FISH AND FISHING. 
PUT THE SMALL ONES BACK, . 
Replying to your letter asking details 
of my recent fishing trip: Cass lake is on 
the line of the Great Northern railway, 
about 125 miles Northwest of Duluth. It 
is surrounded by an Indian reservation 
by the same name. This lake has about 
75 miles of shore line, a number of small 
islands, is surrounded by dense pine for- 
ests, and is a most enjoyable place to 
spend an outing. The recent order of 
the government, however, excluding all 
whites from the reservction, may tend to 
discourage camping parties from entering 
there in the immediate future. 
In order that the cognomen “game 
hogs” shall not attach to our names, I 
desire to say that with the exception of a 
few fish for eating, all of ours were re- 
turned to the lake as soon as taken from 
the hook. 
Geo. B. Norris, Minneapolis, Minn. 
I am delighted to know you did not 
kill all the fish you caught. Your report 
gives an entirely different color to the 
story. Still I do not believe in these large 
catches, merely for the sake of making a 
record, even though the fish be returned 
to the water. The catching of such a 
number of fish as you admit having taken 
turns the sport into labor and puts the 
angler almost on a level with the market 
fisherman, who works for money and not 
for sport. Another bad effect of such fish- 
ing, and of sending out such reports, is 
that some other party, or perhaps a dozen 
others, may go to this lake or some other 
one with the determination of breaking 
your record. These other fellows may not 
be so considerate as you, and may dump 
all the fish they take into their boats and 
let them die. 
The previous report did not state, nor 
does the clipping you now enclose, that 
you returned the fish to the water. Hence 
the men who may undertake to beat you 
would naturally assume, as I did, that you 
had killed all your fish and that it would 
be entirely proper for them to do likewise. 
The modern idea of genuine sport in 
angling or shooting is to take a reason- 
able number of fish, or a _ reasonable 
quantity of game; then to quit, even if 
this only takes an hour. The rest of the 
day, or of each day while you camp, may 
be spent much more delightfully in stroll- 
ing through the w -ods, studying nature, 
swimming, rowing, etc., than in fishing 
and hunting as hard as you can, all day 
long, in order to make a big record and 
send it to the newspapers after you get 
home. I trust you will pardon me for 
talking frankly. I am doing it for the 
good of the cause in general and not 
from any selfish motive. I do not ever 
expect to wet a line in Cass lake, and 
389 
personally it would make no difference to 
me if every fish were taken out of that 
lake within a week. But I am anxious to 
see the game and fish preserved and 
increased everywhere, for the benefit of 
all good sportsmen and nature lovers. 
This is the only object I have in criticis- 
ing any man who takes more fish or game 
than he should. 
EDITOR. 
Yours of 17th received and contents 
carefully noted. So far from feeling of- 
fended at your remarks, I agree with you 
heartily, and desire to offer further ex- 
planation. It is doubtful if any one of 
our party wet a line between the hours of 
g a. m. and 5 p. m. during our entire trip, 
and instead of being elated over a big 
catch, or trying for a record, it was an- 
noying in the extreme to hook as many 
fish as we did. We were after muscalonge. 
We used light tackle and fished almost 
entirely by trolling; and you can imagine 
that, when passing over the best mus- 
calonge ground, there was more disgust 
than pleasure in reeling in 30 to 50-yards 
of line, with an undersized pike or pick- 
erel on the hook. If it had been our 
desire to make a big catch, I believe we 
could have killed 500 game fish a day. ~ 
Regarding the newspaper article, it was 
faked to a large extent. The reporter 
came to me to get the story. I gave him 
the points and particularly impressed upon 
him the fact that we killed but a small 
proportion of the fish we hooked. This 
fact was omitted in the publication, and 
the following day I took steps to have 
a correction made. 
Every man in our party is a sportsman 
and all agree with your views, thoroughly. 
The Minneapolis portion of the party are 
members of our State Game and Fish 
Preserving Association. They subscribe 
to and working for what you term “The 
modern idea of genuine sport.” 

THERE WERE CIRCUMSTANCES. 
Goldendale, Wash. 
Editor RECREATION: 
I have stood a lot of guying over the 
roast Dr. Stewart, of Goldendale (may 
his shadow never grow less), gave M. F. 
Dirting and Jones, the Tombstone man, in 
RECREATION, for taking an unsuspecting 
old gentleman out for a day’s fishing and 
taking 302 trout. (The old gentleman 
caught the 2.) 
When Dirting counted the fish by the 
stream and asked what RECREATION 
would say, we agreed that you would pen 
us on sight. But there are circumstances 
that mitigate our offense. Of course we 
plead guilty and have taken our skinning. 
