The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1917-06-15

in return. In direct contrast to the
city sportsman who makes the laws
allowing himself to take or kill as
much wild life as he thinks will I'LL
his desires, for what he calls pure
sport at the same time posing as the
great benefactor and savior Of wild
life in our north woods. You, reader,
are undoubtedly of the same opinion,
hut do you know this to be fact?
dare say you do not; you are merely
following the trend Of public opinion,
for who else but the men, in their
struggle for an existence, coming
daily in actual contact, with the fish
and game situation are competent to
advise you on the subject OF real
game and fish protection.
You would not think of consulting
a. musician on some bodily ailment
or an engineer on theological matters
although in an emergency both may
be able to hand you what you think
YOU need, but your act would not De
logical. This comparison, in my opln-
ion, fits exactly with the states me-
thod of handling the fish and game
problem in our north woods. l won
der how long it will be til the powers
that be, will wake up and allow the
interested public hand in game and
fish protection. What a contrast II
would be to the present system OF
hit and miss fool law, jumbled with
a complicated mass of technicalities
and a warden system that tends to
make every man, woman and child
an embittered enemy to what we
should all be glad to consider our
natural and inherited duty. Does the
fisherman give anything in return for
what he takes? Our experience on
Eastwood lake (main shore line 226
miles exclusive of the 215 islands)
should suffice for an answer. About
nine years ago, this lake, containing
a fairly abundant stock of marketable
fish, such as pike, white-fish and
trout, was teeming with suckers and
loires of no market value, and
pickerel of very little value. 1t was
common to get on an average, 10
rough for every good fish. Person
ally l have destroyed tons and tons
of suckers and loires and the hand
ling of them cost us lots Of money in
time and equipment. Rough stock
tear up lot of Irvine in short time
and, at from $500 to $500 per pound
for netting, makes large hole in the
seasons profits. Eight years OF
patient warfare on the natural enc
mics of pike, white-fish and trout
has shown results. It is possible to
set net there not and get nearly an
even percentage of rough and market
able fish.
It is a recognized fact that rough
fish feed on and destroy the spawn
and young of other varieties. For in
stance one sucker can easily devour
all the spawn of one pike or white-tish
now what chance have those to in
crease when they are out numbered
ten to one in any lake. And many
Ely people wonder why pike are de-
creasing in nearby lakes despite the
states effort at protection and re-
stocking. don't want you to think
that we are posing for any cheap
heroism, it was all in our honest ef-
fort to provide three meals per day
for our families that we did more to
protect game and marketable fish
than the state or it's staff of game
wardens ever did around Eastwood
lake.
/ believe / was the first one to try
and get fish out of Saganaga lake,
nine portages and IS miles from the
nearest shipping point. 1t cost me
lot of money and hard labor to find
out that there are more and far bet
ter fish of the marketable variety in
Eastwood lake, which had produced
several hundred tons of food. Saga
maya had never been fished and is