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Aquatic Plants in Relation to Game Fish 
By WILLIAM O. COON, Naturalist 
Many of the same plants which are important food 
plants for waterfowl are also important food and 
cover plants for game fish. Therefore, one will im- 
prove both hunting and fishing by establishing a 
growth of aquatic vegetation in that lake, pond or 
stream. 
The number of game fish that can live in any body 
of water is dependent upon the nature of the living 
conditions that exist within those waters. Also the 
size of those game fish is governed by those water 
conditions. 
Aquatic plant life in a body of water is 
equally as important to fish life as the vege- 
tation that grows upon the upland is to the 
animal life that lives in the woods or fields. 
The basis of all food for every living 
creature is plant life. From the human be- 
ing to the lowest form of animal life are 
dependent upon vegetation for their exist- 
ence. Even though one species is carnivor- 
ous and may feed upon another carnivorous ¢ 
creature, somewhere down the line there are 
those that are dependent upon vegetation. 
Game fish within most lakes are im- 
prisoned within those waters. It is the plant 
life that grows within those waters that & 
create the proper balance for their living 
condition. The advantages of that vegeta- 
tion are many. A sportsman may curse and 
condemn the weeds—that entangle his fish line or 
snag his lure, but without those weeds the fish cannot 
grow to a healthy pan size for eating or give that 
sportsman the thrill he gets in catching him. 
Whether it be fish life, bird or animal life—there 
are but three fundamentals that concern them. First 
is to obtain food; the second is protection from their 
natural enemies; and the third to reproduce. Let’s 
just touch on the basic facts concerning each of these. 
FOOD FOR GAME FISH 
All fishes classified as game fish are carnivorous 
creatures (meat eaters), some of them are cannibal- 
istic and feed upon the smaller of their own kind. 
Many game fishes feed upon other species of game 
fishes, rough fish and otherwise. There are certain 
species of small fishes that never grow large and 
which multiply rapidly that are known as forage fish, 
It takes an abundance of small fish to provide food 
for large numbers of larger fish, and, therefore, to 
have an abundance of small fish they likewise must 
have a greater abundance of food. 
These smaller species of fish are dependent for 
their food upon the microscopic animal life that lives 
in the waters. One drop of water may contain num- 
bers of small creatures visible only when placed 
under a microscope. They are not harmful to man 
or beast, but are important to those fish. This small 
animal life may, depending upon the species, be 
dependent upon the living plants that grow in those 
waters or the decaying foliage and roots of old dead 
vegetation. Perhaps this small microscopic creature 
may also be carnivorous and feed upon other smaller 
species of tiny creatures, but somewhere down this 
line if traced to its source, the plant life provides 
that food that enables one to live upon the other. 
PROTECTION 
Here we will consider protection for these fishes 
from their natural enemies, The parent fish takes 
its young into the weed bed, not only because food 
Page 18 
is more abundant there, but because it affords hiding 
places among the dense growth. A bird takes its 
young into the brush, vines or trees; a deer seeks 
the dense forest; a mountain creature a cave be- 
neath a lofty cliff; the ground creature in its burrow, 
Fishes depend upon aquatic vegetation, dead branches 
or tree trunks, over-hanging banks and beneath the 
edges of rocks, depending largely upon the species, 
but plant life affords the most ideal place. 
There are many other advantages to a proper bal- 
ance of aquatic vegetation in those waters aside from 
“There! 
Right by 
that lily 
ff, pad.” 
==-ZOWIE!— 
“What a 
Whopper!” 
“That’s 
where they 
lay!” 
food and cover for game fish. These are truly im- 
portant but too numerous to explain about all of 
them. However, may we touch on a few of those 
which are most important: 
You have heard of people being locked in a vault 
and dying from suffocation, due to using all of the 
oxygen from the small space of air therein. You 
know that people cannot exist in the absence of 
oxygen, neither can any creature with blood in its 
veins. Surely you know that when your lungs take 
the oxygen from the air, that it’s the vegetation upon 
the earth that lives upon this used air and puts back 
into it that oxygen so essential to our existence. 
Plant life in the water does exactly the same for 
those game fish imprisoned therein. Should there 
exist a shortage of oxygen, the tiny fish will perish 
first, the same as a babe could not exist as long as 
a healthy adult. Should a million of these fish die in 
your lake, you would be unaware of it. The tiny 
creatures would be consumed by the bird life along 
the shores, and were they not, you could not locate 
them without a microscope or if you knew exactly 
what to look for, 
While game fish have no lungs, they do have blood 
and require oxygen. They take the oxygen directly 
into the blood stream through the tender tissues of 
the gills. This oxygen is most abundant among the 
vegetation, that is a second reason why that the 
adult fish takes its young there to live. 
Plant life aids in the purification of the waters. 
It takes up the poisonous carbon dioxide gases given 
off by the decomposing bottom soils. At the same 
time this aquatic vegetation aids in the clarification 
of the waters. It collects the floating particles of 
sediment washed from the surrounding highlands. 
One seldom ever sees a weedy lake with other than 
clear waters which are best for fish life. Lakes bar- 
ren of vegetation are often roiled by turbid waters. 
Game fish in muddy waters often acquire a muddy 
taste, 
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