976 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [2] 



This is considered so certain that as soon as the storm abates the fish- 

 ermen withdraw their nets not destroyed by the wind and waves and 

 abandon the fishing grounds for the season. No more fishing is then 

 done in our territory except with gill-nets in some parts of Lake Huron. 

 It was from this source that all the supply was obtained, after the storms 

 above mentioned, from the shoals at the mouth of Thunder Bay. The 

 shoal run is a short one, beginning about l^ovember 18, and with it closes 

 the white-fish season. The fishing in the shoal grounds grows lighter 

 with each successive season. This is attributed by fishermen to over- 

 fishing and to the yearly loss of many nets with fish fast in them, which 

 decay and foul the bottom. The water being but 3 to 8 fathoms in depth 

 and the bottom rocky, the nets are destroyed by a very moderate sea 

 and current. 



Although the fishing was very light on the western shore of Lake 

 Huron, very heavy catches were made on the Canada side, around 

 Cockbmn and the Duck Islands, and on the coast reefs in li^^orthern Lake 

 Michigan, and the reefs west of Mackinaw Straits, between Beaver 

 Islands and the north shore. Eishing on the latter reefs is done with 

 pound-nets ; but as there is no shore to lead from, the nets have four 

 leaders radiating at right angles. Three to six tons were taken from 

 these nets at each lift during the season. Two men were sent there at 

 the beginning of the season, but found no ripe eggs the first day. On 

 the second day, they took about half a million good eggs, and on the 

 third day the operations were brought to an abrupt ending by the storm. 

 Some heavy catches were made at Duck Island, in Canadian waters. 

 Just before the storm, the i^ropeller Roberts passed down from there 

 with about 45 tons of whitefish ^nd trout. The whitefish of that local- 

 ity are of a large type, specimens weighing 15 to 20 pounds being fre- 

 quently taken. The captain of the Eoberts mentions one that weighed 

 26 pounds. 



The Lake Erie catch previous to the storm was up to the average. 

 The fall fishing is done with pound-nets leading from the coast and 

 island reefs, so that there was no chance to collect eggs there after the 

 storm, as at Alpena, where there was subsequent fishing with gill-nets. 



The experiment of holding whitefish in inclosures until thej^ ripened 

 was quite successful, although it was not conducted on a scale large 

 enough to add greatly to our crop of eggs. The funds not being suffi- 

 cient to provide suitable harbors adjacent to the fisheries, the fish were 

 placed in floating crates, and it was not deemed advisable to place a 

 large number of fish in them, where they were liable to be destroyed by 

 wind and waves. Two crates were used at North Bass Island in Lake 

 Erie, and two at the Alcona fisheries in Lake Huron. The former were 

 anchored about twenty rods from the beach, in about twelve feet of 

 water ; the latter in a small bay partially protected from the lake seas. 

 The fish confined in them yielded about five or six million eggs, and 

 not one died while in ;fche crates, but a, few — twenty -five or thirty, per- 



