LANGLER -...-: ••. _•••• ••• Zgvp": 'k'^ m J i w \M I 'Ml November, 1935 OFFICIAL STATE NOVEMBER, 1935 PUBLICATION ^ANGLER? Vol. 4 No. 11 ,<>. COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA PUBLISHED MONTHLY BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS by the PENNSYLVANIA BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS l8il £3 E3 ES HP OLIVER M. DEIBLER Five cents a copy — 50 cents a year Commissioner of Fisheries C. R. BULLER Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries szxx Pleasant Mount E3S2E3 ALEX P. SWEIGART, Editor South Office Bldg.. Harrisburg, Pa. MEMBERS OF BOARD OLIVER M. DEIBLER, Chairman Greensburg E3J3S DAN R. SCHNABEL Johnstown LESLIE W. SEYLAR NOTE McConnellsburg Subscriptions to the PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER EDGAR W. NICHOLSON should be addressed to the Editor. Submit fee either Philadelphia by check or money order payable to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Stamps not acceptable. Individuals KENNETH A. REID sending cash do so at their own risk. Connellsville CHARLES A. FRENCH < Ellwood City HARRY E. WEBER PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER welcomes contributions Philipsburg and photos of catches from its readers. Proper credit will be given to contributors. MILTON L. PEEK All contributions returned if accompanied by first Ithan class postage. H. R. STACKHOUSE Secretary to Board ••» .,<>.. IMPORTANT—The Editor should be notified immediately of change in subscriber's address. Please give both old and new addresses Permission to reprint will be granted provided proper credit notice is given ^ANGLERT Vol.4 No. 11 NOVEMBER, 1935 EDITORIAL them do not know the essential dif­ Junior Sportsmen ferences in shape, coloration and It is my belief that the conserva­ build of our inland water fishes. Un­ tion movement, not only in Pennsyl­ fortunately, size limits also are too vania but in the United States, can scantily known. Our licensed anglers have no more vital asset than the are in a position to do much vital education of our boys and girls in the conservation work in this respect, essentials of good sportsmanship. with the knowledge that their efforts Future generations must determine may carry on into succeeding genera­ success or failure of conservation tions. policies in the years to come, and A great deal has been written con­ with this thought in mind, the sports­ cerning the companionship of father men of today are in a position to lay and son, astream and afield. To few, a firm foundation for the sports they who have known such comradeship, love. can our world of today give anything After all, this task is not difficult. finer. Observe, some day when you The average American boy or girl is are fishing, a dad and his son in ac­ born with an inherent love of the tion. Note the manner in which the out-of-doors. Instinctively, the boy, boy imitates his father in casting, in equipped with a "fishin' pole," coarse the carrying of the creel, and as line and hook, grasps the fundamen­ nearly as possible the landing of a tals of worm-fishing in an amazingly fish. Youth is imitative and grasps PHOTO BY C. FRANK HOYER brief time. He may only catch a few quickly the fundamentals of good sunfish, chubs or catfish in an entire sportsmanship. When he sees his has given way to common-sense sea­ season, but the contentment and joy dad carefully release an undersize sons and bag limits. he derives from this sport of fishing game fish, he attempts to do the There axe many hurdles to be is to be measured in terms of health­ same. So intent is he in following cleared before we attain the peak in ful outdoor exercise beneficial to this most ancient of sports that all effective conservation, but the educa­ mind and body. He is, primarily, on other thoughts are summarily dis­ tion of our youth to methods of good the right road to good citizenship, missed. With proper guidance in sportsmanship is the greatest barrier and the lessons that he grasps in ob­ the fine code of conservation, why ahead. We can do it. It will require serving nature's wonders tend to shouldn't he develop into a fine patience, of course, and perhaps some round out developing character as sportsman ? trying effort, but if the "tall hurdle" few others may. Unfortunately in far too many in­ is cleared, future generations must Go to almost any Pennsylvania stances, boys going into the out-of- benefit. fishing stream today, and chances doors are left to follow their own de­ Our drive for better fishing here in are, ten to one, you will see a number vices at random. Certainly, we, of Pennsylvania cannot, to my mind, of boys patiently trying their fishing the present generation, must be held achieve a more splendid objective luck. These boys are sportsmen in responsible if they revert to the code than that of instilling the conserva­ the making, and I feel that it should of the killer that predominated dur­ tion code in the youth of today. be every sportsman's objective to ing the nineteenth century. As I have pause long enough to explain to them said before repeatedly, fish and game the principles of law-abiding conser­ conservation today cannot stand for vation. In most instances, our youth­ the "fish hog" or the "game hog." ful anglers have no thought of vio­ Pennsylvania today enjoys its dis­ lating the fish laws when they re­ tinction as a leader in conservation tain an undersize game fish. Many of chiefly because the slaughter code Commissioner of Fisheries PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER Esox, the Voracious Life Sketch of a Chain Pickerel SOX reticulatus, the giant chain pick­ points 50 miles distant. It was generally to this rule in his giant cousin, the Chau­ Eerel, symbolized nature's perfection in agreed by those who had been fortunate tauqua muskellunge, but the range of this stream-lining as he lurked in the sunken enough to set a hook in the big pickerel fish is limited to a few lakes and streams branches of a massive buttonwood. Six that the only possible way in which he in northwest Pennsylvania. months after the buttonwood had toppled, might be taken was to stop him on the first Come to think of it, there is a great deal with rending crash before the onslaught of rush for his lair. of glamour in the history of the chain a mighty wind into the creek, Esox had That thought was uppermost in the mind pickerel in the Keystone State. The red established his home in the tangle of its of the plug caster who chanced to find man, stealthily making his way along branches. It was an ideal lair, every factor Esox in a striking mood on this October stream, pond or lake saw the glinting, considered, for the big pickerel. In the morning. As the greenish swirl of the pick­ slender green shape of Esox dart from reed shadowy recesses of the dead tree, he could erel followed the plunk of the plug near grown coves; the first settlers who coura­ await his prey—minnow, small sucker, or the buttonwood, he stopped the big fish geously ventured beyond the mountain bar­ virtually any species of fish present in the just short of the sunken branches. Momen­ riers to establish homes in Penn's Woods stream. The strike came with amazing tarily balked, Esox swiftly turned upstream, were well acquainted with his habits. He swiftness, his lithe form darting with the speed of his first frantic run causing had endured despite the incursions of ever­ shadowy speed at the prey, then poising the line, that had just come perilously close growing numbers of introduced smallmouth for perhaps a minute with the victim be­ to breaking, to slice through the water in a bass and wall-eyed pike. And surprisingly, tween vicious fang-armed jaws prior to turn­ graceful arc. Unlike his rival for the live perhaps, in some waters his species had ing and swallowing it head first. food supply in the creek, the smallmouth held its own. But, ideal as this lair happened to be as bass, Esox fought a twisting, rolling type It was early spring, just about the first a place of concealment, it served another of battle. But the set of treble hooks on of April ten years before, that Esox, the purpose, as three corroded steel hook shanks the plug held firm, and in fifteen minutes pickerel, had come into being. The great in his duckbill-shaped jaws indicated. If the big pickerel was lifted from the water sucker run had started up one of the tribu­ by chance he struck at the lure of a fisher­ as the fisherman secured a firm grip beneath taries to the stream, hundreds of these man, his six pound weight enabled him in the gills. bottom feeders, some exceeding 20 inches in the first rush after the barb had been set, length, milling about during the night as to dart into the tangle of sunken branches. No other fish of the inland waters could they struggled over shallow riffles. Over Once in this ide§l refuge, he had invariably boast a more perfect record of voracity, de­ the same course, the parents of Esox had been able to snap the line. struction and wanton cruelty than Esox made their way, with apparent ease and On this October morning, when mist was reticulatus, the eastern chain pickerel. Of little if any flurry moving to the spawning rising from the water and frost had coated the prominent game fishes in the fresh water ground in a shallow pool well up in the the brush along the shoreline, the refuge of as we know them today, smallmouth bass, run.