108 American Fisheries Society 



Just at this time of the year, unless the weather should 

 be unusually warm, our ponds are being cleared of the 

 rank vegetation that covers them. First a large space is 

 cleared in front of the outlet. Then the employees with 

 scythes and rakes commence on the outer edges of a pond 

 and cut and pile all moss and weeds, following the water 

 which is slowly drawn from the pond. As the fish enter 

 the cleared place in front of the outlet, they are from 

 time to time taken from the pond with a seine, assorted, 

 the young placed in pools for distribution and the brood 

 fish held temporarily in another pond during the time the 

 pond is being cleaned and dried out for the next season's 

 work. At the last the few remaining fish are carefully 

 picked up with a dip net. Selecting a cool day, we have 

 no loss in so drawing a pond and the fish are taken there- 

 from in good condition. Should there be bass that are 

 very thin and plainly showing that they will not spawn 

 during the coming year they are liberated in the San 

 Marcos River which forms our eastern boundary. Just 

 as soon as the bottoms of the ponds will support a wagon 

 the piles of moss are removed and carted away. Should 

 rains interfere with the drying it is sometimes necessary 

 to carry the moss to the banks with forks. After the bot- 

 toms of the ponds are dry they are scraped and the sedi- 

 ment also removed. We have had very good success, both 

 last year and that preceding in using the road grader of 

 the city for that purpose, six mules drawing the grader 

 and the man at the wheel shaping the bottom evenly and 

 with rapidity, the sediment being thrown in rows con- 

 venient for shoveling into a wagon. 



The pond cleaned, it is ready for the nests of gravel, all 

 large stones having been removed from the same. These 

 nests are placed about 20 feet apart and ten feet or so 

 from the banks, with a number in the center of the pond 

 where the water is shallow. Screens are placed on in- 

 let and outlet and the pond is filled with water. All of 

 our bass ponds at the present time are filled by pumping 

 from the San Marcos River, the two pumps being run 

 by gasoline engines. Those of you who know the engine 



