780 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[May 16, 1908. 
Anglers’ Association of Onondaga. 
In the annual report of President F. S. Hon- 
singer, of the Anglers’ Association of Onon¬ 
daga, Syracuse, N. Y., the following appears: 
The Anglers’ Association of Onondaga was 
organized eighteen years ago for the purpose of 
protecting the fish and game and the song and 
insectivorous birds of this county. During these 
eighteen years many ardent sportsmen have 
given a large portion of their spare time toward 
carrying out the purposes for which the asso¬ 
ciation was originally intended. 
The success of this organization during the 
past year has been due to the large number of 
individual members who, being thoroughly en¬ 
thused with the possible results which we might 
attain through concerted efforts, have made un¬ 
usual personal efforts in increasing the mem¬ 
bership, so that to-day we have a membership 
approximating 1,400. 
In years gone by one of our greatest enemies 
to the protection of the song birds has been 
the uneducated foreigner, who, coming to this 
country of freedom, has assumed that he had 
the right to shoot anything he wished. We 
endeavored last spring to educate the Italian 
through the press and the pulpit that it was un¬ 
lawful to destroy such birds. Notice of warn¬ 
ing, stating the fines to be imposed, was pub¬ 
lished in the Italian paper; the priest in the 
Italian church was appealed to, land he warned 
his parishioners from the pulpit. An Italian 
special protector was appointed by the State 
through our efforts, and he, too, spread the 
gospel of the bird protection among his fellow 
countrymen, and as has been the custom for 
some years past, notices have been posted 
throughout the woods of the county printed in 
both Italian and English, stating the game laws 
in regard to birds, and the penalties for viola¬ 
tions attached thereto. 
Last spring we planted in the trout streams of 
this county some 50,000 brook trout fry and 
fingerlings, and about 5,000,000 pike fry in the 
lakes and rivers of the county. 
The number of people arrested for violating 
the fish and game laws in this vicinity during 
the past year amounted to thirty-seven. The 
fines imposed ranged from $15 to $213 each, and 
one man served 150 days in the penitentiary. 
The Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner 
has this year revised the game laws so as to 
make them more uniform throughout the State, 
and to harmonize more with the welfare of both 
fish and game, and this bill has met with our 
approval. The gun license bill, requiring aliens 
to pay $20, and all resident hunters $1, was en¬ 
dorsed by our association with the provision 
that the money so raised should be used for the 
propagation of game birds, the game birds to 
be put back into the covers of the State for the 
benefit of the hunters who are paying the tax. 
More care should be taken in the planting of 
our game fish. The fry which we receive from 
the hatchery are so small that it is a very 
serious question in my mind whether any ma¬ 
terial percentage of them live after being 
planted, for it would seem that with all the fry 
which have been planted in this county in the 
past few years, fishing conditions should be bet¬ 
ter than they are. Care should be taken that no 
brook trout be put in streams where any brown 
trout are known to exist, and I would suggest 
the desirability of securing a pond, which we 
shall first ascertain is absolutely free from any 
fish, in which our trout fry may be nurtured until 
they are nearly legal length before they are put 
into the open streams. 
I would suggest that the association plan for 
a fly-casting tournament, and also arrange for 
bait-casting contests to be held this season. 
I believe that we should make an effort to 
have the State put game and game birds into 
our covers. This has been carried out success¬ 
fully to some extent in some other States. Quail 
are very easily raised and are a very desirable 
bird. Some experiments have been tried in 
raising partridges which have met with some de¬ 
gree of success, and they will eventually be 
raised in sufficient quantities, it is thought, so 
that they may be distributed throughout the 
State. Hares also are very plentiful and easily 
raised and these should be put into the forests 
for the sportsmen. 
A prominent business man in a nearby city 
told me recently that he had been keeping his 
nose to the grindstone for a great many years 
and would once a year take a short vacation, 
but that in spite of this annual vacation his 
nervous system became undermined, owing to 
his strenuous application to business. A year 
ago he started taking half day trips to a trout 
stream, every few days he would take a day or 
a half day off, and he discovered that his health 
was materially improved and he said that had he 
discovered this one fact twenty years ago it 
would have been worth untold thousands to him 
in health. We desire to keep the fishing and 
hunting conditions so good near at home that 
it will be possible for any one to lay aside busi¬ 
ness cares for a day or a half day to follow the 
trout stream and to be rewarded with something 
for his efforts. 
Snagging Trout 
Philadelphia, Pa., April 20. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: I was greatly surprised, not to 
say shocked, that S. H. Carter’s letter on 
Alaskan fishing in the issue of April 18 should 
have been printed unaccompanied by any editor¬ 
ial comment on his methods of capturing Dolly 
Varden trout. It looks as if Forest and Stream 
considered the jigging of a game fish a sports¬ 
manlike means of capture, which I can hardly 
believe to be true. Surely, dragging a bare hook 
through a school of closely packed trout and 
“hooking them just by accident in the back, 
belly or any old way,’’ as Mr. Carter relates, is 
little better than spearing them; in fact, ethi¬ 
cally, I fail to see any difference between spear¬ 
ing and jigging. Each seepis to me to be a 
crime from a sporting point of view. I admit 
that Mr. Carter’s method does give the fish a 
chance to fight for his life and liberty, but the 
fish is hooked by force, not by craft, which is 
the essential element of angling, and therefore 
I think jigging may be considered beyond the 
pale even if performed with a light fly-rod. 
Perhaps I am an extremist in regard to sport¬ 
ing ethics, but I venture to say that I am not 
alone in my view of this matter. I would like 
to hear what other anglers have to say. 
Joseph Mason, Jr. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
A Day with the “ Brownies.” 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
On arriving home after a hard day’s work the 
other day a message was handed me which read: 
“I will be with you to-night at 7:52—E. R. S.” 
To me the meaning of it was fish; and true to 
his word, when the train rolled in, he was on 
it. After the usual greeting of course the 
conservation turned to fish and fishing, and old 
“Grimes” informed me he wanted to fish Clover 
Creek if he did not catch a fish. - He first 
wanted to sit around in those grassy meadows 
and think of the days gone by, when father used 
to “wollop out those old scorchers.” 
The following morning at 6:30 we were on 
the banks of the stream, ready for action. After 
fishing all day, our catch was five trout from 
8 to 12 inches in length. After supper, pipes 
lighted, and the first question was, ‘“How do 
you account for it?” 
“You must remember,” I answered, “that 
after I moved from this country I was away 
twelve years. During that time there were no 
trout put in the stream, but within the last year 
I have placed in different parts of it about 
22,000 trout fry, and about half of them were 
brown trout.” 
“Yes,” he said, “but do you think they will 
stay? Will they not do like the rainbow—leave 
the stream in about a year?” 
I told him I would prove that they would 
stay, and the following morning we started for 1 
Piney Creek, having another friend with us who 
is an expert bait-fisherman. It was an ideal 
morning for trout, and on reaching the stream 
Appy went up, Grimes down stream, and I in 
the center, to meet at a given point at noon. 
As I was fly-fishing, it took me but a short time 
to string the little split bamboo and attach a 
nine-foot salmon gut leader with a dark stone, 
a governor and an evening-dun tied on a No. 
10 hook. And just before starting on our 
various stretches of water, Grimes remarked, 
“I would give a dollar to see one of those 
brown trout you are always talking about,” 
which made Appy and I both anxious to catch 
at least a few good specimens. I think it was 
the third pool I fished that I saw a fair-sized 
“brownie” roll up to my flies, but missed and 
would not rise again; but it was enough to 
convince me that I thought it was a little early 
for them to jump. A few at least were getting 
in the humor for flies. 
Just above this place a short distance there is 
a stretch of water under some large willows, 
an ideal place for big ones, and in days gone 
by, when brook trout were plentiful, we could 
always count on a good one. To this pool I 
went and commenced to fish just at the head of 
the deep riffle. At the second 1 cast I caught a 
brownie about eight inches long. A few more 
casts and my flies were winging over the deepest 
part of the pool just out from the large willow 
roots. There was a flash of yellow, a splash, a 
swirl, an awful tug and I had him fast. He 
shot up out of the water like a bass and looked 
twice as large as he really was. Now down to 
the bottom, then in toward the roots, but the 
little bamboo was too much for him, and just 
as he swung into a little eddy he was lifted out 
on the grassy bank—a beauty of gold and 
garnet, just 13 1 A inches long; not large for a 
brown trout but a splendid specimen. 
