Trout season.

Turtles.

Minnows.

Spring and fall fishing

seasons.

Spawn, how obtained.

Nets, etc.

Licenses.

Row boats.

sold, offered for sale, exposed for sale or bartered away shall constitute a separate offense.

SECTION 43. No person shall take, catch, kill, offer for sale, sell, buy, or have in possession a brook trout, speckled trout, Von Behr or brown trout, land locked salmon or California salmon, except from the fifteenth day of April to the fifteenth day of September, both inclusive. (97 v. 475, § 23.)

SECTION 44. No person shall catch or pursue a turtle by the aid or use of a seine or net, except a single seine or net the meshes of which are not less than four inches by four inches in dimension. (97 v. 475, § 23.)

SECTION 45. No person shall take, catch, buy or sell minnows, except for bait, or ship minnows or "white bait" except alive out of the state. In the inland waters of the state no minnows shall be taken or caught with a minnow seine exceeding four feet in depth and eight feet in length, and in the Lake Erie fishing district no minnows shall be taken or caught with a minnow seine exceeding thirty feet in length. (97 v. 475, § 23.)

SECTION 46. For the Lake Erie fishing district there shall be two seasons, the spring fishing season beginning on the fifteenth day of March and including and closing on the thirty-first day of August, and the fall fishing season beginning on the first day of September and including and closing on the thirtieth day of November. The fish and game commission for the purpose of obtaining spawn of fish for the fish hatcheries shall have the right to place men in any boat used in the taking of fish and pay for such spawn such amount as they may fix. And it shall be unlawful for any person engaged in fishing to refuse to take such men in any boat owned by him or under his control, or refuse to afford them opportunity to take spawn, or to do anything to hinder them in any way in the performance of their duty. No person shall draw, set, place, locate or maintain a pound net, gill net, trap net or any fish net whatever in the Lake Erie fishing district of this state between the thirtieth day of November and the fourteenth day of March, both inclusive. (R. S. Sec. 6968-2.)

SECTION 47. No person, firm or corporation shall use or operate for the purpose of catching fish, a boat, net or device, other than hook and line with bait or lure, in the Lake Erie fishing district of this state, without a license from the commissioners of fish and game. Applications for licenses and all licenses herein required shall be in such form as the commissioners of fish and game prescribe. (R. S. Sec. 6968-2.)

SECTION 48. The fees for licenses for fishing in the Lake Erie fishing district for each fishing season defined in this act shall be as follows:

For each row boat used in fishing with gill nets or trammel nets, two dollars and fifty cents;

For each sail boat used in fishing with gill nets or tram- Sail boats. mel nets, four dollars;

Gasoline

For each gasoline power boat used in fishing with gill power boats. nets or trammel nets, seven dollars and fifty cents;

For each steam boat used in fishing with gill nets or Steam boats. trammel nets, twelve dollars and fifty cents;

For each row boat used in fishing with trot lines, one

dollar;

For each seine used in fishing, two dollars and fifty

cents;

Row boat

with trot lines.

Seine.

For each pound net used in fishing, two dollars; For each net or other device used in fishing, other than Pound net. a gill net or trammel net, seine, pound net or hook and line, one dollar. (R. S. Sec. 6968-2.)

license.

SECTION 49. Whenever a person, firm or corporation applies to the commissioners of fish and game for a license required by the preceding two sections, the commissioners, upon receiving the license fees, prescribed in such sections, shall issue such license duly signed by the president and secretary of the fish and game commission. Such license Term of shall remain in force and entitle the holder thereof to fish as permitted by law from the date of issue to and including the last day of the season for which such license was issued. The license required by the preceding two sections shall be carried by an operator of boats, nets or other devices while being used in the catching of fish, and exhibited Exhibiting on demand to any warden, constable, sheriff, deputy sheriff, police officer or member of the fish and game commission. It shall be unlawful for any licensee having such license in his possession to refuse to exhibit it on demand to any proper officer or member of the fish and game commission.~ (R. S. Sec. 6968-2.)

of license.

SECTION 50. The commissioners of fish and game shall issue to each person licensed to catch fish in the Lake Erie fishing district one metal tag for each net or other device, Metal tags. other than a gill net, trammel net or hook and line, used by such licensee for catching fish in the Lake Erie fishing district of this state. No licensee shall use such net or other device, other than a gill net, trammel net or hook and line, without attaching such tags thereto in such manner as the commissioners of fish and game prescribe. If such tags are not attached to such nets or other devices as herein required, it shall be prima facie evidence that they have not been procured. (R. S. Sec. 6968-2.)

SECTION 51. No person shall draw, set, place, locate or maintain any net whatever on any of the reefs of the Lake Erie fishing district, or draw, set, place, locate or maintain any net whatsoever in any channel or passage lying between any islands or between an island and the main land in such district at a greater distance from the shore of such island or main land than one-fourth the distance across such channel or passage. (R. S. Sec. 6968-1.)

SECTION 52. No person shall draw, set, place, locate or maintain any net whatever within a radius of one-half

Location of lated.

nets, regu

mile from a pier or break water built or maintained by the United States government, or at or within one-half mile from the mouth of any river flowing into Lake Erie, or within one-half mile of any embankment, dam or bridge in any bay or river connecting with or flowing into Lake Erie, or more than one-fourth the distance across any bay or river whose waters flow into Lake Erie. (R. S. Sec. 6968-1.)

SECTION 53. The back of the crib or car of all nets used in fishing in the Lake Erie fishing district shall be so constructed that the meshes thereof shall be not less than two and seven-eighths inches in length and width, stretched mesh, and hang squarely, but a smaller mesh may be used on the edges of the back of a crib or car next to the corner or side lines for a space on each side equal in width to onethird the width of the back of such crib or car. The large mesh herein provided shall be on the middle part of the back of the crib or car and reach from the top to the bottom thereof. Providing, however, that until August 1, 1910, the word "stretched mesh" shall be taken to mean "stretched mesh factory measure." On after March 19th, 1910, the entire back of crib or car in all trap or fyke nets used in fishing in the Lake Erie district, shall be so constructed that the meshes thereof shall be not less than three inches in width and length, stretched mesh. Providing, however, in case of fyke-nets the owner or operator thereof shall have the option to place the large mesh herein required, instead of in back of crib or car in space between the last two hoops of such nets, such space to be not less than three feet in width; in case the large mesh herein required is placed in back of such crib or car no puckering back shall be used. No gill nets shall be used with meshes less than three inches, stretched mesh.

SECTION 54. No person shall have in his possession a white fish less than one and three-quarter pounds in the round, a cat-fish less than fifteen inches in length or a sturgeon less than four feet in length; a perch, white bass or bull head less than eight inches in length. All such fish caught of a less length than herein described shall be immediately released alive while the nets are being lifted in such a manner as not to injure them. No cat-fish or sturgeon shall be brought ashore with its head or tail removed or in such condition that its length cannot be measured. Nothing herein shall prohibit the catching of such fish with hook and line and not for profit and the having in possession or failing to return to the water alive in the manner provided of a quantity of the under-sized fish mentioned herein not exceeding in weight three per cent. of each boat load or part thereof, lot, catch or haul, brought into port of each variety of fish shall not be deemed a violation of this section. (R. S. Sec. 6968-3.)

SECTION 55. No person shall buy, sell, offer for sale or have in his possession any fish caught out of season or in any manner prohibited, or a fish caught unlawfully outside the state of Ohio. (R. S. Sec. 6968-3.)

Label of package

fish or game.

SECTION 56. No person shall deliver or receive for transportation a package, box or other receptacle containing birds, fish or game, unless it is labeled on the addressed side in plain letters with the name and address of the owner containing or consignor and with the weight and kind of fish and the number and kinds of birds and game which such package, box or receptacle contains, or falsely label such package, box or receptacle or deliver or receive for transportation or to transport any birds, fish or game which have been killed, taken or had in possession in violation of law. (97 v. 474, § 21.)

SECTION 57. Whoever violates any provision of sec- Violation. tions twenty-two to fifty-six, both inclusive, shall be fined Penalty. not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than two hundred dollars, and the costs of prosecution, and upon default of payment of fine and costs shall be committed to the jail of the county or to some workhouse and there confined one day for each one dollar of fine and costs against him. He shall not be discharged or released therefrom by any board or officer except upon payment of the portion of the fine and costs remaining unserved or upon the order of the commissioners of fish and game; provided that for a violation of section fifty-eight the defendant shall be fined as above prescribed or imprisoned not less than thirty days nor more than six months, or both. (R. S. Secs. 6968-2, 6968-3; 97 v. 475, § 23; 98 v. 197.)

Explosives, use of,

SECTION 58.. No person shall take, catch or kill fish in any waters, over which the state of Ohio has jurisdiction, by means of quicklime, electricity, or any kind of explosive or poisonous substance, or place or use quicklime, forbidden. electricity, explosive or poisonous substances in any such waters except for engineering purposes and upon the written permission of the president of the fish and game commission. (98 v. 250.)

SECTION 59. Whoever violates any provision of the Violation. preceding section shall be fined not less than fifty dollars Penalty. nor more than two hundred and fifty dollars, or be imprisoned not less than thirty days nor more than six months, or both. (98 v. 250.)

SECTION 60. The chief warden, deputy state wardens or any other person may take up, remove or clear away an obstruction to the natural transit of fish, except mill dams, placed in any of the waters of this state, but this section shall not apply to Lake Erie. (R. S. Sec. 4216.)

ments of fish.

SECTION 61. For the purpose of this act measure- Measurements of fish shall be made from end of nose to the longest tip or end of the tail. (R. S. Sec. 6968-4.)

passages, defined.

SECTION 62. Channels and passages shall be consid- Channels and ered those waters lying between islands, or an island and the mainland, where the waters of Lake Erie are narrowed or obstructed in consequence of the location of the island therein. (R. S. Sec. 6968-4.)

SECTION 63. No rock or land elevated above the surface of the water of Lake Erie having an area of less than

Island
defined.

Reef, defined.

permission

to catch.

five acres above water shall be considered an island within the meaning of this act. (R. S. Sec. 6968-4.)

SECTION 64. For the purpose of this act a reef in Lake Erie shall mean an elevation of rock either broken or in place or gravel shown by the latest United States chart to be above the common level of the surrounding bottom of the lake, other than the rock broken or in place forming the base or foundation rock of an island or mainland and sloping from the shore thereof. A reef shall also mean all elevation shown by such chart to be above the common level of such sloping base or foundation rock of an island or mainland, whether running from the shore of an island or parallel with the contour of the shore of an island or in any other way, whether formed by rock broken or in place or from gravel. (R. S. Sec. 6968-4.)

SECTION 65. Nothing in this act shail prohibit the German carp, taking or catching of German carp in the bays, marshes, estuaries or inlets bordering upon, flowing into or in any manner connected with Lake Erie, which may be caught at any time with any seine, constructed out of netting having meshes not less than four inches, stretched mesh. Other nets or devices may be used if authorized by the commissioners of fish and game. Written permission to catch carp in such waters shall be granted to any person who shall make application to the commissioners of fish and game for such privilege and satisfies the commissioners that he will not in any manner violate any law for the protection of fish. Such permission may be revoked by the commissioners upon conviction of the holder thereof for taking fish contrary to law. (R. S. Sec. 6968-4.)

Permit,

revoked how.

Hatcheries.

Lagoons and receding waters of rivers.

SECTION 66. Nothing in this act shall prevent the commissioners of fish and game, their agents and employes, from taking fish at any time or place or in any manner for the maintenance or cultivation of fish in hatcheries or for the purpose of stocking ponds, lakes or rivers, or from exterminating carp in any waters. (R. S. Sec. 6968-4.)

SECTION 67. Nothing in this act shall prevent the taking of fish in any manner in the ponds or lagoons formed by the receding waters of any river, when such ponds and lagoons no longer have any connection with the channels of such streams, or to a private artificial fish-pond or privately owned lakes. (97 v. 475, § 23.)

SECTION 68. Nothing in this act shall apply to nets, traps, or other devices for catching fish, in the possession Private ponds. of the owner of private artificial fishponds, for use in such ponds, or to fish nets, fish traps, or other devices for catching fish, not otherwise prohibited, to be used in catching fish in the Ohio river, Lake Erie, or in those bays of Lake Erie, wherein fishing with such devices is permitted, when such fish nets, fish traps, or other devices are kept within one mile of the Ohio river, Lake Erie, Sandusky bay as far up as Eagle Island, or Portage bay as far up as the Oak Harbor bridge, Maumee bay or Maumee river as far up as the Cherry street bridge in the city of Toledo. (98 v. 197.)