COMMISSIONERS OP INLAND FISHERIES. 37 



SALT WATER LINE FISHING. 



Line fishing within Narragansett Bay has this past year been the 

 most successful of all of our fisheries. Among the more important 

 fish we may say that the fishing for tautog, or black fish, around 

 Newport was carried on with good success. In the upper part of the 

 bay the general fishing has been excellent, especially the tautog 

 fishing in May. The fishing for squiteague was also very good, and 

 many very large specimens were caught. The hickory shad were 

 more abundant than they have been for a number of years. As has 

 been the case in recent years the hand line fishing for scup was 

 very poor. Very few of these fish reaching the upper part of the bay. 



FISH-TRAPS, SET IN RHODE ISLAND WATERS, AND LIST OF TRAP 



OWNERS. 



The table giving the number and distribution of the fish-traps for 

 the past thirteen years is given below, and continues to show the 

 same steady increase in the number of traps in various locations and 

 as a whole. Especially noticeable is the continued increase in num- 

 ber in the Sakonnet river and off-shore divisions, where the cordon 

 of traps is being extended, and covers new territory each year. A 

 glance at the accompanying charts, which show the location of each 

 trap, shows that the fishermen are continuing to push their traps a 

 surprisingly great distance off shore. The West Passage and East 

 Passage divisions show little change; but in these divisions beam 

 trawling in the late fall and early spring has added materially to the 

 value of the fisheries. This year we have included for the first time 

 the traps along the south shore of Rhode Island, from Point Judith 

 west to the Connecticut line. A separate general division has been 

 made to contain this district as will be seen in the following table, and 

 it has also been advisable to show the location of these traps in a 

 separate chart. 



