Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 269 



and other small catfish, so popular with bass fishermen on the 

 Susquehanna River, are not much used at this lake. 



Unfortunately good bait minnows are not abundant in the 

 streams about Lake Maxinkuckee. The nearest streams from 

 which good minnows can be obtained are the Yellow River, about 

 two or three miles north of the lake, and the Tippecanoe River at 

 Belong, four miles south. Most of the minnows used at the lake 

 come from a distance, mostly from Bachelors Run, Wild Cat Creek, 

 and Deer Creek in Carroll County, and from the Wabash River and 

 small creeks near Logan sport. Many of the anglers who come to 

 the lake for a few days' fishing bring a bucket of live minnows 

 with them. 



Minnows will be used in the spring and early summer until the 

 water becomes so warm that they will not keep well; then they 

 give way to grasshoppers which constitute the principal live bait 

 from the middle of July until in September or the first frosts, 

 after which they can no longer be found in any abundance. As 

 soon as grasshoppers become scarce and the water becomes cool, 

 minnows again become popular and continue so throughout the 

 late fall and winter. After the temperature of the lake water gets 

 down to 45° most any of the minnows can be kept alive in minnow 

 buckets all winter. 



Grasshoppers become popular as a bait just as soon as they 

 are abundant enough to be caught in any numbers. At Lake Max- 

 inkuckee this happens in the first half of July, and they continue 

 in demand as long as they can be obtained. About the last of 

 September, after a few good frosts have come, grasshoppers dis- 

 appear. Most of the grasshoppers used at this lake belong to one 

 or the other of two species, Melanophis differentialis and Melanop- 

 lus bivittatus, more of the former than of the latter. Both species 

 are abundant in the meadows and fields about the lake, particu- 

 larly on the west and south. In 1898, a boy living 2^ miles south 

 of the lake sold $25 worth of grasshoppers to anglers about the 

 lake, and in 1899, $43.35 worth. He charged only 5 cents a dozen. 

 Several other boys supplied grasshoppers more or less regularly 

 during the season, and the total amount of money received by them 

 per season for hoppers has been conservatively estimated at $200, 

 which would represent 4,000 dozen grasshoppers. Perhaps another 

 1,000 dozen were caught by the fishermen themselves, thus mak- 

 ing the total number used each season at the lake not fewer than 

 5,000 dozen or 60,000 grasshoppers. 



Considerable numbers of ivhite griibs also are used. In 1899, 



