112 REPORT OP THE FISIT AXD GAME COMMISSION. 



with encouraging success. As a result, the angling attraction proves 

 potent enough to finance further efforts. 



The scanty streams of southern, steep gorge watersheds do not lend 

 themselves to the natural maintenance of trout. Too much water, or 

 too little, is the ever present menace. oMany a stream is planted annu- 

 ally in the certainty that there can be but little natural propagation 

 therein. The best trout lake in the extreme south, Big Bear, in the 

 San Bernardino watershed, is now, and for some years past has been on 

 an essentiall\' artificially maintained basis. The natural spawning 

 facilities in its short, steep creeks are under ordinary conditions virtu- 

 ally nil. At considerable expense, the Fisheultural Department has 

 installed two hatcheries. Avith spawn-taking racks and has sent a crew 

 of its most skilled men into Bear Valley every spring to gather such 

 eggs as Nature offered, these were hatched in the local plants for distri- 

 bution in the lake and streams of the range. Last spring, although 

 facilities had been almost doubled the fall before, the egg-take followed 

 the general rule in the state and fell oft' until not enough eggs were 

 available to operate to full capacity, even though the turnoff was about 

 that of the year before. 



In measure, Big Bear Lake's great popularity as the "Tahoe of the 

 south," so-called, has proved its undoing for mid-summer sport at the 

 height of the season and the concentration of the water through several 

 dry seasons has played a part. The number of adult fish seen every 

 spring at the spawn-taking stations and out in the bays at the creek 

 mouths has indicated an abundant supply. Fishing is always good 

 enough to satisfy tlie most ardent fishermen both eai'ly and late in the 

 season. The state's students of such conditions are of the opinion that a 

 . normal winter will restore the fishing to its former sustained excellence, 

 its consistency being one of the most remarkable things about it in past 

 years. 



Realizing several years ago that southern California's demands could 

 no longer be met by long shipments from the mother hatchery under 

 Mount Shasta, Fish and (lame Commissioner Council set about search- 

 ing for a site combining the necessary conditions of cold, pure water 

 in certainty of supply, with accessibility to transportation and after 

 long consideration, the eastern Sierra was selected as a site for the 

 splendid ]\Iount Whitney Hatchery, which today supplies the lower end 

 of the state, as well as the enormous aggregate area of fishing waters 

 within motor-ti'uck and pack-train reach of its troughs. 



Had it accomplished nothing remarkable beyond the successful rear- 

 ing of the rare and delicate golden trout, the Mount Whitney Hatch- 

 ery would have successfully established itself among the great fish- 

 cultural institutions of the woi-ld. But in addition to this hitherto 



