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UrWERSJTY OF GEORG A LIBRAR ES
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UNIVERSITY Of GEO
Combined with OUTDOOR GEORGIA
Where Friends and the Outdoors
SIXTH YEAR — NUMBER 23
ATLANTA, JUNE 1, 1946
Single Copies ... 10 Cents
Yearly Subscription $1.50
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DUCK FACTORY MAP—This hiap, prepared by Ducks Unlimited, shows the
weather and duck conditions that existed at the end of May. Most of the ducks that
migrate to Southern United States are hatched in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Battle oi Lake Chatuffe
Boundary Confusion Irks Anglers
The battle of Lake Chatuge is
still raging as warmer weather
slips up on the unretreating per
sons involved.
Reports reaching Southern Out
doors indicate that the most ac
tive combatants are Georgia fish
ermen and North Carolina game
protectors.
Several Georgia fishermen, who
insist they can’t read a sign “that
isn’t there,’’ have been tagged and
fined by the boys behind the badge
across the line. And they don’t
like it.
LAKE FORMS BOUNDARY
Lake Chatuge is a TVA reser
voir near Hiawassee, Ga., and
Hayesville, N. C. It has been a
productive spot for bass fisher
men who have provided a mild
business boom for Young Harris,
Hiawassee and Hayesville.
The trouble is that the lake is
in both states, and Georgia fisher
men, often in their enthusiasm,
and sometimes purposely, wander
beyond the imaginary line. Sev
eral have run afoul of the law and
suffered fines.
They blame the game and fish
departments of North Carolina
and Georgia, which, they insist,
should properly and conspicuously
post the “disputed boundary.”
NEW PLAN URGED
Many Georgia fishermen feel
that North Carolina and Georgia
should recognize licenses of either
state to fish anywhere in Lake
Chatuge. They say that such a
plan “wouldn’t hurt anybody and
would eliminate a lot of confusion
and headaches.”
Under an agreement promul
gated several years ago by North
Carolina and Georgia a modified
plan of reciprocity went/ into ef
fect. It permits North Carolina
fishermen to enter Georgia waters
and Georgia fishermen to fish in
Tarheel waters up to certain imag
inary boundaries.
RECIPROCAL AGREEMENT
Here is the agreement that was
in effect at 4his writing:
“All fishing licenses and per
mits legally obtained from the
North Carolina Division of Game
and Inland Fisheries and the
Georgia Game and Fish Commis- .
sion, or their duly authorized
agents, shall be accepted as right
to fish in that portion of Chatuge
Reservoir located in Clay County,
North Carolina, and Towns County,
Continued on Page 2
BACKYARD BLUEGILL—This one pound, 14 ounce
bluegill bream, convinced Wyck Read, of Atlanta, that
the best fishing often is right at home. Read caught the
prize specimen in Phoebe Lake, just a couple of long
casts off Peachtree Road, one of Atlanta’s longest thor
oughfares.
Fate of Ducks
Hangs on Rain
In Nesting Area
Rainfall, or lack of it, in the breeding areas of Canada this
month will determine what kind of waterfowl season hunters
in the South will experience this winter.
Reports from Ducks Unlimited
and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife
Service last week offered no en
couragement to waterfowlers who
had hoped earlier low estimates
on the duck and goose populations
were inaccurate.
The June report from Alberta,
Saskatchewan and Manitoba told
of early nesting, but expressed
fear that millions of ducklings
would perish when shallow pot
holes become dry. Fate of the
young ducks hangs on the amount
of rain.
AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
DU says that May brought
heavy frosts and scanty rains—
not enough to last through a sus
tained drought. Ducks went North
early and began nesting 10 days
ahead of schedule. Whether cold
weather defertilized incomplete
egg clutches will be determined by
June 15.
Field men reported that only
Mallards and Pintails show an
increase. All others are off, with
Redheads showing the greatest
loss.
In an address to the Outdoor
Writers Association at Chatta
nooga, Tenn., Dr. Clarence Cot-
tam, assistant director of the Fish
and Wildlife Service, repeated the
gloomy story which Director A1
Day had told Southeastern game
and fish commissioners in April.
Cottam reported a decrease of
36 per cent in ducks and geese
during the last two years—from
125 million to 86 million. He at
tributed the reduction to drought
in the breeding grounds, over
shooting and disease, principally
botulism.
Cottam furthcx. set the stage
for a curtailment in gunning days
and in the daily take of both
ducks and geese.
REDUCTIONS TO STAY
He jarred writers from Louisi
ana, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee
and Illinois with the assertion that
“for the best interests of conser
vation and future hunting, the
Mississippi flyway should be closed
this season.” Cottam expressed
grave concern over the Canada
goose, whose members had been
mercilessly slaughtered at Horse
shoe Lake near Cairo, Ill., before
the area was closed last year.
Before Horseshoe Lake was
closed, gunners killed 5,150 geese
in 22 hours of shooting last year.
Conservationists and other ob
servers believe that hunters must
face reduced seasons and bag
limits for at least three years be
fore the waterfowl populations
can be restored. By that time
there likely will be so many duck
hunters that the short season and
low limit will be here to stay.
Practice Cast
Gets lO-Pountler
LYONS, Ga.—Dan Gray un
limbered his rod and reel on
Pendleton Creek the other aft
ernoon and a 10-pound black
bass jumped on the plug.
Gray hauled in the fighting
fish and called it a successful
workout, convinced that his
equipment was ready for a big
season this summer.
Atlanta Angler
First to Catch
Fish in Tourney
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.—J. H.
Moore, of 920 Westmont Road, At
lanta, caught the first fish in the
third annual $1,000 St. Johns
County Fishing Tournament, which
began here June 1, but received
only honorable mention when he
was unable to report the catch for
the lack of a telephone.
Moore landed a 12-ounce sea
trout at 10 a. m., just four min
utes after the contest officially
began. The event continues
through October 1 and includes 17
varieties of fresh and salt water
fish.
Honors for reporting the first
official catch went to John Ellis,
of Jacksonville, Fla., who an
nounced the catch of a whiting at
10:10 a.m.
MANAGER—Charley Gillham,
nationally-known writer and out-
doorsman, has been named Proj
ect Manager of the Outdoor
Writers Association of America.
He will carry the torch for the
writers in a crusade for conser
vation in all parts of the coun
try.
