54 Conservation Department 



rainbow instead of saving it for the sportsmen to capture later in 

 the season when the farmer is busy in his fields. 



This general feeling of the residents of the lake shore that they 

 are entitled to some of the fish, and the fact that they cannot obtain 

 the fish in a reasonable length of time by legal methods has led 

 to this general practice of evading the law. If the supply of fish 

 is to be improved or even maintained in the various lakes, the 

 practice of illegal fishing, especially for the market, must be 

 stopped. 



(3) Spawning grounds. The bowfin, bullhead and pike situa- 

 tion in Cayuga lake is the finest demonstration one could have 

 of the necessity of proper spawning grounds for each species of 

 fish. The draining of the Montezuma marshes and the shutting 

 off of Cayuga from the Seneca river by the mudlock dam have 

 deprived these fish of the spawning grounds which formerly sup- 

 plied the greater number of them for the foot of Cayuga lake, 

 Now the bowfin is practically unknown and the others are declin- 

 ing. . Although there are weedy shallows at the foot of Cayuga 

 the temperature and other conditions there are not as suitable as 

 those that existed in the marshes and there has been a very decided 

 effect on the fish fauna of the shallower part of Cayuga lake. In 

 similar ways the spawning grounds of nearly every fish in our lakes 

 has been more or less seriously affected by changing conditions. 

 For example, the sand and silt brought down by all the tributary 

 streams is very abundant compared to what it was a hundred years 

 ago when the watershed of the streams was protected by forest, 

 and there was less cultivation and rapid drainage of the hill sides. 

 This mud and silt entering the lake from every tributary stream 

 covers many of the spawning beds with a layer of dirt which is 

 unfavorable to the hatching and development of fry. The strong 

 south swells, which are stirred up periodically by the wind, seri- 

 ously accentuate this unfavorable condition. The waters of these 

 lakes are often much roiled to a depth of 30 to 50 feet off-shore. 

 This condition must be disastrous to the spawn of lake trout, white- 

 fish and cisco, and more or less harmful to bass and perch ; for the 

 bass is sometimes unable to keep the spawning bed clean and the 

 partially floating spawn of the perch is filled with mud and buried. 



(4) Stocking methods. While our hatcheries have learned to 

 raise trout and other kinds of fish with great success the stocking 

 methods employed by the clubs and individuals which receive these 

 fish from the hatcheries have not resulted in successful planting in 

 many cases. A very careful system of planting each species, based 

 on the best information available is certainly necessary. 



(5) The condition of the tributary streams referred to is also 

 the cause of the very serious decline in the numbers of minnows, 

 suckers and other fish which are natural food for the trout, bass, 

 etc. Formerly they were reared in great numbers in the tributary 

 streams and descended to the lake later in the season. Now more 

 than 90% of the streams that flow into the lake dry up in mid- 



