A SURVEY OF FISHING, IN 1959, IN 1,000 PONDS 

 STOCKED BY THE BUREAU OF SPORT FISHERIES AND WILDLIFE 



BY 



WILLIS KING, CHIEF 

 BEIANCH OF FISHERY MANAGEMENT SERVICES 

 WASHINGTON, D. C. 



PURPOSE OF THE SURVEY 



The survey was conducted to answer the frequently asked 

 question: How much recreational fishing are our national fish 

 hatcheries furnishing by providing warm-water fish to stock 

 farm and ranch ponds? An early answer to this question, which 

 previously had been answered by generalities or by information 

 gathered in surveys of limited scope, was desired. 



Since World War II, the Fish and Wildlife Service has pro- 

 vided warm-water fish (bass, sunfish and catfish) to stock from 

 30,000 to to, 000 ponds annually. Bureau records for 195T> which 

 was taken as the key year, show that 43,720,912 bass and siinfish, 

 1,015,698 channel catfish and b\illheads stocked in ponds, or a 

 total of 44,737^610 fish, were consigned to the pond program. 

 This total represents about two-thirds of the largemouth bass, 

 bluegill, redear sunfish, and all of the catfish produced at 

 the Bureau's warm-water fish hatcheries that year. The present 

 survey was designed to provide a better understanding of the 

 values of the program. 



PLAN OF THE SURVEY 



The round figure of 1,000 was chosen as the number of ponds 

 that could be covered in the time available for the survey and 

 still constitute a reliable sample. This nxmber of ponds repre- 

 sented 1 in 40, or 2.5 percent of all ponds stocked with warm- water 

 fish from the Federal hatcheries in fiscal year 1956-57» The sam- 

 ple appeared adequate for the purpose of obtaining the desired 

 information, providing the ponds were randomly selected. 



In planning the survey, decision was made to include only ponds 

 from .5 to 10 acres in size. Ponds smaller than .5 acre are not 

 regularly stocked in all regions, and are reported in the survey 



