56 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY, 



qualities of our game fish I do not remember to have read of 

 being discussed. The question has been asi<ed me a number of 

 times, in one or both forms, by angling friends, and quite recently 

 the matter was again brought to my attention by a letter from a 

 gentleman of long and varied experience as an angler, who asked 

 if I had found the black bass gamer on the hook in waters to 

 which they were alien, than in waters to which they were native ; 

 and he answered the question from his own experience, by say- 

 ing he had so found them. To me it seems a case of cause and 

 effect, for an abundance of food and game qualities are insepar- 

 able, and go hand and hand to produce this desired result. I 

 never caught a half-starved fish that exhibited marked game 

 qualities on the hook, and the test of gameness is accepted as 

 the power of a hooked fish to fight or resist capture by the 

 angler. I don't believe a fish can fight on a stomach that is 

 habitually empty any better than a man whose stomach is in the 

 same state, for there is a heap of courage in a good dinner, 

 which is increased by the knowledge that the good dinners are 

 to be a regular thing in the future. 



I can, perhaps, do no better than give a few results of fish 

 transplanting that have come under my own observation, and I 

 do so, looking with the eyes of an angler rather than with those 

 of a fish-culturist. 



Before going further I might answer the question asked by 

 the friend above mentioned, by stating that the gamest black 

 bass that ever I caught were taken from waters to which the 

 fish were native, and I never caught black bass that were in bet- 

 ter condition than these same fish. I have taken bass with more 

 fat, but it was abnormal fat that took away the dash and vigor 

 that characterize the bass, and the angler had to overcome but 

 little more than the avoirdupois of the fish ; but the loss to the 

 rod was a gain to the gridiron. 



Saratoga lake black bass stocked Effner lake, Effner lake 

 bass stocked Schroon lake, Luzern lake and the Hudson, 

 Schroon and Sacandaga rivers. It would not be just to com- 

 pare lake bass with river bass ; but Saratoga lake and Schroon 

 lake bass are gamer than Effner lake bass. There is, appar- 

 ently, little difference in the temperature and clearness of the 



