786 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



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sometimes farther. Setting their lines which contain from five hundred 

 to one thousand hooks each, baited with minnows before leaving shore, 

 they continue on and run into Michigan City and remain over night. 

 Starting early the next morning they take up their lines and arrive in 

 Chicago during the day. This kind of fishing is carried on until the 

 harbors are frozen over. These lines catch large numbers of sturgeon 

 (Aeipenser rubicundus) and lake trout {Salnio namaycusli.) During the 

 spring and foil the lines nearest shore catch quantities of lawyers, some- 

 times the entire catch being of this species. The lawyers are generally 

 sold to peddlers there being no demand in the markets. Of the other 

 species caught, all except the dog-fish {Amia calva,) sheep-head {Raploi- 

 donotus gru7iniens,) and gars {Lepidosteus osseus) find a ready sale. 



While the Chicago Kiver flowed into the lake the water was affected 

 by the filth for some distance along the shore, and was without doubt 

 the cause of the failure of the attempts to institute pound-net fishing 

 there at different times. The current of the river no longer flowing in 

 that direction another trial was made, and last May (1875) three pound- 

 nets were set off the mouth of the river with such good success that 

 the owners feel sanguine of a good harvest next season. 



The season was a remarkably poor one all along the Illinois shore. 

 The catch in the two nets oft" Chicago, which were out the whole season, 

 considerably exceeded that of any two of the nets off South Chicago at 

 the same time, the season at both places commencing in May and ending 

 in July. One of the nets off Chicago was reset in September to try the 

 fall fishing, but the repeated and violent storms which occurred at that 

 season damaged the net to such an extent that it had to be removed. 



It is not probable that the fall fishing will amount to much at this 

 end of the lake, owing to the heavy storms which almost invariably 

 visit the lake in the fall, and often for a week or more the water is so 

 rough that it would be impossible to visit the nets. The accompanying 

 diagram* will show the relative i:)Osition of the nets, with depth of water 

 and length of leaders. The nets are numbered from north to south. 

 The pounds were 28 feet square. 



The leaders, as is usual, commenced in shallow water and extended 

 out to the pound in deeper water. Net No. 1 was first set the middle of 

 May oft" Twenty-seventh street, three miles south of the mouth of ihe 

 river. The leader commenced in 9 feet of water, about 7 rods from 

 shore and extended out 85 rods to the pound in 18 feet of water. 

 Having poor success, the net was removed the middle of June, and 

 set northeast of north pier, as represented in diagram, net 1. Here the 

 leader commenced at the corner of the pier in 18 feet of water, and ex- 

 tended out 12 rods to the pound, situated in 26 feet of water. The catch 

 here was poor, amounting to $60 for the remainder of the season. Nearly 

 the entire catch here were white-fish {Coregonus albus) and lake herrings 

 {Argyrosomus clupeiformis). 



* See p. 800. 



