REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 23 



would not be well to plant Black bass in Tahoe, Donner, Independence, 

 or Webber Lakes. 



The rivers Kern, King, and so forth, are admirably adapted for the 

 home of this fish. I am not over confident that it would be safe for the 

 young salmon to have the Black bass planted in either the Sacramento 

 or San Joaquin Rivers. 



The young salmon make the Sacramento River their highway from 

 the nursery grounds in the McCloud and upper Sacramento Rivers to 

 the ocean, and they would have to run the gauntlet of the Black bass if 

 the latter were planted there. But the perch and the Sacramento River 

 pike, which have always been there, would also be salmon eaters, if 

 they could catch them. The question remains: Would the Black bass 

 be any more destructive than their first cousin, the perch? At any rate, 

 in time these fish will find their way into these rivers, clandestinely by 

 private parties, if not done so openly by the Fish Commission. Russian 

 River is, I understand, at present well stocked with Black bass. 



Many applications have been made for Black bass to stock waters in 

 different parts of the State. They have to be caught for shipment with 

 hook and line. If they swallow the hook it is liable to injure them, and 

 cause them to die while kept in confinement waiting for shipment, or on 

 the journey to be planted. 



When fish are shipped to private waters, the expenses of the journey, 

 transportation, railroad fares, hotel bills, etc., are expected to be paid by 

 those who make application for them. Fifty fish, such as would breed 

 for the first time during the following spring, are sufficient to stock any 

 reservoir or small lake. The number did not exceed twenty which were 

 originally placed in Crystal Springs reservoir. 



Mr. James A. Richardson, after leaving the Tahoe Hatchery, in August, 

 1889, began shipping the Black bass, making one trip to the waters near 

 Oroville, for Senator Jones, one to Sweetwater reservoir, San Diego, and 

 two shipments to Clear Lake. More shipments would have been made 

 that year, but Mr. Richardson became seriously ill, and had to postpone 

 the work. 



SISSON HATCHERY, 1889-90. 



The salmon hatching season opens about the latter part of Septem- 

 ber. Mr. E. W. Hunt, after leaving the Tahoe Hatchery, in September, 

 1889, went up to the Sisson Hatchery to receive the first consignment of 

 salmon eggs from the United States Hatchery on the McCloud River. 

 There were shipped of the August and September run nine hundred and 

 seventy-four thousand salmon eggs, and of the later run in October and 

 November, three hundred and fifty-five thousand salmon eggs. In all, 

 for 1889 only one million three hundred and twenty-nine thousand eggs. 



The reason why this small number of eggs (three hundred and fifty- 

 five thousand) was received in the second run from the United States 

 Hatchery, was because of the heavy early fall rains, which raised so 

 great a flood in the McCloud River that it swept out all their traps, and 

 put an end to all fishing for that season. This shows how important it 

 is that the close season for salmon should be so definitely fixed that 

 sufficient numbers of breeding salmon should reach the United States 

 Hatchery in the month of September, so that a sufficient supply of eggs 

 for artificial hatching could be caught at that time to supply the young 

 for stocking the rivers of our State, and not depend upon the late fall 



