Biological Survey — Oswego Watershed 



45 



Whitefish from Canandaigua lake 



of the Finger lakes and has been taken by fishermen in the lakes 

 themselves on a few occasions, but it is not naturally a lake fish. 



Rainbow and steelhead, however, are unquestionably found in 

 all the Finger lakes and especially in Keuka, Seneca and Skane- 

 ateles where they have been taken repeatedly by fishermen. They 

 range the lakes extensively in the summertime but go up the 

 tributaries to spawn early in the spring and then return to the 

 lakes, where they range widely in water of moderate depth. The 

 steelhead is the predominant form in Skaneateles where it furnishes 

 excellent sport. 



The lake trout is confined to cool water at depths from 30 to 

 300 feet in summer. Late in the fall and in the spring it invades 

 the shallower water while the temperature remains below 50 degrees 

 F. to seek a more plentiful food supply. When the shallower 

 water warms it retreats to greater depths. Young trout of the 

 first season, although we took none in the lakes, are unquestionably 

 confined to the deeper water, where both the optimum temperature 

 and a bountiful food supply are found. 



The sucker, (Catostomus commersonnii) is still common in the 

 lakes in spite of the yearly spearing of mature fish as they are 

 running up the influent streams to spawn, and in spite of the fact 

 that only a minor proportion of the fry that hatch from the egg* 

 which are deposited ever reach the lake, because of the intermittent 

 character of so many creeks which formerly were ' ' living streams. ' ' 

 The salvation of the sucker has been the fact that many of them 



