SOME IMPORTANT BAIT FISHES 



animal protein, 1 part of cotton 

 seed meal or soya-bean meal, 1 

 percent of brewers yeast or wood 

 yeast, and 1 percent of a mineral 

 supplement, such as that used in 

 livestock feeds. The small fish are 

 given this formula in a dry, pow- 

 dered form, and the larger fish are 

 provided with the same food pre- 

 pared in pellet form. 



In feeding creek chubs, care must 

 be taken not to overfeed. The op- 

 erator should watch the plankton 

 turbidity of the water and be sure 

 that the bloom will not mask a 

 w^hite disk at a depth of 24 inches. 

 The food can be fed to the fish 

 once each day or, in reduced 

 amounts, several times a day. 

 Usually, an acre pond with a good 

 flow of spring water and a large 

 population of growing chubs will 

 require about 50 pounds of food 

 daily during the minnows' maxi- 

 mum growing season. At the end 

 of a growing season, a successful 

 operator should be able to realize 

 a food conversion whereby 2 

 pounds of food has produced 1 

 j)ound of salable minnows. In 

 heavily stocked ponds where the 

 average length of the minnows will 

 be smaller than those in lighter 

 stocked ponds, the conversion ratio 

 will be about 4 to 1. 



Harvesting and storing the fish 



The production of creek chubs 

 in pounds or in numbers of salable 

 fish per acre of water has consid- 

 erable variation. The records 

 from one commercial hatchery, 

 covering a 4'year period starting 

 in 1949, show that the annual pro- 

 duction of salable creek chubs per 

 acre of water varied from a low 

 of 500 pounds to a high of 3,000 

 pounds. It was found that when 

 only a portion of the fish are to 

 be removed and these are to be 

 removed by trap or seine, then it 

 is not too important whether the 

 water is cool or warm; but if the 

 pond is to be drained, it is very 

 desirable to lower the water tem- 

 perature to about 70° F. before 

 any fish removal attempts are 

 made. 



When chubs are removed from 

 the growing pond to be placed in 

 storage vats for sale, they should 

 be held in water having a temper- 

 ature of 60° to 65° F. By using 

 cool water in the storage tanks, the 

 chubs can be kept for a 2- or 3- 

 week period without any ill effect. 

 Also, when chubs are in storage 

 for any extended period of time, 

 they should be fed the same type 

 of food daily that they received 

 in the growing pond. 



GOLDEN SHINER Notemigonus crysoleucas 



Also called Roach. 



LIFE HISTORY 



Description. — Body thin and flat 

 from side to side, deep from top to 

 bottom; adult golden in color. 



scales loose and easily visible; 

 mouth small and upturned, with no 

 barbels; base of anal fin long, con- 

 taining many more than the cus- 



94 



