150 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The catch in the Mud Hole is mostly whitefish of the variety known 

 as black-fins, or, more frequently in this locality, blue-fins. In the sail- 

 boat fishing the catch is 86 per cent, trout, a little less than 6 per cent, 

 common whitefish, and 8 per cent, blue fins. 



The average catch of the steamers iri 1884 was 85,100 pounds. In 

 1885 it was 65,800 pounds of fresh blue-fins, 32,500 pounds of fresh trout, 

 and 400 or 500 pounds of fresh whitefish, besides 18,000 pounds of salted 

 fish, and 13,000 pounds of smoked fish. 



Other fisheries. — Ho forms of apparatus were used in 1885 except those 

 already mentioned. About 1876 or 1877 there was some sturgeon fish- 

 ing from sail-boats with hooks baited with minnows. At times min- 

 nows have been taken with dip-nets to be used as food. About 1878 

 trawls were set in the fall and winter by several of the crews of the 

 steamers fishing later* with gill-nets; and about 1880 one boat caught 

 trout on set-lines baited with small herring and blue-fins during the 

 spring months. Seine fishing flourished between 1850 and 1865, but 

 there has been none since 1870. Trammel-nets have been rather ex- 

 tensively employed in earlier times, but for many years none have been 

 used. 



51. OZAUKEE COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 



Location of the fisheries. — Although the shores of Ozaukee County are 

 of about the same extent as those of Sheboygan County, their popu- 

 lation is much less extensive and the fisheries are quite insignificant. 



There are several small hamlets near the lake, but in 1885 the fishing 

 was confined to Port Washington, the county seat, a town of 1,500 in- 

 habitants engaged in various manufacturing industries. Five years 

 ago there was one pound-net in the scattered farming community sur- 

 rounding Mequon post-office, and some of the farmers there have single 

 gill-nets with which they fish for suckers in spring, merely for home 

 supply. 



Pound-net fishery. — The only regular fishery of the county is with 

 pound-nets. The first apparatus of this sort was set in the year 1865. 

 The fishery reached its height in 1870, when there were eighteen pound- 

 nets owned in the county. In 1881 there were fourteen pound-nets, but 

 the business rapidly declined, so that in 1885 there were only two crews 

 with four nets. 



The nets are set about June 10 and taken up the middle of August. 

 Nearly nine-tenths of the catch is trout, and the remainder is three- 

 fifths whitefish and two-fifths sturgeon. The value of the pound-net 

 catch in 1884 was $1,800; about one-fifth of the product was shipped to 

 Chicago. In 1885 the stock was only $925. 



Gill net fishery. — There was considerable gill-net fishing prior to 1879, 

 but since that time it has been quite unimportant. The nets used are 

 45 fathoms long and 20 meshes deep, and cost $5 each. Seventy nets 

 were used in the winter of 1884-'85, the catch being nine-tenths white- 

 fish, and selling at 8 cents per pound. 



