164 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
water. About 1917 there appeared to be developing about Lake Pepin a smoking 
industry of significance, based chiefly upon mooneye. In 1922 and in 1927 the 
mooneye was not reported as a commercial fish, but this was undoubtedly an over- 
sight, arising possibly from the fact that mooneyes were not sold from the nets but 
were given away or taken home to be smoked and subsequently sold. Inquiries in 
1926 indicated that there had been no cessation of the practice, although little devel- 
opment had occurred for relative paucity of material. 
In the region just below Lake Pepin some fishermen speak of a large herringlike 
fish locally called "cisco.” Possibly this name refers to the larger mooneye, alosoides. 
Such information as we have in hand would suggest the association of tergisus with 
slacker water and alosoides with swift current. The respective habits and distribu- 
tion of the two species offer a favorable subject for study. 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION REGARDING MOONEYES 
Mooneyes of two species are generally distributed in the upper Mississippi, 
one species or the other seeming to predominate in each locality. In some localities 
mooneyes are described by fishermen as frequenting only the swiftest current, but in 
other places they are found in slack water. The fish have had no significant commercial 
standing in the past but are now marketed in most places as smoked fish and in some 
localities as fresh fish. The quality of the smoked mooneyes is very high. Moon- 
eyes appear not to have been unfavorably affected by the dam. At only one or two 
points on the river, either above or below the dam (as far as Canton, Mo.), was there 
reported in 1926 a diminution in numbers of these fish. "More than ever” was the 
substance of reports at Lynxville, Wis., Fairport and Keokuk, Iowa. Mooneyes 
may have a growing value, but they are not now so abundant, relative to other species, 
as to promise to take a place of great importance in the fishery. 
THE GIZZARD SHADS (Dorosomid®) 
Gizzard shad. Dorosorna cepedianum (Le Sueur) 
The gizzard shad offers an instance of a fish that has no commercial rating but 
nevertheless is one of the most valuable fishes in the larger rivers. Garman (1890) 
says that predaceous fishes confined in the sloughs depend very largely on this shad 
for sustenance. Forbes and Richardson (1908) speak of it as "one of the most useful 
in our waters because of the almost exhaustless food supply which it offers to all the 
game fishes of our larger streams and lowland lakes. Living itself mainly upon 
food derived from the muddy bottom of our very muddy rivers and lakes, it serves as 
a means of converting this mere waste of nature into the flesh of our most highly 
valued food fishes.” In its earliest stages of free life, when it is remarkably different 
from the adult in form and habit, it competes with game fishes for the active elements 
of the plankton. It soon transforms itself, adopts new habits of feeding, and becomes 
itself the prey of young bass and other predatory fishes. Even as an adult it is still 
able to feed upon plankton strained from the water through its gill rakers. 
The breeding season of the gizzard shad in the vicinity of Havana, 111., begins 
in May, and growth is evidently rapid. Garman (1890), having collected fish near 
Quincy, 111., in August, 1888, reported that "young of the year 1.5 to 2 inches long 
and still wearing the black shoulder mark occur in countless numbers. * * *. 
The bottoms and sloughs and lakes are preeminently the spawning ground of this 
fish.” 
