208 



RECREATION. 



the trout were. It seemed to be my lucky 

 day. I was alone in a boat within sight of 

 the Boss' boat. I was hardly settled when 

 a big trout took hold. The battle was 

 long. My right arm was well tired before 

 he was landed. He measured 17^2 inches 

 and weighed 2 l / 2 oounds. The Boss spied 

 me standing in the canoe, the rod waving 

 bacK and forth, and in they came. He 

 dropped his anchor as close to me as space 

 would allow. This I did not object to. I 

 shortly hooked another large trout, weigh- 

 ing nearly 2 pounds and measuring 15 

 inches. The uoss and Hawkes remarked 

 that my trout were the last 2 big fellows 

 left, for they could not reach the 14 inch 

 mark after that; but they had caught 3 or 

 4 in the early morning. 



At one time I hooked a trout and ex- 

 claimed that I had a big one. At the same 

 moment the Boss pulled up with a similar 

 statement. We soon discovered that but 

 one fish was the cause, a 12 inch fellow. 

 Who was entitled to it was impossible to 

 determine, it having swallowed both hooks. 



James S. Fasoldt. 



A HOG IN YELLOWSTONE PARK. 



A sportsmen's journal, published in Chi- 

 cago, recently printed one of the old style 

 fishing stories written by one W. B. Good- 

 sell, in which he tells how he slaughtered 

 trout in the Yellowstone National Park in 

 the summer of 1901. He says among other 

 things : 



"I found, by a stop of one day, 42 pounds 

 of magnificent grayling and trout, the for- 

 mer predominating, and varying in size 

 from three-quarters of a pound to 2 

 pounds' weight. Occasional doubles showed 

 one of each species. Between 10 o'clock 

 a.m.. and 5 p.m. I had filled my 20 pound 

 creel, my fishing coat pockets and a willow 

 crotch, until I quit, just as the best hours 

 had arrived for the sport, but with all I 

 could lug to the waiting team. 



"The evening of the 3d day brought us 

 to the Lake Hotel, at the foot of Yellow- 

 stone lake, where in an hour I landed 11 

 trout, shown in the accompanying illustra- 

 tion, which weighed 15 pounds; and had 

 not a soaking rain set in, I could have 

 more than doubled the catch." 



And again he says : 



"Leaving the hotel at 8 o'clock a.m. we 

 drove 14 miles up the river to the rapids, 

 and returned in time for supper, with 83 

 trout which weighed 44^2 pounds. 



"The Government has been stocking these 

 250 miles of streams since 1889, and neither 

 novice nor expert can fail to secure his full 

 complement of trout in anv of the 15 or 20 

 noted streams, all easy of access." 



The editor makes not a word of protest 

 against this butchery. On the other hand, 



he reproduces 2 photographs, one of which 

 shows this old fish hog standing up by a 

 string of 33 trout, which according to the 

 legend sketched on the picture, weighed 

 44J / 2 pounds. 



It is true the Government has been 

 stocking the streams in and about the Pane 

 for several years past, with trout ; not in 

 order that a few bristlebacks may go there 

 and kill 3 or 4 times what they should, but 

 that the decent anglers may go and have a 

 few hours or a few days of decent sport. 



As showing you the feeling of gentlemen 

 on this subject, a prominent business man 

 of St. Paul clips and sends me the artic 

 in question, together with a letter in which 

 he says : 



"Please note the article entitled 'Trout 

 Fishing in Yellowstone National Park,' by 

 W. B. Goodsell. In one place he speaks 

 of a fisherman's paradise, and then in an- 

 other place he tells about catching 42 

 pounds of trout and grayling, and in an- 

 other about catching 33 trout, weighing 

 44^2 pounds, in 4 hours' actual fishing ; and 

 he even has the nerve to have himself shot 

 with a camera, with his last mentioned 

 C2tch. He should have been shot with a 

 cannon load of canister before he got in 

 his deadly work. And mind you, this arti- 

 cle appears in a so-called sportsmen's 

 paper. 



"Is there not some limit as to the number 

 of trout that one may take in a day in the 

 Yellowstone National Park? I happen to 

 be in a position to know something about 

 the number of tourists who make the park 

 trip each season, and if a few hogs, like the 

 above mentioned, get in their work for a 

 year or 2 more the result can readily be 

 surmised." 



The trouble is that the publisher of the 

 aforesaid so-called sportsmen's journal is 

 so hungry for dollars and for copy that he 

 would not dare criticise his contributor 

 lest he might lose a subscriber. Further- 

 more, he might offend this Goodsell to 

 such an extent as to lose a possible story 

 at some future time. It is a great pity 

 that all editors and publishers have not 

 the nerve to roast a man who makes a 

 beast of himself, even at the risk of losing 

 a subscriber or a contributor. 



We must see to it that Congress passes 

 a law next winter, placing a limit on the 

 number of fish or the number of pounds of 

 fish which any one man may take in a day 

 in any waters controlled by the General 

 Government. 



FISH IN MINNESOTA. 



Hopkins, Minn. 

 Any movement that has for its object 

 the preservation of the game with which 

 this country at one time abounded should 



