public fishing water, as a source of supply for brood fish, 

 the bass being caught as they are enroute to their natural 

 spawning grounds. 



Unless there are unusually favorable facilities for keep- 

 ing the parent fish in brood ponds, it is customary to re- 

 lease them, after the spawning function, in the larger 

 waters of their origin. 



In other words, several hundred brood bass are removed 

 from a large body of water in order to get their progeny 

 under control. The progeny is then distributed in small 

 allotments to many waters. 



During the early stages of their existence, young bass 

 in breeding ponds are exposed to dangers of many kinds, 

 just as they are in the larger waters of their natural 

 habitat, although not in the same magnitude. Snakes, 

 frogs, turtles, various water insects, fish-eating birds and 

 mammals, all are destructive to the fry, while the young 

 of the same school prey upon the weaker ones. The 

 natural spawning period extends over six or eight weeks 

 and the earlier broods of fry prey upon their younger 

 brethren. The losses from cannibalism among the little 

 basses are undoubtedly greater in the confines of artifi- 

 cial breeding ponds than among the little basses hatched 

 in the larger waters. 



The degree of success attained both in natural waters 

 and in artificial ponds varies with the season and is 

 governed largely by the state of the weather and other 

 natural conditions beyond the control of the Commission. 

 Located, as they are, along the shoal margins of the 

 ponds, the nests receive the full effect of atmospheric 

 changes. A sudden fall in temperature will often cause 

 the parents to desert their nests, and as the eggs and fry 

 are extremely sensitive, they are frequently killed or 

 their development injuriously retarded by the cold. 



Another unfavorable feature resulting from the location 

 of the nests in shallow water is that it subjects them to 

 the full force of surface drainage and washings, follow- 

 ing heavy rains. Roily water is extremely injurious to 

 the ova and young of the black bass, and heavy rains and 

 sudden temperature changes are conditions which must be 

 expected during the season of the year when these fishes 

 spawn. In the breeding ponds efforts are made to regu- 

 late these conditions, but the results of pond cultural 

 operations are hazardous and uncertain in the extreme. 

 One year a station may have a good output, and the next 

 year, under apparently similiar conditions, very few 

 young fish are produced. 



47 



