Aiiicricdii Fislierics Society 131 



If tlu'iv are any remaining then, I keep them until the fall and 

 then ship them. I have never tried the artificial nests. 



I was first led to make the nests as I do b}^ watching the bass 

 themselves. I Avas pretty fond of fishing-, and I would bring 

 fish from the river ii]) and duni]) them into the pond, and I hap- 

 pened to walk around one day and saw these bass working at the 

 nests; I saw the kind of nests tliey made and after that I imitat- 

 ed them. I place in a pond of a quarter of an acre, about thirty 

 bass, and I am very careful in selecting them. If you have bass 

 that spawn ten days later tlian the main lot you Avill eventually 

 have no ])ass. Those ten days older will grow and eat all the 

 rest. I remember in my pond I saw a splendid nest and I de- 

 bated whether to encircle them immediately with fine netting or 

 not : l)ut I did not do it until the second day, and then there were 

 no bass there. The great troul)le in raising bass is to keep the 

 small ones from eating one another. In one case I estimated 

 there were 20,000 bass in a certain pond in the spring, which I 

 did not drain until fall, when I had only 2(iO. I put 403 at one 

 time in a trough, and at the end of a month had only four or five 

 left. 



