HISTORY OF FISH POPULATION 



No written records have been kept of fish planted In Lincoln Lakes. The following 

 notes have been furnished from memory by sportsmen and by officials of the gravel 

 company. On three or four occasions since 1925, the State Department of Conservation 

 fish car has brought fish to the lakes. These plantings Included probably largemouth 

 bass, yellow bass, white crapple, black crapple, warmouth bass, blueglll, green sun- 

 fish, yellow perch, sheepshead, channel cat, black bullhead, yellow bullhead and other 

 Illinois River species. Trucks have brought In fish at other times. On several oc- 

 casions, lake trout and wall-eyed pike fry have been planted. Fish have been stocked 

 probably at frequent Intervals since digging was begun In 1905. 



Large numbers of stream fishes from Salt Creek must have entered Lincoln Lakes 

 during times of flood. It Is probable that all of the species of "rough" fish, the 

 smallmouth bass, sheepshead, gar, gizzard shad and a number of kinds of minnows and 

 small fishes now In Lincoln Lakes came In this way. 



In July, 1937, Mr. D. John O'Donnell, at that time of the Natural History Survey, 

 fished for two days In what Is now Sportsmen's Lake with two 3i-foot, 1-lnch mesh hoop 

 nets. This place Is not adapted to hoop-net fishing, and the water was too clear for 

 some kinds to enter the nets readily. His catch Is listed In table 1. 



TABLE 1.— HOOP NET CATCH, JULY, 1937, SPORTSMEN'S LAKE 



In April, 1938, as a preliminary to the census work of the Survey, members of the 

 Logan County Sportsmen's Club under the direction of Mr. Clifford Sullivan of the 

 State Department of Conservation fished the pond with four hoop nets in an attempt to 

 remove some of the fish before the water was poisoned. Several turtles were taken, 

 but only a few fish. Nets lifted on one day, April 29, contained one slider turtle, 

 Pseudemys iroosti (Holbrook), and two small softshell turtles, Amyda spinifera (Le 

 Sueur); only one fish was taken, a white crapple, 6.1 Inches long. 



No bass were taken In the nets In either 1937 or 1938. However, In both years 

 most of the fish In the nets may have escaped through holes cut almost every night by 

 muskrats. 



Hook-and-llne fishing has been poor In Lincoln Lakes. Occasional bass have been 

 taken, but not more than one or two dozen each year. The Survey made a complete creel 



TABLE 2. —AVERAGE TOTAL LENGTHS OF WHITE CRAPPIES OF DIFFERENT AGES 



