SMALL-MOUTH BLACK BASS 



By Charles H. Nesley, Copake, N. Y. 



From the first day when I turned my attention to the 

 culture of the small-mouth black-bass, I felt convinced 

 that there was something radically wrong in the system 

 used by most of the bass culturists in Pennsylvania and 

 other states. 



The matter I am now bringing before you is not the 

 result of a sudden invention, but rather the work of devo- 

 tion to the perfection of the culture of the small-mouth 

 black bass. 



In 1905, 1906 and 1907, I noted that the cribbing of 

 bass was a waste of time, and in 1908 it was abandoned 

 by the Department of Fisheries of Pennsylvania, then 

 under the direction of the Hon. W. E. Meehan. 



Under order of Mr. Meehan field work on black bass 

 was started in Pennsylvania as early as 1906, in Wayne 

 and Lackawanna Counties, with great success. It was 

 there that I first found that larger bodies of water are 

 not subject to the sudden changes of temperature which 

 I have since found the worst thing to contend with in the 

 artificial pond culture of black bass. 



At the Torresdale, Conneaut Lake, Willow Brook and 

 Hiram Peoples' hatcheries in Pennsylvania, black bass 

 were being reared every year, but what did they cost? 

 This is the point I am bringing before you for your con- 

 sideration. Artificial pond culture of bass for breeding 

 is not a success, nor has it ever been. All have some 

 degree of success, but none can compete with the man 

 who gets his bass in the larger lakes. I find that Penn- 

 sylvania has almost entirely abandoned the system of 

 artificial pond culture. Some of the private hatcheries 

 are still hanging on, but what Pennsylvania has done, I 

 believe, is very practical. It gets its bass in the large 

 lakes with less than one-tenth the cost. There are, of 

 course, private hatcheries having no access to the natural 

 lakes of Pennsylvania, but still there are many lakes 

 owned by private parties in Pennsylvania and other 



