XXX SHAD FISHEIir COMMISSION 



water, as their poor condition demonstrates. They go to deep water, out at sea, to 

 recuperate. As one fisherman said. " Come-backs go out into deep water and very 

 few are caught after leaving the river, just a few with the sahnon in salmon nets." 

 A St. John witness declared that these come-backs go out very rapidly, there is a big 

 run all at once, they rush past, 200 or 100, at high water at dusk, i.e., at slack water. 

 The schools of summer shad, which have heretofore formed the principal fishing 

 of the bay, come in about the last of June, and their habits seem to slightly difier from 

 the habits of the large spawning schools. The summer shad invariably avoid entering 

 the fresh water and do not pass into rivers or streams. They seem to be mainly 

 occupied in feeding. Many authorities hold that they feed on shad worms on the 

 muddy flats, others that the food is mainly a kind of brown bug with numerous legs, 

 usually called shad feed. Others hold that the food is principally small vegetable 

 matter; but the subject is one for scientific investigation. Whatever the precise food 

 is, the shad fatten amazingly upon it, and those caught at the close of the season are 

 in the best condition. 



Spawning; Grounds. 



ST. JOHN AND TRIBUTARIES. 



Dr. M. H. Perley in his account of the fisheries of New Brunsw-ick furnishes 

 some details as to the spawning resorts of the St. John river shad as they were known, 

 " the shad which ascend the St. John river for spawning to Bowlings lake. Kenne- 

 becasis, Douglas lake, Nerepis, the Washadamoak lake, the Ocnabog, the Grand lake 

 and the Oromoeto river. They are caught in the St. John near Fredericton but not 

 often as the water is too rapid. The shad taken in the fresh water are very inferior 

 to those which remain exclusively in the salt water of the bay, and the longer they 

 are in the river the more worthless they become." Dr. Perley's views are confirmed 

 by subsequent authorities and by the evidence recently taken before this Commission. 

 For example, Mr. E. D. Prince, Kennebecasis, said: — 



The shad go up quickly so that one day we see them five miles below and next day 

 they are up at Norton. Late one year when there was high water, after rain, I saw 

 many shad running round each other, no doubt engaged in spawning. Shad are quick 

 in going back after spawning. The farmers just fish for their own use and no big 

 catches are made. We don't set our nets square across, don't want to, but we let the 

 the nets go down as the tide ebbs and as it turns we get fish and take out the nets as 

 the tide runs up. The fish stay only a few days. A few shad go up above Percy Point 

 and then go away above Norton. 



The same witness referred to the schools of fry hatched undoubtedly on the 

 Norton and adjacent spawning grounds: — • 



I see small shad in Darlings lake in October; millions are there now two or three 

 inches long. They swim on the top of the water and look exactly like little shad or 

 gaspereau. They may be schools of young that have lost their way but most have 

 gone down. There are more in spring, the water being full of them. The other day 

 (Monday) was a still day and we saw a school 10 feet wide so thick that we could 

 catch them easily with our hands from the gasolene launch. It was quite a surprise 

 to me. 



