HARVESTING FISH 



HARVESTING FISH 

 Seining 



Whether seining in public water 

 or in his own minnow pond, the bait 

 dealer should seine with the objec- 

 tive of catchino; the maximum num- 

 ber of fish with a minimum of loss. 

 The following- suggestions are pre- 

 sented to help the beginner avoid 

 undue loss. 



Types of seines. — Minnow seines, 

 generally speaking, can be classified 

 into three types depending on the 

 kind of weave used in their con- 

 struction. The most common min- 

 now net is made of woven threads, 

 and with prolonged or severe use 

 it will develop "runs" caused by 

 thread breakage and separation. 

 This type of netting can be ob- 

 tained in mesh sizes of % to % 

 inches (bar measurement). The 

 second type of seining fabric is con- 

 structed with a nonslip knot tie. 

 Each mesh is individually knotted, 

 and it will not develop runs or 

 thread separation under the most 

 severe operating conditions. In this 

 type of netting, mesh sizes ranging 

 from 14 inch upward can be ob- 

 tained. The third type of netting 

 material used by fish culturists and 

 bait dealers is called, "bird's-eye,'' 

 or bobbinet cloth. It is a fine- woven 

 fabric and is excellent for use in 

 collecting small fish (fry). The 

 new nylon bobbinet is much better 

 material for short seines than is 

 the old cotton "bird's-eye." 



The net should be picked accord- 

 ing to the job to be done. A 1-acre 



circular pond can be seined very 

 effectively with two hauls of a 200- 

 foot net, at depths of 6 to 12 feet. 

 A pond that can be drained to a 

 seining pool can be seined much 

 more easily with a 30-foot net (fig. 

 12). A net that is too long for the 

 job is cumbersome to use and in- 

 creases the chance of injury to the 

 fish. For seining in public waters, 

 the net should be at least of ^- 

 inch mesh so that the minnows too 

 small for use can escape for further 

 growth. In a small production 

 })ond a bobbinet seine can be used 

 to transfer the small fish to a win- 

 tering pond (fig. 13). 



Good seining methods. — When 

 possible the seine should be landed 

 on a firm, sandy bottom. The silt 

 stirred up on a soft bottom adds to 

 the discomfort of the fish and may 

 cause suffocation. When there is 

 danger of suffocation, smaller hauls 

 should be made and the fish should 

 be bagged and moved to deeper 

 water as fast as possible (fig. 14). 



When landed, the seine should 

 never be pulled onto the shore. As 

 soon as the fish are in the net, it 

 should be bagged loosely and floated 

 to deeper water. The fish should 

 then be dipped with a small hand 

 net, or scap net, into a floating live 

 box (wooden box with a hardware- 

 cloth bottom) for sorting (fig. 15). 



Once in a while the bait dealer 

 will find it necessary to seine min- 

 nows in large bodies of water with 

 a small net during a season when 

 the fish are too far from shore to be 

 taken by the usual method. In 

 such a case, two or three seiners put 



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