general use. Stake nets, or set nets as they 

 are sometinnes called, were gill nets that 

 stretched on poles anchored to the river 

 bottom and set at a right angle with the 

 current. 



Gill nets were supplanted in some areas 

 by pound nets. The principle of pound net 

 fishing was to trap the fish by directing them 

 into an impounding structure. The basic com- 

 ponents consisted of a rectangular bowl or 

 "head" which was the actual impounding struc- 

 ture, heart-shaped "bays" which concentrated 

 and directed the fish toward the head, and 

 finally a leader (or "hedging") which turned 

 the fish toward the bays and head. The pound 

 net differs from a weir, in that the river 

 bottom serves as the floor for weirs, whereas 

 pound nets have bottoms and are of the same 

 material and of the same depth as the leader. 

 Pound nets were first fished at Westbrook, 

 Conn., in 1849 and from that area spread 

 rapidly to other locations (True, 1887). They 

 were introduced into New Jersey in 1855 but 

 did not come into general use until 1873. In 

 1875 pound nets were scattered along both 

 shores of Long Island, N.Y.; the fish most 

 sought were shad and striped bass. By 1880 

 this gear occupied the west shore of New York 

 Harbor to Sandy Hook and was fished in Dela- 

 ware Bay between Cape May and Dyers Creek. 

 Some nets also were set near Barnegat Inlet, 

 N.J. Pound nets were introduced into Chesa- 

 peake Bay from New Jersey in 1858. They 

 were first used in Albemarle Sound, N.C., 

 in 1870 and took considerable numbers of 

 shad. In 1880 this gear was introduced into 

 the Ogeechee River, Ga., and two or three 

 nets also were fished in the Neuse River, 

 N.C. 



Atkins (1887), McDonald ( 1887a-e), and True 

 and Wilcox (1887) reported on the status of the 

 shad fisheries in 1880. By that time, impass- 

 able dams in Maine had reduced shad to very 

 small numbers. Although the shad fishery was 

 important in the Kennebec River, fishing was 

 attempted in only three other streams and a 

 few bays. Shad was one of the most important 

 fish taken in weirs. Seines were never used 

 extensively, and drift gill nets amd dip nets 

 had lost nearly all their importance. 



No regular shad fisheries existed in New 

 Hampshire amd Massachusetts in 1880, and the 

 shad were incidental to the catches of other 

 species. 



In 1880 the fisheries of Connecticut, New 

 York, and New Jersey were important. The 

 Connecticut River yield was 1,105,340 lb., of 

 which pound nets caught about 64 percent, gill 

 nets 20 percent, and haul seines the remainder. 

 Haul seines in the Housatonic River caught 

 28,600 lb. On the Hudson River, the fish were 

 taken by stake gill nets from Jersey City to 

 Fort Lee, N.J., and by drift gill nets and 

 seines from Fort Lee to Troy, N.Y.; the catch 

 was estimated at 2,556,000 lb. 



The shad fisheries of Delaware and Chesa- 

 peake Bays and Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds 

 became important about 1869, and their great- 

 est development came in the following 25 years. 

 Haul seines, pound nets, and stake gill nets 

 were used extensively. The catch in 1880 was 

 not given for Delaware and Chesapeake Bays; 

 but the Delaware River produced more than 

 1 million pounds, and tributaries of Chesa- 

 peake Bay produced more than 5 million 

 pounds. Seines and gill nets in the James 

 River yielded 357,000 lb., gill nets in the York 

 River 469,073 lb., and haul seines, poundnets, 

 and gill nets in the Potomac and Susquehanna 

 Rivers more than 4 million pounds. The shad 

 catch in Albemarle Sound was 2,255,823 lb. 

 Gill nets, pound nets, bow nets, and seines 

 were used to catch shad in North Carolina 

 rivers. The Cape Fear River produced 182,000 

 lb., the Neuse River about 250,000 lb., and the 

 Pamlico -Tar River an equal quantity. 



In 1880 the fisheries in the rivers of South 

 Carolina and Georgia primarily used gill nets, 

 but no estimate was given of the catch. Bow 

 nets were fished in the rivers, but the catch 

 was small and used for local consumption. 



In 1880 the only organized fishery in Florida 

 was on the St. Johns River, where gill nets 

 and seines caught an estimated 251,700 lb. 



In 1896 the total estimated shad catch of 

 the Atlantic coast of the United States was 

 50,498,860 lb., of which about 46 percent was 

 taken by drift gill nets, 14 percent by stake 

 gill nets, 16 percent by seines, 23 percent by 

 pound nets and weirs, and the remainder by 

 fyke nets, bow nets, spears, fall traps, and 

 miscellaneous gears. New Jersey ranked first 

 in production with 13,909,826 lb., and Virginia 

 second with 11,170,519 lb. Virginia usually 

 ranked first and North Carolina second, but 

 the catch in Virginia in 1896 was less than 

 average, whereas that of New Jersey was con- 

 siderably above average. Statistics on the 

 fishing gear used and the catch by State are 

 given in tables 6 and 7. 



The estimated catch along the ocean shore 

 was more than 400,000 lb., or slightly less 

 than 1 percent of the total Atlantic coastyield. 

 With the exception of a few shad taken in- 

 cidentally in the catches of other species 

 along the Virginia coast, no shad were re- 

 ported taken along the ocean shore south of 

 Barnegat, N.J., in 1896. Between Barnegat 

 Inlet and Sandy Hook, N.J., pound nets caught 

 60,000 lb. Between the eastern end of Long 

 Island, N.Y., and Cape Cod, Mass., 15,000 lb. 

 were taken. Between Cape Cod and easterp 

 Maine, mackerel boats caught about 325,000 lb. 

 of shad. 



In 1896 catches of shad in Florida, Georgia, 

 South Carolina, and North Carolina were made 

 principally by gill nets, seines, and pound 

 nets; small catches were made with bow nets 

 and other miscellaneous gear. Of the 11,349,453 

 lb. caught in this area, 56 percent was taken 



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