Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1918 — TO PROTECT THE KANKAKEE [ARTICLE]

TO PROTECT THE KANKAKEE

CITIZENS OF SHELBY -AND SCHNEIDER OPPOSE SEINING IN THE RIVER. The citizens of Water Valley, Shelby, Schneider and hundreds of sportsmen in Lake county, who enjoy a day’s outing on the Kankakee are up in arms over a proposal from the state game warden’s office to send deputies ,to the Kankakee and seine the river’for the purpose of removing carp and other coarse fish from the lower stretches of the stream, and are planning to petition Governor Goodrich asking that the state game and fish commission be ordered' to keep its hands off from the last fishing grounds to be found in this state. *• The supposed purpose of the seining is to remove the coarser fish and give the game fish a better opportunity to multiply, but 4he fishermen who have learned the river through years of . experience feel that the seining is very detrimental to all fishing, and that where the water is stirred up 'and the carp, dog fish, bull heads, etc., removed, pickerel, bass and croppies disappear too in a short time, and instead of being able to go out and catch a fair string in a day with a hook and line there are no fish to be had and the sport is killed until another season brings the carp and similar fish back. Th'ey also claim, that the carp found in the river are a different fish from

those caught in tfie lakes, and are desirable food fish. It is said that the running water in the rivers make ■the flesh of the carp solid and the fish game fighters, and for this reason they are eagerly sought after by sportsmen, who have learned of their good qualities. The carp furnish food for the pickerel and bass, and whereever carp are plentiful in the river pickerel and other game fish are taken in large numbers with hook and line. When the carp are netted or seined out, even though the game fish are carefully returned to the water; the pickerel are frightened and leave the locality, going in many instances many miles before they stop. Those who have studied the characteristics of the big pickerel say that it is a fish that is easily frightened and when once disturbed will move to another locality.

The law which permits seining under the direction of the' state warden is devised to remove the coarse fish which are supposed to be a detriment to the game fish, but it seems as though the citizens of the community should have something to say as to whether the fishing grounds they have known and protected all their lives should be Cleaned out. If they are satisfied that the taking of the carp will not improve the filhing, their wishes in th© "matter should be given due consideration. The residents along the Kankakee say that if the state game warden persists in giving licenses to seine for carp in defiance to their request, that the seiners are due for some pretty strenuous times this summer and that vigilance committees will be' organized along the rives to prevent all tresspassing and all seines and nets will be destroyed wherever found. —Crown Point Register.