FISH AND FISHING. 



209 



have the hearty support and co-operation 

 of all good citizens, whether they take an 

 active part in nunting and fishing or other- 



wise. 



Of course the pleasanter way to bring 

 about this result would be to educate the 

 people up to the point where they could 

 see the advantage of good laws and the 

 necessity of preserving and enforcing them ; 

 but in some cases this cannot be done and 

 it is then necessary to resort to harsher 

 methods. 



There are those who are too closely re- 

 lated to the hog to benefit by any effort at 

 education. They kill fish and game just 

 to see how many they can kill. They 

 would take black bass with a scoop shovel 

 if they could, and think nothing of potting 

 a duck or a quail. Such men do not care 

 if the game is all killed one year or the 

 next, provided they may do the butchering. 

 I know several places where bass were 

 plentiful a few years ago, but an honest 

 angler can fish a long while in those places 

 now without finding any evidence that 

 fish ever existed there. If vou make in- 

 quiry you will hear that Mr. Berkshire 

 Hog, or Mr, Some Other Hog used to catch 

 200 or 300 bass in a day in those waters. 



Within the citv limits of Minneapolis I 

 can point out lakes where bass ard pick- 

 erel were shot last spring and where set 

 lines are out at the present time. In one 

 of those lakes 15 years ago I could pick up 

 4 or 5 bass almost any dav„ but a man will 

 stand a poor show with rod and reel there 

 now. I fished the lake half a dozen times 

 last summer but caught only one bass ; yet 

 the razorback that puts out a set line 

 boasts of the number of bass he takes, 

 though he does not admit that he takes 

 them that way. Sometimes his children do. 



Even now the fishing in this State is ex- 

 cellent and I do not think I exaggerate 

 when I sav there are more fish and more 

 opportunities to fish in Minnesota than in 

 any other State in the Union. 



In the Northern part of the State lake 

 trout abound and often reach a weight of 

 25 pounds. There are also salmon trout, 

 whitefish, sturgeon, pike and pickerel in 

 Lake Superior. In some of the smaller 

 lakes of St. Louis, Lake and Cook counties 

 there is a small land-locked lake trout that 

 weigh up to 4 pounds. Black bass, both 

 large and small mouth, rock bass, silver 

 bass, and trout abound, one variety of trout 

 having a white belly and another a bright 

 golden belly. These lakes also contain 

 silver herrings and sisco, or deep water 

 herrings; muskalonge, buffalo, sheephead, 

 bullhead, catfish, croppies, redhorse, suck- 

 ers, stonerollers, bluegills and 2 or 3 other 

 varieties of sunfish, perch, dogfish and Ger- 

 man carp. 



The carp have Deen planted by the hatch- 



eries and multiply rapidly. They are 

 worse than suckers at devouring the spawn 

 of decent fish and should be killed off as 

 soon as possible. No doubt the intention 

 of the authorities was good in placing Ger- 

 man carp in American waters but that does 

 not lessen the evil. In Illinois they have 

 practically exterminated the bass and as 

 no self-respecting angler would either 

 catch or eat a carp I do not see anything 

 but injury in planting them. 



The smaller streams of this State are 

 full of chub and shiner minnows, the best 

 minnows for bait that I know of. In put- 

 ting a shiner minnow 1*4 inches long on 

 a hook a few days ago I discovered that it 

 was full of snawn. This was a surprise to 

 me as I supoosed they were not mature 

 until they wer, 3 or 4 inches long. 



\v ashata. 



THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER. 

 Enclosed is a slip, cut from our local 

 paper the Acadian, concerning Mr. R. E. 

 Harris. I wish you would roast Mr. Har- 

 ris. Trout are not plentiful about here, 

 and such a catch is an outrage. Mr. Har- 

 ris is a merchant of Wolfville, and should 

 have known better,. 



S. W., Wolfville, N. S. 



Mr. R. E. Harris has had on exhibition a splen- 

 did display of trout, the fruits of a fishing trip. 

 He and his companion, Dr. Saunders, of Kent- 

 ville, succeeded in getting 210, many of which 

 were large. A basket containing 30 weighed 47 

 pounds. The Acadian extends thanks to Mr. 

 Harris for a generous share of the prov eeds of 

 the trip, and wishes him equally good luck next 

 time. 



I wrote Mr. Harris and Dr. Saunders, 

 asking if this report was true. They re- 

 plied as follows : 



Yes ; my friends, Dr. Saunders and 

 A. S. Harris of Kentville and I caught. 

 May 5, 210 trout, weighing ^ of a 

 pound to 1^ pounds. In less than 2 hours 

 we caught out of one pool 125 trout that 

 weighed the same number of oounds You 

 mis-ht send me Recreation for the coming 

 year. I have taken it before but had it 

 stopped some time ago. 



R. E. Harris, Wolfville, N. S. 



The report is true. A friend and I 

 caught 210 trout in one day. They weigh- 

 ed ^2 nound to i l / 2 pounds each. This 

 same friend and I at a previous time 

 caught 125 pounds of trout in 2 hours. 

 Not bad sport was it? 



Louis Saunders, Kentville, N. S. 



It seems that Harris has not read 

 Recreation long enough to have shed his 

 bristles yet. Possibly the Doctor may 

 never have read it. I advise both men to 

 read it carefullv hereafter, in order that 

 they may know what decent men think of 

 fish hogs. — Editor. 



