72 SHAD FtSBERY COMMISSIOTf 



when properly put in. I know it, and also that salmon, sbad and gaspereau can go 

 up the same pass. The best remedies are stopping all nets in this river for five years, 

 and the propagation of salmon, shad and trout. It is the river with the largest salmon 

 run and for one that goes up Lequille there are 500 go up the Xietaux river. They 

 ascend even east of Berwick because I saw one, an eighteen pounder, in the last week of 

 September, and appeared as full of spawn as it could be. It was 21 miles east of 

 Middleton and five or six miles from the head waters. I know that shad eggs are so 

 delicate and tender that you can't move them far, but you can transport the fish they 

 are tougher than even salmon. I never saw a year when shad were so very scarce. 

 Shad come in about April 12, and commence to spawn May 5 to 12, and continue till 

 Jime 10 or 15, but after June 1 they were scarce. The little iry hatched out are two 

 inches long before the later fish have done spawning. Spawning beds extend up to 

 Aylesford. Xettlng is overdone, and as the fish have decreased the netting has in- 

 creased. From the county line to Parailiso there are over 200 nets set, i.e., in fourteen 

 miles. Formerly the fishing was for home use but now it is for market, and a fish 

 worth 5 cents formerly is now worth 25 cents. Shad are in great demand. I have had 

 a lot of experience with stocking operations, and when carefully done grand results 

 follow, but I planted salmon in streams and shallows, not as I was instructed in the 

 lakes. No one who has an interest in fish will dump them in where the fish can't do 

 well. I may say that plantiug wild rice i;; a success o,n the Xietaux, as done under Dr. 

 Eeid's plan. 



I. K. Phinxey said I have hatched trout for five years in Phinney's brook flowing 

 out of Phinney's pond. Originally it was a beaver dam which formed the pond, but 

 90 years ago it was cleaned ont and trees 2i feet in diameter were found holding the 

 water back, but 60 years ago a dam was built to run two sawmills. There were always 

 trout above the dam, I got them when I was a boy, but chevies and suckers came up 

 the brook. My father drew off the water, took out the stumps and for 20 years the 

 place was a garden, then my father once more flooded it and stocked it with fish. I 

 lost the fish for two years, as in summer they went down, and on drawing off the water 

 found they had got away and the boys got far more trout than before in the river at 

 Middleton, due to my pond. They were large (1 pound) and better fish. The trout 

 not bred in the pond will go out and spawn in the stream, but a trout bred in the lake 

 won't seek streams. I have counted a dozen big trout in the gravel shallows about to 

 lay their eggs, but a freshet would cause them to go down into the brook again. The 

 fry should be planted in the smallest runlets of water. Among the fish sent from 

 Bedford were some salmon, I am sure, and they grew very fast. I drew the poad off^ 

 and let these go down into the Annapolis river, when 4 or 5 inches long. 



E. V. Thom.\s, Middleton, said that Elliott or Kock lake, on the top of Annerljr 

 or Xorth mountain, had a small lake at a high elevation. Xo trout spawned in it as 

 there was not a patch of sand in it. Some fish planted there were no doubt sahnon. 

 I struck several schools and they were very gamey fish, 1 or 2 pounds in weight. Xo 

 fish were native to the lake unless a few small minnows. 



James White, secretary of the People's Game and Fish Protective Association. 

 Torbrook Mines Branch, Middleton, said that salmon had diminished because of the 

 destruction of smolt and parr in PhaiFs river, four or five miles above, by boys fishing 

 for trout. They take bait readily and actually in ^Middleton are caught by thousands. 

 The boys don't know what they are, but the scales are smaller and the head smaller 

 than trout. They jump when hooked like a salmon and are S or 10 inches in length, 

 but the parr one year old are smaller. All should be put back. 



H. Y. Gates said that shad had very much decreased. I fished shad half a mile 

 from the town, above the iron bridge, with giU net 4| or il of an inch mesh and 



