570 ITISTOEY AND METHODS OP THE FISHERIES. 



called, differing from the English, or "brail-net," in that 8 inches of the outer part of the netting 

 is doubled inward and upward, being attached to the body of the net at every eighth mesh, thus 

 forming loops or pockets into which the fish drop when the net is being lifted. In these nets the 

 sinkers are placed at the bottom of the fold, which thus really marks the circumference. Nets of 

 this form cost about $7.50. They are preferred to the "brail-net" by the fishermen of Saint 

 Augustine, Clearwater Harbor, Cedar Keys, and Saint Mark's, as well as by those of the entire 

 coast between Apalachicola and the Mississippi Eiver. In other localities the English net, which 

 costs about $6.50, is more generally used. 



Fifteen to twenty-five large mullet are often taken at a single throw of the cast-net, while 

 twice that number of small ones are frequently secured. In 1876 Mr. H. S. Williams, a fisherman 

 of Indian Eiver, Fla., secured about 400 pounds from a single school in less than an hour. 



POUND-NET FISHING. The pound-net has not yet been fairly tested in the mullet fisheries. It 

 is a form of apparatus used principally by the Northern fishermen, being almost unknown to those 

 fishing south of Albemarle Sound, North Carolina. Two or three were set in the waters of Core 

 Sound, near Beaufort, N. C., but not being properly arranged they took but few fish, and were soon 

 taken up and transferred to the Neuse Eiver. One can reach no definite conclusion as to their value 

 for the mullet fisheries from these experiments, and must wait until they have been more thoroughly 

 tested. Many of the Beaufort fishermen, however, state with a good deal of positiveness that the 

 mullet will not enter them, assigning as a reason that on striking the leader they will turn directly 

 back rather than attempt to get around it by following it into deeper water. This impression 

 arises from the fact that the mullet are so readily turned from tLeir course by the seine-rope, even 

 before the netting has been drawn to the shore. Mr. Stearns, in his examination of the Gulf 

 fisheries, found a crude trap somewhat resembling the pound net in the waters of Tampa Bay, 

 Florida. This was made of piles, small poles, and boards, the leader being 100 yards long, with 

 a V-shaped bowl or heart 20 yards across and 30 yards long, having a small pocket at the outer 

 corner. On consulting with the owner he learned that "when the pound was first set fish would not 

 approach it, but after the stakes had become covered with barnacles and oysters the fish collected 

 about it in considerable numbers." The owner assured him that "all the common fish in the bay 

 now enter his pound." The largest catch made by him consisted of 300 mullet in one night, all of 

 them being found in the pocket. An average night's catch brings him a dozen or two fish of various 

 kinds. Sheepshead, redfish, and salt-water trout seem to be taken in greater numbers than any 

 other species. 



FISHING WITH HOOK AND LINE. As already stated, mullet are occasionally tempted to take a 

 baited hook, though no one fishes regularly lor them in this way, the few secured being taken while 

 fishing for other species. They are sometimes caught by parties fishing with hook and line in the 

 deeper holes of the tide-creeks about Charleston, and we learn of other localities where they are 

 occasionally secured. Professor Goode, in his article on the natural history of the mullet, says : "It 

 does not readily take the hook, but is sometimes caught with a bait of banana, or one manufactured 

 of cotton and flour." 



LAY OF THE FISHERMAN. The financial arrangement or lay of the men engaged in the mullet 

 fisheries varies greatly. It depends somewhat on the locality, but more particularly upon the kind 

 of apparatus used. The simplest arrangements are found among the gill-net fishermen who work 

 together for the more successful prosecution of the fisheries. In such cases the men usually own 

 their own boats and nets, and the fish are either divided equally among the different crews or each 

 fisherman keeps the mullet taken in his net, be the quantity large or small. Exceptional cases occur 

 where capitalists furnish the boat and net and take one-third of the catch. In the seine fisheries, 



