The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-12
Hidden Says the Fish Are
 Rauenous in Dead Lakes
Birmingham Man Finds Other Alabamians in Florida. Compares Need for Protection of Alabama Game
 Fish by Such Laws as Exist in Florida


 an apparently plausible argument in the form of a picturesque menu. Brams Are Ravenous
 Bream--large, lusty. blue-gill fe1- lows--are quite plentiful. They ravenously take almost anything in the form of bait-worms, sawyers, reaches, hoppers and the like, fre- quently hit flies and occasionally artificial minnow, though their pref erence runs to bait of the old-fash- toned kinds. such as redheaded, barefooted boys employ in vacation | season.
 The shellcraeker-its name de- rived from a hard mechanism in the throat whereby mussels are opened provide fine sport, as well as good eating. This fish is architectural1y planned on bream lines, varies from quarter to a half pound, and is fairly game. It prefers worms or bugs, and seldom takes a fly. There are swarms of them in Dead lakes. Their beds are in series during the spaw ming season-April and May cover several acres. Any fairly good fisherman can catch two or three cd III ddy duT1nR LHdL Scd- son, if his bait holds -out and he does not become bored from ton mage" l have taken as many as six on one worm
 The shellcracker in Dead lakes is protected by closed season from April 1 to June 1. as is the bass, and the average catch in March dur ing favorable weather is from 40 to so in an afternoon. It is compara- lively easy to take a dozen fine bass in the same time. During three days there in March my average catch was eight or ten bass, 25 she'll crackers and a dozen or so bream in a day. This without hard work and fishing about three hours each, morning and afternoon
 Guides Are Reasonable. Guides expert In running skiffs over cypress knees and well in- formed on conditions, bait, haunts and feeding hours, not to speak of a rare capacity to see gators and turtle before they roll off logs are always ready to take care of visiting anglers at Dead lakes. Charges are quite reasonable. Some of the older guides find whole colonies of fish so readily that one can almost be- lieve local stories that the guides smell 'em.
 At Dead lakes, as elsewhere in Florida and nearly all other states, bass are given a show" by a closed season of two months duration. It should be so in Alabama. Every fe- male bass taken in spawning season means reduction of the future avail able supply by hundreds. At the wholly unsportsmanlike, butchery ways in which bass are being ex- terminated in Alabama. through fail- ure by the legislature to establish and enforce a closed season, this splendid fish will become scarce within a comparatively few years. Alabama should protect it's fish by reasonable laws, just as it does it's quail, ducks and &her game. It is earnestly to be hoped the local fish ing club recently organized will suc- ceed in having this done in the in- terest of economic conservation as well as sport.
 sportsmen should Help.
 Your local lover of rod and reel and the great, beautiful out-doors-- men who know how to fish and who Penjoy it. such as Lucien Brown, Dick Eggleston. Will Mudd, Lewis Nor ris, Jim Patterson, Will Walker, John Chandler. Fred Winter Ed War ren. Bill Wilcox, Jack Riddle, Will Jordan, Frank May, Fred Underwood and hundred others-gets red in the face. when he thinks of how the other states provide protection for their game fish, <while Alabama, blessed with lakes and streams. now teeming with half a dozen varieties of splendid fish, permits the slaugh- ter to go right ahead with goose that laid the golden egg results. It's no less outrageous than short sighted. Sooner or later-the sooner the hetter-every man in whose blood there Is a strain of sport and fair play is going to use his in- fluence in active ways against ruth less, barbarous practices of netting,> dynamiting and otherwise extern1- hating our splendid game fish left without protection from the butcher in quest of tonnage" John Wallace is on the right track in his efforts along conservation lines. He Is en- titled to hearty support. Get out and help him before it's too late.
 For ReaI sport.
 { Go down to Dead lakes if you want sport that's worth while with the bass brearn and shellcracker Car ry casting and fly rod of. say. five ounces. After all, sport comes not So much from large fish with heavy outfit as from comparatively small fish with light tackle. Whether or not you believe 1t. Birmingham man landed three-pound speckled T0Rf f|n1 an1 sTs1a GanN