Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1909-06-03
NOTES BY OBSERVER.

After the fifteenth of June il will be law
ful to fish for bass in the Potomac river,
and all who wish 10 do so may catch them
If they can. But there are restrictions.
You must not take bass less than seven
inches in length. You are not permitted
to catch them in any other way than by
hook and line. Outlines and nets are
strictly against the law, and constables and
game wardens are required to arrest vi
olators of the statutes.
But with all the protection given bass
and other fish they are gradually growing
scarcer, and Observer has come TO the
conclusion that there is very little good in
laws protecting them. In his boyhood
days, when everybody fished at any time
they wanted to the river was full OF fish
of every sort. Don't you remember the
big strings that we used to catch at the
cement mill dam? A boy with string
tied to hoop-pole could get fine mess
of fish almost any time in a couple OF
hours. Uncle Billy Lambright would
take his old bamboo pole, guiltlesS OF reel
or leaders, with any sort of bait, and would
bring home tubfull of bass and other
fish. Uncle Johnnie Criswell would go
up the river inthe morning, selects shady
spot and quietly spend the day drawing
out fish one after another. ST. John Shep-
herd could catch from fifty to hundred
bass almost any day, and took orders to
catch them to stock other streams with as
much confidence as miller would agree
to deliver barrel OF flour.
And there were plenty of other fish, too.
What sport there was for the small boy in
catching the toothsome sunfiSh Oh, the
fearsome JOY in hooking the spiteful, spiny
catfish And then in the spring OF the
year, when the freShetS came, how the
old men would rake in the suckers and
Stonerollers all along the river, especially
where the little streams emptied The old
time fishermen have nearly all passed
away, and the fish seem to have gone too.
Observer hasn't seen stone roller in
years. The suckers are nearly all gone.
FallfiSh, the capricious fellows that used
to bite so lively at certain favorite places,
have practically disappeared, and if there
are any catfish left they are in complete
retirement.
What has become OF the bass =? De-
spite the protection that the law gives
them, and in spite OF restocking the rivers,
it takes the most expert fisherman, the
most alluring bait, and simply inexhauSti-
BILE patience to get decent string OF them
now. Indeed, you may fish all day and
not get half dozen. One theory of this
scarcity is that the carp destroy their
spawn and so prevent natural increase.
But, if this be true, why is it that the vo-
facious bass doesn't feed on the young OF
the carp ard so keep things even? An
other suggestion is that the food supply
has grown very small, and that the nat
ural result is to diminish that which de-
ponds upon it. 1t is true that bait is
scarce-mnnowS are few and shy where
once they were to be seen by the million,
and other things that used 10 tempt the
fish are hard to find.
We hope that Commissioner Bowers
and his scientific men will look into the
troubles of the Potomac fishermen and
give us some hope for the future.