465 



of bottom), the upper being floated with cedar blocks or with corks. Each net- 

 is some 300 or 400 feet long, 4| — 5i'feet deep, and of 4 J to 4f inch mesh for White- 

 fish, and sometimes an inch more for Lake Trout. Ten to twenty or more such 

 nets arranged in a row form a " gang," and four gangs constitute an outfit for 

 four men, two gangs being in the water at one time, and one of these hauled 

 daily. 



Certain objections are urged against the use of gill-nets ; the catch is often 

 so large as to be unmanageable, and is therefore wasteful, the fish spoil in a few 

 hours, especially if there is much current, and decomposition sets in with great 

 rapidity after death, so that when the nets are hauled many of the fish are not 

 in proper condition for the market, i-equiring to be punctured and salted before 

 they can be sold. This is especiall}^ the case in summer, more particularly so if 

 the lifting of the nets has been delayed a day or so by bad weather. In such a 

 case the fish are all decayed, and too often the net is stripped on the spot, and the 

 decayed fish thrown out to the great injury of the fishing grounds. Again, gill- 

 nets may drift in stornn^ weather, and be thrown with their contents on some 

 reef, perhaps to the destruction of some good spawning ground. The gill-net 

 fishermen using a comparatively small number of nets to a gang, " a light rig," 

 employ Mackinaw boats, which, unlike the pound -boats, are sharp-sterned to 

 prevent shipping water aft when running with the sea. Larger boats are neces- 

 sary with " heavy rigs." 



Of other varieties of nets, the Trammel net, Dip-net and Beam-trawl may 

 be mentioned. The first is a 3-ply net-work of varied mesh, generally set 

 across the current of a stream during the run of suckers or for catching inshore 

 fish. The Dip-net varies in size, and may be used for catching bait or for empty- 

 ing the cribs of pounds. The Beam-trawl, so extensively used in British sea- 

 fishing, cannot be employed successfully except on a smooth sandy bottom, and 

 is therefore unavailable in the lakes. 



In addition to net-fishing reference may be made incidentally to two other 

 methods : — set-line fishing on a commercial scale, and fishing through the ice. The 

 former is practiced in Lake Michigan successfully for Trout, several gangs of 200 

 to 500 hooks, strung .six feet apart on a line, buoyed by cedar floats, being set in 

 25 to 50 fathoms water, the hooks being baited with herring attached in as natural 

 an attitude as possible. The " trawl " lines are visited every two or three days, 

 and have in some places proved so successful as to have displaced gill-nets. 



Ice-fishing may be effected either by seines or by spearing or by bait-fishing, 

 but hardly attains to sufiicient commercial importance to require I'urther notice 

 here. 



