1022 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Dec. 25, 1909. 
Stream will be so fortunate as to catch him 
again. 
That afternoon I returned to Rockport and 
left for home on the evening train. None of 
the discouraging predictions of my acquaintances 
on the train had come true. I had enjoyed the 
finest shooting of my life; I had won the blue 
ribbon of Texas. Could any sportsman ask for 
more? Edwin Main Post. 
Fishing in California. 
San Francisco, Cal., Dec. 14.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: There has been but little fishing 
done in the vicinity of San Francisco for sev¬ 
eral weeks past, owing to the inclement weather 
that has been the week end rule. With the trout 
season at an end fishing operations are confined 
in San Antonio slough. The record fish for this 
well-known fishing ground so far this season is 
a forty-two-pounder taken Oct. 31 by R. Sang- 
ster. There have been a number taken there 
weighing over thirty pounds. At Wingo the 
sport has been even better than on the San 
Antonio, but the fish there seem to be rather 
smaller in size. A few clear Sundays will see 
great crowds at the fishing grounds, for sport 
in other directions has been closed. 
There is considerable agitation now going on 
in California in regard to a new measure that 
is proposed putting a stop to the taking of trout 
in public waters for the purpose of sale. Al¬ 
ready private interests have taken notice of this 
agitation and private ponds and streams are now 
being stocked with an idea of supplying the mar¬ 
ket later on. A California company was recently 
being threshed out certain of the city fathers 
took possession of the hatchery buildings. The 
fry were liberated in various of the county’s 
streams and the hatchery closed up.” 
This action on the part of the city officials 
will probably result in a lawsuit, as the fry were 
valued at $20 a thousand and had been hatched 
by the railroad company and were a portion of 
the assets assigned to the trout company. 
A. P. B. 
A Remarkable Carp. 
Washington, D. C., Dec. 15. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: The accompanying photograph is 
of a very remarkable German carp ( Cyprinus 
carpio). The fish was received about two years 
ago in a tank of fishes procured through the 
TARPON, TEXAS, AND THE BAY. 
A FREAK ILLINOIS RIVER GERMAN CARP. 
to the coast sections, and steelheads, salmon and 
striped bass are occupying the bulk of attention 
from anglers. The rains in the mountains have 
sent down floods of water and the bars at the 
mouths of the rivers are now all out and the 
steelheads are ascending the various streams in 
large numbers. There has been considerable 
sport in the open waters outside of the bars, 
but this has been enjoyed by but few. Scarcely 
had the fish begun to move up-stream when the 
heavy rains became general, and the rivers have 
been swollen to such heights that fishing has 
been out of the question and but few have been 
taken in any of the streams. There will be 
nothing doing in the angling line for steelheads 
now until spring, when the waters commence 
to subside, and from now on striped bass will 
be the fish calling for the most attention. 
Already this season there has been consider¬ 
able fishing for this fine fish and some very 
good catches have been made. Six fish were 
brought back to San Francisco one day recently 
weighing 150 pounds in the aggregate. These 
were taken by three enthusiasts, A 1 Wilson, 
Manning Cross and J. G. Blass, and were the 
only ones taken by them. The fish were taken 
on a light outgoing tide, disrupting the old 
theory that small, even tides are unfavorable 
for the taking of large fish. The catch of Man¬ 
ning Cross consisted of three fish weighing 
thirty-three, thiry and twenty-four pounds, his 
being the record catch. The fish were taken 
incorporated to go into the trout raising busi¬ 
ness, but so far its way has not been an easy 
one, for already it is engaged in a controversy 
with county officials. An ordinance has been 
passed in Mendocino county and which took 
effect on Nov. 20 to the effect that no fish eggs 
can be taken from any stream in the county to 
be hatched in any other county. The breeding 
of fish for stocking streams in places out of the 
county is also put at an end. George Went¬ 
worth, in speaking of the question at issue as 
regards the trout company, gives the following 
version of the matters at issue: 
“The California trout pond promoters ac¬ 
quired last July the rights and interests of the 
Northwestern Railroad Company in the Ukiah 
hatchery and the spawn taking plant on the Eel 
River, which the railroad company had main¬ 
tained for the past fourteen years. A ten years’ 
lease was secured and is on record from the 
county to the company for the Ukiah plant. The 
promoters maintained at an expense of nearly 
$1,000 the latter establishment during July and 
August. Subsequently a question arose over one 
of the specific conditions of the lease, the amount 
of trout fry to be placed annually in the Men¬ 
docino streams by the new management. Ac¬ 
cording to the lessees’ figures this would prac¬ 
tically take the whole of the output of the 
hatchery. The new company removed about 
40,000 fry, leaving approximately 400,000 in the 
tanks at Ukiah. While the vexed question was 
kind offices of Dr. S. P. Bartlett, of Quincy, 
Ill. Whether our good friend Bartlett is culti¬ 
vating this variety, prodded to it by the con¬ 
demnation heaped upon the normal carp or not 
we are not informed, but compared with the 
ordinary fish it is a sure enough freak, a “sport” 
of the first water with its fancy dressing of fins. 
B. A. Bean. 
Expensive Angling. 
After having spent $9,000 and making five 
trips to Catalina, where he devoted months to 
fishing, L. G. Murphy, of Converse, Ind., 
reached the goal of his ambition recently by 
landing his first tuna. It weighed 100 pounds, 
and the captor, wearing the coveted blue 
ribbon, boasted that the sport of conquering 
it was fully worth the prolonged effort and 
tremendous expenditure, probably the largest 
price ever paid for a fish of the same size, says 
the San Francisco Chronicle. 
Murphy, despite his years of failure with the 
tuna, is a mighty angler, and has made some 
wonderful catches. Recently he brought in 
one of the largest swordfish ever taken at Cata¬ 
lina. It was eight and a half feet long and 
weighed 141 pounds. 
The big marlinspike fish leaped from the 
water fifty-eight times in its efforts to free itself 
from the line, and two hours of the hardest 
fighting of the season was seen before it was 
brought to gaff. 
