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'BEMHS^NI^ Tts S 1 mm ;.i\ ' Bk>< 7 r >-' • . Bf f* ft^lipV. '••! -^•^ ? '"' m m w "•- 4 I 41 OMGQOA OFFICIAL STATE PUBLICATION VOL. XIX—No. 5 MAY, 1950 PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE PENNSYLVANIA FISH COMMISSION Division of HON. JAMES H. DUFF, Governor ..a PUBLICITY and PUBLIC RELATIONS * J. Allen Barrett Director PENNSYLVANIA FISH COMMISSION MILTON L PEEK, President RADNOR PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER BERNARD S. HORNE, Vice-President PITTSBURGH South Office Building, Harrisburg, Pa. WILLIAM D. BURK MELROSE PARK 10 Cents a Copy—50 Cents .» Year GEN. A. H. STACKPOLE DAUPHIN Subscriptions should be addressed to the Editor, PENNSYL VANIA ANGLER, South Office Building, Harrisburg, Pa. Submit fee either by check or money order payable to the Commonwealth PAUL F. BITTENBENDER of Pennsylvania. Stamps not acceptable. Individuals sending cash WILKES-BARRE do so at their own risk. CLIFFORD J. WELSH ERIE PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER welcomes contributions and photos of catches from its readers. Proper credit will be given to con LOUIS S. WINNER tributors. Send manuscripts and photos direct to the Editor LOCK HAVEN PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER, South Office Building, Harrisburg, Pa. * Entered as Second Class matter at the Post Office of Harris EXECUTIVE OFFICE burg, Pa., under act of March 3, 1873. C. A. FRENCH, Executive Director ELLWOOD CITY IMPORTANT! H. R. STACKHOUSE The ANGLER should be notified immediately of change in sub Adm. Secretary scriber's address. Send both old and new addresses to Pennsyl vania Fish Commission, South Office Building, Harrisburg, Pa. * Permission to reprint will be granted if proper credit is given. C. R. BULLER Chief Fish Culturist THOMAS F. O'HARA Construction Engineer Publication Office: Tele graph Press, Cameron and WILLIAM W. BRITTON Chief Fish Warden Kelker Street, Harrisburg, Pa. Executive and Editorial Offices: Commonwealth of ROBERT P. DEITER Comptroller Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Fish Comm ission, Harr is- burg, Pa. • COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA PENNSYLVANIA FISH COMMISSION HARRISBURG. PA. The Making of an Angler By Jim Hayes 3^"^ HERE is a romance to trout fishing. The prospect of spending a day astream never fails to thrill the true angler. It is a thrill many of Tour present-day fishermen rarely know. For true sons of Walton seem The Angler an uncommon race in these times. Besides, one does not become a real angler overnight. There are stages through which one must pass. After mastering trout-ways and casting, one may be called a fisherman. Some men become fishermen and anglers at the same time. Some never become true anglers. It seemed the latter might be true in Bill's case. Bill, though new to fishing, was skilled in the sport. He had coordina The Making of an Angler By Jim Hayes tion, patience, everything it takes. Yet for all his expertness, Bill was no angler. An angler, by the Warden's definition, is a man who doesn't care Ecological Sense or Nonsense 2 By Alvin (Bus) Grove how many fish he creels, or the size. It's the prospect of better fishing tomorrow that counts. He has a respect for nature, and courtesy for his fellowmen. Call it a sense of fair play and sportsmanship. However you Whi ppoorwill 1 define it, Bill didn't measure up. By E. E. Apel Because he measured success by the number and size of trout he caught, Bill took pride in making limit catches. Fishing was a game, and Frisky Fall Fish 6 nothing counted but racking up a score. If the law said 10 trout, that By Don Shiner meant you kept fishing until you had 10 trout. « •• Essentially, of course, Bill wasn't a bad egg. Honest, law-abiding. A Mud 8 Pirate fan. The kind of fellow you'd meet at the country club, in church, By Don Blair or on a trout stream. Sure, and he had his rugged days, too. » Like the time he raised a dandy trout, muffed the strike, and waded 'he Rainbow Trout 9 to shore to rest the fish before casting him again. Another man saw the * action. Brushing past Bill, he whipped the pool so hurriedly the trout went down for good. When Bill cooled off, we reminded him that he'd America—Land of Opportunity 10 pulled the same trick himself. By William Boyd Then too, Bill had a cute way of assembling his gear as we drove to the stream. He was always first man on the water. It might have gone Was Not Immune 12 on forever, except once we hid his rodtip. Had a peaceful hour's fishing By Lois T. Henderson before he found it. A mean trick, sure. But he had to learn. Linn Run was Bill's idea of a perfect trout stream. Always opened the Stand-by Streamers 14 season there, and always took his limit. About mid-season he returned By Albert G. Shimmel to the Linn to fly-cast. After two days without a rise, he came home. Said he couldn't figure what was wrong. But he knew. Too many fishermen, and not enough trout. Too many limits. The stream was "a. Reptiles & Amphibians ... 17 fished-out. By Hal H. Harrison Bill's favorite pool was below King's Bridge on Laurel Hill Creek. He liked it because it was secluded, and always good for a trout or two. One Streamside Life 22 morning he found another man on the pool. The guy was catching trout, By Robert Leo Smith but nothing big enough to keep. So he tore them roughly off the hook and threw them back. Already the pool was swirling with dying trout. The Diatoms 24 But Bill couldn't say anything. His own touch was far from light when By Carsten Ahrens it came to releasing small fish. It was things like that, little things, that started the change in Bill. He wasn't so feverish about being first on a pool anymore. Was satisfied with three or four good trout, instead of trying for a limit. He began to 74e& notice the beauty of the streams he fished. Even lined his creel with fern a&et... and wildflowers. The Warden showed him how to unhook baby trout The rush of cold clear trout water. (Turn to Page 16) Photo by James Bolog. Back Cover. Stocking trout in Meadow stream—Lebanon County. Photo by Lebanon Daily News. Ecological Sense or Nonsense (m) By ALVIN (BUS) GROVE LTHOUGH ecology may be ab oxygen content a per cent or two, and graphic factors are essentially those A stract in part, nevertheless there in so doing prohibit fish from living studied and recognized as natural phe exists a close relationship between it there. There are many well-meaning nomena, which influence the distribu and conservation. In its broadest conservationists, who dump such refuse tion of plants and in turn animals. sense, ecology has to do with the dis into our streams, honestly feeling that Such things as, temperature, rainfall, tribution of things in relation to their the waste is not detrimental to the life altitude, slopes, incident radiation, and environment, and when the study is in the stream; and they are right so prevailing winds make up the field of made and the facts are in, the results far as its immediate effects may reach, physiographic ecology. Edaphic studies may be good or bad in the light of con but they do not stop to think that they pertain more particularly to the soil- servation. It is just as possible to might be upsetting some fundamental The origin of soil and the type of par study the ecology of an acre of land ecological condition, which in the end ent rock from which it was derived, stripped in mining as it is to study a will operate to the detriment of some its richness, humus content, drainage, stream that has undergone the maxi form of life. We remove cover from texture, and structure are all consid mum of improvement. In the one case the banks of streams and feel that we ered in the soil's influence on the dis conservation is at its lowest ebb and have not hurt the water since we have tribution of plants and in turn othel in the other perhaps at its peak. It is not touched it in any way, and yet life. There are the fields of plant and probably correct to assume that the with the removal of such cover the animal geography, which although they ecologist with the results of his eco temperature may rise a single degree, are similar in many respects to ecology logical studies provides an intelligent but just enough in this case to become and in last analysis dependent upon background of facts on which sensible an ecological factor limiting the dis the smaller units of ecology, cover the conservation can be practiced. In one tribution of brook trout. I have read problem of animal and plant distribu- j way conservation means to preserve much about the bounties and the tion on a world wide basis; or if on 2 and to protect, and in a rather narrow beauty of nature, but quite to the smaller basis, they are probably sepa- ec sense it might even mean to resist contrary nature is ruthless and tough rated largely as the result of physical an change and to maintain the status quo. and exacting of its inhabitants. geography. Bioecology studies the ef' ca In a broader sense conservation has The fields of ecology are many and fects of one form of life on another ar. come to mean that we intend to har varied. The distribution of plants in It is bioecology that we undertake V ge vest the natural resources, which have relation to their environment is called control when bounties are paid on sucl; tti; been put at our disposal, but to har plant ecology, and on the other hand declared predators as the fox an" E\ vest them intelligently, with one eye there is animal ecology.

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