274 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 30, 1893. 



SAGINAW BAY ICE SPEARING. 



Bay City, Michigan. — Spearing fish through the ice on 

 Saginaw Bay is still followed by a large number who 

 enjoy the sport, as well as those who make a business of 

 it. Trout are not now speared in as large quantities as 

 formerly, owing to the large number caught in nets dur- 

 ing the spring and fall. In former years the fisherman, 

 after cutting a hole through the ice,~ would lie flat upon 

 his stomach with a blanket over his head to exclude the 

 light, and in that position watch for the fish to make their 

 appearance. Now, we find the fisherman 

 comfortably housed in a snu^ shanty 

 ■while following the highly exciting and 

 oftimes profitable sport of spearing 

 through the ice. The shanty, which is 

 often the exclusive abiding place of the 

 fisherman, is easily hauled here and there 

 about the ice by means of a hand sleigh. 

 The shanty of itself is very hght, being 

 made of thin timber and covered or lined 

 with taiTed paper to exclude the light as 

 well as the vigorous weather of winter. 

 In one end is a miniatirre sheet-iron or 

 oil stove for heating and cooking pur- 

 poses. In the other end is a trap door 

 through the floor. When this is removed 

 it reveals an opening which must be 

 placed directly over the hole in the ice. 

 With shanty located one has but to take 

 a seat within and commence "decoying" 

 as illustrated. 



Landing the trout, as shown by the 

 illustration, is next in order. This is 

 most easily and generally accompHshed 

 by stepping out of the slianty door and 

 drawing your spear after you. The 

 weight of trout varies from 5 to 251bs., 

 as in other branches of the sport the 

 largest fish always gets away, and thus it 

 is that we hear an old fisherman tell of 

 75-pouiiders which flirted with his decoy 

 but missed connection with his spear. 



The trout illustrated as propped against 

 the shanty on the upturned sleigh weighed 

 91bs. when taken from the spear, the 

 mark of the spear is plainly visible where 

 he was "struck." The kind of fish to be speared in 

 Saginaw Bay is determined by the distance one goes from 

 the mouth of the Saginaw River. Pike, pickerel, perch 

 and heiTing are to be found in their particular runways, 

 while lake trout are not to be f ormd without going many 

 miles out. 



The accompanying views were taken by me off Point 



of fiishing tackle as possible. Messrs. Dame, Stoddard & 

 Kendal will also make a fine display. Messrs. Appleton 

 & Basset have made a live trout display, on the opening 

 of the season, for a number of years, but they have found 

 that it attracts more of the attention of the rabble and the 

 cmdous than it does of sportsmen and their customers. 



The Gilbert Trout Bill. 



Up to the present writing the Gilbert trout bill hangs 

 where it was left after having passed the House. It is 

 liable to be called up any day in the Senate. There the 



Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association will 

 fight it. 



Maine Legislation. 



The Maine Legislature is about ready to adjourn; indeed 

 it is to be hoped that it will have come to a close before 

 these lines are perused by the readers of the Forest and 

 Stream. It has not been a very prosperous session for the 



citizens, and the Commissioners to grant hearings and ren- 

 der decisions protecting the localities or not, as they 

 deemed expedient. But the Legislature has failed to frame 

 such a law, and now some of the special bills have passed 

 and some of them have been killed. The proposition to 

 close B. Pond, the shores of which are controlled by the 

 Oxford Club, to fly-fishing only is not likely to receive 

 favorable action; it is killed, in fact, unless its friends suc- 

 ceed in getting it again acted upon, and that time favor- 

 ably. This is the measure that was petitioned for by Gov. 

 Russell of Massachusetts, and about which so mtxch noise 

 was made in the papers, since he vetoed 

 the Gilbert trout bill last year. Three 

 members of the committee on fish and 

 game reported for a bill and four against 

 it, and the Legislature has refused to ac- 

 cept of the minority report. 



The proposition to make the transpor- 

 tation of moose, deer and caribou in the 

 State of Maine legal, without the owner 

 — the person who killed it — accompany- 

 ing, has also failed, though the friends of 

 the measm-e have a faint hope of getting 

 it up again and getting favorable action. 

 The object of the present law is to prevent 

 sending game to market. The law now 

 permits of a sportsman taking his game 

 out with him, provided it has been legally 

 killed in open season , the same to be open 

 to view and plainly marked. The cele- 

 brated case of State vs. Mathison, coming 

 up under this law, has just been decided 

 in Mathison's favor, by jury trial in the 

 Supreme Court at Farniington. Mathi- 

 son attempted to take out two deer last 

 fall and take tliem to Boston, but they 

 were seized by the game warden. IMathi- 

 son had been guiding for one Smith of 

 New York, who had been obliged to leave 

 the State a few days before the game, 

 killed either by himself or Mathison, 

 could be got out of the woods. Mathison 

 pretended that Smith had given him the 

 deer, and that he was taking them out as 

 Ms own. The question was entu-ely on 

 the real ownership of the game. 

 The measure to enforce the payment of 

 a Ucense fee by sportsmen proposing to hunt and fish in 

 Maine, lies on the table in the Maine Senate at the present 

 writing, and it is hoped that it will lie there tiU the Legis- 

 lature has adjourned. 



Penobscot Salmon. 

 Mr. Fred W, Ayer, the prominent Bangor, Me. , lumber- 



IN THE SHANTY. 



Lookoat, a summer resort at the mouth of the bay, where 

 trout abound. 



At this point it is always best for the fishei-man to return 

 to the shore each night, with shanty and equipments, else 

 he may find himself far out on Lake Huron the next 

 morning. I. C. Thompson. 



BOSTON AND MAINE. 



Backward Balmy Spring. 

 Boston, March 27. — The opening of the trout season in 

 Massachusetts, April 1, promises to be a very dull one this 

 year. At the time of this writing it looks as though none 

 of the streams would be free from ice and snow water. 

 The season is backward, and with this backwardness the 

 enthusiasm of the early trout fisher is at a low ebb. In 

 Maine the season also promises to be very late. The open 

 season legally commences in that State on the 1 st of May, 

 but the ice is likely to stay in the principal trout lakes 

 almost a month later; that is, if the present thickness of 

 the ice is any indication. There are many reports of the 

 remarkable thickness of the ice in the Rangeleys, and 

 other celebrated trout lakes. Mr. N. G. Manson, J r. , hears 

 from his guide, Mr. 0. W. Cutting, that he wants a oft. 

 ice saw sent up to camp, at the head of Richardson Lake, 

 since the old 4ft. sa w is not long enough to cut the summer 

 supj)ly of ice with, the ice being 4ft. thick. Mr. John 

 Newton, who has been putting in the ice for the Thayers' 

 camps at Birch Lodge, and for Dr. Haven's fine new camp 

 on the island, at the head of Richardson Lake, says that 

 he has put in solid blue ice nearly 5ft. thick. Without 

 most remarkably warm weather it will require till nearly 

 the 1st of June for the ice to get out of the Rangeley 

 Lakes. 



Boston Trout Opening Displays. 



Messrs. Appleton & Bassett wiU not make their usual 

 display of live trout in their window, on the 1st of April 

 this year. On the contrary they will make as fine a show 



lovers of fish and game protection in that State and other 

 States. As mentioned last week, it_ has amended the 

 game laws so as to permit of the killing of cow moose. 

 It has refused to open any part of September for deer 

 shooting. Last week it refused to amend the laws, so as 

 to prevent the killing of partridges or ruffed grouse during 

 the month of September. The farmer members made the 

 argument so often heard in Massachusetts: "Our boys 



A SAGINAW TROUT. 



want to shoot partridges, and they want to shoot them in 

 September, and why shoidd'nt they?" Grouse are de- 

 creasing rapidly in that State, imderthe shameful Septem- 

 ber slaughter, and it is done by the farmers' boys; the 

 broods then being together and" not fully grown. They 

 fall an easy prey to the shotgun and mongrel dog of the 

 country boy. 



Early in the session Gi3v. Cleaves, finding a great num- 

 ber of bills and petitions for measures before the present 

 Maine Legislature, asking for special protection on fish 

 and game, for as many different locahties, recommended 

 that a general law be fi-amed to cover all of this legisla- 

 tion, and that the whole matter Jbe ref erred to theJFish and 

 Game Commissioners, on petition of a certain number of 



man, and the leader of the salmon fishermen in the cele- 

 brated salmon pool at that place, is very hopeful of the 

 salmon fishing this year, though he expects it to be un- 

 usually late, since the season is very backward and the 

 ice very thick. The first Penobscot salmon of the season 

 has been received in the Boston market. It weighed 301bs. 

 and sold for $1.50 a poimd. Special. 



Pennsylvania Fish Protective Association. 



Philadelphia, March 22. — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 At a large and enthusiastic meeting of the Pennsylvania 

 Fish Protective Association, held at the rooms of the as- 

 sociation, 1020 Arch street, Philadelphia, March 11, the 

 subject of an extension of the present open season for 

 taking brook trout in this State to Aug. 1, was discussed 

 at length by the members, and the following resolution 

 was adopted: 



"Resolved, That it is the sense of the Pennsylvania 

 Fish Protective Association that the open season in this 

 State for the catching of brook trout should be extended 

 to the first day of August, and we earnestly recommend 

 such legislation." 



Copies of the resolution were sent to the Senate and 

 Hot^e of Representatives at Harrisburg. 



Upon the appointment of a standing committee'on fish 

 and game by the Legislature of Pennsylvania the asso- 

 ciation appoint a committee to co-operate with the State 

 Commission in bringing such influence to bear upon the 

 committee of the Legislature as might aid in the protect- 

 ing of fish and game of the Commonwealth, A commit- 

 tee was authorized to proceed to Harrisburg to oppose the 

 passage of the law authorizing the placing of fish baskets 

 in the streams of this Commonwealth and any other 

 laws detrimental to the fishery interests of the State. 



The association is dafly in receipt of a large corres- 

 pondence in reference to fish laws, applications for trout 

 blanks, etc; has lately received large additions to its 

 membership and is altogether in a highly prosperous 

 condition. - Mi G. SsniJEES, Sec'y. 



