Jan. 15, 191a] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
101 
caught. During the last week in September 
and the greater part of October nearly one-third 
the catch from the herring nets were small 
whitefish, and at the same time the whitefish 
nets and pounds were taking large quantities of 
whitefish ranging from two to eight pounds. 
The phenomenal run of lake herring noted in 
1908 continued this year and warranted some of 
the dealers at Erie in building large plants for 
smoking this delicious fish. Blue pike are also 
appreciably increasing. The increase in all these 
fish is being felt on the Canadian side as well 
as on the American. The interior lakes con¬ 
tinue to show an increase in the species propa¬ 
gated by the State, and the catch of shad in the 
Delaware River last spring was for the first 
time in ten years more nearly equal to the years 
between 1890 and 1900. 
“The drouth which was so severely felt in 
Pennsylvania in 1908 was even more severe this 
year. On rivers like the Susquehanna and the 
Delaware, the Ripper reaches are little more than 
The wisdom of the course is illustrated by the 
fact that only five prosecutions have had to be 
instituted since the operation of the new law, 
while two or three hundred concerns have put 
in suitable purification plants and many more 
are installing them. Public sentiment strongly 
demands the purification of our water supply in 
order that fish may thrive and thus provide a 
bountiful supply of a valuable food product; 
that it may be used for domestic purposes; and 
that it may be healthful. 
“A less number of arrests were made for vio¬ 
lation of the fish laws than in 1908. This was 
due to several causes. First, the new law which 
abolished the paying of half the fines to the 
special wardens and informers; second, to a re¬ 
duction in the force of regular salaried war¬ 
dens due to an insufficient appropriation to pay 
the full number formerly employed. The total 
number of arrests was 387 of which 336 were 
convicted and seventeen went to jail in lieu of 
the payment of the fines. Thirty-seven of those 
association? And how does he expect a half 
dozen scattered expert “professionals” to form 
a club, much less an association? 
The rule now of force in the National Asso¬ 
ciation is one which has always produced with 
me some amusement, and a good deal of irri¬ 
tation, liberally besprinkled with a large amount 
of disgust. There is not a sport known to 
humanity that has a similar definition of a 
professional. No man would propose such a 
rule in golf, baseball, football, or any other 
sport. 
A professional, under the rules of every other 
sport, and the greater law of common sense, is 
the man who does a given act for pay or for 
a livelihood. The man who would suggest a 
rule making a manufacturer of baseballs a pro¬ 
fessional baseball player, or the manufacturer of 
saddles a professional jockey, would be regarded 
as a lunatic. And yet, without reason, in the 
fairest and best of all sports, this proposition 
is now of force. 
SCENES AT LAKE CHAPALA, MEXICO. 
Ribera Castellanos Hacienda—Where the Bass were Liberated. 
Indian Fisherman with Cast Net. 
creeks. Under such conditions, as may be ex¬ 
pected, the angling interests suffered. 
“The Legislature at its last session enacted in 
the fishery law a very sweeping prohibition 
against the pollution of streams by industrial 
establishments. The measure went into effect 
on the first of May and very fair progress has 
been made by the department in securing the 
observance of its provisions. Manifestly the 
purification of the waters of Pennsylvania can¬ 
not be accomplished in a short time or even 
within the time which the general public, un¬ 
acquainted with the problem, would expect. 
Many forms of pollution injurious to fish can¬ 
not be stopped with safety to the public health, 
say the health authorities, until the cities or 
towns below have established sewage disposal 
plants in accordance with the decrees of the De¬ 
partment of Health. In other cases it requires 
time for industrial establishments to adjust 
themselves to the new order of things and to 
install proper purification plants. There are 
many industrial establishments that can without 
financial loss make other disposal of their waste 
than by emptying it into the streams. In most 
cases the waste contains by-products, the value 
of which exceeds the cost of production. It has 
been my policy not to unduly press the owners 
of industrial establishments while I have in¬ 
sisted the law must be observed at the earliest 
possible moment. It has been my policy to 
point out to the owners of such places that it 
is to their financial advantage to obey the law. 
convicted appealed or took a certiorari to the 
county courts where the cases are still pending. 
Of the 387 arrests 281 were made by regular 
wardens. The majority of the others were made 
by special wardens prior to the repeal of the old 
law. The total amount of fines imposed by 
magistrates was $6,702.46, of which $4,561.46 
were paid to the magistrates. The balance, 
$2,141, was embraced in the cases appealed in 
which the defendants went to jail rather than 
pay. 
“That the wardens performed excellent work 
is shown by the fact that under the present ap¬ 
propriation it is only possible to pay eight, and 
these have to do practically all the fish protec¬ 
tion work of the State.” 
Tournament Casting. 
Atlanta. Ga., Jan. 6.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The solution offered by Mr. Marsh 
in your issue of the first, of the controversy 
about the professional rule in the National As¬ 
sociation, has the merit of being generous, and 
the demerit of being illogical. 
If his plan was adopted, and the so-called pro¬ 
fessionals held a tournament contemporaneously 
with the so-called amateurs, and the best men of 
each then entered a final contest, we would have 
the so-called amateur and the so-called profes¬ 
sional mutually casting, which is exactly what 
the rule now prohibits. If they are to cast to¬ 
gether, why not do this from the start, in one 
Indian Fisherman’s Camp and one of the Charral Baskets. 
Tested by this universal definition, there is not 
a true, professional fly- or bait-caster in America, 
for no one to my knowledge casts either for pay 
or a living, and the exclusion, therefore, of any 
man save for personal reasons is wrong. 
Who has yet heard one of the selected saints 
give a reason for the rule? Brute assertions, 
with some abuse, have occasionally appeared, but 
never a reason. If one of them will put in print 
a single sound reason why the rule should stand, 
it would end the question—certainly so far as 
I am concerned. Why the silence if the rule be 
right? It has been stated, the sport must be 
kept “pure.” But this sport is intrinsically pure, 
and no one could debauch it if he tried. If it 
could be defiled, a proper definition would be 
equally effective, and less unjust. 
I have no interest in the rule, aside from its 
obvious injustice, and the improver elimination 
that follows. I do not believe there are in 
America to-day a half dozen top-notch fly ex¬ 
perts who are engaged in the manufacture of 
fishing tackle. To bar this small body of men 
who are otherwise qualified by character and 
demeanor as members of the association, is a 
petty outrage upon both them and the sport. 1 
resent the thing, not from any personal interest, 
but because the game is otherwise fair, clean and 
appeals only to gentlemen, and this unjust and 
improper regulation belittles and degrades it. 
The generosity, kind feeling and universal fra- 
ternalism that exists among fly-fishermen is 
lowered and discredited by the rule. 
