The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-08-27
TROUT ARE HAPPY.
Law Protects Them
After Midnight
Thursday.
HAS BEEN A GOOD SEASON.
Rising Generation Is Not
to Be One of
@lF Fishermen.

At midnight, Thursday, Massachu-
sets trout will swim under the protect
ing wing of the law. Close time begins
Sept. 1 and the speckled beauties that
have navigated Worcester county
Streams and brooks, a legal prey to the
seductive hook hidden beneath the
squirming and tempting angle worm,
since April 1, will be at liberty to wig
gle and sport and flash their tails in
defiance
The season is practically over now
Few fishermen will go out for last
cast or two. Indeed there has been al
most no fishing for month. All in ALL
followers of rod and reel report an or
VI dinarily successful season. The first of
the open season opened in slow fash
Ion, owing to the lateness Of the spring,
and the presence of heavy SHOWS that
fingered in the valleys and sent enough
snow water into the streams to keep
the trout from running up to head
water. These conditions prevailed un-
I'll well along into the month of April
and 1t was practically May day before
the fishermen got out in force and be-
gan to meet the proverbial early season
luck of former years.
The noticeable feature of the local
season has been the quality of the sport
to be had at Lake Quinsigamond. More
good trout were taken from the lake
during the season Just closing than
were ever known to followers of the
sport. As soon as the ice began NOV
ing away from the head of the lake,
David M. Earle gave the season a con-
spicuous sendoff by taking out a
three-pounder and carrying him into
town triumphantly to be the envy of
every devotee of the rod
Then for weeks, while the trout were
running, the old bridge was besieged
a from sunrise until sunset with a line of
patient anglers that warranted the
hanging out of Standing room only
sign on the short bridge. Many fine
y trout, as fine as are to be boosted by
the famous lakes of Maine, were taken
on every variety Of tackle from the $25
e rod and gut line, to the string and wire
hook and alder pole.
1t is estimated that over 100 large
trout We're taken about the upper end
a of the lake early in the season and a
new record was created. The success
of the efforts Of the sportsmen who
nave been cooperating with the fish
and game commissioners in an effort
to stock the lake with game fish, had
at last become apparent and the work
that has been going on for many years,
quietly and unostentatiously, is at last
bearing fruit Before the close of the
season at the lake there was scarcely
fisherman In Worcester but was in
sympathy with the work.
If the present season is remembered
by nothing else in the proverbial sto-
ries of the craft 1t will stand conspic-
uousfy in history as the beginning of
new epoch in the fish history of the
lake. 1t has thoroughly awakened To-
cal disciples Of Isaak Walton to the
possibilities of the lake as game fish
waters of the 18 carat variety and Sc
cond to none in this country.
OF the luck of the small army of
fishermen who whip the streams and
brooks, an average season is the gen.
eral story. Full creels have been the
rule or were before the beginning Of
the prolonged drought of June practi-
cally put an end to the sport. The un-
usual staying qualities of the dry wea-
Their, gave the devotees of the sport
considerable scare, for it was at one
time feared that further continuance
Of the unprecedented drought would
kill out the trout entirely. But the
welcome rain came at last and fears
were silenced.
One feature of the local fishing is
Noticeable. The trout fishermen that
are met along the banks of streams
and in the meadows are the same old
familiar faces. Few novices are TO be
found. The ranks of the elect are not
being recruited except by Harry Rose
and Allie Perry and a few others who
have had the delights of the sport in
stilled into their veins by association
with the best of sportsmen of the old
school. According to the prediction of
the men who know, the rising genera
ton is not to be one of fishermen.
Followers of the sport in Worcester
county, view with alarm the growing
prevalence Of the warning Sign. More
brooks, and good ones, too, have been
posted this season than in any one
within the memory of the veterans. The
work has been done by three or four
men who like the sport and want it all
to themselves, to the barring of other
Enthusiasts. II is an easy matter to
obtain permission to post brook, and
an easy matter to tack up the warn
ing signs, and wherever the fisherman
goes he runs against them staring him
In the face at every turn. One of the
veterans expressed the fear to The Spy
man yesterday, that the conditions that
prevail In England will be the rule in
Worcester county within a few years,
and the delights of trout fishing will be
reserved and corraled by a favored
few. If the much debated game hog
exists in this country, his brother in
kind the fish hog, is coming into alarm
ing prominence.
Many Worcester fishermen and par
ties have made the trip to the Maine
lakes this spring and summer and the
Worcester colony at the Rangeleys and
other famous lakes Is constantly on the
grow. j. Russell Marble made the re-
cord catch of the season In Maine, and
thus new honor comes to Worcester.