Fish and Fishermen 241 



were not being wasted; whether planting the fry the moment 

 they were ready to begin feeding did not give just as good 

 survival as holding them until they were three inches long. 

 If you could hold them until they were six inches long, get 

 them through that period when in natural waters they were 

 preyed on by a host of enemies, you might bring about a 

 really significant increase in their survival j but the added 

 cost would be so great as to offset the improvement. 



A series of experiments and observations has led gradually 

 to the third and present phase of the trout culturist's phi- 

 losophy. Repeated creel censuses with marked hatchery trout 

 have shown that anglers catch on the average not over four 

 per cent of the fish planted as fingerlings — and for practical 

 purposes "fingerling" may be defined as fish which will have 

 to pass through a winter after planting before they are of a 

 size to be caught. Careful observers have corrected the mis- 

 understandings about the mechanics of natural spawning 

 which had led to the belief in its inefficiency j and painstaking 

 work digging up areas where natural spawning has occurred 

 has demonstrated its efficiency by showing that as high as 

 ninety-nine per cent of the eggs had been fertilized. It began 

 to be realized that if an appreciable number of adult trout 

 remained in any water after the angling season, they could, 

 if they had access to proper spawning areas, produce all the 

 young fish which the water could support; that to take the 

 eggs from them, raise them in hatcheries, and return the 

 little fish to the water, probably added little to the total pro- 

 duction; and that if instead of returning the little fish to their 

 parent water a large proportion of them were placed else- 

 where, the parent water was being "robbed" and its popula- 

 tion gradually reduced. 



The first corrective step was to permit the wild trout to 

 spawn naturally, and to do everything possible to improve 

 spawning conditions for them. The second step was to re- 



