32 Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 



nanow channel on the eastern side. The fishermen at this fishery used 

 to station their boats with their seine at the head of the island and a 

 man at the lower end to watch the schools of shad coming' up, and when 

 he saw them he wonld give the signal to the party in the boat, who im- 

 mediately ran out with the seine, going downward. 



Some of the old residents along the Schuylkill river near Philadelphia, 

 relate marvelous tales of the catches of fish to be made in their boyhood 

 days, and some of them almost surpass belief. One of these who spoke 

 in a more moderate strain was Godfrey Schrout, a one-time resident of 

 the falls of Schuylkill. He related to a friend about seventy years ago, 

 that, in his younger days he could often catch with his dip-net 3,000 

 catfish in one night ; the perch and rockfish were numerous and large. 

 Often he has caught 30 to 80 pounds of a morning with the hook and 

 line. Other persons who were neighbors of Mr. Schrout asserted that 

 there was nothing extraordinary in a catch of 3,000 catfish in one night 

 in a dip net. Up to the year 1817, they say, more than that number were 

 taken repeatedly in the same period of time. It has been claimed that 

 so plentiful were this species of fish, that one scoop of the dip-net has 

 brought up more catfish than could be lifted into the boat by one man. 

 There were said to have been people at the falls in those days, who, in 

 1;he fishing season which lasted some three months, made enough by 

 catching shad in a simple scoop or dip-net to support their families in 

 fish for a whole year. In their work they anchored or fastened to the 

 rocks in the rapids, the small boats from which they fished; some of the 

 particular stations were more valuable th'&n others, and there was much 

 rivalship in the early spring who should first get possession of the fav- 

 ored spots, which the boat never left during the whole season; if it 

 did, by a rule among themselves, any one else was at liberty to take 

 possession. 



The catfish were the kind known as the white catfish, a migrating 

 species that came from the sea annually in immense numbers, so 

 numerous in some instances as to blacken the narrow passages of the 

 river. They came regularly on or about May 25, the nan lasting some 

 two or three weeks. They were caught in immense numbers during the 

 season, put in artificial ponds made for the pm-pose, and taken out as 

 wanted during the summer and fall months. They were delicious eat- 

 ing and the people thereabouts learned the art of cooking them so well 

 that thousands of people were attracted thither, and the fame of the 

 Schuylkill's catfish, wafiBes and coffee became of more than local fame. 



