Farmers Weekly Review

By Sandy Vasko

In the southwestern part of Will County spring means one thing – fishing. Most avid fishermen have already wet a line by the first part of April. Fishing fever runs in my family gene pool, and there is no cure but to get out onto the water. I suspect many of you have the same disease.

Early pioneers living near rivers and lakes were no strangers to the art of fishing. In fact, small children were encouraged to go fishing, hopefully to bring back a meal to feed the family.

The waters of the Des Plaines, Kankakee, Du Page, etc. were still pristine in the 1860s; no pollution to speak of. That meant an abundance of all species of fish. We read: “The Kankakee abounds in pickerel, pike, and bass, and our piscatorial citizens are not slow to try their skill in capturing them. Every morning one may see fishermen who have been out for a short time returning with fine bunches of these choice varieties. Mr. David Butler caught a bass on Monday morning, which weighed seven pounds and a half. The fish caught in these waters are not only abundant, but rich in flavor, and of good size – ranging from two to six or seven pounds.”

It wasn’t long until people found a way to destroy this rich fishery by using weapons of mass destruction; the fishing seine was first. It wasn’t unusual to find groups of fishermen walking the river with large seine nets, catching every fish, big and small that passed by. And this problem wasn’t just on the Kankakee; statewide catches were diminishing.

It wasn’t until June of 1879 that something was done about it. We read in the Wilmington Advocate: “Pot fishers, Beware – The ‘fish bill,’ with the emergency clause, has passed the legislature at Springfield and been signed by the Governor, and went into effect May 13th. This prohibits any person from fishing with a seine, in any waters in Illinois from February 1st to June 15th. The first offense is liable to a fine of from $5 ($161) to $100 ($3,275), or imprisonment.”

The next assault on the finny tribe was even more deadly and reminds me of an old joke my father used to tell. Two men in a boat were arguing about the best way to catch fish. The first said the best way was with dynamite, the second man said he would never do such a thing. The first guy says “Oh, yeah!” reaches under his seat, grabs a stick of dynamite, lights it, then hands it to the second guy and says, “Now are you going sit there, or are you going to fish?”

By the 1880s, the rivers were becoming fished out; not just the Kankakee, but the Des Plaines, Du Page and Illinois River as well. Using a net was a long process, and the chances of being caught were high. It was then that dynamite became the tool of the poacher.

The time it took to light a stick of dynamite, throw it in, and scoop up stunned fish was minimal. By the time someone heard the explosion and got out there to investigate, the perps were gone. The chances of getting caught were low, and the rewards were high.

We read in the Joliet Press:” For some time, the practice of killing fish with dynamite has been practiced, much to the injury of the sport. It was thought when a law was enacted prohibiting the seine that it would be sufficient, but to evade this, the use of dynamite has been resorted to. Bombs were thrown into the Kankakee River, bursting and making frightful havoc among the finny tribe, big and little. When it was learned what the barbarous piscatorial dynamiters and fearless finny anarchists and bomb fiends among the fishes were doing, a storm of indignation arose and a public meeting of large proportions was held at the county court house.”

In May of 1886 a group of concerned citizens met at the County Court House. “H. B. Scutt was called to the chair, and A. C. Clement was made secretary and treasurer. The temporary organization was made permanent, and was called the Will County Fish and Game Protective Society. Everybody present subscribed and paid the membership fee of $2 ($67). A resolution was passed offering a reward of $50 ($1,670) and expenses to all informers for convictions of anyone caught killing fish with dynamite, to be paid out of the general fund. Six of the dynamiters are already before the grand jury.”

The results were immediate. Within the first week, six people were arrested and quickly indicted; three of them were from Braceville. Z. Bailey, Jr., Thomas Hall, and George Angell were all arrested for killing fish near the Kankakee Feeder Canal with dynamite. They were caught with several hundred fish in their possession.

This spot, near what is now the Des Plaines Conservation Area, was a prime fishing hot spot at the time. The citizens of Wilmington were outraged. There was even some tar and feather talk going around. In the end, each was fined $400 ($13,400). Because the fines were so high, the practice of using dynamite, at least on such well-traveled rivers, was pretty much eliminated.

Also, by this time the state had formed commissions to protect fish state-wide. “State Fish Commissioner Bartlett on Tuesday at Kankakee took legal steps to compel fish ladders to be placed in dams at Waldron and Kankakee. He will take similar action to ladder dams at Wilmington and Marseilles, thus opening fishways from the sources to the mouth of the Kankakee river. He will stock the river next week with bass, carp, salmon, pickerel, and catfish.”