The Brown Trout

^PPf% A CREEL OF BROOK TROUT PRETTY BUT TOO MANY & OFFICIAL STATE APRIL, 1934 PUBLICATION ^ANGLER? Vol. 3 No. 4 PUBLISHED MONTHLY Want Good Fishing? hy the OBEY THE LAW Pennsylvania Board of Fish Commissioners m Eg is COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS Five cents a copy **• 50 cents a year OLIVER M. DEIBLER S3 S3 S3 Commissioner of Fisheries nun ALEX P. SWEIGART, Editor Members of Board OLIVER M. DEIBLER, Chairman Greensburg South Office Bldg., Harrisburg, Pa. JOHN HAMBERGER Erie GEORGE GRAY, Illustrator DAN R. SCHNABEL Johnstown S3 S3 S3 LESLIE W. SEYLAR McConnellsburg NOTE EDGAR W. NICHOLSON Philadelphia Subscriptions to the PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER should be addressed to the Editor. Submit fee KENNETH A. REID either by check or money order payable to the Connellsville Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Stamps not ac ceptable. ROY SMULL Mackeyville y GEORGE E. GILCHRIST PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER welcomes contribu Lake Como tions and photos of catches from its readers. Proper credit will be given to contributors. H. R. STACKHOUSE Secretary to Board All contributions returned if accompanied by first class postage. C. R. BULLER Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries Pleasant Mount IMPORTANT—The Editor should be notified immediately of change in subscriber's address Permission to reprint will be granted provided proper credit notice is given PENNSYLVANIA ANGLKR a great forward stride will have been There is no reason, in my mind, why made in fish conservation. any fisherman, when he sees an instance Violation on a wholesale scale, how of wilful violation of the fish laws should ever, is not the only factor that enters hesitate to report the violator immedi into the high cost of protection. Petty ately. The man who breaks the law is violation in many sections must be helping to defeat the very purpose for \ANGLER7 checked. It is this type of violation, and which the fishing license is issued-—bet much of it is without justifiable cause, terment of Pennsylvania fishing through that causes the expenditure of a con stream stocking and protection. Until MARCH, 1934 siderable part of the fisherman's money he is curbed in his practice, we must in protection. Much of it is umvar- work under a handicap in our efforts to ranted, and I believe that a considerable improve fishing. Undoubtedly, viola VOL.3 No. 4 percentage of the cases reported are due tion would decrease on our trout waters in large part to thoughtlessness. Cer if our anglers reported such cases tainly no true sportsman would wilfully promptly. License buttons are num keep trout under the legal size of six bered, and it is comparatively simple to inches, or bass under the size limit of secure the number and report it prompt nine inches, for he must realize that in ly to one of our protectors. This co so doing he is injuring not only the fu operation is vital. Sometimes fishermen ture of his own sport but the future of may hesitate to report such cases be EDITORIAL the sport of others. Petty violation of cause they dislike the thought of legal this type, it is evident, is inexcusable. proceedings. By simply reporting the incident, however, they are in no way Opening of the trout season, on April involved and the checkup work is left 16, finds thousands of fishermen on our with the warden. mountain and meadow streams. First day of the season is invariably a gala One of the most significant factors occasion for Pennsylvania anglers. A in the growth of the conservation spirit fine spirit of comradeship, and general with our sportsmen, is a tendency on the Poor Sportsmanship consideration for the other fellow mark part of many trout fishermen to disre Menace to Fishing the opening day. Certainly, on this oc gard the present size limit of six inches casion, poor sportsmanship has no place on trout, and to take no fish under seven astream, and the majority of our fisher or eight inches in length. Then, too, I have said repeatedly, in addressing there is a growing tendency to fish for groups of sportsmen, that the cost of men who invade the trout waters right fully resent any display of it. Today, trout with the artificial fly, certainly one Poor sportsmanship is entirely too high of the most effective means for conserv in Pennsylvania. Thousands of dollars as never before, the sportsmen are pull ing together to achieve a common ob ing undersize fish. And finally, senti spent annually by the Fish Commission ment is constantly increasing against the in enforcing the Fish Code would, if jective—better fishing and hunting. Tak ing of undersize trout, careless tossing fishing of small nursery streams, where available for the hatching and raising even six-inch trout are rare. These are back into the water of fish not legal size, °f fish, greatly increase our present dis encouraging omens in the drive for bet and the fishing of small nursery streams tribution. In order that a small per ter fishing. centage of the fishermen, the group who in which few trout above six inches are "wilfully violate the fish laws, be curbed, to be found, are frowned upon as prac It is my hope that this year will mark we are forced to expend each year a tices. It is inevitable that general adop a great forward stride in our fish con great portion of our income in protec tion of the code of good sportsmanship servation program. "With solid support tion. One violator, who takes fish by by the fishermen will most effectively bar from the fishermen, stream improve gig or net, destroys enough of the life the violator from our fishing waters. ment on approved waters should be car m our streams to furnish fine sport for The fisherman, in a final analysis, is ried vigorously forward. Linked with hundreds of fishermen. He is a menace guardian of his sport. I believe that we enthusiastic support of the fish laws, the to the conservation movement; he repre must constantly keep in mind an ideal stream improvement campaign should sents the vandal element that, if un of fair play to make his guardianship cause 1934 to go down in Pennsylvania checked, would soon make fishing a for most effective. That ideal may be at fish conservation annals as a banner year. gotten sport in Pennsylvania. In a true tained only when every angler is a self- To achieve this objective, we need the sense of the word, he is a thief, for his constituted protector of fish life, willing unqualified backing of every licensed booty consists of fish that the sports to adhere strictly to the regulations gov fisherman. men, through their license money, have erning fishing. Of course, this theo placed in the streams. The motto of a retical ideal may never be attained, but vast majority of our sportsmen today is every fisherman who adopts the code of "Crush the Violator." When he has good sportsmanship is bringing that xhcJ&~- been driven from our streams and lakes, much nearer its realization. Commissioner of Fisheries. PENNSYLVANIA ANGLES THE BROWN TROUT HAT amazing fi.su, the brown trout, has, T during its comparatively brief stay in Pennsylvania waters, caused probably more discussion among fishermen than any other introduced species. Condemned on the one band, by anglers who hold the native brook trout on a pedestal, as a cannibal and a de stroyer of the brook trout; championed by another group as a flsh of rare fighting qual ities and a credit to any stream it inhabits, the status of the brown trout is unique. The fact remains that the brownie is here to stay. It has found in many Pennsylvania waters an ideal home, and during recent years has won a host of friends in the fish ing fraternity. Rising in an arc of golden brown to the fly, wary in feeding, and a savage fighter from the moment it is hooked until it is taken, it ranks today as one of Pennsylvania's leading game fishes. Brown trout were first introduced to Penn sylvania waters in 1886. Three years earlier, Herr Von Behr, President of the Deutsche Erei Verein, had made the first shipment of Hatchery at Caledonia. Another gift of byter * • * From Apryil till Septembre ye brown trout eggs from Germany to the United eggs was sent by Von Behr to the United troughte lepythe; theune angle to him." States. These eggs were consigned to the States Fish Commission in 1884, and in the Page after page by early writers of prose United States Hatchery at Northville, Michi same year, ten thousand eggs were received and poetry who lauded the qualities of this gan. Hatched at Northville, the fry from this from England. Most of the fry from the fine game fish might be quoted. Every phase shipment were planted successfully in the English shipment were planted in waters of of its swift movements, the courageous fight Pere Marquette Kiver in northern Michigan. Long Island. it makes when hooked, and the picturesque In 1883, another shipment from Herr Von When originally introduced to trout streams of the Old World in which it lived Behr was received, and the eggs were streams of the United States, the brown furnished subject matter in abundance for hatched at the United States Fisheries Sta trout was popularly termed the Von Behr those who found in the brown trout a flsh of tion at Northville and the New York State trout; later, it became known as the Ger rare game possibilities. man brown trout, and finally, brown trout. General Characteristics In Germany it is known as the Bach forelle.

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