£5 SHAD FJ.sHERY COMMISSION 



we could fill half the boat, bobbing for them with salmon entrails, but in winter time 

 there are no eels in the Stewiacke. In spring we see them going down to the sea. 

 Striped bass are not plentiful in this river, but about the first of June there is a run 

 of small bass; they are after eels and are very voracious. The shores are lined with 

 small eels wriggling up, some black and some white, from early June to on in August. 

 As a large meshed net is not used, that may be the reason that not many large early 

 shad are taken in the lower part of the river. The shad is not at all lik'e a bass or sal- 

 mon, when they strike a net they are a weak fish, more delicate and the large ones may 

 drop out or get away. Shad are certainly scarcer than 20 years ago. I think they are 

 very scarce this year, as some Brookfield men caught a few salmon but no shad at all. 

 They should have got some. They got more up Forest Glen, 15 miles up. Shad go up 40 

 miles, but for some cause people claim that they ai'e not going up as they used to do, 

 probably because of dams. The river is jammed with logs so full that they are solid 

 to the bottom and no fish could possibly get up. When the drive is on the logs may 

 lie for three or four miles and the water is dyed like ink w-ith the bark. The first run 

 of salmon, about the 15th of June, are 10 to 15 pounds and they run to July. This 

 year none were caught in June. The next run are smaller, 4 to 6 pounds, running i;i 

 the latter part of August and to September 1. These last are of two kinds, the last tn 

 come being hook-bills 13 or 14 pounds weight and not so good as the others, bein^ 

 whiter meat and not so pretty a fish as the earlier part of the last run. They run in 

 August and September these hook-bills. I have caught salmon in spring when fishing 

 for trout. They will take the hook greedily but no one here fishes for them. Ko sal- 

 mon take the fly in this river. The spring fish are poor, but will fatten up in salt 

 water. 



Osw.iLD Coulter, of the Bay, Eiverside, seven miles below on the Shubenacadie, 

 baid that quite a lot of large early shad come up in the muddy portion of the river 

 lower down, just at the time the gaspereau ascend, but the nets used don't take them. 

 These shad play round, but do not linger, as some think. I know both rivers, and' 

 fish are scarce in both (Stewiacke and Shubenacadie). I fished from Black Rock 

 down and know the bay fishing. Fifteen or 18 years ago I stopped fishing in the bay 

 and did more at farming, only fishing shad as a side show. We used 5-inch meshed 

 net, made ourselves of 3-thread mackerel. It was 30 meshes deep and a length 

 of 8 or 10 bunches. I'd take in a drift 25 or 40 shad, but when I began 12 or 15 years 

 earlier, i.e., 30 years ago, we would t^ike 200 to 400 in one drift. The number of 

 ftshermen fell oif to a quarter of the former number when I stopped. The price was 

 !?'4 to $5 per 100. The last year I fished we got 25 cents per shad. I think that the 

 river shad and the bay shad are two different fish; the latter are never over seven 

 pounds, that being exceptional, whereas the river shad I have seen may be over 14 

 pounds; I saw one that iweight. They look a different fish in shape, &o. There are 

 two varieties of gaspereau, viz., the true gasperean and the alewife or moll-haden. 

 which is black inside, different shape in tlie head, and not so good a fish. The shad 

 come after the gaspereau have done spawning, and are said to go up to Grand lake 

 on the Shubenacadie, but on the river (Stewiacke) they don't go far. Some gaspe- 

 reau are found in the Little Stewiacke. ten miles above here. The sawdust in tin- 

 Shubenacadie gets into the gills of gaspereau, but not of salmon and shad. The 

 pile of sawdust at Cook's mill washes away into the river. 



P. A. Bartlet said he had lived on the river for many years. When ho lived two 

 miles above Stewiacke they got quite a few shad, but not very large <|iiantities. The 

 tides rises 12 feet. 



Alfred Dickey said that at their mills the sawdust is used for fuel and none is 

 l.iut in streams, as portable mills pile up their sawdust. We operate by steam, but 

 the water juills are the offenders. At St. Andrews river a little sawdust is seen yet. 



