FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



extensively. In the inception, many difficulties 

 were met with, and success was difficult to attain. 

 The necessity for artificial hatching was known to 

 be so great, owing to the great demand for them 

 as a food-fish, and their consequent depletion, that 

 many failures only spurred on to success. No 

 difficulties are now met with, and these particular 

 hatcheries are considered especially successful. 



The variation in size and weight of the pike- 

 perch is very great, very large fish being taken in 

 the larger bodies of water. In the smaller rivers 

 and lakes, the weight will average from two to 

 about six pounds, with an occasional one of eight 

 or ten pounds. In the Great Lakes, ten to twenty 

 pounds is not an uncommon weight, and occasional 

 fish of twenty- five pounds and even heavier have 

 been found in the nets. 



The pike-perch is very migratory in its nature, 

 often changing its locations daily, and not infre- 

 quently several times a day. Now it will be 

 found in shallow water of from six to ten feet in 

 depth, while possibly on the morrow it can only 

 be taken in thirty or forty feet depths or more. 

 Usually assembling in schools, the fisherman can 

 feel almost assured that if he succeeds in taking 

 one, others may be secured in the vicinity. Un- 

 questionably it is one of the cleanest of the game 

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