The text of the proclamation consists of six stanzas of trochaic tetrameter poetry:
Proclaiming Fish Wish
This time of year brings thoughts of fishes
Their tastes, their manners and their wishes.
Forgetting offices and votes
We yearn for lakes and streams and boats.
To learn what fish are all about,
We first take up the Golden Trout,
And in the mountain solitudes
Afar from life’s vicissitudes
We’ll study fishy attitudes.
Investigation of the fishes
Requires a plan that’s most ambitious.
A group of loyal, jovial friends
Will penetrate the mountain glens
And spend a most delightful week
On streams that flow from Whitney’s peak.
So I suggest you come with me,
Where grow the great Sequoia tree
And study ichthyology.
Appointed for the mountain climbs
Are Lord and Lady John P. Symes.
We order Theodore J. Roche
To act as fly casting coach.
To bear the torch and tend the fire
Is Earl C. Behrens, dubbed "The Squire."
The weather at fishes school
Will follow Fox’s West Coast rule
For Old Jack Frost will keep it cool.
To make the party bright and sunny
Are James the Third and Jimmy’s "Honey"
And Annie, whom we designate
As Premier Lady of the State.
As keepers of the pans and skillets
We honor Dick and Georgia Willets.
To roll the stones that gather moss
And act as general "Whoopee Boss"
Are Philip B. and Vivian Cross.
Fish stories will require confession
In legal form to Jesse Hession.
The Minor-Major Engineer
Are Barton and his "Helen dear."
We’ll name the rest some other time
The budget’s running out of rhyme.
Fishing, this great truth unveils,
That Justice only then prevails
When rod can balance fishes’ scales.
For dates and details and position
The chart explains the expedition
We need not rhyme in repetition.
So hereunto I set my hand
And thus your presences demand
In Paradise of Fishing Land.