1042 HEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 



lu tbis section the first runs during the fall season are made up 

 almost wholly of lake trout {Cristivomer namaycush), and usually a 

 sufficient number are caught to compensate for cost of fitting up and 

 setting the nets and current operating expenses, leaving the measure 

 of profits to be determined by the length of time the work can hold out 

 against the weather during the whitefish run. This would seem to be 

 and invariably is sufficient inducement to incur the taking of great 

 risks; but the fishermen seemed only to remember the disasters and 

 losses of the j)revious season, forgetting that the early and intense cold 

 of that period was quite exceptional. A feeling of overcaution was 

 produced, manifested by the great haste of interested parties to con- 

 sign their trappings to the protection of harbors and twine-houses. 

 But as day after day of moderate weather — for the time of year — fol- 

 lowed the first blizzard, they saw how premature their alarm had been, 

 and it is safe to i^redict for the coming season a relapse into the other 

 extreme of an entire disregard of the premonitions of winter. 



The season could doubtless have been made a successful one for both 

 fisherman and spawn-taker, as the weather was such as to admit of a 

 continuance of operations long after the field was abandoned. Even as 

 it was, fishing was carried on ten days later than last year, but should 

 have continued still fifteen days longer to correspond with the weather 

 and runs of fish. The number of whitefish actually brought to port at 

 Alpena during the season was quite insignificant compared with some 

 former years, and a very decided falling off from the average. Of course 

 quite a large number were caught in the aggregate, from which many 

 millions of eggs might have been obtained had there been a heavy 

 sprinkling of ripe spawners ; but only the advance guard was captured, 

 and this is invariably made up of a great preponderance of males — 

 mostly ripe — and a few unripe females. Just as mature spawners be- 

 gan to appear, a brief period of severe weather came on, nets were 

 withdrawn as rapidly as possible, so that eggs were taken only on four 

 days, and then in insignificant numbers, with one exception. In no 

 other branch of the work is success or failure so dependent upon and 

 associated with the condition of the weather. 



Certain well-known and well-defined localities are sure to receive the 

 annual A'isitations of hordes of whitefish laden with spawn; but as the 

 climax of their spawning period is reached only at the verge of winter, 

 when the elements are liable at any time to combine to prevent their 

 capture, a considerable degree of uncertainty in regard to laying in a 

 very large number of eggs is of necessity unavoidable. 



However, I can but regard Alpena and vicinity as a favorable locality 

 for the collection of whitefish eggs. Large numbers of the j^arent fish 

 are captured, and very rarely, indeed, are the fisheries abandoned before 

 the height of the spawning season is reached. This fact, coupled with 

 the great fecundity of the fish, makes it a matter of comi)arative ease to 

 obtain vast numbers of eggs under favorable circumstances. Having 



