Case Name: State of Maine vs. Lafayette P. Skolfield, Appellant
Court: Maine Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Maine
Decision Date: 1874
Citations: 63 Me. 266
Docket Number: 
Parties: State of Maine vs. Lafayette P. Skolfield, Appellant.
Judges: Appleton, O. J., Walton, Dickerson, Barrows and Peters, JJ., concurred.
Reporter: Maine Reports
Volume: 63
Pages: 266–267

Head Matter:
State of Maine vs. Lafayette P. Skolfield, Appellant.
Construction of Public Laws of 1870, c. 310, § 2.
Taking fisli by means of numerous single baited books and lines set in as many boles cut through tbe ice, and tended by one person, is a clear viola•tion of Public Laws of 1870, c. 310, § 2, which prohibits fishing in Webb’s Pond, otherwise than by “ordinary process of angling with single bait hook and line or artificial fly.”
On facts agreed.
Complaint was made, on the tenth day of May, 1873, to a trial justice of this county, that the respondent on the seventh day of the preceding month, at Weld, in said county, “did take and capture fourteen fish, to wit, trout and pickerel, on hooks set through the ice at Webb’s Fond, in said Weld, the way and manner of taking said fish not being then and there the ordinary process of angling with single bait hook and line or artificial fly,” &c. Mr. Skolfield was convicted and appealed to this court. He admitted that he caught fish as charged in the complaint, by cutting a number of holes through the ice of Webb’s Fond and dropping several baited hooks attached to lines through said holes at once, there being a line to each hole, and all the lines were supported by sticks or brush on the ice. If this constituted an offence under the statute, the case is to stand for trial; otherwise, a nol 'pros is to be entered.
P. II. Stubbs, county attorney for the State.
H. L. Whitcomb, for the respondent.

Opinion:
Virgin, J.
The policy of the legislature, as clearly manifested by the numerous statutes, general and special, enacted during the past few years, has been to encourage the propagation and culture of fresh water fish, and thus to replenish and re-stock our lakes, ponds and streams. Directed to the same general result, are those statutes which prohibit the taking of fish, at any season of the year, by spear, grapnel, net and other like means of wholesale destruction.
The statute on which this complaint is founded, limits the mode of taking fish from "Webb's Pond" to the "ordinary process of angling with single bait hook and line or artificial fly." Private and Special Laws of 1870, c. 310. The act of 1868, c. 581, of the Private and Special Laws of that year, relating to fishing in Moosehead lake, defines the lawful mode as "the ordinary process of angling, with baited hook and line, or by surface fishing with the artificial fly." Private and Special Laws of 1872, c. 60, "angling with the single bait, hook and line, or artificial fly." All these statutes were intended to remedy the same mischief, and should receive the same interpretation, notwithstanding the slight difference in their phraseology and punctuation.
Taking fish by means of numerous single baited hooks and lines set in as many holes cut through the ice, and tended by one person, is a clear violation of the statute. Case to stand for trial.
Appleton, O. J., Walton, Dickerson, Barrows and Peters, JJ., concurred.