An Experiment in Removing Coarse Fish from a Lake

Abstract

Abstract The gradual increase in turbidity, the disappearance of vegetation, and the decline in availability of game fish over a period of years in Bass Lake, Indiana, was attributed to an overabundance of carp. Under the supervision of the Division of Fish and Game, coarse fish were removed by seining in 1935 and 1936. The total weight of carp removed was 45 tons, of quillback suckers 20 tons and of buffalo fish 6 tons. Other species of coarse fish were taken only in insignificant quantities. The removal of these fish appeared to reduce very considerably the population of carp and quillback suckers, and possibly buffalo fish as well, as shown by smaller average catches per haul in 1936 than in 1935. In 1936 the water of the lake cleared and vegetation increased in extent and density. The abundance of game fish increased rapidly in the second half of 1936, as shown by a manifold increase in the number caught of wall-eyed pike, striped bass, smallmouth and largemouth black bass, bluegills, black crappie an...