• m^ * EElIlMr^H il TIP* ^flPBt Spar .«**<* -'Wkb.- f/" 1 ' v. ;••*• feS^lM- K i: •• •• "'.'" •.'.:-'• • '.';• PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER OFFICIAL STATE VOL. XV—NO. 11 PUBLICATION NOVEMBER, 1946 OFFICIAL STATE PUBLICATION A PUBLISHED MONTHLY EDWARD MARTIN Governor by the PENNSYLVANIA BOARD OF FISH COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS CHARLES A. FRENCH Commissioner of Fisheries Publication Office: Telegraph Press, Cameron and Kelker Streets, Harrisburg, Pa. MEMBERS OF BOARD Executive and Editorial Offices: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Board of Fish Com­ CHARLES A. FRENCH, Chairman missioners, Harrisburg:, Pa. Ellwood City 10 cents a copy—50 cents a year * EDGAR W. NICHOLSON Wynnewood EDITED BY- RICHARD F. WILLIAMSON, MILTON L. PEEK 960 Louisa St., Radnor Williamsport 4, Pa. * W. M. ROBERTS New Castle R. D. #1 NOTE JOHN L. NEIGER Subscription to the PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER should be addressed to the Editor. Submit fee Scranton either by check or money order payable to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Stamps not CLIFFORD J. WELSH acceptable. Individuals sending cash do so at Erie their own risk. JOSEPH CRITCHFIELD Confluence PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER welcomes contri­ butions and photos of catches from its readers. CHARLES A. MENSCH Proper credit will be given to contributors. Bellefonte H. R. STACKHOUSE All contributions returned if accompanied by Secretary to Board first class postage. Entered as Second Class matter at the Post Office of Harrisburg, Pa., under act of March 3, C. R. BULLER 1873. Chief Fish Culturist, Bellefonte TT IMPORTANT—All changes of address must be forwarded to the Board of Fish Commissioners, Harrisburg, Pa. Please give old and new addresses. Permission to reprint will be granted provided proper credit notice is given. PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER VOL. XV—No. 11 NOVEMBER, 1946 COVER Sissy, four, and Lanny, seven, the children of D. L Batcheler, photog­ rapher for the State Game Com­ EDITORIAL mission. In This Issue PROGRESS IN STREAM POLLUTION MY LEGACY CONTROL By H. E. Moses O THOSE who follow after me I'd like to leave a legacy of T all the things I loved so well—each lake and stream and shady dell. SMALL OR LARGE LURES Primeval forests now so rare I would preserve with jealous By Myron E. Shoemaker care. My furry friends I would protect, and not one bird would I neglect. I want posterity to know I was a friend and not a foe. The richest treasures in our land are those we get from FAULTY CORN CULTURE INJURES nature's hand. They're ours to love, to have, and hold and FISHING should not be exchanged for gold. By W. R. Walton We have no right these gifts to waste, for they can never be replaced. I'd like my plea throughout the land to make them safe from vandals' hands.—Enos Haywood. COLOR AND ACTION IN PLUGS By Dick Fortney FISHING ALONG THE ATLANTIC TAeTtact^A^ie^- COAST By William Boyd INETY PER CENT of the really big trout caught in Pennsyl­ N vania each year are taken on streamers and bucktails. Yet a lot of fishermen don't use these lures, probably because they A SMALL-MOUTH SPEAKS don't know how. By R. L. Watts The ANGLER is happy, next month, to present an article on Bucktail fishing by Charles M. Wetzel. He'll tell you the secret of successful use of these particular lures. WALLEYE CONVERSION Another December feature will be "Rainbow," from the pen By Bob Frederick of Don Cameron Shafer, a newcomer to the pages of the ANGLER. It's a story you'll never forget. Following up the series of articles on Atlantic Coast fishing, December also will bring the first of two articles on some of SOME FACTS ABOUT TURTLES the secrets of successful Canadian angling. Like the ocean fish­ By John W. Price ing articles, it will be valuable data for the 1947 angling vacation. Other features will include: Reports of big fish caught in Pennsylvania in 1946; some hints on pond fishing, by John Korda; tips on tournament casting, and a variety of short Federation Resolutions . Activities articles and pictures. of the Sportsmen's Clubs . Briefs About Fly-Tying . Along the Streams of Penn­ sylvania . Fishing Places in Pennsylvania ... A Creed for Sportsmen. 2 PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER NOVEMBER Progress in Stream Pollution Control By H. E. MOSES, Chief Engineer Pennsylvania Department of Health This is an address delivered by Mr. and usually close to the incorporated mu­ although not of a spectacular character. Moses at the annual convention of the nicipalities. Beyond are the strictly rural In 1905 the so-called Purity of Waters Act State Association of Boroughs, in Read­ sections of Pennsylvania. was passed, giving the Department juris­ ing, Pa. All of the cities of the State, most of the diction over the discharge of sewage into larger boroughs, and many of the township state waters. No jurisdiction was granted The program of the Sanitary Water Board communities have public sewer systems, and to control industrial wastes discharge, but for statewide control of stream pollution has through these systems there is contributed power to do so was conferred upon the now been underway for two years, and it to the streams of the State vast quantities Sanitary Water Board, which is a board may be profitable to consider what progress of Untreated sewage. Although there are within the Department of Health, in 1937. has been made and what the future holds. about 350 sewage treatment works, these in Additional authority was granted to the This is particularly true for this Association general are not found in the larger com­ board by an act passed June 4, 1945, which since the municipalities in the state are munities where the great bulk of the sewage amended the 1937 act and is usually referred directly affected because of the necessity of originates. to as the Brunner Bill. This act relates to providing for treatment of municipal sewage. industrial wastes and extends the scope of Before reporting on the present status of Added to the sewage contamination of the the earlier laws, introducing some new fea­ the program, it will be interesting to briefly streams is that contributed by harmful tures and increasing penalties for violation review the conditions which led to this effort wastes resulting from industrial processes. of the act. of the Commonwealh to control stream These are of great variety, since Pennsyl­ pollution. vania is one of the most important indus­ One significant thing should be noted in trial states in the Union. Some of the most connection with the 1937 law. It marked a Pennsylvania is a state of many streams. important from a pollution standpoint are definite change in the conception of the use It has been estimated that there are ap­ the wastes from coal mines, steel mills, pulp of a stream. Prior to that time it was cus­ proximately 100,000 miles of named streams and paper mills, tanneries, distilleries, can­ tomary to think of stream pollution gen­ in the Commonwealth. There are six prin­ neries, milk plants, textile mills, dye houses, erally as it might affect public health, with­ cipal drainage basins; the Delaware River and many others. Such wastes added to out much consideration as to other uses of on the east draining 15 per cent of the the municipal sewage impose a heavy bur­ the stream; but in 1937 the term pollution state's area; next to it on the west is the den on the streams of the State. was re-defined and the conception of clean vast Susquehanna River Basin, which drains and unclean streams was established. 50 per cent of the state's territory; and be­ This situation is of particular importance yond that is the Ohio River Basin which because most of our public water supplies Consequently, pollution was defined as drains about 35 per cent of the area. There are taken from surface streams. True, these meaning noxious and deleterious substances are three smaller basins; the Genesee on supplies are protected by filtration and rendering unclean the waters of the Com­ the north, the Potomac on the south, and chlorination, but a supply taken from a monwealth to the extent of being harmful the Lake Erie watershed on the northwest. contaminated stream is always under a po­ or inimical to the public health, or to ani­ tential hazard. Some 8,000,000 people in mal or aquatic life, or to the use of such Through these main rivers and their trib­ Pennsylvania use public water supplies; waters for domestic water supply, or indus­ utaries are drained the 45,000 square miles hence the significance of stream pollution in trial purposes, or for recreation. This is a of Pennsylvania territory in which reside that connection is quite obvious. far broader conception of stream pollution approximately 10,000,000 people. In this The Pennsylvania Department of Health than existed prior to the 1937 act, and this State there are a thousand incorporated mu­ is 41 years old, having been created in 1905. same idea was further emphasized in the nicipalities comprising 49 cities, 923 bor­ During this entire period the Department 1945 act and the restrictions made more oughs, and one incorporated town. Outside has striven earnestly to bring about im­ binding. of these places there are many areas densely provement of the streams of the State. Passage of the later laws reflects a change populated, lying in the township territory Progress along that line has been made, in the thinking of the public as relates to streams. Earlier, emphasis was chiefly placed upon the protection of streams used for public water supply, and there was a passive tolerance of a measure of stream pollution.