238 THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 
The suggestion has been made in many counties 
that the Fish and Game Commission adopt the policy 
of closing streams which have been stocked—say for a 
period of two years, in order to give the young fry 
which have been liberated an opportunity to grow and 
multiply. A great many sportsmen have urged this 
policy to be adopted, and base their support of it from 
an unselfish point of view. In the final analysis, how- 
ever, it resolves itself into whether or not the sports- 
men themselves desire a continuation of splendid fish- 
ing conditions in the State. Experience has proved that 
the liberation of trout in our angling streams and the 
keeping open of those streams to angling has not given 
the best results; in other words, no matter how careful 
a sportsman may be he is bound to catch a large number 
of small or under-sized trout, and in strict accordance 
with the law, he is not permitted to retain these with 
his catch. The greater per cent of under-sized trout 
caught and thrown back into the stream, die. It is true 
that they may be removed from the hook in such a 
manner as to permit them to live after placed in the 
water again, but conditions must be just right; they 
must have been hooked in the right: place; they must 
be carefully removed from the hook and as carefully 
liberated in the stream. This condition does not present 
itself once in a dozen times; consequently, thousands of 
small trout which are hooked when under-sized are killed 
every week during the angling season. 
The suggestion, therefore, that streams which have 
been restocked be closed for a certain period of time 
seems to be a proper solution of this situation. In dis- 
tricts or localities where there are but one or two angling 
streams, the suggestion has been made that only certain 
