838 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



I.DEC. 22, 1893. 



THE MAINE BLACK BASS LAW. 



Boston, Nov. 29.— Editor Forest and Stream : Early 

 this fall I visited an old friend of many Boston sports- 

 men, Nat. Hoxie, of Chiltonville, and while enjoying his 

 tales of baas fishing I mentioned my trips to Maine in 

 search of this superb fish. Our conversation drifted to 

 the game laws, and he informed me that there was no 

 close season for bass in Maine. I immediately stated that 

 there was a close season covering April, May and June, 

 and backed up my assertion with the bet of a good cigar to 

 that f ffect. This led to an investigation. I wrote to 

 Fish Commissioner Henry O. Stanley, and he informed me 

 there had been no close season for two years. Then I 

 turned to the game laws of the State, in print 1891, and 

 as far as 1 could see there was a close season noied under 

 Chapter 40, Sections 47. 48, 49, 50 and 55, Still doubting 

 I turned to your Book of the Game Laios revised to 

 October, 1892, and got the same results. Shooting and 

 Fishing also distinctly states that the close season extends 

 from April 1 to July 1. 



I wrote to you for an explanation and received your 

 reply, stating that after a thorough investigation you 

 were convinced that the law as stated in your book was 

 correct and that bass were protected during the three 

 months noted above. 



In your letter of Nov. 5 you state that "Sec. 55 (which 

 prescribes a close season for these iish for April, May 

 and June) has not, so far as I can learn, been repealed," 

 The Fish Commissioners, however, take a different view 

 of the matter, Mr. E, M, Stilwell, Fish Commissioner 

 with Mr. Stanley, states in a letter to me Nov. 12: "It 

 is true the Legislature did not repeal in terms so much 

 of Sec. 55 as restricts the taking of bass in April, May 

 and June, but the amendment of 1887, removing the 

 restriction in Sections 47, 48, 49 and 50, has been under- 

 stood and construed by the Conimissioners to have re- 

 pealed by implication so much as relates to April, May 

 and June," 

 I cannot agree with the Commissioners. 

 Let us turn to the laws. Chapter 40 of the revised edi- 

 tion. Section 47, states that "there shall be a close season 

 for black bass between the first days of April and July." 

 Section 48 states that "No person phall take, catch, kill 

 or fish for * * * black bass * * * between the 

 first days of April and July under a penalty * * * 

 provided that the provisions of this and the preceding 

 and two succeeding sections shall not apply to the taking 

 of black bass from any waters which have been stocked 

 therewith for a period of five years." 



Now, as no Maine waters have been stocked with bass 

 during the last five years, this proviso very evidently an- 

 nuls the close season laws noted in Sections 47, 48, 49 and 

 50, But passing on to Section 55, which stands boldly by 

 itself with no annulment or proviso, we find that "who- 

 ever takes any black bass during April, May and June, or 

 at any time from their spawning beds, shall forfeit for 

 each offense, etc." This section clearly prohibits the tak- 

 ing of bass during these months, and prohibits taking 

 them from their spawning beds not only during those 

 months, but at all times. 



If this matter needs the decision of the court, it is a 

 shame upon the makers of the laws that so simple a rule 

 could not be put in terms sufiiciently plain to prevent 

 misunderstandings. It is an imposition upon honest 

 sportsmen who endeavor to follow and uphold the game 

 laws. If the laws are correctly stated and the Commis- 

 sioners construe it wrongly, and so neglect enforcement 

 and protection, it is time that the matter was attended to 

 and the wanton destruction of this favorite game fish 

 stopped. 



In the last number of a contemporary paper the subject 

 is mentioned, with a quotation from Mr. Stilwell in ex- 

 actly the same words which he wrote to me. 



The law, as it is now construed by the Commissioners, 

 gives "insiders" an advantage in the fishing over those 

 who rely upon your publications for guidance. After the 

 publication of this letter, I shall apply to higher author- 

 ity for a definite construction of the law. 



A. G. Weeks, Jr. 



BY SEA AND RIVER. 



Mr. John Murdoch happened in the other day and 

 told us of the fine day's sport had with tautog or black- 

 fish at Manomet one day last July. In company with 

 Mr. Thaxter and Master John, thirty tautog were taken 

 on one tide. The fish run well in size, the largest an 

 eight-pounder, being caueht by Mr, Thaxter. Lobster 

 was the bait used, Mr. Murdoch made several subse- 

 quent trips to the point, but owing to the high surf could 

 not venture ofl; in a small boat. 



During the summer Audubon Eidgway spent several 

 weeks in Massachusetts, la ponds near Boston he caught 

 very large white perch; they run as high as 2lbs. each 

 and were found in good numbers. 



Mr, W, B. Kendall tells us of the movements of a very 

 large school of tunny or little horse horse mackerel off 

 Barnegat. Last summer as the Fish Commission schooner 

 tjrampus was cruising along slowly, these fish made their 

 appearance and surrounded the vessel. The school was 

 a mile or more in diameter and consisted of fish about 

 dtt. m length. They schooled close up together, similar 

 to the common mackerel. Ordinarily they would merely 

 flirt their tails out of the water, but at other times thev 

 would leap clear out; then again they would swim along- 

 side the schooner quietly, scarcely making a ripple The 

 boat was sailing very slowly. Lines were gotten out and 

 an effort made to catch some of the tunnies, but without 

 success. A white rag was the only lure offered them 



Ihis recalls to my mind a conversation had with Mr 



ii.dwm\arnold upon the same subject last year. This 



gentleman observed the tunnies off the Cape of Good 



Hope while on board a British troopship. The attention 



of the ship s company was called one calm day to what 



i'^'' 'I'm aPP^-oaching storm. The noise made 



J^ti^ .V^"^ ^^^^ ''{P' ^'^^^"g Just as soon 



as the cause of the commotion was made known bv the 



SwT" \^]^ lookout, everybody hastened to get ready 

 what tackle was aboard, and by the time thifish had 

 K Ai!f T, , ^'^'g ^''^"^^sting in ttieir lines with 



i^Pd « H^""'-. '^1* P°^^ other meats were 



PvS;r^ ^ fi^h caught. The school 



.J^^ft^'l^,^'* the eye could see, and was a very noisy 

 one, the fish leaping out of the water and sporting around 

 Kthat'^f T^^ l^^^ «ourse,w&ch w^as oppo 



Mr. Kendall tells me that on Sept. -30, 1892, while the 

 Grampus was off Cape May, near Macrie's Shoals, 15 

 miles off shore, they run into a school of very large weak- 

 fish or "trout." The fish were feeding on anchovies. 

 About a dczen sharks were seen playing about the school 

 and every now and then they would get right in among 

 the fish, when the trout would settle and remain out of 

 sight for a moment. It was evident tbat the sharks were 

 destroying the fish. A dory was lowered, and nineteen 

 large fish were gaffed from it, weighing 5 and 61bs, each. 



For the kingfish, barb, etc. {Meniieirrus) , Dr. Smith 

 was given the additional name of "roundhead," here in 

 market the other day. 



Eight large tilefish were captured during the past sum- 

 mer by the U. S, Fish Commission, The rediscovery of 

 this fish is one of great interest, its discovery, disappear- 

 ance for a number of years, and now its rediscovery in 

 1893 furnishing one of the most rema.rkable chapters in 

 the history of its kind. 



What a pleasant surprise it was to find, when the Gov- 

 ernment fish ponds in this city were drawn off, a colony 

 of large mouthed black bass numbering thousands. From 

 a parent stock of 15 fish obtained in Illinois, this large 

 stock of fine young fish has come forth as if by magic. 

 We feel a deep interest in the matter, as a good supply is 

 promised for the Potomac, where they will thrive and add 

 much to the river as a resort for anglers — such as cannot 

 resist the temptation to go a-fishing when they know 

 black bass are to be had. Bart. 

 Washington, D. C, Dec. 10. 



GAME QUALITIES OF THE PIKE-PERCH. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



An editorial paragraph in the issue of Dec. 8 seems to 

 imply a doubt concerning "Bon Ami's" diagnosis of the 

 fighting qualities of the pike-perch, and the authority 

 advanced for burying him is the opinion of "many expert 

 anglers" in Harrisburg and points below, who entertain 

 adverse views and call the fish a salmon. Now, my dear 

 Mr. Editor, that won't do. If you have an opinion of 

 your own on the subject, fetch it right out and respect 

 will be duly accorded, for your voice on matters pisca- 

 torial has ever an appreciative audience among anglers. 

 But when you fire at us some other fellow's theories re- 

 specting a fish's valor, and cite as authority to support 

 their views the testimony of persons so lost to piscatorial 

 enlightenment as to call a pike-perch a salmon, then 

 other precincts will be heard from. Great Izaak! If 

 this thing be true then Canada will lose its revenue by 

 the depreciation of her salmon stream leaseholds, and 

 America will become flooded with the returning shekels, 



Biit concerning the pike-perch as a fighter. Now, I 

 am not an expert. Simply a plain, persistent, every-day- 

 when-T-can-get-a-chance fisherman. In the course of a 

 somewhat varied and unscientific career with rod and 

 reel I have happily angled for the aristocratic warrior of 

 the Restigouche, and his pugnacious namesake of the 

 Columbia, which old hands call the salmon. I have also 

 taken the pike-perch from the running waters of the 

 Suequehanna and the sylvan' lakes of Minnesota, while 

 sandwiched between times occurred interviews with the 

 knights of the trout stream and sciaps with the doughty 

 micropterm and predatory Eso.v. But rarely ever have 

 I felt the thrill of real combat in landing the pike-perch. 

 In my humble way I feel that I can appreciate the fight 

 to a finish of a game fish, and the wall-eye does not fill the 

 bill. Often have I caught him on the strong troll and 

 light casting line from the youthful two-pounder to- 

 well, to the limits of an angler's veracity, call it some- 

 thing less than a round dozen of pounds. And yet I 

 have always loved him, but mainly for his symmetrical 

 beauty and edible qualities. 



The pike-perch has never seemed to me to possess any 

 great amount of pluck. No startling rushes when hooked, 

 such as marks the wild onset of the tough of the lily pad 

 beds. No cleaving of water and air to send a succession 

 of messages along the pliant lancewood to tingle through 

 the nervous ganglea. Rather is it the sullen resistance of 

 avoirdupois. His rushes, if such his resistance can be 

 termed, more nearly approximates the gyrations of a 

 heavy, short-winded body struggling clumsily against the 

 will of superior force. It is true that both from a 

 gastronomic and piscatorial standpoint he is a popular 

 candidate for favor, but as a gamy fish, an out-and- 

 outer, he can't swim or fight, when hooked, into fame 

 alongside of quite a score of other varieties, to say 

 nothing of the warrior whose name has been caricatured 

 in his personification by the experts below Harrisburg 

 Hence T range alongside of "Bon Ami "and back his 

 opinion on the subject as expressed. Tell these experts 

 that I've got a gun, and they had better not fool around 

 trying to sandbag me because I've told the truth, and 

 perhaps happened to throw a stone in their fishing 

 ground, CAYoaA. 



Hot Water Trout. 



Experienced ichthyologists have taught the credulous 

 public to believe that low temperatures only are favor- 

 able to the propagation of mountain trout; but this opin- 

 ion is exploded and scattered by the fact that cut-throat 

 trout are found in great numbers in the warm waters of 

 the Yellowstone Park, as has been ascertained by Prof. 

 Jordan's recent reconnoissances. Large swarms were 

 found at the mouth of the stream which drains the 

 Mammoth Hot Springs in a temperature of 75°, young 

 suckers (Catostoinus griseus) in a temperature of 88° 

 chubs {Leuciscus atrarius) in a temperature of 85° To 

 cap the climax he mentions bullheads or millers's thumbs 

 (Cottus bairdi) which delight in water so hot that thev 

 are sometimes boiled before they feel at all uncomfort- 

 able. Three boiled specimens were observed at the 

 mouth of a hot tributary of the Gibbon River. Who 

 need now despair of raising Sahnonidce in warm water' 

 All the bshculturist needs is the stock and the stream. 

 t aith and adaptation will do the rest. 



Charles Hallock. 



Gogebic. 



I";' ^ec. 16.-0ne of the good records of the 

 past season at Lake Gogebic., Mich., is that of Mr. S. D. 

 Jna'^FT^'^r nearly the entire summer there. 



Sf.T Thompson took twenty-three bass whose 



6l£ Tcz^ ^^^^^«t the catch weighed 



CALIFORNIA FISHCULTURE AND PROTECTION 



The I'ish Commissioners of California are: Joseph D. 

 Puedding, President; Raymond B. Wilson, Secretary, and 

 Joseph Morizio, Treasurer, all of San Francisco. The office 

 is located at 419 California street. 



The biennial report of these Commissioners has recently 

 been received. It covers the period from March 17, 1891, to 

 Sept. 1, 1892. The board as at present organized was ap- 

 pointed by the Governor June 28, ]891. This board upon its 

 organization discovered that all the funds allotted to the 

 Commission for the business of the forty-second fiscal year 

 had been exhausted and that a large number of bills of" the 

 old board remained unpaid, not a verv encouraging state of 

 affairs to encounter at tbe outset of oflacial duties. 



The work of the Commission is arranged under two chief 

 divisions, the patrol and the hatchery departments. Under 

 the former is included the maintenance of the fish and jrame 



^ laws, for which there is an annual appropriation of S5,000. 



I "With this amount at hand we are supposed to engage com- 

 petent deputies to patrol the various wharves and fish mar- 

 kets of San Francisco, and the other large cities of the 

 State; to watch all the avenues of ingress, and prevent the 

 importation of certain fish and game when out of season; to 

 keep a vigilant eye on the 250 miles of the bay lines of San 

 Francisco and confluent bays and rivers, and to make con- 

 tinuous trips from one end of the State to the other, and 

 ttu'oughout the length and circumference of all its streams 

 and waters for the same purpose." Finding it impossible to 

 do all of the necessary protective work with this small 

 amount of money the Commission devoted its attention 

 almost entirely to the following objects : 



(1) The prevention from sale in tbe markets of San 

 Francisco of fish and game at the time when it is unlawful 

 to sell the same. 



(2) The prevention of illegal fishing in the bay of San 

 Francisco, especially in the catching of the young ot fish. 



(B) The prevention of illegal fishing in the Sacramento 

 River. 



(4) The prevention of dumping sawdust and other deleter- 

 ious substance into the various rivers and streams of the 

 State. 



(5) The requiring of the construction and maintenance of 

 fish ladders. 



The Commissioners assert, and with reason, that there 

 should be an annual appropriation of at lea^t twenty thous- 

 and dollars for the proper carrying on of their work. 



An extraordinary increase in the salmon run is recorded 

 for 1892 in the Sacramento River. Several canuerie.^, which 

 had been idle for some years opened up and did a thriving 

 business. The run was so greatly in excess of that of any 

 preceding year within the past decade, that the. Commission- 

 ers are doubtful whether it is the natural increase from 

 flshcultural operation or due to some phenomenon of 

 migration. 



The report notices the increase of shad, striped ba.ss and 

 black bass, which have been introduced from eastern waters. 

 No reliable information has been received as to the success 

 of transplanting lob-sters from the Atlantic. Freshwater 

 crayfish, which were excessively abundant in fresh water 

 streams around San Francisco bay, have become almost 

 exterminated through over-fishing, and require protection 

 for a period of year.s. 



California ha's now three hatcherie.i, one at Sisson, on the 

 headwater.s of the Sacramento, another at Lake Tahoe, and 

 the third m Bear Valley, Marin county. The hatchery at 

 Sisson was established in 1891, and received its principal 

 start in life by a gift of nearly three millions of eggs of the 

 quinnat salmon from the United States Pish Cornmission. 

 Mr. J. A. Richardson is superintendent of the Sisson station. 

 The Bear Valley hatchery has capacity for one million eggs 

 and is managed by Mr. Eugene W. Hunt. The Lake Tahoe 

 hatchery is used only for hatching eggs of trout native to 

 that lake. 



The kinds of fish distributed by the California Commis- 

 sion are quinnat salmon, all of which are deposited in the 

 headwaters of the Sacramento, Lake Tahoe trout, eastern 

 brook ti-out and rainbow trout. In 1891 there were shipped 

 from the Lake Tahoe hatchery 88,000 fish. In 1893 the Bear 

 Valley hatchery furnished 317.000 brook trout and 3.31,000 

 rainbow trout. 



The eggs of the eastern brook trout were takeu jointly by 

 the California and Nevada Fish Commissions from Marlette 

 Lake, Nevada. The eggs of rainbow trout were obtained 

 from Shovel Creek, Kiyou county, Cal. 



The Sis.son hatchery, besides distributing quinnat salmon, 

 furnished 175,000 rainbow trout, hatched from eggs taken in 

 Shovel Creek. 



The hatchery department has an annual appropriation of 

 ?!5,000, which the Commissioners find entirely inadequate to 

 the needs of the State, and therefore ask that the appropria- 

 tion be increased to $10,000 per annum. They recommend 

 certain changes in the game and fish laws, with particular 

 reference to the importation of un.seasonable game and fish 

 from other States, the cold storage of fish and game out of 

 season, and the extension of the close season for salmon so 

 as to include August as well as September. They also re- 

 commend that ditch owners be required to place screens at 

 the entrance to the ditches, and call attention to the neces- 

 sity of protecting through the game laws such birds as tbe 

 pheasant and wild turkey for a period of years. They fur- 

 ther recommend that a tax of 4 cents per case be placed and 

 collected upon canned salmon, and the revenue applied to 

 the hatchery department in consideration of its having 

 planted about 3,000,000 of salmon in the waters of the State 

 annually. 



Superintendent E. W. Hunt made some inquiries during 

 the summer of 1891 about the landlocked salmon planted in 

 Conner and Independence Lakes. He was informed that 

 two or three were caught in Independence Lake during the 

 spring and summer of 1891, weighing from !>< to 31 bs. each. 

 They are said to be decreasing in numbers. ' "He could not 

 learn of any having been taken in Donner Lake. Rainbow 

 trout had thriven in the Truckee, and the anglers reported 

 them to be the best and gamest fish in the river. 



Superintendent Richardson reported, under date of May 

 17, 1892, that 402,000 trout eggs had been taken up to that 

 date. A new run of trout appeared on May 17, .vhich were 

 thickset, rather short and highly colored, especially with 

 regard to fins. He noticed a few specimens that were so ' 

 highly colored that it seemed unnatural. The pectoral, ven- 

 tral and anal fins were bright scarlet, tipped with white. 

 Mature males were very scarce. Fly-fishermen were taking 

 from 10 to 20 trout a day at the time ot Mr. Richardson's 

 visit. The salmon fly was upon the stream in thousands. 



Messrs. Stevens and McKinney batched trout far the Cal- 

 ifornia Commission at Independence Lake. These were* 

 varieties of the black-spotted or Rocky Mountain trout. 

 The eggs hatched in about forty days. The" variatons of water 

 temperataires were from 44deg. to 52deg,, tbe average being 

 48deg. One of the varieties of trout was taken from White 

 Rock Lake. The color of iLe eggs of the White Rock Lake 

 trout is cherry-red, and their size is about three-quarters as 

 large as those from Independence Lake trout. The color of 

 the latter is lemon, and in size they are about the same as 

 the Tahoe and Donner Lake eggi?. 



At the McCloud station of tbe U. S. Fish Commission the 

 average yield of thirty-one female quinnat salmon was 5,516 

 eggs each; the largest number of eggs taken from a single 

 female was 8,000. The smallest fish caught was a female 



