CR0WDED STREAMS.

Voluntary limited-entry may be the only answer.

TWENTY YEARS AGO writer Jim Enger described the invasion of canoes along the fabled "Holy Waters" of Michigan's Au Sable ("The Aluminum Hatch," Oct./Nov. 1978). He explained what was then a relatively rare, but increasing, occurrence on the trout waters of the U.S.--incompatible (competitive) uses of the waters on which fishers, had historically found quiet, solitary recreation. As Enger pointed out, that had changed. He wrote:

"You first hear the thump of the paddles against the sides of the canoes. This sound seems to carry the farthest; bump . . . thump, thump . . . bump. You hear it when they are well upstream, and if you were giving thought to changing flies or digging around in your vest for a smoke, you don't, because you know that you maybe have a dozen casts left before they're right on you. So you work to your last riser or one more likely looking piece of cover and try not to look upstream. Finally, you hear the giggling and the shouting and the first of them comes around the bend, and now you have maybe three casts left. Then they are going by on every side and you are out of business."

Though a law was …