10 
REPORT OF BOARD OF FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONERS. 
The law was further amended by extending the open season and per¬ 
mitting their capture in any of the waters of the State from the first 
of April to the first of February of the following year, eliminating the 
tide water clause. So long as the prohibition against the taking of these 
fish with nets continues, no other restrictions are necessary. From a 
limited number of anglers a request was made asking that the taking 
of steelhead be permitted at all seasons of the year, with which we 
have not agreed, as we believe they should have protection while on 
their spawning beds—the principal months for which are February 
and March, the present close season. 
During the thirty-eighth session of the legislature, the title of the 
Commission, which had remained the same since the establishment of 
this department in 1870, was changed from “ Board of Fish Commis¬ 
sioners” to “Board of Fish and Game Commissioners.” 
To simplify the keeping of accounts, not only in our own office, but in 
the offices of the State Treasurer, State Controller, and Board of Exam¬ 
iners, the balances remaining in the fish commission fund and the 
game preservation fund were combined into one fund, known as the 
fish and game preservation fund, into which are paid all moneys arising 
from the sale of hunting licenses and of fines collected for violations 
of any of the fish and game, and fish and game license laws of the 
State, and providing further that this fund shall be applicable to the 
payment of the expense of propagating, protecting, restoring, and 
introducing game fish into the public waters of the State, and to the 
propagation, protection, restoration, and transferring of game birds 
and animals in this State, and to the introduction of game birds and 
animals into the State, and to the payment of the expenses incurred 
in the prosecution of offenders against the fish and game, and fish and 
game license laws of the State, and to all other necessary expenses 
approved by the Fish and Game Commissioners. 
The State now appropriates only $20,000.00 per year, and that for 
the support and maintenance of the commercial hatcheries (being at 
the rate of only one cent per head on the estimated population of two 
millions), to which is added the amount, approximately $22,000.00, 
arising from the sale of commercial fishermen’s licenses. This fund 
is applicable to the payment of the expenses of ‘ ‘ propagating, protect¬ 
ing, restoring, and introducing commercial fishes into the public waters 
of this State, and all other expenses pertaining thereto.” 
The sportsmen who pay for hunting licenses are not contributing 
toward the support of the commercial hatcheries, as is sometimes 
charged. All fines of whatever character, amounting approximately 
to $20,000.00 per year, are paid into the fish and game preservation 
fund, which more than meets the expense involved in the propagation 
of game fishes. 
