March 4, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
341 
rock with gold. The angler almost forgets his 
sport and lingers with rod poised in air. For 
no one is a real angler if he is indifferent to 
the beauty of such a brook, and if, at moments, 
the fishing does not hide behind his appreciation 
of the witchery of the dainty water course. 
I am wandering a little from my text,'but 
fishing a small brook is a sort of wandering 
anyhow. From getting the bait to the very 
«nd when you loiter through the sap bush on 
your way home and stop a moment to push 
open the rough door of the sugar house to 
look at the boasted merits of the new evapora¬ 
tor, there is a happy-go-lucky freedom about 
the whole thing. There is little like it in the 
whole range of fishing, and it takes a man back 
to the time when life held nothing in the way 
of trouble except that wood must be brought 
in from the shed, and the additional worry 
whether they ate all the huckleberry pudding at 
dinner. 
We start our fishing with a brook, and as 
years speed along there is a time when great 
rivers like the Nipigon and the Restigouche 
count much with us, but the beginnings of a 
river have the peculiar enchantment of youth. 
Perhaps that is the reason that in fishing a 
small brook I find it easy to be a small boy 
again. And if I am successful with my store 
of loach one daj', the trout of the next morning 
are pretty sure to have a flavor all their own; 
and, anyhow, will be more satisfactory than the 
spring that Ponce de Leon never found. 
Ladd Plum ley. 
Signs of Spring. 
Hendersonville, N. C., Feb. 24.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Everything here to-day is spring¬ 
like. Bright sunshine and balmy air and birds 
singing everywhere. 
1 he robins began to arrive weeks ago and to¬ 
day they are singing gleefully. The cardinals 
also and the flickers are singing their love songs, 
and these are not all. The grass is growing 
greener daily, while the maple trees are budding, 
and others show every indication of “putting 
forth.” To-day I also saw swarms of gnats 
flying and dancing in the sun and all nature 
seems to say, “We are pretty well through with 
winter and will now put on new growth.” 
Yet many of us fear a sudden return to cold 
days. Prophets are numerous who do not hesi¬ 
tate to say we can yet, and will yet, see many 
hard days before April 1. “Sufficient for the 
day are the evils thereof.” So I also, having 
the “spring feeling” in me am getting ready 
for the time when the trout will be waiting for 
the delusive fly. I never wait till the last minute. 
My rods and reels have been put in good shape 
and all ready, as I say, when the day shall come 
that 1 think I can fairly give the trout a trial. 
Rainbow trout here spawn until March and even 
up to the 15th of March some years. This has 
been a singular winter. It began the latter part 
of October and all of our cold weather came 
in November and December, most of it, so I 
do not expect, as many do, a very late spring, 
but there is no saying. At present it looks like 
spring now. Ernest L. Ewbanic. 
All the fish laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
Fishing on the Western Slope. 
San Francisco, Cal., Feb. 20.— Editor Forest 
Stream: Some fishing of high order is still 
being enjoyed in Napa Creek and vicinity, but 
the inclement weather has served to keep most 
of the local anglers away and the sport has not 
been enjoyed by many. The San Francisco en¬ 
thusiasts have been content to visit the nearby 
fishing grounds and many have been slinging 
clams on Wingo Slough of late, but the sport 
there is still far below par. However, one day 
recently two anglers visited this old-time fishing 
ground and succeeded in landing 140 pounds of 
striped bass, the best catch of the season there. 
Ten of these fish averaged ten pounds each, mak¬ 
ing this catch one of the best of any made in a 
long time in the bay section. Just what is the 
reason bass are not to be found where they were 
formerly so plentiful is a mystery, but the fact 
remains that the fish have changed their old- 
time feeding places and are now to be found 
further up the bay than formerly. 
In the deep waters of the bay the fishermen 
are enabled to make about as large net catches 
now as ever, indicating that the fish are practi¬ 
cally as plentiful as before, but they do not seem 
to be running in the sloughs as formerly. Com¬ 
plaints have been made by sportsmen that mar¬ 
ket fishermen are shipping large quantities of 
the fish out of the State, and a bill has been 
introduced into the State Legislature prohibiting 
the exporting of striped bass. A bill has also 
been introduced prohibiting the use of seines in 
the sloughs or creeks tributary to San Fran¬ 
cisco and San Pablo Bays, and in case these are 
favorably acted upon, it is believed that much 
better sport will be enjoyed in the future. 
From the present outlook the trout fishing 
season this year will be very late in commencing 
in the streams of the sierras, for very high 
water is expected. The snowfall has been the 
heaviest in the past twenty years, and but little 
of it has melted as yet, making it certain that 
high water will prevail during the spring months. 
The rainfall also has been very heavy along the 
coast, and coast streams are now much higher 
than usual at this season of the year with pros¬ 
pects of much more water during the spring 
months than is usually the case. This will mean 
that the trout fishing season will last longer 
here than has been the case in past years. 
Shrimp fishermen have not been exercising 
much care in their operations of late, and a 
number of them have come to grief. The new 
power boat Quinnat of the fish and game com¬ 
mission has been appearing suddenly at various 
points where shrimp fishing is carried on, and 
as a result a number of arrests have been made. 
Recently five Chinese were taken into custody 
near Point Richmond on the charge of having 
undersized striped bass in their possession, and 
only on the payment of bail to the extent of 
$50 each were they released pending their trial. 
Sportsmen in Humboldt county are greatly in¬ 
terested in a measure that has been introduced 
into the State Legislature changing the Eel River 
tide line from Dugans to East Ferry. Formerly 
the tide line was placed at East Ferry, but it 
was changed a couple of years ago, much against 
the wish of anglers. The change in the tide 
line here means the difference between good and 
indifferent steelhead fishing most of the open 
season. 
Word has just been received from the Cata¬ 
lina Islands that a big run of tuna is now on 
there, and that the big fish are to be seen in 
large numbers close in shore. Usually they are 
to be found first in the vicinity of Seal Rocks, 
but this season they are in among the larger 
islands. 
Whale hunting has become quite a popular 
sport in Southern California waters and a re¬ 
cent killing was witnessed by a large number 
of sightseers. A fishing launch has been fitted 
out with a whaling gun, and the Catalina Channel 
is patroled. A recent catch took place off Long 
Beach when a 35-foot California gray whale 
w-as killed after an exciting struggle. A large 
number of small craft followed the whaling 
launch and the capture of the leviathan was wit¬ 
nessed by thousands. 
If a measure now before the State Legisla¬ 
ture becomes a law, all streams and sloughs 
tributary to San Pablo and San Francisco bays 
will become part of a great fish preserve, and 
market fishermen will not be allowed to operate 
there. This will apply not only to the finny 
tribe, but to shell fish as well. A. P. B 
Anglers Club of Milwaukee. 
Milwaukee, Wis., Feb. 24.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The annual meeting and banquet of 
the Anglers Club of Milwaukee, was held on 
Tuesday evening, Feb. 14, at the rooms of the 
Milwaukee Athletic Club. The attendance was 
not very large, but it is a certainty that all who 
attended had a most enjoyable time. 
The impossibility of James Nevin, State Super¬ 
intendent of Fisheries, and E. M. Griffith, State 
Forester, to attend, was regretted by all. Mr. 
Levin, who had promised to be there and also 
give the members a short talk on the propaga¬ 
tion of fish, could uot come for the reason that 
circumstances over which he had no control pre¬ 
vented. Mr. Griffith could not attend for the 
reason that the Legislature had decided to hold 
the general hearings on the forestry bills com¬ 
mencing Feb. 14. 
There was considerable discussion on the sub¬ 
ject of spring shooting, and a motion was pro¬ 
posed and adopted expressing the sentiment of 
the club as opposed to spring shooting and au¬ 
thorizing the board of directors to take such 
action as they think will be most effective in 
preventing the passage at the present session of 
the Legislature of any law allowing such shoot¬ 
ing. 
1 here was also some discussion regarding the 
closed season for black bass. The majority of 
the members expressed themselves as being in 
favor of the season opening on July 1. This is 
in accordance with Mr. Nevin’s views as will 
be seen by an extract from his letter to the sec¬ 
retary of the club which is as follows: “I wish 
the club would use every effort to extend the 
closed season for black bass to June 25 or July 
1. Unless such action is taken for the protec¬ 
tion of the black bass, it will be but a matter 
of a few years when our waters will be depleted 
of this species of game fish. By the present law 
the season opens far too early and innumerable 
mature fish are caught while on their nests.” 
The fifth international bait- and flv-casting 
tournament, which is to be given under the aus¬ 
pices of the National Association of Scientific 
Angling Clubs, by the Anglers’ Club of Mil- 
