The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1912-05-04

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dred million wall-eyed pike and four
million brook trout will be distributed
throughout the lakes and streams of
Minnesota this year to provide
amusement for sportsmen. The last
of the trout are just leaving the
hatcheries and crews of men are in
the great North woods gathering pike
spawn to be hurried to the Matching
tanks. Within so days the distribu-
ton will be finished and a record es-
tablished of 396,573,700 small fish or
fry" as commonly called, liberated in
free waters within seven years. This
record probably is unequaled.
In addition to the pike and trout,
possibly half-million bass. will be
planted this fall, when the season for
gathering arrives.
When the hot days come, when the
asphalt begins to soften, the streets
to bake and steam in the wake of the
water wagon, and Office men dream
spruce and tamarack, it is expected
the rush to the famous fishing haunts
OF the Gopher state will begin. There
are 10000 lakes in Minnesota, in some
Of which no white man has ever cast
a line. Practically all of them teen
with bass, pike, crappie, trout and
muskallonge. In the northern part OF
the state. especially in districts where
no numbering has been done, are vir-
gin lakes unequaled in all the world
for game fishing.
Planting approximately 40O,o0o,ooO
dsh fry. propagating them and caring
for big game, has cost Minnesota
$765, 23264 during the past ten years.
Included in this sum is the cost Of
nine tons Of beef liver, the dinner de
luxe of the wiggler just learning to
swim. At the hatcheries, liver is
ground to a pulp and fed at the rate
Of 200 pounds a week. A minnow takes
to liver pulp like kitten to milk.
Matching young fish from spawn
and mothering them till they are
large enough to forage for themselves,
is technical work. Trout spawn are
obtained from shallow waters where
the mother trout has gouged out a
hole in the sand and gravel and de-
posted her eggs. The hole is care
fully covered and the spawn left to be
Matched by tepid waters and warmth
from the earth. The female trout
will deposit from 1000 to 1900 eggs
III spawn in a season. Gathered and
in 80 days with water at tempera-
turc of As degrees. For each degree
the water is COLDER five days more is
needed. Thirty days after they begin
to move about beef liver is fed and
the long tanks, filled with running wa
ter, show signs of activity. When
the trout get to be an inch and a half
In length, they are ready for trans
planting to open water, and are called
"fngerings." In two years they grow
to be small-sized fish. large enough to
eat, and in three years they become
full grown.
The Wall-eyed pike-which resemble
bass and are just as palatable are the
cannibals of f1shdom When the pike
Try get to be large enough to move
about with ease. civil war begins and
the rate of determination is measured
only by the gluttonous appetites OF
the combatants. When a young pike
becomes hungry, he turns to his near
est companion and proceeds to cal
him, taking a bite out of whicheve,
part he first touches Activity of men
In charge of the Matching tanks does
not stop them, and the only way tc
preserve the fry intact, is to move
them to open waters where there is
- opportunity for escape or free-and.
easy room for an uninterrupted fight
The female pike is the greatest pro.
Queer of eggs or spawn of any game
f1sh In America. Large pike have beer
taken from Minnesota streams enc
lakes which produced one quart OF
eggs. In this quart, there are approx.
imately 100000 spawn. Crews sen,
out from the state fish hatcheries
catch the pike and strip the eggs from
them. Left undisturbed in their ma.
tive streams, the mother pike depos.
it's her eggs nearly in the current, anc
allows them to drift and lodge where
they will. In the Matching tanks a,
a temperature of 48 degrees, the egg.
hatch in IS to 20 days, and by the
time the little pike are IL or IA days
old, they playfully begin eating each
other Then they are hurried from
the hatchery as rapidly as possible, t.
their future homes in the open wa.