FISHERIES OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND TRIBUTARIES. ELE 
In Lee County, bordering the Mississippi River, a number of fisher- 
men use seines, trammel nets, fyke nets, and set lines at Fort Madison 
and along the Keokuk Canal from Montrose to Keokuk, the annual 
product approximating 500,000 pounds. Buffalo-fish, carp, cat-fish, 
fresh-water drum, and suckers are the most abundant species. 
At various places along Skunk River, from its mouth to a distance 
of about 50 miles, economic fisheries of more or less importance existed 
in 1899. 
On Des Moines River below Des Moines there are no commercial 
fisheries except at Bonaparte and Ottumwa. For several miles below 
Bonaparte there is some fishing with fyke nets and set lines. The 
catch, amounting to about 30,000 pounds annually, consists of cat-fish, 
buffalo-fish, suckers, carp, and fresh-water drum. 
At Ottumwa, where there are a number of commercial fishermen, 
many persons on Sundays and holidays engage in spearing fish, the 
product amounting probably to 25,000 pounds annually, consisting of 
quillback and buffalo-fish. 
Large quantities of fish are obtained from the Des Moines and Coon 
rivers by anglers at the city of Des Moines, as well as various other 
points on those streams. 
The Big Sioux River forms the boundary between the States of Iowa 
and South Dakota. It is deep and narrow and in its lower portion is 
well supplied with numerous varieties of fish. Formerly considerable 
fishing was done all along the Big Sioux River below Sioux Falls, but 
at present the commercial fisheries are confined to that portion of the 
river below Chatsworth, the total yield amounting to about 80,000 
pounds. 
Compared with the Mississippi River, that portion of the Missouri 
River bordering the State of Iowa is not well supplied with fish. Of 
the seven counties which border this stream only four—viz, Woodbury, 
Pottawattamie, Mills, and Fremont—support commercial fisheries. 
In Woodbury County the fishermen reside at Sioux City and engage 
principally in the fyke-net fishery, with a limited amount of set-line 
fishing. The catch consists mostly of cat-fish, with smaller quantities 
of buffalo-fish, fresh-water drum, etc. 
The fishermen of Pottawattamie County fish from the mouth of Little 
Sioux River to the mouth of Platte River, a distance of 70 miles, the 
catch being marketed at Council Bluffs, Omaha, and in the interior 
of Iowa. Seines are the principal apparatus employed. The season 
usually begins about the Ist of June and continues until the river is 
closed by ice. The product amounts to about 80,000 pounds annually. 
About 2 miles southwest of Council Bluffs is Lake Manawa, which is 
approximately 2 miles in length and 1 mile in width. This lake yields 
a quantity of large-mouth black bass, pickerel, crappie, buffalo-fish, 
and shovel-nose sturgeon, not only to the sportsmen, but to poachers 
who operate with seines. The black bass weigh from one-half to 4 
