138 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



50 feet in 4 miles. Because of its injurious effect on the fisheries, this 

 dam has caused much complaint from the residents of the river basin 

 above Augusta. In 1883 a fishway was constructed in the South 

 Carolina end of the obstruction, but its efficiency has never been 

 apparent. 



Shad enter Savannah River about the first week of January, and by 

 January 20 the fishing season is well opened and continues until the 

 middle of April, when shad become scarce and garfish so numerous and 

 destructive to the nets that the fishery is abandoned. The commercial 

 fisheries are prosecuted almost wholly by means of drift nets, the only 

 additional apparatus being a few set nets, fall traps, and cast nets, 

 which are operated mainly for other species of fish. Of the 51,412 shad 

 taken by fishermen from the Georgia side of the river in 1896, 51,325 

 were caught in drift nets, 37 in set nets, and 50 in fall traps. In addi- 

 tion to the above, residents of South Carolina caught 2,974 shad by 

 drift nets and 20 by cast nets, making a total catch in Savannah Eiver 

 of 54,406 shad, worth 819,236. 



The principal fishery is in the lower portion of the river along the 

 Georgia shore, and tributary to the city of Savannah, where there 

 were 50 drift nets operated in 1896. These averaged 350 yards in 

 length and 30 feet in depth, with 54-inch mesh, and cost about $75 

 each, requiring one boat, worth $35, and two men for each net. The 

 catch averaged 1,000 shad to the net, this being greater than in any 

 previous season during the past twenty years. The yield in 1895 was 

 an increase over previous years, but the returns for 1896 were much 

 greater than for 1895. Some fishermen attribute this increase to the 

 building of the Government jetty at the mouth of the river, contend- 

 ing that the jetty breaks the force of the freshets and also, to some 

 extent, prevents the fish from passing by the mouth of the Savannah 

 and on to the streams further north. The channel over the bar has also 

 been deepened considerably, and this may have had some beneficial 

 effect. However, it should be noted that in all the streams of Georgia 

 and Florida the catch in 1895 was somewhat larger than during the 

 two or three years immediately preceding, and that the yield in 1896 

 was also greater than in 1895. 



From the northern limit of the Savannah fisheries to the Augusta 

 dam, a distance of 175 miles, the fisheries are prosecuted mainly for 

 local consumption. Very few shad are taken in this length by residents 

 of Georgia, only 23 fishermen being reported for 1896, using 7 drift nets, 

 25 stake nets, and 26 fall traps, and catching 1,412 shad. From the 

 South Carolina side of the river 13 small drift nets were operated in 

 1896, yielding 2,974 shad, valued locally at $878. An interdiction 

 exists against fishing with drift nets "from the rising of the sun each 

 Thursday until the rising of the sun on each Monday," but no special 

 effort is made to enforce this regulation. 



A few cast nets, of the type common along the southern coast, are 

 used immediately below the Augusta dam. They are operated only in 

 comparatively shallow water where the bottom is free from snags and 



