American Fisheries Society 147 



Mr. S. F. Fullekton : The l^est evidence that crappie spawn in muddy 

 water is found in the -Mississippi River. For several years the govern- 

 ment has collected bass and crappie at Winona and La Crosse, on 

 the Mississippi. In the spring and up to June, after the crappie have 

 spawned, the river is high and muddy. When it overflows the parent 

 fish go into the sloughs to spawn, and as the water recedes we follow 

 up and collect the small crappie and bass. In this way we saved 300,000 

 fingerlings last year, mostly between Winona and St. Paul, and the 

 government collected, I understand, a much larger number. Besides 

 stocking lakes in the state, we are also saving and putting the rough 

 fish back into the Mississippi. They are taken in large numbers with 

 the crappie. As the latter cannot l)e moved any distance in warm 

 weather, they are not sorted out but are turned into the river with the 

 rough fish. The bass can be shipped, but crappie will not stand ship- 

 ment in a water temperature over 70 degrees F. We have tried various 

 schemes but without success. Roily water is the place to hatch crappie ; 

 it cannot be done in clear water. 



Mr. Titcomb : We treat calico bass and crappie almost indiscrimi- 

 nately in our distribution work. They seem to require the same condi- 

 tions, that is, roily water during the spawning season. Mr. Catte, how- 

 ever, has a series of ponds fed by bottom springs of clear water, where 

 he successfully propagates strawberry bass. 



Mr. Eugene C.\tte. Langdon, Kansas : I hatch thousands of them in 

 clear water. 



Mr. Clark : Do you mean crappie or strawberry bass ? 



Mr. Catte : Strawberry bass. 



Mr. Titcomb: Mr. Meehan says strawberry bass do best in cloudy 

 water. 



Mr. Meehan : That is true. Our strawberry bass did decidedly 

 better where the water was a little roily. 



Mr. O'Brien : Our experience has been quite different. A\'e raise 

 strawberry bass and crappie under exactly the same conditions. I 

 believe roily water is essential for tlie crappie. Moss is not necessary, 

 however, as wc find thousands of crappie in natural streams like the 

 Platte, Elkhorn and Missouri rivers, where there are practically no 

 water plants. 



Mr. Ward T. Bowi-k : While I can give no authority for the state- 

 ment, and perhaps it is a popular misconception, I have heard that a 

 turbid condition of the water is necessary for crappie because of a 

 peculiar construction of the eyes. Perhaps some one here has heard 

 something along this line, and can throw further light on the subject. 

 Possibly Dr. Evermann can tell us something about it. 



Dr. Evermann : I know nothing about it. 



President : Both crappie and calico bass have been introduced very 

 extensively in the eastern part of New York, and have so multiplied 

 that we are beginning to draw from stocked lakes for brood fish. For 

 instance, when the New York Aquarium wanted to stock the park 

 lakes of New York City and Brooklyn last spring, they asked the 



