The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1911-05-31

Practices Engaged in by Many
of Those Who Are Fish
ing There.
.Bditors ClarksDurg Telegram.


editors cIarksDurg Telegram:
q Wish through the columns
OF your paper to call attention to
the way in which bass are now being
destroyed In the closed season uh-
der the law that permits the gigg.ns
and looping of suckers and carp
during any season.
I spent all of last week at the
LEAK walton club house on the
waters of Big Wheeling creek. In
piarshaIl county, and every night
while was there I saw two or
three gangs OF men and boys-four'
or five In a gang Ostensibly gigging
for suckers and carp, and under
stood that gangs had been out every
night OF the week previous doing
the same thing. II these and other
gangs along the creek only took and
destroyed suckers and carprit would
be all right, but the fact is, that they
are at the same time killing out the.
bass all along the creek. The
lights carried by these gangs 90
daze the bass that they lie still ana
are glgged without the slightest ex-i
ertion. One morning I found that
three bass nesting right opposite the
club house had disappeared, gang
of giggers having passed along dur
ing the night As every fisherman
knows, the bass rarely leave the
nest during the nesting period, ex-
cept to return right away, and it as
this habit that renders them an easy
prey to the gangs that are aDparens-
Iy out for looping or gigging only
suckers, carp and such other fish as
the law allows to be caught at any
period.
During the day time I saw scores
OF men and boys out looping, the
water being so clear that they we're
able to drive their vehicles in i'll
and loop from the wagon. I asked
some of the gangs what they were
catching, and were told that they
had caught as many as ninety FISH
at time, which were divided equal
ly among them. OF course none of
them admitted that they had caught |
any bass, but Tiers is no doubt butt
that the bass are rapidly disappear
ing from wheeling creek as the re-
suit of gigging and looping. They
have already been SO far DESTROYED /
that there will be practically no bass
fishing in Wheeling creek this sea-
son, and unless stop be put e
glgging and looping as is. now car
He'd ON, bass will soon become a Il
practically extinct species so far as
creek is concerned.
It is also fact that some fisher
men. using the rod and line, take
of the law that allows
them to thus fish for suckers and
carp during the closed season to
catch bass.
1 am satisfied, as believe all
sportsmen are who have paid at
tention to the matter, that the only
way to protect the bass and other
game fish during the closed season.
is to rigidly prohibit any fishing OF
any kind at all during such season
As the law now is a man has the
right to fish for certain kinds of
fish during the closed season for
game fish, and so long as he has
this right under the law it is nextto
i'm possible to prevent him from
catching bass or other game fish
during the forbidden season.
Tt seems to me that it is the dNty
Of all those who wish that game
fish shall continue to be found in
our local streams to try to induce
the Legislature at the earliest posi-
BILE moment to make such changes
in the present game laws as will put
a stop to all kinds OF fishing with
rod and line. gigging and looping,
during the closed season, and for
that reason 1 have called attention
to the present condition of things
the columns of your widely
ready paper.
II. M. DARlBAlH