IXTERIll REPORT 91 



bunches up we get gaspereau esi)ecially outside the harbour. Gaspereau descend and 

 go out as early as the middle of May, but not many that early, quite a few in June 

 from 15th to the 20th and later to the 2.3rd, but the bulk, about two-thirds don"t go 

 out till winter, being very very thin and poor and spongy and just soft ' slabs.' Our 

 nets for gaspereau are flax and cost $21 to $24 each, or $-30 rigged out. To make it 

 pay we must fish three to five nets. Hence we expend $150 for nets, the boat is $50 or 

 a total of $200 and we must have stores and wharfs in order to put up the fish. I took 

 a trip this summer and met a farmer who fished and he told me that his outlay was 

 trifling, the nets being cotton and outlast three of ours, the length being 100 yards 50 

 meshes deep and the total cost being $10 to $20, the boat being a very cheap one. Our 

 nets are flax and 150 yards long and 170 meshes deep and of flax. The farmer said 

 that in his three weeks fishing he got 200 to 300 barrels with the short nets used above 

 Fresh lake, otf Grand lake. The ti.-h were so thick that in one night he took ten hogs- 

 heads, or forty barrels. It miist have been right on the spawning grounds. Owing to 

 the freshets he had a good year but ours was an ' off ' year. If there is a freshet 

 the fish get past our nets. A quantity of Grand lake fish come to St. 

 John dealers. We pay high for our weirs as they are put at auction 

 and we lose money if fishing is poor. The city auctions the locations, because formerly 

 it belonged to the citizens, and was given to the city, and a stranger can buy the 

 fishing rights. The first Tuesday in January the sale takes place after advertisement. 

 The lessee has no claim to a renewal. The prices of locations have risen during the 

 last six or seven years, because the price of fish has improved, so much fresh bait is 

 in demand for cod, haddock and halibut, especially during the last two or three years. 

 The demand has lessened for salt bait which have put np. Fishery lots may cost as 

 high as $1,400, a'ld to this $100 to $600 for parts of the outfit requiring renewal, and 

 it is costly. We require weir net, poles and flooring and labour, but not boats. As a 

 rule, two men are interested in a weir- One hundred feet length is a shore lot from 

 high to low water mark; it is a water front. No weir can be erected in front of a 

 lot, and a lateral distance of 182 to 200 feet must be preserved. Most of the weirs 

 are below low water mark. The foundations remain, but the poles are taken down 

 at the end of the fishing. The poles are 28 feet high. Shad taken when they come 

 in are hard, firm and good condition, both males and females. Later, as the water 

 warms, they become softer, and later still, when spent ' come-backs,' they are not fit 

 to eat. Then about July 1 they are sick, soft and spongy, and imfit for food. They 

 fall to pieces, yet people will eat them because they are large, and they will buy them. 

 Outside caught fish are smaller, and people think them less valuable, but the big 

 fish are really inferior and of no value. Shad go up above Fredericton, hut mostly 

 up the Grand lake, Washedemoak and Oromocto, and up inland, swampy places the 

 shad make for in their ascent. A close season is desirable for the Eiver St. John 

 and tributaries, say from June 5 or 10 to April 1 of the following year, thus allowing 

 two months' fishing- We would get more fish about the beginning of April, but the 

 taking of ' come-backs ' must Be stopped. The season suggested would not apply to 

 the fall shad. The feeling I have is that it, is not right to catch spawn fish until the 

 last of July. But fishermen are after the dollar. T say. allow a few fish to escape and 

 the fishery will be preserved. I would not close all down, but make a close season for 

 the St. John harbour and river fishermen. I would agree to a close season from Jfay 

 30 or June 1 if necessary. Two-thirds of the fish are mother fish some years : other 

 years not so many are. The present sale of poor fish, alewives or gaspereaux and 

 shad, simply injures the market. Now, 12 or 15 years ago up-river fishing was simply 

 for domestic use and local sale, mostly smoked. It was a small thing 25 years ago, 

 and no one barrelled and shipped them for distant markets as now. Small shad 

 occur late- Last night, October 9. I got two small shad with my catch of herring, 

 and one man got half a Barrel, some as small as alewives and some bigger. Sturgeon 

 were plentiful formerly and they tore our gaspereau nets. They were difficult to get 

 out and were looked on as a plague. We began to realize their value 22 years ago. 

 3494-10 



