PENNSYLVANIA! /

— -

THROUGH ITS OFFICIAL PUBLICATION

T h e Pennsylvania Angler

The Pennsylvania Fish Commission

:- EXTENDS TO EACH AND EVERYONE -

H O L I D A Y ( G R E E T I N G S

& Vtxy fWerrp CJjrtetma*

& peaceful anb

prosperous

COMMONWEALTH OF

PENNSYLVANIA

HON. JOHN S. FINE GOVERNOR

PENNSYLVANIA FISH COMMISSION

BERNARD S. HORNE, President PITTSBURGH

PAUL F. BITTENBENDER, Vic»-Pr«i. WILKES-1ARRE

MILTON L. PEEK RADNOR

WILLIAM D. BURK MELROSE PARK

©EN. A. H. STACKPOLE DAUPHIN

LOUIS S. WINNER LOCK HAVEN

PHILIP E. ANGLE CHARON

EXECUTIVE OFFICE

C. A. FRENCH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

ELWOOD CITY

H. R. STACKHOUSE Administrative Secretary

C. R. BULLER Chief Fish Culturitt

THOMAS F. O'HARA Construction Engineer

WILLIAM W. BRITTON Chiaf Enforcement Officer

ROBERT P. DEITER Comptroller

GORDON L. TREMBLEY Chiaf Aquatic Biologist

ARTHUR D. BRADFORD Pathologist

CYRIL G. REGAN Chief Div. of Land and Water Acquisition

GEORGE H. GORDON Official Photographer

HATCHERY SUPERINTENDENTS Dewey Sorenson—Beliafonte Merrill Lillie—Corry & Union City Edwin H. Hahn—Erie T. J. Dingle—Huntsdale Fred K. Riedel—Linesville J . L. Zettle—Pleasant Mount George Magargel—ReynoldsdaJa Bernard Gill—Tionesta John J. Wopart—Torresdale

J. Allen Barrett—Director Division of Public Relations

DECEMBER—1951 VOLUME XX, No. 12

CONTENTS

FRONT AND BACK COVER PHOTOGRAPHS FROM BLACK STAR

• • • • • • *

GENETICS AND TROUT BREEDING 4 By Dr. James E. Wright, Jr.

A NEW ERA FOR AN OLD CANAL 6 By Harvey Frantz—Incodel Conservationist

THE STINGERS 8 By Wendell O. Ditmer

1951—A GOOD YEAR FOR PENNSYLVANIA MUSKIES 10

TIGERS OF THE SHENANGO 12 By Albert M. Wolgast

RUBBER BAND THROUGH FISH STUMPS EXPERTS 13 By Joe Pancoast

WINTER, FROM A CAMERA ANGLE 14-15 By Josef Muench

OLD MAN WINTER IS PLOTTING NOW 18 By Dick Fortney

FILMING FISH ABOVE WATER 20 By Ormal I. Sprungman

SOME BOATS, TUBS AND SIEVES I HAVE RENTED 22 By Richard C. Redmond

ROD MAKING—ANGLER'S WINTER RECREATION 24 By Charles H. Chapman

George W. Forrest, Editor 1339 East Philadelphia Street, York, Pa

The PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER is published monthly by the Pennsylvania Pish Commission. South Office Building, Harrisburg, Pa. Subscription: 50 cents per year, 10 cents per single copy. Send check or money order payable to Commonwealth ol Pennsylvania. DO NOT SEND STAMPS. Individuals'sending cash do so at their own risk. Change of address should reach us promptly. Furnish both old and new addresses. Entered as Second Class matter at the Post Office, Harrisburg, Pa„ under Act of March 3, 1873.

Neither Publisher nor Editor will assume responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or Il­lustrations while in their possession or in transit. Permission to reprint will be given pro­vided we receive marked copies and credit Is given material or illustrations. Only communi­cations pertaining to manuscripts, material or illustrations should be addressed to the Editor at the above address.

! » -

w *76e Sd>Ct<n'& /4Hate»

Dear Sir:

Enclosed find money order for one dollar for a two-year subscription to the PENNA. ANGLER.

Although I am over here fighting in Korea, I still have not forgotten about my favorite sport of fishing. Your mag­azine will keep me informed on Penn ­sylvania streams, etc., while I am here.

I always received the ANGLER when I was back in the states. I think you do a wonderful job of keeping the sportsmen informed of what is going on around the waters of Penna.

Cpl. Henry H. Walter Somewhere in Korea

Dear Sir:

For sometime now I have been a sub ­scriber to the PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER. I

send my copies to my professional wrestler friends around the country and Canada.

The other day I got a letter from Tony Zurkowsky of Independence, Missouri. This gentleman is not only a fine wres t ­ler but is known for his sportsmanship, hunting and fishing as well. I had sent my September issue of the ANGLER to him and he likes it so much he is going to pass it along to others.

I also ask my sportsmen friends this question, "What do the folks do out your way after building projects are com­pleted, to replace wildlife, cover and food that is lost when these projects take away former wildlife habi tats?"

I get the same reply from all over the country, Florida to California, "Nothing." Then folks wonder why the cost to go fishing and hunting goes up. They are to blame themselves for not replacing wildlife lost when man moves into their former habitats.

Thos. A. Mortimer Wrestler's Sportsman's Club Holyoke, Mass.

Dear Sir:

I am enclosing check for 50 cents for which please send the PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER to my son who is in the Armed Forces overseas. As his father, I think more parents should send their sons and daughters in the services the ANGLER as I know they would be glad to receive the one and only real Angler magazine. I am certain reading it every month wherever they are will help keep up their morale.

* Lloyd S. Fisher Hanover, Pa.

Dear Editor:

Enclosed are two pictures of fish caught by my nephews and their best friend. One is Billy Luffy, age 11, hold­ing a 2-lb, 14-oz. smallmouth bass caught at St. George Eddy on the Alle­gheny river. The other is Tommy and Charlie Luffy holding a few bass, also a smallmouth caught at the same loca­tion. Tommy is 12 and Charlie is 7.

Your old edition of the magazine was excellent but the new one even excells that. Thank you for such a good maga­zine.

Robert Herrlich Greensburg, Pa.

Dear Sir:

ANGLER for October, 1951, carries a very interesting article, "Are Fishermen Liars" by Bill Wolf. While I enjoyed this very much I believe you and Mr. Wolf will agree with me that he got away to a very bad start in his first paragraph when he states that Jonah was swal­lowed by a whale.

Not pretending to be a Bible student, I do wish to call his attention to the book of Jonah, 1:17, "now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah." I t says nothing whatsoever about a whale.

Tell Bill I'm after h im (in a friendly way) and if he will come up this way next trouting season, will take hi*n over to the Big Lackawaxen below Kimbal 's, where the big browns and rainbows are really smart.

The article on "Pennsylvania Lakes" by Richard Williamson is also very in­teresting as these are lakes I have fly-fished for bass many years. But, as far as I am able to discover, Lake Poyntelle is not open to the public for public fishing.

The land has been purchased by a city group for camp purposes and an ordi­nary fisherman would have a very hard time getting a boat. This same condi­tion exists at Lake Ladore in this area and it seems we are being squeezed constantly. While I realize this is, no doubt, a question for the legislature, we are gradually losing our lakes, one by one, the same being bought up by out-of-state groups for commercial purposes.

F. J . Waters Jermyn, Pa.

Dear Sir:

Let's give Bill Wolf a little assist. I have fished for 40 years or more and could tell some stories about angling, "believe-it-or-not" stories that would make Mr. Ripley's yarns take a back seat.

I am a fly fishing fool and also use a spinning outfit that I like for using artificial baits and flies.

Here is one story that happened 12 years ago and the fisherman who was with me when it happened will not go fishing or get in a boat with me to this day. We were fishing Maplewood Lake and just as the skies darkened to make visibility poor on the water my par tner yelled for me to get out of there quickly!

Excitedly yelling there was a 30-foot water snake going across the pond, he grabbed the oars and rowed to shore, a point half mile from our boat dock, got out and walked around the lake to the dock.

This gentleman still insists he saw a 30-foot snake and I could never con­vince him that it was a mother otter with 9 young ones hanging tail to tail . . . which it was!

Pete Mosier Scranton, Pa.

Lots of folks have a good aim in life, but most of them don' t know when to pull the trigger.

P E N N S Y L V A N I A A N G L E R

! • ? -

C. A. FRENCH RECOVERING AT HOME

At midnight, October 30, C. A. French, our Executive Director, was stricken with appendicitis and rushed to the operating room of the Polyclinic Hospital, Harris-burg, where an appendectomy was performed by the Hospital's Chief Surgean Dr. William K. McBride. The ANGLER reports that Mr. French is gradually recovering and is now convalescing at his home, 1951 North Front Street, Harris-burg. We confidently speak for all our personnel when we express our best wishes for his early return to the office.

MOSQUITO CREEK IMPROVED, SPORTSMEN REMOVE INACTIVE

BEAVER DAMS

About 35 inactive beaver dams were removed from Mosquito Creek recently by more than 300 conservation-minded sportsmen ably headed by Thomas McKinney, chairman of the pollution commit­tee for the Mosquito Creek Sports­men's Association.

Paul Coudreit, President of the club assigned specific duties to the workers on the project which had previously b e e n determined through surveys of the watershed. The club contended that: (1) de­caying organic matter in the dams was detrimental to fishlife, (2) as the beavers cut down trees for food they also removed shade and cover, and (3) with no shade and impounding the water its tem­perature mounted to a point where trout could not hope to survive.

On the scene of the operations from the Pennsylvania Fish Com­mission were, District Supervisor, Carl Bidelspacher and Wardens Lester Ogden and David Dahlgren.

"My lure has a bobbing action. How about yours?"

Read the instructions on page2of this form.

STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION REQUIRED BY THP ACT OF CONGRESS OF AUGUST 24, 1912, AS AMENDED BY THE ACTS OF MARCH 3 1933, AND JULY 2, 1946 (Title 39, United States Code, Section 233)

J^rmsylvanda Angler (Insert exact title of publication)

... published *<**m

<M Hsirrisburg, Pa. _ for

~* it office unci State where publication ha* Mcond-claia entry)

(Stat* exact frequency of leaue) ~

October . » 1. The names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing editor, and business managers a r e :

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Publisher ^ . ^ . ^ I y . ^ i 3 F i ^ ComMssion • Harrisburg. Pa. Editor _ -G©.or£e.W,..Fo.rrest. _ l$$^*J*h&A»_3t±t_ j j g k * fit,"" Managing editor _

Business manager 2. The owner is : (If owned by a corporation, its name and address mUBt be stated and also immediately thereunder the

.tames and addresses of stockholders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of Btock. If not owned by a corporation, the names and addresses of the individual owners must be given. If owned by a partnership or other unincorpo­rated firm, its name and address, as well as that of each individual member, must be given.)

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CommonTrealth of Pennsylvania Fish Commission

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"South" Office'ttuiHiiig'' Harrisburg, Pa*

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holding 1 percent or more of total amount

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* . / ' ZhC f ™ " ^ number ot c°Piea ot e a c h ^ sue ot this publication sold or distributed, through the mails or otherwise to paid subscribers during the 12 months preceding the date shown above was : (This information is required from dally,

weekly, semiweekly, and triweekly newspapers only.) .

Sworn to and subscribed before me this —

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&a3?r-

- Z Z ^ C . day of ̂ S ^ ^ : . X%SZ/

MY COWSJWOM Sana. (My commiuion e * p i r w ^ « * « . k l a 3 » . . . . . . it. )

DECEMBER—1951

Figure I. Variation in brook trout of the same age. Note the differences in markings, conformity, and coloration. Also note shortened gill covers on the fish at the left.

m

GENET 1 8 ^ Trout Breedin

By James E. Wright, Jr., Assistant Professor of Genetics, The Pennsylvania State College

Photograph by George Gordon, Off icial Photographer,

Pennsylvania Fish Commission

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Dr. Wright has been retained by the Pennsylvania Fish Com­mission to serve in an advisory capacity to the proposed experimental breeding program.)

PART i

INCLUDED in the projects out­lined for investigation at the

proposed Fish Commission re­search station at Benner Springs on Spring Creek is the line breed­ing of trout. This experimental breeding aims at the improvement of trout brood stock through appli­cation of genetic methods. Fish cul­turists and fishery biologists have long viewed as a challenge the ac­complishments of other animal hus-bandrymen and plant breeders in utilizing genetic knowledge for improvement of their stocks. This program is to be the Pennsylvania Fish Commission's acceptance of this challenge. More specifically, it will be the realization of plans held for many years by your Fish Com­mission's executive director, Mr. Charles A. French

One may ask why fish breeders

have not previously attempted this type of breeding program on a wide scale. Certainly it has not been from a lack of interest. In fact, attempts have been made at numbers of hatcheries, including those in Pennsylvania, to select breeders on the basis of individual performance. In the cases reported, the results have seemed quite en­couraging. Yet, strangely enough, most of these programs had to be terminated within a few years simply because the existing hatch­ery facilities were unsuitable or completely inadequate for this type of selective breeding. This, then, seems to be the answer.

The demands of the angling pub­lic have determined the function of most public hatcheries to be the production of increasingly large quantities of fish at the least possible expense. Hence, the fish culturists have had to become fish farmers who placed major empha­sis on the production end of trout culture. Therefore, the hatching and rearing facilities at these hatcheries have been designed for this pro­

duction. There has been little op­portunity to carry out a breeding program which requires the hold­ing of numerous small lots of fish under uniform conditions. One can­not question that the production program in Pennsylvania has been very successful. In 1950, 2,876,454 trout fingerlings weighing nearly 2 tons and 2,205,943 legal-sized trout weighing 353 V2 tons were stocked into our streams by the Pennsylva­nia Fish Commission. One can see from these figures that trout farm­ing is a big business in Pennsyl­vania. In fact, few, if any, states equal or surpass ours in the mag­nitude of these operations.

The next question that may be raised is whether in the midst of this emphasis on production there has been any concerted effort to improve trout brood stocks. The whole success of artificial propaga­tion of trout attests to the fact that there has been. AH hatchery-men for years have selected the best fish in size and appearance for their breeders. It is common knowledge that these hatchery

P E N N S Y L V A N I A A N G L E R

strains so developed far outstrip any '"wild" trout in both growth rate and disease resistance. It should be a source of pride that the strains of the three trout species maintained in Pennsylva­nia are much-desired by many private hatcheries as well as by other states. Since these present strains will furnish the stocks for the experimental breeding pro­gram, then it might be well to review briefly the history of their development.

The following is an account of this development. It was related to the author by Mr. C. R. Buller who is chief fish culturist for the Penn­sylvania Fish Commission and who has been associated with the Com­mission for some 37 years.

For twenty years or more wild rainbow trout eggs were brought into the eastern United States from the west. The resulting stocking was far from satisfactory and was practically discontinued. One of the difficulties involved was the fact that these wild rainbows were spring spawners. In order to raise them to legal size, they had to be held over through the ensuing winter—a period of slow growth. Subsequently there were devel­oped two strains of so-called east­ern domesticated rainbows—one at the Wytheville, Virginia, hatchery of the United States Fish and Wild­life Service and the other at a private hatchery, the Plymouth Rock Trout Company, William W. Whiting, Supt., Plymouth, Massa­chusetts. More satisfactory stock­ing results were obtained with these strains so the Pennsylvania Fish Commission became inter­ested.

These two strains were obtained and a cross between the two gave rise to the strain maintained in Pennsylvania now. At first they were not strictly spring spawners but nearly so. By repeatedly se­lecting those rainbows which spawned earlier in the season, the present strain of late-fall spawners was developed.

The brook trout that Pennsyl­vania now has go back to 1898 when they were brought from the State Fish Hatchery at Donegal Springs Hatchery to the State Fish Hatchery at Allentown. It is prob­able that this strain originally came from New Jersey and was later established . at a private hatchery at Penn Forest in Car­bon County and at the Paradise Brook Trout Company at Cresco, Monroe County. For many years

DECEMBER—1951

our Fish Commission purchased brook trout eggs from these two private hatcheries as did many other eastern states and Canada. At present some brook trout eggs are received from these and other sources in exchange for eggs of the other two trout species. These commercial hatcheries in the last 20 years have changed their brook trout to a lighter color since their markets demanded a lighter col­ored fish. It is probable that through exchanges with these hatcheries the Fish Commission's brook trout are lighter colored than they once were.

Three major improvements have been made in our brook trout; namely, faster growth rate, in­creased disease resistance, and in­creased ability to survive higher temperatures. The latter two have been accomplished through both natural and artificial selection. By natural selection is meant survival of the fittest. The temperature has become higher in most of our waters, including those at the hatcheries. Mr. Buller states that brook trout fry could not be raised to maturity in the water taken from Spring Creek at the lower Spring Creek Project or at the Pleasant Mount Hatchery un­til relatively recently because of this factor. Literally thousands of brook trout were sacrificed at the latter hatchery in order to select those which would stand the nor­mal summer temperatures in these waters. The story on increased disease resistance would be similar.

Faster growth rate has been ac­complished primarily through arti­ficial selection; that is, those trout which grew rapidly were delib­erately saved as brood fish. It has been proven that when our strain of brook trout are released in Canadian waters they grow to the same size as their legendary wild brookies. Of course, some share of the credit for these improvements in brook trout should go to the commercial hatcherymen who have supplied eggs to the Fish Commis­sion in the past.

Brown trout were brought into Pennsylvania within a year or two after 1883 when Herr von Behr introduced them into the United States from Germany. The Fish Commission discontinued stocking brown trout for a period of years before 1932. In that year they were able to obtain eggs of the original introduced strain which had been maintained at the Allentown hatch­ery. These formed the brood stock for our present strain.

In the light of these develop­ments, let us now consider what a more elaborate experimental breeding program might accom­plish. The present breeding method in which a number of individuals approaching the desired type are selected in each generation as brood fish is known as mass selec­tion. It has been, and still is, an effective method of increasing and maintaining desirable qualities in the breeding stocks of plants and animals as well as of fish. It does, however, have limitations. It has been shown by plant and animal breeders that such selection is not permanently effective and must be repeated each generation. In other words, often great variation in characteristics remains after long periods of such selection and if selection is relaxed, the population may lose some of the ground gained in the past. Anyone who has visited a trout hatchery is fa­miliar with the great deal of varia­tion in size, conformity, coloration, and markings that exists in fish of the same age. This is illustrated in Figure I.

It is at this point that applica­tion of the knowledge of genetics to the breeding program should lead to further advances in build­ing and fixation of superior strains of trout. Here then we be­gin to sift out of the present vari­able population those individuals which are superior in certain quali­ties to see if these superior quali­ties are transmitted to subsequent generations. That is, the breeding behavior of individual brood fish is considered in addition to their appearance. Final selection of par­ents of a new strain is determined, therefore, by observation of one or more generations of an individual's offspring, as well as its parents and grandparents. In other words, each of the fish will then have a pedi­gree. We should be able then to predict, within certain limits, what the progeny of two fish or of two groups of fish will be simply by inspecting their respective pedi­grees. But how do we know that we should be able to predict with­in any limits what a group of off­spring should be before we even see them? This is where genetics, the science of heredity, comes in.

In the second of this series of articles we shall develop some of the basic principles of the science of genetics as it might apply to trout. Then one can better under­stand why and how this program should offer possibilities in trout improvement.

By

Harvey R. Frantz Incodel Conservationist

IN the eighteen hundreds the Lehigh Canal connecting the

coal regions with the Delaware Canal at Easton played as im­portant a part in developing the Lehigh Valley as the railroads do today. But with the coming of steam and now oil, inland water transportation in eastern Pennsyl­vania has practically disappeared.

The Lehigh Canal, at one time full of clean water and a pleasant place to swim and fish, has now degenerated for the most part into a series of stagnant pools enclosed in ash and garbage-strewn banks. Instead of fish in the Canal, there are relics of civilization such as bed springs, tires, bottles, cans and

and a collection of other things that could be found only on a dump.

The portion of the Canal be­tween Lock 43 at Bethlehem and Lock 44 at Freemansburg, a dis­tance of about two miles, is no ex­ception unless it had more junk and trash because of its proximity to habitation.

For many years there has been talk of doing something about this stretch of the Canal. The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, owners of the. Canal, did what they could to maintain it but pub­lic apathy and indifference count­ered their efforts.

At last the local Sportsmen's

P E N N S Y L V A N I A A N G L E R

s^ Clubs recognized the situation and things began to happen. Six clubs sent representatives to a meeting called by Leo Gallagher of the Freemansburg Rod and Gun Club to discuss what could be done about the Canal. Clubs represented were the Monocacy Field and Stream Association, Bethlehem Game, Fish and Forestry Associa­tion, both of Bethlehem; Freemans­burg Rod and Gun Club; Heller-town Sportsmen's Association; Lower Saucon Sportsmen's Asso­ciation and Miller Heights Sports­men's Association.

Mr. Gallagher had made pre­liminary contacts with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company and they told him they would consider leasing a section of the Canal to an organized group. When this message was relayed to the club representatives they characteristic­ally said, "Let's organize."

It was decided to form an Inter-Club Canal Commission made up of three representatives from each

club. A president, a secretary and a treasurer were elected by these representatives and also one vice president from each club. The next step was to look over the Canal and see what had to be done in order to put the Canal back to something like its former self.

Three scours or breaks were found on the tow path that would have to be filled before water could be held in the Canal. Above Lock 44 a site was picked for a dam which, once the scours were filled, would hold back the water and maintain an average of 5' of water. The dirtiest part of the job, it was decided, would be wading in the water and picking out the assorted objects of years' accumulation of dumping.

The local health officer pointed out that there are at present four cesspools emptying into the Canal. When these are plugged up, this portion of the Canal will be free of pollution.

After the reconnaissance was

made, a committee of the Inter-Club Canal Commission met with representatives of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. After discussing the situation a tempo­rary license or lease was drawn up to be in effect until the Com­mission becomes incorporated. A token payment of $5 a year will be made to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company.

The Commission will be in com­plete charge of the Canal between Lock 44 and Lock 43 and will be responsible for the construction, maintenance and policing of this section. After the Commission builds a dam, the company will divert water into the leased por­tion, and will maintain a water supply.

The first step the Commission took was to have signs printed and posted stating the area was open to the public for fishing and recrea­tion at the people's own risk. No dumping signs were posted on the

(Turn to Page 31)

DIRTY JOB of cleaning canal of bed springs, • fires, boffles, cans and rubbish fell fo sportsmen of the Inter-Club Canal Commission. Wading in the muck and garbage of the old canal was no

cinch.

< SCRUBBED CLEAN, the canal looks like this after many man hours of sweat and toi l . This section is ready for fish stocking and swimming.

V BEFORE CLEAN-UP, canal looked like this . . . dirty, full of rubbish, a disgrace and menace to

the health of communities along its length.

<zj h e

By Wende l l P. Di tmer-Botanist Bureau of Plant Industry Pennsylvania Department of

Agriculture

-, Stinging Nettle. Slender Nettle.

No doubt you' l l come up w i th a variat ion in spelling for this plant if you 've ever been stung by it as you fished along the stream. Though it causes ex­quisite pain for a whi le , it has beneficial uses, some of which

may surprise you.

Have you ever wondered what caused the stinging sensation on your hands or legs while you were walking along a stream fishing? The plant that causes all this trouble is the common nettle. There are several species in this family that cause an irritation of the skin, some not as bad as others. The stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) is the worst stinger in the family as compared with the tall or slender, small, and wood nettles.

The nettle is a perennial herb covered with stinging hairs. These hairs contain formic acid which causes an irritation and rash to the skin of animals and men. The leaves, as shown in the picture, are long and oval, heart-shaped at the base, and with serrated edges. The flowers are small and in slender, branched clusters, greenish in color during the summer. The young plants appear in the spring and by June and July are in full bloom, lasting until September. As long as the small hairs are green they have their stinging ability, but when dry they are harmless. These plants are found growing in waste places, along roadsides, fence-rows, and in moist ground. They originally were introduced from Europe and now cover a large portion of the United States.

This much-despised weed has, in days gone by, proved an exceed­ingly useful friend to mankind. The stem contains a large propor­tion of fiber, which has been manu­factured into every grade of ma­terial from ropes and cordage to fine white linen. It was much used in the manufacture of textile fabrics by the ancient Egyptians, and even at the present day sup­plies the inhabitants of Siberia with fishing lines and cordage. In Central Europe during World War I, the fibers from the stems were used in the manufacturing of

(Turn to Page 30)

P E N N S Y L V A N I A ANGLER

LIKE PLANTS,

FISH NEED

SPACE TO GROW

The wise farmer plants his crops so that they will have space enough to grow properly and also in con­sideration of the number of plants his soil will nourish.

The experienced poultryman .knows that space is a definite fac­tor in egg-laying—that a hen needs a certain area of floor space in order to be healthy and produc­tive.

The same rule applies to fish in a hatchery.

Put a goldfish in a small bowl, and even if it is given the best food available it will rarely grow longer than three or four inches. But move that same fish into a large pool, and give it the same food, and it is likely to attain a length of twelve to fourteen inches. That's an example of living space for fish.

Bass need an enormous amount of space. Trout can be pretty well crowded. Hatchery experts know those facts.

But now technicians at the Fish­eries Research Laboratory of the Pennsylvania Fish Commission at Bellefonte are attempting to re­duce the problem of space to scien­tific figures. Beginning with brook trout, they are trying to determine just how much living space a hatchery fish needs to thrive and be healthy.

Facts they learn will be used in designing the new research labora­tory a r l experimental station at Benner Springs, in Centre County.

This brown trout examined in the Fish Com­mission's laboratory at Bellefonte, Penn­sylvania, contained a total of 12 minnows. These consisted of 2 black-nose dace and

10 northern creek chubs.

— 1951 A Good Tear For Big

PENNSYLVANIA HUSKIES

On Aug. 4, 1951, Wm. Alexopolis, Pittsburgh, put the hooks to this big muskie in Conneaut Lake. The fish, weighed 42'/2 pounds, 55 inches long. It is held by (l-r) Adam Marshall and "Moon" Miller, friends of Mr. Alexopolis

who just returned empty handed from a Canadian trip.

Fred Kohler, Pittsburgh, Pa., landed this 46'/2-inch, 32-pound muskie at Lake LeBoeuf,

Waterford.

Photo by LOWTHER.

10 P E N N S Y L V A N I A A N G L E R

Rupert Nelson snagged this 26'/2 pound, 45'/2 inch muskie in the Allegheny River at

Port Allegheny this season.

81-year-old Albert Anderson (left) with help of Merle Klinginsmith (with fish) hooked this 40 pound, 2 oz., 48'/2 inch 'lunge at Conneaut

Lake, July 21, 1951.

SEE NEXT PAGE for story, "Tigers of the Shenango River" by Al Wolgast for more

muskie chatter and pictures.

Merle Klingensmith gets into the act again with this 30 pound, 43 inch muskie which he took at Conneaut Lake on July 28, this year. Pennsylvania has plenty of good minkn territory see article by W . T. Patterson in August 1951 issue of the PENNSYLVANIA

• ANGLER, "Wantta Catch A Muskie?"

Photo By

Lowther

DECEMBER—1951 11

TIGERS of the

SHENANGO RIVER

By Albert M. Wolgast

Russell Cubbison, Clarksville, Pa., veteran angler, snagged this 48'/2-inch, a b i t over 32 pound "Tiger of the Shenango" below the famous McGrath's Hole near Clarlcsville.

SEVEN miles northeast of Sharon, Pa., lies the sleepy and serene little vil­

lage of Clarksville with a lazy river in its back yard. The village itself is like a great number of other small communi­ties with a population of about 350 peo­ple, a few stores, an active Volunteer Fire Department, a grade school, two churches and that's about all.

But just a few steps away from the heart of the village lies the Shenango River, home of the largest muskies in the country. This is no exaggeration or a "come on" by the Clarksville Chamber of Commerce. To be truthful, "there just ain't no Chamber." But as to muskies, man alive, I've seen them caught and for weeks I have been plying the river with a boat hoping and at the same time fear­ful of hooking on to one of these huge, teeth-gnashing fighters. jk

Muskie fishing here in the Clarksville area is at its best during the late months, particularly September, October and No­vember and one will find dozens of boats, mostly homemade, working the river from Fruitsmills, four miles above Clarksville, down to the famous Mc­Grath's Hole, then on down farther to the Stonewall right in the village finally a stop two miles down at the Slackwater Bridge area, where not only will the elu­sive muskie be found, but giant cats as well.

Glenn Strauss, Sharon, Pa., and this 411/2-inch, 20-pound muskie tangled at the Clarks­ville RR bridge on the Shenango, October 16. It was the second 20-pounder Strauss has

taken within the past year.

The most recent muskie kill was made in September below McGrath's Hole by Russell Cubbison of Clarksville (see photo), a veteran river-fisherman. Russ was out on the Shenango with his fishing pal, Bob Young, both using artificial lures. Young, casting out a spoon, had it reeling in slowly when a mighty big chunk of water parted and a giant muskie hit it short.

Acting as a unit, Russ promptly shot out his favorite red and white plug and brought it up to the still raging fish. Whamo, the angry monster struck the plug so hard it required Russ only 15 minutes to bring the threshing muskie to the boat and the gaff.

The fish measured 48% inches and weighed a few ounces over 32 pounds. The giant is being mounted and will adorn the wall of Al Williams Clark House. So when you're riding around, drop in and take a look at what can be caught in our Shenango River without going to great expense of traveling to Canadian and other far-off waters.

If some of you readers wonder if that's the largest muskie caught in this area, get a glimpse of this. Down at Slack-water Bridge, a few miles west of Clarksville, romps the daddy of all Shen­ango River muskies. For some years, this particular fish has been giving the dis­trict piscatorial fans a rough time. Plug after plug has been lost, many rods have been smashed and yards of good sturdy line has failed to bring in this muskie. All over the river he is fondly called Big Mike. I say fondly, because all of us who work the river at the Bridge admire the fighting qualities of Big Mike.

From old timers who have plugs bear­ing teeth marks of the huge muskie, in­formation I have received as to size is that Big Mike would weigh in at 40 to 50 pounds and would measure a good 60 inches. This has been substantiated by a number of men who know of Big Mike, and will tell you that right in Clarks­ville, at the Stonewall, there has been seen a number of times, muskies that average five feet.

So fellows, forget about your trip to costly areas. For the elusive muskie, you can't go wrong coming to Clarksville, a timid little village with dynamite in its backyard Shenango River. A village where such kills as Russ made that sunny day causes but little excitement, but then the folks there are used to it.

* * *

I mentioned earlier in the story about (Turn to Page 30)

BIG MIKE, 14-foot river boat built by A l and Bill Wolgast, Farrell, Pa., for less than $25 from plans in the May 1951 ANGLER.

12 P E N N S Y L V A N I A A N G L E R

Ten-inch blue fish caught by Philadelphia angler,-has large unbroken rubber band running through and around its body. It was dissected by a scientist but he couldn't determine how it was done. Inset dotted line shows course of rubber

band through body.

RUBBER BAND THROUGH FISH STUMPS EXPERTS

By Joe Pancoast Outdoor Editor—Philadelphia Bulletin

Reprinted by permission of the Bulletin

This most baffling story originally appeared in the Sunday Bulletin. To date no one has come up with the answer. If you have an explanation write us the answer. "Whodunit" fans should get a bang out of this one.

One of the most baffling oddities to come out of the sea in a long time was landed last week by James J. Kennedy, 736 E. Tioga St., while fishing from a Town-sends Inlet party boat.

The catch was a 10-inch bluefish carrying a rubber band clear through its body and over the fish's back. The rubber was continuous without any signs of a joint. It entered soft flesh about an inch back of the gill covers and about an inch up from the fish's under­side and could be moved back and forth through the blue's body.

DECEMBER—1951

The mystery hinges on the rub­ber band. How did it get there?

There are disinterested witnesses to attest to the authenticity of the catch—that it was hooked in the usual manner and pulled from the water while still alive.

Band Wore Groove

The rubber band had been on the fish a sufficient length of time to wear a groove in the flesh ranging from 1-16 to 1-8 of an inch deep from the point where it passed through the body, near the pectoral fins, up over the fish's back. Part

of the dorsal fin had also been worn away.

This reporter, stumped in trying to determine how the blue acquired the appendage, toted the specimen up to Dr. Honry Fowler, Curator of Fishes, Academy of Natural Sciences.

A careful examination by Dr. Fowler disclosed no outward signs of an incision or disruption of the scales except where the rubber had cut into the upper two-thirds of the body. An autopsy also failed to de-

(Turn to Page 29)

13

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WE left the mainstream about ten o'clock, cleaned our trout

in the tributary run, and began the steep ascent to the spawning pool.

It was strange in the ravine, climbing in shadow, the surge of fast water roaring in our heads. Everything was spray and thunder and the moist coolness of wet rocks. The kid led the way, jump­ing from rock to rock.

At last, breathing hard, we reached the summit. There was no more stream ahead. Just laurel and fern and rocks and, before us, this huge boulder, the deep pool basined against its face. It was a big pool, bigger than any we had

passed on the way up: big, spring-fed and deep.

This was the place. This was where the native trout came to spawn, came in their brightest colors to lay their eggs and swim back to the mainstream. It was the end of their world, and the beginning. We stood there awhile without speaking.

"Thanks," I said, turning to the kid. "It's worth the climb."

"You won't tell nobody," he said. "I wouldn't of brung you if I thought you'd tell."

"It'll be our secret," I assured him. "Yours and mine."

# * *

That's all gone now; so it doesn't

matter if I tell. The mainstream is in the Allegheny Mountains— Breastwork Run.

If you fished it, you'd remember the water. Cold and clean, with a song all its own. You'd remember the rapids where the tributary dashed frothing into the main­stream. It's a wild place, thick with laurel and dark with shadow, sound-washed with the roar of crazy water. And here, like me, you'd pause to watch the smaller stream on its final downhill run, churning over falls and snaking between the big rocks.

Inviting—yes; a likely spot for brookies. But when you have a

(Turn to Page 26)

k Water By f)im eMatf&i,

Oid 7$taa Tt/wten % 'Ptottiay

By Dick Fortney

Right now, while you're settled comfortably in your favorite chair reading this magazine, Old Man Winter is piling up some tough problems that you'll have to solve early in the fishing season of next year.

And, if you're wise, you'll begin thinking about these problems, how you'll meet and solve them,

so you may enjoy trout fishing when April 15 rolls around again.

If you were to brave the wintry blasts and pay a visit to your favorite trout stream, you would scarcely recognize it in its winter dress. But you would see Old Man Winter at work—carpeting the ground along the stream with a blanket of snow and drawing a

Remember that spring freshets run off first in the mountain brooks, like this one in Bradford County. The pools and riffles take form there long before they appear in the bigger creeks, so they are worth attention early in the season.

glassy covering of ice over the pools.

Comes spring, when the sun and warm breezes melt the ice and snow, your pet stream will change again, become more of a raging torrent than a rippling brook, a rush of icy cold water with scarcely a placid pool in its entire length.

For weeks the condition will prevail, with spring rains keeping the water high, often discolored.

Of course, there are seasons when spring comes early, when the snowfall and ice have been light, vanish rapidly, when the rains are light and gentle and well spaced. But the angler cannot count on them. Rather, he has to prepare for a few weeks, at least, of trout fish­ing that will try his patience and skill.

Difficult fishing conditions are not the only challenge to the an­gler, however. The trout them­selves are just moving out of their winter quarters, into the deeper and more protected areas of the

(Turn to Page 28)

Photo by William Hoffman on the Buttermilk Falls near Stroudsburg, Pa.

KINS WINTER is Weaving a Snowy Blanket and Spinning an Icy Web over Your Favorite Trout Stream. Plan Now the Strategy You'll Use Next April 15!

DECEMBER—1951 19

FILMING FI

By Ormal I. Sprungman

Camera Editor, Sports Afield; Author of Photography Afield (Stackpole Co., Harrisburg, Pa.)

Photographs by Author

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Ever see a grandaddy pike smoking a plug? This three-footer was nicely "frozen" on an upward climb at 1/300 second with a minicam.

A good fishing partner is essential to hook the fish and bring i t up within picture range. Here Dick Miller, breaker of 32 world's records in tournament casting, brings a mighty bass to the surface for a leaping portrait. Here a shutter speed

of 1/200 second was too slow.

i S a Pennsylvania angler, how do yoil ij*» film your fish? Do you gill-string the slippery fellows and let your partner hold them up at arm's length before the camera lens?

Or do you break out your camera with a fairly fast shutter speed and try to catch the fighting fish as they crack through the surface and wag a tail while they throw the hook?

Filming fish above water is an invig­orating sport that will test your inge­nuity and tell you instantly whether you have a good eye and a quick trigger finger. First requisite is a fishing partner who will cooperate. While some photog­raphers have been successful in clicking a camera with one hand while fighting a fish with the other, a good angling part­ner will prove helpful. Once the fish is hooked, he should be brought to the surface as quickly as possible. Let him float just beneath the surface, then, with a quick upward jerk of the rod tip, bring him into action for a leap.

Focus at the spot where the line enters the water, and click the shutter just as the fish starts its upward run, and you will catch him in midair. If you wait too long, you will catch only the final splash.

A miniature camera permits easy ma­nipulation, although a ground-glass fo­cusing reflex camera has advantages in maintaining accurate focus up until the time of shutter-clicking.

Study the pix illustrated on these pages, and you will be amazed at the number of different contortions through which a leaping pike can wriggle his body. Several illustrations were made with a miniature camera with a top shutter speed of 1/300 second. To "freeze" water globules in midair, speeds up to 1/1000 second are needed, as shown here. Fast super-sensitive pan­chromatic film should always be used to offset the fast shutter speed required, particularly if a light yellow filter is also used to cut water glare.

Pennsylvania's lakes and streams are boiling with big fish waiting to pose for a split-second for your camera. Next time you go angling, take your camera along and get double the fun and a pic­ture spread to help refresh your mem­ory over the winter and during the years that follow.

Top shutter speed of I/1000 second was used to halt this pike in mid-air after it tried without success to throw copper spoon.

Looks like a midget crater in the_ lake. Out of it erupted this giant pike.

Northern pike are good leapers, as compared with smaller species. This fellow created a perfect U-shape with an upward flip of his

tail. Taken with a miniature camera at 1/300 second. IWwTM I W I lllllBBiMflnWWH

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"Fishing," often remarks my Uncle Josh, "is a wonderful sport. It's only when you rent a boat to dangle a line, that you have mis­givings. Them rented boats will be the death of me yet."

And what's more my Uncle is correct. Ever since I was knee high to a hip boot I've been fishing with the old angler and the trouble we've been having with boats would try the patience of Izaak Walton himself.

During the score or so years Josh and I have rowed, paddled and motorboated the azure lakes

S^ome d5octtd, ^Juo J and

forth a few split infinitives not found in the "Pennsylvania Angler" trying to maneuver the craft anyway. Sure it'll be tough, but you'll be darned if you give up that easy. A small thing like cockeyed oars won't stand between you and those elusive beauties, no siree.

and thermos jugs start to float time long ago to

and you're in water up to your knees, it was head for shore!

Maybe like some of us you've rented a prize Chesapeake style boat where the oars are forever falling through the rings at the wrong moment. Try as hard as you will the things refuse to function. In sheer desperation you rack your brains to solve the knotty problem.

Should you use the oars as a punting pole or as paddles? A furtive glance in the direction of the boathouse and off you go awkwardly propelling the small vessel toward the fishing grounds. Maybe your method isn't graceful but it gets results.

Sooner or later all intrepid fisher­men will encounter a boat which has Indian ancestry. The oar locks screech like an Iroquois brave on' the warpath. All who hear the approach of this squeaky instru­ments of the watery regions will look at you in askance. Pay no attention to them but grit your dentures and carry on stout fellow!

One solution to this noise is to borrow some 3 and 1 from a pass­ing motorboat. If this doesn't quiet the racket he might give you a tow

I ty of our great state of Pennsylvania, O m o Via-uo A n o n n n t p r p d boat<5 that. we have encountered boats that

were pips. Honestly, how some of them ever remained afloat is still a mystery to us. Sure, we've rented some nice boats; the odds can't always be against you, but these are quickly forgotten in the time of strife. It's the lemons that stand out and leave a bad taste on the palate.

When it comes to down-right cussedness there is nothing gets our nanny than to pick up a boat

\ that makes you row on the bias. } Such lobsided work gets you all A in a dither and fit to be tied in y halfhitches. Can you visualize be-

^ing^al l set to pull against the cur-to your favorite spot and

oars want to overlap d bark the knuckles?

: you're like us you'll spew

& > * - * *

Oarlocks screech like an Indian brave on the warpath.

P E N N S Y L V A N I A A N G L E R

^Sieved ^y J^rave IlKented

just to eliminate the commotion. Usually this squeak and squawk like a strangled goose is more pro­nounced at five in the morning when all is peaceful and quiet on the lake. Then the screeches hit high C, maddening to you and down-right mayhem to the sleeper in a nearby cottage.

Of course the boat which doubles as a floating sieve is always with us. This punctured remnant of better days will often have a small can for bailing out the bilge. Like as not this method is a waste of energy and as about as effective as trying to empty the Schuylkill with a teaspoon. In no time you'll be sloshing around in water up to your knees as the liquid pours in with all the power of a gusher. The wise angler seeing this, will pull for the shore—and fast! That is if he wishes to cast his line an­other day.

Another irritating problem we often find with boat rentals are the seating arrangements. It some­times seems the boat was designed either for an orangutan or a gent with telescope arms. No matter how you try, you positively cannot wield the oars successfully. You measure the things and find the

By Richard C. Redmond

Ever rented a "booby trap" commonly called a boat but

more like a leaky tub with a theme song, "Bail ing, Bailing,

Over the Bounding Main?" The writer takes a humorous

poke at such sieves but there's DANGER in every rotten

plank!

seats are a good three feet away from a good rowing position.

It's either move the seat or row with the feet. Since most fisher­men are not acrobats with size 14 feet it is advisable to move the seat. Once this is accomplished calm and serenity will prevail and life again will have that rosy glow. By then it's time to go home.

Occasionally my uncle and I will rent a boat which is as heavy and unmaneuverable as a garbage scow in heavy water. These are fine if you like to work like a horse. "Neigh" to this, brother! Making headway with this monstrosity re­quires a husky crew of piano movers well versed in the art of rowing.

Misplaced seats, mis-matched oars add to the joys (?) of fishing.

DECEMBER—1951

J W

If you are an ordinary fellow like myself such a scow will have you muscle-bound and aged before your time. These tugs should be obstacle training boats for college crews.

Ofttimes your tired fisherman will be reluctant about rowing to that shady pool where the lily pads placidly nestle and hire a boat with a kicker. Outwardly the job is not bad at all. It glistens of fresh paint and varnish, and shines like a silver spoon in the sunlight. You don't know it, but that kicker has been aptly named.

Once the unwary angler gets the item into motion it's something else again. The darn thing isn't a boat, it's a bucking bronco—and a speedy one at that. The way it tears across the water, jumping and hopping like a supercharged water bug is something to behold.

(Turn to Page 31)

23

ROD MAKING As An

Angler's Winter Recreation By Charles H. Chapman

The writer does not pose as an expert at rod making and freely admits it. It's in the fun of working with your hands among the tools of the angler's trade which

shortens the long winter nights.

Every year I read advice about the fisherman's diversions in the off season; dressing lines, clean­ing reels, mending rods, etc., but find little mention of one occupa­tion which has given me many happy hours . . . rod making or more specifically wood rod mak­ing. Construction of the split bam­boo fly rod is an art limited to the professional or the few top notch amateurs, but any man handy with tools can turn out a very good and useful rod of suitable wood.

But the first question will be, "Is it as good as a good split bam­boo?" The answer is emphatically . . . No." I regard the fine split bamboo rod the acme of strength, power and lightness, but I would rather fish with a good wood rod, built to suit my requirements, than with any poor split bamboo.

When I first learned to fish for trout in the Brodheads, some sixty years ago, many good fishermen were still using good wood rods. I recall a nine foot, two piece, spliced rod of Bethabara that I greatly admired.

It was put out by Wm. Mills & Co. • and was a delightful rod to fish with. For trolling or casting, a one-piece, lancewood or white ash can hold its own with any split bamboo, and for salt water fishing, give me the wood rod every time.

What started me on rod making was economy and what has kept me at it these many years is the pleasure I have gotten out of it. My first visit to Henryville was to get rid of a severe case of Malaria, otherwise old fashioned chills and "fever. Up to that time I had never seen a trout except in

a glass tank or butcher shop. My host, one of the best fisherman on those streams, was my instructor in the craft, first with bait, then with flies. I at once became an ardent disciple and of course wanted to replace my borrowed rod with one of my very own. But the cheapest rod my mentor would recommend cost fifteen dollars, which meant in those days fifteen big, standard, gold dollars that would really buy something, not the degenerate bits of paper we have to put up with nowadays I was out of a job then with a poor prospect of starting work in the immediate future. Fifteen dollars looked like a lot of money.

Then the idea was born, "Why not make a rod," and being some­what handy with tools, I resolved to try it. My first rod, of lance­wood, was a dismal affair, but it caught fish and after I had made two or three more I was thoroughly indoctrinated, have been at it on and off ever since.

I am not going to tell you how because if you are a good handi­craftsman you will naturally use your own methods. Just circulate among your friends, try their rods and when you find one you like, take the measurements and "the feel" and try to imitate it in wood. Your rod will be a little heavier than split bamboo and perhaps a little softer, but it will catch fish and upon landing a big one you will get a thrill to the handling him on your own handiwork and on your own flies, if you tie them, you will never feel with bought tackle.

There are a number of books published on rod making and some useful hints can usually be found

in them, but don't follow them too closely. Use your own methods. Among others, Dr. H. P. Wells "Fly Rods and Fly Tackle" con­tains a very complete analysis of rod woods with instructions for making; Perry Fraser's "Rod Mak­ing" is a useful little book and Dr. George Parker Holden's "Idyll of the Split Bamboo" is good read­ing.

There are some advantages for the wood rod over the split bamboo. When the joints are finished and joined, rig some temporary guides before varnishing and try it out. You can scrape the joints thinner to take out stiffness or shorten them up a trifle to make them stiffer; but when a bamboo joint is made it is fixed. If you snap a joint, you can easily repair it by splicing. I have done it on the stream with a pocket knife and a bit of line from the reel. If you are fighting a big one, you don't have to favor a $60 to $100 job. You can give him the butt merrily and if he breaks you, there are a couple or more replacements in the car. You can have a large assortment of tackle, light to heavy, for vari­ous kinds of fishing and still have something left to buy the latest in lines, reels and tackle without un­duly straining the bank account. Putting sixty dollars into a new rod when your wife needs a new hat does not make for peace in the family. To enumerate the many imported and domestic rod woods would require an article in itself. Dr. Wells does a very good job in this respect but even he does not complete the list. You can experi­ment quite a bit on this.

I have ruined a lot of good Tonkin cane trying to make six strip or even four strip bamboo tips as the Doctor advises but finally gave up in despair. I was simply not good enough. But I have made some rods of two piece bamboo. Sounds funny, doesn't it? I split out two strips a little wider than the taper I plan to make and plane down the soft inside until the two, fitted together, make the required taper; then glue them and when the glue is set, plane down the sides four square. I leave the joints square, scraping off the edges just enough to prevent cut-

(Turn to Page 29)

24 P E N N S Y L V A N I A A N G L E R

The manuals which accompany new outboards are very often mislaid. It is then questionable whether or not the owner gives his motor the proper care for winter storage. This is a necessary part of keeping the motor in the best possible condition because it is during this period of inactivity air, moisture and acids have the best chance of harming it. Many dealers provide win­ter storage for outboards, provide a spring time tuneup for a nominal fee, but for the individual who is not in a position to have this service rendered for him, this article should act as a guide.

Of prime interest is the removal of all water and moisture within the motor and motor housing. Allowed to remain in the cooling system and in the cylin­der chamber, condensation can damage these vital areas. Those who have run their motor in salt water should first flush the cooling system with fresh water and wash down the exterior of the motor to remove any salt crystals. Then, if the motor casing is rubbed with an oily cloth this will keep the outboard itself looking new and will prevent rust and corrosion from gaining a foothold.

The lower unit consisting of the water inlet, propellor, and prop housing should be inspected. Check the grease in the prop housing and add enough lubricant to fill. The prop itself should be removed and a thin layer of lubricant or grease applied on all moving parts. It's a good time to check the shear pin. In the event it is bent or nearly cut in half, it should be replaced with another of proper strength.

Next, empty all gas and oil moisture from the fuel tank. Provided the interior of the exhaust chamber is dry and it should be if the motor has not been used for several days, the motor can be turned upside-down to empty the fuel. Check the fuel filter or screen, remove any lint, dirt or other debris that has accumulated on it.

Spark plug or plugs should be re­moved and a generous amount of oil inserted into the carburetor air intake opening. By giving the motor a few turns by hand spray all the working parts within the cylinder and crankcase. This will coat these parts with a pro­tective film of oil.

The spark plugs can be checked, the spark gap reset to .023 or what ever the particular motor calls for. If the porce­lain is chipped or broken it is well to replace the plug instead of waiting until spring.

This care will keep the motor in fine shape for instant spring use. Store it in a clean dry place, not in a damp base­ment or cold attic, but rather in some out-of-the-way closet or heated garage. It's best to cover the motor with a can­vas wrapper, a cloth, paper or the ship­ping box in which it originally came, to protect it against dust and dirt.

No sportsman would store his fishing rod, reels or flies without first seeing that they are properly cleaned and cared for and there is no reason why out-

- TACKLE TIPS -"Winter Care of the Outboard"

By Don Shiner

boards should not receive this same care. Serviced in this manner, the outboard will be ready to kick off faithfully when you are ready to use it again.

Going over the motor with an oily cioth will keep the outboard looking new and will prevent rust and corrosion from gaining a

foothold.

The spark plug should be removed and the spark gap reset to .023 or what ever the

particular motor calls for.

It is best to cover the motor with a canvas wrapper, a cloth or paper to protect it against

dust and dirt.

The spark plug or plugs should be removed and a generous amount of oil should be inserted into the carburetor air intake opening.

DECEMBER—1951 25

DARK WATER

(From Page 17)

perfect trout stream beckoning you on, and rises are plentiful, you don't turn aside to explore a little tributary. Not unless . . .

The bridge hole is at the end of Breastwork Valley, a well-fished pool fringed with jackpine, shel­tered in the shadows of a covered bridge. It's a quiet place, the kind of water a fisherman likes to come upon at the end of his day.

You set your rod on a rock, ease down on the bank, and wait for the fishing to come to you. From the bank you see the mountains ris­ing blue and hazy from the valley plain. And, over the murmur of flowing water, you hear the drone of locusts and the cawing of crows, sleepy sounds that come softly and distantly across the streamcut valley.

There's some nice trout in the pool, fat browns. Once in awhile you get a brookie. But mostly, by the time you hit the bridge, your creel is already resting heavy on your shoulder, and you don't much care to crowd your luck.

Anyway, that's how I felt that July evening as I sat there listen­ing to a whippoorwill calling in the dusk. After a time I saw some­one working downstream toward me, shooting long casts into the fast water. He saw me as he came to the pool, but he didn't say anything. He was just a kid: about twelve, I figured. Cast a neat line, though.

He waded to knee-depth on the far side of the pool and stood quietly, waiting for his ripples to roll away. As he waited, a trout dimpled the surface near the mouth of the pool. The kid worked out line, false-cast, and let his fly drop lightly into the current.

It was a good cast, well placed. The fly rode the riffs before scud­ding into the backwater. The trout swirled, took the fly, and turned quickly for deep water. The kid hooked him and let him have his head, so's to not disturb the pool. After a few runs the fish came up

L^" \ ^

a c r ?

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Ji>i

'I'm not even going to try to get it out . . . I have a big basement and it floods every Spring!"

and rolled, and the kid brought him in.

Holding the trout by its lower jaw, he waded to shore, over the bridge, and onto the bank beside me. He held the trout for me to see, a ten-inch brown, darkly spotted.

"Nice fish," I said. "You handled him just right."

"Best one all day." He grinned. "Got a few smaller ones upstream. Turned 'em all back, though."

"Not much eating on one trout," I said, feehng in my creel. "I've got six here. If you were to take one, you'd have enough for a meal."

The kid took my trout, a nine-inch native, and examined it closely. "Brookie, huh? Where'd you get him?"

"Upwater a piece," I said. "In the meadow."

The fish had come from under a culvert below the bridge hole. But that was my secret.

26

The kid nodded. "Yeah, there's a few brookies there. I figured you might of been to the spawning pool . . ." He shut off abruptly, as if he'd said too much.

We sat in self-conscious silence for awhile. The spawning pool. In my mind I ran over all the stretches where a kid might have a secret pool. Sounded like the head­waters. Well, it could wait. You don't ask right out.

Besides, it was that time of day when talk comes easy. The evening mist was rising on the valley floor and the mountains were already in shadow, darker masses against the fading glow of the sky. The kid crouched beside me and flipped a pebble into the pool.

"It's a secret pool," he said finally. "Nobody knows but me."

"I see." He asked to borrow my knife.

I gave it to him and he slit the two trout, sloshed them in the water, and wiped his hands on the grass.

P E N N S Y L V A N I A A N G L E R

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

"This brookie is dark, like the ones from my pool," he said. "That's what made me think . . ." He worked a piece of string through the trout's gills.

The music of water and wind was soft in the evening. A moth fluttered spent-wing into the pool where there was a swirl and a splash, then silence, the murmur of the stream, as before.

"You get brookies pretty good, huh?" the kid asked.

I admitted as how I took a few now and again.

"Maybe we could work a swap," he suggested. "How big do they come in the places you know?"

I opened my creel and took out three trout, two brookies and a brown, all good foot-long fish. "Good enough?" I asked.

He whistled softly. "My place ain't that good."

"Size isn't everything," I al­lowed.

"You'd have to see it. It's special."

"I'd like to." He eyed the three trout I had

laid on the grass. "Okay, if you tell me where you get trout like them. And . . . you'd have to promise never to tell about my place."

"Can't ask more than that," I said, not too quickly.

"Well, you know that rapids in the cut about two miles above here?"

I knew the place. A feeder brook entered the mainstream at the start of the fast water. I had bypassed it many times.

You go up the tributary, the kid said. I was doubtful because the brook is so small, but he talked convincingly. I heard him out, then told him about the culvert. The place is always good for a trout or two. After that they seem to catch on. It's a place you can go to anytime and be sure of taking a trout, so you needn't go home skunked.

Night had fallen by the time we finished our exchange of con­fidences.

I suggested, "What say you take me to your place tomorrow?"

The kid nodded. "We can start here at the bridge."

"Six o'clock okay?"

DECEMBER—1951

? ? ?

"Okay by me. See you to­morrow."

He took his rod and the trout and climbed back into the road and headed toward town. I cupped my hands behind my head and lay back. In retrospect, I recall being amused with the kid and our swap of trout holes. The spawning pool, he'd called it. It sounded . . . well, mysterious. But then, it was a night when anything was believ­able. The sky was black-velvet dusted with stars. The air was cool and still. I lay there a full hour before driving back over the mountain to the lodge.

Next morning I was at the bridge before the mist had risen from the valley. The kid was wait­ing for me. We started fishing up­stream, not saying much, but tak­ing a few trout, and enjoying each other's company.

At the rapids where the tribu­tary joins the Breastwork he started into the ravine, motioning me to follow. We climbed in silence and came to the pool at the crest of the ridge. Then we returned to the mainstream and split up, him heading downwater for the cul­vert, and me working up toward some old log-jams I knew about.

The next day, the last day of trout season, I left the Breastwork to cast Spicer Brook. Hung a real nice one, a 16-inch rainbow, the best of the trip. He made a good weight in the creel.

When I got back to the lodge that evening I felt real good, all relaxed and ready to go back to work. I packed the trout in wet newspapers, cleaned up the lodge, and loaded into the car. It was a long drive back to the city. But all the way, and for a long time afterwards, I kept thinking about the kid and his pool. I don't know. It sort of got under my skin.

By the time April came around again it had worked in deep. It hit town the day before fishing opened, looking for the kid. Didn't see him, though, and nobody seemed to know him. There's so many kids in those country towns, and I didn't even have his name to ask for.

So next day I started alone, fish­ing toward the rapids where the tributary cut in. The stream was high and roily, the trout feeding

? ?

deep, and I took a few on nymphs. Could have got more, but I missed a lot from hurrying.

Judging from the way things were changed, some strong floods had ripped down the valley earlier in the year. Pools that had held good trout the summer before were washed out, and places that had always been shallow riffles were dredged into deep holes. Every­where the trees were uprooted and boulders tossed about. It gave you a respect for the force of angry water. You wouldn't of known it was the same stream.

That's the only way I can ac­count for my not finding that tributary again. The rapids were washed-out, gone completely. Nothing looked the same. Tribu­taries were everywhere, rain-swollen freshets charging down from their rockbeds. But none of them looked right. None of them came sunlit and singing out of the rocks like the one the kid and I followed up that day.

Two days I fished the valley, tracking little brooks up to their sources. I climbed mountainsides until even I wasn't just sure what I was looking for, or why.

So I left the Breastwork and worked out on some other streams —Spicer Brook, Little Bucktail and Trout Run—putting a lot of good water behind me. And still I couldn't keep from thinking about the pool. I caught myself wonder­ing if it had been real, if I had actually been there, or if it had all been part of a summer's fish­ing dream.

After some figuring, I decided maybe it was best, my not finding the tributary again. The kid's secret was safe. And the trout would know where to go. I had seen it once. I'd remember it the way it was that time.

Seeing a thing once, sometimes, is all a man can ask.

27

OLD MAN WINTER IS PLOTTING NOW

(From Page 18)

stream. They will be sluggish and not particularly interested in food, largely because the water is so cold.

Later they will range widely over the stream in search of shelter and food, but in the early spring each trout will stay pretty close to its own favorite spot in the stream. All this means the angler who thinks a fish will take his fly or bait the instant it strikes the water is due for sad disillusion­ment.

Let's be realistic about another point. The worm and minnow fisherman is going to score much more often than the angler who does his fishing with artificial lures.

How then, you ask, do you solve the problems of early spring trout fishing?

There isn't enough space in this magazine to set down all the an­swers to that question, but here are some suggestions that you will do well to consider and store up in your book of strategy for next spring.

First, don't try to cover too much territory. If you are ac­quainted with the stream you will fish, concentrate your efforts on areas where you know the trout are most likely to be found. Such a spot may be a pool fed by a small branch of the main stream. It may be a part of the brook which con­tains rocky shelter, sunken logs, or other hiding places for the fish. It may be a pool with cut-under embankments. Or it may be a pool big and deep enough that it is logical to assume trout have found refuge there for their awakening from their winter lethargy.

Don't overlook the possibilities of picking out such a spot and spending an entire day at it, fishing slowly and patiently. Many an opening day angler has taken a good catch of trout from a single hole while less successful fisher­men have traveled up and down the stream*in a hit-or-miss quest.

Almost any trout, in the spring,

28

will take a worm-baited hook if it is presented properly and if the angler gives it time. The worm— which should be a bright and lively one of good size, although not nec­essarily in the night-crawler class —should be attached to a single, snelled hook, with just enough sinker attached to get it down into the current.

If the bait is being fished in a quieter pool, it should be allowed to sink to the bottom. There it will come to rest—a long rest, perhaps —until a trout comes poking along the bottom and slowly mouths it and moves away.

The worm also can be used in faster currents. Here the technique is to allow the flow of the water free play with the bait. This can be accomplished by casting the bait to an upstream point, then allow­ing it to sink to the bottom and tumble downstream with the force of the current.

The worm bait, in addition, can be carefully worked into pockets in the course of the stream and manipulated into currents that will carry it into the water that loses speed as it flows along the cut-under banks of the stream.

In still fishing with a worm, the bait should be lifted from the bot­tom now and then to help attract the attention of the fish.

The feeding trout, in spring, is likely to bump the.bait a few times with its nose before taking it. And when the fish does actually seize the worm it likely will hold it in its lips for a time before the bait finally is swallowed when the line begins moving through the water as the fish swims away. It is then the tip of the rod should be snapped, or the throw-line tight­ened, and the trout hooked.

That's slow fishing, yes, but the angler who uses plenty of time and patience can usually catch fish— even in early spring.

The minnow fisherman practices his art in pretty much the same fashion as the worm fisherman in early spring. He uses a different kind of bait, but he also must take into account the habits of trout in early spring of sticking fairly close to one spot, of biting slowly and halfheartedly.

Veteran minnow fishermen like to search out pockets of quiet water in spring and "spin" a min­now in them. In this kind of an-

P E N N S Y L V A N I A A N G L E R

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

gling the minnow is rigged on a double or treble hook, with a swivel between the leader and the snell to which the hook is looped. The angler drops the minnow into a pocket, allows it to sink, and then retrieves it in short, jerky movements that, with the aid of the swivel, cause the minnow to spin. Sometimes it is amazing the action a minnow fished in such a manner can produce in a trout stream.

Spring trout fishing is not a sport for bait anglers alone, however. A day may dawn now and then during the early season when the sun shines brightly, when some natural insects appear, and when trout actually can be caught with dry flies. The darker patterns of flies usually are the most effective.

The wet fly fisherman also may have varying success with his underwater lures, imitating the larvae and nymphs of aquatic in­sects. The bucktail and streamer fly also may be used, since they represent minnows, on which trout feed even under the rather rigor­ous conditions of early spring.

A small spinner, with either a nickel or copper finish, is another artificial lure that is productive early in the season.

At times the spinner itself may attract strikes, but more often it is good if used with some form of bait, for example a worm. Then the purpose of the spinner is to attract the attention of the fish and to draw it into the vicinity of the bait,. The still-fisherman, incident­ally, can use this type of lure with success. The technique is to allow the spinner and worm to sink to the bottom of a pool, then lift it off the bottom occasionally, caus­ing the spinner to flash in the hope it will be seen by a cruising trout.

One thing no experienced early season angler needs to be told is that fishing is less productive in big streams than it is in the smaller brooks in early April. Of course, this is because the larger the stream, the more wild it is likely to be at this season of the year. Even under favorable conditions, although it may be perfectly clear, the bigger trout creek is running deep and swift early in the spring

DECEMBER—1951

and is, therefore, much more diffi­cult to fish efficiently.

All over Pennsylvania are little mountain or meadow trout streams which can provide excellent sport in April—provided the fisherman can be satisfied to deal with rela­tively small fish. The lunker is indeed the exception in this type of water.

But the run-off water caused by melting ice, snow and spring rains occurs in the smaller feeder streams before it does in the larger creeks into which they empty, and the pools and riffles to which the trout fisherman is accustomed ap­pear first in the smaller streams.

It is next to impossible to fish little mountain creeks with arti­ficial lures, since there is lack of space for the proper casting of flies. But wriggling worms dropped into brook pools, swept through riffles and rapids where rock for­mations and other obstructions cause pockets of comparatively quiet water, carried under cut-under banks are bound to pass within the range of vision of many trout.

Here, too, a single worm is better than a whole gob of them. It should be loosely looped on the hook so that it can twist and turn in the water.

There are veteran mountain brook anglers who literally crawl up to likely pools on their hands and knees, who fish in a crouch, and who take other extreme meas­ures to avoid frightening the fish they hope to catch.

Fishing the little meadow brooks is a real test of the angler's skill. Many anglers like them because usually there is sufficient room for fly-casting.

But meadow brooks must be ap­proached with extreme caution. Heavy vibrations on the ground along the streams must be avoided.

The experienced meadow brook fisherman and the angler who has wide experience in fishing moun­tain streams make a habit of cir­cling wide of the stream in travel­ing from pool to pool and from riffle to riffle. They remain as far back from the water as their rods will permit.

A typical seasoned angler under these conditions will keep himself at rod's length from the water, ex­

tend the rod tip out to the pool, shake it gently until the sinker finally takes the bait down into the water, and then carefully "feel" along the stream until trout strike at the bait.

So there you have some things calculated to set you thinking these cold winter nights. Planning now the strategy you will follow after next April 15 is the only way you can hope to checkmate Old Man Winter who, as we wrote at the beginning of this piece, is piling up some tough problems that you'll have to solve early in the fishing season of 1952.

ROD MAKING (From Page 24)

ting the wrappings, of which I put on plenty to make sure the glue holds. As I do not know how to get square ferrules, I join up by splicing.

I thought I had done something original in making these square rods, but when I visited the Marine Show in Miami some months later, I found a whole rack full of them from the light fly rod to the heaviest Tarpon tools. They were probably four strip, but the joints did not show.

Well, if this script persuades any brother fisherman to employ his off time in this fascinating pastime, I shall feel well repaid for the writ­ing.

RUBBER BANDS IN FISH BAFFLES EXPERTS

(From Page 13)

velop any clues on the rubber band's origin or the process by which it was acquired by the fish.

There were no scars or other in­dications that the rubber band had once encircled the fish and had passed through the fleshy part which had then grown over the rubber band. If this had occurred some scales would have been miss­ing. It would have shown since fish cannot grow new ones.

Although it is unknown how long it takes for a bluefish to hatch from

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

an egg, nor where their spawning grounds are located. Dr. Fowler cannot conceive of any natural cir­cumstances which would result in the fish growing around the rubber band. He is of the opinion that man had a hand in the mystery.

That stand only complicates the mystery. How was a seemingly un­broken rubber band ever put through the fish? Unless the rub­ber was cut and then cleverly fused back together again so that the joint was invisible, the band could not get on the fish the way it was located. To place it in position un­broken means passing one solid ob­ject through another.

If then, the fish did not acquire the band through some unusual chain of events in its natural ele­ment, how did somebody place it on the fish in the position it was found? Further, why would any­one go to all the trouble that the maneuver evidently entailed?

A Lot of Trouble

The fish had to be caught, kept alive while was pierced in a spot that wasn't vulnerable, the cut rub­ber band inserted and then fused back together again in such a man­ner that it appeared to be a con­tinuous piece that had never been tampered with.

If somebody went to all that trouble to confound some fisher­men later, they were playing a bil­lion to one shot. First the fish had to live, then it had to avoid being killed by a larger fish and then be caught by a hook and line fisher­man before any excitement was stirred up.

That could be, but the idea seems far fetched.

"Whodunit," fans can take over from there.

TIGERS OF THE SHENANGO

(From Page 12)

working the r iver for muskies and here is the boat I have been using. If it looks familiar to the ANGLEB'S Don Shiner it should, for the boat was built by a brother and I from the plans listed in the May 1951 ANGLER.

And the best par t was that we spent something less* than 25 bucks to launch her. The most expensive item was the

two 14-foot side boards which set us back 12 bucks. For floor boards we used scrap bits laying around. A chain, a lock, a pair of oars, two coats of paint, and we had a nifty river boat that is hard to beat.

Don wasn' t kidding when he wrote that it would handle easy. Baby, she behaves perfectly. Take a look at the name we gave her, "Big Mike." Know why? We're after the giant muskie I wrote about and perhaps Big Mike will give an assist in catching Big Mike. Nevertheless, here 's proof positive of a good deed the PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER did for two amateur boat builders. Thanx! We wouldn't sell the dang thing for 100 bucks!

If a leaky, wooden vessel is rubbed with a handful of nettle leaves the juice enters the cracks and coagu­lates, and the leakage is repaired, though no hint is given as to the length of time the repair will hold good.

Although this weed is widely de­spised, man has been able to put it to some economical use. There­fore, when you are walking through the woods or fishing along a stream and are stung by these stinging nettles, think of some of the good uses man has put it to before con­demning it.

THE STINGERS

(From Page 8)

wagon-covers, tents, sacking, cloth­ing materials, and even cloth for military underwear.

Nettles when cut and dried can be used as fodder for domesticated animals, having a food value equal to leguminous crops. They also have their value as human food, the young tops being boiled in the spring like spinach. They are used very largely in this way by the peasantry in the West of Ireland.

30 P E N N S Y L V A N I A A N G L E R

I A Perfect Christmas Gift tor

THAT MAN IN THE ARMED FORCES OR

THE ANGLER AT HOME

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j y Please send a Chri }$ ANGLER to:

A YEAR'S SUBSCRIPTION TO

The Pennsylvania Angler IS SURE TO BE A N APPRECIATED,

PRACTICAL HOLIDAY TREAT!

MAIL THIS GIFT SUBSCRIPTION NOW!

stmas gift subscription of the PENNSYLVANIA

(Print name plainly. If for a service man give rank, serial number and latest complete address)

Enclosed is fifty cents (50c) for the above subsc r ip t ion .

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If you also want a (NEW) or to (RENEW) your subscription to the ANGLER please check below and send one dollar for both yours and the gi f t subscription. Send check or money order payable to : COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA. Cash sent at your own risk. DO NOT SEND STAMPS!

• NEW • RENEWAL

SOME BOATS, TUBS & SIEVES I HAVE RENTED

{From Page 23)

To hang on to this demon of the waterways requires the tenacity of a bulldog. If you had as many arms as an octopus you could use them. Trying to troll from such a water rocket is unthinkable even if it's throttled down. So after a few turns around the area you head dockward, a sadder but wiser man.

Naturally there are numerous other craft made exclusively (so it seems) to harass the lover of the rod and reel but this tirade will suffice. To go into the sordid de­tails of discussing the other types will only increase the dissension among the ranks of our buddies. Laying all kidding aside, believe me, renting some boats (?) is not a joke. It can be a nasty business, full of terror, danger and even an unhappy ending. We fishermen will all breath a sigh of relief when some sort of inspection law for all boat rentals is rigidly enforced.

The old scheme, "rent a boat at your own risk" places too much responsibility in the wrong direc­tion. The majority of Keystone state anglers have a keen sense of water safety, refuse to rent "booby traps." But there are always those, eager to get fishing, who go out in any tub or sieve, often to their sorrow.

A NEW ERA FOR AN OLD CANAL

(From Page 7)

berm bank at frequent intervals where the Canal winds through town.

Local contractors will be con­tacted and asked to dump their extra fill in the breaks. A promise of 150 railroad ties has been made for constructing the dam and al­ready a local company is dumping old power line poles on the site which will also be used for build­ing the dam.

The sportsmen themselves will construct the dam with advice by local engineers. They will also clean out the Canal and cut and burn the brush that is now grow­ing in the bed.

The last job will be the stocking with fish and the planting of trees and shrubs along the berm side of the Canal.

It isn't a job that will be done overnight but the way the clubs

have taken hold, it won't be too long before the old canal days will be back. It means that the young boys, and their elders, can fish and swim in clean water literally in their own back yards while at the same time the present situation which is an eyesore and a health hazard will be eliminated for good. There seems to be no reason why other portions of the Canal can't be treated likewise.

DECEMBER—1951 31

Pennsylvania Fish Law Violations

CASES SETTLED DURING THE MONTH OF OCTOBER 1951

ALLEGHENY COUNTY Beckwith, Pau l E., 528 Second Ave.,

T a r e n t u m , Pa . Exceeding creel l imi t $10.00 Brisek, J o h n G., 3029 Josephine St.,

P i t t sburgh , Pa. P i sh ing w i t h o u t a l icense 25.00

Cavit t , Murrell , 686 Colfax St., Spr ing-dale, Pa. In te r fe r ing wi th a n officer 100.00

Codemo, Albert , 820 Mill St., Br idge-ville, Pa. F o u r unders ized bass 40.00

Erdman . George B., 119 S t a m m Ave., P i t t s b u r g h 3, Pa . Exceeding creel l imi t 100.00

Flaher ty , Francis , 210 Beltshoover Ave., P i t t sbu rgh , Pa . Lending l i ­cense 25.00

Kirley, Edward R„ 511 Cur t in Ave., P i t t sburgh , Pa. Fa i lure t o display l i ­cense p la tes 5.00

Kuzia, Joseph, 150 Carver St.. P i t t s ­burgh , Pa . Fa i lure to display l i ­cense b u t t o n 25 00

Lauda, Louis J., 202 Parkfleld St., Mt. Oliver, Pa. Fa i lure to display license Plates 5.00

Lewis, Charles H., 3415 Bates St., P i t t sburgh , Pa . Exceeding creel l imi t 10.00

Marlon, Stanley, 186 Home St., P i t t s ­burgh , Pa. Unna tu ra l i zed foreigner 20.00

Morris, Victor, 603 Broad St., Sewick-ley, Pa. One unders ized bass 10.00

Myers, J a m e s H., 1021 N. Canal St., P i t t sbu rgh , Pa . Fa i lu re t o display license pla tes 5 00

Nacey, Leo, 233 Fleet St., R a n k i n , Pa . Fa i lure to secure license p la tes 10.00

Powell, B . A., 874 E. Hills Dr., New Kens ing ton , Pa. Exceeding creel " m l t 10.00

Rhodes, Pa t r i ck C , 5369 Breezeport St., P i t t sbu rgh , Pa . F i sh ing w i t h ­o u t a l icense 25 00

Schmigel, An thony G., 631 Brentwood Ave., Brentwood, Pa. Exceeding creel Umit 10.00

Sh imkus , Will iam, 313 Hami l t on Ave., Duquesne , Pa. One unders ized bass 10.00

Zdby, Edward, 1806 Bouifay St., P i t t s ­burgh 3, Pa . One unders ized bass . . 10.00

BEAVER COUNTY Butcher , Stanley, R. D. No. 1, Cl in­

ton, Pa. Violation of t h e rules a n d regula t ions 20.00

BERKS COUNTY

Becker, J ames , Boyertown, Pa. Illegal device 20.00

Davis, F rank , R. D. No. 1, Relnholds , Pa. Illegal device 20 00

Dorman , Karl , 829 Thorn St., Reading, Pa. Transfer of ownership and did n o t remove license p la tes 25 00

Kohl, Max, 2400 High St., Reading, Pa. Reckless opera t ion of mo to r -

„ b o a t •• 10.00 Masano, Bruce, 717 Weiser St., Read­

ing, Pa. Illegal operat ion of motor -boa t 25.00

McCook, Norman, Robesonia, Pa. I l ­legal device 20 00

Psilelis, George, 715 Dick St., Reading, Pa. Reckless opera t ion of mo to rboa t 25 00

Schlieve, Harold A., 1250 Alsace Rd., Reading, Pa. F ish ing w i t h o u t a II-

„ cense 25.00 Takach , Carl, 365 Cherry St., Reading,

Pa. Fa i lure t o display license pla tes 10.00 Wenger, Ray, 1031 Cherry St., Read­

ing, Pa. Reckless operat ion of m o ­torboa t 25.00

BLAIR COUNTY

Kephar t , Wi lbur t M., 114 Broad St., Holl idaysburg, Pa. Exceeding creel l imi t • 20.00

Vance, Haml in E., R. D. No. 1, Rose-lawn, Holl idaysburg, Pa . Exceeding creel l imi t 20.00

BRADFORD COUNTY

Crawford, Lyle, Alba, Pa. Opera t ing a mo to rboa t w i t h o u t a l icense 15.00

Lat t imer , Claude E., R. D. No. 2, Laceyville, Pa. One unders ized bass 10.00

32

Wolcott, Gresley, 182 Cayuta St., Sayre, Pa. Selling five ba i t fish 50.00

Yuska, Wesley, 110 N. River St., Sayre, Pa. F ish ing w i t h o u t a l icense 25.00

BUTLER COUNTY Kal ina , J o h n J., 124 Lewis Ave., Box

433, Lyndora, Pa. Fai lure t o display license p la tes 5.00

CAMBRIA COUNTY Kennedy, Clair, 413 Napoleon St.,

Johns town , Pa. Fa i lu re t o display license p la tes 5.00

Richards , Walter, 603 Harshberger St., Johns town , Pa . F i sh ing in a closed s t ream 25.00

Wike, Jesse C , Belsano, Pa. Three bass in closed season 30.00

CENTRE COUNTY Perryman, Lynn E., Cen t re Hall , Pa .

Two t r o u t in closed season 20.00 CHESTER COUNTY Phil l ips , Wm. K., R. F . D. No. 2,

Oxford, Pa. Two unders ized bass . . 20.00 St idanis , Wells, Hodgson St., Oxford,

Pa. F i sh ing w i t h o u t a l icense 25.00 Wallace, Dennis , R. D. No. 2, Oxford,

Pa. Three unders ized bass 30.00

CLARION COUNTY Hicks, Mrs. Margaret , Box 327 East

Brady, Pa. F ish ing w i t h o u t a l icense 25.00 Hicks, S. R., Box 327, East Brady,

Pa. One unders ized bass 10.00

COLUMBIA COUNTY Cher ington, Henry, R. D. No. 3,

Bloomsburg, Pa . Buying one black bass 10.00

CRAWFORD COUNTY G u t e k u n s t , George, R. D. No. 6,

Cochranton , Pa. Exceeding creel l imi t 10.00

Prody, Thomas , R. D. No. 2, Titusvil le , Pa. Selling t r o u t 10.00

DAUPHIN COUNTY Dadel, M. A., Millersburg, Pa . Op­

era t ing a mo to rboa t w i t h o u t a l icense 20.00

Hunte r , W. A., Millersburg, Pa . O p ­era t ing a mo to rboa t w i t h o u t a license 20.00

DELAWARE COUNTY Jochen , Ronald E., 3714 Berry Ave.,

Drexel Hill, Pa. F ish ing w i t h o u t a l icense 25.00

FOREST COUNTY Brasington, J o h n C , Tionesta , Pa .

Tak ing tadpoles on Sunday 10.00

LACKAWANNA COUNTY Prokop, Frank , 504 Dean St., Scran ton ,

Pa. F ish ing w i t h o u t a l icense 25.00 Sostak, Edward A., 227 Hudson St.,

J e rmyn , Pa . F i sh ing wi thou t a license 25.00

LANCASTER COUNTY Herr, Clermont , 1547 Oregon Rd.,

Lancaster , Pa. Illegal device 20.00 Kocher, Charles, 1000 Spruce St.,

Columbia, Pa. Exceeding creel l imi t 20.00 Monchuk, J o h n , R. D. No. 1, Columbia,

Pa. Illegal device 20.00 Moose, Will iam R., Spr ing Garden

St., El izabeth town, Pa . Exceeding creel l imi t 20 00

Stabley, I rene A., 572 N. P l u m St., Lancaster , Pa. F ish ing w i t h o u t a license 25.00

LACKAWANNA COUNTY Jay , Guy E., 150614. H a n n a St., New

Castle, Pa. Opera t ing a mo to rboa t w i t h o u t a l icense 10.00

LEBANON COUNTY Deamer, Lloyd, 212 S. 7th St., Lebanon,

Pa. Illegal device 20.00 Mar t in , K e n n e t h , 1215 E. K ing St.,

Lebanon, Pa. F i sh ing w i t h o u t a license •. 25.00

Mart in , Violet. 1141 E. Cumber l and St., Lebanon, Pa. F i sh ing w i th a borrowed license 25 00

Wenrich, Warren, 411 S. 6 th St., Lebanon, Pa.. Illegal device 20.00

LEHIGH COUNTY Zeitner, William J., 1239 Vermont St.,

Allentown, Pa. Fa i lu re to keep l igh t o n b o a t moored on Lake Wal len-paupack 5.00

LUZERNE COUNTY Kozokas, Igna tz , 1821 Nor th St.,

Luzerne, Pa . Fa i lu re t o display l i ­cense p la tes 5.00

Mart in , Lawrence, 805 Shoemaker Ave., Wyoming, Pa. One unders ized bass 10.00

Miscavage, Peter, 170 E. T h o m a s St., Wilkes-Barre, Pa . One unders ized bass 10.00

Molesky, Walter , 32 Co lumbus Ave., Wilkes-Barre, Pa . Two unders ized bass 20.00

Mulhern , Thomas , 137 Parmel l St. . P i t t s ton , Pa. One unders ized bass 10.00

Pawlowski, Chasimer, 552 Shawnee St., Wilkes-Barre, Pa. One u n d e r ­sized pike 10.00

Snarski , Alfred, 830 Scot t St., Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Exceeding creel l im i t . . 20.00

Symeon, Adolph, 29 Dodson Lane, Wilkes-Barre, Pa . One unders ized bass 10.00

LYCOMING COUNTY Lynn, Edward M., 53 N. Second St.,

Hughesville, Pa . Exceeding creel l imi t 100.00

McKEAN COUNTY Arthurs , Ulysses S., Hazelhurs t , Pa .

F ish ing w i t h o u t a l icense 25.00 MIFFLIN COUNTY Richards , Edward L„ 221 S. W a l n u t

St.. B u r n h a m , Pa . Fa i lure to display motorboa t l icense p la tes 5.00

MONTGOMERY COUNTY Hill, Lester, R. F . D. No. 1, Bar to , Pa .

Discharging t h r e e charges of d y n a ­m i t e 300.00

MONTOUR COUNTY Bloskey, Alda, 529 N. Mill St., D a n ­

ville, Pa. F i sh ing w i t h o u t a l icense 25.00

NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY Bojack, Joseph, 404 E. Columbia St.,

Atlas, Pa. Illegal device 20 00 Bruno, Mick, 628 Scot t St., K u l p m o n t ,

Pa. One unders ized bass 10 00 Weaver, Paul , Snyder town, Pa. One

unders ized bass 10.00 PERRY COUNTY Shaffer, Wayne A., 532 S. 4 th St., New­

port , Pa . Illegal device 20.00 SCHUYLKILL COUNTY Bejgrowicz, Frank , 227 S. J a r d l n St.,

Shenandoah , Pa. Illegal device 20.00 SOMERSET COUNTY Berkey, Orie, Fo r t Hill, Pa . F ish ing

w i t h o u t a l icense 25.00 SULLIVAN COUNTY Hartzig, Ernest , Lopez, Pa . Exceeding

creel l imi t ; 100 00 Millheim, Albert, Mildred, Pa. F i sh ing

in a closed s t r eam 20 00 Ryan, Charles, Mildred, Pa. F i sh ing

in a closed s t r eam 20.00

UNION COUNTY Snyder, Raymond, 52 N. 8th St., Lewis-

burg, Pa. One unders ized bass 10.00 WASHINGTON COUNTY Reynolds, Paul , 55 W. C h e s t n u t St.,

Washington , Pa. Opera t ing a mo to r -boat w i t h o u t a l icense 10 00

Slater, George P., 65 La t imer Ave., S t rabane , Pa . Exceeding creel l imi t 10.00

WESTMORELAND COUNTY Kuznicke , Joseph, 1414 4 th Ave.,

Arnold, Pa. Fa i lu re to secure license p la tes 10.OO

WYOMING COUNTY Sprague, George, Nicholson, Pa. Ex­

ceeding creel l imi t 10.00

YORK COUNTY Keesee, J o h n , 810 Carl St., York, Pa.

Selling unders ized rock bass 70.00

OUT OF STATE Benson, Verna, 2305 Jefferson St.,

Wilmington, Del. F ish ing w i t h o u t a l icense 25.00

Dufford, Howard L., 1101 N. W a l n u t St., Elmo, 111. F ish ing w i t h o u t a l icense 25.00

P E N N S Y L V A N I A A N G L E R

J^cnool ft uae 9l A HANDY REFERENCE

FOR

TEACHERS PARENTS STUDENTS

By CARSTEN AHRENS

BETTY AND BILL FIND OUT ABOUT CHRISTMAS TREES

Betty and her cousin Bill were hiking across a state forest with Uncle Bob. Uncle Bob was a warden. He had just stopped and looked puzzled at the r e ­mark Betty had made.

Betty had said, "I've never seen so many kinds of Christmas trees before."

"What do you mean . . . Christmas t rees?" he asked.

"She means," Bill said helpfully, "trees with cones."

"No I don't," protested Betty, "I mean trees that don't lose their leaves in the fail . . . evergreen trees."

"Do you know," said Uncle Bob, "we have plantings of nine different kinds of conifers here . . . that means trees that bear cones. I think this would be a good time to introduce you to them."

"Are all of them used as Christmas t rees?" inquired Betty.

"They shouldn't be . . . Some would make Santa shake his head sadly!"

"Why?" "In the first place, some lose their

needles very quickly." "That 's right," agreed Betty. "Last

year our Christmas tree began to lose its needles as soon as daddy set it up. We took it down three days after Christ­mas because its needles were all over the floor. We had it in water, too."

"Last year, our tree," remembered Bill, "had hardly lost a needle two weeks after Christmas!"

"What's the secret, Uncle Bob, of get­ting a con-i-fer," Betty pronounced slowly, "that won't lose its leaves?"

"You'll just have to learn which kinds happen to be good holders of their needles and which quickly become care­less and untidy. Look here at this plant­ing of Larch or Tamarack . . ."

"Or wha t??" "Tamarack . . . Oh, if you want a real

name for this tree, use the Indian name. The Indian called it the Hackmatack!"

"We'll settle for Larch," laughed Bill. "It has beautiful thick clusters of nee ­

dles," Betty declared. "But you wouldn' t want it for

Christmas: it loses its needles every fall as ordinary trees lose their leaves."

"Then," said Betty slowly, "it is a conifer but not an evergreen."

"Good," said Uncle Bob, "you're learn­ing fast."

They walked on to the next planting, and Uncle Bob said.

"Here may be the poor Christmas tree that you had last year. It 's a Hemlock, Pennsylvania 's state t ree. It 's the most graceful of all the conifers, but it sheds its leaves quickly after it is cut."

"May we have twigs from each tree so that we can draw them, Uncle Bob?"

Our State Tree, The Hemlock Courtesy of the

Department of Forests and Waters

"You bet; I'll help you with them when we get back to the car. I'll see that you name them correctly."

"O Uncle Bob, what are these t rees?" called Bill.

"Here you have a chance of meeting all four of the pines that grow in this forest. Here . . . I'll get you both twigs: This is White Pine . . . This, Red Pine . . . This, Scotch Pine (It has been brought in from Europe) and here is one lonely Loblolly Pine. Now, how will we tell them apar t?"

The children studied the branches in­tently for awhile.

Betty said, "The White Pine has fine needles in a cluster."

"Good!" exclaimed Uncle Bob. "One needle for each letter in the word, W-H-I-T-E."

Bill had an idea. "The Red Pine and Scotch Pine each has two needles in a cluster, but the needles of the Red Pine are twice as long as the needles of Scotch Pine, so the two can be told apart."

Betty could hardly wait her turn . "Uncle Bob, the Lobiolly Pine . . . I like that name, Loblolly, . . . has three needles in a cluster."

"Good work," said Uncle Bob. "Now we have two short, two long, three in a cluster, and five in a cluster."

"I don't believe," Betty observed, "that pines would make very good trees for Christmas."

"Why no t?" "The clusters of needles are too far

apart . . . there is too much bare limb. Decorating a pine wouldn' t be easy."

"OK . . . Let 's look for something bet­ter then . . . How about these Junipers?"

"Don't some people call them Red Cedars?" asked Bill.

"They do. But they're really Junipers . See how compact they are, how thick their branches grow, how dense are their sharp, scaly leaves."

Betty was busy sketching a little tree. "Uncle Bob," she said, "Didn't mother

say that you and she always had a J u n i ­per as your Christmas t ree?"

"That 's right. I was as old as you are before I discovered that anyone used any other kind of a conifer for Chris t­mas. At our end of the state, the J u n i ­per was the only kind that grew."

"It doesn't look like a Christmas tree to me," objected Bill.

"That 's all right, Bill. Say, here are the last two species of conifers in our forest. They are different species, bu t don't they resemble each o ther?"

"What are they?" "These are White Spruce. Those are

Balsam Fir. Either will make a good Christmas tree, but I'll take the Balsam for mine."

"They look very much alike. How can you tell tha t is a spruce?"

"When they have cones, and those do, it's easy."

But the children couldn't guess. Uncle Bob had to help: "See how the cones of the Balsam Fir sit upright and point to the s k y ? "

"They look like a row of little birds," said Betty.

"Oh, I see," shouted Bill; "the Balsam Fir cones sit up and the spruce cones hang downward. They are easy to tell apart."

"Now, let's summarize," suggested Uncle Bob. "You have twigs of the Larch, Hemlock, White Pine, Red Pine, Scotch Pine, Loblolly Pine, Juniper , White Spruce, and Balsam Fir. Let 's make a chart:

Larch . . . Not for Christmas . . . loses needles in fall.

Hemlock . . . Poor . . . drops needles after being cut.

The Pines . . . needles in separate clus­ters . . . difficult to trim.

Juniper . . . OK, if you like its appear­ance (Bill doesn ' t ) .

White Spruce . . . OK. Balsam Fi r . . . excellent. "Uncle Bob, why do you like the Bal­

sam best?" "Because of its pleasant odor. Your

whole house will fairly smell like Christmas if you have a balsam."

' "Thank you, Uncle Bob, for telling us about the conifers."

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