Evening Star Newspaper, July 10, 1937, Page 15

Books—Art—Music FEATURES [ 4 EDITION ny Staf WASHINGTON, D. C, ANGLING FRATERNITY GROWING LIKE FISH THAT GOT AWAY . A corner of the United States Bureau of Fisheries laboratories in Washington, where investi- gations are in progress constantly looking to greater utilization of the harvest of the seas and forestalling depletion of this sou TALL TALE TIME IS HERE urce of food. * | Spare the Rod and Spoil the Fisherman Is Anglers Cry as Mil- lions Seek Our Finny Friends in Brook, Bay ‘ By William 8. Odlin. O LITERALLY millions of Americans, vacation time : means just one thing—fishing. It is within the memory of the | present generation that this delight- | ful form of recreation was confined | largely to just two classes widely | scparated on the social scale. They were the barefoot boy of the back country, with his bent pin fish-hook, and the city man prosperous enough to afford up-to-the-minute fishing equipment and freedom to desert his ordinary pursuits when the urge to go fishing came over him. Today, however, the ranks of these two kindred souls are swelled by the recruitment of many thousands of other American types and fishing has become a major Summer sport. This is attributable mainly to increased leisure for large sections of the popu- lation and such universal ownership | of automobiles. It is this instrument of civilization that has made fishing grounds accessible to many for the first time. To promote more widespread inter- est in fishing by making it more pro- | ductive and worthwhile, the Federal Government has exhibited through its | Bureau of Fisheries, a growing con- | cern in this recreation. Through its efforts, lakes and streams of the United States are more plentifully stocked than ever before. Today not less than 650 species of fish may be pulled out of American inland and costal waters. Fishing’s widespread and increasing popularity is also influenced by other | factors. Living in the remoter places, | far from the beaten paths of man, fish take men out of a too often drab and humdrum existence into the most glorious of natural surroundings. | Man's acceptance of the invitation | guarantees him a sport in which hig | wits and skill will be tested to the | utmost. He encounters in his pastime & species which shows fighting spirit, courage, resourcefulness, beauty and other qualities he finds admirable in his own kind The aristotcracy of the fish king- dom is bound up in game fish, and | characteristics found in any one kind are common to all. The bass, per- haps the most popular, is an illustra- tion. Various members of the bass family are to be found in most parts of the United States and Canada.! The disposition of the bass is strikingly {llustrated by the black variety found In cool waters. Audacity and courage, wariness and intelligence have made him a favorite quarry of anglers. The bass is not beaten when hooked, but | fights with almost unbelievable energy and cunning to the end. | LEGAL protection of black bass has | been greatly extended in the last few years, according to the Bureau of Fisheries. Thirty-eight States now | prohibit its sale. In many cases the minimum size limit has been increased, | while the legal daily catch has been reduced. The average catch allowed 15 10. The Federal Government helps | perpetuate this popular fish through the Hawes law prohibiting interstate | shipments of black bass caught or s0ld in violation of State laws. Small erawfish, silver minnows or trogs are excellent bait for bass, which | will also respond to pearlspoons. Trol- | ling for bass fascinates many, many | thousands. Somewhat less adaptable than bass, trout is preferred by many. It is found all over the country, the most common variety being the brook trout, speckled or brown and having smali scales. The trout is not only one of the gamest and most graceful of fish, but one of the most brilliantly marked. The rainbow trout is particularly beautiful, with reddish stripes ap- pearing on its silver and black. The largest of the .trout family is the salmon or Great Lakes trout, or namaycush, sometimes attaining a weight of 30 pounds. One trolls for namaycush far down in cool waters and is rewarded by thrilling en- | counters. This fish has tremendous strength, speed and resourcefulness, and an hour’s battle often leaves the captor as exhausted as his prize. The trout provides one of the most artistic forms of fishing—casting for the brook variety in forest or moun- tain stream. One must choose the right kind of fly, the most likely pool, suitable time with regard to wind and light and the best angle of cast. Pishermen casting lines in shallow, weedy bottomed bodies of water may encounter another fish aristocrat, the pike. This family includes the pick- eral, the pike perch and the giant muskellunge, which sometimes attains a length of 8 feet and a weight of 100 b} | ance. or Qcean. of gracetul, torpedolike form and | have a reputation of absolute fear lessness, ferocity, cunning and endu Even the common pike is ill- tempered and voracious, feeding upon its little cousin, the pike perch. The viciousness of the muskellunge is so great that many fishermen think it is not discreditable to his art to land his prey by hauling it ashore. For many fishermen nothing equals deep-sea angling. The largest quarry is the tuna, the catching of which is unsurpassed in thrills, in the opinion of tuna fishermen. The tuna may be sought with rod and reel. It craves battle that may last for hours and often ends in victory for the giant of the deep. The half-ton tunas are usually catpured with the harpoon. | Another sturdy fighter is the sword fish, which will attack a pursuer and is able to puncture the side of a boat. | UT “just fishing” is sufficient pleas- | ure for millions of recreation | seekers. The nature of the catch makes little difference. However, & novice should know that he can de- | termine his possible creel cargo from the area he fishes. Altitude and tem- perature are governing factors. The gamer, more agile fish inhabit cold, rapid streams in the mountain. Low, | warmer and flatter terrain is likely to vield larger but less active varieties. | Perch, some bass, catfish, sunfish and similar species predominate in such environments. First requisite in a successful angler is proper temperament. One must be patient, philosophical and able to en- Jjoy all manifestations of nature. Then comes equipmient. Serviceable rods | may be acquired at small cost. Lines | leaders, hooks and reels, however, are | items upon which the beginnet should spend enough to be sure of sturdiness. | Bait will depend upon what one is | trying to catch. The common angle worm, so universally employed, is very | effective for all kinds of fish—game |- and otherwise. Other live bail in- | cludes minnows, crawfish, frogs, snails | and many insects, particularly the grasshopper. | There is a cardinal rule about bait. | ing exact a license fee. ]pnunds. Members of this species are | All fish are always hungry, but they are wary and will not rise to bait that does not look natural. Bait should be varied: an effective bait of one day may prove no lure at all the next. Productive bait for a cer- taip species in one part of the coun- try may be scorned in another. Artificial bait is widely varied, in- cluding flies, spoons, spinners, phan- toms and many other picturesquely named devices. Fly fishing represents the very zenith of the art in the minds | of many. But it cannot be learned out of a book. Ability to cast the fly | must be acquired through a great | deal of practice. All States now have official bodies which guard wild life resources and for the privilege of hunting or fish- A score of them have short term licenses. These | boards or commissions fix the size and number of fish to be caught and not returned to the water. Latest figures indicate some 8,000,000 adults annu- ally buy fishing licenses. “HERE are certaln things every angler should know and heed re- ligiously. Here are a few Wet the hands before taking unders size fish off the hook. Release them in the water; don't throw them back Use sportsmanlike tackle; give the fish a fighting chance. Don't take more fish than you can use. Waste is unpardonable. Move cautiously when fishing from a rowboat. Use care in dropping your anchor, particularly in swift cur- rents. Washing with good soap restores | flies to surprising newness. | Holding old flies over steam will re- | store matted hackles to original fluffi- ness. | Waxing rods keeps moisture from getting into varnish cracks and keeps the rod in better condition generally. Bucktails are very effective early season trout flies. Sunny days are more productive for fly fishermen than dark ones. Fish see farther under water, if it is | clear, than they do above it. | SATURDAY, News of Churches JULY 10, 1937, Veteran fishermen know that the boy w trout than the angler who has PAGE B—1 it h the pole and bent pin really doesn’t get more modern equipment and the knowledge to use it properly. B A DEMOCRATIC FISHERMAN Franklin D. Roosevelt Does His Angling Without Any Frills, and No Game Is Too Lowly for the Presidential Fishing in mountain torrents is a thrill which lures the lady angler as well as the hardy fisherman and is a sport which has many devotecs in nearby Maryland and Virginia. “Franklin D. Roosevelt is a man who'd rather fish than do sport.” fisherman of the old school, ‘a anything else in the realm of —A. P. Wirephoto. By removing the band from your old felt fishing hat and taking long stitches with a strong cord or piece of casting line you can make a safe and handy folder for flies. When all other methods fail, trout sometimes may be induced to bite on a fin cut back of vent so that enough tissue remains to hold the fin on the hook. A worm should be used to cover the point of the hook. Live minnows, shrimp, bloodworms, | peeler and soft crabs are the best bait 1n salt or brackish water. | Fir fishing, economical, sanitary and changeable inner soles may be cut from corrugated cardboard. These soles are light, springy and absorbent Once you have your pattern, a new pair can be made for each day and discarded at night. Do something to increase the fish supply and protect it—join an Izaak ‘Walton League branch or some similar organization So fill up the gas tank of the family car and off with you, breathing, “Look out fish—here I come!” By Walter R. McCallum. HAT little tarpon fishing trip which President Roosevelt took to Texas a few weeks back—a trip which came smack in the middle of the Supreme Court con- troversy and gained quite & bit of publicity nationally, and brought back | to Washington a President with & brand-new coat of tan and some new | angles on fishing, wasn't just a casual affair with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The President is no dilettante fisherman, like the million- aire sportsmen who've been known to hire small boys to hook tarpon for them, and then, having the fish se- curely hooked, descend from the lux- urious comfort of their house-boats to play the fish, Franklin D. Roosevelt is a fisherman of the old school, 8 man who'd rather | fish than do anything else in the realm of sport, a dyed-in-the-wool angler who'll take what piscatorial | sport the moment and the opportuni- | ty affords—and like it. Of course, being & somewhat busy man, it isn't | possible for the President to get away from the Nation's responsibilities like any clerk with a Saturday afternoon- to-Monday-morning holiday. But, like | the aforesaid clerk, Mr. Roosevelt is | satisfied with the same sport the clerk gets. It isn't common knowledge, for example, that when the President | slips away for a Saturday afternoon- | | Sunday morning trip on the yacht | Potomac he spends much of his time down the Potomac River fishing for hardheads. “He's & real fisherman,” says “Steve” Early, one of the members of the presidential secretariat. “He'll take what he can get in the way of fishy fare any time he can get it And T think he gets as much kick out of fishing for hardheads and bluefish with light tackle as an: man who ever dropped a line over- board.” | So the lusty days of Grover Cleve- land, probably the “fishingest” Presi- | dent of them all, are reincarnated in | Franklin D. Roosevelt. You hear | and read a lot about the trips he has | made to Great Abaco Banks, the! | of which more later; and of | button from Rod and Reel. Eastern Bahamas and the waters off | Miami after sailfish; of his jaunt to the Galapagos Island three years ago, is latest tarpon trip to Texas, where he boated a couple of those 90-pound silver kings. But you hear little of the un- | pretentious and unheralded side trips | —those little jaunts down the Potomac | to seek the lowly hardhead or croaker, like any other employe of Uncle Sam with & day or two off from work. LEVELAND had his days on the Aesopus, the Beaverkill and other famous trout streams of the East. Her- bert Hoover had his Rapidan stream, and he also was quite a sail-fisherman. Hoover was so good and such an ar- dent angler that he won his, gold the Palm Beach Sail- fish Club for a fish in excess of 75 pounds. But Hoover at his fishing best never was the lusty deep-sea angler that Frankiin D. Roosevelt is. Nor did Hoover ever boat & sail- | fish to compare with the eight-foot spear-beaked “sail” that Mr. Roose- velt caught off Panama two years ago. That fish hangs today on a high wall of the National Museum, aflame in its panoply of silver and blue just as he looked when the presidential fisherman tired him out and finally brought him to gaff off the Pel‘l‘ah‘" Islands in the waters of the Pacific near Panama. And of that more anon. Of course, men who've caught both sailfish and tarpon concede that the tarpon is the scrappiest of the pair. | He gives more and he scraps longer and harder than tne sail. So Mr. Roosevelt, catching two tarpon in Texas waters, must have had his hands full. Mr. Roosevelt is truly a fishing cos- | mopolite. I imagine, from the fish- | ing tales I've heard about him, that | | he'd like nothing better than to take | | a fishing trip around the world, hook- | ing and landing all the famed varie- | ties of fighting fish, just as Author | Zane Grey is doing right now. Any | man who, when he can't find better piscatorial fare than the lowly hard- head, will go after that same hard- | head with three-thread line and a | PUTNAM KEEPS VI Writer Shares Suspense, With Small Group Waiting for Rescue of Amelia and Noonan—Putnam Is Firm in Belief Air Castaways Are on Land. By Alice Rogers Hage Special ‘Feature Correspondent OAKLAND MUNICIPAL AIRPORT. HAQQ—SOS—SOS! As the greatest rescue story of modern times moves to- ward its climax, here at the unobtrusive airport inn and across the | bay at the San Francisco Coast Guard station some of its most troubled scenes are enacted. The searchers on the | Itasca, the Swan, the Moorby, the Colorado and the legion of other ships racing to the area of disaster may have more thrilling moments—theirs is the buoying strength of action. Here in the region of this ill-fated flight's beginning, here where the shadow of Amelia’s presence, as she was during those days in March, walks continu- ously with us and with the gaunt- faced, haunted man who paces the floor and waits, there is only one thing that counts—the strength of inaction. Heroic effort may tax the muscles and imperil life in the compassing. There is an even greater heroism of patience when nothing tears the heart with such agony as the complete helpless- ness to aid a person deeply loved and in trouble. Last night at the station in San Francisco, George Putnam, moving about in the little executive offige of the white frame building that for- merly housed the local Coast Guard's life-saving crew and now contains its powerful radio equipment, picked up & paper some one had left lying about. Outside the breakers of a npitiless ocean rolled in to within 100 feet of the window beside him. Inside, on the front page of cold print was & cartoon—a rolling relentless expanse of that same ocean, with the letters KHAQQ—SOS above the empty hori-~ zon, and the caption below, “Earhart Calling.” George Putnam looked and threw the thing, which twisted like a snake in his hands, across the room. He said not a word. e | 7. TW!CE since Thursday night, ® week ago, when the flight from ~ { | without help, he has come back into Lae began, he has reached the limit of endurance, and his friends have had to insist upon, his putting him- self in the care of the physician here who has known him, and known Ame- lia, for years. Each time, his energy revived by the sleep he could not win the fight with renewed determination and a grim will to win. He has never for a moment, except during those two brief hiatuses, been off the job. Organizing, directing, asking expert advice at no matter what cost, follow=- ing up every minute lead, even those that were obviously cruel hoaxes, the odious fruit that seems to spring from diseased minds in situations such as this, he has been relentless in the war he waged against time and distance. Monday afternoon, .ie came into the airport inn lobby and sat down for a talk. “You're looking very cheer- ful today, Mr. Putnam,” I told him, “and that must mean good news.” “I'm feeling more cheerful,” he said. “Perhaps this is a case of the wish being father to the thought, but the confidence is growing in me that they are safe. All these ]a' messages that have come in from so many widely separated points, the assurance of the Lockheed people that the plane could not keep.on sending if it were afloat—which is what I have believed all along—all the straws taken to- gether point, to my mind, in one direc- tion. And I know how Amelia’s mind works. Unless she suddenly broke up under the stress of the emergency, and she’s never done that before, and unless Noonan changed his whole nor- mal course of behavior, they made a landfall of some sort. They are both experienced, calm, efficient. 3hort of sudden emergency beyond human help, which is not indicated by the messages to the Itasca, I think we’ll find them, eventually, perched on a spit of sand or a reef edge, probably uncomfortable, but otherwise all right. They have plenty of rations, and the rain squalls which come almost every day in that part of the tropics would give them plenty of water. Unless one P GIL FOR HIS WIFE Amelia Earhart and her husband, George Palmer Putnam, noted ment before the start of her ill-fated rou: . ublisher, photographed together in their New York apart- nd-the-world flight. —Wide World Photo. or both were seriously injured in the type of landing they would have had to make, and I can’t believe that is the case, I think they are all right.” E HESITATED a moment. “Do you agree with me?” "he asked with sudden, overpowering anxiety. “You've got a chance to be imper- sonal. You've talked with all the dif- ferent agencies at work—do you think I'm wrong?” & % “Aside from the fact that it's pret- ty difficult.for any of us to be im- personal who have watched this thing develop, Mr. Putnam,” I told him, “I think you are right. I've never be- lieved anything else.” Night and day the Coast Guards- men at the radio station have been on duty. Few of them have had more than four or five hours relief over s period as long as 723 hours. Grimly, they stick it out, hard, metic- AT GUA Coast Guardsmen at Radio | Night and Day—Cryptic ulous, gruelling work, where the slight- est lack of attention may lose some precious sending of that faint, far- off call from beyond the horizon. The Thursday night that saw the” begin- ning of the flight from Lae to How- land, I was at the station from early evening until 3 o'clock in the morn- | Ing. as the signals came through best at-the time when the air is clear. No one else was there except the crew, in charge of Lieut. Frank Johnson, and Mr. Putnam. Matter-of-factly, the operators sat at their instru- ments, talking with the Itasca, call- ing the Bering station or Suva in Samoa, talking with Honolulu and waiting for A. E.s signals and voice to come in. Three times they re- ported hearing, very faintly, her *car- rier wave.” The Itasca reported that there was much static, and static was heavy where we were. There was no prescience that we were on the edge of ppssible tragedy, that the next noon would break the news that the plane we listened for was in difficul- ties. R. PUTNAM said very litlte as the night wore on, and the lack of definite messages began to assume cause for worry. But he paced the floor back and forth, back and forth until every one else felt like pacing, too. Lieut. Johnson, who is both shrewd and good-natured and who has neyer in all the nights and days that followed, in spite of almost no rest, lost either that good nature or that shrewdness, kept the conversa- tion on a casually impersonal, even keel. But every one present knew without discussion the risks being taken by that lonely pair of wings crossing the black stretches of the Pacific. In reading through the log of the dispatches from all sources that have come into the station since that night, I found two bits that made a sig- nificant picture. The first was the Itasca’s report that they felt A. E. bhad pessed close over the Island, al RD STATION Landing More Than a Week Ago. . | Station Have Been on Duty Log Tells Story of Forced | where at the time the sturdy little | boat was sending up great clouds | | of blacks smoke as a signal, but had | | failed to see them because of the | dazzle of the rising sun in her eves. | The island, remember, is only half | a mile wide and two miles long, which from the air, would be definitely diffi. cult to see. The other was the Itasca’s additional report that they felt that | A. E. had never received their radioed | | requests for her to broadcast on 500 | kilocycles so that they could ‘“cut | her in” with their ship’s radio direc- tion finder. They state that with one exception she acknowledged no mes- sage sent by them. "THE log of her voice messages reads the story of disaster. At 6:12, | she sent, “Want bearing.” Then, | “3105 kilocycles on the hour—will whistle in the microphone.” Then, “About 200 miles out,” and she whistled as she promised. “Please take bearing on us and report in half | hour. I will make noise in micro- phone about 100 miles out.” Then, “We must be on you, but cannot see you, and gas is running low. Have been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet. We are circling, but cannot see island—can- not hear you. Go ahead on 7,500 kilo- cycles with long count either now or on schedule time on half hour.” A little later, “Earhart calling Itasca. We received your signals, but are unable to get minimum. Please take bearings on us and answer on 3,105 kes.” sShe made long dashes for a brief period, but the emergency high frequency direction finder could not cut in on 3,105 ks, At last she called, “We are on the line of position 157-337. Will repeat this message on 6,210 kilocycles. We are now running north and south.” And a moment later came the fate- ful “Have only half an hour of fuel left.” One additional fact from the Itasca shows how careful it had been to take | get | Atlantic trout rod, has the true fisherman’s instinct and sensibilities. Nor would he, I imagine, be awed by a 600- pound blue marlin of the variety they're landing right now off Bimini, just ress the g stream from Miami. And being the ardent and courageous angler he is, he'd stick im down to the end, whether ‘ap or one stretch= which is quite with those big fellows. But so far in his angling career, Mr. Roosevelt hasn't tied into a big mare lin, Being the rugged mariner he is, as witness ose Summer yachting trips in Northern Maine waters a lit tle thing like & 10-hour scrap on a ng small boat wouldn't bother t hour s ing out to 10 ho possible tos! I UT when he wants a smoke he wants a smoke, and no fooling. It's one of funnier yarns about the presidential angling. of how the President of Inited States couldn't a cigar en he wanted one, and how Hopkins, relief ad- ministrator and his fishing companion, couldn’t help him. Mr. Roosevelt had hooked that big sailfish that hangs v in the National Museum. Now, will, after six or eight lusty Jjumps, settle down to a round of lusty tugging and running around. In doing this he presents the full area of his three-foot sail against the pull of | the line so the angler can't do much about dragging him sideways through the water. The ocean was a little lumpy that day, which means that the small presidential fishing boat was jumping around quite & bit. About the time Mr. Roosevelt had calmed that Sailfish down to where the fish no longer wanted to jump and had started his running and boring tactics, Mr. Hopkins got seasick. And when you get seasick out there in the middle of the ocean, there isn't much to do but let nature take its course. So Mr. Hopkins hung his head over the side and carried on in the natural way. And about that time Mr. Roose- velt could let up from fighting the fish in some small degree and relax And, relaxing, he wanted a smoke. “Hey, Harry, hand me a cigarette,” he said. No answer. “Hey, Harry President said. “Gulp, gulp, gulp and gulp,” said Harry, choking half to death. “Hey, Harry, toss me a cigarette” the President said in somewhat sharp- er tones By this time Mr. Hopkins had re- linquished his over-the-rail position and was coming more or less back to life. But a new attack seized him, and back he went. “Harry, give me & smoke,” yelled the President. “Reach over (gulp) (gulp)” said Mr. Hopkins, in my rear pants pocket.” The narrator doesn't tell whether the President ever got his smoke, but he landed the sail. And he has the proof. You don't weighing over side. give me a cigarette,” and get one “They're often hear of sailfish 100 pounds on the The authenticated record is only around 119 pounds. But this il, caught off Panama, weighed much more than that. Down in the Galapagos, where live the last remnants of the great rep- tiles of the earth, the ocean also has quite a shark population. There is no swanky dock stretching out into the Pacific where boats can tie up and land passengers down there. Pas- sengers must be landed right through the surf, frequently bareback, if they don’t want to get wet. Mr. Roosevelt wanted to go ashore and the surf was running high, and some one had to go overboard and carry him onto the beach. So, sharks or no sharks, & husky Secret Service man packed the President on his back and toted him through the breakers to the beach. There weren't any sharks around that day, and if there were they'd probably been frightened far away. OF COURSE, the White House is the one spot in the land where the fierce, white heat of publicity never stops focusing. The President, being the ardent angler that he is, never has to worry about the cost of & new rod or the latest thing in angling equipment. But he buys 'em just the same. Like presidential automobiles and everything else connected with the White House, it's an unwritten law that there shall be no advertis- ing ballyhoo about the equipment used by the President. But you can be sure he uses the same type of equipment which you can buy over the counter of any spcrting goods (Continued on Second Page.) % (Continued on Third Page.) [