FISHING INDUSTRY OP THE GREAT LAKES 565 



as a rule between 35 and 70 fathoms, the depth usually depending on 

 the behavior of the species which is predominant in the catches. 



As each species exhibits peculiarities in the selection of a habitat, 

 so each has a definite spawning behavior, and no two species are 

 known to spawn on the same grounds. The spawning grounds for 

 one species may be in water as shallow as 50 to 60 feet, and for 

 another as deep as 300 to 350 feet, and as for the time of spawning, 

 the eggs of one species or another are deposited during some part of 

 every month in the year except June and July. Some spawning 

 grounds of each of the species are known, and the fish are taken 

 abundantly while they are spawning. 



At present the greatest quantity of chubs is taken along the 

 Wisconsin shore, especially from Manitowoc southward. This pro- 

 ductive area extends around the lake as far north as Grand Haven 

 on the east shore. Some chubs are caught all along the shores of 

 the lake except in Green Bay, where the water is too shallow, but 

 northward from Manitowoc and Grand Haven the ledge along the 

 shore becomes narrower and the species of chubs fewer, until in the 

 northern end of the lake the industry is supported solely by one or 

 two species, compared with five or six in the more hospitable southern 

 end. 



As far as can be learned, chubs were first taken about 1869 in 

 Grand Traverse Bay out of Northport. These fish were caught 

 only in November, when they were spawning along the shores, and 

 3%-inch nets were used. They were salted and sold to wholesale 

 grocers along with whitefish and other species. About 1883 chubs 

 were taken out of Racine in 3-inch and 2J^-inch nets and about 1885 

 they were caught out of Milwaukee in nets with a 3-inch mesh. By 

 1885 they were also being produced out of other ports on the west 

 and east shores of the lake, but only at certain seasons and in limited 

 quantities to meet the demand for salt fish and cheap fresh fish. 



The market for such products at that time was not large, and not 

 until they came into demand for smoking were chubs extensively 

 caught. Trout and whitefish had long been prepared smoked, but 

 C. H. Fischer, of Milwaukee, is credited with having first introduced 

 smoked chubs. About 1885 the smoked product had become so 

 popular that it was shipped to various large cities of the middle 

 west and many of the fishermen took to chub fishing. By 1891 

 chubs were being caught regularly from Sheboygan to St. Joseph, 

 and the supply for a time exceeded the demand. During the nineties, 

 however, there was a sharp decline in the abundance of these fish 

 at ports where they had been taken for several years, and nets of 

 2% inches were substituted for larger mesh. Since in general the 

 larger fish were in better demand, persons who had begun late to 

 fish for chubs used the largest possible mesh at first. 



By 1900 chub fishing had become an industry at most of the ports 

 on the lake, but by 1910 chubs had so declined in numbers that the 

 Wisconsin boats reduced the mesh of the chub nets to 2J^ inches. 

 Their example was followed later by vessels from Illinois and Indiana, 

 but Michigan fisherman have never been allowed to use a net of 

 smaller mesh than 2% inches. In these smaU-meshed nets there 

 were now taken in abundance three species of smaller chubs, of which 

 only the largest individuals were ever giUed in the 2^-inch nets 



