"Muskies" Caught in Cass Lake 



Station to be Established. 



But the state game and fish commission does not propose 

 that nature shall take her course at Prairie Portage next 

 spring. 



Nets will be thrown out and the females caught before the 

 spawn leaves them. A warden will pick up a female and run 

 his thumb and forefinger down her belly, squeezing the sides 

 together. If the eggs are ripe the spawn will shoot forth into 

 cans which the commission has handy. 



This is called "stripping" a pike. There is no difficulty in 

 extracting the eggs when they are ripe. If the fish is not 

 ripe it is tossed into a giant live box and kept a few days 

 while the work continues. Fish in the live box are tested 

 every twelve hours to see if they are ready to strip. 



As fast as a female is stripped she is tossed back into the 

 water. Large females, weighing 10 and 12 pounds, have been 

 known to die from this process of relieving them from spawn, 

 but Bradley says the four, five and six-pound pike do not 

 suffer the least inconvenience. The males are stripped in 

 much the same manner. 



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