Stocking 111 



after a year or so yielded only 6 stunted individuals weighing a total of 

 1.85 pounds as against 12,505 bluegills and green sunfish weighing 201 

 pounds. A deeper pond nearby was stocked with 4500 largemouth bass 

 fingerlings. Here a mixed crappie population which was already present 

 dominated bass and other fish. Later, when the pond was censused the 

 proportions were 8.4 pounds of crappies and 1.4 pounds of sunfish to each 

 pound of bass. According to Viosca: "—this type of evidence completely 

 discredits the idea that artificial restocking will restore the largemouth 

 bass population of a pond dominated by other species." In contrast, 

 Swingle, Prather, and Lawrence ''^ state that "Since partial poisoning is 

 normally required in populations containing too few bass and all small 

 bass in the pond edges are killed, marginal or sectional poisoning in the 

 spring or summer is detrimental unless followed by restocking of bass." 

 However, stocking of fish after a partial poisoning operation is not com- 

 parable to a situation such as Viosca described, because partial poisoning 

 makes living space available for the stocked bass. 



Lagler and DeRoth ^^ came to the same conclusion as Viosca, after 

 stocking fin-clipped bass fingerlings in the Loch Alpine ponds ( Michigan) ; 

 none of the 4000 bass fingerlings stocked in 4 years were seen again. These 

 ponds had uncontrolled outlets, and the small bass were free to move out. 



Cooper -^ on the fish stocking policy for Michigan says that this state 

 has largely dispensed with plantings of warm-water fishes such as bass, 

 bluegills, perch, walleyes, and northern pike. In the past, plantings of 

 these warm-water game species were distributed among hundreds of 

 lakes on a rather orderly schedule. While the state-wide totals of fish 

 stocked were large, the yearly plants to individual waters were small: 

 bluegills were stocked at the average rate of 35 fingerlings per acre; 

 largemouth bass at the rate of 2.4 fingerlings per acre and smallmouth 

 bass at the rate of 1.9 fingerlings per acre. At the same time (1947) large 

 numbers of fingerlings of these species could be seined in most of these 

 lakes. In 12 of these lakes selected on the basis of public interest, intensive 

 seining operations on shoal areas indicated populations of young fish 

 ranging from 103 to 1760 per acre with an average of 742 per acre for 

 the 12 lakes. This so far overshadows the maximum stocking efforts of 

 state personnel as to make their efforts of little consequence. 



By stocking 300 adult bluegills per acre in Kentucky farm ponds over- 

 populated with largemouth bass, Clark -- produced satisfactory fishing 

 for both bass and bluegills. Swingle and Smith '''' state that for ponds con- 

 taining stunted bluegill populations a stocking of 100 bass fry or finger- 

 lings per acre plus "proper fertilization" and heavy fishing for bluegills 

 to reduce their numbers will correct this condition in a few months. This 

 statement appears to be counter to the findings of Viosca ^^ and Lagler 

 and DeRoth,^ ^ except that "proper fertilization" may increase the available 



