174 PRACTICAL BAIT CASTING 



Established ponds can be utilized or they can be secured 

 by excavating or by damming a stream or, better still, 

 by diverting a stream and building dikes to hold the 

 water. Care should be taken to avoid having the 

 pond directly in the course of a stream or having it 

 so situated that surface water can drain in after a 

 heavy rain. 



The pond need not be deep say two feet at the 

 edges for a breeding shelf and not less than six feet 

 deep in the center so as to prevent asphyxiation dur- 

 ing a heavy freeze. A plant consisting of two ponds, 

 a breeding and wintering pond and a rearing pond, 

 is better than a single body of water. 



The best procedure is to first plant water vegetation 

 such as pond weed, cress, duckweed, pickerel grass ; 

 spatterdock, and chara moss. These can be taken from 

 near-by waters, pulled up roots and all and thrown 

 into the pond fastened to stones to anchor them until 

 they are established. These plants furnish food in the 

 form of cyclops, water lice, and other minute Crustacea 

 and shelter for both the rearing and food fish. Food 

 fish for the breeders can be shiners, chubs, or other 

 minnows, say about one hundred pairs to start with. 

 Other food such as crawfish and frogs should also 

 be provided if possible. 



Advanced fry of the breeder fish may be planted 

 in the pond the first summer, fingerlings in the fall 

 and mature fish the following spring. About twenty- 

 five or thirty pairs of adult fish, two thousand ad- 

 vanced fry or from four to six thousand fry is about 



