192 American Fisheries Society. 



we handled 51,000,000 sunfish. There are points along the river wh'6>e 

 fishermen had not been catching sunfish and crappie for twenty years, but 

 where this summer they were able to get the limit each day. Wabasha is 

 one place; Fountain City, Lynxville and Marquette are others. Up to 

 the first of September this year (1923) we had rescued and planted bacfc 

 in the river over 70,000,000 fish and about 145,000,000 larval mussels. 



Mr. J. W. TiTCOMB, Hartford, Conn.: This is not exactly rescue work 

 I am going to speak about, but it may be of interest to some of the com- 

 missions. In the State of Connecticut we have many lakes and ponds that 

 are accessible to 20,000,000 people by driving 100 miles ; in other words, a 

 circle drawn around the center of the state takes in 20,000,000 people. Now, 

 to keep these ponds and lakes supplied with the warm water fishes is quite 

 a problem. The numerous cities in the state have water supplies which are 

 mostly natural ponds and lakes; and as a sanitary precaution, it is unlawful 

 to fish in them. This season we are getting concessions from the officials 

 of these municipal reservoirs under which the Board of Fisheries is allowed 

 to trap the fish in them and transfer the fish to the lakes and ponds 

 which are open to public fishing. We argued that if we were allowed to 

 net these reservoirs periodically for the purpose of stocking the public 

 waters, anglers would not be tempted to fish them surreptitiously. The people 

 who allowed us the privilege were authorized to post the lakes over the 

 name of the State Board of Fisheries and Game; and we patrol the reservoirs 

 so far as it appears to be necessary in order to safeguard them against pol- 

 lution by poachers. The first reservoir yielded about 8,000 pounds of pickerel, 

 bullheads and perch, consisting of fish ranging from one-half pound to five 

 pounds in weight — a large proportion of them before they had spawned. 

 Another lake yielded principally small-mouth bass. We got started only 

 this spring, rather late in the season; but we now have concessions from the 

 officials of five other cities, and some of these officials have charge of Bve 

 or six reservoirs. It is a very interesting proposition, and I do not see why 

 it should not work out in some other states. We have, in other words, 

 a pond cultural proposition worth many millions, under which we can go 

 and get our bass and other warm water fishes for the restocking of these 

 much-fished ponds and lakes. 



