Evening star., 1944-06-16
OUTDOORS

Announcement by Col John M.
johnson, Washington District engi-
neer, that the task Of clearing the
beds of water chestnuts from the
Potomac River now Is in the final
stage of completion, is welcome
news. It's dense green vegetation
forming ideal breeding grounds for
the Anopheles mosquito, thereby
gravely threatening the health of
residents along the river, had spread
to more than 5000 acres. It's sharp,
barbed seeds Uttered the beaches for
ITO miles and were anathema to
bathers; its matted growth seriously
interferred with or stopped small
boat navigation, ruined game fish
and wild fowl breeding and feeding
grounds. More than half of this ap-
parently impossible job has been ac-
comphshed and accelerated opera
tions are planned to remove this
menace with all possible speed.
From Bill Sharpe of Raleigh, N. c.,
comes this lament. "OPA doan' care
whut de Coast Guard low. You
CANT 90 f1shin' any old how"
Jubilation over relaxation of Coast
Guard regulations has been dam
pened by the limitation of gasoline
allowances to party boats Of 2 gal
Ions per horsepower for the three
month season, with a maximum of
125 gallons regardless of HIP. Al
though the regulations permit only
party and commercial fishing boats
to go outside, no distinction is made
between them and pleasure boats.
This will spell the death knell for
trolling, confining party boats to still
fishing and not much of that.
With the wane of the moon, Ches-
apeake Bay fishing seems to be
coming into its own. Early morning
trolling for stripers Is producing ex-
cellent results. Sport and COM
mercial fishermen are boating nice
catches over the rocky bottom be-
tween Sharps Island and the Gooses.
Croakers are all over the bay, but are
biting mostly at night. For day fish,
ing, the Patuxent is your best bet.
Big Norfolk spot are running in the
mouth Of the Potomac ahead of
season. Carl Argent and son, fishing
OF Hollands Point last week end,
were on the spot when the rock
schooled briefly in the late afternoon
and caught couple of 6-pounders.
They also report landing some nice
trout.
In spite OF adverse weather, fish,
ing along the Eastern Shore con-
tinues excellent. Kingfish and trout
appear plentiful of the beaches
clear up to Lewes, Del. Morris Irving
and Oscar Eklund, back from a trip
to Nags Head, report few channel
bass being caught. They had sport
with the kingfsh and trout suffi-
cient to compensate. Fox Hill Levels
below Ocean City, Md, is getting a
lot OF action with the big trout
Likewise Wachapreague, Va.
Locally the Potomac has cleared
and should be ripe for black bass,
crappie and catfish in District
waters. Crappie and bass catches
are reported from the Tidal Basin.
We would hesitate to eat these fish
however, because of pollution. The
Virginia season for large and small
mouth bass opens Tuesday. Con-
trary to opinion we have heard ex-
pressed, this season does not apply
to the Potomac River where fishing
is governed by the State of Mary
land. 1t does cover indentations in
the Virginia shoreline, from point
to point of land, such as Gunston
Cove.
Pete Fletcher and Skip Chesel-
dine, in their teens, are awarded
this columns "E" for real SPORTS
men. Starting at 4 am. for Big
Hunting Creek, they thumbed their
way to Frederick by am. Taking
the early trolley to Thurmont. Md,
where kindly trucker drove them
To the nicpic orp,1r6e the,, u,>~~ -