FISHES OP NEW YORK 83 



The habits of this fish are presumably about the same as 

 tliose of other species of the family. On account of the great 

 size of the fish it naturally prefers lakes and large rivers. 

 It is a bottom feeder and will take almost any kind of bait. 

 This species is wonderfully tenacious of life. It spawns in the 

 spring- and protects its young, which follow the parent fish in 

 great schools. Dr Theodore Gill has reviewed in Forest and 

 iStreami the subject of the catfishes' care of their young. 



This is a valued food species, though not a choice fish. In 

 Lake Erie, according to the Review of the Fisheries of the Great 

 Lairs recently published by the II. S. Fish Commission, the cat- 

 fish rank next to whitefish in number of pounds taken. 



In Lake Erie catfish are taken chiefly by means of set lines, 

 and the fishing is best during the months of June, July and 

 August. The method of fishing is thus described in the review 

 just referred to. " The apparatus consists of from 200 to 400 

 hooks attached b}' short lines to a main line, which is from 5 

 to 27 fathoms long, according to the place in which set, and 

 is held in place by poles or stakes pushed into the mud. The 

 lines are usuallv set in the lake, but occasionallv short ones 

 are fished in the bayous and marshes. Catfish are taken with 

 a bait of herring, Core g onus artedi, or grasshoppers, 

 and are mostly used in the families of the fishermen and their 

 neighbors or sold to peddlers. . . The size of the catfish 

 ranges from 5 to25 pounds, averaging 8 or 10 pounds." In 

 some parts of Lake Erie the set line fishery for catfish begins 

 April 15. Some of these lines haA^e as many as 2000 hooks. In 

 Toledo these fish bring 4|c a pound. The pound nets also take 

 a good many catfish in the spring and fall. Erie receives its 

 supph- of catfish from fishermen who operate in the lake from 

 Erie to Elk Creek witli set lines during the summer months. 

 De Kay had the species from Builalo, where he saw specimens 

 weighing from 25 to 30 pounds, and heard of individuals weigh- 

 ing 80 pounds. He states that it is usually captured by the 

 spear. 



