The morning times., 1896-08-30
Stocked and ReSt0cked With
out Appreciate Result.
IDEAL STREAM FOR BASS
Both Kinds of Fish Have Been
Placed in the Greek But
Have disappeared.

home to all appearances for the noble bass
or willy trout. Its rills and shadows form
places which the anglers eye picks out
for ut least rise apiece from the spccklcd
sirens, while the long sweeps Of dark
waters, eddying ana tapping messy banks
give assurance of strike from the
gaDiest thing with fins, the black bass.
But appearances are deceptive. One
might ruin whole book OF flies, work with
the skill of a demon and whip every foot
of water in Rock Creek without Il rise,
and niinnow, spoon, helgamite, craw. Sd,
frog, mouse or other bait will be dropped
in vain into the pretty pools.
Rock Creek is fishess, that is, in the
| anglers sense or the word: Those allur-
| ing eddies and pools and fascinating PUSHES
/ OF swift water are tenanted only by the
| picbeian buil-head, the minDow, and a
| lazy turtle or two. Why? Ask the Fish
| Commission. They do not know. Ask
| the fishermen. They, too, are puzzled
Fish have been placed there. bass and
trout, and plenty OF them. But none
| have been seen since, and skillrul rods have
sought them, faithfully, diligently, and
patiently. Yet the fact remains that in
All reach IUlleS ana IDIleS
or water there is not a trout. not bass.
The idea OF stocking the stream with game
fish has been thoughtfully considered by
quite a number OF men who have the in
terests of the community at heart. Com
missioner John w. Ross said when asked
about the matter, that ne thought tire
stream had been stocked with fish. but
as to the streams adaptabilty for the
growing OF game fish he knew nothing
Major Powell, another one OF the District
Commissioners, said he had often Thought
that Rock Creek would, for several reasons,
be n suitable place for game fish, and
wondered why steps had not been taken
to use the creek for fishing purposes He
thought the stream suitable for Aeve.al
kinds of game fish, that bass and other
hardy members Of the finny tribe would
thrive there. and that the creek would
become eventually a splendid fishing ground
EXPERIMENTS A FAILURE.
From the fish commissioners office IL
WAS learned that three or four attempts
had been made to make Rock Creek even
more attractive than it is, by stocking
it with young fish with a view OF making
the stream source OF profit as well as
a thing OF beauty. After several attempts
and Investigations afterward. gentlemen
connected with the fish commission do not
regard Rock Creek as a bowling success
for the purpose Of fish culture.
This conclusion was reached after ga rnest
experiments had been made and which were
proven to be failures. For the credit
OF the stream itself, be it said, the failure
to ccessfuliy raise fish therein is
due to other reasons, any one OF which
would he sufficient to deter the com
mission from again stocking the creek. at
least until steps could be taken to prevent
thetaking 9th fish from the stream ortheir
disturbance for at least three years.
Previous to ssT quite lot OF hardy fish
were put in the creek upon Recommended
ton of men interested in the stream, but
the experiment was not successful and the
operation was not repeated until five years
afterward. An investigation made soISe
time after the fish were released in the
stream revealed the fact that the fish
had not survived as well as they were ex-
pected to nor were they as numerous as the
character OF the fish and the circums,an-
ces OF the case would warrant or allow.
The fish released were OF that kind to sur
viye and increase if any fish could do so,
and the failure on the part OF the commits
sioner to find satisfactory result after
a reasonable length Of time led him to be-
leve at that time that the stream was not
as prolific as it was expected to be.
Whether the stream was entirely re-
sponsible for the failure to produce a reason-
able result after the release of the fish
previous To 1sS7 was not entirely salts
factory in the commissioners mind and ter
the experiment was tried again.
CREEK WAS STUDIED.
The nature of the creek was studied by
the men connected with the Fish Commits
sion, and as a result the commi ssioner. in
1892, ordered the release of more fish
in the stream A carefully selected lot of
Won Behr trout fry We're released in the
creek. They were a hardy lot OF youngsters
and good results We're expected of them,
and 10 a certain degree the commissioner
was not disappointed, for in the year
following the fish were seen and they
had grown to a length OF three inches or
more, and IL left alone would have done
well.
These fish were released above the
Piney branch. in the woods near what is
called the Blagdens Mill road. There
We're 14,47S OF them, and would have
made d splendid showing had they been
left severely alone for three years In-
stead, they were taken out in large guam
titles before they had reached a respect
able size or even sufficiently large to use.
GAME FISH IN ROCK CREEK.
There were released in the creek in
February, 1894, $50 rock lass. crd in
December of the same year 200 black bass
We're let lccsc. In January. 1895. 200 rock
bass. and in February OF the same year 1853
black bass were released In all over 15.-
400 game fish have been released i'm Rock
Greek since January. 1892, and it is doubt
full if fish can be found in the stream from
one end to the other. The efforts on the
part of the commissioner to make the
creek fish producing stream is commend
able. to say the least.
Rock Creek is not so led but that black
bass, rock bass. catfish, common pickercl,
carp, or any kind of fish except shad, that
in it. That is, providing the fish and the
stream is left alone 20 that tie fish can
have a chance to spawn. The creek is
not at all adaptable for the raising of trout
for the reason that the stream s too warm
anu not long enough. For the other fish
the creek is too often disturbed
Boys, and sometimes men, are engaged |
in throwing into the stream sticks and |
stones and in other ways interfering with |
the progress of fish, if there were any there |