quickly. While they form an easy prey to the carnivorous fishes, 

 still, bein^ produced in such numbers, a large percentage of them es- 

 cape and reach maturity. Being rapid of growth, within two years 

 the young are large enough to meet the size requirement for com- 

 mercial purposes. 



The buffalo can be classed with the carp as to their reproductive 

 qualities. The suntishes, too, are found everywhere in great num- 

 bers. The catfishes are not so plentiful as they once were, owing to 

 the great drain upon the supply of young in former seasons by the 

 use of what is known as fiddler baskets; however, these fishes are 

 now increasing in numbers and we may again hope to see them as 

 plentiful as before. 



Before the passage of the size limit in our fish laws it was not un- 

 usual to see large boatloads of fish that would not average more than 

 one and one-half to two ounces each when dressed, one of the most 

 outrageously wasteful practices ever perpetrated by fishermen. 



The increase of the coarse varieties has demonstrated beyond ques- 

 tion that with this increase in their food supply the gamier varieties 

 have been added to proportionately. Another feature of the question 

 favorable to the increase of black bass is the fact that, owing to their 

 being less tenacious of life than the coarse fishes, they do not ship so 

 well, and consequently the market demand for them is limited and 

 the catch of bass is very small compared to the whole amount taken. 



ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW. 



The past two seasons, as in the two succeeding ones, the knotty 

 proposition of the commission to solve has been how best to enforce 

 the law. A rigid and exact enforcement of all the provisions of the 

 law, as they stand upon the statutes, would be to work hardship to a 

 great commercial industry. The waters, particularly in the Illinois 

 river. Fox lake, Calumet lake and river and many of the smaller 

 streams, have become thickly populated with the carp, which, from 

 the very rapid growth and development, added to their immense 

 powers of propagation, has filled the waters to repletion. They do 

 not bite at the hook and line as voraciously as do the gamier varie- 

 ties, and should be taken out of the water when large enough for 

 market. With this end in view, the commission has allowed no par- 

 ticular restrictions to the placing of hoop and fyke nets in Illinois 

 waters, when, in the judgment of the commission, there has been a 

 necessity for taking the coarse fish. Then, too, in lakes which are 

 admirably adapted to the gamier varieties of fish, where carp have 

 increased to an extent that makes it a necessity to remove them, we 

 have given permits to have them removed by use of seine and nets 

 under the supervision of the warden designated by us, and paid for 

 by the parties removing the fish, this, however, only under the con- 

 dition that all interested must join in the request for such removals. 

 In spite of all precautions and constant surveillance, men will slip to 

 the river some place and use small mesh seines, giving as a reason 

 for so doing, that they are undertaking to catch the bull pouts, which 

 exist in innumerable quantities along the Illinois river. If the tak- 



