The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-08-22
THE SALMON rs KING.
Prof. Johnson Objects to I'M
porting Game Fish.
THE PlcKEREL is a TYRANT.
Vigorous Protest Against Putting Black
Bass and Pickerel in the Lakes
Plenty OF Trout.

The proposal to stock Lakes Washington
and Union with black bass and pickerel
meets with vigorous opposition from ID. B.
johnson, professor of zoology at the uni
versity. Professor Johnson maintains that
Seattle ought TO be satisfied with her royal
salmon and delicious mountain trout, and
not banker after the fiesh-pots of Egypt
the plebeian fish of the East. In discussing
this subject with a PosT- re-
porter he said:
There is no better sport in the world
than trolling for salmon in the Sound or
angling for trout in the mountain streams.
and there is no country more abundantly
blessed in these respects than this Sound
country. But there are q lot of fellows
here who remember what fun they used to
have in the East fishing for bass or catfish,
or trolling for pickerel IN the lakes, and
they say, oh, how wish we could have
some of the fishing we used to have at
home They don't appreciate the splen-
did trout fishing they can have in the hum
bred streams and lakes flowing into the
Sound and the ocean, or the fun they can
have trolling for salmon in the Sound next
month.
"lf they had this favorite fish of theirs
have been educated ont of the taste with
out knowing it. l did not appreciate sal
mon until / went East year or two ago
with Charles Denny. Mr.. Denny had
never been East and / had dilated to him
on the delicious whitefish we would have
10 Chicago and the shad in Washington
City. Well, took particular care to order
good fresh whitefish in Chicago, but we
hurdI Ro,e
till we get to Washington City and have
some shad.' We had the shad, but Charlie
could not eat it and found had lost my
taste for it. We concluded that there was
no fish equal to salmon The Columbia
river salmon is the finest food fish in the
world and the Puget sound salmon is the
next.
AS regards black bass. it will live well
enough with the trout, but believe that
it will not stay IN the lakes for / have the
impression very strongly that it has to be
put in lakes without an outlet for breeding
purposes. 1t is a good game fish, but its
meat is not nearly so good as that of the
salmon or trout. The pickerel is tyrant
among fish and devours everything it
meets with, though it cannot outswim the
trout. 1t has mouth like an alligator,
is the mark of greedy tyrant from man
down to the lowest animal. 1t is a long
fish and tastes much like an eel. 1t is not
tit to associate with fish like the trout.
II don't believe in artificialIy propagat-
ing fish in any waters which are already
abundantly supplied with good food fish.
We have the'best fish in the world and the
markets are full of them. Fish ought to
be treated simply as an article of food and
the fisheries should be preserved simply to
secure abundant and cheap food for the
people and not to amuse few sportsmen.
1t is just the same with hunting. A rod
and gun club clamors for game law to es-
tablish close season. so that they may go
out into the woods and kill deer and drive
other hunters out. They violate these
laws themselves with impunity, but when
ever any other man does so they have him
arrested. If this goes on, the country will
soon be as bad as England, where a man
can't go out and kill pheasant for dinner
without being arrested for poaching on the
preserves of some lord. This love of hunt
ing is only survival of barbarism, it is the
love of killing and bloodshed / shall be
glad when all the deer and other game are
killed off,"
John A. G. Gosewisch has just returned
from fishing trip through Chehalis, Ma
son and Thurston counties and is enthusi-
astic about the sport he has had. He saws
ne went out about three miles from Monte
sano and fished in the Chehalis river with
l.. Zamloch. In three hours, he says, he
caught thirty-four beautiful trout. Mr..
Zamloch, who is a magician by profession,
had extraordinary luck. and Mr.. Gose-
wisch jokingly suggests that he attracted
the fish TO his hook by his magical powers.
He says that every stream in those coun-
ties fairly swarms with fish and that an
glers in this city have no idea what good
sport they are missing. The woods around
Shelton are also swarming with grouse and
man should find no difficulty in securing
a good bag.