62 FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



BLACKWOOD CREEK TANKS 



In an effort to satisfy the demands of the residents and others visiting 

 the Tahoe region, we agreed to install a tank system in which to hold 

 the fish until larger before planting them in the fall. Plans were made, 

 and after procuring a lease on Blackwood Creek for a site, twelve tanks 

 were placed in a good building, and late in the season of 1926, 400,000 

 black-spotted trout were placed in the tanks from Tahoe Hatchery. 

 They thrived until the slush ice compelled the crew to liberate them. 



During 1927 the tanks were used again successfully, but the fish were 

 planted earlier in the season, as it is not a good plan to distribute fish 

 artificially reared and fed, in the early winter, when the natural feed 

 is very scarce and hard for the fish to get. These tanks will be used 

 again this season to handle the surplus fish in good condition, and with 

 the closing of the tributary streams to Lake Tahoe, it will in a few 

 years help in restoring the fishing in the lake. Eggs Avere shipped from 

 Rush Creek Station to help fill the Tahoe Station, as well as to give us a 

 supply for the tanks. 



TALLAC HATCHERY 



This hatchery has been operated as in the past. The water supply is 

 good until early in July, when the algae and other conditions make it 

 necessary to distribute the fish. The fish always make a rapid and 

 healthy growth until early in July, when they become affected if not 

 planted. The hatchery is very useful in early spring to eye eggs of 

 the black spotted and large lake varieties of trout, as well as to hatch 

 steelhead and rainbow eggs. A large number of steelhead and rainbow 

 trout eggs should be hatched in Tallac Hatchery, and the resulting fry 

 placed in the lake so as to provide top or fly fishing for the anglers that 

 frequent the lake. The black spotted, large lake and Mackinaw trout 

 are all too hard to catch for the ordinary angler. They feed in deep 

 water and only experienced fishermen such as the old market fishermen 

 that depleted the fish in the lake, can make any success in fishing, except 

 in a few favorite places. "We have had this plan in mind for the last 

 twelve years, but as the take of eggs was not sufficient to ship 

 enough to the lake to make any showing, there has been a continual com- 

 plaint by certain persons that there was but very few fish in the lake. 



If we can not get the eggs in California, which we feel can not be 

 done, that is, in numbers great enough to stock this large body of water, 

 I would recommend that arrangements be made to procure at least four 

 or five million steelhead eggs annually for Lake Tahoe for at least four 

 years. It will take this length of time to stock a body of water as large 

 as Lake Tahoe with a new species of fish. We have planted a few hun- 

 dred thousand steelhead in the lake, but not enough to insure good fish- 

 ing. A number of fine specimens are caught each season, but to stock 

 this large body of water with steelhead or any other top feeding species, 

 at least four or five million trout should be introduced for several suc- 

 ceeding years. Then results will be had in three or four years. 



