Evening star., 1926-10-12

that he had made mistake.
The Virginia law SAYS:
1t shall be unlawful for any non.
resident of the State, unless such non-
resident be the guest of an individual
resident of the State, to angle with
pole and line or cast or angle with rod
and reel for fish in any of the streams
OF the State above where the tide
ebbs and flows without first procuring
license in the manner as provided
FOR nonresident hunting licenses, ex-
cept that the fee for nonresident fish
Ing license shall be two and one-half
dollars"
1t is evident that this Virginia Off
Ger used his own Interpretation Of the
law. Above where the tide ebbs and
flows can only mean one thing, but
the warden in some manner got 1t
mixed up. with embarrassing results
When this column learned of the
incident. steps were taken immedi
stely to ascertain if the Virginia law
OF 1924 had been amended. Albert
Fletcher Of Warrenton, Va, super
vision warden of his district, when
Informed of the facts in the case,
promptly said a mistake had been
made.
The officer OBTAINING the anglers
temporarily came into the office of the
writer, admitted he had made a mis-
take and that he had apologized to
the anglers.
A report that these anglers had
been fined SIS and S. for each fish
was not correct. He said that the
fine. according to the Virginia law,
Is not less than $40 nor more than
$50. or imprisonment in Jail for not
more than 80 days, or both.
For the benefit of Washington
AnQlnrG Va hn i've 70 Ge.l
waters and who may have heard of
this incident. no license is required
to fish in any stream in the State of
Virginia where the tide ebbS and
flows For example, take Occouuan
Creek. 1t is distance of some miles
inland from the mouth Of the creek
TO Occoquan Village, vet the tide ebbs
and flows all the way to the rocks
the other side of Occoquan Bridge,
and the angler can fish to his hearts
content without any fear of violating
the law. But any stream where there
Ia no tide the angler must first pro-
cure fishing license unless he be a
guest of resident of the State
The only restriction put on a non-
resident fishing in Virginia in tide
water is to the number and size of
fish he captures. The law SAYS it
shall be unlawful for any person to
retain any black bass, large or small
mouth. Of less than inches in length,
or any brook or mountain trout or
rainbow trout of less than inches
in length. And the bag limit is not
more than Is black bass can be taken
In any one day and not more than 35
rainbow, brook or mountain trout.
Virginia fishing and hunting licenses
may be obtained at three Washington
sports goods stores-H. I. Neidle, At
las and George Emmons. The fish
ing license is $3.50 ~and the hunting
license $40 for non-residents
From the present condition Of the
Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, both
Of them being very muddy, it will be
another week or 10 days before these
streams clear enough to permit the
small mouth bass anglers to again
As a matter Of fact there have been
very few days this season when the
Shenandoah River has been clear
Many anglers have informed this col
umn that they have failed in all their
attempts to find Ii clear enough to
fish. And the worst part of it is that
II will soon be too cold to permit Of
fishing for these gamesters in any
comfort
The recent hot spell put a crimp
in the fishing in Chesapeake Bay.
The fish were reported seen by the
large number of week end anglers.
some stating that they covered acres
Of water, put would not strike.
Before the hot weather set In the
fish blue fish. rock and trout were
striking and giving anglers plenty OF
sport, in some instances carrying