THE OUTDOOR WEEK
LINEUP FOR TUNA
The U.S. tuna team, which will compete against 10 other nations for the Sharp Cup in Wedgeport, Nova Scotia, Sept. 12, 13 and 14 (see below), was announced last week; and at the same time came word of yet another international tuna-do, this one on the collegiate level. Last week Alain Wood Prince, captain of the five-man Yale angling team and son of William Wood Prince, president of Chicago's famed Union Stock Yards, boated a 630-pound bluefin off Wedgeport to shut out fishless St. Francis Xavier University of Nova Scotia in the first annual International Intercollegiate Tuna Match.
Wood Prince's ponderous catch secured for Yale the Hulman Cup donated by Anton Hulman Jr., ex-Yale athlete, veteran tuna fisherman and owner-president of the Indianapolis Speedway. Next year six or seven collegiate teams are expected at the match, but meanwhile the Yales, confident and flushed with victory, are preparing to travel southward next week and take on female members of the Bahamas Angling Association.
TEMPEST IN A TEPEE
Time was in the state of Connecticut that Indians fished and hunted in all seasons without a thought of licenses on or off their reservations.
Now, however, it is the written opinion of the state attorney general that the 300 remaining Indians have no special right—inherent, ancient or by treaty—to continue to do so (OUTDOOR WEEK, April 16).
A lot of things are done in the name of conservation, but as Woodbury Town Constable Raymond Burton, who is charged with enforcing the new edict, says "The state should be gracious enough to let people of Indian lineage fish and hunt without all the regulations." Constable Burton, it must be understood, is a man thoroughly divided among himself—he is a Mohegan, name of Grey Fox.
And there is a muted war whoop from Bob Kilson, a 73-year-old bachelor Pequot of the Schaghtoke Reservation at Kent. "It's those white folk," he says, "who come on the reservation and fish out of season and without a license and claim they're Indians, and they're no more Indians than that rusty tin can over there."
TWILIGHT OF A BEAR
The grizzly, that dish-faced solitary old bulk of a bear and largest of all the world's land-borne carnivores, has, of course, no natural enemies, but he is being slowly marched toward extinction in the United States. Before man came with his guns and traps and the dogs he made fearless, the wilderness was the grizzly's to rumble through as he pleased.
The twilight of the great humped bear was pointed up recently by Robert F. Cooney, coordinator of the Wildlife Restoration Division in Montana, the grizzly's last major redoubt. The grizzly once plodded western North America as far east as Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas. Only in Alaska, where the grizzly is reported in excess of 10,000, exclusive of several of his 84 sub-species, the various brown bears, does he still retain a measure of his majesty (OUTDOOR WEEK, July 16).
In the States, the outlook is quite different. He is long gone from Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and the Dakotas. California, which has him on its flag, has had no record of one off it since 1922. Washington may have one or two left. Colorado has perhaps 10, these completely protected. Idaho claims some 60, and has had no open season for years. Wyoming has not more than 50. There, however, the grizzly, under an antiquated law, is carried with the black bear as a predator. Montana lists 439, exclusive of national parks. Estimates for Glacier National Park indicate 100 silvertips, and for Yellowstone 125. In all, somewhat less than 800 grizzlies live in these United States.
Changing environment and antagonism, often prejudiced on the part of parochial and militant livestock interests, have brought the depletion about. The dwindling wilderness, however, is the bear's most serious threat.
Mr. Cooney concedes, in a fair appraisal of a gloomy situation, that, valuable as the bear is to hunters and conservationists, it cannot be perpetuated in substantial numbers around grazing livestock. Its future, therefore, he says, depends for the most part upon conserving what remains of its natural range. In this regard, parks like Yellowstone, Glacier and Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness Area are essential. Like the buffalo, if the big fella goes, so goes something of the past, a sentiment, perhaps, toward grandeur, toward things large and free, moving easy through blue upland places which, if nothing else, makes the heart wonder and be proud. This, like poetry, is of some value.
FISHERMAN'S CALENDAR
SO—season opened (or opens); SC—season closed (or closes).
C—clear water; D—water dirty or roily; M—water muddy.
N—water at normal height; SH—slightly high; H—high; VH—very high; L—low; R—rising; F—falling.
WT50—water temperature 50°.
FG—fishing good; FF—fishing fair; FP—fishing poor; OVG—outlook very good; OG—outlook good; OF—outlook fair; OP—outlook poor
BLACK BASS: TENNESSEE: Dale Hollow, Center Hill and Kentucky Lake FG for limits of small fish but larger models have suddenly turned fickle. Local agent, however, insists they will not be able to resist much longer and OG.
LOUISIANA: Night anglers taking fish to 8 pounds in Spring Bayou near Marksville and FG for 4- and 5-pounders in Miller's Lake near Ville Platte. Monroe area reports FG and OVG with a plastic red worm lure so deadly in daytime that the normally 60¢ gimmick is going for $2 on the black market.
FLORIDA: Lake George in north central area near Welaka yielding nice catches and OVG for next few weeks. Rainbow River near Dunellen in west coast area also producing with fish to 5 pounds. Lake Tarpon FG with Donald Bingham of St. Petersburg winching in a 10½-pounder; OVG. Central state still dusty from drought but FG in places such as Lake Griffin at Leesburg where there is enough water. OP/F until desperately needed rain.
MISSOURI: Lake Wappapello N and FG on surface plugs and flies. Current River L but C and FG with dark-colored plugs the best bet.
MINNESOTA: FG for smallmouth as insect hatches decrease and fish take more kindly to lures. White Bear Lake, north of St. Paul, West Bearskin Lake on Gunflint Trail, Big Man Trap Lake at Park Rapids all advise OVG. Two anglers, however, Jim Rainey of St. Paul and Marge Kassel of Brookfield, Ill., slightly nonplussed when the tummies of two fish they collared in Big Lake each yielded a baby mink weighing about one pound.
BLUEFIN TUNA: NEW JERSEY: Fishing slow last week as school of bluefins moved offshore but local tightrope-walking soothsayer predicts they will be back. OG.
MASSACHUSETTS: 40- to 150-pound fish now in Pollock Rip off Monomoy Point and hitting feathers with abandon; OVG.
NOVA SCOTIA: Two giants taken off Wedgeport last week including a 630-pounder, largest of the season so far. Many more fish sighted and OG.
TROUT: IDAHO: South Fork of Snake best bet in Swan Valley. In Blackfoot area FG on Snake from Tildon Bridge to the backwaters of American Falls Reservoir, statewide OG.
PENNSYLVANIA: SC supposedly July 31, but in unprecedented move State Fish Commission has extended it to Sept. 15. On the spot spy reports reason for action is Pennsylvania's poorest season in history, thanks to weather and the great number of hatchery-reared trout still in streams and most of which would not carry over until next year. Although news has not excited most anglers, those who are on streams report FG.
MONTANA: Cooler weather makes OVG on all Montana streams with Gallatin, Yellowstone and Big Hole rivers all excellent. Temporary volume of water from Hebgen Dam has raised Madison and FP for the time being. Most anglers cheered by Yellowstone results which seem to indicate that DDT damage from forest spraying last year not as extensive as feared.
COLORADO: Gunnison, East and Taylor rivers L and C with FG on flies. Arkansas L and M and FF. North Fork of Arkansas, Middle and South Forks of the South Platte, Silver, Cottonwood, Rich, Four Mile and Sacramento L and C and FG. Frying Pan River N and C as are Roaring Fork and Crystal rivers above Carbondale; OG generally.
MINNESOTA: Lake Superior "coaster" rainbows running with most anglers limiting at Grand Marais and Hovland, with fish from 5 to 9 pounds; OVG. North shore trout streams N and C with brook trout OVG.
BRITISH COLUMBIA: Action generally slow except in northern interior where Stellaco River, Manhood River and Nation's River advise FG and OVG.
ATLANTIC SALMON: NEW BRUNSWICK: Fishing in main Miramichee, upper reaches Southwest and Northwest best in 20 years. Up to 30 fish hooked daily last week in Blackville Pool, with favorite flies Squirrel tail and Bear hair. OG here but FF in Restigouche and FP in the St. John, Nashwaak, Tobique and Upsalquitch.
NOVA SCOTIA: With water level down catch also dropped last week, but 158 salmon were killed. Heavy rains needed but St. Mary's, Margaree, Medway and La Have report FF and OG with rain.
SEVEN PHOTOS
PHOTO
THE 1956 Yale Angling Team groups around its captain, Alain Wood Prince of Chicago, and the 630-pound tuna which he landed at Wedgeport, Nova Scotia after a two-hour and 14-minute battle to win the Hulman Cup and the first International Intercollegiate Tuna Match (see page 57). Team members are (left to right): Bill Bullock of Darien, Conn., Winslow Tuttle of Amagansett, N.Y., Captain Wood Prince, Hutch Liebewein of West Hartford, Conn., Tom Moorehead of Larchmont, N.Y. Standing: Coach and Ichthyologist Ed Migdalski.
THE 1956 UNITED STATES TUNA TEAM
Maurice Meyer Jr., 45, of Long Branch, New Jersey is a widely respected angler. An investment banker, he is on the team for the fifth time; this year is its captain.
Don A. Allison, 48, of Beverly Hills, California is on the team for his third year. He is considered one of its most experienced anglers and has taken fish in Nova Scotia, the Bahamas and throughout the Pacific Ocean. He is a furniture broker.
Neumann M. Harris, 51, of Broken Bow, Nebraska is an angler of exceptional skill, who has chased tuna in Nova Scotia and the Bahamas for 10 years. He is a steel company executive and is a team member for the fourth year.
William Negley, 41, of San Antonio, Texas is an attorney and business executive. He spends 140 days and travels 40,000 miles annually throughout the world in pursuit of game fish. He is on the team for the second year.
John W. Anderson II, 33, of Detroit is a vice-president of the Bundy Tubing Co. He has been an angler for 20 years and has covered such famous game-fishing areas as Peru, New Zealand and many others. He is a first-year team member.
A. M. Whisnant Jr., 49, of New York holds the Cat Cay Tournament record at 746 pounds and in 1955 took the 585-pounder at Wedgeport, won for the U.S. A team member for the fifth year, he is sales manager of Stonecutter Mills.
James M. Hutton III, 29, of Cincinnati has managed to fish the Atlantic and Pacific with unusual thoroughness. He has taken tuna in Nova Scotia, Scandinavia and the Bahamas. He is an investment broker and a first-year team member.