November, 1954 
be attractive to fishermen (1,027 fish re- 
turned after March census, plus unknown 
number of unmarked fish, 19 of which 
were caught during the summer). The 
total catch and rate of catch for preseason 
fishing, daily fishing during the first week, 
and fishing by weeks throughout the rest 
of the summer fishing season are shown in 
table 15, along with man-hours of fishing 
and calculated number of bass available. 
In the June period before the lake was 
opened to the public (June I-14), mem- 
bers of the Illinois Natural History Sur- 
vey aquatic biology staff fished for bass 
needed for another phase of the study. 
Fishing periods (preseason) for one or 
two men were usually not more than 2 
hours in length for any one day. With 
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BeNNeEtT: LARGEMOUTH Bass IN RipGE LAKE 
257 
this very light fishing intensity, 50 bass 
weighing 52.49 pounds were taken in 
17.75 man-hours, at the rate of 2.96 
pounds of bass per man-hour, or approxi- 
mately a pound of bass for each 20 minutes 
of fishing. On the first day the lake was 
opened to the public, 67 bass, weighing 
78.56 pounds, were taken in 156.0 man- 
hours of fishing, at the rate of 0.5 pound 
per man-hour. On the second day, only 
22 bass, weighing 22.31 pounds, were 
taken in 121.5 man-hours of fishing, at 
the rate of 0.18 pound per man-hour. The 
rate of catch was still lower during the 
next 3 days of fishing that completed the 
first fishing week. In this week a total of 
121 bass weighing 140.67 pounds were 
taken in 633.5 man-hours of fishing. ‘The 
attempted removal of 
bluegills from lake 
Fig. 14—Growth rates of bluegills spawned in Ridge Lake, 1944-1949; lengths based on 
measurements of fish in anglers’ catches and in draining censuses (SP, spring; SU, summer; 
FA, fall). 
