158 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



there did not give them a fair trial. When George gets back we shall 

 find out what can be done with them on that ground. A large school 

 has been on the Western Bank. Some of the fishermen think that as 

 soon as the boats left off trawling the fish went away, for they suppose 

 that the bait which comes off the trawls attracts them. Most of the 

 netters are going to the offshore grounds. No cod have yet been caught 

 in Boston Bay this spring. The haddock vessels have done well this 

 winter. If George gets a good trip on Western Bank a good many 

 others will go there with nets. They all want some one to go first. 

 Hope he will do well. 



Gloucester, Mass., April 18, 1881. 



Ten sail of vessels have put their cod gill-nets ashore. There are 

 fish in Ipswich Bay, but they cannot be caught with nets. Two boats 

 caught, with trawls, 25,000 pounds of fish in five nights and days. The 

 highest catch in nets was 3,000 pounds in the same -length of time. 

 Nets were set at the same place where the trawls were, but took no 

 fish. On Tuesday night the schooner Anna Bell took 5,000 pounds of 

 fish on trawls. The schooner Bising Star, with 24 nets, got 26 fish. 

 The netters had to give it up. It works the same way off Gloucester. 

 Some of the small boats had 2 nets set and got no fish. Trawls set 

 in the same place took 300 and 100 pounds. Schooner Annie Fey set 

 G nets on Western Bank one night and caught 1 fish. Perhaps the 

 nets were not set right. I am sorry it has worked so. The men have 

 been to a good deal of expense. They spent a week tanning and tar- 

 ring their nets for summer fishing. The vessels have all taken their 

 trawds. The men say: "D — n the nets! All they are good for is three 

 months in winter, when the fish are spawning." When the Northern 

 Eagle returns from the Western Bank we may hear a better report. 

 If you can throw any light on the subject, please write and let me 

 know. They ask me about the matter, and I do not know what to say. 

 The cod which they are getting in Ipswich Bay are large, but different 

 from the ones they get in winter. What few are taken in the nets are 

 dissimilar to those hooked on the trawls, and look like the winter fish. 

 The fish here now do not travel by nights ; if they did, they would go 

 into the nets. I do not think the nets will be used again until next 

 winter, unless George does well on Western Bank. 



Gloucester, Mass., April 22, 1881. 



Note. — For a continuation of Captain Martin's reports on the cod 

 gill-net fishing, see pages 343-345 in Volume I of this Bulletin for 1881. 

 A full description of the nets and of their use, together with the history 

 of their introduction by the United States Fish Commission, written by 

 Captain Collins, may be found in the same volume, pages 1-17, with 

 12 illusrative plates. — C. W. S. 



