24 FISHES AND PISHING IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 



Brook bore marks as though a mink had bitten it. Its stomach con- 

 tained the tail end, including the anal fin, of a half digested sucker. 

 eTudging from the fragment, the sucker must have been about 6 inches 

 long. 



The pickerel, however, while once quite abundant, is now compara- 

 tively scarce, and therefore is almost a negligible factor in trout and 

 salmon destruction in Sunapee Lake. The reasons for this are those 

 that obtain in the cases of scarcity of fish of any kind in any fresh 

 waters. The waters are not especially suited to pickerel. There has 

 been an increase in numbers of some of its existmg enemies, there 

 has been a reenforcement of others, and the lake has been excessively 

 fished at times particularly advantageous to such fishing. 



Eel (Anguilla rostrata). 



The common eel does not seem to be very common in Sunapee 

 Lake. It is so rarely taken by fishermen that but few know that it 

 occurs there. It probably can now with great difficulty, if at all, 

 gam access to the lake. The only one observed by the writer was 

 caught on a "set line" with smelt bait at Curtis's pier, April, 1910. 

 It was 28| inches long. The stomach contained a lot of fine, brown, 

 mud-like substance, the nature of which could not be determined. 



The eel is very destructive to fish, especially small ones, and fish 

 eggs. It attacks and attaches itself to spawnmg fish caught in giU 

 nets and burrows into the body, eating the ovaries and eggs. It is 

 fortunately so scarce that it need not be feared for the damage that it 

 otherwise might do. 



Whitefish (Coregonus dwpeaformis) . 



The State report for 1871 says that 120,000 whitefish were hatched 

 from eggs obtained at Missisquoi Bay, Lake Champlain, and planted 

 in ^'Winnepiseogee" and Sunapee Lakes. The report for 1872 says 

 that some 50,000 or 60,000 were hatched and the young divided be- 

 tween Winnipesaukee and Sunapee Lakes, and in 1873 it is reported 

 that 150,000 were hatched and planted in the same lakes. 



The whitefish has not been recognized in Sunapee, and it is doubt- 

 ful whether it occurs there, although it might escape notice for many 

 years. It was not until about 1901 that it was discovered to exist 

 in Sebago Lake, Me., where it seems as though it must be indigenous, 

 as there are no records of its ever having been introduced. Since its 

 discovery there a good many specimens have been taken and recog- 

 nized. It is a somewhat laterally compressed fish wdth very small, 

 tootliless, and tender mouth parts. It is the same fish that is indige- 

 nous to Lake Winnipesaukee, where it is known as ''whiting." In 



