112 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP FISH AND FISHERIES. 



place. Of course fish may be employed, either herring or mackerel, 

 fresh or salted, as well as capeliu, portions of the cod, the lamprey, 

 and, indeed, fish generally; the most appetizing and attractive fish 

 bait for this and other purposes is probably the menhaden or pogee. 



The trawl-line reaches its maximum of application and of size in the 

 cod and other white fisheries which are carried on in thelSforth Sea on 

 a very large scale. At Great Grimsby, one of the principal centers of 

 this kind of fishing, the long-lining is prosecuted by means of smacks 

 of about the class and size of those employing the beam-trawl, from 40 

 to 60 tons, and even greater tonnage. A crew of nine to eleven hands 

 is required to bait and work the lines; and the fish when caught are 

 kept alive as long as possible, in wells. A complete set of long-lines, as 

 used in all these vessels, consists of about 15 dozen, or 180, lines, each 

 of 40 fathoms in length, and carrying 26 hooks on smaller short lines, 

 called snoods. These are placed about a fathom and a half apart, so as 

 to prevent the snoods from becoming entangled with each other. These 

 180 lines are united into one, forming a single line of 7,200 fathoms, or 

 about 8 miles in length, and carrying 4,680 hooks. Contrary to the 

 practice in Norway, where the lines are set in the afternoon and taken up 

 the next morning, in England the lines are always put down and taken 

 up by daylight; they are "shot" at sunrise or earlier, and taken up be- 

 fore night ; sometimes, indeed, two casts can be made in one day. The 

 baiting is generally done at night. A small anchor holds the line steady 

 at every 40 fathoms, with a buoy at each end, and at each intermediate 

 mile, as already explained.* 



According to Mr. Holdsworth the use of wells in cod-fishing was first 

 tried at Harwich, in 1712, and soon increased very rapidly, until now 

 it is very extensively employed by many nations. In the wor k of Holds- 

 worth (Deep-Sea Fishing and Fishing Boats) will be fouud very useful 

 statements in regard to the use of the trawl in England. 



As already stated, the whelk is used as bait on the largest long-lines, 

 as any other would be too readily washed away by the rapid tide. The 

 shorter lines, shot from boats, usually in quieter waters, are served b} r 

 means of the softer muscle, a mollusk, also extremely abundant in the 

 United States. The fish are usually taken alive, and after a puncturing 



* Although the British fishermen set longer trawl-lines in one string than the 

 Americans do, they rarely if ever rise so many fathoms or snch a number of hooks to 

 the vessel as the latter. The greater part of the American "bankers" set more than 

 nine miles of trawl in the aggregate, having 9,000 hooks attached, while the smallest 

 amount would be about two-thirds as much. It should also be borne in mind that 

 it is not uncommon for the American fishermen to set and haul this amount of gear 

 twice a day. The vessels engaged in the winter haddock fishery on our coast have a 

 still greater number of hooks than the cod fishermen. The smallest class of those 

 rarely have less than eight miles of trawl, with 12,000 hooks attached, while all of 

 the larger vessels have, at least, half as much more, and quite a number have twice 

 as many, namely, 24,000 hooks, or about sixteen miles of trawl. — J. W. Collins. 



