FISH AND FISHING. 



291 



wise. It is all right to read about jumping 

 bass into your boat, but it is not a sports- 

 manlike way of taking them, and I trust no 

 reader of Recreation will practice this 

 method to any serious extent. — Editor. 



FISH HOGS' WORK IN WEST VIRGINIA. 



Here you are again, more game hogs. 

 One person, 142 trout in one day ! En- 

 closed clipping appeared in the Pittsburg 

 Chronicle-Telegraph, and I send it to ycu 

 for treatment. I approve of your methods 

 and wish to help the good cause along. 



Jno. O. Bates, Pittsburg, Pa. 



The clipping sent by Mr. Bates is as fol- 

 lows : 



John A. King, of this place, Dr. B. R. Smith, 

 John F. and Charles H. Ely, of Jeannette, who 

 have been in Pocahontas county, W. Va., the past 

 2 weeks fishing for trout in the Gauley and Elk 

 rivers, have returned home. Mr. King says their 

 total catch would be safely estimated at 1,500 fish, 

 the largest of which was over 14 inches long. 

 One of their party alone caught 142 trout one 

 day. — Uniontown Genius. 



I asked these men if the statement was 

 true, and Mr. John F. Ely replied: 



Yes, it is true, and had our appetites held 

 out for the 2 weeks we could have made it 

 3,000, instead of 1,500; but after the first 3 

 days we did not care much for brook 

 trout, and as we would not catch more 

 than we could eat, we did not fish much. 



This was an average of over 100 each 

 day. You could not possibly eat them, 

 then why take them from the water and 

 kill them? You might have given them 

 away or sold them, but you should not have 

 done either. Let any man who wants trout 

 go and take them or else leave them for 

 those who are anxious to do so. — Editor. 



A GREEDY OFFICER. 



One would naturally suppose the post- 

 master of the largest town in the Adiron- 

 dacks would conduct himself in such a 

 manner, when he went fishing, -that all less- 

 er citizens would look up to him as a shin- 

 ing example. Judge of my surprise, as an 

 admirer of Postmaster Gay, when I heard 

 he had caught 38 pounds of speckled trout 

 in one day ; and out of a brook, at that. 

 I asked him about it. "Yes, it is true," 

 he said ; "40 pounds the 2 baskets weighed, 

 or 38 pounds of fish. There is no use in 

 lying to you. Others would claim that 

 every one was above 6 inches, but lots of 

 ours were very small; just large enough 

 for us to rip open and take out the insides." 



What can you expect of ordinary mor- 

 tals when the postmaster of the headquar- 

 ters of the Adirondacks confesses as 

 above? Postmaster Gay, being a promi- 

 nent citizen, I suppose nothing will be 

 done. Were he a poor devil, the game 



warden, Vosburgh, would be after him in 

 no time. 



I went out the other day and put back 

 100 small trout in one day's brook fishing. 

 The few I saved did not fill more than a 

 third of my creel. What is the use of our 

 fish commission if game hogs catch all the 

 fingerlings ? 



Lawful Fisherman, 

 Saranac Lake, N. Y. 



TWO HOGS IN ONE FAMILY. 

 R. Engle, of West Sioux Falls, and his son, 

 in less than a day of fishing caught 730 fish in 

 Round Lake, Minn. The largest of the catch was 

 a pickerel weighing 6>4 pounds. — -North Dakota 

 Paper. 



I wrote R. Engle, asking if the report 

 was correct and received from W. B. Engle 

 the following reply : 



My father, R. Engle, and his son actu- 

 ally caught 730 fish in less than a day. 

 They went out late in the afternoon and 

 caught about 160. The next morning they 

 went out before breakfast and at 6.30 a. 

 m. they came in with 139. They made 2 

 trips after breakfast, taking over 200 each 

 time and finishing before 11 a. m., so 

 they were not fishing a full day. All the 

 fish were taken with hook and line. In case 

 you see fit to make an item of this in yoar 

 magazine, father would like to see a copy 

 of it. 



ANSWER. 



Yes, I will make an item, and I will 

 send your father a marked copy of this 

 issue of Recreation. Unmarked copies of 

 it go to 65,000 other and more decent peo- 

 ple, every one of whom will record your 

 father and his son as straightout fish hogs 

 with bristles at least 8 inches long. — 

 Editor. 



NIBBLES. 



In a letter to the Sherburne News, written from 

 Miama, Fla., A. R. Gladwin tells of landing 334 

 black bass in a single day's sport, if slaughter of 

 this sort may be termed such. He is more than a 

 fish hog. — East Durham (N. Y.) Paper. 



If the report given above is correct, then 

 the editor of the Durham paper is right. In 

 that case, this man Gladwin is a low down 

 brute who should never be allowed to take 

 another fishing rod or line in his hands. 

 In fact, I doubt if he uses a rod. The rec- 

 ord reads like that of one of those old 

 mossbacks who fish with several lines 

 hanging from the boat at one time, and who 

 keep themselves busy yanking in a fish 

 from first one and then another line. I 

 asked Gladwin if this report were correct, 

 and he did not answer. Therefore, I as- 

 sume it is correct. Florida thus far has 

 plenty of fish in her waters, but I trust her 

 lawmakers in the near future will pass 

 stringent laws prohibiting fish hogs from 

 depleting them. — Editor. 



