohibitive 

 of deep water or so-called " plug fishing," and " advance baiting " 

 have been enacted. 



Laws have been passed restricting the fishing for certain fishes 

 to a single hook, thus eliminating multiple hooks and gang hooks. In 

 some instances these have been repealed through the influence of 

 fishing tackle dealers. So we might go on and recite a multitude of 

 laws which do not always fit the case and seldom meet with general 

 approbation. 



So, to repeat, appropriate laws and regulations must always be 

 based upon accurate knowledge of the fish and the conditions affect- 

 ing them, accompanied by education of fishermen whose interests 

 appear to conflict. 



There must be regulations even though they apparently affect 

 some people or some localities disadvantageously. The adage, " You 

 cannot eat your cake and keep it too " is well stated in the words 

 of a former Federal Commissioner of Fisheries, thirty years ago, 

 (McDonald, '94, p. 16) : " We must not, however, be unmindful 

 of the fact that the prosecution of the fisheries without reasonable 

 and necessary restraints, is sure in the end to make adequate repro- 

 duction by artificial methods impracticable by obstructing or shutting 

 off the sources of egg supply. Protection, therefore, and reasonable 

 regulations as to the times and methods of fisheries is just as 



