558 U. S. BUEEAU OF FISHERIES 



the thread varying with the mesh of the netting, and is purchased 

 according to order by the fishermen. It is then seamed onto the lead 

 and cork lines, so that one diagonal of the quadrangular openings of 

 the netting is perpendicular to these lines. Three sorts of gill nets 

 are in use by the Great Lakes fishermen — (1) nets for whitefish and 

 trout, which are regularly of 4 to 4^ inch mesh, depending on the 

 regulations of the various Governments, though nets up to 7 inches 

 are used on the spawning grounds; (2) small-meshed nets, which are 

 of 23^ to 3 inch mesh and are used for herring, chubs, perch, etc.; 

 (3) nets of 1 ^ to 2 inch mesh, which are used to catch bait for the 

 trout hooks in American waters only. In Canadian waters 23^8 to 

 2^ inch nets are permitted for this purpose. All three sorts of gill 

 nets are set chiefly in the deeper waters of the Lakes to depths of 

 600 feet, though at certain seasons the first two are employed to 

 advantage on the shoals. The nets are from 50 to 90 leads long and 

 are handled in boxes, 3 or 4 nets to a box. In use they are united, 

 end to end, to form gangs, one of which may reach 4 to 8 miles. 



In setting a gang a buoy is thrown overboard, to which a line, 

 somewhat longer than the depth of the water at that point, has been 

 attached. A few rods from the lower end of this line an anchor 

 is fastened, and the end of the line is made fast to the joined lead and 

 cork lines of one end of the gang. The anchor is then thrown over- 

 board and the net paid out from the moving steamer. When the 

 end of the gang has been reached a second rope and anchor are 

 attached to it. To the second rope a line with attached buoy is 

 made fast and the net is allowed to sink to the bottom, where it 

 stands upright like a tennis net. The fish swimnung along the bot- 

 tom run into the net and become entangled in the meshes. Since 

 the fine threads of the net usually are caught under the gdl covers 

 of the fish they are said to be "gilled." The fish are often dead when 

 taken. 



The boats use either large-meshed gill nets exclusively and catch 

 whitefish and trout, or use small-meshed nets exclusively; or they 

 may, at certain seasons at least, have gangs of both. The gangs are 

 lifted at intervals of one to six days, depending on the temperature 

 of the water. The nets used to catch bait for the boats' "fishing 

 hooks" are lifted daily or on every second day. The hook tugs use 

 no other nets. 



By the methods of fishing in general use on the Great Lakes (ex- 

 cepting Lake Erie) fish are captured from the surface to the bottom 

 only in the shallower shore waters having a maximum depth of about 

 80 feet. In the deeper water they are taken by gill nets within about 5 

 feet of the bottom only. The fish are therefore free from capture in 

 these deeper waters from the surface to within 5 feet of the bottom, 

 except that trout may be taken by floated hooks. 



In Lake Erie, however, nets have commonly been floated off the 

 bottom since the beginning of the present century. From the prac- 

 tice of floating nets, Clarence Jackway, of Westfield, N. Y., is cred- 

 ited with having evolved the "bull net" about 1905, which is 

 merely a very deep gill net. Where the ordinary gill net would take 

 fish only within 5 feet from the bottom, the bull net, if set on the 

 bottom, would catch fish to four or five times that height. Experi- 

 ence taught, however, that the currents along the bottom were fre- 

 quently so strong that a bull net would be brushed flat, and for that 



