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Show Fish and Game of the State of Utah An open letter to the people of the State of Utah, ami particularly to those who are interested in the fish and game life of our Commonwealth. Four years ago, there was in Utah Lake, in the opinion of those vho are in a position to know, approximately one hundred thousand of dollars worth of Cat Fish, computed at 30 cents a pound; as well as large quantity of Trout, Bass and common fish. Our lish and game commissioner undertook under-took to father and secure the passage of a legislative enactment to which the fish and Game commissioner was ifiven sole control and large arbitrary powers over the method manner, form and time for catching fish and in pre- whatever for the game fish, other than the honesty of the fishermen and we know that the market fisherman fishes for what money he can get out of his work. So just as long as we permit Seines, Traps, Set-Lines, Gill Nets, Trample Nets, and such unfair methods of catching fish to go on, we will be limited in the supply of fish which should inhabit our waters. Mr. Madaen why don't you have more than one commissioner in Utah county, coun-ty, and especially on Utah Lake, which has been a commercialized, fish ing haven for the family for the past 60 years? The reason is obvious to sportsmen who have the interests of fish propagation at heart. serving fish and fostering their rapid growth, so that if at the present time, which is a fact, our lakes and streams are almost depleted of fish, there is no one to blame but the fish and game commissioner. Four years ago and up until very recently our fish and game commissioner commis-sioner was very desirous of getting rid of the cat fish so he promulgated a rule permitting the use of Beines, traps, set-lines and other unfair meth ods of catching fish with the result that not only the Cat Fish were almost al-most all caught out but the Trout, Bass and common fish as well. Thus permitting the use of seines proved to be a very valuable concession conces-sion to the interested parties as we shall see. Mr. Madsen publicly stated, stat-ed, "that in twenty days there were 300 tons of common fish seined out of Utah Lake," which would be 450 tons per month, six months being the From Mr. Madsen's annual report of the last two years, if the same com pares with the two years before, he has had in the neighborhood of $500,-000.00 $500,-000.00 for the purposes of propagation propaga-tion of fish and game. With that a-mount a-mount of money paid in by the sports men of the state of Utah for licenses and other sources,' there should have been adequate money to have given sufficient protection to the fish and game to have made our state one of the leading sporting states of the West, but ax it is at the present time there appears to be much less fish and game in Utah than in any other State in the West, for numerous sportsmen of this State go to other States to fish and hunt. Quoting Mr. Madsen again he said that in order or-der to restock our acknowledged depleted de-pleted streams it would be necessary to screen canals, provide proper runways run-ways for our fish so that they would average seining period gave a total of 2700 tons of fish and for the past four years, placing the common fish on the market at 1 Vi cents per pound would give the seiners, and those interested in-terested with them a cash receipt of $324,000.00 for the common fish. The estimate of cat fish we will put at 500 pounds per day for the same period. If these fish were sold on the market at 30 cents per pound, would make a total of $108,000.00. We will not make any estimate on the Trout and Bass, which would naturally be destroyed either by injury or accident say nothing about the number bootlegged. boot-legged. Any person who has ever seined in Utah knows that the parties fishing for market purposes are not in the habit of throwing back fisC that will bring them money as that is what they are working for. There fore, I will venture to say that there is less Trout and Bass at present than four years ago. From my experience of four years reining in Utah Lake and acting as deputy commissioner, I had the opportunity op-portunity of learning all the lawful and unlawful methods and from personal per-sonal knowledge, will say that the seiners in general did not always throw back the Trout and Bass, as is be able to get onto their spawning -grouunds. From Mr. Madsen's statement state-ment he acknowledges he has used very poor judgment in the last four years. If it is a benefit at the present pres-ent time to screen canals and provide runways for fish, the same would have been a benefit four years ago, and I cannot understand why he would come ' out in the eleventh hour and make such suggestions when the same thing should have been put into effect at the time of his appointment Certain things have happened in the last year, it shows that our commissioners commis-sioners are very lax In meeting emergencies. emer-gencies. Take for instance the East Canyon Reservoir that went dry this , season. It was known for months before the water had got too low that there were thousands of Trout that would perish if some steps for their relief were not taken immediately but for some unknown reason the proper efforts were not made to remove the Trout from the Reservoir and place them in the streams as should have been done, and they all perished. It will take years to replace the amount of fish that were destroyed there In a few days. The same happened at Provo River because hundreds of tons of fish were left high and dry, not believed they do, and just so long as seines are permitted to be used, just so long will we be without game fish as game fish do not thrive where seines are used. I will venture to say that what has been done in the past is practiced at the present time as all the market fishermen have not reformed. At one of our association associa-tion meetings, one of the leading sportsmen made a suggestion that the angler be permitted to sell Cat Fish but this motion was stamped out by a statement from Mr. Madsen that if they vere going to stop seining for and sale of Cat Fish that the angler would be deprived of selling and the sale of Cat Fish would have to be stopped exclusively,' for it would be impossible for Mr. Madsen to keep the seiners from bootlegging Cat Fish. This acknowledgement from Mr. Madsen Mad-sen that the seiners would bootleg Cat Fish for the market is an ac-kmjwledgement ac-kmjwledgement from Mr. Madsen that the seiners will bootleg Trout and Bass as they would bring more money "with less expense of handling. By Mr. Madsen acknowledging the bootlegging of fish would be Carried on by the seiners, it seems the only remedy that we have for the protection protec-tion of our game fish is to stop the use of seines in any waters of our state." Quoting Mr. Madsen further in the meeting he mentioned it was impossible for him to stop the seiners from, taking game fish as he has only one commissioner in Utah County and fourteen seines running and this commissioner was feeding quail over an area of 200 square miles. Mr. Madsen's statement being true it appears that there is no protection only the common fish but thousands of Trout were marooned in pools from the Power Plant Dam to the mouth of Provo River. These Trout were caught by small boys as well as the grown-ups, as they had no avenue of, escape and a hook fastened on the end of a pole was all that was necessary nec-essary to catch them. Take either of these circumstances, properly handled, hand-led, the loss of so many fish would have easily been over-come. With tp knowledge that Mr. Madsen has and the equipment the seiner's have on Utah Lake, it would have been an easy matter to have had one of the expert fishermen take his seines in East Canyon Reservoir and remove those fish to the streams at a nominal cost. I will call Mr. Madsen's attention atten-tion to Section 10 of the law stating that it shall be the duty of the commissioner com-missioner to take care of such emergencies. emer-gencies. We pay Mr. Madsen to protect pro-tect our fish, not to permit them to be destroyed or perish or be gotten rid of by seines and traps or any other way of diminishing our fish supply. As far as changing our fish and game law is concerned I do not think . such a step is necessary as we have a law giving the commissioner full power pow-er to close any stream, lake, hunting ground or any part thereof, for any reasons he may deem necessary, but I do not think that the power should be placed all in one man, that a committee com-mittee should be appointed by the associations as-sociations of various counties to take up whatever propositions that may arise, the same to be decided on by a quorum of not less than seven men. By this method there would not be (Continued on Page Five) radical change of mind and decides that not even the angler is permitted to catch the number he may desire. He made the same fatal mistake on the use of salmon eggs, or at least he has changed his mind again und now isays the sight of salmon egg drive the Trout crazy. The sportsmen ail know something had gone wrong' with the blasted things as they were unable to catch any of them. Wc thank Mr. Madsen for letting us know the real reason why we couldn't catch any fish. I will suggest that Mr. Madsen plant a few sane fish in our streams iso thut we can catch one once in a while. If he don't do something some-thing more than he has done up to the present time, he will not only have crazy fish to deal with but a H of a lot of crazy fishermen to contend with as 1 know a great many fishermen fisher-men already crazy enough to go out of the state of Utah if they want to catch a mess of fish. So it is up to you, Mr. Madsen, to stop this crazy-idea crazy-idea of both fish and fishermen, or something is going to happen. Referring back to the law, it sooms that the bonds, fines and licenses are not in accordance with the magnitud of the business. If a seiner who has a license to catch ftsh is caught break ing the law, he is fined $50.00. Under the present method if a seiner were caught and fined the small sum of $50.00 he would be money ahead each day. The fine should not be less than $1000.00 for each and every offense, then the market fishermen would have respect for our laws. If the seiners do not take game fish then they will not be worried over the fine. As it is he has no regards for the law whatever, what-ever, only shrugs his shoulders and says, Well, if they catch me they can only fine me $50.00." and taking it all in all, it looks as though there was "a nigger in the wood pile." You knew beyond any question of a doubt that the Cat Fish alone, in Utah Lake were worth a fortune and you also knew that they didn't belong be-long to the market fishermen. You also knew there was a ready market for them and you knew WHO would get the money that these fish would bring by being permitted to be put on the market and sold, and you also knew when you stood for seines, for traps and set-lines, that it was not for the best interests of our sportsmen, sports-men, and the people of our State and you also knew that it was not for the best interests of our fish supply or propagation. I want it distinctly understood un-derstood that you had the knowledge of these facts and you cannot contribute con-tribute it to ignorance. Signed) John W. Clark. FISH AND GAME OF THE STATE OF UTAH (Continued from Page One) many mistakes made. If we ever expect ex-pect to have the amount of fishing and hunting we are entitled to, it is up to the sportsmen to see that all unfair methods of catching fi.sh anil game is done away with and that our money is properly spent for screening screen-ing canals, providing run-ways, destroying des-troying the fish devouring birds anil heavy enough fines imposed on the law-breakers to cause them to respect the law. Statements to Mr. Madsen wherein it was set forth that the Cat Fish of Utah Lake were a menace to the game fish and for that reason the should be taken out and sold on the " market. I will call Mr. Madsen's at tention to the fact that the Trout do not spawn in Utah Lake. If he would protect thorn and not stop them ami supply proper sunways, they would go to their spawning grounds in thi different streams. Therefore, it would be an impossibility foi the Cat Fish to be a menace to the Trout. Mr. Madsen should have suid that it war the open canals which he failed to screen that was destroying our Trout and not try to blame it on the Cai Fish as thousands of Trout large ami small go down the canals each yeai and out onto the farm lands, and what few Trout that escape goinn down the canals and do get back into the lake are large enough to take care of themselves. While it is a known fact that the Cat Fish feed on small . fish, there is plenty of Carp and suckers suck-ers to supply the Cat Fish, Bass anil Trout. The latter is much more sluggish slug-gish than the Trout and Bass minnow, min-now, therefore, it is a much easier prey for the Cat Fish to feed on, than the Trout or Bass Minnow. As to the Black Bass, every sportsman sports-man knows are a fighting fi.sh. The guard their spawn and young until they are of a size large enough to shift for themselves anil if the Ca. Fish or any other fish that inhabits the waters of Utah Lake would get within 50 feet of a Bass' nest, the Bass would throw them out of the water, for I have seen cases where a mother Bass would fight a man if he got to close too the spawning ground.; These two statements being facts in regards to Trout and Bass, there is no reason whatever nor any foundation for the statement made to Mr. Madsen that the Cat Fish were a menace to our game fi.sh. . Had the numerous amount of Cat Fish that were in Utah Lake four years ago been left alone to thrive, as they do in a body of that kind of water, there would have been millions of Cat Fish there today, anil any man, woman or child would have been able to catch a nice mess of fish within an hour or two and by them feeding continuously on the Carp and Sucker spawn, as well as on the Carp and Sucker Minnow, there would have been at the present time not any liiore than a sufficient amount of large Carp and Suckers to supply natural feed for the trout, Bass and Cat Fish, which would have been in Utah Lake had Mr. Madsen not resorted too such drastic methods of destroying one of the best grades of fish we have in our State. . It would appear that there was another object in view other than in getting rid of the Cat Fish for the protection of-the Trout and Bass. I am willing to concede that Mr. Madsen Mad-sen has had the experience and the knowledge with both fish and "game to qualify him for the position, but there is something wrong owing to the fact that the waters of our State have been stripped of not only the game fish, but the common fish. ' Granting that Mr. Madsen has had the experience and knowledge, it is a mystery to the sportsmen why he would ' permit seines, traps and set-lines, set-lines, knowing full well just 'what the consequences would be within a very short time and his statements referring refer-ring to the Cat Fish being a menace to the game fish and that they fihould be gotten rid of, shows to the public from the knowledge and experience he has had, that it was his best judgment judg-ment that such a step should be taken, tak-en, for .the benefit of the sportsmen and the game fish interests, of our State. This being his best judgment four years ago, the statements . that he has made recently and the law that he has permitted to be parsed by the House recently shows that his judgment was very poor and we cannot can-not contribute it to ignorance, as he now declares that il isn't right thing to do to take Cat Fish from the waters wat-ers of Utah Lake or any other stream other than with hook and line and he also goes strong enough in a recent law before the present legislature to say that no angler can take more than 50 Cat Fish in one. day. This seems to be a radical change in his opinion, for the last four years he tried to get rid of Cat Fish by use of every unfair un-fair device known to fisherman, as they were such a .menace that they should be destroyed at all hazards. Now that they have all been caught out that is large enough to be caught in seines or traps, he has made the |