322 GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 



visits under like circumstances, to the same locality, have failed to 

 find the fish. Owing to the uncertainty of their feeding grounds, 

 not a great many of these fish are usually taken in the summer 

 season. Sometimes we take them with the spoon trolling, but as 

 they are a bottom-feeding fish, they are more generally taken with 

 minnow or piece of fish still-fishing. I have taken a number with 

 the fly ; it must be gaudy, larger than a bass fly and shotted with 

 a buckshot put on as near the head of the fly as possible. As soon 

 as the lake freezes over the slaughter of these fish begins right on 

 Ihe grounds selected for spawning. They are taken through the 

 ice by the thousand, and the slaughter continues until the ice is 

 gone ; by this time the breeding season is over, and what were not 

 taken by the hook have departed to other waters and resumed 

 their roving habits. Live bait only will answer for winter fishing. 

 [For description of pike-perch, see Northern Inland Fishes.] 



Jack Salmon or Sand Pike. — Stizostetkium canadense. 



A fine food fish weighing from one-half to three pounds. 

 Color yellowish brown, with sides and dorsal fin beautifully 

 marked with black spots. Resembles the pike perch ; in fact its 

 specific characteristics are almost identical ; so much so, that 

 one is often taken for the other by those not fully conversant 

 with both. They are free biters, and are taken with minnow bait. 

 Spawn in April and May. Dr. D. C. Estes first discovered this 

 fish in Lake Pepin, and because he had never seen him described 

 or named, called him years ago, Lucioperca pepinus. It is com- 

 mon in streams tributary to the Red River of the North. 



Buffalo Perch or Grunting Perch. — HaplozdoTtottts grunniens. Raf. 



A large stout shouldered fish of bluish grey color ; scales 

 large, fins greyish olive, with sucker mouth ; snout very thick, 

 blunt and short ; meat very coarse and hard ; not fit to be eaten, 

 but the pot-fishermen sell numbers of them to the uninitiated. 

 The grunting habit of this fish is well established. It is not, 

 however, a grunt, but rather a kind of drumming or gurgling 

 sc^ind. Size from five to fifteen pounds. 



