Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-01
Interesting Forthcoming Report of
the Fish Commission.
HABITS OF THE VARIOUS SPECIES
Points of Value to Anglers and
Fishermen Alike.
REQUEST FOR COOPERATION

| The United States fish commission will
soon issue an annotated list Of the fishes
known to inhabit the waters of the District
of Columbia and vicinity The report has
| been prepared by. DR.. Hugh NJ. Smith Of
the fish commission and Mr.. Barton a
Bean of the National Museum. who have
spent much time in collecting and studying
| the fishes in the vicinity of Washington.
! Local students of natural history haze
generally neglected the fishes. While there
has been much activity in studying our
birds, mammals, reptiles. insects. mol'usks.
plants and other groups and while nUm-
Der of faunal and floral lists have been
published no report on the fish life of the
District waters has up to this time ap-
peared. This is rather remarkable. because
the fishes are certainly not less interesting
and are economically more important than
| any other class of animals
In previous discussions of the local ami
mails and plants the limits Of the District
have been regarded as extending over
| radius of twenty miles from the Capitol
and this area has been adopted in this
report.
The Economic Fishes.
| The number of fishes Of economic import
ance found within this section is about
| thirty. exclusive of many that are used for
bait or are eaten by youthful anglers. The
principal food and game fishes are the
shad, hickory shad. alewives striped bass
white perch. yellow perch, Graphic large
and Smali-mouth black hasses. eel stur-
geon. suckers carp and catiishes. \ few
years ago the value of The fishes caught
for market in that part Of the Potomac
| under District jurisdiction was about $l2.-
900, half of which sum represented Shad.
Recently Congress has prohibited all forms
of net fishing in District waters. which
have thus been converted into Veritabie
nursery, where such valuable fishes
shad, alewives. striped bass, black basses
and others may spawn without being mo-
! Tested.
There has been considerable enrichment
of the local fauna by the introduction of
non-indlgenous species. some of which are
now among the best food and game fishes
of this region. The acclimatiZed fishes.
which number about ten. are mostly MEN,
bers of the bass family. The history of the
introduction of the smaI-mouth black bass
is interesting and very generally known To
Washington anglers. 1t is recorded that in
! 1854. soon after the Baltimore and Ohio
railroad was completed, Gen w. w. ShriVer
of Wheeling carried a number OF young
bass from the Ohio to Cumberland. Md. in
| the tender of a locomotive and deposited
them in the canal at the latter place,
whence they easily reached the Potomac
and soon became established throughout
| the river.
The large-mouth black bass is more re-
cent acquisition. In 1889 plants were made
and subsequently in the lower Potomac,
with the result that in a few years the fish
became remarkably abundant in the Vicin-
ity Of Washington and as far down as Mat
tawoman creek. In the fall of 1896 the
commercial fishermen below Washington
first began to take noteworthy quantities
for market: and during the winter of 1873.
% many thousands of pounds were sent TO
| the city from Mattawomar Occoquan and
Piscataway creeks. One fisherman for
warded l 100 pounds in one shipment. -.-
Increase of the Graphic.
OF scarcely less interest than the accli-
matization of the two black BASES has
been the very successful introduction of the
crappie and strawberry bass or calico bass.
Both of these excellent game and edible
fishes were planted by the fish commission,
and the present supply seems to have orig
mated from lot of siXty-twO FISH from IL
linoiS deposited in March, 1894, in the wide
water of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal,
about fourteen miles above Washington,
and in the Potomac at the same place The
first known result of this plant was small
fish taken on a line in the spring of lS6 at
Four-Mile run. Since then the fish have
been taken in comparatively large numbers
in the vicinity of Washington and else
where in the Potomac basin. Some Of these
have been caught by anglers and some
have been secured with collecting seineS by
representatives of the fish commission
These fish are abundant in Little river
here as many as thrty-siX, weighing from
half TO one and half pounds. have been
taken by angler in one day, and SIX or
/ eight specimens have been obtained IN a
single haul of a small collecting seine. IN
the Potomac, near the Seven Locks. Sky
FIVE crappies. weighing about half a pound
each were taken by two anglers during
part of one afternoon in 1886; the fish bit at
both live and dead minnows with great
avidity. The lower part of the canal con-
tainS a great many of these fish, and some
have been observed in the canal above
Haroer's Ferry. In Black pond, Va. on
the shore of the Potomac some miles above
Georgetown, crappies are very common.
Mr. J. H Hunter of Washington stated
in 1896 that thousands could be seen in the
shallow waters of the pond, ana one day
in July 1896. he took fourteen crappieS with
fly in a short time. In Cat pond, Nd.
crappies have been taken in large quanu-
ties. This pond is about 100 feet from the
bank of the Potomac and connects with the
river at high water. In the summer OF
1896 two gunuy sacks full of large crappies
were reported taken there by some usher
men with a seine. Several weeks lateT
fifty three or four inches long, were seined
by an agent of the fish commission. The
two species are much alike and not usually
distinguished by local fishermen, who apply
the names ''crappie, strawberry bass
strawberry perch and 'Speckled pefch
indiScriminately.
~Emigrants From Europe.
Other members of the bass tribe that
have been planted in our waters and may
in time become abundant are the rock bass
or red-eye perch. and the Yarmouth bass or
goggle-eye, both of which have been
brought from the other side of the Allegha-
MES.
Four European species have become more
or less established in our waters. These
are the carp the goldfish. the tench and the
golden ide. The goldfish and the golden
ide have gotten into the river by the over
flowing of the government fish lakes near
the monument; these chiefly valuable
ornamental fish, but few goldfish are
sold for food in the Washington markets
under the name of sand perch" The Eng
fish tench, which has escaped from ponds |
is now becoming common in the river and |
is beginning to appear at the stalls of the |
fish dealers.
The family to which the foregoing fishes |
belong. namely, the minnow family, is the !
most numerous group of District fishes. |
There are nineteen members in our waters. |
The popular idea of miEnow is that il is |
any very small ard apparently immature |
fish but to the ichthyologist a mianow is a |
fish having special structural characters. |
While most of minnows are of small 4
size. and are in fact. the most inNOnSDic-