were the principal gears, but some fish also 

 were taken in fyke nets and seines. Pound nets 

 were fished from the mouth of the York to 

 Gloucester Point, and stake gill nets from 

 Copahasic to West Point and in the mouth of 

 the Pamunkey; fyke nets were intermingled 

 with the stake gill nets. Drift gill nets were 

 fished in both tributaries, and seines were 

 scattered throughout the entire river system. 

 Many seines were operated formerly in the 

 Mattaponi, but by 1896 they had been replaced 

 by the cheaper and more effective drift gill 

 nets. The stake gill nets were from 6 to 9 yd. 

 long and 35 meshes deep and had 5-in. mesh; 

 they were set in strings of 10 to 20 nets in 11 

 to 14 ft. of water. The fishing season began 

 the first week in March and closed about the 

 end of May; the greater part of the catch was 

 made in April, No fish were taken in the South 

 Anna and North Anna Rivers. 



The York River was free of obstructions to 

 the passage of fish in 1960, and shad ascended 

 each tributary at least 30 miles. The major 

 spawning grounds in the Pamunkey were near 

 White House Landing, 15 to 25 miles above 

 West Point, and in the Mattaponi between the 

 Mattaponi Indian Reservation and Walkerton, 

 20 miles above West Point (Massmann, 

 1952). 



The fisheries of the York River and tribu- 

 taries extended 60 miles from the mouth of 

 the York to Tunstall in the Pamunkey and 50 

 miles to Walkerton in the Mattaponi. Four 

 gears were used: pound nets from the mouth 

 of the river to Gloucester Point, 6 miles; fyke 

 nets and stake gill nets from Gloucester Point 

 to West Point, 20 miles; and drift gill nets in 

 each tributary from West Point to the upper 

 limits of the fishery. In both the Mattaponi and 

 Pamunkey, most fishing with drift nets was by 

 Indians living on reservations (fig. 17). Pound 

 and fyke nets were fished from early spring 

 until fall; after the shad season, they were 

 used for other species. Stake gill nets, 20 ft. 

 long and 11 ft. deep, with 4-3/4- to 5 l/2-in. 

 mesh, were fished in rows 60 to 150 yd. long. 

 Drift gill nets were 50 to 235 yd. long and 35 



Figure 17. — Lifting drift gill net, Mattaponi River, Va. 

 (Photograph courtesy of Virginia Institute of Marine 

 Science, Gloucester Point, Va.) 



to 65 meshes deep and had 5- to 5 l/2-in. 

 mesh. Drift nets were fished during high- and 

 low-slack waters, which permitted about 3 hr. 

 of fishing on each tide. 



Shad fishing started in the York about Feb- 

 ruary 15, 1960, and was discontinued May 6. 

 In the tributaries it started March 8 and ended 

 May 14. The bulk of the catch was made in a 

 4-wk. period from mid-March to mid-April. 

 The amount of gear fished and the catch by 

 gear and area in 1960 are given in table 27. 

 On the basis of catch -effort statistics, the total 

 population was estimated to weigh 777,000 lb., 

 and the fishing rate was 46.9 percent (Nichols 

 and Massmann, 1963). The total catch was 

 364,637 lb.; stake gill nets caught about 48 

 percent, drift gill nets 46 percent, pound nets 

 3 percent, and fyke nets the remainder. The 

 catch in the lower York River was marketed 

 to dealers in Perrin; from the upper York and 

 tributaries, it went to dealers in West Point 

 and Richmond. 



The 1960 catch decreased about 81 per- 

 cent from 1896. The size of the catch was 

 similar in the different areas in 1896, but in 

 1960 the York produced 54 percent of the 

 catch, the Pamunkey 28 percent, and the 

 Mattaponi 18 percent. The amount of all types 

 of fishing gear, except stake gill nets decreased 

 from 1896 to 1960. 



Rappahannock River 



The Rappahannock River rises on the eastern 

 slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Fauquier 

 and Rappahannock Counties and crosses the 

 fall line at Fredericksburg, 106 miles fromits 

 mouth. Fluvial characteristics extend to 40 

 miles below Fredericksburg. The river is 

 navigable to that point. The lower 50 miles of 

 river are 2 1/2 to 4 miles wide and form an 

 arm of Chesapeake Bay. 



The shad catch from the Rappahannock River 

 in 1896 was 1,456,818 lb., of which pound nets 

 caught 63 percent, stake gill nets 25 percent, 

 drift gill nets 10 percent, and seines and mis- 

 cellaneous gear the remainder. Pound nets, 

 introduced in 1872, were operated mostly in 

 the lower section of the river. The stake gill 

 nets were 24 to 27 ft. long and 10 to 20 ft. 

 deep and had 4 l/2- to 5-in. mesh; they were 

 set in strings of 10 and 20 nets on the sides 

 of the channel, at intervals of a few hundred 

 feet. The drift gill nets were 75 to 200 yd. long 

 and 60 meshes deep and had 5-in. mesh. Seines 

 were 200 and 400 yd. long and had 2- and 

 2 l/2-in. mesh. Most of the catch was mar- 

 keted in Baltimore, Md. 



Shad ascended the Rappahannock River in 

 1960 to a dam at Falmouth, 2 miles above 

 Fredericksburg. Shad eggs were collected in 

 the river in 1951 from below Fredericksburg 

 to Portobago Bay, 30 miles downstream from 



50 



