426 u - s - BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



The lay on the local power vessels used in Alaska, which landed 

 their catches at the shore stations there and to which they have been 

 credited, is as follows: For dressed fish, 10,000 and over, $1 per 

 hundredweight; for dressed fish, less than 10,000, 95 cents per 

 hundredweight. At the stations the dory fishermen were paid 45 

 cents per hundredweight for whole round fish, while the splitters 

 received 5 cents per hundredweight additional. 



During the season of 1915 hand lines were used exclusively in fish- 

 ing, but long lines, gill nets, and beam trawls have been used 

 occasionally. 



The hand lines are of special hard laid No. 72 untarred cotton 

 seine twine. These are 7-pound cotton lines; that is, one dozen 25- 

 fathom lines weigh 7 pounds. Two to three of these lines are re- 

 quired to make one single fishing line, and each fisherman operates at 

 least two fishing lines. Each line is generally fitted with a spreader, 

 to which are attached two snoods. The hooks in general use are the 

 No. 8, eyed, japanned " Gravitation " and the No. 7 " Baylies." 

 Most of the fishermen file down the long sharp point on the former 

 hook. The leads weigh 5 pounds. No. 2 swivels are used in attach- 

 ing the snoods. 



Unlike his east-coast brother, the Pacific cod fisherman worries but 

 little about bait. Before sailing, enough herring are taken along for 

 a couple of days' baiting, but the fisherman usually gets enough 

 shack fish the first day to furnish him with plenty of bait for the 

 next day, and so on throughout the season. Sculpins, halibut, 

 porgies, octopus, salmon, etc., form the principal sources of bait 

 supply. In baiting the hooks the fish are slivered, steaks being cut 

 from each side of the backbone. These are cut into three-cornered 

 or square pieces, and are strung upon the hooks to the number of 

 six to eight. Octopus is the favorite bait, a boatload of fish fre- 

 quently being secured with pieces cut from one tentacle of this 

 mollusk. Although clams are abundant in Alaska, the fishermen 

 rarely ever bother to dig them for bait. 



SEASON. METHODS, ETC. 



The vessels generally leave their home ports between the middle 

 of March and the middle of April, and arrive in the neighborhood of 

 the Shumagin Islands, in the North Pacific, in from two to three 

 weeks after sailing. The Shumagin Islands are about 1,553 nautical 

 miles from Seattle and about 1,903 nautical miles from San 

 Francisco. 



As there is floating ice on the cod banks in Bering Sea at this time, 

 most of the vessels fish off the southern side of Unimak Island. The 

 early part of May some of the vessels move over to the southeast 

 point of Sannak Island and spend the greater part of the season on 

 the Sannak Bank, but the majority of them go into Bering Sea, 

 where fishing usually is begun in Dublin Bay and on Slime Bank. 

 Toward the latter part of June the Bering Sea fleet begins to work 

 north onto Baird Bank, moving along by Port Moller and up as far 

 as the mouth of the Ugashik River and occasionally, but not often, up 

 into Bristol Bay proper. 



The vessels that fish exclusively in the North Pacific Ocean some- 

 times spend the early part of the season on Shumagin Bank, working 



