November, 1954 
added to the creel record. Our biennial 
inventories of fish allowed an evaluation 
of most of the losses that occurred. 
When the marked fish taken by anglers 
were added to those found dead and those 
counted in the succeeding census and the 
resulting sum was subtracted from the 
number of marked fish returned to the 
lake following the preceding census, there 
was always a shortage—an unaccountable 
loss of bass that had taken place during 
the 2-year period. This loss was the result 
of natural mortality or of the other four 
undetected decimating factors listed above. 
The bass that unaccountably disappeared 
between censuses were simply designated 
as unaccountable losses. 
For each of the 5 biennial periods be- 
ginning with 1941 and ending with the 
draining census of 1951, tables 19 and 20 
show the number ot marked bass placed 
in the lake, the number taken by angling 
in the two fishing seasons, and the num- 
ber recaptured at the time of the next 
census. Table 20 lists the original stock 
separated into groups based on origin and 
other fish separated into broods to show 
differences in unaccountable losses in vari- 
ous groups during various periods. 
Information on the capture, holding 
methods, and transportation of the bass 
introduced into Ridge Lake in 1941 is of 
particular interest because the unaccount- 
able losses among these bass amounted to 
86.7 per cent within the first 2 years, 
table 19. Table 20 shows the unaccount- 
able losses among the groups of fish ob- 
tained from the three sources: Crab- 
orchard, Chautauqua, and Glendale lakes. 
The Craborchard Lake fish (marked 
left pectoral) were caught in wing nets 
on April 27, 28, and 29, 1941; those 
caught on the first 2 days were held in 
nets with the funnels closed until the 
third day, when all of the nets were 
raised. The fish were placed in a tank 
truck equipped with an air compressor 
and transported to Ridge Lake, a road 
distance of about 150 miles. The weather 
during the road trip was unseasonably 
warm. All fish used in stocking the lake 
were apparently in good condition on 
arrival, but the unaccountable loss in this 
group as revealed by the March, 1943, 
census was 75.8 per cent, table 20. 
The Lake Chautauqua fish (marked 
BrennNetr: LarcGkemMoutH Bass In RipceE LAKE 26 
(mn 
right pectoral), in which the unaccount- 
able loss as of March, 1943, was only 38.1 
per cent, were captured in wing nets 
in March and April, 1941, and transported 
to the Department of Conservation’s fish- 
eries station at Havana, about 5 miles 
from the lake in which they were cap- 
tured. There they were placed in tanks 
supplied with cold, well-aerated water and 
held, most of them for several weeks. 
Fish that were injured in netting prob- 
ably showed the effects of these injuries 
during the holding period and were re- 
moved from the tanks. On May 1, bass 
remaining in the tanks were transported 
to Ridge Lake; the trip by road was begun 
early in the morning and was completed 
before the warm part of the day. The 
distance by road is 145 miles. 
The greatest losses occurred among the 
fish from Lake Glendale (marked dorsal), 
which were seined on June 17, held over- 
night in a holding net staked out in Lake 
Glendale, and transported to Ridge Lake 
on June 18. The weather was very warm 
during the trip of about 180 miles. Al- 
though all of the Lake Glendale fish 
placed in Ridge Lake appeared to be in 
fair shape (fish were thrown out that had 
died or that showed signs of having become 
sick on the road), the unaccountable loss 
among this group of fish was 317 of 335 
or 94.6 per cent by March, 1943. 
The high loss of fish in the groups of 
bass moved to Ridge Lake from Crab- 
orchard and Glendale lakes suggests the 
importance of low temperatures and the 
careful handling of fish being transported 
from one water to another. None of the 
transported bass released in Ridge Lake 
appeared to be sick at the time of release. 
Yet many of them had evidently sustained 
injury sufficient to cause death. The un- 
accountable loss was considerably higher 
among the bass with which Ridge Lake 
was stocked in 1941 than among bass 
spawned in the lake and subjected to no 
handling except that during biennial drain- 
ing censuses. Bass are more often trans- 
ported as fingerlings than as larger fish, 
and fingerlings may or may not be more 
subject to injury. The bass transported 
from Lake Glendale were 5.0 to 7.0 
inches in length; those from Craborchard 
6.5 to 11.5 inches; and those from Chau- 
tauqua 8.5 to 17.0 inches, table 2. 
