The San Francisco call., 1898-01-22
RUSSIAN RIVER
 IS NOW FULL OF FISH.

The president of the North Pacific Railroad received the following dispatch from the agent of the company at Dun cans Mills yesterday: "Bar at mouth of river is now open and lots of fish run ming up."
 It was reported last Saturday that the bar would positively be opened on Sunday morning. but the barrier remained intact and, as consequence, there has not been any fishing worthy of mention during the
 past week.
 Messrs. Vogelsang and Babcock, the
 Fish Commissioners, left this city for Russian River station last Saturday ex-
 pecttng that the bar would be opened on Saturday night. They were accompanied by Mr Mansfield, the champion fly
 caster, and John Siebe, the champion cottontail rabbit exterminator of the
 Tamalpais Sportsmen's Club. The an-
 glers had very poor luck Mansfield being the only representative of the pleasure family who landed a fish He stated that 1t was the first fish he had ever taken on spoon, but allowed that it was a
 game fighter and had afforded him royal sport.
 The deputy who was dispatched from this city by Chief Babcock to investigate the reported killing of steelheads by the
 net fishermen of Females Bay remained only one day at Point Reyes, during which time he overlooked examining any of the nets. but was satisfied that every thing was 70 K" judging from short | conversation he had with one of the fisn- l ermen near Inverness, which is pleasure resort near the bay. The deputy, it Is ! said, had schemed to bounce down upon
 the lawbreakers, on the following oay, ! when they least expected a visit from | him, but notice from headquarters that his presence was required at Russian River station on Sunday upset his calcu- | lations.
 Instead of looking out for the trans i gressors of the law in Females Bay. the ! deputy spent Sunday rowing the friends ! of the chief of patrol up and down the ! deep pools of Russian River But it hap | pened that while the deputy was obeying | the mandates of his superior, the fisher men of Females Bay were seining steel | heads under the. noses of some of the anglers who had visited Point Reyes on Saturday last.
 | Some of the fish taken in the net were not more than twelve inches in length, i but the law says such an offense con- StituteS miSdemeanor, as a twelVe-inch i trout can readily escape through net the meshes of which are seven and one 1 half inches in length, when drawn closely I The Females Bay fishermen use nets of ! very small dimension, and this fact is | we'll known at the office of the Fish Com 1 However, anglers need not expect to | enjoy any kind of sport next year in | Paper-mill Creek. But the Commissioners ! say that they will stock 1t extensively | this year. Anglers will rejoice when they will learn of the stream being stocked | for a fact.
 Several thousand fry of the Loch I.even
 trout found their way into the Country ! Club waters this year. The anglers of i the club should certainly enjoy grand l sport when the fish will have reached
 size fit for a place in a creel.
 Some months ago it was stated in these | columns that Professor David Starr Jor- | dan of the Stanford University, who is
 the acknowledged American authority on | fresh and salt water fishes, had said that | from the limited knowledge he possessed ! in every particular of the steelheads ofthe l Pacific Coast he could not say whether | they were of the salmon or of the trout l family.
 He believed, however, that they were
 trout of the anadromous variety, but
 until he engaged in a more extensive re- l attention it must have for scientific clas- sification he refused to say which it was, viz: salmon or trout.
 | Professor Gilbert visited several of the
 coast streams this season, and doubtless
 he will lecture before the fiy-casting
 mysterious steelhead. It is presumed that
 the name "steelhead' will cling to the l fish whether 1t be a salmon or a trout ! and that its game qualities will not suffer in the least by proper classification.
 As matters stand at present, there is ! nothing in the law to prevent an angler
 from catching steelheads in fresh water and above tide water with rod and line.
 Professor Jordan or some ichthy-
 classify the steelhead before an angler
 can be punished for having killed one or
 many of them above tide water, or, in | fact, any kind of water, with rod and i line.
 Quite a number of so-called hookbiIls
 have put in an appearance in the pools at the mouth of Paper-mill Creek. Last Sunday Andy caught four, Tom Mar shall two and Battu one. George Walker l and w. Kennedy landed two beautiful l steelheads. Latest accounts from the point are that quite number of fish are
 being. caught at ''the White House" and "SandSOif D