150 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



bass; and this is the fish that nearly every boy has fished 

 for with his home-made tackle, a strand of black cotton, a 

 bent pin, and the red angle worm for bait. The sport of 

 catching these little fellows has not only afforded delight and 

 pleasure to the young fisherman, but the old and sporty 

 angler becomes fascinated in hooking this gamy little fish. 



Aside from the sport of angling for the sunfish, I wish 

 you to know that it is a toothsome morsel, and no better or 

 firmer flesh is found in ocean, river or lake. And right here 

 I will give you a recipe for cooking the little fellow. Provide 

 a deep round or square pan as large or small as you please, 

 have fitted into this pan a basket made of half-inch mesh 

 wire netting, fill your pan half full of good lard, have the 

 fish prepared as usual, then roll them in corn meal seasoned 

 with pepper and salt, fill the basket with fish and immerse 

 them in the boiling lard. In a few minutes they will be a 

 beautiful brown, and served with potato chips, bread and 

 butter, olives, and coffee, they are fit for the table of a king. 



Now about the propagation of this fish, and the best kinds 

 to propagate. First your pond should not be of a size less 

 than one-half acre and several acres would be better. Then 

 there should be a good supply of water either from spring, 

 spring branch, or rain, any of which will give good results 

 if you have an abundance of it. In constructing ponds you 

 can conform to the lay of the land ; but care should be taken 

 to have plenty of shallow water, sand, clay, gravel, or mud 

 bottom will do so long as the pond holds water. Shade in 

 abundance around the pond with plenty of water plants 

 makes an ideal condition for the sunfish. 



These little fellows, like the black bass, are nest builders, 

 sweeping and scooping out a nest in shallow water about the 

 size of an ordinary wash basin, each pair keeping house to 

 itself although living in communities. I have seen half a 

 dozen nests in the space of 20 feet square. The fish take 

 several weeks in nest building, and when all is ready they 

 deposit their eggs, and in from five to eight days, depending 

 on temperature, they have their little families. The young 



