JXTERIU liEI'Oirr 39 



^Iackenzie Ettlxgek, East Xoel, said that for five years he was at Shubenatadie 

 and Grand Lake (Elmsdale) ten or fifteen years ago. They make catches when the 

 spawn fish go up about May 1, and get them again, but fewer as they return from 

 -Tune 1 to 15. They use a gill net with a stake on each side of the river set right across 

 the river when no one is around at night. A wing of brush as far as allowed leads the 

 fish to the net which is staked down river. Fifty or 100 fish, all full of spawn, are 

 taken in a night. They are large fish with two roes but not so good in flavour as bay 

 shad. Some are sold around locally, some are salted and sold in Halifa.x and other 

 places. I helped to clean them. The men know they are not doing riglit. They are 

 farmers mostly living below Elmsdale that I saw ; but it is the same all the way up to 

 Grand Lake. They get the shad all the way. 



E. A. O'Briex, Xoel, said that the decline of the shad is a great loss to the country. 

 One or two boats taking 200 or 300 shad at a tide was important. Fourteen hundred 

 have been taken at one tide 'and that meant quite a little cash value indeed, $50 to 

 $100 per day to the community. This commission apjxiinted by the government is a 

 good way of getting all information. We can't get a shad now for less than 25 cents 

 and thus the cost of living is increased. 



George Davidsox, JsToel, said: The last summer T fished shad was 35 years ago 

 (1883) and I remember I got 200 shad in one night. My total catch in my boat was 

 23,000 that season. My father always fished from the time I was a boy. We fished 

 more net than the men above, and they did not get so many fish as we did. We fished 

 30 to 35 btmches of net 45 meshes deep and the mesh was 4J or 5 inches. I fished out 

 of Little Bass river in 1883. There and in the next river were 9 or 10 boats. I 

 remember Indians fishing there. Once I got in one hour's fishing in the ' nest ' 1,250 

 shad, indeed we never fished long in that place we got such catches. I once got 1,600 

 shad with my own net and my partner's and we filled our boat to the gunwale. When 

 the school struck the net my partner thought it was a school of dogfish. I never fished 

 a weir. We never got many small fish, once in a while we'd get one in the net, but 

 I've heard my father speak of small ones left in the weir. My opinion is that they 

 are killing the spawning fish uii above. One fish in the Shubenacadie and Stewiacke 

 is more than a whole boat's catch if its young were hatched in the river. The Windsor 

 hatchery is not thought to be a success, but hatching salmon succeeds. I have an idea 

 that shad spawn and hatch twice a year as we sometimes got spawn shad in the fall 

 but we rarely got one in the summer, just a chance one. Shad return to the same 

 place where they were hatched. The shad we get don't differ, some think, from the 

 shad above. We got very few of the Shubenacadie ' racers.' a few only at the first of 

 the fishing. They were poor, thin and blue, but our shad were fat. Sawdust is quite a 

 hurt to shad, it spoils the feeding grounds. Salmon are not affected. Economy river 

 had the best feeding grounds but no fishing was to be had after the mill begun and 

 the sawdust pored out. Officers don't do their duty re sawdust. I never heard formerlr 

 that the Shubenacadie and Stewiacke shad. were caught to the extent they are now. 

 but we all know that ' a shad is a shad now.' My fishing was mainly done on the far 

 side (Colchester) side of the bay. The Xoel fish weir has not been fished for n good 

 many years, but it used to catch principally shad. Round here (Xoel) it is .all mud 

 and poor feeding ground as I think rocky ground is best for feed-. The shad feed on 

 something in the water, bugs or shad fleas, as the more of them there was the more 

 shad there were. There are no salmon in Noel lake, it is one mile long but they say 

 something in the water is not good for salmon. There are four dams above Ben't in 

 the stream from it and these would keep fish out. ifosher's mill at ^linasville burns 

 the sawdust. There is lots of plaster about, and that may not be good for fish, though 

 one fish was got a year after some fry were planted by the government. It was said 

 to be a trout There are perch and suckers but no trout in the lake. 



