Stocking 109 



limited shallows may be productive of substantial annual yields, if the 

 lake is fished intensively when the fish are biting ( annual yield was about 

 100 pounds of fish per acre of lake ) . 



Every practicing fishery biologist will discover, sooner or later, at least, 

 one pond or lake that, although unmanaged or "mismanaged," still pro- 

 duces as good or better fishing than any lake or pond toward which he 

 may be directing his management efforts at that time. 1 have found 

 several. In some, the high production was transitory, and they eventually 

 became poor fishing waters, usually because of overpopulation. There 



Figure 5.5. Muskellunge are sometimes stocked in 

 small numbers in artificial lakes as a "bonus" fish and 

 as an aid in the control of sunfish populations. 



were and are, however, a few others in which there seems to be a delicate 

 relationship between reproductive success of the fishes and the natural food 

 supply, perhaps through the action of predators of which 1 am unaware. 

 In these waters, bluegills may range between two and three to the pound, 

 with scarcely any of smaller sizes, or green sunfish may grow to 8 or 9 

 inches and may be represented by a few hundred fish instead of tens of 

 thousands of 3- to 5-inch fish. These lakes always seem to contain many 

 small bass, usually from 6 to 9 inches. There may be some unrecognized 

 relationship between the physical environment and the fish and aquatic 

 organisms that inhabit it. In later chapters, we will discuss this possibility. 

 It is the author's opinion that one would be naive to expect any com- 

 bination of fishes stocked in a man-made lake or pond to be productive 

 of good fishing for an indefinite period of time. Too many of the integrated 



