250 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
IMarch 38, 1903. 
tilized with the crushed teste?. About 75 per cent, of the 
eggs hatched on a wire tray in running water, the eggs 
being fanned clean every day with a feather. 
In the second case the fish were seined while spawning, 
and it was found that in the case of one female, pressure 
on the abdomen caused a reddish papilla to protrude from 
the vent. This had the appearance of a membrane closing 
the vent. It was pinched off, and the female was then 
stripped readily and the eggs fertilized and hatched. 
^ Pond Culture. — Having abandoned artificial fertiliza- 
tion, our attention was turned to pond culture, and this 
we have carried on for about six years. Our earlier ponds 
not furnishing natural spawning grounds, we constructed 
alongside each of the large ponds six smaller ponds for 
use as spawning ponds, each about sixteen by twenty-four 
feet, sixteen inches deep, with gravel bottom, and con- 
nected to the central pond by a four-foot channel. 
The fish entered these and spawned. In one cage we 
had eight nests in a single pond of this sort. Where so 
many nests were made, usually but one or two of them 
came to any good, the others being destroyed by the 
fighting of the males. Ordinarily but one or two nests 
were built in each spawning pond. The male first to enter 
and begin the construction of a nest generally regarded 
the whole pond as his property, and held it against those 
these frames were four inches high, while on the other 
sides they were sixteen inches high. They were set where 
there would be about two feet of water when the pond 
was filled, and so placed that the corner formed by the 
junction of the two lower sides pointed to the center of 
the pond, while the opposite corner, formed by the higher 
sides, pointed toward shore. The frames were set directly 
on the bottom, not in excavations, and each was filled 
with gravel containing sand suitable for nest-building. A 
board was laid diagonally across the two higher sides and 
a heavy stone laid on this to keep the frame in place. 
The two higher sides form a shield on two sides of the 
nest, while the board across the top affords shade. The 
frames were set in two rows about the pond, parallel to 
the shore line. 
The rows were about six feet apart, and the nests in 
each row about twenty -five feet apart, alternating with 
those in the other row. There was thus about one nest 
to each 100 square feet of suitable bottom, or in each area 
of ten by ten feet. When the bass were on the nests no 
one was able to see any other and the fighting from this 
cause was practically eliminated. The number of rows 
of nests may be increased to three or four, or more where 
the area of shallow water is wide enough. 
The bass selected these nests in preference to any other 
FRY KETAINER, TO BE PLACED AROUND BED JUST 
BEFORE THE FRY RISE. 
BASS BED, TO BE PLACED ON POND IN EARLY 
SPRING AND FILLED WITH GRAVEL. 
BLACK BASS POND, SHOWING FRY RETAINERS IN USE — BED FliAMES REMOVED. 
ihsit tried to enter after him. On one occasion the male 
thus holding the pond was attacked by ten or twenty other 
males at one time, and after a long struggle was killed 
and his nest destroyed. 
The attempt to use small spawning ponds was then 
abandoned, and all the ponds were made of good size and 
with a central kettle and shallow shore area, as already 
described. The problem now was to prevent the fighting 
of the male fish and the consequent destruction of nest 
and eggs. I finally hit upon remedies for what seemed 
to be the two chief causes of this fighting. I had noticed 
that in the natural water the nests of the small-mouthed 
bass were frequently built against a stone or log, so as to 
be shielded on one side. When so built the nests might 
be quite close together, as near as four feet, and the fish 
did not fight, because they did not see one another when 
on the nest. On the other hand, if a bass nest was built 
where it was not shielded, the bass on that nest would 
prevent any other bass from building within twenty-five 
or thirty feet of him. It occurred to me to try to con- 
struct artificial nests, and shield them so that the fish on 
the nests could not see one another, placing the nests so 
near together as to fully utilize the pond area. 
In the spring, before the spawning season opened, the 
ponds were drawn down so as to expose the shallow ter- 
race along the shore. The terrace was then cleaned to 
a depth of about two inches of sediment and vegetation 
which had accumulated since the previous summer. 
Rectangular nest frames of inch board were made two 
feet square and without bottorns. On two adjacent si4es 
spawning ground. They cleaned up the gravel and be- 
haved in the nests in every particular as they would on 
natural spawning grounds. The first time we tried these 
shielded nests not a single bass made a nest outside of 
them, though there was plenty of good gravel bottom 
available for this purpose. 
As to the second cause of fighting: In 1900, when these 
nests were first tried, from 475 stock fish we obtained 
315,000 fry and 750 fingerlings. In the season of 1891 the 
output was very much less, and there was considerable 
fighting among the fish. This remained unexplained till 
the ponds were drawn down after the spawning season, 
when it appeared that although the fish had been sorted, 
the number of male fish was considerably in excess of the 
number of females, and these excess males, banding to- 
gether, went about breaking up the nests of their more 
fortunate brothers. It is now the practice when setting 
the nests to seine out the stock fish and sort them, putting 
about forty males to sixty females, thus removing the 
second source of fighting. 
During the present season from 493 adult fish we had 
produced 430,000 fry up to May 26, and we believe that 
we can do as well every year. 
Up to the present year there have been two sources 
of loss incident to the water supply. The supply is a 
spring-fed brook, which runs over an open country before 
it reaches us. The water in this brook becomes quite 
warm on a hot, sunny day and cools off at night. The 
temperature thus falls at night sometimes as much as 
13 degreps F. a^d bpcpm^s j^s low as 46 degrees F. Thi§ 
IS disastrous, since when the temperature gets below 50 
degrees F. the adult fish desert the nests and the eggs or 
young fry are killed by the sediment. By watching the 
temperature of the water and, when ' it approaches 50 
degrees F., shutting off the supply until the water warms 
up, this difficulty is obviated. Since the ponds are well 
stocked with water plants the fish do not suffer from 
lack of oxygen when the water is shut off. Indeed, if the 
water did not leak out of the ponds, I doubt if it would 
be necessary to introduce any running water into them 
during the breeding season. 
The second difficulty with the water supply is from 
sediment brought down by the brook after heavy rains. 
This sometimes accumulates over the nests so thick as 
to smother the eggs and drive away the parent fish. By 
shutting off the water supply whenever the water is much 
roiled this trouble is avoided. 
The water supply, however, must be kept fairly con- 
stant. If the level lowers more than about six inches, the 
fish leave their nests and the eggs die. For the purpose of 
maintaining a constant water level it would probably be 
best to have the ponds made with clay bottoms. The diffi- 
culties arising from roily water of variable temperature 
are, however, local, and would probably not be usually 
encountered. 
Handling the Fry After They Rise from the Nest. — 
The small-mouthed fry have the habit of scattering into 
a large swarm when they leave the nest, and it is conse- 
quently difficult to seine them when wanted. It is there- 
fore desirable, just before the fry rise from the bottom, 
to set over each nest a cylindrical screen of cheese-cloth 
supported on a frame of band iron, first removing the 
wooden nest frame. The screen keeps the fry together. 
They thrive and grow within it and may be left there 
until one desires to ship them. The old fish stays outside 
and watches the screen. When this supply is gone, other 
Crustacea may be taken from the pond with a tow net and 
placed inside the screen. The fry are removed from these 
screens directly to the shipping cans, as wanted. 
Raising the Fingerlings. — The water in one of the 
ponds is lowered, the old fish seined out of the kettle and 
transferred to another pond; the pond is then refilled, 
and the fry, now about one-half to three-fourths of an 
inche long, are put in. The water in the pond is thick 
with Daphnia and other Crustacea, and these do not get 
out when the water is drawn off. The fry feed on them 
and the supply is usually sufficient; but if it gives out a 
fresh supply may be gathered from another pond and 
placed in the nursery pond. As the young bass grow they 
eat not only the Daphnia but young Corixa, and doubtless 
other aquatic animals. 
In 1901, fry one-half to three-fourths inch long were 
introduced into the nursery pond on July 12; on August 
5 they were seined out and shipped, and were then two or 
three inches long. They had had none but the natural 
food. In three months these fish, under the same condi- 
tions, are four to six inches long. 
I have spoken so far of the small-mouthed bass, and 
it remains to say something of the large-mouthed, with 
which my experience is more limited. It is less necessary 
to resort to pond culture with them since, owing to the 
habit of the fry of keeping in a close swarm, they may be 
readily seined from their natural waters shortly after 
they have left the nests. In cultivating them in ponds I 
use the shielded nests already described, but make the 
bottom of some fiber, preferably Spanish moss bedded in 
cement, as has been suggested by Mr. Stranahan. This 
imitates the natural nest bottom and gives better results 
in our locality than the gravel nest. I do not place 
screens about the nests, since the young fry are so small 
that it is difficult to hold them with a screen, and since 
they may be readily taken with a seine when wanted. I 
allow the large-mouthed fry to leave the nests with the 
parent fish and seine them when wanted. 
Finally, I will sum up what seem to me to be important 
points in pond culture of small-mouthed black bass, the 
ponds being constructed, as is usual, on the model of a 
natural pond with a central kettle and shallow shore 
region, well grown up with water plants, and supplied 
with lake or brook water: 
1. Fish should be so fed (with minnows) as to be in good 
condition in the spring. 
2. They should be sorted into the ponds in the spring in 
about the proportion of four males to six females. 
3. Shielded nests should be used, arranged as already de- 
scribed—about one to each 100 square feet of shallow water. 
4. The gravel in the nests should be carefully selected; it 
should contain sand and plenty of small stones. 
5. Water on the nesting grounds should De kept constantly 
at a level between 18 inches and 2 feet. 
6. The water temperature should be kept constantly between 
66 and 75 degrees F. (in our locality). 
7. Roily water should be, as far as possible, kept out of the 
ponds during the spawning season. 
8. Fish should not be disturbed until the eggs are hatched. 
9. The nests of the small-mouthed bass should be screened 
just before the fry rise from the bottom. 
10. The water should contain an abundance of natural food for 
the fry. 
The processes described are perhaps susceptible of im- 
provements, viz: 
1. Special nursery ponds might be provided for rearing finger- 
lings. 
2. It is perhaps desirable to have the nest frames shielded 
on three sides instead of two sides, and made with a bottom; 
then when the fry rise from the nest, close the fourth side of the 
nest frame by sliding a screen into it. In this way it would not 
be necessary to remove the nest frame and put a screen over it, 
but the frame could be left in place and the open side closed with 
a screen. 
3. If the ponds were made with clay bottoms, the water sup- 
ply could be entirely shut off during the breeding season, if 
necessary. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST, 
Home Manufacture. 
It is rather a dangerous microbe, this of the home 
manufacture of one's sporting gear. As a business 
proposition it is pretty safe to say that a man who makes 
a business of rod building can put up a better rod than 
the amateur who perhaps makes a couple of dozen rods in 
his life. This fact, however, does not in the least deter 
the amateur rod maker. I have seen some very beautiful 
specimens of rod making done by my friends. As to buy- 
ing a rod built by a professional, the genuine red hot 
amateur would die first. 
Again in the matter of tying flies. The fly-tying bacil- 
Jys gaught tne a year or so a^o, afld I ani still in i^s grip. 
