A FISHERMAN'S LUCK 3 



the particular fish he is trying to catch. Often every method will fail 

 and nothing will induce the fish to bite. 



Since fishing depends on the way fishes bite, every fisherman should 

 know something about their feeding habits. These habits vary greatly. 

 It is well known that walleyes seem to feed more after sunset, the time 

 of day when northern pike sometimes stop feeding. This observation is 

 corroborated by the results of experimental nets, which usually show 

 the walleyes coming into shallow water after sunset and the northern 

 pike moving out into deeper waters. 



Such fishes as bass, sunfishes, crappies, and bullheads eat about one- 

 twentieth of their body weight per day during the summer. There 

 seems to be a limit to their capacity, which can generally be measured 

 as the total amount of food they will consume on an empty stomach. 

 When a fish has been fed until it will eat no more, it takes very little 

 during the following 24 hours. The time varies with different species. 

 Even if this quantity- of food is divided into a series of feedings, the 

 fish will eat very little after it has reached its capacity. This may ex- 

 plain why fishes sometimes do not bite, especially in seasons of abun- 

 dant food production. 



Though fishes usually bite because they are hungry, some species 

 strike because they are pugnacious. The male bass strikes at any mov- 

 ing object" near its nest. Though it eats very little during the breeding 

 season, it is highly pugnacious at this time. 



Seasonal changes, particularly in temperature, cause considerable 

 difference in the feeding habits of fishes. The length of daylight may 

 also be a factor. All fishes consume less food in winter than in summer. 

 Some fishes, such as northern pike and walleyes, feed more or less 

 throughout the winter. Other fishes, like black basses and sunfishes, 

 seem to become semidormant in winter. In the aquaria at the Univer- 

 sity of Minnesota such fishes as largemouth bass, sunfishes, and dog- 

 fishes almost cease feeding during the winter, though the water never 

 freezes. One winter when the water was kept at summer tempera- 

 tures these fishes continued feeding and in a month's time had ex- 

 hausted their normal winter minnow supply. 



Crappies alone of the sunfish family are heavy winter feeders in 

 northern -waters. Although they will bite readily throughout most of 

 the winter, often during the late winter months or early spring there 

 comes a time when they almost stop feeding. We find that crappies 

 frequently change their diet entirely during the late winter months and 

 feed almost exclusively on planktonic Crustacea, which at other times 

 do not form any considerable part of their diet. 



Bluegills do not bite readily in northern lakes in winter and so it has 

 been assumed that they do not feed extensively during the colder 

 months. However, in Michigan it was discovered that they would 



