The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-04-17
REGARDS TROUT
LAW AS VALUELESS
Eollin S. Childs Says Thousands of
Dollars Have Been Wasted by
Feeding Fry to Larger Fish.
Editor of The Reformer:

Editor of The Reformer:
Many modest sportsmen have noted
the recent visit of Commissioner Leavens
and Arthur H. Dinsmore, New England
superintendent of the government hatch
cries. but few of them subscribe to their
palpably resultless efforts With the
numerous destructive agencies, including
freshet, drouth, mink, sawdust, the
poacher, and lastly, hostile state legisla-
ton, it is large wonder that specimens
of the speckled beauty survive
There are scores of real fishermen in
Vermont who are familiar with the
haunts, inclnations, and willy habits Of
the finny denizen who take decided issue
with the state law and the states APP
pointed commissions regarding their re-
production and protection. In no Ameri-
can state are the waters so favorable to
trout culture as are the pure, spring fed.
ripping streams of southern and central
Vermont, and but for impractical men
who dominate legislation and assume to
deal with matters they know little about
the trout pools would overflow.
| The state commissioners for upward OF
30 years past have emptied hundreds OF
thousands of trout fry into these waters,
loftener toward the mouth than at the
source of the stream, and the results are
well and sorrowfully known to many
thoughtful anglers. The tiny, helpless
minnows might as well have been taken
to the waterless SUBMITS of Anthony.
Equinox, Haystack, and Ascutney for de-
post. In transit from the hatcheries
these infants have been fatally iced by
mlstit spOrtsmen, a process reducing the
shipment at least 80 per cent, while the
half alive survivors have been the early
prey of larger fish with their cannibal-
istic habits.
The present law on trout evidently was
framed by legislators whose piscatorial
wisdom seems the equal of brinde COW 5
= comprehension of astronomy. It's provi-
; sion for the protection of non productive
trout tup to six inchesl. while permitting
the producers, the older fish to be taken
even through prolonged open season, on
pretext of accommodating late-arriving
1 city visitors, many of whom could moi
4 distinguish between a dace, trout ol
: sucker, is a fatal one The small. non
. producing trout, protected by law, fni
: their way to the creel Tor inside pocket
OF the constituencies fisherman who ha:
: no vision OF law, integrity or eternity
: while those restored to the stream b,
the law observer, after contact with tht
{ merciless hook, survive but few hours
! The Massachusetts and Connection
streams, so vastly inferior to the spark
ling Vermont waters, yield three fold bet
: ter results, from lingering stockings al
: together, than our home streams.
!, II Why not the repeal of the present val
+ ueless law, shamelessly disregarded an
= violated, and allow the natural waters {
: Vermont to re-stock and replenish witt
out state assistance. thereby sayin
e many thousands of dollars to taxpayer
:. aud bestowing upon the Inundated di
V ciples of lsaak Walton some of the T,
l. wards of other days, when vicious law
( and lurking wardens were unknown. an
e. when trout fishing in the tributaries ,
% the Battenkill, Deerfeld, West an
/ Green rivers gladdened the heart of tn
real sportsmen and was not attended b
extreme fatigue and the returning d,
g lCcted look.
- ROLLIN S. CHILDS.
- Brattleboro, April II. 1920