138 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
KANSAS. 
While the fisheries of Kansas are of considerable economic impor- 
tance in furnishing a supply of fresh food to persons living adjacent 
to the streams, yet commercially they are of small extent. The total 
number of professional fishermen in the State in 1899 was only 118, 
and the product was 277,920 pounds, for which the fishermen received 
$13,546. The investment in the fisheries was $3,836. 
The fyke-net fishery was the most important, yielding 138,445 pounds, 
or nearly 50 per cent of the total product. Set lines, seimes, and 
trammel nets ranked next in order and complete the list of apparatus 
employed. The principal species obtained were cat-fish, buffalo-fish, 
fresh-water drum, paddle-fish, suckers, eels, and lake sturgeon, the two 
first named comprising a large part of the catch. Along that portion 
of the Missouri River bordering the State of Kansas the fisheries are 
located at the principal centers of population, viz, Atchison, Leaven- 
worth, and at the mouth of Kansas River. 
While the fisheries in the vicinity of Atchison are of much local 
importance, they do not wholly supply the markets of that city. The 
fishing-grounds are in the Missouri River and certain of its old beds, 
the most important of which is Doniphan Lake, which is 24 miles long, 
three-fourths of a mile wide, and 2 to 25 feet deep. Some of the 
lakes are fed almost constantly by springs and small streams of clear 
water, in addition to the somewhat irregular inflow from the Missouri 
River. The fisheries are prosecuted in the spring and fall during the 
periods of low water. 
The principal fishes in the vicinity of Atchison are cat-fish, buffalo- 
fish, paddle-fish, fresh-water drum, lake sturgeon, and suckers, three- 
fourths of which are taken by means of seines and lines. Haul seines 
are used on the sand bars in the river during low water, and in the lakes 
more or less at all times in the season. Set lines are used to some 
extent throughout the year, but principally during the spring. The 
tramme!] nets and hoop nets or fyke nets are used in the ** slack waters,” 
or arms of the main stream. Several lakes in this vicinity have been 
stocked with fish not indigenous to the region, such as pike perch 
(wall-eyed), pickerel, yellow perch, crappie, black bass, ete. 
The fisheries of Leavenworth are of little consequence, consisting of 
a limited set-line, fyke-net, and seine fishery, in which from 12,000 to 
20,000 pounds of buffalo-fish, cat-fish, lake sturgeon, fresh-water drum, 
suckers, and paddle-fish are annually obtained. The fish markets of 
Leavenworth depend on supplies from Illinois River, the Great Lakes, 
and the Pacific coast, in addition to the small local production. 
The most extensive fisheries of Kansas River are near the entrance 
of that stream into the Missouri. Some use is made of seines and 
trammel nets, but the fyke-net or hoop-net fishery is by far the most 
important, yielding SO per cent of the total product. Suckers are the. 
most numerous species, with cat-fish and butfalo-fish next in order; 
