FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 1891, 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



C CHICAGO, 111., Jan. 28.— Mention has from time to 

 I time been made in these columns of the perfectly 

 legal but none the less perfectly abominable destruction 

 of game fish that goes on in the Fox Lake system every 

 winter, -when the ice sufficiently coTers the waters of 

 that chain of lakes. It may perhaps be futile to spend 

 time in regrets OTer the unwisdom of a practice which 

 has never been checked through legal enactment by 

 reason of the old cry that "the farmers onght to be 

 allowed to catch a few fish for food during the winter." 

 It will be better to show a few facts, based on actual ob- 

 servation, and let them carry their own weight in a 

 movement which will yet secure an enactment in pro- 

 hibition of this practice. To what enormous extent of 

 destructiveness this ice fishing, under the "poor farmer's" 

 banner, has in the past been carried, any one familiar 

 with the old scenes around and above McHenry well 

 knows. The fish dealers had regular four-horse sleds 

 which made trips up and down the system of waters and 

 gathered up, for the Chicago market, the fish that the 

 "poor farmer" was supposed to be catching for food. 

 Thousands of tons of game fish have been taken from 

 these narrow waters. The sportsmen stock the waters 

 and the residents rob them. Now I propose to assert 

 and in a limited way to prove a few things, out of an 

 actual experience and observation, brief though that 

 may be. I propose to assert that these constricted waters, 

 more especially since they lie so happily accessible as a 

 pleasure ground and sporting field for a large city, 

 ought never to be drained by market fishing, but 

 ought to be left open for the general public. This 

 is an assertion which needs no proof. I propose to show 

 that, so far from the resident farmers fishing in the Fox 

 Lake system for food during the season of ice, he fishes 

 for the market exclusively, and does not even use a part 

 •f his catch for food. I propose to show that the very 

 men who do most of their ice fishing are those who offer 

 hotel facilities for the summer fishing tourists, whom 

 they thus rob not only with the one hand but also with 

 the other. I propose to show that this ice fishing kills 

 infinitely more fish and larger fish than summer fishing, 

 80 much so that one man alone will in the winter take 

 more fish than all the fishers added together who fish 

 there in the summer season. I propose to show that 

 the extent of this fishing is kept carefully covered 

 up by these lake dwellers, it being left for Forest and 

 Stbeam to take the lead in an investigation, as has been 

 the case in mauy other matters. I propose to show that, 

 contrary to what is popularly understood to be the case, 

 there are more black bass than pickerel taken in this 

 winter fishing, and that these two fish and the wall-eyed 

 pike make the bulk of the catch, And then I want to 

 ask: (1) Is all this right? (2) Can we not come close to 

 •"topping it, whether or not we pass a law against it? So 

 impatient do I feel over the whole busineps that 1 can 

 not refrain from answering "Yes" to the latter question 

 in advance. 



A young sportsman of this city, Mr. W, H. Farmer, who 

 goes up to George Clark's place on Lake Maria nearly 

 every week in the year, lately told Mr. Hirth, head of the 

 tackle department of Spalding's store here, of the ex- 

 tensive fishing going on this winter on lakes Maria and 

 Catherine. Channel Lake and others of the string. Mr. 

 Hirth informed the writer: One evening last week the 

 above-named and Mr, Harryman, also of this city, took 

 the 10:45 Wisconsin Central to Antioch, bound on a little 

 cruise of investigation in the interests of good sportsman- 

 ship and a good sportsman's paper. At about 1 o'clock in 

 the morning we were met at the depot by a one-horse 

 buckboard from Clark's place, which vehicle was obliged 

 to carry five men two miles across a snow-clad and 

 ghivery landscape. A more uncomfortable ride could 

 hardly be imagined. 



In the morning, when we descended to the washroom, 

 we saw racked up on the fioor a lot of fish, all frozen, of 

 course. We counted them, and there were 18 black bass, 

 9 pickerel, 2 bullheads and 1 croppie. The largest 

 pickerel would weigh about Tibs. , and the largest baas 

 about 8 Jibs. "How long were you in catching these, Mr. 

 Clark?" he was asked later on. 



"Two days. You see, we ain't fishing much up around 

 here. I just have a few Knes out to keep anybody else 

 out of the lake. My land runs part way round the lake. 

 If I didn't fish, some one else woidd, you know. The 

 fish haven't been biting much yet." 



The farmer told us that in his earlier trips he had seen 

 whole boxes of fish in that same room, packed for ship- 

 ping, and that he did not think ISOlbs. of fish a day, 

 taken on Lake Maria alone, any unusual catch. Count- 

 ing in Loon Lake, Catherine Lake and Channel Lake, all 

 lying right about Antioch, and allowing lOOlbs. to the 

 lake on a good day, two good days to the week, and eight 

 weeks to the season, we would still have a total of 4,8001 bs. 

 But this is not a just estimate, for instead of two days in 

 the week, these men fish seven days. Allow OOlbs. a day 

 for each lake, and seven weeks for the season, and the 

 total for these four little lakes would be 9,8001b8. This is 

 more than five times the total of fish caught by anglers 

 on these lakes in the fishing season. Bear in mind that 

 this does not touch Grass Lake, where Tjewis Paddock 

 fishes, or the Great Fox Lake, where the farming public 

 fishes, or Nippersink or Pistaqua Lake, where the rabble 

 fishes. These waters are much larger, and the catch 

 there is much greater in the average year. We have to 

 do now with only a limited area and a few of the lakes 

 most frequented by the bass fishers in the season. We 

 shall later on see the reasons for believing the above es- 

 timate of the winter catch for these four lakes to be 

 email, but first must stop to give a few remarks made 

 hereon by honest Geo. Clark, downtrodden farmer, sum- 

 mer resort keeper and winter fisher. In scoring Mr. Clark 

 I have this to say, that he is no worse than his neighbors, 

 and deserves no worse; but theyalldeeerve the very worst 

 that a newspaper, in search of facts that bass anglers 

 don't know, can possibly give them. Mr. Clark said to 

 us, reasoning after the manner of his kind: 



"We catch the biggest fish in the winter time, some- 

 times pickerel of 16 to SOlbs., and big bass. These big 

 fish don't bite at all in the summer time, and so we might 

 as well catch them as not." 



Wise Mr. Clark! It has been said that a mill will never 

 grind with the water that is past. The fish that Mr. Clark 

 eatohes in the winter will never be caught again in the 

 summer, and that is about all the accuracy there is in his 

 statement. Anglers will makp f^e jpost of that, Mr. 



"It don't make any difference how many fish we catch 

 here, because all these lakes are fed by the Fox River, and 

 the fish run right in again." 



Of course it doesn't, Mr. Clark! You have a great head 

 for facts. Your set lines don't make a bit of difference in 

 the fish supply. If yours do not, none of the others do, 

 do they now? None of the set lines, miles of them, out 

 on the ice now below you, from Grass Lake clear on down 

 to Pistaqua, make any difference, do they? So if a fish 

 started up from Pistaqua to your lake, via the Fox River, 

 and got caught on any one of 400 hooks on the way, why, 

 you would catch that same fish in your lake just the same, 

 wouldn't you now, Mr. Clark? And if 400 fish started 

 up, and all got caught on certain of 8,000 hooks, why, you 

 would catch all 400 of them in your lake just the same, 

 wouldn't yoti, Mr. Clark? Your reasoning is lucid. Of 

 course, it doesn't make any difference how many fish you 

 catch. It doesn't make any difference that the clubs 

 keep on planting fish for you to catch and sell. It doesn't 

 make any difference about the bottom of a water barrel, 

 so long as it is raining, does it, Mr. Clark. And it will 

 always rain, of course, won't it, Mr. Clark? Allah is 

 great. So are you, Mr. Clark. Y^ou are great on facts, 

 and particularly great on logical inferences. 



By "Mr. Clark" I mean no one man. except this one as 

 in his capacity of mouthpiece for them all. I mean Asa 

 Paddock, Lewis Paddock. Israel Garwood, the Savages, 

 and, lower down, the Stanleys, and everybody else who 

 is in this same robbing business along the lakes. Person- 

 ally I have not the slightest feeling against George Clark, 

 and I hke his family, which is a large one and a pleasant 

 one. And before I am done I am going to show him that 

 a great sportsman's paper can be so kind to him that he 

 will just be ashamed to keep up this ice fishing, or to 

 allow his neighbors to do so. So much in passing. 



Mr. Clark said that no one was fishing Loon Lakes, be- 

 cause the ice companies there kept the ice cut out too 

 much. He also often said that very little fishing was 

 going on anywhere about the lakes. However, when we 

 were driving over to the station he contradicted this. 

 Some one remarked that the Loon Lakes were the best 

 bass lakes around Antioch, possibly because they were 

 not fished so much in the winter. "They ain't, hey?" 

 said Mr. Clark. "Fished just as much as any, all the 

 time, and they haven't any connection with the river, 

 so'st the fish can run into them.'" There spoke impulsive 

 the summer resort half of Mr. Clark, whose cottage 

 stands on the shores of I^ake Maria, Boats so much a 

 day. Boai-d, so much a day. Bait and tackle always on 

 hand. Best fishing in the region. 



When we were riding over to the house on the buck- 

 board, that first night we asked the boy who drove us 

 what luck they had had fishing. 



"Oh, not much luck,'" was the reply. 



"How many pounds have you shipped? 



"Oh, not very many." 



"Haven't you got the bills of shipment?" 



"Oh, I don't know." 



Commendable reticence, Mr. Clark wan equally re- 

 ticent. We did not get to see any shipping bills. A 

 stranger going up into that country now would be quietly 

 led to believe that very little, if any, fishing was going 

 on about the lakes. The anglera never go up there in the 

 winter; so they don"t know anything about it. The facts 

 don't get out. The evident effort to conceal the facts is 

 the best indication of their seriousne.ss. We had to get at 

 them by indirect methods. It happens that Billy Farmer 

 goes up there to Clark's nearly every week, including the 

 winter season, when he puts in his time rabbit hunting. 

 We had his statement as to the amounts of fish he had 

 actually seen there ready for shipment. We saw a few 

 fish ourselves. We had Mr. Clark's personal statement 

 that on account of the snow the fish were bitiug very 

 poorly at that time, and that it was still too early for 

 them to bite very well. He further said that he caught 

 more bass than anything else, and that the bass bite best 

 late in the winter, ju•^t as the ice was breaking up. We 

 decided to supplement these bits of information with a 

 look at the means and implements used in this business, 

 knowing that from their extent something of the prob- 

 able or expected results could be estimated. 



Clark's place stands on the neck between Maria and 

 Catherine, and Channel Lake is just beyond. After 

 breakfast we went down to Lake Maria and ran the lines 

 that were out on that lake. We found the method of 

 fishing very simple. The hole in the ice was but a few 

 inches square, and each hole was mai-ked by a "tally 

 ticket," set up in the ice beside it. The line was tied to a 

 stick laid across the hole. The line was about 25 or 30ft. 

 long, but the hook was suspended only 2 or 3ft. below the 

 sm-face, the body of the line being rolled up and confined 

 by a loose loop so arranged that when a fish took the bait 

 the line would unfasten and pay out. The bait used was 

 lake perch, from 3 to 5 in. long. These perch are caught 

 by hundreds with hook and line, out of the fishing shanty 

 we saw standing over a deep part of the lake. The bait 

 used for them is a white worm ("borer") found in the 

 winter in hickory logs. They bite this with eagerness. 

 We found a big bait-box well filled with young perch, 

 sunk out in the middle of the lake. As the holes freeze 

 over during the night, a spade-pointed iron bar is carried 

 along to open them when running the lines. The whole 

 business is carried on in a very practical manner. 



Now, about the number of lines. We did not have 

 time to run all of them, but we saw enough. I do not 

 know the exact size of Lake Maria, but it is more than a 

 mile across, and more than four miles around. The fishing 

 shanty was near the center, and from this, roughly speak- 

 ing, there ran three curving lines of "tally-sticks" toward 

 the shores, whose outlines they followed for a distance. 

 One row ran out toward the shore to the left of the house, 

 one swept far into the bay clear across the lake, by the 

 timber, and another swung around nearly to the point 

 toward Channel Lake. The holes were 15 to 25yd8. apart. 

 I think a reasonable estimate would make the number of 

 holes at least 150. Mr. Clark did not know just how many 

 he had out, but said there were "only a few." 



We could see the long line of "tally-sticks" rannmg 

 across Channel Lake, and we saw a man over there run- 

 ning the lines. Mr. Clark said it was Israel Garwood, 

 who had claimed that lake. He supposed his lines also 

 were "only a few." We will suppose 100. After dinner 

 we went over to Catherine Lake and again saw the tell- 

 tale lines of sticks. Mr. Clark said it was "Joe Savage's 

 boy" who was fishing over there. He had out "only a 

 few" lines. Let us say 100. . : 



■yhe lowest possibjle estiflaate ^iyes %e9 out th^se 



three lakes. Personally I no not think there are less than 

 500 baited hooks fishing now, day and night, on these 

 three lakes. On the whole system, how many thousand? 

 And this is vdiere we are asked to go and spend our 

 money fishing in the summer time. We are cordially in- 

 vited to come and live with men who are plain, simple- 

 minded, two-handed robbers. 



After this I do not want to hear anything more about 

 the down-trodden farmer who fishes for food. My sym- 

 pathies are with any poor man, but they are not with 

 these men. Mr. Clark didn't offer us any fish to eat. He 

 doesn't catch these game fish to eat, he catches them to 

 sell. The bulk of the fishing done on this chain of lakes 

 is on precisely the same basis. 



We were not out fishing, and we ran the lines hurriedly. 

 We found but one fish of any size, a pickerel weighing 

 about 71bs. The fish were not running that morning. 

 When they are feeding, picture to yourself the work tha,t 

 500 baited' hooks, fishing day and iaight, can do, and this 

 through a winter season. Ed. Howard fells me that they 

 take fish away from Fox Lake, lower down, by wagon 

 loads. Ed. Howard is a sportsman and a sensible man, 

 and you do not find him doing any such work as this ice 

 fishing. He deplores it and condemns it. 



Now, we may do a little sum in figures. Mr. Clark — 

 meaning Mr. Paddock, Mr. Garwood, Mr. Savage, Mr. 

 Summer-resort man in general; I would include Ike 

 Smith if he were not too lazy to get out and fish — gets 4 

 cents a pound for game fish. That is, 20 cents for a bass 

 that many a man would give .f5 to catch, and would 

 spend $30 'in trying to catch, and would have to lay out 

 |50 before he could catch, and then probably wouldn't 

 catch , and would come again and try to get another sea- 

 sou. Let us suppose that Lake Maria turns out to the 

 genial two-handed robber this winter 2,2501bs. of fish. 

 This would mean $90, and a lot of hard work. It would 

 spoil angling to the exact extent of 2,2501bs. of fish, and 

 would rob the lake of the cream of the aJigling, the large 

 fish which any angler especially desires. Yet it would 

 net our honest two-handed robber just about what three 

 anglers, who did not bring their families, as many do, 

 would spend in their occasional little bass fishing trips to 

 these lakts in a single season, making the estimate a very 

 reasonable one. Boat, boatman, bait and board cost at 

 the lowest .$3 a day. In other words, if this article suc- 

 ceeds in turning away to better and more fair-minded 

 localities only three regular anglers of that region, the 

 winter fisher who has their summer custom will at the 

 end of the year be just even on the deal, barring the win- 

 ter of bard work, which I am prone to believe the average 

 market-fisher does not love. There are some few hun- 

 dreds of copies of Forest ajs-d Stream, and some few 

 hundreds more, and yet a few besides, that sift in every 

 week within earshot, so to speak, of this lake region. .1 

 believe it a modest prophecy to predict that at least three 

 gentlemen will change their minds after they nave 

 thought these things over. There are plenty of good bass 

 fishing places near by Chicago in other directions, as I 

 personally learned last"^ summer. Why not go there, and 

 be robbed with only one hand at the time? 



I do not wish to assume in the least, but it is true that 

 in the course of a season a good many people come to me 

 and ask where to go fishing for bass. I have sent numbers 

 of anglers to these lakes about Antioch. My friend Mr. 

 Clark has doubtless had some of their trade. He may be 

 assured that while he keeps up his winter fishing he will 

 never get another penny, chance or otherwise, from that 

 source, for I do not think he is doing what is right. I am. 

 only one man. with no more influence than many another 

 man in these matters, but each man has his friends, so 

 that I believe it well within reason to say that I alone, or 

 any one of my angling friends, can cost Messrs. Clark, 

 Paddock ei al, or the town of Antioch, say, more than 

 that $90 worth of fish comes to. And that is just what_ I 

 am going to do. I do not spend sp^nd another dollar in 

 that town while these men insist on robbing with both 

 hands, and if I go up at all will take my own boat, camp 

 out, and buy my grub in Chicago. Some of my friends 

 will be feeling the same way. Each man has his friends. 

 Why . our httle party last week left $T with Mr. Clark, 

 andVe liked him and his family so well that we would be 

 glad to go up next summer and spend five or six times 

 that paltry sum with him. But he has got to get out and 

 hustle in "just 1751bs. of fish to make that $7, and every 

 other .|7 we might pay him; for not another cent from us 

 does he get while he keeps up this winter fishing which 

 w( i believe to be not right. Mr. Hirth sells a good many 

 th . usand dollars' worth of fishing tackle in a season. 

 Naturally, some few of these purchasers will ask for a 

 good place to go fishing. Will it be natural for Mr. Hirth 

 to say, "Why, go to the lakes up at Antioch, where they 

 have'500 lines fishing day and night, the winter through?" 

 I think not. Let us go further on yet. Next Wednesday 

 the Fox River Fish and Game Protective Association holds 

 its meeting, Those men are pushers. They are out for 

 results. They have more enthusiasm, and more energy 

 and more money than any of our little party can claim. 

 They mean business. It will be too soon to lay this paper 

 before them at that meeting, but I shall take pleasure in 

 presenting these same facts to them. It will go hard if 

 we do not find there two or three men who will push this 

 thing along a little, and these two or three will have their 

 friends among the bass fishers, and these aga>iu will have 

 theirs. 



Thus you may see, Messrs. Clark, Paddock and all 

 dwellers in and around the slab-sided city of Antioch, 

 where they sell emaciated bacon and tough coffee in the 

 summer at $1 a day and dear at that, that even two or 

 three men can knock the last dollar of profit out of your 

 winter fishing, and moreover they are going to do it. 

 What can the body of Chicago anglers do, when it gets 

 to thinking about this? It can make your fishmg still 

 more profitless, can't it? Now, do you want it that way? 

 Your fishing is perfectly legal, but perfectly abommable, 

 and also unfair and unjust. You can fish if you want to. 

 You can sit in the road and pound sand in your eyes if 

 you want to. But do you want it that way? Come now. 



But, gentlemen resident about the lakes— for to you as 

 much as to the public this letter is written, and every one 

 of you shall have a copy of this letter, as far as I can 

 learn your names— let us mark off all the above and 

 leave it as unsaid. I would much rather have it that 

 way. What would you do then? You are not doing 

 right, you are not acting on the square now. You are 

 not being just to the men who pay you most of your in- 

 come. Aside from the fact that your ice fishing xf per-, 

 sisted in will not earn you anything but ^bSt yoa 



