46 Fish and Game Warden. [Bull. No. 1. 



to North Greenland) has ever given him so much satisfactory- 

 sport and real pleasure as this wary and game warrior. 



SIZE OF SPECIMENS. 



The Black basses caught in the streams and lakes of Kansas 

 usually vary from nine to twenty inches in length and from 

 six ounces to six pounds in weight. The largest the writer 

 ever captured at Lake View was in the spring of 1904. The 

 fish was a little over twenty inches in length and weighed a 

 fraction over six pounds. So far as I know, Mr. George A. 

 Clark, of Topeka, Kan., holds the record of the state for the 

 largest native born "Jayhawker" Black bass. In the spring 

 of 1905 Mr. Clark, while casting with a light rod and line, 

 hooked a real jumbo and in due course of time landed him 

 without injury by using a hand landing net. This splendid 

 fish was between twenty-two and twenty-three inches in length 

 and weighed seven pounds and nine ounces. Both of the above 

 fish, after being measured and weighed, were returned to their 

 homes in the lake. So far as I know the above fish taken by 

 Mr. Clark holds the record as the largest Black bass that has 

 been taken in this part of the country in waters as far north 

 as Lake View, which place is near the Kansas river five miles 

 northwest of Lawrence. 



A hardy fish. 



As a rule the bass is a hardy fish, and when once established 

 in its habitat, adapts itself fairly well to the surrounding 

 conditions, whether in creek, river, pond or lake. However, if 

 the water is muddy and there are no deep places for the fish to 

 retreat to in hot and cold weather they will not do so well; 

 spring freshets also interfere with the spawning season, and 

 under such conditions these fish usually become reduced in 

 numbers, or in a few years disappear altogether. 



There is little use to stock bodies of water with Black bass 

 where the above unfavorable conditions have to be contended 

 with. 



FOOD HABITS OF FISH GENERALLY. 



The food habits of any variety of fish ought to be well 

 studied and understood before that fish is placed in any par- 

 ticular body of water; otherwise it will not be possible to know 

 what its relations would be to that body of water and to the 

 other fish in the same waters. In other words, if two kinds 

 of fish are to be reared in the same pond or lake, their re- 

 spective food habits and their general life histories, including 

 their relations one to the other, ought to be well known. 



A)' Kinds of fishes consume more or less animal matter, but 

 the proportion eaten by those belonging to the sucker or small- 

 mouthed groups or families is rather small and belongs to the 

 lower orders of animal life, as compared with the amount 

 and kinds taken by the groups having large mouths, such as 



