LET'S TALK ABOUT FISHING 1940

Here’s a few fishing stories for you!

MINNEAPOLIS MAN HOOKS GIANT TROUT
In Ely Minnesota members of the Minneapolis Junior Chamber of Commerce had a retreat. They caught a 22 ½ pound lake trout and spotted a black bear walking across the ice covered snow.


MUSKIE NETS WALKER MAN FAME AND FINE
Jack’s luck cost him $10 in fines, and he doesn’t care because the fish he got is bigger than the one that got away. It was a Muskie weighing 51 pounds with a head 13 inches long, a tail spread of 13 inches, and a 26 inch girth. It tangled with his spear while he was fishing near Squaw Point on Leech Lake, pulled him through a hole in the ice and wrecked his fish house in the bargain. Though was caught out of season, the state game and Fish Department is allowing the Walker community to use a fish for advertising purposes.


IRON EATING CATFISH
Among the tall tales that found their way to early Minnesota newspapers is that of an iron eating catfish, reported in June 1872. The report stated: “ An immense catfish was caught a few days ago in Lake St. Croix and in whose stomach was found an ax with the helve attached. This at first glance seemed incredible, but was vouched for by a number of eyewitnesses, who’s veracity is unquestionable.


The editor, anticipating skepticism, added, “we have as yet no scientific solution of the matter, but we’ll paint in that the ax was swallowed by the greedy monster when it was only a hatchet, and has since attained the growth of an ordinary ax.


FISH BREAKS SPEAR SHAFT
While fishing through the ice late in the season, Vern speared a large northern pike. After being struck in the back of the head a monstrous fish continued traveling with such force that it broke the steel spear shaft just above the tines. Silverberg lost not only the largest fish ever seen, but also the spear; and experience which would put some of Ripley’s stuff to shame.


CITES PERIL FOR PIKE ANGLING IN LAKE OF THE WOODS--1940
Wall-eyed pike fishing in Lake of the Woods is doomed, Dr. EA Onstad, Baudette, told the legislative investigating committee in St. Paul late last week, unless laws are enforced covering stream pollution and commercial fishing.


Dr. Onstad recommended an injunction be secured against paper mills at International Falls to prevent discharge into Rainey River of waste matter which he said had already wiped out one of the greatest wall-eyed pike spawning grounds in the nation.


The president of the Baudette Chamber of Commerce also suggested all commercial fishing be abolished on Lake of the Woods for an indeterminate period and village sewage pollution along the Rainey River be curbed.


PIKE FISHING NOW IS PERMITTED IN MINNESOTA LAKES
State game and fish division announces catch limits fixed by law.

Gamey northern pike., wall-eyes and battling muskellunge will lure Minnesota sportsman into the outdoors this weekend for the premier of a fishing season expected to rank with the best. The season opened Wednesday.


Cold weather and the late spring, some division officials said, may slow the wall-eye catches somewhat in the northern lakes. In many northern waters, the best pike fishing, they pointed out, occurs in late May in normal years.


Fish which may be taken in Minnesota beginning May 15 are pickerel or northern pike, wall-eyed pike, saugers or sand pike, and muskellunge.
The catch limit on the pike is eight per day with 16 in possession on northern pike.


Eight per day with 20 permitted in possession of wall-eyed pike.


Muskellunge, two per day and two allowed in possession.


Minnesota’s fishing season will continue May 29 when the southern zone opens for sunfish, crappies, and bass. The northern zone for these fish opens June 21.
Pan fish devotees who apply their drop line techniques on the Interstate boundary portions of the St. Croix and the Mississippi rivers will “get the jump” on other Minnesota anglers this season,. Special interstate regulations permit the taking of sunfish and crappies beginning May 15. Black bass may not be taken in these waters until June 20.


July 1940
Many a fisherman has gone Muskie fishing year after year without catching a Muskie. When Clarence, the local Hartz store manager caught a 16 ½ pounder at Height of Land Lake in Ontario, he was beaming with pride.