FISHES AND FISHINr, IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 19 



It is occasionally caught by anglers while fishing for other fish in 

 shallow water. 



Tlie favorite habitat of this fish being in shallow, nuiddy waters, and 

 it being only very occasionally found elsewhere, there is no likelihood 

 that it does much, if any, du-ect harm to the more desirable fishes, 

 although it is almost omnivorous. Tlie fish most liable to the attacks 

 of the marauding hornpouts is the black bass when sjiawning in the 

 slnillow water, but even then the bass probably can take care of its 

 nest to a great extent. 



The only examples of this fish observed in the study of the lake were: 

 On August 17, 1910, one about 10 inches long was caught off Cressy 

 Point, and on August 17, 1911, the writer found ui a "swash pool" 

 near the mouth of Pike Brook eight young about IJ inches long, and 

 some smaller ones were taken in a fyke net in Pike Brook near the 

 mouth at the inner or dead-water edge of the beach. 



Sucker (Catostomus commersonii) . 



The sucker is very common and attains a large size in Sunapee Lake. 



When the water is sufficiently high in the spring to allow the 

 suckers to get into the brooks, they run in in considerable numbers 

 to spawn, and at that time many are speared by the residents, who 

 esteem them highly as food. The run is usually from the last part 

 of April to some time in ^lay. In 1910 a very few suckers ascended 

 Pike Brook. Nothmg was learned regarding their presence in other 

 brooks. The first to appear in Pike Brook were 3 males, 12|, 16, and 

 17^ inches long, respectively, which were speared on the night of 

 April 16. Only one was quite ripe. No more were seen in April, but 

 there was a small run reported in ^Ijiy. 



The sucker deposits a large number of eggs and in the compara- 

 tively safe spawning beds many hatch and the young gradually work 

 down into the dead waters, where some of them finger all summer and 

 perhaps longer. On October 23, 1910, two suckers, respectively 12 

 and 14 inches long, were found in a pool in the beach at the mouth of 

 Pike Brook. Their color was dark and brassy, indicating that they 

 had probably come down from the dead water, and on November 3 a 

 number from 5 to 14 inches long were taken with small trout that 

 were descending from the brook into the lake. Some, however, while 

 stiU quite young, enter the lake and occur in small schools along the 

 shallow waters of the sandy beaches, and some may be hatched in the 

 lake. 



In April, 1910, the young suckers observed in Pike Brook averaged 

 about 3 inches in length. In the same brook and in Blodgetts Brook 

 in August the fish ranged from 1^ to 2 inches long. But about the 

 middle of August a lot of only f to 1 J inches long were found in a pool 

 in the beach left by the receding lake water. A small fyke net set at 



