FISHERIES IN MICHIGAN WATERS OF GREEN BAY 



17 



yellow perch, April 15-May 20 ; suckers, April 15- 

 May 15. The depressing effects of these closed 

 seasons is especially strong because they cover ap- 

 proximately the spawning periods of the several 



species and prevent capture of the fish at a time 

 when they are particularly easy to take. Lake 

 herring and smelt are not subject to a closed season 

 in State of Michigan waters of the Great Lakes. 



Table 9. — Average annual production and composition of the catch, by gear, of the principal species of fish in Green 



Bay, 1929-49 

 [In thousands of pounds] 



Species 



Gill nets i 



Bait 



Small-mesh Large mesh 



Pound nets 



Shallow 

 trap nets 



Fyke and 

 hoop nets 



Set books 



Other J 



Tota 



Lake trout: 



Production 



Percentage 



Whitefish: 



Production 



Percentage... 



Lake herring: 



Production 



Percentage 



Walleye: 



Production 



Percentage.. - 



Yellow perch: 



Production 



Percentage.. - 



White and redhorse suckers: 



Production 



Percentage 



Smelt: 



Production 



Percentage 



0.1 

 .1 



0.3 

 '0 



»0 

 •0 



»0 

 •0 



100 



16.: 



516.3 

 48.2 



92. 1 

 61.5 



1.2 



6.9 

 1.1 



104.4 

 82.9 



438.7 

 61.6 



3.3 

 .3 



32.7 

 24.6 



151.9 

 21.7 



3.4 

 .6 



7.1 

 5.6 



245.1 

 34.3 



534.1 

 49.9 



25.3 

 19.0 



4.2 

 2.8 



64.1 

 9.2 



503.1 

 80.7 



0.1 

 .1 



4.1 

 .6 



10.3 

 1.0 



49.1 

 36.9 



32.5 

 21.7 



394.0 

 56.4 



'0 



>0 

 <0 



1.0 



.1 



3.8 

 .4 



23.9 

 18.0 



20.0 

 13.3 



80.8 

 11.6 



11.5 

 9.1 



126.0 



713.9 



1,069.8 



>0 

 •0 



133.0 

 149.9 



698.7 

 623.7 



1 Mesh sizes, extension measure: Bait nets, mostly 1^-1H inches; small-mesh nets, 2H-25i inches: large-mesh nets, 4\*i inches and larger. 

 1 Includes catches by deep trap nets (not fished alter 1935), dip nets, hand lines, and trolling; also catches for which records of gear were lacking (no catches 

 in this category after 1937). 

 * Less than 50 pounds. 

 4 Less than 0.05 percent. 



Inasmuch as seasonal trends are of principal 

 interest in this section (actual production of the 

 important species was discussed in the preceding 

 section), the following brief comments on the 

 monthly and quarterly distribution of the catch 

 are based on the percentages of table 7. 



Lake trout : The contribution to the average an- 

 nual total exceeded 10 percent in only 2 months — 

 April (26.2 percent) and May (16.5 percent). 

 The percentages were less than 5.0 during January 

 and February and November and December and 

 ranged from 5.6 to 9.8 in the remaining months. 

 The figures by quarters show that half (50.0 per- 

 cent) of the annual production took place in the 

 spring 7 and a little less than a fourth (24.2 per- 

 cent) in the summer. Production was lowest in 

 the first (13.8 percent) and fourth (12.0 percent) 

 quarters. 



Whitefish : The monthly and quarterly distribu- 

 tions of the catch were more nearly even in the 

 whitefish than in the lake trout. The maximum 

 percentage for any single month was 16.4 (May) 



7 In this section, winter, spring, summer, and autumn are 

 treated as synonymous with the first, second, third, and fourth 

 quarters. 



and in only one month did the percentage fall 

 below 5 (4.1 in March). The spring quarter was 

 the most productive (36.8 percent) and the winter 

 quarter the poorest (15.9 percent). Values for 

 the third (20.2 percent) and fourth (27.1 percent) 

 quarters did not deviate greatly from the expected 

 figure of 25. 



Lake herring: The percentage for November 

 (29.9), the month in which much of the spawning 

 occurs, was far greater than that for any other 

 month. Among the remaining 11 months the per- 

 centage exceeded 10 in only 2 (12.3 in June and 

 11.5 in February), and fell below 5 in 4 (lowest 

 value, 0.4 in April ) . The most productive quarter 

 by far was the fourth (47.4 percent) and the poor- 

 est was the third (10.8 percent). 



Walleye: The most productive months were 

 June (19.7 percent) and May (14.6 percent), with 

 October (13.4 percent) and September (12.1 per- 

 cent) not far behind. If April, which in recent 

 years has been completely closed to walleye fish- 

 ing, is excluded the figures for the remaining 

 months range from 6.4 percent in January and 

 November to 3.9 percent in February. The best 

 quarter was the second (34.6 percent) and the least 



