FISH AND FISHING 



457 



SELF-CONFESSED FISH HOGS. 



Enclosed find clipping from the Bangor 

 Daily News ; and this in Maine, with all 

 its fish and game laws ! S. L. A., 



Bangor, Me. 



The clipping mentioned in the foregoing 



letter is as follows : 



Up Lincoln way they have some good trout 

 streams and some men who know how to catch 

 the fish. Recently S. H. Clay, I. F. Clark and 

 E. S. Clay, of that place, made a 3 days' trip to 

 Passadumkeag river and brought home with them 

 388 trout. One morning they caught 90 before 

 10 o'clock. 



To my inquiry as to the truth of this re- 

 port I received the following replies : 



My 2 friends and I caught 338 trout in 

 3 days, and the last day we caught 97 be- 

 fore 10 o'clock a. m. S. H. Clay, 



Lincoln, Me. 

 We caught in 3 days 338 trout of good 

 size. We caught 97 one morning before 10 

 o'clock. This is the truth. We fished on 

 the Passadumkeag stream. 



I. F. Clark, 

 Lincoln, Me. 



been sadly depleted by just such ornery 

 whelps as this Lane. — Editor. 



A RECORD COWARD. 



Newburg, N. Y. — Charles Goben, Jr., of Lake 

 Mahopac, was on trial at that place yesterday, 

 charged by Mr. Brady, of the League of Ameri- 

 can Sportsmen, with having caught and kept 3 

 black bass under 10 inches in length. The evi- 

 dence on the part of the prosecution was strong, 

 and it looked like a conviction until the defendant 

 took the stand. When reference was made to the 

 3 small fish he turned to his wife and said: 

 "They were the 3 you caught, weren't they?" 

 Mrs. Goben admitted it, and the jury found a 

 verdict of no cause of action. Suit could be 

 commenced against the woman, but the League will 

 not press the matter further. — N. Y. Herald. 



This is one of the most contemptible 

 cases of hiding behind a petticoat that I 

 have ever heard of. No decent man would 

 ever have been guilty of so scurvy a trick. 

 Goben should now borrow a suit of his 

 wife's clothes, put them on, black his face 

 and sneak out of the country as a chicken- 

 stealing negro girl. He is not fit to live 

 among respectable people. — Editor. 



AN ELGIN FISH HOG. 



Your letter to Mr. James Lane was 



turned over to me, as he had not time to 



answer. Enclosed find clipping from Min- 



ocqua Times, which will give you his catch. 



H. Selleck, Minocqua, Wis. 



James Lane, of Elgin, Ills., broke all previous 

 fishing records last Tuesday at Squaw lake, when 

 he captured 21 muskalonge, the largest weighing 

 30 and the smallest 5 pounds, 2 bass and one 

 pike. He brought the catch in yesterday after- 

 noon, and it was photographed. Mr. Lane is now 

 admired and envied by all the tourists in the city. 

 Thos. McGregor acted as guide. — Exchange. 



Admired and envied by all the tourists, 

 eh? Well, he will be hated and shunned 

 by all true sportsmen 'hereafter. Wiscon- 

 sin is sadly in need of a branding law. 

 She has thousands of miles of what were 

 once good fishing waters, but they have 



MAINE LAWS TOO LIBERAL. 

 Though away from home 8 days on my 

 spring fishing trip, I caught all I wanted in 

 2 days and stopped fishing. Our lake fish- 

 ing has been exceptionally good this year. 

 Our fish laws are wrong. I saw some 

 New York men who had bought licenses 

 for $1, each allowing them to send home 10 

 pounds of fish. When they went home 

 each took 25 pounds more. That was ac- 

 cording to law, but I see neither justice nor 

 reason in it. There is a petition in circula- 

 tion asking that this tiling be stopped. 

 Our fishing interests are worth 10 times as 

 much to our State as our hunting interests. 



NIBBLES. 



Samuel P. Monroe, justice of the peace and a 

 special fish and game protector of Old Lyme, was 

 bound over to the superior court yesterday on a 

 charge of illegal fishing. The necessary bonds 

 of $150 had not been furnished. 



Monroe was arrested at the instance of E. H. 

 Geer, fish and game commissioner, who alleges 

 that he caught the justice and a companion, A. 

 R. Crittenden, violating the law by capturing 32 

 shad in a net Saturday night. The penalty for 

 shad fishing between sunset Saturday and sun- 

 down Sunday is a fine of $100 with forfeiture 

 of boat and gear. The 2 men were notified to 

 appear in court, but when the commissioner went 

 to Old Lyme to prosecute the cases he was un- 

 able to find either of his men. The penalty is 

 so large in case of conviction that it is thought 

 both men have run away rather than face the 

 music. Monroe's case is a particularly aggra- 

 vated one, as besides being the trial justice of 

 Old Lyme, he is a special fish and game pro- 

 tector, and it was his duty to prevent or detect 

 violations of law. — Middletown, Conn., Triumph. 



Trout were plentiful in our streams last 

 season. Two prominent citizens of Pine 

 City, Minn., attorney Robert Saunders and 

 Prof. Blankenship, superintendent of 

 schools, report a one-day catch of 520. 

 L. Johnson, Sturgeon Lake, Minn. 



I wrote Mr. Saunders and Professor 

 Blankenship, asking if this report was cor- 

 rect, and Mr. Saunders replied : 



Three of us and a guide did capture 507 

 trout just after the opening of the season. 

 The condition of weather, water, etc., 

 were exceptional, however, and the trout 

 were small. Robt. Saunders, 



Pine City, Minn. 



The recent haul of 4 members of a noto- 

 rious gang of gillnetters here, and the large 

 fine and workhouse sentence for each of 

 them, will no doubt put an end to this ne- 

 farious work that has been going on nearly 

 20 years. During the last year one man 

 was shot dead, another badly wounded and 

 others repeatedly and heavily fined, until 

 now they are ready to quit for good. 



lW. S. Jones, Akron, Ohio. 



