540 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 6, 1906. 
In Pennsylvania Waters. 
Whenever the Pennsylvania waters were in 
condition during August, the bass fishing in all 
parts of the state was very fine, but the sport 
in September was even finer. Moreover, there 
has been practically no interruption. There 
was very little rain, the rivers cleared and the 
waters fell. Reports from all over the state 
show bass fishing records greater than known 
for many years, and for this state of affairs 
the Pennsylvania Department of Fisheries is 
given credit. 
Some extraordinarily large bass have been 
captured in the Delaware, Susquehanna and 
Allegheny rivers. Four-pound fish were numer¬ 
ous, and one weighing six pounds was caught at 
Dingman’s Ferry, on the Delaware, by a thirteen- 
year-old boy. Twenty to twenty-five fish per day 
from nearly all the well-known streams, and 
many of the smaller ones, were quite common. 
What is especially gratifying to all the anglers 
is the vast number of young bass which are 
seen everywhere. 
Probably the best points for bass fishing 
during September were on the north branch 
of the Susquehanna, near L*aceyville, and 
nearly, every large fall and eddy on the Dela¬ 
ware river from Trenton to Hancock. The 
first week in September, Dr. Townsend, of the 
New York Aquarium, with a friend, averaged 
about fifteen bass per day on the Delaware 
river near Hancock. About a week later Com¬ 
missioner Meehan, with one of his superintend¬ 
ents and a son of Attorney-General Carson, 
had great success near the same place in catch¬ 
ing bass, the fish being intended for one of 
the state hatcheries. 
While engaged in this work, Commissioner 
Meehan and his party . experienced the un¬ 
pleasant sensation of being stoned by a number 
of fish pirates who had accused them of cut¬ 
ting their outlines. Fortunately neither the 
Commissioner nor his companions were struck. 
The outrage was reported to First Assistant 
Game Protector Worts. 
Reports from the western part.of Pennsyl¬ 
vania show the bass fishing to be nearly as 
good as in the eastern and central portions of 
the state. Bass fishing in the upper Allegheny 
river, especially in the neighborhood of Tidi- 
oute and below Warren, was said to be espe¬ 
cially good. The Schuylkill river and its beau¬ 
tiful tributary, the Perkiomen, have both kept 
the anglers busy. 
A large number of lake trout were caught 
during September from many of the natural 
riiountain lakes in northeastern Pennsylvania. 
Harvey's lake, Elk lake, Crystal and Silver 
lakes have been especially good. Most of the 
fish ran very large; that is to say, from 6 to 
14 pounds each. 
Unfortunately, something went wrong with 
the lake trout in Harvey’s lake about the mid¬ 
dle of the month. On Saturday, Sept. 15, a 
large trout was found floating, and on Sunday 
morning several more were discovered. On 
Monday, the 17th, a large number of dead fish 
floated ashore, and by the end of the week 
several hundred dead fish had been found. 
Others were seen floundering around the lake, 
dying. An examination showed that their air 
bladders were whole, and no evidence of dyna¬ 
mite. Specimens have been sent to the De¬ 
partment of Fisheries at Harrisburg for ex¬ 
amination to determine what is the matter. 
With the cool autumnal days, wall-eyed pike 
fishing in the Susquehanna is expected to be¬ 
come very good. This splendid food and game 
fish, which in the Susquehanna valley is known 
as the salmon, has been rapidly increasing in 
all the branches for the last five or six years, 
due to heavy stocking from the State hatcher¬ 
ies. The indications are for a very exciting 
month of October, as during the month of 
September many fish were caught. 
Mr. William Ford, a Scranton gentleman, is 
the owner of a pretty lake in Luzerne county, 
which bears his name. Mr. Ford is a public- 
spirited gentleman and an enthusiastic angler, 
and about two years ago began stocking the 
lake with brook and lake {rout. The fish 
thrived and multiplied, and this spring Mr. 
Ford threw the lake open to public fishing. 
Two weeks ago anglers in the county were 
enraged to learn that some miscreants had 
gone to the lake and exploded several charges 
of dynamite therein and killed thousands ol 
trout.. The Department of 'Fisheries was at 
once communicated with, and a warden has 
been sent to the locality, and in addition, the 
residents near the lake have employed a de¬ 
tective on their own account to capture the 
parties guilty of the outrage. It is discourag¬ 
ing to a man like Mr. Ford to have anything 
like this occur. 
One of the features of the State Museum at 
Harrisburg is to be an aquarium for Pennsyl¬ 
vania fishes. The Library Board and the Com¬ 
missioner of Fisheries are now engaged in pre¬ 
paring plans for the aquarium. This will be 
the first establishment of the kind in the state. 
It will probably be started with about fifty tanks. 
Mascalonge fishing in some of the western 
lakes was very good during September. A 
number of very large fish were caught, one 
weighing 34 pounds being caught in Conneaut 
lake, and many smaller ones from Le Boeuf. 
A few days ago one of the state fish wardens 
arrested two relative^ of Commissioner 
Meehan for illegal fishing. Friends of the 
young men wrote to the Commissioner ap¬ 
pealing to him to abandon the charge on the 
ground of relationship, but the Commissioner 
responded that in his estimation the relation¬ 
ship only aggravated the offense, and refused 
to interfere, and the young men were forced 
to pay their fines the same as any one else. 
The specific offense’ committed was fishing on 
Su nday. 
A number .of blue pike are being caught with 
hook and line from the Susquehanna river. 
As these are the first of this species of fish to 
be captured by anglers, the latter were natu¬ 
rally somewhat excited and wanted to know 
what they were or what gave the “salmon’’ the 
peculiar color. The Department of Fisheries 
has been hatching blue pike for a number of 
years, but the practice has been to‘plant them 
exclusively in Lake Erie. About three years 
ago, however, several thousand blue pike fry 
were sent to the Susquehanna in place of wall¬ 
eyed. pike, the supply of the latter having be¬ 
come exhausted. It is these fish which are 
now being caught. 
The state constabulary are giving valuable 
aid in suppressing illegal fishing. Last week 
a detail of seven members of the force was 
joined with an equal number of fish wardens 
and a raid made on illegal fishermen on the 
Susquehanna river at Columbia, with the re¬ 
sult that nearly two dozen illegal basket-men, 
illegal outliners and others were captured in 
one haul. 
Three new hatcheries, built within the last 
year, and two of them since July 1. are now 
being stocked with fish from other hatcheries 
and rivers. Last week 20,000 trout and a 
quantity .of sunfish and catfish were sent to 
Spruce creek hatchery in Fluntingdon county 
and a lot of bass to Union City, and Crawford 
hatcheries. The state now has eight hatcher¬ 
ies, from which fish will be distributed next 
spring. A ninth hatchery is to be started next 
April in Lebanon county. 
A lot of men in Philadelphia have been fish¬ 
ing certain back channels. and streams con¬ 
nected with the Delaware river. They were 
out for an'ything they could get, and before 
long the warden of the district and several 
citizens complained that they were catching 
thousands of sunfish of very small size. In¬ 
dividual catches.of over 200 were not uncom¬ 
mon, and according to the reports to the de¬ 
partment, very few of the sunfish were more 
than two. or three inches in length. When 
the wardens and others remonstrated with 
these people for catching fish of such small 
size, and pointed out that they could not be 
eaten, they coolly responded that they knew 
that, but they intended to feed them to their 
cats and ducks. This kind of slaughter and 
proposed distribution of the fish stirred up 
the Commissioner. 
As there is no law regulating the size of 
sunfish which may be caught, the Commis¬ 
sioner was for a little while at a loss what 
action to take, but finding that most of the 
fishing was done on a Sunday, he invoked the 
law of 1878, and directed the wardens to raid 
these people for Sunday fishing. Over a 
dozen were gathered in in one haul, and that 
the Commissioner was justified in taking this 
action is shown by the fact that one of the 
men arrested had in his possession eighty-two 
sunfish, all of which were easily accommodated 
in an ordinary tomato can. It cost each one 
of these fishermen $25 for their endeavors to 
supply cats and ducks with fish food. 
The Department of Fisheries is now en¬ 
gaged in filling requisitions from the State 
Department of Health for sunfish, and mary 
thousands are being sent out daily to be 
planted in pools and small ponds which are 
now declared to be mosquito pest holes. The 
Department of Health declares that tlie sun¬ 
fish is one of the best destroyers of mosquito 
larva; known, and it is for that purpose, that 
the Department of Flealth is requisitioning the 
Department of Fisheries. 
Several New York game protectors ana an 
equal number of Pennsylvania fish wardens 
united during the latter part of September in 
a raid on illegal fishermen on the Delaware 
river above. Port Jervis. Several parties had 
to*pay heavy fines for their temerity in think¬ 
ing they could fish as they pleased in the 
Delaware river. 
Among the Governor’s cabinet are a number 
of enthusiastic fishermen. Several of then, 
have formed a club and built a club house on 
the Juniata river, just above its junction with 
the Susquehanna. Among the members are 
State Librarian Montgomery, Deputy Attorney 
General Fleitz, Fish Commissioner Meehan 
and Dairy and Food Commissioner Warren, 
The club house is only about half an hour’s 
ride on the railroad from the Capitol. 
The New York Aquarium has asked for the 
loan of the fish car belonging to the Depart¬ 
ment of Fisheries for the purpose of carrying 
fish from a lake in western New York state 
near the Pennsylvania line to the Aquarium. 
The request has been granted by the depart¬ 
ment. 
There ought to to be good fishing in Penn¬ 
sylvania in the near future. During 1903, 1904 
and 1905 about 300,000,000 fish were planted, 
and this year around 400,000,000 were hatched 
and distributed, making 700,000,000 fish in four 
seasons. The output this year of 400,000,000 
is one-sixth of the entire output of the United 
States Bureau of Fisheries for the same time. 
Lake Erie sunfish or blue gills, as they are 
sometimes called, are being caught in some 
numbers in the north branch of the Susque¬ 
hanna, near Laceyville. 
There are some people who seem to be dis¬ 
contented with the large number of fish now 
in the streams in Pennsylvania, and want to 
get them out. A number of these dissatisfied 
people propose to do so by coercing their 
members in the Legislature into voting and 
working for a bill to so modify the fish laws as 
to allow them to use any kind of devices they 
please, especially set-nets and throw nets. It 
is said that a counter movement is started 
among people who wish to maintain the fish, 
to request the same members of the Legisla¬ 
ture to allow the laws to remain as they 
are. 
Lake Erie fishermen are demanding the re¬ 
peal of the Pennsylvania law which declares a 
close season for commercial fishing, on the 
grounds that the other states have not followed 
suit. They are ignoring the fact that Ohio 
did follow suit last winter, and that a bill pro¬ 
viding a close season will be delivered into the 
New York Legislature next winter. 
Bonifacius. 
IN THE WOODS 
cr in the mountains, no matter how far from civilization, 
fresh milk can always be had if foresight is used in 
packing the outfits. Borden's Peerless Evaporated Cream 
in cans keeps indefinitely until opened, and answers every 
purpose. It is pure, rich milk, condensed to the con¬ 
sistency of cream, put up without sugar and preserved 
by sterilization only. — Ailv. ' 
