126 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



pounds of trout, 31,785 pounds of catfish, 27,285 pounds of bass, and 

 13,570 pounds of herring. 



Pound-net fishery. — The pound- nets are rather shallow, being set in 

 water from 12 to 45 feet deep, most of them between 20 and 30 feet. 

 The leaders vary from 825 to 1,155 feet. There is no uniformity in the 

 matter of fishing season. Most of the nets are fished throughout the 

 season of open water, except for three or four weeks in summer, when 

 they are taken out to be cleaned and tarred. Several are set only in the 

 spring and others only in the fall. The catch is growing poorer each 

 year, and in 1885 amounted to 116,900 pounds, bringing $4,325, this 

 representing the labor'of 19 men with 12 pound-nets, worth $2,625, and 

 seven boats worth $175, together with fish houses and accessories hav- 

 ing a value of $450. 



Gill-ret fishery. — Gill-nets are very little used south of the immediate 

 vicinity of Dyckesville, but from there to Little Sturgeon the winter 

 fishery with this form of apparatus is very extensive and important. 

 None are set in open water, the fishiug being almost entirely by farm- 

 ers who devote themselves to fishing through the ice at a season when 

 no agricultural work can be done. Each crew of two or three men has 

 a shanty 10 by 16 feet, which is usually hauled to and from the fishing, 

 grounds by means of one of their farm horses. The fishing is mostly 

 directly off the shore, but some go- north to the vicinity of Little Stur- 

 geon, which has long been noted as a winter fishing station. Most of 

 the catch is sold to Green Bay firms, who send up teams nearly every 

 day to collect the fish ; but small quantities go to Little Sturgeon and 

 Oconto. The nets used are 40 and 45 fathoms long, 14 and 16 meshes 

 deep, and with a mesh of 4J to 4J inches. A few which are fished for 

 herring are 30 fathoms long and about 30 meshes deep, with a mesh 

 of 2J or, more commonly, 3 inches. The catch in the whitefish nets h 

 about 80 per cent, whitefish, 17 per cent, trout, and 3 per cent, pike an< 

 pickerel. 



In the winter of 1884-'85 there were two crews south of Dyckesville, 

 twenty-five crews from the vicinity of Dyckesville and Red River, 

 and twenty -two crews from the region around Nainur. Many crews 

 contain 3 men and all have at least 2, but about 16 men out of the 

 entire number are included under other fisheries to which they give their 

 principal attention. The total number of those engaged in this fishery 

 alone for the region under consideration was 102. There were 2,945 

 nets, worth $15,700, and the accessories, such as movable shanties, 

 horses to drag them, and shore houses and reels, had a combined value 

 of $7,795. 



Seine fishery. — The eastern shore of Green Bay for the first ten miles 

 from its head is low and sandy and excellently adapted to the use 

 of seines, and something over 200 acres of shore land, worth about 

 $3,000, are owned by fishermen and used exclusively for this purpose. 

 Some of the fishermen who have no land of their own pay 20 per cent. 



