448 



RECREATION. 



there is little distinction; but I notice you 

 have an extensive ad from each of the man- 

 ufacturers of these useful (?) articles, so 

 readily see where the shoe pinches. 



A. L. Snyder. 



I am not at all fond of criticising people, 

 or of " roasting pork," as my readers have 

 come to term it. I am doing it for the pur- 

 pose of educating sportsmen, and especially 

 the younger ones. Furthermore I am doing 

 it for the purpose of saving the game and 

 fish. 



Suppose the man who caught 800 trout did 

 put back 790 into the water. This does not 

 excuse him by any means. I can see no 

 sport in sitting in a boat or in whipping a 

 stream all day long and catching all the fish 

 possible, simply for the purpose of making 

 a record to boast of, even if all the fish were 

 put back in the water. This is labor and not 

 sport. A true sportsman goes out and fishes 

 an hour or 2, and if the fish are biting and if 

 he has made a reasonable catch in that time, 

 he quits while there is zest to the sport. He 

 can find many ways. of spending the remain- 

 der of the day to better purpose than in 

 fishing from daylight until dark, simply for 

 a record. 



In most cases where I roast these men, I 

 do not take the newspaper reports as au- 

 thority. I write the men and ask them 

 whether or not the printed report is correct. 

 You would be surprised to see in how 

 many such cases the men reply that the re- 

 port was correct, or even that the record 

 was better than the local paper had stated. 

 They proceed to boast to me of their hog- 

 gishness, hoping I may laud them in Rec- 

 reation. When they get a marked copy of 

 the magazine containing my comments on 

 them, most of them change their minds. 

 The thousands of letters I get commending 

 my course shows I am right. Some of 

 these come from men who have themselves 

 been fish and game hogs and who have re- 

 formed on account of Recreation's teach- 

 ings. Others come from neighbors of these 

 men. One, for instance, I received to-day 

 from Litchfield, Conn. The writer says that 

 for years that country has been infested with 

 men who shoot and fish illegally, in close 

 season and in open season, but that for the 

 past 2 years he and his friends have been 

 circulating Recreation among them; that 

 now nearly all these men are ashamed of 

 their past conduct and are to-day law-abid- 

 ing sportsmen. They not only observe the 

 laws themselves, and quit when they get 

 enough, but advise others to do so. 



I am well aware the language I use re- 

 garding these men is frequently distasteful 

 to men who have not such swinish instincts. 

 A well man does not like to take quinine, or 

 mercury, or any other bad tasting medicine. 

 Neither does a true sportsman like to read 

 many of the criticisms I print; but as I have 



said, they are having their effect on the 

 other kind of fellows, and that is why I keep 

 at it. 



I fail to see any logic in your comment on 

 the case of Mr. Mitchell. He says he got 14 

 trout and then quit. I do not see that the 

 fact of his using a steel rod and an auto- 

 matic reel gives him any more advantage of 

 the fish, than if he had used an Orvis reel 

 and a Leonard split bamboo rod. A good 

 angler is likely to save 75 per cent, of the 

 trout he hooks with the latter outfit, and 

 this man probably did no better with the 

 steel rod than he would with the split bam- 

 boo. — Editor. 



Besides, if I remember correctly, that 

 paragraph was printed among the advertise- 

 ments. If it were not, it is still a legitimate 

 bit of information and might very properly 

 go in the reading columns. — Editor. 



CALIFORNIA COAST FISHING. 



Los Angeles, Cal. 



Editor Recreation : The fishing off the 

 Southern California coast has this season 

 been ahead of anything for a number of 

 years. Large fish, such as tuna, yellow- 

 tail, barracouda, jewfish, and halibut, have 

 been running for the past 2 months. At 

 Avalon, Catalina island, Redondo, and 

 Coronado, some remarkable catches have 

 been made. More tuna have been taken at 

 Avalon so far this season than any previous 

 year since the use of rod and reel became 

 general for the capture of those race-horses 

 of the deep. Professor C. F. Holder still 

 holds the record for the largest tuna caught 

 on rod and reel, 183 pounds. Mr. W. F. 

 Loud, of Detroit, Mich., had the honor of 

 taking the next largest, weighing 156 

 pounds. It was struck at 5.40 a. m., and 

 brought to gaff at 7.50. Mr. Loud also took 

 21 barracouda, with rod and reel, in 1^2 

 hours.* 



One of the longest struggles with a tuna 

 fell to the lot of Mr. C. R. Scudder, who got 

 a strike at 7 a. m. in Avalon bay. The fish 

 put to sea immediately, towing the boat at a 

 rapid rate, and the party were soon out of 

 sight of Avalon. The boat was towed fully 

 20 miles. At 2 o'clock the fish was 

 brought to gaff. It weighed 130 pounds. 

 It was hooked in the back, which explained 

 its remarkable run. Mr. E. L. Doran, of 

 Avalon, holds the record for the largest 

 number of tuna caught this season. He has 

 taken 11 so far. 



Mr. H. Loomis, of Los Angeles, brought 

 2 tuna to gaff in quick time, a few days ago. 

 At 4 a. m. he got a strike in Avalon bay, the 

 struggle lasting 35 minutes. He got 

 another strike almost immediately, and capt- 

 ured the fish in 35 minutes, making 70 min- 

 utes for the 2. Mr. Doran, who accom- 

 panied Mr. Loomis, got 5 strikes, and had 

 his line broken twice. Yellow-tail are run- 



*At least 15 more than he should have taken. — Editor. 



