118 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



the spring fishing, and taken out again in July. In the fall they are 

 fished from September 20 to November 20. The principal species caught 

 in the deep nets are herring and perch, the former comprising about 

 seven eighths of the whole catch; sturgeon, whitefish, suckers, and 

 trout are also taken in small quantities. In 1858 one of the fishermen 

 at Little Suainico got 300 packages of whitefish and 300 packages of 

 herring from two pounds. In 1885 the same man did not get 15 

 packages of whitefish in three nets, though the difference was made up 

 by the increased herring catch. In 1878 another fisherman obtained 

 2,400 packages of herring in four nets, and the continued abundance 

 of this species is illustrated by the fact that one Oconto firm, with five 

 deep and two shoal nets, obtained, in 1885, 2,798 packages of herring 

 besides 16,143 pounds of other fish. 



The shallow nets are fished from April 20 (or as soon thereafter as the 

 ice will permit) to the first of July, and from the latter part of August to 

 the middle of October. They are set principally for sturgeon, but their 

 leaders are extended into water only 2 feet deep in order to catch other 

 " rough fish," such as dories a'nd suckers. The run of sturgeon is best 

 in September. Before this was noticed it was customary to fish pound- 

 nets only in spring. This branch of the fishery began about the year 

 1875, when three or four shallow nets for sturgeon were set for the first 

 time in these waters. In 1875 two such nets stocked $1,100 in six weeks, 

 although the dories brought only 1J cents per pound and the sturgeon 

 only 1 cent per pound. 



Some of the fishermen have a pen 80' feet long by 60 feet wide made 

 of heavy twine hung on piles driven in 8 feet of water. In this the 

 sturgeon caught during the spring months are kept alive until the mid- 

 dle of July, when they are shipped to market. The fall catch is penned 

 only for a few days. Caviare is made only in the fall, as the fish spawn 

 in the spring and suitable eggs could not be obtained without slaughter- 

 ing the fish early in the season. 



There were in Oconto County twenty-five crews, fishing eighty-three 

 nets, in 1884, and twenty-two crews with seventy-nine nets, in 1885. 



The products of the fishery in the former year are shown in the fol- 

 lowing table : 



How sold. 



Whitefish. 



Trout. 



Pike. 



Sturgeon. 



Herring. 



Other fish. 



Total. 



Fresh 



Pounds. 

 18, 800 

 6,700 



Pounds. 

 6,600 

 2,000 



Pounds. 



74, 550 

 7,250 



Pounds. 

 63, 700 



Pounds. 

 200, 800 

 192, 500 



Pounds. 

 17, 050 

 4,255 



Pounds. 

 381, 500 



Salt 



212, 705 









Total 



25, 500 



8,600 



81, 800 



63, 700 



393, 300 



21,305 



594, 205 



Gill-net fishery. — Over thirty of the pound-net fishermen and a num- 

 ber of others make a practice of fishing with gill-nets through the ice 

 during the winter months. Two kinds of nets are used. One is 35 

 fathoms long and 20 meshes deep, with a 3 inch mesh, and has a 



