4S4 



'RECREATION. 



No, thank you. I do not care for the 

 picture. It would not be interesting, except 

 as emphasizing your greed and that of 

 Mr. Bohr. You say the catch is consid- 

 ered a good one. I consider it a bad one, 

 and all decent readers of Recreation will 

 .agree with me in this. Unfortunately, 

 there is no law in this State limiting the 

 number of bass or the number of pounds 

 of bass each man may take in a day; but 

 no real sportsmen would ever think of tak- 

 ing more than 15 or 20 pounds in a day. 

 Rockland lake is fished to death, as are all 

 the other lakes in the Eastern States. 

 Many a man goes there, fishes half a day 

 or all day and gets 2 or 3 fish, or, possibly, 

 none at all. It happened that when you 

 and Mr. Bohr went the bass were biting 

 vigorously, and you evidently kept on as 

 long as you could get a rise. You should 

 have been willing to quit when you got 

 enough and to have left some for other peo- 

 ple, even if the fish were biting. Any man 

 can keep on fishing or shooting as long as 

 the fish bite or there is game in sight, but 

 it takes a true sportsman to quit when he 

 gets enough. — Editor. 



MARKS HIMSELF GUILTY. 

 Intervale, N. H. — Mr. Cyrus A. Hawes, of 

 Boston, who is a visitor here, took from Walkers 

 pond 67 bass, each averaging one pound. Later 

 he took from Echo lake 43 bass. — Exchange. 



I wrote Mr. Hawes regarding this re- 

 port, and following is his answer : 



You will find excellent black bass fish- 

 ing at Walker's pond, near Conway Cen- 

 tre, N. H. I do not know who your in- 

 formant could be to tell you of 67 bass in 

 one day's fishing. I never take more fish 

 than I can use in the house. 



C. A. Hawes, Intervale, N. H. 



This not being definite I again wrote to 

 Mr. Hawes : 



You have not answered my question. I 

 do not know how big a house you have nor 

 how big a family, nor how many board- 

 ers you keep. If you have a good big ice 

 box you might use 500 bass before they 

 would spoil. Should be glad to have you 

 tell me frankly whether this report is cor- 

 rect, no matter who furnished it. 



To my last letter Mr. Hawes replied as 

 follows : 



Had I received a courteous note in the 

 first place I should have been glad to reply. 

 As your first inquiry was similar in tone 

 to your last I do not care to continue the 

 correspondence. C. A. Hawes, 



Boston, Mass. 



If there is any lack of courtesy in either 

 of my notes to Mr. Hawes, I fail to real- 

 ize it. I did not deem it necessary to make 

 a profound salaam to him. and ibeg his par- 

 don for troubling him, or to cover a page 



or even half a page with apologies or ex* 

 planations as to why I addressed him. I 

 wrote him a brief, businesslike note, stat- 

 ing that I had been informed he had caught 

 67 bass and asking him if the report were 

 true. There was nothing in that letter at 

 which any gentleman could take offense. 

 Neither could any gentleman be justly of- 

 fended at my 'having omitted to say any- 

 thing else in that connection. The fact 

 that Mr. Hawes refuses to answer my 

 question and that he takes offense at what 

 he calls my lack of courtesy is proof to me 

 that he is guilty of the charge, and readers 

 of Recreation will judge him accordingly. 

 — Editor. 



SHOULD HAVE 10 YEARS. 

 Mr. L. M. Karstetter, Greenburr, Pa. 



Dear Sir — I am informed that you re- 

 cently caught 18% pounds of trout in one 

 day, and that you sold them to a hotel 

 man in your town. Will you kindly in- 

 form me whether this report is correct? 



G. O. Shields. 



Dear Sir — I caught 38^ pounds of 

 speckled trout this season. The first day, 

 fishing in Elk creek, I took 8^ pounds, 93 

 in number, near Millheim, Pa. The next 

 trip, fishing in a creek near Gamar, Clin- 

 ton county, Pa., I took 20 trout in one day, 

 weighing 4^2 pounds. Next trip, same 

 place, I took 112 trout in 2 days, weight 17 

 pounds. Six of them measured 14 inches 

 and over. G. M. Karstetter, 



Greenburr, Pa. 



I wish I had a dictionary with a lot of 

 meaner words in it than any I can find in 

 Webster's, in order to express my opinion 

 of you. I might coin some words, but you 

 would not know what they meant. I wish 

 the Legislature of your State had long ago 

 enacted a law that would authorize the 

 Sheriff of your county to have a branding 

 iron made, bearing the words "fish hog," 

 and to arrest you and burn that legend 

 into your forehead, so it would last as long 

 as you last. You say that in one day you 

 took 93 trout that weighed % l / 2 pounds. 

 The average weight of those fish would 

 •be about 1^2 ounces each, and some of 

 them must have been nearly 6 inches long. 

 No one could blame a water snake or a 

 skunk for eating trout of that size, if he 

 could get hold of them, but a man who will 

 go out and kill baby trout, such as these, 

 and then boast of it, and get his local 

 newspaper to talk about it, and then 

 even try to get the editor of a sportsmen's 

 magazine to pat him on the back, deserves 

 at least 10 years in State's prison at hard 

 labor. I hope the law makers of all the 

 States may one of these days get down to 

 business and make proper provision for 

 such degraded beasts as you arc— Editor. 



