26 HOME FISHING AND HOME WATERS. 



CHAPTER VI. 



HOW SPAWN IS TAKEN FROM FISH. 



MANY people have the impression that the fish 

 must be cut open in order to obtain its spawn, but 

 such is not the case. When the spawn is taken from 

 the female fish to be vitalized with the milt of the 

 male, both parents must be alive and in a healthy 

 condition, or else good results cannot be obtained. 



On one occasion we took the spawn from a ripe 

 female three hours after she was supposed to be 

 dead, and impregnated it by using a live male. After 

 the spawn had developed sufficiently to ascertain, 

 fifteen per cent, were found impregnated, but it is 

 doubtful if every spark of life had departed from the 

 female, as the blood will often circulate long after a 

 fish has ceased to show any signs of life. 



After the fish are captured from the spawning 

 races, into which they have run in anticipation of 

 casting their spawn in the natural way, they are 

 placed in a tub of water and the ripe females se- 

 lected. Experience is about the only thing which 

 will tell you with certainty when the female is in 

 perfect condition for operating upon. The eggs 

 must be perfectly mature, and ready to come from 

 the fish, just as nature intended they should. If they 

 are pressed from the fish prematurely, your efforts 

 will be wasted, as such eggs cannot be fertilized. The 

 ripe female, by an expert, can be told by the touch. 

 When in perfect condition, the belly of the fish feels 



