Lake Maxinkuckee Restocked, 1901  

LAKE MAXINKUCKEE

Will be Restocked With Consignment of Black Bass.

GOVERNMENT TAKES A HAND.

Will Furnish a Car Load of Fist for the Pretty Lake.

William T. Wilson of this city, president of the Maxinkuckee Association, has received notice from Commissioner George M. Bowers, of the United States fish commission at Washington, D. C., to the effect that a large consignment of black bass will be shipped by the government to be planted in Lake .Maxinkuckee within the next sixty days, and he will go to Culver this evening to make arrangements with the members of the fish commission stationed at the lake for the proper reception and care of the fish.

How large the consignment will be has not been stated by the commissioner, but in all probability there will be at least several thousand. They will arrive in a special car, owned by the fish commission and built especially for this department.

The consignment was made upon the recommendation of Barton W. Evermann, Ph. D., ichthyologist of the U. S. fish commission, who has taken a great interest in Lake Maxinkuckee and its splendid waters which are so conducive to the growing of the finer class of fishes.

Dr. Evermannn recently made a caref ul and scientific investigation of the lake and its inhabitants, his research res ulting in the discovery of two kinds of fish Which had hitherto been unknown to the commission or to ichthyologists. Since the discovery he has issued a pamphlet containing illustrations and scientific descriptions of the fish.

So far as is known, the first planting of fish in Lake Maxinkuckee was made in 1889, when in September of that year Dr. Evermann, then of the state normal school, transplanted 150 ad ult black bass from the overflow ponds near Terre Haute to this lake.

In August 1890 he made two other shipments of black bass from the same place This was done purely as a labor of love and to save the fish which wo uld otherwise have perished.

Since then the U. S. fish commission has planted a great many fish in Lake Maxinkuckee. It is doubtf ul if any other lake in the country has been more liberally supplied with fish by the government, and this is chiefly due to the personal interest taken in the lake by Dr, Evermann, who has been connected with the U. S. fish commission since 1891, to the liberality of the Vandalia railroad in furnishing free transportation for the cars of the commission over its line to and from the lake, and to the active interest of the Maxinkuckee Association in behalf of keeping the lake well stocked.

A total of nearly four million fish have been planted in the lake, representing seven different species as follows:
Lake trout ...............................................   9,677
Pike perch ......................................... 3,600,050
Black bass, both species ....................... 10,138
Warmouth bass.......................................      400
Crappie....................................................   2,450
Yellow perch............................................      385
       Total ............................................ 3,623,050

All of these specie do well in Lake MaxinkucSee, except the lake trout.

It is not certain that any of that species have ever been seen in the lake after the plants were made. But all the others do well and fishing this year is unusually good.