LEAFLET No. 20 REPRINT SEPTEMBER 1950 PONDS-or IMPROVING STREAM FISHING E. V. SMITH, Associate Director' H. S. SWINGLE, Fish Cultorist S ,01I{SNIEN, iiidix\ itinill ZHIii aks 01 p.111- zations, generally recogize/ (lii fact that stream fishing h as bccl ii c pI ugiessixely pooror as the densitx Of tli( C Ountix s plopulation and coiunent fishing pressure have increased. Alarme nbyl this dlecline, they have sought methods loi imirosing stream fishing. Most of the reiidies tried hav e giv en disappoining n sults Tlhe pur- pose of this publication is to present a mi ethod of stream -fish in g f illS t'iuiii, and to point out those iiithoids that have proved unsatisfactory. Artificial restocking has beeni the inethod most widely used iii an ('ffort to iimprove0 stream fishing. Under this pirogram a large part of the fish produced in hatceieis operated by various state and federal agencies has beein liberated in streamis each year. The results generally havmxe been dis- *Formerly Associate Fish Culturist. appoiningu. Fo'r ci ii plc, Boach (4) repoi t that million s of' small h ateri fish (snmall- mouth black bass, spotted black bass, rock bass, catfish, crappie, and bluegill bream) are planted in Ohio stireamis and lakes cachi fall; in 1:3 souitheasteirn Ohio counties, bowsever, less thtan 0.5 per cent of the 30,000 liceued fish( -en catch stocked fish, aiid the stoc ked fish caught represent less than 0.0:3 per cent of those planted. Similarly , Suriber (5), We stermian (6), and1( Hlay ford (2) ri'poi disappointing results from stocking I ini'ing tirou~t in streams. There are two i closely i clatedl explanations as to wh y aninual m estoeking of streamis does riot imiprovec the fishing. First, there are generally as many fish in a stream as the food suppl\ can support. Consequent- ly, addiiig iiore smnall fish wxill not i prove fishing appreciably , unless the food supply is increased also. Secondly , the fish already inl the stircam are muore than AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 4./e ALABAMA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE M. J. Funchess, Director Auburn, Alabama capable of producing all the little fish needed. Carbine (1), for example, studied the reproduction of bluegill bream and largemouth bass in a small lake, and found that each pair of spawning bluegills pro- duced an average of 17,000 young and each pair of bass 7,000 to 8,000. Thus, each pair of bluegills produced enough young to stock more than 40 acres of streams or unfertilized lakes, and each pair of bass produced enough to stock approxi- mately 800 acres. Therefore, the practice of annually pouring a few cans of bream or bass fingerlings into a stream must be considered generally as wasted effort. After it became apparent that stocking streams with small fish did not improve fishing, certain Northern States began to use legal-sized trout. This resulted in temporary improvement in fishing, but, as Hazzard and Shetter (3) pointed out, it was a very expensive method. The practice of stocking legal-sized fish is too costly and impractical for use in southern streams where bream and bass are the principal species. Closed seasons have also been tried as a means of improving fishing, but there is no evidence to indicate that they have been of any value. In this connection Wiebe (7) states that good fishing has de- veloped, and apparently is being main- tained in the TVA lakes in northern Alabama without either closed seasons or intensive artificial stocking. Stream improvement was widely prac- ticed in trout streams during the early 1930's,when there was an abundance of CCC and PWA labor available. This con- sisted of building log or rock dams to form pools in streams. However, the log dams soon rotted or were destroyed by floods, and the pools filled with sand or silt. Fish culturists interested in trout streams now generally agree that the best method of improving such streams is to control ero- sion on the watershed. The same is true for other types of streams. As better soil conservation practices are adopted, stream fishing should improve, but this is a long- time program. The construction and proper manage- ment of ponds on small streams appear to offer the best method of immediately im- proving stream fishing. The ways in which the well-managed ponds improve stream fishing are discussed in the follow- ing sections. PONDS RESTOCKSTREAMS Unlike the fish truck thatempties a few cans of little fish into the stream once a year, ponds continuously add small fish to the stream as long as water runs over the spillwa. To determine the migration of fish over the spillway, a catch basin was constructed below the spillway of each of two ponds at the Alabama Agri- cultural Experiment Station. Between Feb- ruary 1 and October 1, 1939, a total of 6,882 small fish left a 1.5-acre pond built on a small stream. This total represents 24 separate losses during the season. A 1.8-acre pond built on a wet-weather branch lost a total of 18,888 small fish during 12 migrations in the same season. Similar results have been obtained during succeeding years, although the numbers of fish lost have varied depending on the amount and distribution of rainfall. While b6th ponds supplied considerable numbers of small fish to the streams below, the losses were not sufficient to upset the balance, with plenty of small fish remain- ing in both ponds. It should be obvious to those who want state and federal hatcher- ies to continue restocking streams each year that the best and most economical procedure would be for the hatcheries to supply small fish to owners of new ponds. The natural migration of :small fish to streams below would more than repay the hatcheries. For example, the two ponds previously mentioned supplied in one year approximately two and six times as many small fish to streams below as were used in the original stocking. Furthermore, without additional stocking the two ponds [2] eaech Netar. Ag aiiO1like the fish trilck that plaes oi] xN all iritill andt bass ill str( timx. poilnds adid large lixh to tIt( strcm i00 ioilix iliir-ing pe riodsx of high xx at er.Som (it aiilt I ih are taken ill tite cai i taiins heiiixx\ tin( spillway of ponds at fltin Alabama Agri- culturial Expimnt Statin lah y ear.Fo xiiti 10 adiltf bass (appri iiiatiix itt poold) and 2.4 adlt hlue~ilili ranm we nt ox il the sxpiiixx ax of tll(, 1. 1 are pond duii li0 a heaxx rin late ill \Iliieli 194:1 llie reslts subsetantiate tin expei elee o4 fi'iie l 111xxli find that llolcox lIiox damslh freijentlx proxvide lwtti r fixhinig thain pi s aboxve. Whle soniIl of thie fish 'ol 0 i-lteill nch hoiiiIiles igra~ite from dowxn. tria aniid ite stiipped hx the dam, most iof thiem come ox i tie spillwxay, as ('ix ilmeed i)n tIt( falet that fishling in tihe liolex if trinl i bet huh xx ing igh I xtem. Almiloist ats iuanx 5-poliniud hass are caught ft it ca tixel s moall hle k o\ he it 30- ile( ponid iiio Auiiin Alaibaiii, s are caught fronti till' 1 )liid. Till, Ilili I iiof the strl] im (ii i oxx is xlich ;Ii s to xi ili till p ibi lit\ x o tt(l tisl la ji i ix illi th" streiii iniiill ,li som diaiii u 11 k (hunw Ixxiiitl oi spring~ fiioods eaeih x (ar tiiimhx id( im ilrg llllilis of ibotih sloll iti Ol lie( fili to the xfreotn. ihus, tie iish- iiitj (doxx ixtreanl is iiipniix ed att least PONDS INCREASE FOOD SUPPLY OF STREAMS A iargte portioni of tilt( fish llattw liiai ear ire eaten lby bass aiid otl e cal nix oi oni fixih. 11 tis x xere niot trile, most bieis of xxithi xx oihi be ox rstilel