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Front Royal Ponds
Opened For Study
Eight experimental ponds at the Game Commission's Front . Royal Fish Cultural Station were opened again for public . angling July 1. this time to evaluate the effects of a 12 • inch bass limit, Fisheries Research Biologist Eugene W. ! Surber announced. The Commission just wrapped up a ; similar 4 year evaluation of a_J4 inch minimum.size..limit.. ! in September of 1964. The * new study wilf closely Iba'i^l^1 1 lei the old so that the relative s merits of the two regulations can be compared, j All of the ponds were stocked this spring with adult bass, \ and bluegills in a carefully \ calculated ratio to simulate a natural fish population. This speeds up the study about 2 years over starting with fry. Four of the ponds will be open with a 12 inch limit on bass and the other four will be open with no size limits. Regin lar daily creel limits of 8 bass and 25 bluegills will apply. A valid fishing license is required as on other public waters. The ponds will be open for fishing from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays (closed Mondays), from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays. During the previous 4 year study 11,346 anglers enjoyed fishing in the hatchery ponds. Success varied widely, but some fishermen brought home excellent strings. The 14 inch study demonstrated that ponds where bass were protected by the size limit produced exceptionally large bluegill and ultimately produced about the same poundage of-fish as ponds where no limit was in effect. The larger bass protected in these ponds were able to reduce bluegill numbers sufficiently to prevent
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