| Show POWWOW 8 jim PHO zm what value stocking restocking Re the missouri game and fish division makes out what this writer believes Is the most logical and graphic summation in years of the pros and cons ot of the eternal controversy tro versy concerning the value or lack of 0 it of re stocking streams stream with fish missouri streams are enormous fish hatcheries ot of their own capable of producing billions ot of fish try fry annually A female bass tor for instance spawns from 2000 to young a year II if only I 1 putting more ish fish in such watery deserts Is like turning cattle out oat on a concrete highway to graze SO 50 per cent of all missouri successfully spawn the yearly potential toward reproducing their own kind would run into billions we certainly dont catch these birons of fish says the fisherman so what happens to them what happens to the fish that are reared in the hatcheries and turned loose in our streams so mr fisherman look about you here is a landowner turning too many cattle in on an already overgrazed over grazed pasture here is another the steep slopes of his woodlot trying to convert it into pasture here is still another burning off his land another cropping on steep slopes that are bound to wash think of the floods too many of these terrific floods come about the time fish are spawning with tons of rocks and earth churning on the bottoms of our streams it hard to imagine what happens to spawns try fry and fingerling then on those glittering august days when the stream is too low the fisherman plods wearily down miles of gravel bar and shallows between holes of water few fish can live in those barren shallow stretches where food and cover are gone putting more fish in such watery deserts one conservationist says is like turning cattle out on a concrete highway or into death valley to graze stocking is not the solution to better fishing in a sick stream the only answer here is to cure the conditions which lowered its fish producing capacity in the first place in controlling erosion and burning and pollution and silting its going to take time to restore our streams |
