214 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



each boat, the average number being about 40 or 45. The last season 

 began about March 20 and lasted six or seven weeks, the yield by the 34 

 boats numbering 18,925 roe shad and 16,350 bucks, worth $3,813. 



All the shad seines on Choptank Kiver are operated within 8 miles 

 of Denton, from Williston to Greensboro, in Caroline County. The 

 length ranges from 120 to 325 yards each, and the depth from 10 to 30 

 feet. The seine shores are not so valuable as twenty or more years 

 ago, but at present are worth from $50 to $500 each. In 189G there 

 were 14 seines operated on this river, with an aggregate length of 

 3,293 yards, and valuation of $1,460, requiring the services of 71 men, 

 14 boats worth $189, and $ },200 of shore property. The season began 

 the third week of March and ended on May 15, as required by a State 

 law. The large seines make about 12 hauls each day during the run 

 of fish, the smaller ones being hauled somewhat more frequently. The 

 most important of the seine fisheries is the Cedar Island fishery, owned 

 by Mr. B. G. Stevens, which in some seasons takes 10,000 or 12,000 

 shad. The total shad yield in the 14 seines was 45,050, of which 24,110 

 were bucks, the local value being $5,183. 



Between Dover Bridge and the entrance of Tuckahoe Creek there 

 are usually a score or more fyke nets, in which a few shad are taken, 

 the yield in 1896 numbering 402, of which over 70 per cent were bucks. 

 Until recently there were several "pound weirs," or "stick weirs," in 

 the headwaters of the Choptank, but legislation adverse to their use 

 resulted in this branch of shad fishery being abandoned in 1895. N"early 

 all the shad taken in the Choptank River are shipped by steamer to 

 Baltimore, and as most of them reach market after April 10, when large 

 supplies are being received from Virginia waters and Delaware Bay, 

 the price at which they are sold is necessarily quite low. This was 

 especially true during the season herein reported, when the market 

 was so glutted about the middle of April that many Choptank River 

 shad were thrown away, and other shipments did not bring enough to 

 X)ay expenses of marketing them, 



Tuckahoe Creek. — This is the only tributary of Choptank River that 

 has shad fisheries of any importance. Branching off about 8 miles 

 below Denton, it is navigable for vessels of 8 feet draft for a distance 

 of 10 miles. A small shad hatchery has been maintained for many 

 years by the State of Maryland at Cowarts Point, a few miles above 

 the mouth, from which five or ten million young shad are annually 

 distributed. The shad fisheries of Tuckahoe Creek extend from the 

 Cho])tank to Hillsboro, the yield in 1896 being 02,344, rendering it one 

 of the most important shad streams on the Atlantic coast for its size. 

 The forms of apparatus used are drift nets and seines, M'ith a few pound 

 nets and weirs. 



The drift-net stations on Tuckahoe Creek are Cowarts Point (14 

 boats) and Isew Bridge (2 boats) in Caroline County, and Rees Landing 

 and New Bridge (13 boats), Covey Landing (5 boats), Frank Lauding 

 (2 boats) and Todd Lauding (2 boats) in Talbot County. 



