Feb. 6, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
221 
prevent any commercial interest from inter¬ 
fering. It is just as Brother Feet says, if we 
go into any competition with any one, in any 
game, we want to beat the best there is in the 
business. That is one of the rounds in the 
ladder we are reaching for in the sport of fly- 
and bait-casting, including, of course, the 
pleasure of being together, talking over old 
times, learning new points in the art and assist¬ 
ing those new at the pastime to become more 
proficient. 
I figure that a fly- or bait-caster is like a 
baseball player or a race horse, he is good to¬ 
day, but to-morrow almost any one can beat 
him, thus giving others a chance. Another 
point against some is, no matter how good they 
may be in practice, they may fall down in a 
contest. This is pure unadulterated stage fright. 
If a man enjoys casting, there is no reason, 
with a little practice every week, why he can 
not be up among the best of them sooner or 
later. That is what he joins the club for, to 
learn the game, meet the boys and try to out¬ 
do his fellows in a pleasant outdoor sport. 
You may catch the best fellow on his off day; 
they often have a good many of them. 
The only remedy I know for stage fright is 
to keep persistently in the game with fast com¬ 
pany until you wear it out. By the way that 
means I will have to be in the game for some 
time yet. 
I think I voice the sentiment of the Racine 
Club in the above, and wish all the clubs would 
get busy, air their views and let’s remove this 
thorn from our sides before it causes a fester. 
Chas. F. Browne. 
Milwaukee, Wis., Jan. 16.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: At the bottom of all this wrangle 
against the professional and his methods lies 
the one thing which no amount of argument 
and sentiment can banish from the minds of the 
majority of conscientious anglers and sports¬ 
men. This is the brand of commercialism which 
has, through greed alone, stripped large portions 
of our country of its forests and left the land 
streamless and barren. This is the thing which 
has cut deep into the hearts of most of us and 
will ever be a reminder that there are certain 
phases of commercialism and professionalism 
which must be strangled as a matter of self- 
preservation. 
Fly-casting had an ephemeral existence some 
twenty-five or thirty years ago, and those who 
wish to learn something of the demise need 
only pry into the bones of the corpse to find 
some trace, even now, of the trouble. 
In time, I feel sure, the standard of business 
morality will be sufficiently high to induce the 
National Association to lift its “quarantine” and 
permit the professionals, so-called—many of 
whom I know are as honorable and unselfish as 
any amateurs—to take their place in the games. 
But in the past we have foolishly permitted the 
growth of an unnatural admiration for big 
things in business enterprise, even when con¬ 
summated at the expense of crushing the life 
out of many who are struggling along in a 
small way to make an honorable living, and 
nothing in life has been too sacred to escape the 
greed and grasp of those who have the power 
and see the chance for personal gain. 
All this can be read between the lines of Sec¬ 
tion 5, Rule 7. M. A. Beck. 
Fishing on the West Coast. 
San Francisco, Jan. 25.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Steelhead angling has been sidetracked 
for the time being by the heavy rains which 
have fallen and changed the rivers of the State 
into raging torrents. The present floods are 
not without their value, however, as they will 
allow the fish to run up the coast streams and 
their tributaries to their spawning grounds, 
thus insuring a supply of trout for the future. 
Striped bass fishing was also interfered with by 
the storms, and for the past two weeks there 
has been no fishing done either by sportsmen 
or the market fishermen. One effect of the 
big rush of water down the rivers will be to 
bring large quantities- of catfish into the 
sloughs, and when the smaller fish are present 
the bass feed upon them to quite an extent. 
Catfish are regarded by the bass fishermen as 
a bait stealing nuisance. 
The members of the San Francisco Striped 
Bass Club met at a local restaurant for the 
annual dinner on Jan. 16, and the meeting was 
a notable one. The prizes which had been won 
during the season were distributed by James 
Watt, president of the California Anglers’ As¬ 
sociation, The local anglers and those inter¬ 
ested in the sport throughout the State have 
come to an agreement upon certain legislation, 
which will be attempted to be brought to an 
issue before the State Legislature now in ses¬ 
sion at Sacramento. Besides the efforts of the 
California State Fish and Game Protective As¬ 
sociation, the campaign will have the attention 
and support of the California Anglers’ Associ¬ 
ation, which club will advocate a constitutional 
amendment of the utmost importance to the 
angling fraternity of the State. Other measures 
advocated by the club, and which have the 
moral support and approval of a majority of 
anglers and sportsmen in this State, are the 
following proposed changes in the present laws 
that will be presented and urged for passage 
in the interests of th.e people of the State more 
than that of individual sportsmen: 
1. A combined license tax upon hunting and 
fishing at the rate of $i for both, instead of for 
hunting alone. This for the taking of game 
and protected fish only and exempting from the 
angling tax any one under the age of sixteen 
years. 
2. An open season in tidewaters on steel- 
head trout during the entire year. 
3. A close season for the steelhead in fresh 
water during the time it is unlawful to catch 
other trout in fresh water. 
4. A change in the open season on trout 
from May i to Nov. 15, as it now is, to begin 
April I and close Nov. 15. This would give a 
month more of the open season. This change 
is a source of much argument among the ang¬ 
ling fraternity. In some streams it is ad¬ 
mitted that the present law is a good one, but 
in a majority of waters, particularly the coast 
streams of easy access, the best fishing is found 
early in the season. The present statute par¬ 
ticularly puts these streams on the shelf. 
5. A law closing all sloughs to the net fish¬ 
ermen, and also making it illegal to fish within 
500 feet of the mouths of such sloughs. This 
measure is intended to protect steelhead trout, 
black bass and striped bass, particularly the 
latter game fish in the bay tributaries. It is 
claimed that the net fishermen have depleted 
many creeks and sloughs that in the past have 
been alive with striped bass. There is a State 
law which makes it illegal to use a set net 
across a stream, river or slough—only drifting 
nets may be used and these with but 4l4-inch 
meshes. The market fishermen are accused, 
and justly so, of staking nets across a slough 
just before the turn of a tide, generally at night. 
On the ebb every fish coming down stream is 
taken, particularly so when small-mesh nets are 
used. In some counties ordinances have been 
adopted restricting the operations of net men. 
In Sonoma county netting in any of its streams 
is prohibited. In Alameda county the net men 
have been enjoined from taking fish in the estu¬ 
aries, and in San Diego and Los Angeles 
county the net fishers are restricted to certain 
distances from the piers and resorts, this in the 
interests of tourists and individual anglers. 
The San Diego and Los Angeles regulations 
have been upheld by the courts. 
6. The restriction of night net fishing be¬ 
tween the hours of 8 P. M. and 4 A. M. for 
the catching of protected fish. 
7. Raising the minimum fine for violating 
the provisions of the law for protection of fish 
from $20 to $100. Time and time again a 
capture of fishermen with a boatload of black 
bass worth from $300 to $400 has been settled 
by a $25 to $50 fine. The netters can well afford 
to do business on this basis. 
8. A law requiring the payment of money 
to the State for fish supplied by the State Fish 
Commission for the stocking of private waters 
in this State. 
9. A close season upon striped bass for at 
least two months during the year. If any fish 
ever needed protection during the spawning 
season this particular game fish is entitled to 
charitable consideration. The inroads from 
every source upon the present supply has made 
a lamentable shortage of good food fish. 
Striped bass now command a retail price of 
twenty-five cents a pound as against ten cents 
a pound a few years ago. 
10. A law making it unlawful to spear or 
gig salmon. The practice of spearing fish has 
been supplemented by the shotgun. Many fish 
have been shot during the past season as they 
swam in shallow pools or over riffles of coast 
streams. Spearing fish is mostly practiced at 
night, when fires are lighted on the banks of 
a stream and the helpless fish murdered by 
spearmen as they pass up. These practices are 
illegal in most other States of the Lfnion and 
the feeling is that they should be prohibited 
here. 
There are those among the anglers who be¬ 
lieve there should be protection for the fast 
disappearing shrimp and this matter may also 
be incorporated in the measures to be referred 
to the Legislature. There was formerly a close 
season on these luscious crustaceans, but for 
some reason that no one in the angling fra¬ 
ternity seems able to explain it was removed. 
These are taken mostly by Chinese fishermen, 
and operations are carried on almost every 
day in the year. A. P. B. 
All the dsh laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
