686 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



and occasionally Menominee white-tish. The sizes of mesh used in gill 

 nets v^aries from 3 to -ii inches, the former size being used mostly for 

 perch. Gill nets are set in varying- depths of water up to 100 fathoms, 

 the latter being found off Thunder Bay light, near Alpena, where some 

 of the deepest water in the lake occurs. The same method of pre- 

 serving gill nets is followed as on some of the other Great Lakes, that 

 of allowing them to remain from fifteen to twenty-live minutes in boil- 

 ing water in which hemlock bark has been placed. At Alpena it is 

 customarv for the fishermen to buy hemlock sirup from the tanneries 

 located there. This costs 75 cents a gallon, and is abovit as thick as 

 molasses, 1 quart being used to -iO gallons of water. 



The catch In" fyke nets ranks next in quantitv to that of gill nets, 

 though of far less value. The most of these nets are used in Saginaw 

 River. 



Trap nets are used in various localities from Detour to Harbor Beach, 

 but very seldom below the latter town. These nets are set in from -i 

 to 15 feet of water and catch principally suckers, except in a few 

 localities where yellow perch and wall-eyed pike predominate. They 

 are often set in Januar}' and allowed to remain until the following fall, 

 being removed from the water while the ice is breaking up in the 

 spring and making in the fall, to prevent injury to them. These nets 

 are ver}- convenient to move from one ground to another, as, instead of 

 stakes, anchors weighing from 5 to 35 pounds each are used to hold 

 them in position. Two sizes of anchors are commonly used for each 

 net, the larger ones for the "outhauls,'' or back of the net, to hold 

 the pot in position, and the smaller ones for the heart. Trap nets are 

 sometimes entirely submerged, while in very shallow water a portion 

 of the net extends above the surface. When submerged the nets are 

 located by buoys, except when the owner does not desire their location 

 known, in wdiich case he has a system of his own for marking them. 

 The legislature of IMichigan, in 1901, passed an act prohibiting the 

 use of trap nets in Lake Huron after January 1, 1905. 



Seines are used at very few localities along the lake, the most 

 important seine fishery being located at Pine River, Arenac County. 

 The principal species taken were wall-eyed pike and suckers. At 

 Cheboygan the catch was confined exclusively to white-fish, while at 

 Ausable and Oscoda both suckers and white-fish were taken. 



An important fisher}^ with spears is conducted during the winter in 

 Saginaw Bay near the mouth of the Saginaw River, from the 1st of 

 January until the latter part of March, the length of the season vary- 

 ing according to the severity of the winter. Four hundred shanties 

 may sometimes be seen on the ice at one time during the height of the 

 season. There is usually one man to a shant}^ which is from 1 to 5 

 feet square and is heated b}'^ a small stove, the entire outfit costing 

 about $15. The spears have a handle from 8 to 10 feet long, to which 



