242 
52,000 bluegills were found to be present, 
showing that many small fish had escaped 
the treatment. Small bluegills that sur- 
vived the 1949 draining and poisoning 
operations must have been subjected to 
heavy predation from bass, because in 
that year the large bass population that 
had developed in the 1947-1948 period 
was concentrated in 11 acres of water 
having much less than one-half of the 
volume of the full lake. At the time of the 
draining, these small bluegills may have 
lived in eddies of the flowing creek, or 
in shallow pools on the lake bottom where 
water was trapped by uneven deposition 
of silt, until the rising water behind the 
Intinors Naturat History Survey BULLETIN 
Vol. 26, Art. 2 
dam flooded their hiding places and re- 
leased them to the open water. Scales 
collected from a number of the larger 
bluegills taken in the 1951 census indi- 
cated that these fish must have been sur- 
vivors of the 1949 census. Since 663 large 
bluegills appeared in the 1951 census, 
table 4, it seems quite probable that the 
number that escaped the 1949 census may 
have numbered several thousand, most of 
which were eaten by bass. As it was 
quite obviously impossible to rid the lake 
of bluegills without allowing the basin 
to dry out thoroughly, it was decided to 
return 656 of the larger bluegills to the 
water following the 1951 census, table 5. 
Table 6—Numbers and poundages of largemouth bass, bluegills, green sunfish, and 
black bullheads taken by fishermen from Ridge Lake, 1941-1950. In addition to the fish 
included in this table were 5 large warmouths, weighing 1.98 pounds, caught in 1949, and 50 
small warmouths, weighing 3.12 pounds, and 3 large warmouths, weighing 1.07 pounds, caught 
in 1950. 
| LaRGEMOUTH Bass BLUEGILLS 
fos Harem 
| Ten Inches Less Than Six Inches Less Than 
YEAR | or Longer 10 Inches or Longer 6 Inches 
baat | Weight, | .. Weight, Weight, Weight, 
| Number | Pannia Number Pawns Number Paes Number Pounde 
19411, oe ee rts Ms on Re es = a 
PEL oe eee 323 225.74 162 45.93 — — a — 
1943! 34 7.92 29 9.90 — — — ae 
ROS, ns, Sita ks: 466 270.46 —_— i —_— = — _— 
TOES Fin a ace se 409 356.87 — —- 2 i 972 — — 
PAG gts os 206 233.04 156 30.31 733 144.29 953 83.74 
1 Kt? 17 fea lallene Fee taper 149 | 186.57 SPs 9°25 416 95.07 228 16.54 
WO4R ee ea ok 363 | 396.00 285 64.03 2,301 509.71 3,530 316.32 
Le Uo gee Meera 5/2 SA eA 17 5.30 12 2.76 3 0.16 
GRO be Sees sh. 236 | 255.46 279 74.82 386 83.30 509 37.01 
Total. . ‘| 2,733 |2,468.52| 1,010 | 246.50) 3,850| 836.35 | 5,883| 453.7 
GREEN SUNFISH Brack BuLLHEADS 
‘ Six Inches Less Than Seven Inches Less Than 
YEAR or Longer 6 Inches or Longer 7 Inches 
; te J 
Be | Weight, | ,, Weight, Weight, Weight 
Number | pounds | Number | pounds | Number | pounds | Number Pound 
he LA ee ae 2 0.70 —_ ey — | Goeegocke Sennett Mae a _ 
BMS 8 SOS 1 0.586) ies a 6 4.77143 nae a 
1946 Pee 79 19.31 185 12.90 17 13.60 3 0.16 
1947... 9 2.02 27 2.34 2 129 — a 
1948 108 26.56 63 7.40 67 69.51 4 0.48 
1949 did Sey = ei 1 Oia] He — 
1950 i 4 38 | 19 1.14 187 75.67 —_ > 
Total 216 | 53.35 | 294) 23:78 310 | 202.01 6 0.64 
1 Lake not open to public fishing in this year. 
? No green sunfish or black bullheads were caught in years prior to 1944. 
