in apparatus fished for other species 80 miles 

 or more above Augusta. 



The commercial catch of shad in 1896 was 

 made almost wholly by drift gill nets. These 

 nets were fished in the lower portion of the 

 river along the Georgia shore and in tributaries 

 below Savannah, Nets averaged 350 yd. long 

 and 30 ft. deep and had 5 l/4-in. mesh. The 

 catch by Georgia residents was 193,679 lb., of 

 which about 5,650 lb. were taken with small 

 drift and set gill nets and fall traps below the 

 Augusta Dam. South Carolina residents caught 

 13,620 lb. with small drift gill nets and 98 lb. 

 with bow nets below Augusta Dam. 



In i960 the Savannah Lock and Dam, located 

 35 miles below Augusta, Ga., obstructed the 

 upstream movement of fish. Occasionally a 

 few shad gain access to the river above this 

 obstruction during a lockage or through sluices 

 in the dam; however, none was reported above 

 the City Lock, 10 miles upstream from the 

 Savannah Lock. Shad spawned from U.S. High- 

 way 301 bridge upstream to the Savannah Lock. 

 Some fish spawned in Brier Creek, a tributary 

 which enters the Savannah about midway be- 

 tween the mouth and the lower lock. 



In i960 drift gill nets were fished in the 

 coastal area and set gill nets in the inland 

 area. Fishing began in mid-January and was 

 discontinued by mid- March. There were 33 

 drift gill nets in the coastal area, and fishing 

 was concentrated in the lower 20 niiles of 

 river in the vicinity of Hardeeville, S.C. 

 Aggregate length of these nets was 3,300 yd., 

 and the shad catch was 80,535 lb. Nets were 

 90 to 200 yd. long and 35 to 40 meshes deep 

 and had 5- to 5 3/4-in. mesh. Twenty-one 

 nets were fished by full-time fishermen for 

 21 to 45 days; the remaining nets were fished 

 for 2 to 12 days by occasional fishermen 

 residing in Savannah. Most full-time fisher- 

 men resided in South Carolina, but nnost 

 of their catch was sold to dealers in 

 Savannah. 



In the inland area, including Brier Creek, 

 200 set gill nets were fished. Total length of 

 the nets was 4,700 yd., and the shad catch was 

 83,036 lb. The nets were 10 to 40 yd. long and 

 35 to 55 nneshes deep and had 5- to 5 l/2-in, 

 mesh in the lower section of this area; nets 

 were 5 to 12 yd. long and 25 to 35 meshes 

 deep and had 4 1/2- to 5 l/2-in. mesh in the 

 upper section. Nets in the lower section were 

 fished 10 to 48 days, and most of the catch 

 was marketed; those in the upper section were 

 fished 4 to 12 days, and the catch was used 

 locally. 



In addition to the commercial fishery, shad 

 were taken by rod and reel immediately below 

 the Savannah Lock and Dam where the fish 

 congregated. Between mid- April and mid- May 

 i960, an estimated 1,050 lb. were caught. The 

 Savannah River contributed 21 percent of the 

 total Georgia shad catch in I960 and 36 percent 

 in 1896. 



TRENDS IN PRODUCTION 



The shad fisheries of Georgia were not as 

 productive in 1880 as in earlier years 

 (McDonald, 1887a). The decline was attributed 

 to an increased number of drift gill nets in the 

 lower sections of the rivers. In the Ogeechee 

 and Savannah, the nets were sufficient in num- 

 ber to almost completely obstruct shad from 

 the spawning grounds. In the Savannah, the 

 dam above Augusta prevented use of spawning 

 areas above this point. Attempts were made to 

 pass shad above this obstruction, but they were 

 not successful (Stevenson, 1899). Shadproduc- 

 tion in the Ogeechee River also decreased in 

 1880, but the reasons for this were not clearly 

 understood. 



From I896 to 1908, commercial production 

 increased progressively from 537,000 to 

 1,333,000 1b. (table 15). By 1902, with improved 

 shipping facilities and expansionof towns along 

 the rivers, shad became the most important 

 commercial species in the State, and its 

 capture constituted one of the leading in- 

 dustries of coastal rivers (Alexander, 1905). 

 The bulk of the catch was taken within a few 

 miles of the mouth of the rivers (Townsend, 

 1900); however, the quantity taken throughout 

 the interior, not large at any one place, was 

 important in the aggregate. 



From 1908 to 1918, production declined 

 more than 92 percent. The U.S. Bureau of 

 Fisheries, in an effort to rehabilitate the fish- 

 ery, liberated millions of shad fry in Georgia 



Table 15. — Shad catch for certain years, 

 Georgia, 1880-1960^ 



[In thousands of pounds] 



^ statistics 1830-1959, U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service (1958-61). 



26 



