Aug. 14, 1909] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
259 
Abolish Nets at Catalina. 
Avalon, Cal., Aug. 2. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Col. George A. Stone, president of the 
State Fish Commission; Game Warden W. B. 
Morgan, and several other parties at interest 
visited the island last week to look into the net 
setting question, and after an investigation Col. 
Stone authorized the deputies to lift and take 
up any nets found set around the island and 
bring them into Avalon where the owners might 
call and claim them—and stand trial for violat¬ 
ing the law. 
Within the last three years the Italian and 
Portuguese fishermen from the mainland have 
crossed the channel every afternoon in their 
large and speedy power boats, setting their drift 
nets for barracuda, white sea bass and yellow- 
tail, sometimes joining them end on end for 
miles. As a result fishing L has deteriorated until 
this year the white sea bass almost gave Cata¬ 
lina the go-by altogether, and no sooner had 
the sportsmen located nice schools of game fish 
than the foreigners began setting their nets 
about the places to such an extent that the rod 
and reel men virtually were acting as scouts for 
the market interests. 
Southern California has been slow to awake 
to the necessity of protecting her wonderful fish 
supply, although it has dwindled noticeably dur¬ 
ing the last ten years. The market interests 
seem to be the exception to the general rule in 
business to-day—look to to-morrow. The mar¬ 
ket men want to catch them all to-day and glut 
the market, which means tons of good food fish 
are dumped every month, criminal waste, just 
that the price may be kept up. The poor do 
not get any benefit from the extreme catches 
often made when a school of barracuda becomes 
entangled in a mile long drift net. This means 
five times as many fish are taken as can be 
handled by the market that day. Many are 
dumped at sea, but few escape, uninjured. It 
is suggested an abolition of all nets and a re¬ 
turn to the old methods of jig and line would 
supply the markets at less expense to the future 
supply. The dumping of fish rather than let 
the price go down is a common feature of the 
local fish trade. 
Not many fish have been coming in from 
Clemente, although an occasional gold button 
forty-pounder is registered—too common an in¬ 
cident to excite more than transient interest 
nowadays. 
Off the coast of the mainland trolling parties 
are having good sport with barracuda and alba- 
core, with rock bass and yellowtail plentiful at 
intervals. 
Surf fishing from the beach is productive of 
some large catches at present, but the fish are 
not as large as those taken a month ago, being 
engaged in spawning quite generally. 
The tuna have made several forays during the 
past few days and again are at the tackle smash¬ 
ing tactics that have made the species famous. 
By those who have seen tuna this year, the 
opinion seems general that they are of very 
large size. 
Anglers here are much interested in the efforts 
of J. K. L. Ross to take the big tuna in the Bay 
of Fundy and are generally agreed in the advice 
that a power launch be added to the equipment 
in place of a skiff or dory. Here the boat is 
used largely in fighting the fish. If he is dis¬ 
posed to run far and fast, the launch is hooked 
up after him. When he is ready to loaf and 
take a rest, by judicious co-operation between 
angler and boatman, the fish can be towed and 
led about at a minimum expenditure of energy 
by the angler, and this performance—circling, 
stretching out the fish behind the boat, bringing 
him nearer the surface and throwing the pro¬ 
peller wash into him—is most discouraging to 
all big fish. In fact, without this co-operation 
of launch and angler I much doubt if it will 
be possible to take any of these fish; certainly 
not to break Col. Morehouse’s record of 251 
pounds. 
Several years ago when skiffs were used here 
it was customary for the boatman to bend his 
back and row away from the tuna full speed 
as soon as the fish started to run. The idea was 
to check the first rush at all hazards of tackle, 
AT CATALINA. 
(According to the programme of the Three-Six Club.) 
believing that otherwise the fish would never 
stop short of the end of the line. Gray Gris¬ 
wold, of New York, who created quite a diver¬ 
sion a few years ago by killing tuna in quick 
time, had it figured out differently. At the 
strike he had his man go to the fish and let him 
run as far as he liked. This was the correct 
philosophy. The object is to wear out the fish 
and this can best be accomplished by letting him 
run, meanwhile keeping him from getting too 
much line by following with the boat at all 
necessary speed. Barring the occasional excep¬ 
tions, it is the winning way. Then, when the 
fish begins to hunt a soft spot, he can be towed 
about, the propeller doing the work, while the 
angler holds fast his reel, putting a good spring 
upon the rod. Big fish of all sorts lead surpris¬ 
ingly well. They are docile enough when about 
half spent and the energy they expend bearing 
away upon the line with their heads soon tells. 
Edwin L. Heddetly. 
Not Meant for Him. 
Farmer: “Hi, there! Can’t you see that sign, 
‘No fishing on these grounds?’” Colored Fish¬ 
erman: “Co’se I kin see sign. I’se cullid, boss, 
but I ain’t so ignorant as ter fish on no grounds. 
I’m fishin’ in de crick.”—Driftwood. 
Tournament Casting. 
Atlanta, Ga., Aug. 2. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Mr. Darling’s recent communication 
to you in reference to the exclusion of the so- 
called professional from the international tour - 
nament throws an entirely new light upon tin. 
situation to me. 
I am not quite ready to endorse his charge, 
that the rule is, in effect, cowardly, and puts 
the amateur expert in a very undesirable atti¬ 
tude. “Cowardly” is a strong word, and one 
we use cautiously. At the same time, it does 
look a bit funny. 
He was writing from the standpoint of a man 
who loves the game, is devoting his life to the 
improvement of everything connected with it, 
and naturally feels a resentment that the very 
thing which should qualify him in taking an 
active part in the furtherance of casting has 
been seized upon to debar him. 
Not being within the rule, his statement 
brings into exact perspective my own unformed 
objection to the rule, as an amateur. He may 
not be exactly correct in the statement that 
the rule builds a Chinese wall around and pro 
tects a few expert amateurs against a veiy few 
professional experts. But what I now see 
clearly is that, whether intentional or not, the 
rules adopted debar the eager amateur. They 
are designed, intentionally or unintentionally, to 
create a trust in behalf of a few men and ex¬ 
clude all other persons, whether amateurs or 
professionals, from entering the sport. A man 
with a natural gift and plenty of. time can in 
the course of a year or two get into the top- 
notch class, and if an amateur, thereby become 
one of the elect. But what of the hundreds 
who love the game equally well, who have an 
equal right to enter it, but whose work does 
not enable them to go through this year or so 
of necessary work? Why not let them take 
the veil at once, without any preliminary course 
of sanctification? Why are not they as much 
entitled to recognition as those embalmed 
saints? Why should not I, for instance, who 
handle the rod but once a year, be entitled to 
share in the good will that ought to, govern 
these contests, the good fun they create, and be 
permitted to indulge in the sport with others 
classified upon an equal footing for merit? 
Note the programme: An event for five- 
'ounce rods; another event for trout rods, and 
still another for salmon rods. The few men 
who enter these contests have established 
records that forbid me and a hundred others 
from entering. It would merely consume time 
without benefit to me, and be an act of folly 
upon my part, for I know in advance I am out¬ 
classed. Who, with the ability to cast only 
seventy feet, will enter a contest that he knows 
in advance will take a hundred feet to win? 
Yet I cannot but feel that intrinsically I have 
an equal right to participate, not in an event 
which would make my work ridiculous, but to 
compete upon the same terms as the few select; 
that is, with a reasonable chance of winning 
upon my own merits. 
If, in place of an event classified by the 
weight of a rod, and which possesses a gate 
that opens automatically only to a half dozen 
men, would it not be infinitely more just and 
more equitable to classify events by distance 
have at least two minor classes in which those 
