314 American Fisheries Society 



Mr. Kopplin : They were counted. Any one visiting those lakes 

 in the spring would have an idea about the number of young fish. 



Mr. C. \Y. Willard, Westerly. R. I. : 1 would like to ask if you 

 make any attempt at artificial feeding? 



Mr. Kopplin: No, except in the smaller ponds. We tried it year 

 after year and cut up a lot of crayfish, lungs, etc., but in our 60 acres 

 of water there is about enough natural food so we get along without 

 artificial food. 



Mr. Meehan: What food have you in those lakes outside of cray- 

 fish, daphnia, cyclops, etc.? 



Mr. Kopplin: The water is alive with all kinds of insects. 



Mr. Meehan: Do you see swimming in there a small, crab-like 

 creature, very minute? 



Mr. Kopplin: Myriads of them. 



Mr. Meehan: That is the secret of your success, is it not? 



Mr. Kopplin: For a long time 1 doubted whether or not they were 

 young bass, but they were much smaller. In my early experience the 

 water was muddy, and it was hard to determine. 



Mr. Worth : Does the President refer to the fresh-water flea in 

 his question? 



Mr. Meehan: I refer to the daphnia. 



Mr. Kopplin: We have experts from the Washington University, 

 and I depend on them in these technical matters. 1 know my fish well 

 and their technical names, but I am not very familiar with the various 

 forms of insects, or at least their technical names. 



Mr. Meehan: Those of us who have been specially interested in 

 bass culture and have had to struggle a great deal have been very much 

 interested in this work. 



Mr. W. T. Thompson, Fairport, Iowa: Mr. Worth referred to the 

 probability that the goldfish would spawn during the season and fur- 

 nish a great deal of food, and I would like to ask if such is the case. 

 Also reference has been made to the shore line, and I would like to 

 ask whether the bulk of the pond area was not shallow and only occa- 

 sionally deep. I judge the pond was 6 or 7 feet deep at the maximum, 

 but wondered whether the greater portion was not shallow. 



Mr. Kopplin: It is 6 feet in the centre going to a feather-edge. 



Mr. Worth: I would like to ask the gentleman to tell the meeting 

 how the spawning sod is put down. lie uses cut sod for the spawning 

 bed for the large-mouth black bass. How far apart and how near the 

 shore are the beds placed? 



Mr. Kopplin: For years we used nothing but gravel until we found 

 fish spawning on willow roots, preferable to sand, and that they would 

 work down to solid clay. We have been using goldfish for years for 

 food. There has been an unusual growth of goldfish this year. Ordi- 

 narily we do not get so many goldfish, as they are devoured, but they 

 got a good start this year. The goldfish spawned on the sod in about 

 a foot of water, and 1 noticed bass look possession of this sod; so I 



