FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 53 



for each pound fished in 1884 at 125 barrels, or about $200. The mar- 

 ketable catch averages 90 per cent, whitefish, 7 per cent, trout, and 3 per 

 cent, sturgeon, in addition to considerable quantities of small whitefish, 

 and a good many sturgeon thrown away. Mr. Boutin thought that the 

 catch of 1885 would not be more than a quarter that of the previous 

 year. This small yield he believed in no way indicated a scarcity of 

 fish, but was accounted for by the fish remaining in the deeper water, 

 where the gill-nets have caught larger quantities than usual. The 

 heavy thunder storms during the pound-net season may have had a de- 

 cided influence in keeping the fish out of the shoaler water. 



Seine fishery. — The seiningof fish at Bayfield began about tenor twelve 

 years ago, with small seines 330 to 495 feet in length and 12 to 18 feet 

 deep. They are hauled during the four or five weeks between the 5th 

 of June and the middle of July. The catch is principally whitefish, 

 though considerable quantities of herring are also taken, but, owing 

 to the small demand, few are saved. The fishing is at present chiefly 

 in the vicinity of Bark Point and Sand River, along the western bound- 

 ary of Ashland Peninsula. The fishermen seldom make blind hauls, as 

 in other places, but have a man on the lookout on some elevated point 

 of land to watch for fish, and when a school is seen it is surrounded 

 by the seine and hauled ashore. The average catch is estimated at 

 about 100 half-barrels of salt fish, though formerly it is said to have 

 been three times that quantity. In 1885 there were thirteen seines 

 owned at Bayfield, but only eight or ten of them were fished to any 

 extent during the season, and the catch, owing to the absence of the 

 fish from the shore waters, was unusually light. 



Hand-line fishing through the ice. — There is considerable hand-line 

 fishing, or " bobbing," as it is locally called by Indians and others, 

 through the ice in winter. The former take fish for their own use, but 

 a few of the whites make it a business, freezing their catch and selling 

 to Duluth dealers. The catch is usually small, but sometimes a man 

 will get 300 to 400 pounds in a day. 



Spearing. — In the morning each " bob " fisherman, by means of a little 

 home-made wire spear used through a hole in the ice, provides himself 

 with herring enough to serve as bait for the day's fishing. The spear- 

 ing of trout through the ice by the Indians is also quite common in cer- 

 tain localities. They usually have a brightly-painted decoy resembling 

 a fish, which they dart into the water through an opening in the ice, 

 and the trout are attracted toward it and speared. 



Other fisheries. — No trammel-nets have been fished in the locality, 

 and fykes have been employed in only one instance, this being in the 

 spring of 1884, when a small number were fished at the mouth of one of 

 the larger streams without success. 



