580 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 13, 1906. 
Bait-Casting Scores. 
The Kansas City Bait and Fly-Casting Club 
has one method of scoring in a combined dis¬ 
tance and accuracy bait-casting contest that is 
worthy the attention of all who practice tins 
form of sport. It is used in. bait-casting with 
half-ounce weights, but is equally simple for 
fly-casting. The scheme is this: A V-shaped 
court is laid out on the grass, with a tape-line 
in the center. The contestant casts for dis¬ 
tance and accuracy combined, and the judges 
note where his weight strikes first, say 120 feet 
from the score-line and 6 feet away from the 
tape-line. For every foot the weight falls from 
the tape a demerit of 1 foot is scored, and the 
total deducted .from the distance cast gives his 
net score, or 114. Let us suppose the following 
table represents the result of his five casts: 
Distance. 
Accuracy. 
Net. 
120 
' 6 
114 
98 
9 
96 
137 
9 
128 
119 
3 
11(3 
120 
10 
110 
— 
— 
— 
594 
Average, 
30 
112 4-5. 
' 564 
Id is distance average is 118 4-5 feet, his ac¬ 
curacy average 6 feet, leaving a net total of 
112 4-5 feet, a simple method of computing a 
combined score on the spot, so that the next 
caster can see what he must do to win. 
But while this method serves to encourage 
contestants to, cast straight, it is not so difficult 
as casting for accuracy at buoys in the water 
or marks on the lawn. Here one must cast 
straight and true. Suppose his score to be as 
follows: 
Feet. 1st. 2d. 3d. 4th. bth. Total. 
(30 .1 2 0 0 1 4 
80 2 0 3 4 0 9 
100 . 6 2 4 4 3 19 
Grand total.32 
In computing the result the judges must score 
each cast that strikes the buoy as perfect, or O; 
Within a foot, 1, etc. This is the demerit score, 
the sum total of which, in this case 32, divided 
by 15, constitutes the demerit per cent., 2 2-15. 
Deducting this from 100 gives the accuracy per¬ 
centage, 97 13-15, a nice method of arriving at 
a score with 100 as the possible, but one requir¬ 
ing some calculation which most judges prefer 
to avoid while surrounded by persons talking, 
and the scores are often left until the close of 
an event before being computed and the results 
announced. 
Rapid Growth of Trout. 
Capitola, Cal., Oct. 1 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Santa Cruz county conducts a fish 
hatchery of her own. It is, I think, one of the 
most successful trout hatcheries in the United 
States, and this year expects to hatch, and 
liberate in the thirty-odd streams in the county 
upward of 3,000,000 trout and salmon. This 
work will make Santa Cruz county the mecca 
for all California anglers, not only for trout, but 
sea fishing. I went out the other day and took 
forty-six fine trout in a few hours on fly. At 
the present time one can leave the most promi¬ 
nent hotel in the city of Santa Cruz, a city with 
upward of 10,000 inhabitants, and in ten minutes’ 
walk be on the stream and return with the limit 
(fifty trout) in two or three hours. At this time 
of year the trout range for seven- and eight-inch 
fish to three and four pounds in weight, and are 
in prime condition. They are steelhead trout. 
Two female fish were spawned at the hatchery 
last winter and over 19,000 eggs taken from the 
two fish. The trout hatched from these eggs 
are now at the hatchery and are over five inches 
in length, having attained that size since the 
latter part of March, in which month they were 
hatched. Trout at the hatchery 18 months old 
weigh as high as two pounds. I do not think 
it will be long before this hatchery will attract 
the attention of sportsmen all over the United 
States. All the spawn is taken from the wild 
trout, and no trout is spawned that weighs less 
than five pounds, and many weigh as high as 
eighteen pounds. 
THE ANGLERS’ CLUB MEMBERS PRACTICING BAIT-CASTING ON THE POOL IN CENTRAL PARK. 
The annual meeting of the Fish and Game 
Protective Association will be held at Monterey 
on Nov. 9, 10, 11, 1906. 
Walter R. Welch. 
California Commission Asks for Proofs. 
Since the publication, last week, of comments 
respecting the deputy wardens who were recently 
discharged by the California Fish Commission, 
Charles A. Vogelsang, chief deputy, has written 
us, denying all of the charges that have been 
made against him, and stating that “thus far 
no association, save the Santa Clara, has sent a 
communication to this office, except such as were 
complimentary to the board.” Mr. Vogelsang 
incloses a copy of a long letter from Commis¬ 
sioners Van Arsdale and Bermingham (Mr. 
Gerber, the third member, being out of the state) 
to the Santa Clara County Fish and Game Pro¬ 
tective Association, in which appears the follow¬ 
ing challenge: 
“If your organization or any other body or in¬ 
dividual can prove to us at any time that Mr. 
Vogelsang, or any other deputy, assistant or 
employee in the service of this commission, is 
either incompetent or unscrupulous or unrelia- 
able, he will be discharged forthwith and with¬ 
out anv ceremony attendirlg his going.” 
The letter then takes up the Santa Clara asso¬ 
ciation charges and passes on them, denying some, 
justifying the chief deputy’s position in others 
and finally giving a statement of the comparative 
number of arrests, the nature of the offenses and 
the amount of fines collected during recent years, 
as showing that the commission has been active 
in the discharge of its duties. The tables show 
that whereas eight arrests were made and $100 
in fines collected during the years 1897-8, the re¬ 
turns for 1905 and 1906 to date show $4,120 in 
fines, and ninety arrests for violations of the 
striped bass law. 
During the same years mentioned, in enforcing 
the duck law,, the arrests increased from 14 to 
75 and the fines from $220 to $1,530: deer law 
violation, 165 as against 11, and fines amounting 
to $4,330 as against $100; quail law arrests, 7 and 
105, and fines of $40 and $2,270 respectively; 
salmon law arrests, 19 and 39, and fines $200 and 
$3,300 respectively. For trout law violations 
arrests increased from 21 to 33,j and fines from 
$345 to $725, 1901 to date; and in enforcing the 
shrimp law, arrests increased from 8 to 22 and 
fines from $183 to' $625, 1901 to date. 
Racine Casting Tournament. 
The Racine Fly-Casting Club, through A. H. 
Barnes, its secretary, has formally announced the 
time for the holding of its fly- and bait-casting 
tournament in Racine, Wis., next August. The 
announcement follows: 
“The Racine Fly-Casting Club desires to an¬ 
nounce that by virtue of a resolution unanimously 
adopted at the first convention of the National 
Association of Scientific Angling Clubs, an inter¬ 
national fly- and bait-casting tournament will be 
held at Racine, Wis., under the auspices of the 
Racine Flv-Casting Club during the month of 
August, 1907. 
“This will be the first official international series 
of events to be held under the rules and regula¬ 
tions of the national organization, and every effort 
is already being put forth toward promoting a suc¬ 
cessful meet, and the prestige of national or¬ 
ganization support and endorsement should add 
materially to this success. 
“Racine extends a cordial invitation to all those 
interested to attend and participate. Actual dates 
will be announced later.’’ 
Michigan’s Record Bass. 
A correspondent calls our attention to a para¬ 
graph that appeared in these columns in August, 
in which William E. Shoemaker gave the dimen¬ 
sions of a small-mouth black bass which he caught 
in Long lake, Michigan, and which the Michigan 
Fish Commission says is the record fish of its 
species for that state. Its weight was 9 Yi pounds 
when caught, and 8two days afterward. Mr. 
Shoemaker gave its length as 24 inches and its 
girth as 19 inches. By an error its girth was 
stated to be only 9 inches. 
