44 



RECREATtOti. 



oysters, but of shooting at the officers who tried 

 to prevent their depredations. This resort to 

 arms caused bloodshed, and the State had to 

 maintain an oyster navy for the purpose of put- 

 ting the wardens on a par with their foes so far 

 as facilities for sea fighting were concerned. The 

 belligerent attitude of the Winnebago fish thieves 

 may compel Wisconsin to establish a fish nr.vy on 

 Lake Winnebago and fight the illicit fishermen 

 out of existence. The fish laws must be rigidly 

 enforced. There can be no half way work. 

 Laxity in regard to violations here and there will 

 beget contempt for the statutes that will operate 

 to nullify all fish and game legislation and lower 

 the morals of the people wherever the laws are 

 openly violated. — Exchange. 



The State should employ, as deputy- 

 wardens, a few expert long range riflemen, 

 give them high power smokeless rifles and 

 plenty of cartridges. The sooner the Win- 

 nebago fish poachers are sent to the bone- 

 yard the better. — Editor. 



BASS NOT NEEDED IN MONTANA. 



Would like to hear from you or some 

 of your readers as to the growing of black 

 bass and pike in Montana waters. As far 

 as I know, there are none such in any 

 Montana streams or lakes. From what I 

 know of these fish, I do not think there are 

 many streams in Montana adapted to them. 

 Ernest McLaughlin, Boulder, Mont. 



answer. 



Why should you or any other Montana 

 man think of planting black bass in your 

 waters ? You have mountain trout every- 

 where, and they are better fish than black 

 bass every hour of the day; not only as an 

 article of food, but as an article of sport. 

 It is impossible to say what the result 

 might be of introducing bass in your trout 

 waters, for no experiments of that kind 

 have ever been made that I know of. I 

 advise you to let well enough alone. East- 

 ern and Southern people who can not have 

 mountain trout must be content with black 

 bass, or whatever else they may be able to 

 get ; but you have a luxury that should be 

 satisfactory. 



The U. S. Fish Commission has persist- 

 ently declined to supply black bass to any 

 of the Western States whose waters are in- 

 habited by trout or salmon. — Editor. 



NIBBLES. 

 When a friend proposed a few days' 

 sport at Lake Charlotte, a beautiful sheet 

 of water about 12 miles from my home, I 

 gladly accepted his invitation. We got our 

 fishing tackle together and started for the 

 lake, arriving there at 4 o'clock in the af- 

 ternoon. The water was like a sheet of 

 glass. After putting out our team, we 

 rowed out to try our luck. Although my 

 friend is blessed with a towering ambition, 

 he kindly allowed me to row while he 

 fished. 



We did not have good luck that after- 

 noon, but the next morning we found the 

 fishing all we could desire. We fished 

 nearly all that day, and found, on weigh- 

 ing our catch, that we had 11 pounds, near- 

 ly all of which were pickerel. While we 

 might have caught more, we thoroughly en- 

 joyed ourselves and had enough fish to 

 give some to a friend. 



Geo. B. Craver, Claverak, N. Y. 



In order to settle a disputed question, 

 the parties have decided to refer it to you. 

 A. says that the trout is scaleless ; B. says 

 the trout has scales. We should be great- 

 ly obliged to you for information on the 

 subject. 



N. B. Ward, Mansfield, Texas. 



ANSWER 



All trout in this country have scales, 

 though on most species they are very 

 small, and on very young trout they are 

 so small as to require a powerful glass to 

 see or to count them. It is necessary to 

 count the number of scales in the lat- 

 eral line in order to determine to what 

 species any individual trout may belong. — 

 — Editor. 



Mr. Lacount Graham, game warden of Frank- 

 lin county, and his assistant, Abe Lincoln, re- 

 cently arrested 35 citizens of Dublin for vio- 

 lating the State laws by gigging for fish in the 

 Scioto river. 



The information was received some time ago 

 that the law was being violated in a wholesale 

 way in that neighborhood, and the officers se- 

 cured warrants. The first man arrested was 

 Charles_ Smith, who was fined $25 and costs, 

 amounting to $34.50. The word soon spread, 

 and John Yates, Tom Davis, John Carlile, Ray 

 Coffman, Charles Mitchell, John Slotts, Marky 

 Smith, Emory Corbin, Dr. Dolle, Eugene Smith 

 and 24 others came to the magistrate's office with 

 out the service of the warrants. 



All pleaded guilty and were fined nominal 

 amounts. The singular part of the matter is that 

 a number of those whom the game warden was 

 seeking are relatives of his. He made no diS' 

 tinction because of that. — Ohio State Journal. 



Great luck for the fishes. I wish they 

 had more such friends as Graham and 

 Lincoln. — Editor. 



I have sometimes seen, in different pub- 

 lications, the muskalonge called the fresh 

 water shark, but I think the salmon trout 

 has a better title to the name. Last fall, 

 while 2 other rangers and I were on the 

 South fork of Flathead river, we saw a sal- 

 mon trout catch and swallow a river trout 

 that weighed at least 3 pounds. The same 

 salmon trout had killed a large whitefish 

 a few minutes before he caught and swal- 

 lowed the trout. The whitefish was not 

 good enough for his lordship so he left it 

 on the bottom of the river. 



M. P. Dunham, Ovando, Mont, 



