216 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



is 16 miles long and varies in depth from 12 fathoms to 8 feet or less. 

 Shad fishing is confined to the operation of several strings of stake 

 nets, the yield finding a market in the near-by settlements. Sixty men 

 engaged at intervals in this fishery in 1896, using 31 boats and 92 nets, 

 3,090 yards in length. The season began March 25 and closed the 

 beginning of May, the catch numbering 1,212 roe shad and 1,003 bucks, 

 valued locally at $423. That season was unusually backward and 

 short and the fish remarkably scarce. 



CHESTER RIVER. 



Chester Eiver is the second largest stream entering the Chesapeake 

 Bay on the east, being surpassed in size only by the Choptank. It is 

 navigable for vessels of 10 feet draft to Chestertown, 26 miles from its 

 mouth, and for 3 or 4 feet draft about 10 miles farther. The width 

 ranges from 2 or 3 miles near the mouth to 150 feet near Millington, at 

 the head of navigation. The shad fisheries are prosecuted from the 

 mouth of the river to the headwaters, but the catch is most numerous 

 in the pound nets set near the mouth and in the stake nets from 

 Chestertown to Millington. Of the total yield in 1896, 19,584 were 

 taken by fishermen living in Kent County and 33.923 by fishermen 

 from Queen Anne County. 



The stake nets are set from Quaker Neck to Millington, the number 

 of boats engaged in this fishery being 63, requiring 109 men to operate 

 them. The nets measure from 20 to 50 yards in length and 30 to 45 

 meshes deep, with 5 to 5 £ inch mesh, the aggregate length of the 178 nets 

 used in 1896 being 7,020 yards. The season began April 6 and closed 

 about May 25, the total yield being 13,440 roes and 6,150 buck shad, 

 worth $3,223 at local valuation. A number of drift nets were formerly 

 operated in Chester Eiver, but they have gradually been superseded by 

 stake nets, only 2 being reported for 1896. both operating at Chester- 

 town. 



Shad seines are used on the Chester Eiver between Island Creek and 

 Crumptou, 14 being employed in 1896, of which 5 were operated on the 

 Queen Anne shore below Chestertown, the same number by men living 

 at Chestertown, and 4 in the vicinity of Crumpton. There were also 3 

 seines at Queenstown, which took a very few shad. These seines 

 measure from 400 to 150 yards in length, with 2 to 3 inch mesh, the 

 aggregate length of the 17 being 3,835 yards. They were operated by 

 65 men, and in the season lasting from the middle of March to the end 

 of May caught 3,874 roe and 6,059 buck shad, with a local valuation of 

 $1,526. 



The principal pound-net fishery of Chester Eiver is located near the 

 mouth of the river on both sides of the channel. On the southern 

 shore, between Love Point and the Narrows, there were 11 pound nets 

 in 1896, the value approximating $1,570. The mesh was 2£ inches, and 

 the season for shad extended from the last week of March to the 1st 



