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



on the rod and line is something great! Did you ever watch 

 a bunch of Black bass fishermen while in action? They are 

 for the time being totally oblivious to everything else about 

 them; they seem to lose themselves in a mental exhilaration, 

 and to enjoy an indescribable enthusiasm — a something un- 

 known to common mortals — that causes them to labor in- 

 cessantly and patiently for hours and hours — even days — 

 waiting every second for that glorious moment of excitement, 

 that entrancing magnetic "pull" that has so many thousands 

 of time "de-lighted" the minds and hearts of many of the 

 keenest sportsmen the country has ever produced. 



BLACK BASS IN PONDS. 



However, when it comes to placing Black bass in ponds 

 several things connected with their life history should be 

 taken into consideration. The great size of the fish's capacious 

 mouth which opens into a very capacious stomach should not 

 be lost sight of. The possible food supply of any body of 

 water, and particularly a pond, is an all-important thing that 

 must always be taken into consideration before the water is 

 stocked with any kind of fish. The subject of food supply 

 in waters and ponds will be discussed more at length else- 

 where in this Bulletin, and particularly in the third division 

 under the head of "Pond Fish Culture." 



OBJECTIONS TO BLACK BASS AS A POND FISH. 



Consider for a moment the possibility of having one hun- 

 dred good-sized Black bass in an acre pond. If each Black 

 bass took four ounces of fish food, which is a little over one- 

 half the amount actually found at times in the stomachs of 

 large bass, the total amount consumed in one day v/ouid equal 

 twenty-five pounds. If eacli bass took only one ounce a day 

 for thirty days, the amount eaten would equal one hundred 

 eighty-seven and one-half pounds of fish. It is not possible 

 for an acre pond to produce and spare such an amount of 

 minnows and young fish each month of the growing and feed- 

 ing season. The chief objection to raising Black bass in ponds 

 is the fact that the ponds can not be made to produce food 

 enough to support a sufficient number of bass to make the 

 rearing of them profitable even for angling purposes. But 

 few can be raised per acre of water unless an extra amount 

 of food is supplied. As soon as the food supply becomes scarce 

 the bass turn cannibal and each one eats up everything of 

 its own kind that it can catch and swallow. 



If there were two one-acre ponds, one of which was well 

 stocked with German carp, gizzard shad and other vegetable 

 eating fish, and the other with bass, and these ponds were 

 separated by gates of large and small meshed wire screening 

 so placed that the young of the carp and other vegetable eat- 

 ing fish could pass into the bass pond and the young bass into 

 the carp pond, the chances for rearing and feeding a supply of 



