xxxii SUAU FI.SHKh'Y COMillSlSlOy 



down in a si)ent condition were observed, that is, fish having been up the river and 

 spawned. They ascended to a jKiint 5 miles above Stewiacke town. It was stated 

 that Eobert Bates caught 30 in 1908, and two years ago the same party had secured 

 80 in one night. Three years before, viz., 1905, large catches had been made, a total 

 of at least 500 being taken, and one man caught no less than 230 of these shad. 



SIIUBENACADIE RIVER. 



That this river was a spawning resort for shad was recognized over 60 years ago. 

 Dr. Perley, in reference to this point said (p. 157 of his Report on Bay of Fundy 

 Fisheries, 1851) : ' The shad fishery is carried on to the eastward of Windsor, partly 

 by drifting, but chiefly by stake-nets, on the widespread flats in front of Cheverie; 

 thence the fishing is continued to the Shubenacadie river, up which the spring .shad 

 ascend to the Shubenacadie lakes, for the purpose of spawning.' 



A practical fisherman at the Shubenacadie sittings of the Commission said : — 



The shad go up the river to spawn and for no other purpose, and I have always 

 thought that the decrease down the bay below was due to the taking of these spawn- 

 ing shad. Sawdust does harm to shad and the river is more full of it than ever before. 

 I'd like to see shad plenty again. 



The witness continued, saying : — 



He had fished for some years shad, gaspereau and salmon. lie fished just at one 

 place near the town. The gaspereau appear about the middle of April ; the 13th is 

 the earliest and they last to the end of June. They ascend by spurts, some day a lot, 

 and then none, the later runs are not so good. There are two kinds, mulheaden or 

 blaekbellies and alewives or gaspereau. the former being dark inside, and Maitland 

 people think they are a cross between herring and gasperean. they run last. Two 

 weeks after the gaspereau. come the shad. Occasionally the gaspereau nets take a 

 shad, but the mesh is too small to take many. A stray bay shad, a shorter, fatter fish, 

 is taken especially if a salmon net is set. Our large shad run nine pounds weight ; 

 all are spawn shad and occasionally all run large. I have caught them coming back, a 

 few ' spent ' ones, but they are no good, they are poor and thin and so weak that eels 

 chase and take them. 



Another witness said that the river was the natural spawning ground for these 

 fish. lie said : — 



It has always been considered that this is the natural spawning ground for shad 

 for the bay. It has always been considered that all the fi.sh that come up the river are 

 fish from the Bay of Fundy; the opinion of old residents for thirty, nay for fifty years, 

 is to that effect. 



Another Shubenacadie fisherman of fourteen years' experience said that shad 

 came up in April, but that 



Shad ai'e a week later than gaspereau. say the last of April, or if gaspereau are 

 about the 10th to the 20th of April the .shad are a week after that. The shad are big, 

 ' whoppers." all females, indeed I don't remember a male at all. They are swollen with 

 roe, two organs at the sides. I used to fish with a salmon net for shad five inches, 

 shrunk to five inches. Our catches would be fifty in a night, often three to five only. 

 The first run were the biggest and were going up to spawn, but some had spawned or 

 were without spawn. I never kept record of the season's catch. After the shad tha 

 salmon ascend. As to small shad I saw them three inches long go down in the fall, 

 the. big freshets at that time left them on the banks. 



