Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1871 — The Fish Law. [ARTICLE]

The Fish Law.

Wo publish this week a copy of the Fish Law., passed at the present session of our Legislature, so that all parties who fish iu the meandering Iroquois, the raging Dig Slough, or the placid I’inkamink, may know when and how to catch pike, bass, red-boric, cat-fi>h aud dog-fish in accordance with the statutes of Indiana made and provided. If enforced, this law will protect the large fish in our streams about as effectually as a prohibitory law would Lave done, hut it is rather hard on the little fish, as it gives the privilege of catching an unlimit, ed number of minnows for bait, in any manner except by shooting or poi setting. The law wft? iTifleiiwj gotten up to comfort a class of old mossybacks who are too lazy to draw a eein and whose eyes are too much bleared from hard drinking to use a spear. These arc the individuals who delight to sit on a log or stone beside the water, with a small basket containing a few crackers, a piece of cheese and a bottle of fluid groceries, flanked on the other side with a large bucket or tub containing bait—and fish with hook and line. We have seen these old plugs at their pastime, and would wager an amount equal to the price of ithe quantity of liquor one j of them would swallow at a sitting, (and that might be a big bet), that they would use up ten pounds of bait for every fish they caught.— That is protection with a vengenco! Catch and destroy unlimited number* of young fish, but protect the old one* for sport! There are three kinds of fishermen iu this part,of the State: those who fish with a sein, those who spear them, and the anglers wljo use a hook and line; their relative proportion to each other is about 1 each of seiners and anglers to 20 who use the spear. Under this law the first class is entirely prohibited, the second, and much largest, class is prohibited during the only months they can use the spear to any advantage, while the third exceedingly sjnnll class have the right to fish nt all times, and drag our rivers with Beins to the extermination J ♦f young fi#b, to furuicb'them bait. *