MINNOWS FOR GAME-FISH FOOD 21 



is the remedy?" The reason and remedy is lack 

 of food. Provide it and plant it. Then edible fish 

 will thrive. There is no water on the face of this 

 broad continent, of high or low temperature, run- 

 ning or still, muddy or clear, but what will breed 

 some species of food-fish of great value to the 

 people at large, from eels, catfish, carp, perch, 

 sunfish, pickerel to bass, trout, and salmon. Min- 

 nows are far more prolific and abundant in the 

 South than they are in the North, which is due 

 to climatic conditions that allow breeding through- 

 out the year where they may be found plentiful 

 in small muddy ditches of water at a high tem- 

 perature. 



In the North conditions are not so favorable 

 because they lie dormant in the mud during severe 

 cold. In the Catskill region, while waiting for 

 snow and ice water to run off, I can judge to a 

 day when the brown trout begin to rise by the 

 appearance of minnows and redfins as forerunners 

 of them. Before snow-water runs off, the stream 

 side is absolutely bare of fish and insect life. The 

 average date when they appear is the 3d to 

 the 7th of May. 



It is not possible here to describe how to breed 

 minnows in captivity. It has been and is being 



