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Show :it:h e ;m 10 NEEDED CHANGES IN FISH - i LAWS AND PROTECTION , ' . . i ? There are three men who are out working hard for the fish and game job. These men are D. H. Madsen, the present fish and game commissioner, his brother, and Walter Sloan, one of i the local boys who has been for many years fighting for the conservation of our fish, game and wild life. The sportsmen have had a hard fight in this state to get adequate protection. The fight will again be carried to the legislature for the purpose of getting better laws for the people. Two years, ago, somebody slipped an article into the fish and game bill .which entirely killed the catfishing at Utah lake and the thousands of people who went to Utah lake last summer got their outing but very seldom got any fish. The present law permits seining, trapping and setting lines for catfish, anyway to get them, and it did not take the greedy fishermen very long to clean out the lake of this game fish.; No one has yet explained why it is so easy to catch all the game fish and why the common fish are allowed to remain. There are tons upon tons of common fish caught, but the game fish is the one that has had a merry chase. To hear the market men tell it, there never were any game fish in Utah lake. The writer most emphatically .denies that statement. I have seen one ton of black bass at one time on the floor, of a Salt; Lake fish .house, and I have seen nearly three tons of Utah lake trout, iced and frozen, stacked up like cord wood. I want to say that more game fish have been driven into the seines in this state than all the fishermen have caught. At one time, Utah lake was full of trout and black bass, but like the buffalo, they have disappeared. Is it any .wonder that the fishermen complain when they know what has been done in the past and our present laws are so framed to make it possible for some market men to profit at the expense of the people. Charles Buckle is a well known fisherman. He fishes for pleasure. Last summer when he made several trips to Utah lake and found it impossible to get any fish unless he purchased them from some seiner, he circulated a petition which has been signed by over 10,000 fishermen in this city to stop seining in Utah lake. If fishng was as good as some people will have you .believe, what about this petition? This is surely a big protest regarding fishing conditions at the lake. The people are asking for better protection for bass, trout and catfish. Dont let any one tell you that these three named species of fish will not thrive in Utah lake. A closed season on the seine for two or three years will be ample proof of what good results can be had at that lake. Game fish have never had a chance in Utah lake since the inauguration of the destructive seine. Game fish bring a gcod price in the market and our fish and game department has had a great deal of trouble in protecting these fish in that water, but their efforts were in vain. Whenever sportsmen have organized . . the market fishermen came into this county and packed the meetings in order that they could control things, and the market interests control fishing to this day. Read the Utah game laws and be convinced. Notwithstanding the increased number of hatcheries and facilities for propagating trout, our game commissioner now advocates closing the season one month earlier. More fish, have been planted than ever and if anything the season should be lengthened instead of shortened. However, the shorter the season here . the more money Idaho will get from the Utah boys. In Idaho they have less fish in the papers and" more in. the streams. As J. W. Shipler says, We have too much water here for the fish wTe;have, and there is probably a great deal of truth in that. If the. sportsmen had their way they would like to see the following changes in the game law: No game fish sold on the market, not even by the state. The state has sold some fish. Prohibit seining in Utah lake. Set lines with more than three hooks barred and each fisherman allowed but one line, whether that be pole or throw line. A deer tax on each license. According to reports some hunters are out ( . t . i?z e n i t every day of the season and kill a deer every day if they can find it. A license tag will prohibit this. Revise' the present system of planting fish. We are not getting; results. Fingerling trout, fed and domesticated, cannot ,be successfully planted in the streams wherein there are larger fish with good results. Such fish make good bait and that is all. Two. years ago the game department dumped: twenty cans of fingerling trout into the Mountain Dell reservoir near its head.- - Up to that time the boys were catching trout, some as large as two and three pounds. After the planting of the fish, no trout were Mr. caught larger than 12 inches. Meyers, who. fishes, the reservoir a great deal saw the trout dumped into the reservoir,, and he says that after . . severe penalties ought to It was a fright last year, a, a! number of deputies ought f out this year to round up miters. . There should be some ret ' dipnets. T Qne man ; was se ini dipnetV on "the Provo river.; mer, that would stretch stream. He ' said he usod t iX minnows for fishing. : Anofi had a net which measured i j feet in diameter which he leys canyon. .; It 'would better' not to .allow nets of on any of. our streams. ' Men were never elected tu H0 -- never caught, another large fish. The large fish were feed- that time-h- e ing on the little ones. . Let us make Utah lake a good fish pond for the people. It used to be a good trout and bass pond. The market fishermen are trying to hoodwink the people by telling them it is only a carp pond. In years gone by trout were caught and sold by the ton, mind you, not by the pound, but by the ton. There has been so much shooting of fish in Utah streams that a law with v;f -- FRANCE. cause they wore pants, by token no woman. shall bet,. office because she wears . men are going to be electee as soon as they show they . what the people want. Ti Governor Miriam Fergi pretty good proof that this of the land. ' OJ " J-o-f . . Any man who WILL mate for his wife, has won the I of patience and St. Peter a brass band to welcome r from his labors here belt would be labor borne with ef Hit ter t stus 3 N( it as rth. When m sa; w the sditec Prohi w, ai 3 sale , Common Ruged Mountain Scenery In Utah. |