BIOLOGICAL 107 



permit the fish to breed under favorable conditions and 

 raise the fry with as much freedom from their natural 

 enemies, including their cannibalistic tendencies, as 

 possible. 



It is not unusual for a female bass to spawn two 

 or more times in a season and as many as seven thou- 

 sand eggs to the pound of parent fish have been 

 counted. 



If a stream has suitable spawning beds, and they 

 can be constructed if they do not exist naturally, the 

 fish will maintain themselves providing the fishing is 

 confined to legitimate hook and line. It is netting, 

 dynamiting, and other illegal methods that have de- 

 populated so many of our good bass streams of yester- 

 year. 



GAMENESS 



As to the gameness of the black bass there is little 

 to add to Dr. Henshall's famous summary : " He is 

 plucky, game, brave and unyielding to the last when 

 hooked. He has the arrowy rush and vigor of the 

 trout, the untiring strength and bold leap of the sal- 

 mon, while he has a system of fighting tactics pecu- 

 liarly his own. He will rise to the artificial fly as 

 readily as the salmon or the brook trout under the 

 same conditions and will take the live minnow, or 

 other live bait, under any and all circumstances favor- 

 able to the taking of any fish. I consider him, inch 

 for inch, and pound for pound, the gamest fish that 

 swims." 



