90 SHAD FISBERT COMMISSION 



taken. Dr. Dale and I\lr. GoulJ, florist, at Sussex are great anglers and interested iu 

 preserx ation. Here at Hampton the water is always fresh for the mills. The water is 

 lower than formerly, it used to be high in May, but now at that time the water is off 

 the banks leaving them dry. 



Twenty-eighth Sitting. 



Board of Trade Rooms^ 



St. Johk, N.B., October 10, 1908. 



After the sitting of the commission had been opened by some 'explanatory obser- 

 vations by Professor Prince t'onimissioners Morrison and Melanson, evidence was 

 then proceeded with. 



Andrew Harned, Carleton, said: I have known the shad industry for thirty years 

 in St. John harbour. The fishing carried on was shad and gaspereau drift net fishing, 

 weir fishing and other fishing. I know fully the herring fishing of the Bay of Fundy. 

 The fish taken in these fisheries are shad, gaspereau, herring, salmon, striped bass (a 

 few) and sturgeon. Once in a while we get a moss-bonker or menhaden, some years 

 they were more numerous. The shad nets are 45 to 65 fathoms long in the harbour, 

 but outsid-e they are, I am told, 300 to 500 fathoms. I fish a net 90 meshes deep, 4J 

 or 5 inches mesh, i.e., one gang, all one man fishes. Our net is taut and takes up one- 

 third. Gaspereau nets are 42 or 48 fathoms long, 160 to 170 meshes deep, four gangs 

 may be fished, but I fish two gangs, the mesh being 2| to 3 inches, some men using 

 3J inches. The mesh varies with the time of the year to some extent at the first of 

 the season the water is cold and llie fish deadish and ea.sily meshed, but with warmer 

 weather the fish get smarter and are smaller in size and we use smaller meshes. The 

 weirs get the fish when a freshet comes sending them towards the shore. The mesh 

 in the weir is SJ or 2| inches, some have 2i and some 2| inches in dead water as the 

 fish don't force themselves through a big mesh. Only in some cases is a wood bottom 

 or floor used; but on the shore or flats the weirs have wood floors. As to the time of 

 fishing the gaspereau usually are fished from April 10 or 16 until June 20 or 25 and 

 occasionally up to the limit. I began April 16 as it begins to pay to fish then, but not 

 before unless exceptionally; thus if the season be open the fishing is good earlier. 

 Occasionally quite a few shad are taken in gaspereau nets, this year at least half a 

 barrel in my net and IJ barrels in my weir. They are large fish and tangle in the 

 mesh. The biggest shad we get in the gaspereau nets, and occasionally a salmjon. 

 Quite a school of salmon came in early this year and meshed easily, being some^vhat 

 lifeless. The shad were rather later this year, viz.: from ilay 12 to 16, and the 

 height of the fishin;;- was ~S\ay 24. It used to be a little earlier and finished at the 

 end of May. The harbour shad fishing winds up about June 10, and in the river ten 

 or twelve days later. We get a number of salmon because the net is slacker and 

 tougher and the salmon are swift and more easily meshed. Salmoji run from 16 to 

 20 pounds in weight in the gaspereau nets. The early salmon are the smaller fish and 

 a 6-pound salmon goes through a shad net. The weirs are put up on the flats and the 

 island from March 1 or 15 to April 1, but on the shore it is later as they are built 

 from April 10 to 15. When the ice makes late the weirs are late in building. We call 

 weirs below the falls tide weirs. If the ice is early the weirs are early. They are 

 fished until August 15. All kinds of fish are taken, and shad as small as gaspereau are 

 taken in all the weirs, the fiddler salmon or grisle 3 to 7 pounds in weight. They are 

 rarely taken 2§ pounds and shore fishermen call a salmon a ' bone.' When the net 



