OFFICIAL PUBLICATION BOARD of FISH COMMISSIONERS S
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CONTENTMENT mm OFFICIAL PUBLICATION BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS s & ^ 2\ OFFICIAL STATE MAY, 1934 PUBLICATION ^ANGLER* Vol. 3 No. 5 PUBLISHED MONTHLY Want Good Fishing? by the OBEY THE LAW Pennsylvania Board of Fish Commissioners ^ a sa COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS Five cents a copy <*-• 50 cents a year OLIVER M. DEIBLER Commissioner of Fisheries K i: K S3 S3 S3 Members of Board OLIVER M. DEIBLER, Chairman ALEX P. SWEIGART, Editor Greensburg South Office Bldg., Harrisburg, Pa. JOHN HAMBERGER Erie DAN R. SCHNABEL LLL Johnstown LESLIE W. SEYLAR M cC on nell sburg NOTE EDGAR W. NICHOLSON Philadelphia Subscriptions to the PENNSYLVANIA ANGLEK 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 Muokeyville 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 I®** -**&\ 1 ? ^Ln Invitation *HE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS cordially invites you to attend the opening of the new stream improve ment and trout farm project, located on Spring Creek, Centre County, near Belle- fonte, on May 25. This development ranks as an outstanding step in Pennsyl vania's fish and stream conservation program. It is the hope of the Board that the Spring Creek stream improvement project will serve as a model for our fishermen in other sections of the Com monwealth who plan to increase the carrying capacity of trout waters in these localities. Come to Spring Creek on May 25, enjoy the program that has been arranged for this gala occasion, and mix with the sportsmen from every section of Pennsylvania and outstanding conser vationists and sportsmen of Eastern United States. See some of the nation's best fly and plug casters in action. You will be warmly welcomed. 7s[o Extra Charges or Special License Required l :r*S:t A WINTER SCENE ON SPRING CREEK PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER "•ANGLER/ MAY, 1934 VOL.3 No. 5 EDITORIAL Junk Has No Place in Trout Streams OLLUTION of many of our most beautiful streams and waters is a Pdeplorable fact. From every angle, it is inexcusable, as the refuse that litters rif fles and still waters* can be more_ easily disposed of on junk heaps and disposal plants designated for that purpose. For a moment, let us consider pollution of every type as a state-wide problem. At the present time, eighty-five per cent of the streams of Pennsylvania are subject to defilement in varying degrees. This means that the other fifteen per cent of our waters free from contamination must When it emerges from the woodland, Public opinion should dictate the policy necessarily bear the brunt of fishing by however, a gradual change, a contrast, "Break Up Stream Defilement." This nearly half a million fishermen. Facts is to be observed. Here and there on must be the first stride in the anti-pollu must be faced if our anglers hope to keep the stream bed may be seen an old tin tion drive. these remaining streams at a produc can. Farther downstream, more evidence Here is a worthwhile cause for the tion peak, or at a stage where they will of its use as a graveyard for undesir people to champion, a cause in which furnish a maximum of good fishing and able commodities piles up. A wagon they may take an active part. It may other recreation. Only through the edu wheel may be resting on a riffle. Old well be advocated by teachers in our cation and cooperation of the general automobile tires, broken dishes, and not public schools, by scoutmasters to their public, can this be accomplished. infrequently the rusted, battered body troops, by organized groups for social We must literally "begin at home" of an ancient automobile may impede and business betterment, for instance, in our drive against stream desecration. its course. Evidence is to be found at our chambers of commerce. In our schools, civic clubs and social many spots along this beautiful stream Our streams are recreational havens organizations, we must begin by teach of the careless dumping of useless ar for thousands of the people of Pennsyl ing the value of pure water and the tre ticles and garbage. They mar its beauty, vania. Obviously, it is to their interest mendous cost of treating polluted water. they stamp it as a resting place for the that these waters be as nature intended The day has passed when trout streams, cast-off things of human life. This type them—free from the refuse that right warm water lakes, creeks, and rivers can of defilement is clearly without excuse, fully belongs on junkheaps or in dis be regarded as junkyards for worn-out and aroused public opinion in Pennsyl posal plants. commodities. This type of disfigure vania should dictate its end. Let us then, each and every one of ment of our waters may be averted only Hundreds of our trout fishermen when the people of Pennsylvania unite us, take unto ourselves the individual each year seek waters many miles from responsibility to battle and fight to the in a determined effort to bring it to an the beaten path. A hard tramp through end. bitter end this defilement and desecra the brush, over steep ridges and moun tion of the biggest thing in all creation. Let us take as an example one of our tains, holds nothing to daunt them. Poets and prophets of the Old Bible in trout streams, heading in a mountain Why, you may ask, do they do this when song and story referred to water no less gap and flowing through woodland and well stocked streams may be more readily than a hundred times and told of its meadowland to its point of juncture with accessible? Primarily, of course, it is value to the lands and the peoples of some larger stream. Its source of water to find a stream where few others fish. that time. Water was used by Jesus of supply lies in deep-seated springs, many And here again, is proof that there is Nazareth as the physical emblem of bap of them shaded by laurel and bubbling still the instinct of our ancestors cour tism almost 2000 years ago but I am from the bases of roeky cliffs in the sing through our veins—an instinct that wondering whether He would venture to mountain country. Low temperature caused the frontiersmen to push beyond go down into the poisonous polluted water, pure as nature intends it to be, the barrier of the Alleghenies. It is evi streams of Pennsylvania to undergo a it swirls into deep, rock-lined pools, cuts dent too that these fishermen want some similar ceremony today. beneath overhanging banks of thick thing that is easily within the reach of brush, tumbles over falls. There is in everyone—streams unmarked by human its swift noisy descent to the meadows carelessness. something of the primitive beauty that Our most accessible streams, trout and was Pennsylvania's when the Red Man warm water, may be given the un- hunted along its course. trammeled touch of a mountain brook. Commissioner of Fisheries. PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER Spring Creek Project Opens this Month MODEL trout farm and stream im ; A provement project, the first of its kind in the United States, will be opened to the ii^R^J-'^ - public by the Fish Commission on May 25. Already this novel development has attracted t attention in conservation circles not only in' Pennsylvania but in other states. Located on - Spring Creek, Centre County, near Bellel'onte, the Spring Creek project is near the geo graphic center of the Commonwealth. It marks a notable advance in fish conservation and is the major initial step in a state-wide 1* campaign of stream improvement. Outstanding figures in conservation in the United States are expected to be present for the opening day program. Included in the * IF list of notables expected will be Hon. Gift'ord I'inchot, Governor of Pennsylvania, and Ed Eh ward E. Hewitt, New 1'ork, famous author If A * ity on stream improvement. Governor Pinehot and Mr. Hewitt are both expert fly fisher men. Other experts in fly fishing, plug cast jit' ing and fly tying including Art Neu, New ark, N. J., Charles Ward, President of the National Association of Scientific Angling Clubs, Pittsburgh, Andrew A. Trimble, vice- II «**fetf£ president of the Association, Cleveland, Ohio, W. B. Kerry, Pittsburgh, and Joseph M. BOULDER DEFLECTORS. SPRING CREEK Messinger, Morgantown, W. Va., have been invited to attend. pleted, is an attractive center for the various In the first unit of ponds that have been ermen who will probably visit the site on activities that will take place at the site on completed over 200,000 rapidly growing brook May 25, however, is the comprehensive stream May 25. It is planned to have expert fly and brown trout are now being held. The improvement project. ' Approximately one fishermen instruct anglers just how to cast Spring Creek trout farm is really an auxil mile of Spring Creek, an outstanding trout the tiny feathered lures, and one section of iary to the present Bellefonte hatchery, and stream flowing through the Fish Commis the property has been reserved for women will greatly increase the carrying capacity sion's property, has been improved by instal anglers.