456 



RECREATION. 



have done. Suppose ioo men should fish 

 the stream you speak of, in the course of a 

 season, each staying 2 days and each tak- 

 ing 50 trout a day. Such a case is 

 scarcely possible, but assuming that it 

 might be done, what would be left for oth- 

 ers who might see fit to fish there in fu- 

 ture? Can you not easily realize that the 

 streams would be completely cleaned out? 

 Does a farmer kill all his chickens, ducks, 

 turkeys, sheep, hogs or cattle in one 

 year, or does he save a few to propagate 

 for future years? What would be thought 

 of a man who, simply because he had a 

 chance to. sell or to give away poultry to 

 his friends, would go into his barnyard 

 and kill every fowl he found there? Would 

 you not consider him a fool? Most as- 

 suredly; but in that case, he would be 

 dealing with his own property, and would 

 not be committing a crime against his 

 neighbors. Men who kill all the fish in a 

 stream, or who do their best to accom- 

 plish that, are not only fools, but crimi- 

 nals in the eyes of their neighbors, and 

 should be dealt with accordingly. — Editor. 



THE MONTANA KIND. 



I hand you herewith a clipping from our 

 daily paper, and hope you will make good 

 use of it. The persons mentioned have been 

 heard from before, and, in consequence, 

 our fish and game is rapidly disappearing. 

 These fellows think nothing of catching 

 100 fish a day. 



L. A. S., Missoula, Mont. 



The clipping follows : 



The Goober Club, made up of J. A. Hartley, 

 Ned Dorman, H. Blumberg and George Steinbren- 

 ner returned yesterday afternoon from Rock 

 creek. They went out to the creek last Thurs- 

 day afternoon and brought back 362 trout. The 

 reporter is from Missouri, but the story is abso- 

 lutely truthful. 



I wrote the persons mentioned, and re- 

 ceived the following replies : 



The information you received is correct, 

 as far as number is concerned, but the time 

 was 2 days instead of one. 



Geo. L. Steinbrenner, Missoula, Mont. 



While the number of fish caught by our 

 party was 362, the time was 2 days instead of 

 one, which would make an average catch of 

 45 fish a day. These were brook trout, rang- 

 ing in size from 7 to 14 inches long. In this 

 part of the State we consider this a medium 

 catch, as the streams 'abound with these 

 trout. While not a member of the L. A. S., 

 I read its organ, Recreation, and approve 

 the manner in which it strives to preserve 

 fish and game. 



E. S. Dorman, Missoula, Mont. 



The information you received is correct. 



My friends succeeded in catching 360 and 

 I caught the remaining 2. 



Harry Blumberg, Missoula, Mont. 



There seems to be one decent man in 

 the crowd. Mr. Dorman says he approves 

 of the manner in which the League strives 

 to preserve the fish and game. So far, so 

 good"; but if you approve of the League's 

 efforts, why not participate in them in- 

 stead of fishing from daylight to dark in 

 order to try to clean out a stream? Why 

 not stop when you get a decent basket of 

 fish. Why not induce your companions to 

 do likewise? You should all be ashamed of 

 yourselves, even the man who claims to 

 have caught only 2 fish. That story of his 

 will bear a liberal quantity of salt — Editor. 



MICHIGAN SHOULD PASS LIMIT LAW. 



P. L. Lamoria and Menzo Gates returned from 

 a day's fishing near Alexander with a big lunch 

 basket full of handsome brook trout. The crowd 

 applauded the catch and Paul and Menzo smiled 

 as they walked home lugging the basket and a 

 heavily loaded wash boiler. The boiler was 

 filled with trout, also, and they did not take the 

 trouble to count them but they say their day's 

 catch amounted to about 2 bushels of speckled 

 jewels. — Sault Ste. Marie (Mich.) News Record. 



On inquiry as to the truth of this report 

 I received the following reply: 



That which you have heard in regard 

 to myself and a friend catching 2 bushels 

 of speckled trout is the truth. We started 

 to fish at 6 in the morning and at 1 130 p.m. 

 we were on our way home. Paul Lemoria 

 is the name of the friend who accompanied 

 me on that trip. We made our catch on 

 Pine river , Chippewa county. 



M. Gates, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. 



You evidently used either dynamite or a 

 net to catch such a large number of trout in 

 7 hours. Of course if you had used hooks 

 and lines you would have yanked the fish 

 out as fast as possible. Such degraded 

 brutes as you always do that. They care 

 nothing for the sport of fishing. They 

 simply fish for count and for the frying 

 pan. Still I do not believe that in any 

 stream in the country trout are plentiful 

 enough to enable 2 razorbacks to take a 

 bushel of trout in one day. It is to be 

 hoped Michigan and all other States will 

 soon enact laws limiting the number and 

 the aggregate weight of a day's catch of 

 trout or other game fishes; and a jail pen- 

 alty should be provided for violators. This 

 is the only way to curb the brutal instincts 

 of such swine as you. — Editor. 



MIGHT LIVE IN WARM WATER. 

 Will you kindly advise what species of 

 fish would be best adapted to water of a 

 temperature of 80 degrees? We have an 

 artificial lake covering 7 acres, with 5 to 

 18 feet of water, fed by natural springs; 



