The central record. (Lancaster, Ky.) 18??-current, 1912-06-07
More Game For The Pot-hunters.

More Game For The Pot-hunters.
The sportsmen of Boyle county have
secured fresh supply of small mouth
black bass from the Government and
placed them in Dix river. This under
ordinary circumstances is very lauda-
BILE move, and one in which the fisher
men of Garrard county would gladly
assist, were it deemed worth while, but
there has been so many fish secured by
the people of this and adjoining coun-
ties and placed in this stream, only to
see the seiners, trappers and dynamit-
ers reap the harvest of their labor, that
they have become discouraged.
Fishermen coming home from days
fruitless fishing report having seen sew
eral men come down Hanging Fork"
with large seine and prepare to seine
the river, but upon spying them, they
beat hasty retreat. This is but rep
etition of the work that has been going
on for years; just about the time the
spring sport should begin, these law
breakers come along and depopulate the
river of everything that has fin that
is worth having. And there seems to
be no remedy. AS yet there has not
that We have heard of been anyone
with sufficient temerity to come for
ward and give to the officers of the law
the names of these violators and set in
motion the wheels of justice for their
prosecution.
We are beginning to hear of fish
frys", and we know that there has not
been enough fish caught in Dix river
with hook this season to make FRY
for good sized family, much less for
the gang who usually attend these
functions. We have never attended a
fish fry, nor do we intend to do so, SO
we cannot say who attends them; we
have heard that in some cases county
officials were guests; il this be the case
it is great pity that the ''recall' is
not in effect in this neck of the woods
and that it is not possible that it might
be applied in these cases where the
sworn guardians of the law openly take
part in its infraction. We read and
hear of the splendid fishing in the bass
streams of the far west and upon the
great lakes, when if the law We're rig
idly enforced, there would not be finer
fishing grounds in the wide world than
our own Dix river. Having it's origin
in the foothills of the mountains of
eastern Kentucky, from its head waters
away up on Niger creek to its con-
fiuence with the Kentucky at High
Bridge. the stream is an ideal place for
the propagation and nurture of the
gamest fish that swim, the ''small
mouth black bass. This species un-
| like his close kinsman the big mouth
black bass" is not cannibalistic in its
habits, does not feed upon it's own
young, nor will it allow other fish to dc
this. Any fisherman can tell you OF
the habits of this fish, how viciously al
nesting time he will strike at anything
that comes near the nest, and this care
is maintained until the young fish are
of sufficient size to care for themselves
Nor is this the only species of fish tc
which this streams peculiarly adapted,
the brush and drift with which il
abounds furnishes splendid place fol
the ''croppie", or newlight; the cold
springs and lodges for the google eye
and ''forked tail cat" But alas, these
places are not sacred to the pot hunters
who with their seines, nets and as a
last resort, dynamite, seek them in
their haunts and divest the stream OF
the last vestige of the finny tribe.
The only remedy is as we have before
pointed out, the people. If the farmers
and people living along the stream will
become interested in the matter, each
county cooperating with the other, anG
will report the infringements of the law
to the authorities, they will, nay, they
Must. put an end to the nefarious prac.
tises. The law we have, amply suffi-
cient to cover each and every case; the
officers we have who will see that the
law is administered if the offenders are
| brought to their notice; what we need
is the offenders themselves. Bring
| them before the bar of justice or go be
fore the grand jury and indict them,
and we will venture to say that if a
few good stiff fines are administered,
and they are compelled to pay them,
the practise of illegally taking from
Dix river every fish that is placed there
will soon cease.