The Game Fish, of the Northern States and British Provinces / With an account of the salmon and sea-trout fishing of Canada and New Brunswick, together with simple directions for tying artificial flies, etc., etc.

by Robert Barnwell Roosevelt

Perca Flavescens.—The Yellow Perch has, as his name indicates, a predominant yellow color on his sides; there are a number of dark vertical bars over the back, and the pectorals, ventrals and anal are orange. The gill-cover is serrated beneath and armed with a long spine, and the fore gill-cover has a toothed margin. There are two dorsals; the ventrals are beneath and slightly behind the pectorals, and the teeth are minute. The greatest weight is four or five pounds. The fin-rays are as follows—

D. 13.2.15; V. 1.5; A. 2.8; C. 17-⁵/₅.

Unfortunately, this fish, equally despised by the gourmand and the sportsman, abounds in our fine ponds and lakes, that ought to be devoted to his noble congener, the black bass. He will take the fly if it is allowed to rest in the water, and after hooking a trout that had fouled in the weeds, I have found a perch on the second fly. He spawns in April or May, seeking the sandy shore, near projecting roots, where there is a depth of a foot of water. I have seen them crowded together, male and female, jostling and following one another round and round through the roots, pressing out milt and spawn, and so busily engaged that they could be taken with the net or the hand. In mere wantonness and desire to diminish their numbers I destroyed all I could, hanging them on strings with the spawn streaming from them. The eggs, which were almost transparent, were in the water in masses, kept together by a glutinous substance, and each marked with a black spot, and could be taken up in the net, straining slowly through the meshes.

Yellow perch will take worm or minnow, preferring the former, and it is probable destroy numbers of young trout. Their flesh is coarse, white and tasteless. They are pursued only by boys and ladies.

CHAPTER XXVI.
PROPAGATION OF FISH.

There is no subject more important to the material welfare of our country, or that a persistent and willful disregard of the laws of nature has rendered more necessary, than the culture of the various tribes of fish that were once abundant in our rivers and lakes and along our coasts, but which are rapidly diminishing, and threaten soon to become extinct.

Fortunately great strides have been made and great interest aroused in this matter, and the only article in the first edition of this work which the author has felt himself called upon to seriously modify, is that upon this subject. Then there was not a Fishery Commission in a single State of the Union, nor was there a skilled fish culturist in the land, except perhaps Dr. Garlick, who was making experiments out West, and Mr. Seth Green, who was studying out the spawning habits of fish by himself, by the side of the forest streams, and laying in stores of knowledge which were to serve as a foundation for the great fish-cultural fame that he has since acquired. The author may claim that his former few pages of advice and instruction may have tended in a measure to bring about the change, and to give to us State Fishery Commissions in a great majority of the States, and a National Commission that has no equal for scientific attainments or practical work in the world. For the creation of the latter, the author also claims not merely the influence of his writings, but his assistance as a member of Congress in getting the law passed which established the United States Fishery Commission, and placed it under the charge of so efficient a public officer as Mr. Spencer F. Baird.

At that time there was hardly a word written on the subject in this country except a pamphlet by Dr. Garlick, and such translations from the French as described the operations under Prof. Coste, and accounts of a few limited English experiments. Not a private establishment for the cultivation and sale of fish on any considerable scale existed, and no expectation that any large public benefits would ever arise from fish propagation, was generally felt. Since that time hundreds of books have been written in this country alone, the time of scientific men has been devoted to it, fish cultural societies have been formed, and there are several successful establishments for the hatching and sale of young fish. In no development of this wonderful country has there been so remarkable an advance, such a change from darkness to light, such an elevation of public opinion, as in this matter of the artificial increase of fish.