These weirs were constructed of stakes and 

 brush or woven cedar mats. They had no floor 

 except the river bottom and therefore were 

 not extended beyond low-water nnark because 

 the fisherman had to take his catch out with a 

 dip net. When a commercial demand for shad 

 arose a few years later, floors were made for 

 the fish pounds and netting for the walls. 



From about 1820 to 1830, probably the 

 greatest years for shad, drift gill net fisheries 

 flourished in Maine rivers. By about 1835, 

 however, enough dams had been built to ob- 

 struct the ascent of fish, and a rapid decline 

 in the fisheries began. Since the mid- 19th 

 century, impassable dams have excluded shad 

 from nearly the whole extent of the larger 

 rivers. 



For years before white people settled in the 

 area, the Indians caught shad in the Chesapeake 

 Bay tributaries in large quantities by a seine 

 made of bushes (called a bush net--McDonald, 

 1887c). The early settlers used haul seines, 

 and the shad supply was a great item of sub- 

 sistence. One of the most bitter complaints 

 made by the settlers against the Pennomites 

 in 1784 during the 30 Years' War was that the 

 Indian had destroyed the shad seines. The 

 early fisheries used haul seines almost en- 

 tirely. About 1835 gill nets were introduced 

 from the north. They steadily grew in favor 

 and have since been an important gear for 

 capturing shad in the Chesapeake Bay area. 



In the early 19th century, when the extension 

 of railroads and water routes south fronn 

 Norfolk, Va., provided easy and rapid com- 

 nnunication with northern markets, the shad 

 fisheries of the South Atlantic became im- 

 portant as far south as Florida. McDonald 

 (1887a) reported that settlers caught shad 

 in the St. Johns River, Fla., as early as 1840. 

 Shad were first caught at Mayport, Fla., by 

 Charles Waterhouse of Connecticut in 1858. 

 He had fished previously in the Savannah River, 

 Ga. In the 1860's shad were reported in the 

 St. Marys River, but no one fished for them. 

 At Jacksonville, Fla., gill nets were first used 

 in the shad fisheries in 1868. C. B. Smith of 

 Connecticut was the first to establish a shad 

 fishery at Palatka, Fla., in 1872. In 1873, 

 94,000 shad were caught at New Berlin, Fla., 

 and in 1874 the shad fisheries on the St. Johns 

 River took 250,000 fish. The fishermen from 

 Cape Ann, Conn., and Delaware Bay came 

 south expressly for shad fishing. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE FISHERIES 



During the 19th century, the shad fisheries 

 developed to great importance along the entire 

 Atlantic coast of the United States and sup- 

 ported commercial fishing in every coastal 

 state. Spawning runs were known in every 

 suitable river from the St. Johns River, Fla., 

 to the St. Lawrence River, Canada. Since the 



species is anadromous, it was taken both 

 inside and outside the rivers by all forms of 

 gear, from seines, weirs, fyke nets, eind pound 

 nets near the coast to gill nets, bow nets, smd 

 traps in the headwaters of the streams. 



The different kinds of gear introduced and 

 developed in the shad fisheries were adapted 

 to their native localities. Fronn Cape Lookout, 

 N.C., to Cape Cod, Mass., the rivers generally 

 empty into large bays or sounds, such as 

 Narragansett, New York, Delaware, and Chesa- 

 peake Bays and Long Island, Albemarle, and 

 Pamlico Sounds. The river mouths usually 

 are broad estuaries, resembling arms of 

 sounds and bays rather than rivers, and ex- 

 tensive shoals around the shoreline grade 

 into marshes or sandy beaches. The Delaware 

 River and Bay and the Susquehanna, the James, 

 the Potomac, and the Rappahannock Rivers of 

 Chesapeake Bay and the Neuse River, N.C., 

 are examples of this type. In these areas, 

 mostly pound nets and long rows of stationary 

 gill nets were used. Below Cape Lookout, 

 N.C., the rivers, except for tributaries of 

 Winyah Bay, S.C., ennpty directly into the 

 ocean and generally maintain their fluvial 

 characteristics to the nnouth. In these areas, 

 extensive gill net fisheries developed. In most 

 rivers, because the headwaters were narrow 

 and the fish concentrated on the spawning 

 grounds, the fishermen used seines, traps, 

 and bow cind gill nets. 



Haul seines, weirs, and drift gill nets and 

 dip nets were used in the early shad fisheries, 

 but the usual and most efficient method of 

 capturing fish was with seines. Fishermen 

 usually "paid out" the net in a semicircular 

 course to surround the fish and then captured 

 them by drawing both seine and fish ashore. 

 Formerly seines were drawn in by manual 

 labor alone with net crews of 15 to 25 men. 

 Later, however, capstans and horses were 

 used. It was necessary to have a smooth bot- 

 tom and to fish near the chcinnel where the 

 fish swam. Seines never were used extensively 

 in some areas, such as Maine and Rhode Is- 

 land, where these conditions were lacking. 



Weirs were used principally in Maine. This 

 gear entrapped the fish in an enclosure from 

 which they were removed by n-ieans of a small 

 seine operated from a boat, which is pushed 

 into the enclosure. 



Drift gill nets were fished in all rivers and 

 took shad by enmeshing them. These nets 

 were straight and extended across the stream 

 channel where they drifted with the tide or 

 current. 



Dip nets, which were used in rivers where 

 natural or artificial obstructions existed, were 

 hung on wooden frames with a long handle. 

 When in use, the frames were held on the 

 bottom of the stream in a narrow channel, and 

 the nets were lifted when fiih itruck them. 



In some areas where seine fishing was un- 

 productive, stake and drift gill nets came into 



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