714 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Dec. 6, 1913. 
Market Hunters Oppose the Fish and Game 
Commission 
By GOLDEN GATE 
down, dry clothes, and a seat by the roasting log 
fire soon brought life back and the first words 
spoken were, “Whiskey. Haven’t you any whis¬ 
key?” 
The man looked surprised, and finally said, 
“Ain’t got none, stranger; that alcohol you just 
drunk be all the liquor in the shanty.” 
I had disposed of a full glass of alcohol with 
no more taste or effect than if it really had been 
water. 
It was dark with a north wind blowing hard 
and cold and the air was full of sleet mixed with 
snow before my clothes were dry and start could 
be made for camp. All the time when warming 
and drying myself, the woman was telling about 
former accidents along the lake. 
“The last afore you, stranger, lived only two 
days. Pneumonia finished him quick. I tell you 
’tis sure death to git into that lake during winter. 
But, say! you all looks strong. Looks like you 
might last a week. The way people suffers with 
that disease is a caution. Ef there’s any folks up 
North what will bury you, give my old man their 
names an’ he’ll send for ’em.” 
Such talk for hours, yet she meant well, and 
neither she nor her husband would accept any 
pay for their trouble. 
An hour after night had fallen, I dressed in 
dried-out garments, packing fifty ducks, gun and 
shell box, and started back to Glodo’s, taking a 
short cut through the woods. 
I slept well that night and was back in the 
cornstalk blind next morning long before signs 
of life showed around the market hunter’s cabin, 
and from that day to this I have never felt ill 
effects from my icy bath. 
How Herman Gets The Fish 
Herman Eckert, a plasterer, of College 
Point, is a crackerjack flounder and tomcod fish¬ 
erman. Every chance he gets he is on the bay, 
and when he comes in he has the goods. Thurs¬ 
day he made a very large catch of flounders. 
The News man has fished close to Eckert, 
and has watched him pull in the fish two at a 
time. He used sandworms for bait, the same 
kind used by other fishermen, but he kept haul¬ 
ing fish while others were idle. He fished with 
two lines, it is true, but so did others near him. 
There was a secret connected with Herman’s 
good luck and on Thursday the News man got 
next to it. 
While Herman held a line in each hand, the 
News man noticed another line hanging over the 
side of his boat. About this time Herman got 
up to stretch, and, when asked what luck he had 
had, exhibited a long string of fish which re¬ 
quired both hands to hold above the top of the 
boat. “Do you use three lines?” he was asked. 
“No!” he replied, “only two.” “Well,” said John 
Bradley, of the Port Washington Hotel, who 
was fishing close by, “you have three lines in the 
water. How is that?” Then the cat was out of 
the bag. One of Herman’s lines was attached to 
a beer bottle filled with water in which a few 
lively sand worms were squirming about. He 
kept the bottle hanging an inch or so from the 
bottom, attracting the fish from all directions. 
By fishing close to the bottle he had everything 
his own way. 
Now that the secret is out it may not be an 
uncommon sight to see the clergy and church 
deacons, as well as other followers of Izaak Wal¬ 
ton, with beer bottles in their fishing baskets. 
For Scripture tells us to “Go thou, and do like¬ 
wise.”—Port Washington News. 
Advertising is the voice of business. Your 
business will dwindle without this powerful re¬ 
viewing force. 
The Peoples Fish and Game Association of 
California organized at San Francisco a short 
time ago by market hunters, commission mer¬ 
chants and others interested in the sale of game, 
has issued a letter outlining its purpose in which 
a covert attack is made upon the Fish and Game 
Commission. This letter in part is as follows: 
“Since the opening of the game season the war¬ 
dens of the Fish and Game Commission have, by 
an arbitrary use of their authority, so delayed the 
delivery of ducks as to often cause the game to 
spoil, and in a number of instances have seized 
the sacks and not permitted any delivery to be 
made, nor have they given any reason for such 
action other than that they had a suspicion the 
game was intended for sale. 
“Game can be sold at a very reasonable price 
and yet be remunerative to those who take the 
time and trouble necessary to kill it, were the 
laws framed in such a manner that the game 
could be disposed of without interference. 
“It is proposed to invoke relief by means of 
an initiative petition as provided by law. A peti¬ 
tion of this kind would require about thirty-two 
thousand genuine signatures of voters throughout 
the state, and it is believed that this number can 
be readily obtained at a comparatively light ex¬ 
pense. 
“In short, an equitable game law which will 
be fair for all and cancel the special privilege to 
so-called sportsmen, fish and game clubs, abro¬ 
gate license fees for citizens to hunt and fish, 
place a tax on land used and leased solely for 
hunting purposes and place the enforcement of 
the law as to seasons and bag limits with the 
Boards of Supervisors of the respective coun¬ 
ties.” 
This is a fair sample of the literature ema¬ 
nating from the office of the association which is 
maintained in the heart of the commission district 
of San Francisco. The purpose of the organiza¬ 
tion with its high sounding name is to undo as 
far as possible all that has been done in the past 
along the line of making laws to protect wild-life. 
The success that was met with recently in secur¬ 
ing names to a petition to set aside the non-sale 
of game law passed by the last legislature has in¬ 
duced market hunters and wholesalers of game 
to take a step still farther and seek to have set 
aside the provisions of the present game laws 
which makes their enforcement possible. 
A serious situation is developing in Califor¬ 
nia and without doubt a strong fight will be made 
to block any non-sale of game regulations. Meas¬ 
ures relating to the sale of ducks will be submit¬ 
ted to the people at the general election a year 
hence and in the meantime it is absolutely neces¬ 
sary that a campaign of publicity be commenced 
to show the sale of game must be prohibited or 
the extermination of our wild life will follow. 
In the past the organizations that have been 
formed have been for the purpose of assisting 
in the conservation of fish and game and efforts 
along this line must be redoubled now that con¬ 
certed action is being taken by market interests 
to keep the selling of game lawful as long as 
there is any to sell. 
The officers of the' Peoples Fish and Game 
Association are: Barclay Henley, attorney-at- 
law, president; John F. Correia, manager Inde¬ 
pendent California Poultry and Game Transfer 
Co., vice-president; F, M, Bailey, secretary; Cecil 
Raymond, secretary California Poultry Co.; Wal¬ 
ter H. Maack, secretary Western Fish Company; 
John B. Campodonico, secretary L. Scatena & Co.; 
C. A. Cook and L. A. Sischo, executive commit¬ 
tee. 
Good Steelhead Trout and Bass Fishing 
Following a season of drought very heavy 
rains have fallen in the San Francisco Bay section 
and as a result streams that were almost dry a 
few weeks ago are now carrying a fair quantity 
of water and fishing has improved materially. 
Steelhead trout are now getting their first taste 
of fresh water in months and are commencing 
to run upstream from the bay and ocean to their 
spawning grounds. The bar at the mouth of the 
Russian River is still keeping the fish from get¬ 
ting into that stream, but this will be removed 
shortly and a great run of fish is expected then 
as large schools of steelheads have been seen just 
outside. A few fish have been taken at Point 
Reyes, but another heavy rain is needed to bring 
on a heavy run. Some good sport is being en¬ 
joyed on the lower stretches of Soquel Creek and 
large numbers of fish have been seen in Monte¬ 
rey Bay. The outlook is that some splendid sport 
will be enjoyed during December, as steelhead 
trout are very plentiful in tide-water. 
Striped bass are biting freely now and are 
being taken at almost all’of the places where this 
fish are to be found during the season. Some 
very large catches have been made and some of 
the fish taken have been of unusually large size. 
Ray Smith recently landed a fifty-one pound bass 
on Napa Creek during a lull in duck shooting, 
and William Augustein landed one in Petaluma 
Creek that was but two pounds lighter. In addi¬ 
tion to this lusty bass he landed three others 
with a combined weight of twenty-seven pounds. 
Large numbers of fish are being taken on 
San Antone slough, but a thirty-six pound 
striped bass is the largest one that has been land¬ 
ed recently, this having been taken by G. Chris¬ 
tenson. Bass are now being taken far out in the 
bay, a most unusual occurrence, as usually fishing 
is confined to the sloughs flowing through the 
marshes or to the straits in the vicinity of 
Benecia. 
Salmon are now running in large numbers in 
the Sacramento River near Redding, and a favor¬ 
ite sport there is spearing fish, most of them be¬ 
ing taken after nightfall. 
San Francisco Yachtsmen Planning for 1915 
At the invitation of President C. C. Moore 
of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition 
a meeting of representative yachtsmen of the San 
Francisco Bay district was held on November 19, 
and a number of important plants in the yachting 
program for 1915 were decided upon. It was set¬ 
tled that the sailing regatta would be held during 
the month of April for a period not to exceed 
three weeks and that the motor boat races would 
be held during October, for a period not to ex¬ 
ceed two weeks. Requests are to be sent to the 
Governors of all states asking that they name a 
commissioner for yachting and aquatic sports, 
this commissioner to be a member of the general 
committee of the Exposition having such activi¬ 
ties in hand. Similar requests will be sent to for¬ 
eign countries through the Department of State. 
