Better Fishing

because in the Piedmont should provide good fishing for thousands of industrial workers countless farm ponds starting down where the Spanish moss hangs water no longer produces the marvelous fishing at once did vast areas of freshwater coastal sounds provide good fishing but it could be better what is our fishing well in some places fish are plentiful but they are too small studded because there are too many and food is too scarce in many areas carped have taken over we're game fish are to be allowed to come sure it's fun to get out on a sunny afternoon and drown a few worms and listen to the birds sing but it's a lot more fun if you catch some fish [Music] long ago our hills and Plains were covered with trees rainfall was held on the soil by natural vegetation and clean water trickled into our lakes and streams then came the lumbermen with his thorn axe laying bare the watersheds the plow followed the axe in the bar scarring the earth and loosening the soil [Music] when heavy one loose bare soil priceless farmland washes away [Music] silt fills our lakes and chokes our streams making them unfit for fish to live in [Music] bass and bream just kept producing when their eggs have been smothered with silk [Music] every angler knows that a game fish has to see his food before he can eat it [Music] soil erosion is a problem to the farmer the fish and the fisherman the answer is simple but far reaching our waters will be clean and our farmland preserve only when we have learned the value of contoured hillsides strip cropping and other soil conservation practices eroded feel borders can be planted with soil saving wildlife habitat plants [Music] good land management not only keeps our water is clear for fish it helps produce other kinds of wildlife as well eroded hillsides can be converted into green pastures and fields so that when the rains come the soil will have a protecting cover there is no soil erosion here [Music] one of the most vital problems facing the people of our state today is pollution the pouring of town and factory wastes into our streams here is what happened and pollution is death decay and often disease North Carolina is becoming one of the great industrial states in the nation and industry like fish and people must have clean water to survive when clean water is pumped out of our streams and poured back in in the form of filth our streams become running sores on our land and sewage from cities and towns and public health is in danger [Music] modern industry has begun to clean up pollution this plant is pouring its waste into settling basins where it is purified we can turn back into the screens [Music] some cities and towns are aware of the danger to health and light change waste materials from filth to water that is suitable for swimming and fishing and boating there is still much to be done the cost of Pollution Control is high but the cost of failure is higher [Music] people who appreciate the value of our wildlife resources believe in obeying the rules for taking Fish and Game but there are some who do not taking fish unlawfully by setting traps is but one of many unscrupulous activities that spoil the fishing for law-abiding citizens these game fish will never thrill an angler by tugging on the end of his line the man of your Wildlife Resources Commission are constantly on guard to protect you from this type of violator more than half of your licensed dollar is spent to protect the honest sportsmen from the man who doesn't believe in playing the game according to the rules violations of the rules of sportsmanship are sometimes hard to detect but people who still have not learned to fish according to these rules must be apprehended [Music] the Wildlife Commission has the staff of more than 130 wildlife protectors equipped with patrol boats planes cars and two-way radios modern equipment and well trained men to cope with the Fish and Game law violators your wildlife protector can't be everywhere it can't do the job alone it is the duty of every sportsman to report violations when they occur our wildlife protectors need the help of people who realize that the man who takes fish illegally is stealing from the people of the state one of the biggest jobs in the field of wildlife conservation is the protection of Fish and Game from those who don't respect the law it is a job that can be well done only when every good citizen helps [Music] your wildlife protector is your friend with your aid the man who breaks the rules can be brought to justice [Music] when dams are built on major rivers more problems arise and the Wildlife Commission is ever alert to protect the anglers interests reservoirs are designed to produce power and control floods this means that water levels in these reservoirs change during the year during the spring months when bass and bream are on their nests these nests are often left to dry in the Sun hundreds of thousands of eggs are destroyed power companies who own the dams have learned the value of these reservoirs to the sport fishermen and these companies offer their cooperation wherever they can to keep the water level as constant as possible during the weeks that fish are spawning by closing down the gates and shutting off the flow of water the levels are allowed to remain constant [Music] these are brim guarding their nests here is a bass standing guard to drive off invaders on the shore a father and his son know that their fishing has been safeguarded sometimes the demand for power is so great that water must be used when this happens non nesting species such as white bass and walleyes are introduced walleye eggs are flown in from another state and placed in one of our hatcheries [Music] they are then stocked in reservoirs we're changing water levels make it difficult for native game fish to reproduce within two years these tiny walleyes will be producing some real sport by introducing new species we have solved another fishing problem and produced game fish that are real sport and fine eating you will see more and more of these walleyes in the years to come [Music] something has happened to our fishing down in the deep dark waters of the coastal swamps this is not a bass or a bream breaking water it is agar a tough scale predator with long sharp teeth and an appetite for other fish these waters have become infested with gar Grindle carp and other coarse fish game fish such as bass and bream and crappies have become scarce let's take a look at this big grin dolor blackfish he looks well-fed and maybe we can learn something by examining the contents of his stomach [Music] this partly digested white perch tells the story carp can take over a lake or a stream by rooting around on the bottom they stirred up a cloud of muck that makes the water unfit for game species you can't produce game fish with a lot of carp around any more than you can graze cattle in a pasture the Hogs have rooted up carp are raised for people who like to fish for them in ponds where they can't get away and take over adjoining waters the Wildlife Commission is conducting a survey to find out what has gone wrong and what can be done to correct it all the answers may never be found but some of the facts are coming to light [Music] here is a typical catch of fish from one of the biologists nets a mixture of course fish such as guard black fish and carp plus such game fish as bass and perch the game fish are carefully sorted weighed and returned to the water on harm here is a gar a Grindle and a catfish rough fish having any commercial value are sold the answer to the problem in these waters may lie in removing as many rough fish as possible to give game fish a better chance for survival and the commercial fishermen may be called on to do the job although stocking of fish is far from the final answer to fish management problems there is an endless demand to put more fish in waters open to the public the Wildlife Commission maintains hatcheries to produce bass and other warm water species for stocking in public waters stocking is needed where conditions are good but fish are scarce these largemouth fingerlings may grow up to tug on your line [Music] at the town of Weldon on the Roanoke River the Wildlife Commission maintains the only striped bass or rock fish hatchery in the world here during the spring spawning run commercial and sports fishermen bring in fish ripe with spawn where they can be stripped of roe and Milt eggs must be taken from ready to spawn females within 20 minutes after the fish is caught or they will be dead and unsuitable for hatching [Music] once the eggs are freed from the female they are fertilized with milk and put into hatchery jars where they soon hatch into tiny fry this way millions of eggs are hatched that would otherwise be lost [Music] some of these fry go back into the Roanoke where their parents came up from the ocean to spawn others are put into other coastal rivers so that a sport and an industry worth millions of dollars can be perpetuated through the years [Music] every boy is entitled to cash fish furthermore he is entitled to catch big fish [Music] biologists of the Wildlife Resources Commission are constantly at work making surveys of Tarheel waters taking samples and making scientific analyses to find out what is wrong with our fishing [Music] in too many of our waters fish are numerous but they are too small here are almost a hundred fish taken from only a few feet of shoreline in this pond it looks like there are plenty of fish here old but they are too small to be a value for food or sport let's take a look at a scale from this undersized print by examining it under a microscope the biologist can tell from growth rings how old it is these rings show that it is nearly three years old [Music] now let's compare it with another fish a bigger one taken from a pond where there is plenty of food and the fish haven't become overcrowded [Music] by comparing it with the scale from the smaller fish we can see that if two is nearly three years old but it is almost four times as big it is true that we can have too many fish in a lake or a pond and it means that more fish should be harvested the examination of fish and the scientific analysis of the water can answer a lot of questions are the fish overstocked is the water polluted is there enough oxygen is there enough food for the fish should fertilizer be added answers to these questions to the farmer or the sportsman in the form of valuable advice are a part of the Wildlife Commission service to the people modern equipment and scientific techniques can give us many of these answers special problems are always coming up and your Wildlife Commission stands ready to meet these problems as they arise down on the coast thundering breakers of the Atlantic Ocean constantly threatened uptown through the barriers of the Outer Banks to pour seawater into our freshwater sounds in northern states this kind of fence is used to pile up snow beside the roads to keep it from blocking the highways here it breaks the wind to build up sand dunes these form a barrier that stretches for more than a mile to pile up millions of tons of sand and just to prove that it works this fellow a sand crab can scuttle right across the top of the fence [Music] once this sand barrier has been covered with beach grass the threat of The Breakers will be destroyed for years to come and one of the finest fishing areas in America will be saved access to public fishing waters is becoming difficult because of the growing demand for property along public waters and the ever-growing army of fishermen free fishing access areas are being developed along the more important fishing waters throughout the entire state these access areas another service to the sportsmen will assure everyone of an equal opportunity to go fishing without paying a special fee or having to trespass here is another problem as old as the story of fishing sometimes the fish are their big ones the water is clear the weather is fine but sometimes they just won't bite and confidentially we don't know what to do about it we have been talking about what is wrong with our fishing and what we have to do to make it better and now well let's take a look at some real North Carolina fishing the kind of fishing we have a right to enjoy everywhere let's just sit back and relax and enjoy the beauty of nature and the rhythm of flowing water as it swirls on down this mountain river [Music] this water is clear and clean and cool fit for a man to get his feet wet in and fit for a self-respecting fish to fight for his life on the end of a line there isn't any silt here the wooded hillsides along this river hold the rainwater and let it trickle cool and clear from freshets & springs there is no pollution here to turn sweet-smelling water into filth this water is so clear that even a catfish can see his way to strike at a plug and give an angler a real battle [Music] is there anything like clean clear water is there anything more thrilling than the strike of a fighting fish when he smashes away at a lure and when he runs away with the lion and then gets up and walks on his tail and tries to throw the hook out of his mouth [Music] is there anything nicer than a fine string of walleyes and smallmouth bass to show your friends and to cook in a skillet of fat over the glowing coals of a campfire what price would you pay for the privilege of spending an afternoon with a fly rod on a small clear pond in the Piedmont the brim are fat and sassy the water is cool where you can get a strike and miss and have the little warriors strike again to give you the kind of battle only a brim can give [Music] [Music] [Music] strings like this are taken only where conditions for fishing are good was the fishing won't be like this every day even in our coastal sounds but he knows that fishing could be more like this if enough of us work together to give the fish a decent chance to live and grow and reproduce their kind this is what we mean when we say that fishing can be better it's what we mean when we say a shorter time between bites every angler has the right to add more fish to his string until he's taken his legal limit he knows that if things are done right there will be fish for everybody [Music] phishing gives a man an appetite but who wants to take time out to eat when they're biting like this we can have a lot more fishing like this as soon as every man woman and child realizes there is a big job to be and that all of us our castes will be good ones