40 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Question. Could they I 



Answer. How did tliey do it before f They bad tbe same facilities 

 then as now. They used to send to Nova Scotia for bait ; now they 

 use only herring and menhaden for bait. Menhaden are getting scarce. 

 This harbor used to be full when I was a boy ; but it is a rare thing 

 to And any here now, because they are caught up. They don't catch 

 them at Saughkonet Rocks, as they used to. If they keep on catching 

 them up as they have done, we shall have to send to California to get a 

 mess of fish. We have had bonito here this year, and there have been 

 more squeteague about this year than before. 



Captain Francis Pease. When I was a boy, we used to catch sque- 

 teague very plenty. You cannot go off here now and get fresh fish 

 enough for dinner and get back in time to cook it. You will soon have 

 to go to New Bedford to get fresh fish. I used to go out at this time of 

 the year and catch half a barrel, in a short time, of big pond-scup 

 eight inches long. 



Captain E. F. Pease. Pound Muskeget we used to do well catching 

 the large blue-fish and bass, but now we cannot get any fish there. I 

 am down dead against any fishing except with hook and line. A man 

 who is rich can sweep the shore with nets, but a poor man, with his 

 boat, cannot get any fish. The big fish eat up the little ones ! 



Captain J. C. Pease. I think five hundred pounds is the highest 

 amount I have ever caught this year in a day. Four years ago I caught 

 1,472 pounds in a day. 1 used to go three or four years ago and get 

 250, 275, and 280 fish in a day, but now it is hard work to get a hun- 

 dred. They have been decreasing gradually every year for four or five 

 years." Last year there was a great fall from the year before. I know 

 there is nobody who goes over more ground for blue-fish than I do. I 

 caught the first blue-fish this year the 29th day of May. Sometimes I 

 get them as early as the 25th of May. We generally catch a few of the 

 first when we are fishing for codfish at the bottom. We catch codfish 

 till the last of May. We do not see them at all on the top of the water 

 when they first come. We begin to see their whirls on the water about 

 the middle of June. If the weather is warm, they will be here till the 

 middle of October. I have caught them as late as the first of Novem- 

 ber. I have caught blue-fish that weighed thirteen or fourteen pounds. 

 Blue-fish now are our main stay. If I could have my choice of the fish 

 to be plent}", I would choose sea-bass. Scuj) are too small, unless they 

 are ^'ery plenty ; indeed, you could not make any wages catching them. 

 I would like to have a law prohibiting the use of pounds and seines for 

 ten years. Is not that fair ? They have had a chance for ten years, 

 and a few are monopolizing the whole fishing. 



Question. What fish would be materiallv affected by seining besides 

 bass ? 



Answer. As quick as frost comes, the bass go out into the rii)s, and 

 we can catch them with hook and line. They follow the small fish out 

 of the shallow^ water. The cold weather drives the little fish out, and 

 the bass follow them. We never catch in the summer, in July and 

 August. Last year, one day, I saw an immense number of blue-fish 

 down beyond Cape Pogue. It was quite calm, and I could not catch 

 one. There was a seine set there that afternoon, and hauled ashore 

 about three hundred. That night a gill-net was set, and next day you 

 could not see a fish. They were all frightened away. That was some 

 time in June, I think. 



Question. Would not they have gone off any way? 



