26 AMERICAN CATFISHES. 



Tennessee is listed with seines, fyke nets, trammel nets, lines, and 

 trap nets, of which lines are credited with the largest catch and fyke 

 nets follow closely. 



Only three methods — set lines, fyke nets, and wooden traps — are 

 mentioned for Alabama, of which the catch of the latter greatly 

 preponderated. 



In Mississippi seines, trammel nets, fyke nets, pound nets, drift 

 lines, and set lines were all credited with catfish, but set lines took 

 more than six times as many as all the others together. 



For Louisiana lines, seines, fyke nets, wooden traps, and trammel 

 nets are mentioned. Lines took the largest quantity and fyke nets 

 next. 



Evermann'* gives an interesting account of the methods employed 

 in the catfish industry of the Atchafalaya River in Louisiana. 



The Atchafalaya River is in some respects a peculiar stream. It has its sources in 

 Avoyelles and Point Coupee parishes, near where the Red River joins the Mississippi, 

 and is at all seasons more or less connected with both of those rivers by a number of 

 anastomosing channels and bayous. The Atchafalaya River is, in fact as well as his- 

 torically, one of the mouths of the Mississippi River, and during the floods which come 

 periodically to that region a vast amount of the surplus water of the Mississippi and 

 Red rivers is carried to the Gulf by the Atchafalaya. * * * There are four species 

 of commercial catfishes handled by the firms at Morgan City and Melville, viz: The 

 blue cat or poisson bleu {Ictalurus furcatus), the yellow cat or goujon (Leptops oli- 

 varis), the eel cat {Ictalurus anguilla), and the spotted cat {Ictalurus punctatus). 

 * * * All river fishing during the fall and winter is done on the bottom, while all 

 lake fishing is at the surface. During the spring, when the country is flooded, the fish 

 betake themselves to the woods, and the fishing is then carried on chiefly along the 

 edges of the float roads. The old tackle, which had been previously used in rivers 

 and lakes, is now cut up into short lengths and tied as single lines, called brush lines, 

 to the limbs of trees in such a way as to allow the single hooks to hang about 6 inches 

 under the water. Each fisherman ties his lines to the trees along the edges of the 

 float roads, if he can find such territory not already preempted by some one else. 



Interior waters. — The Arkansas list of apparatus comprises seines, 

 trammel nets, pound nets, fyke nets, set lines, miscellaneous lines, 

 and dragnets. Set lines are credited with the greatest amount, fyke 

 nets are second, and seines third. Set lines, seines, fyke nets, pound 

 nets, and trammel nets were employed in Iowa, the fyke nets far 

 exceeding the others in the amount of the catch. 



Wisconsin is listed with set lines, seines, f3^ke nets, shut-off nets, 

 and trammel nets. Set lines were here shown to have yielded the 

 largest catch. Trammel nets were credited with an exceedingly 

 small amount. 



Seines, trammel nets, fyke nets, pound nets, hand lines, drift lines, 

 trap nets, and baskets comprised the apparatus used in Missouri. 

 Fyke nets were credited with the largest catch, followed by seines. 



a Evermann.B- W.: Report on investigations by tlie U. S. Fish Commission in Mississippi, Louisiana, 

 and Texas, in 1897. Report U. S. Fish Commission, 1898, p. 290. 



