PISe AND) FISTING; 
ANOTHER RELIC OF SAVAGERY. 
The Anglers’ association met Monday evening and 
re-elected the old officers : A. Mather, president ; A. D 
Crone, vice-pres., and L, E. Gates, secretary. It was 
voted to hold the annual fishing contest between 7 p. m. 
Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday, June 15-16. A meeting 
will be called later to appoint committees and make 
turther arrangements. Sam Wilton and Dr. Browne 
were chosen captains.—Honoye;Falls (N. Y.) paper. 
On receipt of this clipping I wrote Mr. 
Mather as follows: 
I am informed that your association is 
planning a fishing contest. I beg to in- 
quire whether this information is correct. 
Possibly you will say it is none of my 
business; but in that assumption you 
would be wrong. It is made my duty by 
the constitution and by-laws of the League 
of American Sportsmen to do everything 
possible to preserve the game and fishes of 
this country. Also as editor of RECREA- 
TION, it is my duty to expose and con- 
demn all such side fishing contests as I 
learn you are to hold, as destructive of 
fishes in the highest possible degree. 
To which Mr. Mather replied as fol- 
lows: 
Yours of oth at hand. In reply will send 
you copy of our constitution and by-laws. 
Also copy of score card of a contest which 
we will hold on Friday next. 
I was not aware that we were violating 
any law in holding these contests. Our 
club has done as much as anyone in stock- 
ing the waters and protecting the fish and 
game of the state, by enforcing state laws. 
When our club was organized, no atten- 
‘tion was paid to the law. Black bass were 
caught at any time, and of any size. Quail 
and other birds were shot regardless of 
law. Through the influence of our club 
that has mostly been stopped, and we have 
planted hundreds of thousands of fish in 
the waters around here during the last 8 
or 9 years. 
If you think our club is not doing as it 
should, or are not living up to the laws of 
the state, I wish you would tell me in what 
respect. A. Mather, 
Honoye Falls, N. Y. 
ANSWER. 
I have not raised any question of law as 
to fishing contests. Unfortunately there 
is no law to prohibit such. There is, how- 
ever, an unwritten law governing all good 
sportsmen which emphatically condemns 
such practices. 
You may remember that 2 or 3 years 
ago the Onandaga Sportsmen’s Associa- 
tion held a fishing contest; that I an- 
nounced it in RECREATION, and criticised 
it severely. The hundreds of letters which 
I received, from all over the United States 
and Canada, commending my course in 
this matter, showed that the sentiment of 
‘fish hogs in the country. 
the best sportsmen, in the country every- 
where, was, and is with me, and against 
these side fishing and hunting contests. 
Your course in restocking the waters 
and enforcing the laws is highly com- 
mendable, and your example should be 
followed by all sportsmen’s clubs every- 
where; but when you get a stream or a 
lake well-stocked, it is not policy to turn 
around and put up a prize to induce every 
man to do his best to clean it out. 
EDITOR. 

SOME MORE MINNESOTA SWINE. 
You will see by the attached that we 
have in Minneapolis some of the worst 
Give them a 
roast and possibly they may reform. 
Subscriber, Minneapolis, Minn. 
E. N. Martin and 3 others came in from Cass lake 
_ yesterday. They were out 5 days and caught over 250 
pounds of bass. The party returned to Minneapolis 
yesterday morning, bringing in fish enough to supply 
‘the eighth ward. 
A letter to W. H. Rendell from E. Elston, Cass lake, 
says: 
“‘T have just returned from Lake 13 with W. P. Finne- 
gan and we brought in 70 black bass weighing in the 
aggregate 212 pounds. I have just had them spholc 
graphed. We also caught 24 pickerel that would aver- 
age 4 to 8 pounds each; but these we threw away.”— 
Minneapolis Journal. 
I wrote Mr. Elston to ask if he had been 
correctly quoted, and here is what he says: 
Replying to yours of the 16th: On June 
4th after dinner, W. P. Finnegan, a con- 
ductor on the Great Northern Railway, and 
I left here for Lake 1,3, which is 9 miles 
Southeast of town. We returned next 
morning, after having had the evening and 
morning fishing, with 70 black bass weigh- 
- ing 212 pounds. - We also caught 24 pick- 
_water is as clear as crystal. 
2b5 
erel ranging in weight from 5 to 8 pounds. 
These fish we never keep, but kill and 
throw them away. 
This lake is a beautiful spot and the 
I have es- 
tablished a camp it this place where a 
man may enjoy some of the comforts of 
life as well as an outing. There have been 
several parties fishing in this lake, who 
hve enjoyed equally as good sport as we 
id. 
Cass lake is about 6 miles wide by 11 
miles long, through which the Mississippi 
river runs. This lake is full of pike, perch, 
pickerel, white fish, muscalonge, the Jlat- 
ter weighing as high as 32 pounds. In the 
center of this lake is an island containing 
1,300 acres, with 3,000,000 feet of pine, and 
every tree known to the state of Minne- 
sota growing there. In the center of this 
island is another lake containing about 4oo 
acres. The lake is inhabited by small 
black bass of about a pound to a pound and 
quarter, as well as perch and rock bass. 
