PIKES AND PIKE PERCH Q 
being the stiffest and strongest material of its weight obtainable. It 
is bent in the form of a parallelogram 22 inches long and 20 inches 
wide, with rounded corners. This is fastened into an ash handle 
about 6 feet long. The bag is of cider-press cloth (which is made 
of large, soft, twisted thread, loosely woven), with each alternate 
thread over a considerable space in the center of the net pulled out. 
The bag is fastened to the hoop with small copper wire, as twine is 
soon cut off in working around the nets and pens. The bag of the 
net is 8 or 10 inches, for if much more is given it will let the fish 
form a pocket against the wire and prevent an easy discharge. 
Netting of 1-inch mesh and large thread has proved to be a fail- 
ure, the tails of many fish being split by it. It is believed that net- 
ting with a very small mesh and the largest thread that can be 
woven will do the work well, the greatest objection being the knots, 
which injure tender species. 
A frame made like a stretcher, with gunny cloth tacked on in such 
a manner as to bag about 2 feet, is convenient for holding fish 
preparatory to spawn-taking. It should be about 6 feet long and 3 
feet wide, making the bag 3 by 4 feet, with handles 1 foot long at 
each end. 
A gate made of light stuff as long as the pens are wide (8 feet) 
and 2 feet deep, covered by ordinary netting drawn taut and fas- 
tened by small staples, is useful in sorting the fish in the pens. The 
false bottom is lifted and fastened in place with the pins. There 
will now be about a foot of water over the floor and 1 foot of the 
top of the pen will be out of water. Beginning at one side, the gate 
is gently moved along until the fish are all confined in a sufficiently 
restricted space. They are sorted, the ripe fish placed in the. 
“stretcher ” preparatory to stripping them, the medium in a tub to 
be taken to the proper pen, and the hard fish, which, it is assumed, 
will be in the majority, are put back over the gate into the pen from 
which they were taken. 
The pens are numbered and a careful memorandum kept of the fish, 
the number of males and females received from and turned back to 
the fishermen each day, the number stripped, and the number in 
each pen. 
All unnecessary noise near the pens must be avoided, especially jars 
or discharge of firearms, and no one should go near them except in 
the performance of duty. The quieter fish are kept and the less and 
the more gently they are handled the greater the chances of procuring 
a large number of good eggs, while the opposite course will cause 
many “plugged” females and failure generally. In transferring 
the fish from one net or receptacle to another it is preferable to handle 
only one at a time, except when they are small. 
Fish, particularly females, taken from a depth of from 30 to 35 
feet often come to the surface of the water in the pens and can not 
descend, owing to the expansion of air in the swimming bladder. 
The pressure may be relieved without injury by inserting a small- 
sized aspirating needle, at an angle of about 45°, through the flesh 
of the fish into the bladder, about halfway between the middle of the 
spinous dorsal and the lateral line. The air can be heard escaping 
and when the sound ceases the needle may be removed, 
