PISH AND FISHING. 



37$ 



time may soort come when the Legislature 

 of your State will curb the vicious appe' 

 tites of such men as you by enacting a law 

 limiting the number of fish any man or 

 beast may take in a day. — Editor. 



A FISH HOG AND A LIAR. 

 I enclose a clipping from our "Review" 

 which may interest you. I admire your 

 stand in regard to game protection and 

 preservation, and your knifing of game hogs. 

 Recreation is all right and improves with 

 each issue. I especially enjoy the letters 

 of experience of your various sportsmen 

 correspondents.. 



J. E. Bates, Spokane, Wash. 



Here is the clipping : 



John Pelzel, a fisherman of Medical lake, who 

 insisted on catching bass out of season, was fined 

 $10 and costs by Justice Kennan. Pelzel, with 

 whom fishing is a business, fought the case, and 

 had Lawyer L. J. Birdseye defend him. It devel- 

 oped in the testimony that, a farmer named Grubb 

 owned the land around Grubb lake, a body of wa- 

 ter covering 30 acres and having neither inlet nor 

 outlet. Grubb stocked it with bass and they mul- 

 tiplied rapidly. Pelzel bought 40 acres from 

 Grubb, which contained 3 acres of the lake, 

 and speared fish regularly, in season and out, 

 until he nearly exhausted the preserve. He was 

 warned not to fish during the closed season by 

 State Senator Stanley Hallett, of Medical lake. 

 Pelzel, however, had a letter written to the State 

 Fish Commissioner setting forth that he was the 

 owner of all the land around the lake, and asking 

 whether he had the right to fish. The Commis- 

 sioner replied by quoting a letter from the Attor- 

 ney-General to the effect that under such circum- 

 stances he would have a right to fish. Pelzel ac- 

 cordingly kept on fishing until arrested on com- 

 plaint of Game Warden Uhlig. His lawyer an- 

 nounced that he would appeal. 



Thus it seems that Pelzel is not only a 

 fish' hog but a liar as well ; that whereas 

 he owns only 3 acres of lake, he made a 

 false claim to the fish commissioner that he 

 owned it all, in order to obtain a semblance 

 of authority to slaughter fish in close sea- 

 son. It is to be hoped the higher court to 

 which his case has been carried will soak 

 him and that his lawyer will charge him at 

 least $500 for handling the case. 



Mr. Uhlig, who made the arrest, is a 

 member of the L. A. S. — Editor. 



FISHING IN ALASKA. 



Even in the country, where trout abound, 

 I have seen evidence of the use of dyna- 

 mite. This was the work of white men, for 

 Indians will not use the villainous stuff. 

 Imagine using dynamite where one can 

 catch 100 pounds of trout in 2 or 3 hours 

 with hook and bait ! 



A friend and I went this summer to a 

 creek not far from here to salt down some 

 trout for winter use. We each took a but- 

 ter firkin to put our fish in, each firkin 

 holding 100 pounds or thereabout. In 3 

 hours we both had enough fish to fill our 

 firkins. Mind you, we put these up for our 



own use for food, for neither of us is on 

 easy street and we have to look after get- 

 ting our own food supplies through hard 

 work. 



On our return journey we had to wait an 

 hour for the tide at the head of Douglas 

 island. To while away the time we set our 

 halibut line, baited with 2 small trout. As 

 we were making the line fast to a spring 

 pole on shore something struck it. We 

 paid out more line and it immediately tight- 

 ened. Then we struck hard and went out 

 with the boat to take in the fish. It was too 

 big to get into our little skiffs, so we towed 

 our catch ashore and killed it with a club. 

 The halibut weighed 250 pounds; but that is 

 nothing uncommon here, for I saw one last 

 winter that weighed 420 pounds. 



In a. country so prolific in game and 

 fish, is there any excuse for slaughtering 

 fish by dynamite or for shooting does and 

 fawns? 



Frank Dodson, Douglas, Alaska. 



BEAMAN THINKS HE IS A SPORTSMAN. 



D. C. Beaman, of Denver, who is now at 

 Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, Cal., has sent 

 George Tritch a photograph of his record catch a 

 few days ago. He says of it: 



"X beat the record catch for the season yes- 

 terday, taking 6 yellowtails, 3 bonita, 15 barra- 

 cuda, 3 rock bass and 1 shark — 28 in all; weight, 

 265 pounds. Young, of St. Louis, came next 

 with 25, but he ran out of bait and I gave him 

 half a dozen smelts. Then I ran out of bait and 

 quit in a school of yellowtails which were mak- 

 ing the water boil for acres all about my boat. 

 But for giving him the half dozen I could have 

 increased my catch 5 or 6 more. 



"Yellowtails run about 3 feet long and the 

 largest I caught weighed 29 pounds. 



"It takes about 20 minutes to land a yellow- 

 tail or a bonita, and if anyone thinks landing 28 

 of these fish isn't a good day's work, he may 

 try it." — California Paper. 



Yet Beaman poses as a sportsman and 

 a game and fish protector ! A prominent 

 Denver man told me, a year ago, he thought 

 the city had more game and fish hogs to 

 the square inch than any other in the 

 country. If any evidence were needed as 

 to the truth of this, here's a block of it. — 

 Editor. 



NIBBLES. 

 Will someone tell me, through Recrea- 

 tion, of an artificial bait that will take the 

 speckled or calico bass found in the lakes 

 of Ohio and Pennsylvania. These fish are 

 truly game. They are beautifully mottled 

 with dark green, almost black, irregular 

 spots and weigh }£ to y 2 pound. I have 

 had good success with minnows about an 

 inch long, but they are hard to obtain. 

 Have also tried a small rubber minnow, at 

 which they would strike savagely, but I 

 could only succeed in hooking about one in 

 a dozen. I think a fly of some kind would 

 be successful. I have angled a great deal 



