Fish Culture in Inland Waters 2^y 



lieibivorous shore fishes hke shiners, that are most easily captured ; 

 but it doubtless eats the game fishes as well when it can catch them. 

 The chief reason for not recommending the pike is because its habits 

 are such that no considerable increase in numbers of adults is likely 

 to result from efforts to care for the young. It is only a sparse popu- 

 lation of such fishes that any natural body of water can support. 

 Grass-eating antelopes may flourish in large herds on the veldt but 

 flesh-eating lions must of necessity have more room and be fewer 

 in population." 



Pound for pound, the pike does not exceed some other fishes, such 

 as the lake trout and blackbass for instance, in fish-eating voracity 

 or capacity. In fact if " hearsay " evidence is admitted, which it 

 shouldn't be, the blackbass is alleged to have exterminated the pick- 

 erel in several lakes. Before taking measures to eliminate the pike, 

 if it is indigenous to the waters of Lake George, would it not be 

 better to " go out after more knowledge " concerning it and its natu- 

 ral relation to the balance of life in the lake, or in a similar lake where 

 the balance has not been tilted to the extent that it has in Lake 

 George, if such a body of water can be found ? 



The possibility of the pike being a factor in maintaining the former 

 " balance of nature " has been discussed in another place in this 

 paper (pp. 223-224), 



Embody has discussed and made recommendations concerning the 

 pike in Cayuga Lake (Embody, '22), He says: "Piscivorous 

 fishes of large size must constitute an important factor in reducing 

 the fish population in any small body of water. It is well known that 

 the larger the individual fish above a certain weight, the more slowly 

 it grows and the more food it requires simply for maintenance. It 

 cannot be considered an economical practice to maintain a few giant 

 fish at the expense of a large number of smaller ones. This is 

 exactly what we are doing in permitting monstrous pike to simply 

 maintain themselves where a large number of smaller fishes would 

 grow and thus increase the amount of fish flesh. 



" It is believed that there are many large pike from ten to twenty 

 pounds in weight, in Cayuga Lake. One pike of thirty-seven inches, 

 weighing nineteen pounds, had in its stomach a pickerel of eighteen 

 inches and one and nine-tenths pounds in weight. It had consumed 

 at one meal fish flesh equal to ten per cent of its own weight. It 

 would not be an underestimation to say that no more than twenty 

 pike of over eight pounds are taken in one year. The average size 

 of those generally caught ranges from twenty to twenty-five inches 

 long and from two to four pounds in weight. If all pike over 

 twenty-eight inches long and weighing five pounds were eliminated, 

 there would undoubtedly be more of the average size pike and cer- 

 tainly more of the other species of fish particularly yellow perch. It 

 seems to the writer that for Cayuga Lake it would be much better 

 for a number of fishermen to be able to make a number of catches of 

 moderate-sized fish each year than for one or two fisherman only 

 to be able to catch a very few giant fish. 



" For this reason it is believed that the large pike which are sel- 



