40 American Fisheries Society. 



introduction of moi'e breeders does tend to continue our supply of fish 

 in a "vvay that would not, I think be possible otherwise under our present 

 angling laws. 



Mr. Hayford: For a number of years we have been doing some of 

 this work in connection with certain of our reservoirs in New Jersey. 

 I find that if the adults are moved in the fall of the year we generally 

 have splendid results in the reproduction the following spring. In the 

 case of those that were handled about ten days before spawning, very 

 few of them ever spawned ; and on opening them up we found the eggs 

 decomposed. If the big bass are left in the municipal reservoirs and 

 the yearling bass taken, those which are from five to seven inches long, 

 some results can be obtained, but as for removing the big bass, it is 

 simply cutting off the fountain head of supply. 



Mr. Buller: I am very much interested in what Professor Osbum 

 has said in his paper with regard to the amount of fish in certain waters 

 depending largely upon the amount of food available in those waters. 

 In Pennsylvania the practice of seining for minnows, on the part of 

 fishermen and those dealing in bait fish, was practically destroying the 

 minnow life in our streams and inland lakes. It has therefore become 

 necessary for us, in addition to propagating fish for the stocking of 

 waters, to propagate minnows and introduce them into those streams 

 for food, at the same time prohibiting seining for minnows. We have 

 a law on the statutes today which imposes a penalty of $100 upon any- 

 one who seines in the waters of Pennsylvania at any time of the year, 

 with the exception of the waters below McCall's FeiTy dam and in the 

 Delaware river, as well as within the limits of the tidal waters. The 

 seines are permitted there for the catching of shad. That law was 

 enacted for the sole purpose of protecting the food which is absolutely 

 necessary to fish life in those streams. 



Dr. Osburn: Can live bait be used in Pennsylvania? 



Mr. Buller: Yes. We do permit the use of a small dip net not to 

 to exceed four feet in diameter, but there must be no seining. Since 

 the enactment of that law, and with the propagation and distribution 

 of minnows, the food is increasing, and, from the reports received from 

 the bass fishermen, bass fishing is improving in spite of the many dis- 

 advantages that we have to contend with. The increase in bass fishing 

 in Pennsylvania is due, in my opinion, not so much to artificial propaga- 

 tion and the stocking of waters as to the law that we have relative to 

 the taking of bass. The close season is up to the first of July, thereby 

 giving the adult bass a chance to reproduce. 



Dr. Osburn: There is no Spring fishing? 



Mr. Buller: No. These are two things that are helping bass fish- 

 ing in Pennsylvania. As to the removal of adult fish, we do some of 

 that work, and having the close season up to the first of July we are 

 reasonably sure that they have reproduced before the fishermen take 

 them. 



With Pennsylvania — and I think every state has found itself in 

 the same position — the difficulty of getting sufficient funds out of the 



