118 American Fisheries Society 



miles below Weldon. Immediately, May 20, I proceeded to 

 Halifax and found the report as to that town true. I met 

 the parties who owned the outfits and made the catches and 

 talked with each one and also other residents. 



Mr. George H. Stevenson informed me that during 7 

 days, April 28 to May 5, just prior to a freshet, five skiffs 

 that were operated with skim nets, locally designated "drag 

 nets," for the capture of striped bass had incidentally taken 

 100 to 200 herring (alewives) per day, the heads of which 

 were used as bait on three trot lines owned by himself, 

 George S. Robinson and John Boyd, the colored public ferry- 

 man. The lines contained 50 to 250 hooks each and were 

 stretched across the river, which has a width of perhaps 400 

 to 500 feet at Halifax, the hooks being 3 to 4 feet apart. 

 With no other bait than the fish heads more than 600 pounds 

 of striped bass were caught, sometimes 20 per day of sizes 

 varying from 8 to 16 pounds, or double the amount taken in 

 the drift nets. The river water was on the clear order but not 

 to say transparent. The hooks were arranged as near as pos- 

 sible within six inches of the river bottom in a depth of from 

 15 to 25 feet. When the water became muddy the nets would 

 catch more and the lines less. Not a hook was touched 

 when the water became muddy. Though it was the spawn- 

 ing season no ripe fish were taken. 



It was found that iced herring (shipped in) was of no 

 value as bait and that the local catch of herring was un- 

 available as bait except wmen fresh. The herring captured 

 locally commanded too high a price to warrant the experi- 

 ment of employing the wdiole fish, which was bringing 10c. 

 a pound after the heads were removed. 



John Boyd had on April 26 caught 3 herring in a skim 

 net, and with the heads he had caught on his 50-hook trot 

 line 6 striped bass of sizes mentioned above. On April 24 

 he caught on the same line 16 additional ones that weighed 

 from 6 to 12 pounds each. 



Mr. Robinson had for many years operated fyke nets in 

 this vicinity and now owned and fished as many as 47. He 



