KEOKUK DAM 
129 
Table 7. — Fisheries of Lake Pepin, 1914, 1917, 1928, and 1927 
Fishermen 
Boats: 
Motor 
Other... 
Fishing apparatus: > 
Seines 
Anchored gill nets. 
Fyke nets. 
Fish traps 
Spears 
Items 
OPERATING UNITS 
1914 
Number 
135 
28 
54 
14 
664 
295 
8 
Pounds 
1917 
Number 
126 
35 
55 
17 
371 
262 
14 
Pounds 
1922 
Number 
219 
109 
136 
33 
351 
95 
Pounds 
1927 
Number 
139 
39 
105 
23 
152 
280 
Pounds 
Bowlin 
Buffalo fish 
Carp, German 
Catfish and bullheads.. 
Eels 
Fresh-water drum or sheepshead. 
Mooneye, fresh... 
Mooneye, smoked 
Pike 
Quillbaek or American carp 
Spoonbill cat, or paddlefish 
Sturgeon, lake 
Sturgeon, shovelnose 
Suckers 
Sunfish 
Turtles 
1,534 
261, 250 
237, 517 
26, 830 
131, 785 
9, 300 
1,465 
50 
60, 605 
8, 877 
1,067 
IS, 340 
24, 021 
300, 808 
467, 588 
254, 249 
118, 304 
7, 656 
16, 136 
340, 309 
2, 578, 916 
127, 384 
541 
395, 592 
7,250 
14, 238 
2,923 
512 
15, 260 
47, 377 
15, 971 
5, 253 
1,080 
43, 466 
50 
442 
3, 334 
33, 449 
615, 242 
53, 076 
318 
113, 793 
8, 976 
4,835 
1, 191 
31, 911 
Total. 
758, 670 
1, 212, 809 
3, 572, 467 
866, 125 
i Trot and hand lines are omitted from this statement because data on the quantity in use are not available. 
In the first place, it is observed that the total catch of fish in Lake Pepin in 1917 
was 60 per cent greater than in 1914, due in part, no doubt, to increased prices and 
the war-time demand for fish as a substitute for meats, while the catch in Lake 
Keokuk had increased 172 per cent; this means that the catch in the lake created 
by the dam was nearly three times as great in the fifth year of the lake (1917) as 
in the second year (1914). By 1922 the catch of fish in Lake Pepin was nearly three 
times as great as in 1917, or nearly five times the yield of 1914; this remarkable 
change was due in considerable measure, but not wholly, to the increased catch of 
carp. On the other hand, the catch in Lake Keokuk in 1922 was 61 per cent less 
than in 1917, although somewhat greater than in 1914. In 1927 the catch in Lake 
Pepin was comparable to that in 1914, but somewhat larger, while the catch in 
Lake Keokuk, continuing to decline, was less than in 1914. 
The fishes taken in respective quantities of 25,000 pounds, or more, in either 
lake in any one of the years of report were as follows: Buffalo fish, catfish, fresh- 
water drum, carp, quillbaek, suckers, and bowfin. We will consider these severally. 
The catch of buffalo fish in Lake Pepin was 15 per cent greater and in Lake 
Keokuk 179 per cent greater in 1917 than in 1914. The increase in the northern 
lake is not material, but in the southern lake it appeared in 1917 that the new condi- 
tions had afforded opportunity for a substantial development of the buffalo fishes as 
a natural resource, and this coincided with the statements of fishermen at Dallas 
City, 111., a principal fishery point on the lake. The remarkable decline in the 
yield of buffalo fish reflected by the canvass of 1922 seems at present inexplicable on 
the ground of any known change in conditions from 1917 to 1922 other than the 
substantial reduction of area of the lake by reclamation of submerged lowlands. 
(Coker, 1930 ) It may be remarked that buffalo fish was the most valuable 
fish product of both lakes until 1922, when carp took the lead in Lake Pepin 
