Sport: Wartime Fishing

Fishing, most popular of U.S. sports, is now in full season, but the vast army of U.S. anglers are not entirely happy. War has cut into the sport.

Hardest-hit is the saltwater fisherman. Outside of surf and bay fishing, there are only a few spots where saltwater angling is allowed: notably in the Pacific off Southern California's Santa Monica pier, where chartered boats may go as far as ten miles offshore ; in some parts of the Florida keys ; and the famed tarpon paradise at Aransas Pass in Texas. To fish in any salt waters requires a Coast Guard Permit.

Fresh-water anglers have their troubles too. They need only a fishing license and enough tackle to get a bite. But many popular inland haunts like Glacier Park's Paradise Creek and Two-Medicine Lake, many of Maine's 2,500 lakes, are practically inaccessible except by automobile.

Fortunately, many State Conservation Commissions met the fishermen's problem in advance. They planted the bulk of their fish at accessible places: near railroad stations, bus lines, towns' edges.

> In Michigan, to accommodate war workers, a large percentage of the hatchery output has been dumped into the many small lakes lying within a radius of 45 miles of Detroit, Flint and Pontiac.

> Only a few hours' ride from New York City, in a little tributary of the Finger Lakes called Catherine Creek, creels grow fat with some of the finest rainbow trout in the East. Other famed trout streams are reachable by train from Manhattan.

> In Texas, the creation of many large dams (Possum Kingdom, Buchanan and Ford) have produced fresh fishing areas well stocked with sporty perch and bass.

> In California, an unusually large number of big trout have been planted in the tumbling streams of the San Gabriel Canyon, only 25 miles from the heart of Los Angeles.

> In Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes, even the little lake in Minneapolis' Loring Park has been stocked with small fish, for small fry only.