168 American Fisheries Society 



solid mass of vegetation in .the fall, which somewhat dis- 

 appeared during the winter. When we drained the pond in 

 the spring it was necessary to pile up the moss and water 

 plants in places with forks; this was done when the water 

 was low enough to wade in with ruhber hip boots. The 

 water was about two feet in depth when we seined out the 

 large fish. We then let the water run out slowly and picked 

 out the little fish with minnow seines and hand nets. 



This one pond containing two acres of water shown on 

 the blue print was overstocked. We had 200 bass in that 

 pond and about 100 crappie, and an undetermined number 

 of sunfish. We did not have the success with it that we 

 hoped for. When we drained the pond, we got, if I remem- 

 ber correctly, about 12,000 bass and about 8,000 crappie, 

 about 20,000 fish. However, unknown. to me, there were 

 about 400 yearling bass in that pond that had not been 

 taken out the year before. Now', if there is anything that is 

 destructive in a breeding pond it is yearling bass. There 

 were, also unknown to me, about 600 yearling" crappie in 

 the same pond; so we had 400 yearling bass, and about 600 

 yearling crappie to contend with; and that would evidently 

 reduce the number of young fish. 



Yet I would rather take the number of young fish that 

 we secured at almost no cost of raising than a larger num- 

 ber that could be raised at the expense of keeping the pond 

 clean and the adtled expense of caring for them all summer, 

 seining them and sorting them. We do not intend to seine 

 or sort fish if we can get along without it. We want to 

 produce the proper conditions for the breeding and spawning 

 of each kind of fish that we raise, but we do not expect to 

 handle them until fall or spring, when we drain (lie ponds. 



We prefer to drain bass ponds in the fall and crappie 

 ponds in the spring. We think it is a great advantage to 

 put crappie in with the bass and breed them together in 

 every pond. This year we had crappie in with the bass; the. 

 bass ate a considerable number of crappie, but that made no 

 difference as we had to feed the bass on something. When 



