THE BASSES: FRES H-W ATER AND MARINE 



Abbott has recorded that as many as 240 have been 

 taken with a line in a few hours, and the late A. M. 

 Spangler reported catches of 600 or 700 in a day 

 by two rods, the fish weighing from three quarters 

 to one and a quarter pounds. It is a lover of brack- 

 ish water and may be found in tidal creeks in vast 

 numbers in the company of mummichogs, silver- 

 sides, and eels. 



Habits 



Small individuals ascend streams into fresh 

 water, associating with small striped bass and feed- 

 ing upon young eels and small minnows. It re- 

 sembles the striped bass in its feeding-habits, but 

 differs from this in its tendency to seek warm 

 waters. It has a varied diet, including the spawn 

 of other fish, especially of the shad, insects and their 

 larvae, worms, shrimp, minnows, and small eels, 

 which they pursue in the rivers with much eagerness. 



Some of the fish are said to hibernate in the deep 

 salt water of the bays, but others are found under 

 the ice of rivers in the winter. The migratory 

 schools which go into fresh- water streams enter them 

 in spring soon after the ice and snow-water have 

 run off. During the summer the perch are found 

 swimming around the piers or the timbers sup- 

 porting bridges, or chasing minnows on the flood- 

 tide high up the stream among the water-lilies, 



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