Nov. i, 1913- 
FOREST AND STREAM 
559 
for the purpose of protecting the game birds 
and mammals and restocking game covers. They 
are entitled to demand this allotment of the 
funds as a matter of right, and they are de¬ 
manding it on every suitable occasion. 
But, again, who is objecting to fishing 
licenses, anyway? Obviously, it is not the fisher¬ 
men themselves, for there is scarcely a sports¬ 
man anywhere who wets a line or baits a hook 
that would not gladly contribute his share to 
the general game fund, if only he could be 
assured that whenever he paid over his license 
fee that money would be returned to him ten¬ 
fold by additional fish placed in his favorite 
waters, and there properly protected by law until 
such time as reproduction could occur. In fact, 
all the fishermen would demand is what the 
hunters now demand—that their license money 
be not squandered and wasted, nor diverted by 
our amiable politicians from the game fund into 
some other channel and used for schools, high¬ 
ways or other public purposes. The sportsmen, 
like other good citizens, are now paying their 
proportionate share of taxes for these other pur¬ 
poses, and they insist and rightly so, that this 
license money be used for the sole purpose of 
protecting and propagating game and fish. 
It can scarcely be denied, then, that the 
pressing need of the times in the way of game 
legislation is a uniform and economical system 
of fishing licenses. The hunting license has 
come to stay, and the next logical move is for 
the fishing license to join it. The former has 
had a practical test; it has not been found want¬ 
ing; its more obnoxious features have been 
eliminated, and the lesson we learn from it is 
that the fishing license should join it at once. 
The sportsmen are all coming to this view, and 
have been more than willing to bear the burden 
such licenses would occasion, but the politicians 
are undecided about the matter. 
Evidently the safe and practical plan is to 
require every resident sportsman who desires to 
either hunt or fish, or both, to secure one license 
therefor, which will cover both privileges, and 
for one and the same fee, while non-residents 
should be permitted to take out separate licenses. 
This is only j ustice to the latter, owing to their 
temporary sojourn in the State. Now is the 
time for the sportsmen to take up this subject 
and act upon it. 
California Streams Being Surveyed. 
BY GOLDEN GATE. 
The California Fish and Game Commission 
has commenced a survey of the streams of Cali¬ 
fornia that will be unique in character and 
which, when completed, will be of great value 
to anglers. It is planned to compile maps show¬ 
ing the course of each stream, its length, the 
character of the country through which it passes, 
the obstructions that are met with, together with 
the varieties of fish life to be found in it at 
various points, where plantings have been made 
and similar information. These maps will also 
show the locations of diverting ditches, screens, 
fishways, etc., and will, in short, be a complete 
record. During the past season the commission 
has been actively at work enforcing the law in 
regard to the screening of ditches, and under its 
direction a large number of screens have been 
installed. The large corporations have been 
quick to comply with the provisions of the law-, 
when their attention has been called to them, but 
there are still thousands of diverting Jitches in 
the State that are not equipped with screening 
devices. Some of these screens are large affairs, 
one having been constructed in the Sacramento 
Valley recently that required five tons of ma¬ 
terial. During the past season the commission 
has had a man in the field almost constantly 
whose sole duties are to see that proper screens 
and fishways are installed, and he had made sur¬ 
veys of many of the leading streams of Northern 
California. The completion of the maps upon 
which work has been commenced will assist ma¬ 
terially in keeping track of these installations. 
Necessarily this work will be slow, as the com¬ 
mission has but limited funds at its command 
with many hundred streams to be given its at¬ 
tention. 
Fishing in California. 
BY GOLDEN GATE. 
A heavy run of salmon has entered the 
Golden Gate, and anglers are enjoying some of 
the best sport that has fallen their lot in years. 
While a number of large fish have been taken 
in the Bay, and the fishermen on the Sacra¬ 
mento River' are making good hauls, the best 
catches by far have been made outside the Heads. 
Recently J. Brown, R. Kingwell, Walter Allen 
and Joe Bickerstaff, of Marin county, spent the 
day just outside the bar and returned with ten 
fish that weighed 300 pounds. Three of these 
tipped the beam at forty pounds each, and the 
other seven all weighed more than twenty-five 
pounds. 
Deputy Fish and Game Commissioner T. W. 
Birmingham recently discovered a set net in the 
Sacramento River on the Butte county side, and 
the Fish and Game Commission has applied for 
permission to destroy this. The net was 400 
feet in length and a four and six-inch mesh. 
The Big Creek reservoir in Fresno county 
was recently stocked with 40,000 Loch Leven 
trout by A. D. Ferguson, district fish and game 
commissioner, assisted by Kenneth Hughes. This 
reservoir is in the high sierras, and is expected 
to become one of the greatest fishing grounds 
of the State, as it can be easily reached. 
One of the largest plantings of trout fry 
ever made in California was recently made by 
the Dunsmuir Commercial Club, when 300,000 
fish were liberated in Soda. Shotgun and Hazel 
creeks. Fry planting is still under way in Santa 
Clara valley streams, and in the streams of Mon¬ 
terey county, but is largely at an end in other 
sections of the State. 
Fishing in the Feather River is now very 
uncertain, but good catches are being made in 
some sections. Sport along the North Fork and 
along the main river below Belden has been 
ruined for the season by work on the Big Meadows 
dam, and the same is true of fishing in the Big 
Meadows district itself. In the vicinity of Sloat, 
Cromberg and Blairsden there is still fair sport 
to be enjoyed, but the best results are being 
secured by the use of bait. 
While the water in the streams near San 
Francisco is very low, some very good catches 
are being made. Laguinitas Creek is still good 
for limit baskets, and not all the large fish have 
been taken, as is proved by the recent catch of 
Fred Gantner, who landed an eighteen-inch steel- 
head. 
Good catches of steelhead trout have been 
made of late on the Eel River, but the best sport 
will not be enjoyed until rather heavy fall rains 
have occurred. A big run of trout is at the 
mouth of the river, and will enter the stream as 
soon as the water is sweetened and the bar 
scoured off. 
Large plantings of trout fry have been made 
in the Yosemite Valley this season by the Gov¬ 
ernment, the last lot liberated consisting of 50,000 
fish of the rainbow, Eastern brook and Loch 
Leven varieties. 
California anglers will be interested to know 
that the Oregon Fish and Game Commission is 
preparing to establish two new hatcheries next 
year in Klamath county. One will be located 
at Spencer Creek, where a temporary plant has 
been operated this season, and the other will be 
at Odell Lake. 
The Santa Cruz Trout Farm has been in¬ 
corporated at San Francisco by S. Beck, A. T. 
Maguire and I. Miller, the capital stock being 
placed at $20,000. 
The close season for salmon, as far as net 
fishermen are concerned, is now on and extends 
until Nov. 15. During this time fishing with 
hook and line is allowed, but there is a limit 
of three fish daily. The close season for striped 
bass and shad is also in effect, but anglers are 
allowed to make a daily catch of ten of these 
fish. While market fishermen are not allowed 
to take salmon or striped bass until Nov. 15, the 
sale of fish taken during the open season is now 
allowed under regulations prescribed by the Fish 
and Game Commission. All fish in cold storage 
at the commencement of the closed season were 
weighed, and a careful accounting of the stock 
on hand is made by dealers at regular intervals. 
This is the first season that this plan has been 
placed in operation in California. 
Steelhead fishing on the Eel River is now 
of a high order, and many San Francisco anglers 
are forsaking the streams of the sierras, to which 
regular visits have been made this summer, and 
are now making the trip up the coast. Chub 
salmon are running freely and are rising to the 
fly, while large salmon are being taken with 
trolling spoons. The regular run of steelhead 
trout has commenced, and some great sport is 
being enjoyed at a number of the famous pools 
along this stream, notably at the Weymouth, the 
Greig and the Van Duzen. As soon as a light 
rain is experienced, fishing will improve on the 
upper stretches of the river. Frank Maskey, 
W. A. Morris and S. Hecht recently visited this 
. stream and had splendid success. Clarence Hay¬ 
ward is now spending a few days there and has 
landed several large steelhead trout, one of them 
weighing seven and a half pounds. 
Some excellent sport is expected shortly on 
the Russian River, as a large run of steelheads 
is waiting off the mouth of that stream. As 
soon as a rain occurs to wash away the bar and 
freshen the water, the fish will make their way 
into the deep pools of the river, and anglers will 
again be visiting Duncan’s Mills in numbers. 
While some fair sport is still being enjoyed 
on streams in the high sierras, very low water 
is the rule, and the locations where limit catches 
can be made are few and far between. The best 
late season sport is probably on the McCloud 
River, where good fly-fishing did not commence 
until August, and on other tributaries of the 
Sacramento River. 
