60 Conservation Department 



bay where it is by no means common at present. Lake trout, 

 small-mouthed bass and yellow perch are the predominant food 

 fishes. On good hard bottom at a depth of 60 to 150 feet the 

 trout is still abundant in such localities as Lamereaux, Lodi, 

 Willard, Pontius, and Reeders. Curiously enough they do not 

 abound . ff the west shore except at times from Long point to 

 Glenora. They are, however, distributed, though not abundantly, 

 over all the lake. The perch is very plentiful, judging from the 

 catches we made both with trap and gill nets. It is found from 

 Watkins to Geneva harbor. Many perch range from one to two 

 pounds in weight, but curiously enough we heard very little of 

 large catches taken with hook and line. This lake would support 

 a much larger population of trout and with proper planting we 

 believe this could be accomplished. The lampreys of this lake 

 should be reduced by capturing them when they run up the inlet 

 to spawn.* 



Cayuga lake: The alewife is plentiful furnishing food for the 

 larger trout. The lamprey, however, is very abundant and is evi- 

 dently one of the causes of the poor trout fishing. The pike-perch, 

 in spite of recent introductions, seems to be diminishing in number. 

 The whitefish, although formerly present, is scarce. The cisco is less 

 abundant than formerly. The pike, pickerel, large-mouthed bass 

 and bullhead, as well as the undesirable bowfin or dogfish, are be- 

 coming scarcer. This we believe is largely due to the destruction 

 of their breeding grounds by the draining of the Montezuma 

 marshes and the erection of the dam at Mud Lock where no efficient 

 fishway has been installed. The eel is commoner in Cayuga than in 

 any other of the Finger lakes because access from the sea is still 

 provided. For some reason, probably extensive netting, poor plant- 

 ing and the presence of the lamprey, the lake trout is scarce in 

 Cayuga. It probably was never as abundant as in Seneca but we 

 see no reason why the stock of trout could not be increased if the 

 lampreys were captured in the inlets as they go up to spawn and 

 the trout fry were properly planted. We learned from many sports- 

 men who had helped in the planting of trout in this lake that they 

 usually are dumped either off the end of a wharf in shallow water 

 or at the head of the lake just out beyond the lighthouse. We 

 believe that such plantings of trout are practically all wasted. 

 They should be placed in water that is in the vicinity of 100 feet 

 in depth and well scattered along the lake. 



Owasco lake: This is naturally adapted to lake trout, rainbow 

 trout, pike-perch and small-mouthed bass. There are no lampreys 

 or burbots in the lake, but unfortunately a good food fish for trout 

 is scarce. The cisco and the smelt, which has been recently intro- 

 duced, are far too few to feed the trout after they pass beyond the 

 stage in which they feed on the smaller organisms. Almost all 

 the trout taken from Owasco lake during our survey were in an 



See paper by S. H. Gage on Economics of the Lamprey, p. 180. 



