The Narrows . --The 1896 fishery included 

 many drift nets, which averaged 400 yd. long 

 and had 5 1/8- to 5 l/2-in. mesh. About 

 46,900 yd. of net caught 257,425 lb. 



Upper Bay . --Fish were taken in this area 

 in 1896 by stake gill nets along the western 

 side of the Bay on the New Jersey Flats. These 

 nets, each 24 ft. long by 28 ft. deep with 

 5 l/4-in. mesh, were set with the tops from 

 10 to 12 ft. below the water surface in 4 

 strings containing 151 "stations." The poles 

 were 60 to 70 ft. long. The estimated yield was 

 121,618 lb. 



Shad were taken in I960 only in Lower New 

 York Bay, by pound nets fished off Staten Is- 

 land. The seasort began about April 10 and 

 ended the last of May. Twenty-five pound nets 

 produced 118,200 lb. No shad fishing was 

 permitted during a 48-hr. closed weekend. 



Hudson River 



The Hudson River rises in the Adirondack 

 Mountains in Essex County, N.Y., flows south 

 300 miles, and empties into New York Bay at 

 the Battery, New York City. The river is tidal 

 fronn its mouth upstream 160 miles to Troy, 

 N.Y. From New York Bay to Piermont, N.Y., 

 it is 1 to 2 miles wide; between Piermont and 

 Haverstraw, N.Y., it expands into a bay 12 

 miles long and 4 to 5 miles wide; and from 

 Haverstraw 34 miles upstream from the mouth 

 of the river to Troy, it is 300 to 900 yd. wide. 

 Above Troy are numerous falls and rapids. 

 A fnasonry dam at Troy, originally a wooden 

 structure completed in 1826, is the upper limit 

 of fish migration. The fresh-water section of 

 the river extends downstream to a few miles 

 below Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The major spawning 

 area in the Hudson is between Port Ewen and 

 Coxsackie, N.Y.; the greatest concentration of 

 eggs in 1940 was just below the town of Cat- 

 skill, N.Y. (New York Conservation Depart- 

 ment, 1943). Collection of eggs in 1950 and 

 1951 from Kingston to Coxsackie was most 

 productive between Germantown and Hudson, 

 N.Y. (Talbot, 1954). 



Fishing was limited in 1896 above Castleton, 

 N.Y., a short distance below Albany, N.Y.,and 

 few fish were taken above the town of Hudson. 

 The legal season extended from March 14 to 

 June 15; fishing was prohibited from sunset on 

 Saturday until sunrise on Monday of each 

 week. The estimated catch by New Jersey fish- 

 ermen was 703,307 lb.; residents of New York 

 caught 1,703,066 lb. Total production was 

 2,406,373 lb. 



Of the total 1896 yield, about 50 percentwas 

 taken in drift gill nets, 37 percent in stake 

 gill nets, 12 percent in seines, and the re- 

 mainder in miscellaneous gears. Drift nets 

 were fished from the New Jersey line almost 

 to Troy Dam and were most numerous near 



Verplanck Point. The nets were 450 to 1,000 

 yd. long, and the aggregate length was 206,590 

 yd. The length and depth of each net depended 

 on the size of the channel in which it was 

 fished. The upper limit of the stake net fishery 

 on the east side of the river was Croton Point, 

 near Ossining, N.Y.; on the west side theupper- 

 most limit was Nyack, N.Y. The stake gillnets 

 north of the New Jersey line were small and 

 were set on the flats in shallow water. None of 

 these nets was more than 15 ft. deep. Nets 

 between Alpine, N.J., and the mouth of the river 

 were much larger and were set on the edge of 

 the channel in water 20 to 50 ft. deep. These 

 nets usually were 90 meshes long and 100 

 meshes deep; mesh size was 5-in. The 

 total number of stake nets in 1896 was 2,631, 

 and the aggregate length was 21,615 yd. The 

 catch was 921,305 lb. New Jersey fishermen 

 fished 1,530 nets and took about Td percent of 

 the catch; New York fishermen fished 1,101 

 nets and took 24 percent. Seines ranged from 

 120 to 500 yd. long and had 2- to 2 l/2-in. 

 mesh in the bunt and 4- to 5-in. mesh in the 

 wings. The most extensive seine fishery was 

 near Kingston Point. The total yield of the 41 

 seines fished in 1896 was 277,080 lb. 



In 1960 the commercial shad fishery of the 

 Hudson River extended 120 miles from Wee- 

 hauken, N.J., to Hudson, N.Y. The total yield 

 was 778,349 lb., of which stake gill nets took 

 about 82 percent, drift gill nets 17 percent, 

 and haul seines 1 percent. The catch by New 

 Jersey fishermen was 449,636 lb. New York 

 fishermen caught 328,711 lb. Most of the catch 

 by New Jersey and New York fishermen was 

 marketed in New York City. The catch by gear 

 and State are listed in table 44. 



In the New York section of the HudsonRiver 

 drift gill nets were fished from Haverstraw 

 Bay to the city of Hudson. Nets ranged from 

 150 to 600 yd. long, had 5 l/4- to 5 3/4-in. 

 mesh, and were 10 to 15 ft. deep. The drift net 

 area was entirely within the State of New York, 

 and the fishermen were licensed by that State, 

 except for one net, fished in New Jersey 

 waters, which caught 170 lb. of shad incidental 

 to other species. 



In the lower section of the Hudson River, 

 bounded by both New York and New Jersey, 

 nearly all of the stake gill nets were fished 

 in New Jersey waters, but some were across 

 the river in New York waters. The upper limit 

 of the stake gill net fishery was Stony Point, 

 N.Y. These nets averaged 1,600 ft. and had 

 6-in. mesh. They were set on the edge of the 

 channel in waters 20 to 50 ft. deep and were 

 suspended from long poles spaced about 30 ft. 

 apart. They were usually fished only during 

 floodtide. The fish were removed just before 

 high- slack water, and the net was fastened 

 above water or removed until the next low- 

 slack water. These nets are installed and 

 operated during the shad season only. In 

 Haverstraw Bay the stake nets are smaller 



75 



