Pond Cleared of Rough Fish--1920

Thousands of Suckers are Swept Over Spillway at Springville as Lower Water Level is Reached

Trout Move Out of Danger

Project Carried Out by Fish and Game Club as Protective Measure for Trout

Springville Pond has been practically cleaned of rough fish. After two days of netting operations which met with only paitial success, the body of water was lowered to a stage below that which had been maintained since Thursday morning, when nets were placed, and thousands of suckers were discovered in the lower end of the pond. The gates at the Rossier mill were then opened and the suckers in large numbers were carried down stream by the force of the current.  Practically no trout were lost.

After netting operations had been continued throughout Thursday under the supervision of Conservation Warden Frank Hornberg, it was believed that the pond contained fewer suckers than many had pi-eviously believed existed there as no big catches were forthcoming. Before Friday nighl, however, it was found that the fish were fully as abundant as many had originally believed them to be.

Pond Nearly Drained

Throughout Thursday and most of Friday the water in the pond was still from eight to nine feet deep in places and while nets were operated in the lower end of the pond, a large majority of the fish were .above. As the pond .was being practically drained Friday night the trout continued upstream, finding an outlet in the Little Plover river which empties into the pond. The suckers, however, took an opposite direction and stalled moving  down stream, gathering in thousands near the gates after they had been closed. Discovery that they had moved downstream was made by those in charge of the project after the pond had been loweied to the stage where practically no water remained except at its lower end.

Tumble Down Spillway

 As the gates were again opened and the current of water carried the fish downstream, fhev fousht to «tnv above but tumbled over themselves by the hundreds as they were swept below.Spectators who had gathered to witness the work caught them in large numbers as they went over and below the spillway. Not a half dozen trout were lost in all, bringing the project to a successful close. After the pond had been rid of the rough fish the water was again wised to normal level.

Game Club Project

The removal of the rough fish from the pond, an undertaking of the Portage County Fish & Game Protective Association, should bring about a large increase in the number of brook trout there and in the Little Plover river. The suckers have been a menace in that they eat the trout spawn, preventing the game fish from multiplying rapidly.

The suckers not caught below the spillway found their way down the small stream which provides an outlet for the water in the pond and empties into the Wisconsin river a short distance away.

Stevens Point Daily Journal

May 3, 1920