Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-14

IRON reports reaching us the last
- week the Potomac River. for
bass in the unsteam and for
rockfish, trout and taylors in the
lower part, the river is furnishing bet
ter sport than Chesapeake Bay and
other places. The catch of 225 taylors
by party Of local anglers below Piney
Point is a record one, many Of the fish
Weighing over pounds, and others
Just could not be landed. These anglers
report that the river was alive with
breaking "blues," and the best part of
1t was the fact that these fish stayed
UP all the morning and were still on
the surface when these anglers stopped
fishing at noon.
There must be q reason for all these
fish in the Potomac, and the reason
assigned by this column is that the
purse meters are not allowed to operate
in the Potomac. There Is good fishing
place nothing like the experience OF
the four local anglers in the Potomac
last week has been reported. 1t is in the
upper part Of the bay that the purse
meters are getting in their deadly work,
taking tons of fish at haul. These
men are not allowed to operate in any
tributary of the bay, but nevertheless
they are not staying within bounds as
prescribed by the Maryland law.
The Washington, D. c., Chapter OF
the Izaak Walton League of America
has been fighting for several years for
the abolition of the purse meters in
Chesapeake Bay. At meeting OF the
Baltimore chapter Of the league last
week Ralph SharrettS, chairman OF q
subcommittee on legislation Of the
Sportsmen's Luncheon Club, outlined
plans for the introduction of bill in
the next session of the Legislature, ask
ing the abolition of purse nets in Chesa-
peake Bay.
A bitter fight viii be waged before
the Legislature when 1t conveneS this
Winter. Boatmen who cater TO the
wants Of the anglers are at last up in
arms over the purse METERS and are
expected to appear at Annapolis in
droVes when the bill comes up. Hun
dreds of thousands Of dollars are be-
| ing lost every year by Marylanders on
account of the operations Of the purse
meters. These meters are allowed to
operate by law for license Of only
! $25 year. In one haul they take more
| fish from the bay than the rod and reel
anglers would catch in tiVe years. The
time has come when the anglers real
lie 1t is useless to spend $40 or SIS for
q boat to try to catch fish. Their fish
cost them in the neighborhood Of SIS
a pound. What the anglers want Is q
| fair return In fish caught for the money
expended. 1t is now time for the Mary
land Legislature to wake up and cater
to the wants of the majority and not
al an O0prpiQl
ing to dictate what shall and shall
not be.
A ND right now is q good time TO
| "A try to get the boatmen to organ
ize and have a set price for tax
| ing out anglers. At great many places
| in the bay and its tributaries boatmen
have agreed to a fixed charge-$l0 a
day for still fishing and SIS when troll
ing. But now that the fish have COM
menced to bite many boatmen are over
charging their patrons and numerous
| complaints have reached this column.
At some places the boatmen are now
| charging $3.50 an hour and others are
reported to want as much as $40 and
| SIS for their boats
There is another thing we would like
to bring to the attention of all boat
men. and that is to have everything
ready to depart the minute his fishing
party arrives. When boat is engaged,
| mean over the phone or by letter, the
captain should see that he has suf-
ficient gasoline for the trip, a jug or
| thermos bottle of drinking water and
whatever else he carries. One report
reached this column recently that a
boat captain wanted to charge addi-
tional for one hours wait for his party.
| - TOW I want TO let you anglers in on
IN a secret. You have used all kinds
of bait In salt water, but I'll VEN
ture to say that few, If any, OF you
have ever resorted to macaroni to en-
tice the fish to bite. One day IL st week
/ dropped In to see my friend Garren,
over on H street northeast. went
over there TO leave some tickets for the
Fall outing of the Washington, p. c.,
Chapter of the I. w. l.. A. to Chesa-
peake Beach on September az. We
had hssn talkAng about Ashins for