lyTERlil REl'ORT ^% 



from here to Graud Lake trout rise but uot salmon. Sti-iped bass take the minno\r 

 and afford fine sport at the mouth of Gays river. I may say that I had a shad, Tvith 

 110 spawn, cooked. It could not be a bay shad as none are brought here. I think it 

 ^vas a male. 



E. HoLESwoRTH said they dip gaspereau up at the Lake, St. Andrew's, where there- 

 is an old lock — the old Fairbanks canal. The first run caught there are good but the 

 spawning- fish are caught and used as food but they are not good, being thin and worn 

 out. You must prevent deep nets which stop every fish. A three years' close seasoit 

 would be good. They are very seai'ce yet, I have known 500 taken above here in a 

 night. The Bedford fry brought from the hatchery seemed damaged on arriving and' 

 still had a journey of 30 miles to go. They were weak and were put in cool water 

 to freshen them before being planted in the Musquodoboit where I saw them. Gays- 

 river is polluted with sawdust. Fi-y should be planted near spawning ground. 



W. if. Xei.son recalled, said that small fry are seen at the edge of the river bank 

 Iwt a freshet makes them invisible. The shad is the most stupid fish in the water and 

 bunts against anything; the net used is 26 meshes, i.e., 6 feet deep and weighted with 

 stone sinkers. 



Eleventh Sitting. 



Elmsdale, N.S., August 12, 1008. 



Thom.^s Logax, Elmsdale, said he had known the river for over 60 years and he 

 fished shad and they were very plentiful then, 75 were got in one night with a net just 

 below EhnsJale. That year shad wore plentiful. During the last two or three years 

 they have Vetn scarce and this year scarcer than ever before. Many don't keep the 

 la-' but set nets nearly across the river, some right across, but formerly this abuse 

 did not exist. The mesh is 4f or 5 inches. Shad can be seen still and not moving in 

 the daytime. I have caught them mostly head down stream as if they came up and 

 played down. They were for my own use, but we sold a few and corned some. The 

 females had spawn but a good many were males, and were smaller, fatter and better 

 eating. L^'sually there were more females than males. At high tides they run up 

 males and females mixed. After a few days there would l>e none and later another 

 run. Two or three runs occur. They began about May 1 and we got seven or eight 

 in a morning. They stop them down below us and it is unfair to us above. I don't 

 ;iotice the spawning schools so much now because the fish are scarce. The water was 

 alive with spawning fish when they used to be plentiful. They say the fish scoot round 

 in the water and play so that they can't be netted. They won't go into the net. Some 

 tliink they spawn in the lake but none are got there, and they spawn in the river,, 

 especially a crooked place called the Oxbow or Carson's land, a muddy grassy place 

 \ -ith gravelly spots. This river is undoubtedly their natural spawning ground. There 

 are no dams now but locks, one being near Carson's. As for shad fry I'm not sharp at 

 seeing them, but I think I've seen great quantities. Eels will eat them but won't touch 

 a striped bass owing to the ' saw ' on their back. A man took out half a ton of eels by 

 syor in one day through the ice late in the fall. Joe Howe, the Indian, fishes eels 

 bt^re and ships to Boston. Few got this last winter owing to high water. Xo one 

 fishes for a living, they'd not make salt. Our gear is worth only $3, net and rope 

 all ready to set, the canoe is roughly made of boards. More shad are caught at Mil- 

 i' .a because they set handy to the logs; there is a boom going well to the bottom and 



