10 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



as eighteen pounds are claimed to be occasionally taken. Gill-nets with 

 a mesh of live inches are in common use in this yicinity. 



The pound-nets, from the head of Green Bay as far north as Pesh- 

 tigo, take little else that are made use of but lake-herring. A few 

 pickerel and wall-eyed pike — dories, as they are called here — are packed, 

 while sturgeon are thrown away. 



From Peshtigo, north, the catch is principally white-tish, with a few 

 trout, pike, and sturgeon. In this region of shoal waters these nets 

 are frequently set four and five miles from shore, some of them in forty- 

 five feet of water. 



The west shore of Green Bay is the great pound-net region of the 

 lake, about ninety pound-nets having been in use the i)ast season. 



Green Bay is the home of the wall-eyed pike, or dory, Stizostedion 

 americana — as they are here in larger numbers than in any other jiart 

 of the lake. 



The sturgeon are taken in great abundance in this region, and are 

 almost universally destroyed. They come into the nets in great num- 

 bers in the early fall, and are pulled into the l»oats with the gaft'-hook, 

 and thrown upon the ofial-heap. 



A pound-net, one long leader with a pound at each end, was set at 

 about six miles from the land, ofi" Big Bay de Noquet, on a 36-foot 

 shoal. The proprietors owned a small schooner, which they*kept an- 

 chored alongside. They did remarkably well, catching a large grade 

 of fish. 



From Seul Ohoix Point, eastward to Mackinaw, and southward to 

 Little Traverse, Michigan, the pound-nets are used with success. In 

 Grand Traverse Bay, and at Leland, they succeed during the fall sea- 

 son ; but from this iioint south, along the east shore of the lake, pound- 

 net fishing has proved an entire failure and has been abandoned. 



From Manistee, south to Michigan City, the larger gill-net rigs again 

 come into use, with four and five men to the boat. The fishing is done 

 from seven to ten miles from the shore, until, near Saint Joseph, the "run 

 out'' reaches from twenty to twenty-five miles. There is no spawning- 

 ground from Saint Joseph southward, and consequently no late fall 

 fishing. 



From Manistee, south, the bulk of the fish caught are packed in ice 

 and shipped fresh to Chicago, and a few to the interior of Michigan, 



In the winter season, after the surface of the water in Green Bay has 

 frozen to a sufficient thickness, the fishing is again begun to a limited 

 extent. Holes are cut through the ice, with chisels made for the pur- 

 pose, and baited hooks are lowered, in hopes of finding a school of trout 

 in the locality. If unsuccessful, other holes are cut at a distance apart? 

 until the fish are found, when they are hauled out as fast as they bite, 

 a fisherman taking from twenty-five to seventy-five a day, weighing 

 from one hundred to t'lree hundred and fifty pounds, which are hauled 

 home at uififht on a hand-sled. 



