The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-03-31
LAWS OF TROUTING.
To Remember Them is to Avoid Prose-
 cuton.

To Remember Them is to Avoid Prose- | cution.
 Trout catchers who start for the
 brooks Monday must remember the new | lay regulating the number which can | be caught in one day. Chapter LII. of the Public Acts of 1898 says: | Every person who shall catch in one | day more than thirty brook trout or brown trout shall be fined not less than seven dollars nor more than fifty dol l lars, or imprisoned not more than thirty dave, or both; provided. however, that any person may take any number of trout in waters owned and enclosed by him, for the purpose of stocking waters, or take and sell any trout reared by him in such enclosed waters.
 Judging from the records of local ang- lers in past years, this new law will have little effect on the numbers taken in one day around here. In past years man could take all he could possibly find without approaching the limit. Some fishermen are inclined to think that the fish will be scarce this year, as last fall was so dry. They figure that many streams dried up altogether, and the fish died. Others claim that in a dry season instinct teaches fish to eek larger bodies of water, and that but few fish died as a result of the drought. They say that as but few fish were caught in this vicinity last year the finny tribe ought to have increased con siderably, so that there will be plenty of good sport this year.
 Section one of Chapter LXXXIII of the Public Acts of 1897 was amended last year to read as follows:
 Every person who shall catch any brook trout, or rainbow trout, except with a hook and line, or shall sell, ex- pose for sale, purchase, catch or have in his possession any trout, except from the firt day of April to the first day of July, shall be fined not more than fifty dol lars and costs; provided, however, that any person may take trout in waters enclosed and owned by him for the pur- pose of stokcing other waters, or take and sell any trout reared by him in such enclosed waters.
 Whether .he season is to be a good or bad one is hard to tell. Old trout fishermen agree that the only way to tell with any certainty whatever is to
 
 go out and try it. Last year was not very good owing to the drought which existed at the opening of and just pre- vious to the season. That hasn't been the trouble this year. but the long drought which preceded the rainy sea- son may have killed off a lot of young fish at that. Some figure that such is the case, while others hold that it was too early to do much harm, and that the recent wet weather will have the ef- feet of producing full strong running streams and some rare sport
 But, as has been said before, the only way to test it is to try it, and it is afe to predict that with the break of dawn the first day of April there will be a host of anglers cut for that purpose. The fact that it falls on Sunday may cause the postponement of day on the part of some of the enthusiasts, but the firt three days will bring them out in force.
 The last legislature changed the law relating to trout fishing, so that now the enthusiasts have fifteen days more to pursue their sport than formerly The season now opens April 1 and closes July 1. where formerly it closed on June 15.