Cobb. — Pike-Perch Propagation. 101 



Mr. Adams: Assuming that on one side of a river the banks were 

 gravelly and that on the other they consisted of a ledge of rocks pro- 

 jecting out to the bottom of the stream, would you endeavor to anchor 

 that pound or trap toward either shore or more tgward the middle of 

 the stream? 



Mr. Cobb: It is preferable in fishing for pike to get the pound 

 where you can lead into it on the side of the stream where the fish are 

 helped up at least a part of the way by a back eddy. It depends, how- 

 ever, entirely on the conditions, 



Mr. Adams: In the case of such shores as I describe, the pike will 

 follow or be affected by the currents rather than by the contour of the 

 shore? 



Mr. Cobb: Yes. The female pike with the eggs will not work up 

 in the swift current; they will take advantage of the eddies which help 

 them along; and they hesitate when they come in that eddy to a point 

 where they face directly into the swift current. 



Mr. Adams: Would you say that May 15th would be late enough 

 in the year for the close season to protect the spawning pike say in Mas- 

 sachusetts? I believe that is your limit now in Minnesota, is it not? 



Mr. Cobb: That is not late enough in Minnesota, and I presume it 

 would not be late enough in Massachusetts. We had a great deal of 

 trouble on account of the run being cleaned out by fishermen above our 

 nets after being spawned and dropped over. We now have a law by 

 which these places can be closed to fishing by the commissioner, which 

 takes the fish over the spawning period. 



Dr. Embody: There was a point concerning the spawning of the 

 pike-perch in which I was interested. I do not think anyone has ever 

 adequately described the spawning behaviour of the pike-perch. At 

 least, I have never found anything more than a general declaration that 

 the pike-perch scatters its eggs over a sandy bottom, the sandy shoals 

 near the mouths of rivers. Did I understand you to say that you had 

 actually found eggs of pike-perch laid naturally in this river? 



Mr. Cobb: Yes. 



Dr. Embody: And that they were massed together? 



Mr. Cobb: They were massed together. Shall I describe the con- 

 dition at that particular place? Slightly up the bay from the lake was 

 a very swift rapid, and above that rapid we found almost no female pike 

 with spawn. The males, especially the smaller ones, passed over there 

 in great numbers. These pike came up to the foot of this swift water; 

 they would wait there until they became massed in from the accumula- 

 tion of numbers, then they would rush up into the current, come to the 

 surface and break water; and in the large majority of cases when they 

 broke water, with a sort of splurge or splash, they would throw a part 

 of their eggs. Then they would drop slowly down to a little clearer 

 water, stay there a minute or two as if recovering from their effort; 

 and finally come up again. The eggs would drift down and gradually 

 settle to the bottom, where they would adhere. 



Dr. Embody: I assume that would be a gravel bottom. 



