THOSE interested in fishing are perhaps aware of the fact 

 that the state is engaged in the business of restocking 

 many of the waters with fish. Just how this is done is, 

 however, a mystery to even those interested. 



Last year it cost the state something like three cents for 

 every thousand wall-eyed pike fry planted in the lakes and 

 rivers of the state. And it cost the state about five cents 

 each not a thousand, but each for every bass fry. 



An inquiry as to the reason for this radical difference in 

 cost would indicate somewhat the future of Minnesota as a 

 recreation grounds for fishermen. The reason for the dif- 

 ference lies in the construction of the fish themselves. 



How Pike Spawn. 



It is easy tb reproduce the pike and plant them wherever 

 there is demand. For example, next spring, probably in the 

 middle of April, a force of wardens will go to Prairie Portage. 



There, below the dam, there will be thrown out nets to 

 catch wall eyes which at that time will be there by the thou- 

 sand. 



The females stick pretty close to the side of the river and 

 the males stand guard in the deeper and faster running water 

 in the middle of the stream. Were nature to take her course, 

 the female would rest until ready to part from her spawn. 

 At the propitious time she would swim to deep water, the 

 spawn slipping from her. 



And at the same moment the males would dart to meet her, 

 perhaps half a dozen of them. And as the spawn left the 

 female the males would release their fertilizer. 



There, in the midst of that swift running stream, directly 

 below the leaping waterfalls, the hazardous miracle of repro- 

 duction would occur. Those eggs reached by the male would 

 be fertilized. But fish culture experts say that not five per 

 cent of the eggs are fertilized. The other 95 goes to waste. 



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