818 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
tocT. is, im. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Angler and Pot-Fisher. 
The te ms angling sportsman and pot-fisherman are 
strangely misapplied at times. I have considerable 
respect for some men who are called pot-fishermen, and 
very little for some other men who call themselves 
angling sportsmen and who affect to despise those whom 
they call pot-fishers. 
A pot-fisherman may fish out of season, and with the 
crudest tackle, or with engines of destruction that are 
made illegal by statute; and he may not be particular 
about the species or the number of fish that fall to him, 
but as a rule he fishes for that useful utensil which is 
prefixed to his name, or, in other words, to fill an empty 
stomach, or to sell the fish that he pots. He may not be 
made of clay as fine as that which goes into the composi- 
tion of the sportsman, and a bullhead or an eel taken on 
a set line may be to him as sweet of flesh as a trout taken 
on a fly, but for all of that he does not catch fish to leave 
on the bank or to boast about, for it is straight business 
with him, either to satisfy his hunger by the easiest and 
most direct means, or to make a profit, so he does not 
waste the meanest of fishes which he takes in his mean 
way. ' His education or advantages may be such that he 
knows no other course to pm - sue in the capture of fish, 
and he may take them to the last one with no thought of 
a future supply for his pot or his profit, but they are 
utilized in the market stall or on the pot-fisher's own 
table. 
But what can be said of a man who claims to be an 
angling sportsman, a man with the advantages of educa- 
tion, a man of means who never knew the pangs of hun- 
ger or of want in any form, who with fine tackle and 
plenty of it, will catch and kill in an artistic manner 128 
ouananiche in one day, and bring them to his hotel to 
spoil, that he may "make a record." I do not know what 
kind of a record he calls it, but I call it a disgraceful 
record. 
And what of another man in the Maine woods, in a 
camp where there are a dozen men fishing, each furnish- 
ing his quota only of trout for the table (for there is no 
way of getting any trout out of the woods), who goes out 
with the warning that none of his trout can be used, and 
kills in one day over 200 handsome trout and brings them 
to the camp to rot. 
I regret to say that these instances that I have quoted 
of inexcusable fi>h slaughter are not rare among those 
who are called sportsmen, for I have found similar cas s, 
or heard of them, over and over in the various fishing 
camps and resorts that I have visited, although it is not 
always that the fish are intentionally waited after the 
record which is sought is accomplished. For instance, I 
was fishing in Lake Champlain for black bass and a 
gentleman in the same hotel saved his bass for a number 
of days in the ice-house until he had enough to fill a 
barrel, and then he shipped them to New York, a distance 
of over 300 miles by freight train. The fish were none 
too fresh when they started on their journey, and were 
utterly spoiled when they reached their destination. The 
man's intentions were good, but he did not show a high 
order of intelligence when he shipped fresh fish as freight 
and expected them to remain fresh. 
Some hotel and camp keepers encourage this record- 
making business as an advertisement, and others dis- 
courage it by every means in their power. In speaking 
of records I refer to records of the number of fish taken 
and not to the size of individual fish, which is perfectly 
and absolutely meritorious for any man to compass in a 
record if it is done legitimately. 
Pot-fishermen are denounced and damned by sports- 
men because of their illegal methods of fishing and their 
general destructiveness which depopulates our waters of 
fish faster than they can be stocked by nature or by arti- 
ficial propagation, but are they alone to blame for such a 
condition of things? Is not the educated sportsman who 
slaughters fish within the law, and then wastes them to 
make a record, far more to blame for the destruction, so 
far as his individual record is concerned, than the other 
fellow? I think he is, and it is for this reason that I have 
precious little respect for the fish pirate who masquerades 
under the name of angling sportsman, and he must be 
cast out from among angling sportsmen by the sportsmen 
themselves before the ignorant pot-hunter is brought to 
the bar, if for no other reason than his bad example. 
It is not so long ago that Forest and Stream ptlt in the 
pillory a man prominent in angling circLs for practices 
similar to those I have described, and from that hour that 
man has been dead to those same angling circles, but the 
lesson seems to have been forgotten. This is not a pleas- 
ant subject, but it is one the anglers themselves must 
face, and by their own action kill the cause of it.. 
Another View of the Subject. 
While on the matter of the destruction of fish by sports- 
men, I must say a word about a method which is em- 
ployed to .this end, but in a way entirely different from 
that already mentioned, which I hope is not widespread 
and may be considered as a matter of angling ethics. 
A lake in the interior of New York containing lake 
trout was fished in season and out, netted and speared, 
until the trout were few and far between, and then the 
strong hand of the law brought the netters, spearers and 
illegal fishermen to jail, or they were fined and driven 
out of business. Then the work of restocking the lake 
with lake trout and black bass was begun and carried on" 
by the State and a fish and game protective association, 
until the trout were as abundant as ever and the lake 
afforded the very best of fishing for this species of fish. 
The catches became greater each year and the average 
size of the fish increased with the fresh blood and the 
planted food, until now there is no better lake trout fish- 
ing in the State than in this lake. Fishermen from far 
and near have been attracted to it, and as it is planted 
every year with 500,000 lake trout fry from one of the 
State hatcheries, and is closely watched by a special State 
game protector, there is no good reason why the fishing 
should not continue good if sportsmen themselves do not 
over-fish it. 
It may seem strange that I should even suggest such a 
thing as sportsmen depopulating a lake in a legal manner 
after the poachers and illegal fishermen have been brought 
to book and driven away, but some men with their steam 
yachts fish unceasingly the season through and turn the 
fish over to their guides to sell. I am reliably informed 
that one man has caught from his steam launch this year 
nearly one ton of lake trout, and his guide has sold the 
most of the catch. The people about the lake are indig- 
nant that this and other wealthy pseudo-sportsmen or 
market-anglers should do such a wholesale business; but 
what are they to do about it? 
The only thing that can be done is to pass a law .limit- 
ing the number of fish to be taken. New Hampshire now 
has such a law in relation to brook trout, and no one can 
take more than lOlbs. at one time under a penalty of $50, 
and I verily believe that other States will be driven to 
enact a similar law for all the species of so-called game 
fishes. 
Private clubs with preserved waters and hatchery es- 
tablishments to keep up the supply of fish in them by 
artificial means, limit the number of fish to be taken by 
the members, and if this is so in a club of real sportsmen, 
where sound principles regarding supply and demand 
prevail, why not have the same safeguards thrown 
around the fish in wild waters where the supply is main- 
tained by the State? There is nothing unreasonable about 
such a proposition, and if the Jaw should regulate the 
number of pounds of fish that a man might take at one 
time or in one day, it would tend to preserve the fish and 
save some men from a mortifying spectacle when they 
examine their own features in their shaving mirror after 
furnishing fish to a market stall through their guides. 
This practice has bred another wrong, one that must 
work great injury to the reputation of the lake. Guides 
who are not employed by wealthy owners of steamboats 
have attempted to emulate the guides on the steam 
launches in wealth getting, and some of them at least 
have, after being paid for their services and boat, de- 
manded as their right all the fish caught by their em- 
ployers in order to market them. In conclusion I may 
say that I do nut expect any testimonial of esteem, or 
even a bouquet, from the yacht owners and guides that I 
here referred to. 
Growth of Landlocked Salmon. 
Since it became known that the United States Fish 
Commission would this year begin to stock Lake George, 
N. Y., with landlocked salmon, I have been asked repeat- 
edly how soon the planted fish would be large enough to 
catch or how fast they would grow As this depends 
upon the food, I could only say that as there was an 
abundance of suitable food for salmon in the lake, they 
would probably grow as rapidly as the same species in 
other similar waters. I have to-day secured a letter from 
Col.. Went worth, Fish Commissioner of New Hampshire, 
in which he mentions facts more satisfactory than any 
guesswork on this subject. This is an extract from the 
letter: 
"We have taken from Pleasant Pond and Sunapee Lake 
about 80 brook trout and 15 landlocked salmon for the 
hatchery. The salmon at Pleasant Pond have done 
remarkably well, the largest, so far. by actual measure- 
ment was 30in. long and weighed 121bs." 
The first plant of landlocked salmon fry was made in 
Pleasant Pond in 18S9, and to the best of my recollection 
consisted of 10,0U0, therefore this I21bs. salmon was a 
little over four years old. Last fall quite a number of 
salmon were seen in the streams tributary to the pond 
where the fry were planted and where they had gone to 
spawn, and a scoi'e or more of these were estimated to 
weigh over 61bs. each. 
This pond, which is in the town of New London, N. H., 
has been closed to all fishing for a term of years, and the 
season for fishing opens on May 1 next year. The pond 
contains not only landlocked salmon of large size, and 
plenty of them, but it has brook trout, and has been 
planted with the Sunapee saibling. The brook trout that 
have been seen on the spawning beds in the streams by 
the hatchery men are record breakers for size, and. the 
anglers who are fortunate enough to be at Pleasant Pond 
next May when the fishing opens should have such fish- 
ing as rarely falls to the lot of man in these modern days, 
and all within a day's journey of New York city. 
A. N. Cheney. 
SPANISH MACKEREL FROM THE DOCK. 
St. Petersburg, Fla., March 2. — Fifty men and women 
took the steamer Margaret yesterday for a day's mackerel 
fishing from the Quarantine Dock, situated on Mullet Key. 
It was a jolly party that steamed down to the mouth of 
the bay, each with pole and line and a grain sack to hold 
and bring back the day's catch. All had lunch baskets 
and all were talking about the prospective fun. 
The steamer made the Quarantine Dock and we tum- 
bled over each other in our eagerness to capture the most 
beautiful of all salt-water fish. The exciting sport was 
inaugurated by one of our party taking a three-pound 
mackerel. His float had no sooner reached the water 
than a fish took it down out of sight. He struck, and the 
line started off sideways, swishing through the water and 
tangling up other lines on its way. He was Boon landed, 
and the fun became general. 
The dock was short, and the good fishing place still 
shorter; so that our party, numbering over fifty, stood 
about two fett apart, each person intently watching his 
own float, A fish was in the air every few seconds for 
minutes together; then they would haul off, and we 
would catch nothing for say five minutes, when they 
would return. 
Quarantine, where we were fishing, is on the south 
■end of Mullet Key, whish is about two miles from the 
mouth of Tampa Bay. Whenever you find a dock in the 
bay, there you will find countless millions of minnows, 
seeking the docks for shelter. 
The mackerel soon find the minnows and feed upon 
them until they have cleaned them all out, when they 
migrate to other feeding grounds, Great schools of hun- 
gry mackerel swim in from the gulf through the mouth 
of the bay and soon find their way to the quarantine 
dock. The fishing is better at quarantine than at docks 
more remote from the gulf. 
When the school struck the dock, we could tell that 
they were coming by the agitation of the water. Then 
some one landed a mackerel and said "here they come," 
and for fifteen minutes every one was busy baiting, cast- 
ing, reeling in and landing the famous beauties. Then 
away they would go and we waited with bated breath for 
their return. Now a"d then the lines would get into a 
complex tangle, and then it required the patience of a 
heathen god to untangle and straighten things out; for 
the mure haste attempted in trying to untangle afoulfish 
line, the worse the tangle becomes. 
Near us were a good Methodist and a good Presbyterian, 
fishing side by side in harmony. Soon the Methodist 
hooks a big mackerel that goes zip around the Presby- 
terian line, and they soon have their lines in a bad tangle 
and the mackerel- takes French leave. Now comes a 
wordy scrap between these good men, in which they use 
great adjectives, and just as they are about to come to 
blows an awkward fisherman across the dock strikes a 
4lbs. sea trout (weakfish), and, having no reel, he gives a 
tremendous jerk and lands the trout on top of the said 
tangled fish lines. Then the two churchmen make up 
their own quarrel and pitch into the awkward fi-iherman, 
who quietly takes his fish from the hook, cuts off his line 
and leaves the other two to untangle at their leisure. 
"Here they come!'' Not a word is now spoken. The 
only sounds are the swish of the lines as they are cast 
out, the strike, the click of the reel, and the flapping of 
the fish on the dock. Every eye is strained on the cork 
float. A lady near us said, "Why don't I catch a fish?'' I 
said, "Madam you are fishing too deep; adjust your float 
about 4ft. from the minnow." She made the change in 
the line, and then dropped the line over and let the tide 
carry it under the dock, and after waiting a few minutes 
said, "I shall never catch a fish " Down went the cork, 
and she tugged away at a 41bs. mackerel, the largest 
canght that day. Zip! went the fish off sideways, every- 
body reeling in to get out of the w a y. She calls to her 
husband for help. He said, "Land your own fish." 
After a hard fight she lands the 41bs. beauty and holds a 
matinee for a few moments, in which she very gracefully 
receives our congratulations. 
We fished until noon, when the stewards spread dinner, 
at which a few sat down, but the majority ate with one 
hand, and held the pole with the other. The wind came 
out strong from the southeast, and drove a heavy sea 
under the dock; this only made the fishing better, but it 
made the casting extremely hard, as we had to cast against 
the wind. 
The steamer, after dropping us off, steamed across the 
bay into the Manatee River — her regular run — and was to 
call for us at 4 o'clock P. M. We made the most of our 
time. We had two boys catching minnows for us, and 
right lively did we make them work. 
"There comes the steamer!'' We reluctantly reel up 
our lines, and drag our heavy bags of fish on board the 
boat, tired out but happy, for Mr. Leaycraft and your 
correspondent had caught 110 Spanish mackerel and 20 
sea trout (weakfish), which more than paid our expenses 
for the whole day. 
Strange as it may seem, there were many in the party 
who caught but two <<r three fish each during; this ex- 
citing four hours' fun; they struck too soon or too late, or 
fished too deep or too shoal. As our time was too precious 
to fritter it away instructing amateurs, they were badly 
left, and went home unhappy and disconsolate. Fifteen 
hundred Spanish mackerel, sixty sea trout and thirty blue- 
fish were caught from the quarantine dock that day, and 
twelve or fifteen persons captured the great bulk of this 
fine catch. 
Next to the tarpon, the Spanish mackerel are the most 
beautiful fish that swim in the Gulf of Mexico. They 
have a shapely head and a mouth that is armed with 
sharp white teeth that come together like a steel trap, 
and when they bite the minnow is cut clean through, as 
if done with a sharp knife. They are beautiful in outline, 
tapering gracefully from their heads to their broad fluked 
tails. They have a large and long dorsal fin, and long 
lateral fins near the gills; these, together with the broad 
flukes that form the tail, make them rapid and powerful 
swimmers. 
We have often seen them on a poise, watching our 
minnow. Suddenly they start for the bait like a streak 
of lightning. Down goes the cork. We strike, and then 
comes the tug of war. How he fightsl We reel in until 
we can lift him over the rail, and hold him up in the sun- 
light. How beautiful! The back a dark blue, blending 
down the sides to a beautiful amber, and the belly a pure 
white. See the rainbow colors reflected from his sides, 
that are covered with myriads of small transparent scales. 
Slowly he changes color, the dark blue is gone and the 
back becpmes a light green. We drop him on the dock 
and every scale falls off. R. P. Bell. 
Nets in Lake Ontario. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The article in Forest and Stream of Sept. 29 relating 
to the pa^t of the State and more particularly to the sec- 
tion over which I exercise my official duties, quite natur- 
ally makes me feel indignant. One would infer from 
reading, that illegal fishing was being carried on directly 
under my nose, as the saying is. This is not the case, as I 
will endeavor to show. 
Trap nets are being used here. One was put in about 
Aug. 1, and two have come into service since. The article 
referred to does not make the direct statement that thf se 
nets are being set within the mile, but leaves it in such a 
manner that the general public might suppose such to be 
the case. As a matter of fact these nets are out a mile 
(the required distance) or over, and do not have any leads 
running to the Bhore, or even toward it. On the con- 
trary the leads run in the opposite direction, and conse- 
quently these men and nets come easily within the letter 
of the law. The Munchausen story of 1,700 bass being 
taken by a single net during one week, is, to people living 
in this section, ridiculous. If the three nets have taken 
1,700 bass, in addition to the other fish, from the time nets 
were first put in up to present date, it would come nearer 
the facts, and I doubt if that number have been taken. 
To secure better protection of fish the facts must be 
stubk to and we all know these are bad enough. The law 
should read three or five miles from shore, bars of 
meshes in gill nets 2in, at least, instead of 1| as most of 
them are at present. I make this suggestion merely to 
show that in my opinion they should be as I state. In 
all my reports and at the State Association for the Protec- 
tion of Fish, held at Syracuse, during the last two years, I 
have advocated this change, and I am positive that the 
waters of Lake Ontario wdl soon be depleted, if action 
in the matter is not taken at once. Perch are getting 
scarce, and the good catches made by the anglers will 
soon be a thing of the past. 
At the conclusion of your article, you say that it 
would be well for local anglers' associations to investigate.' 
I may state that the largest and most prominent anglers 
club in this part of the Soate, the Niagara County Anglers' 
Club of Lockport, was notified of these nets within a 
week after they had been set. Chas. Ripson, 
Fish and Game Protector, 
