160 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



This increase in 1885 was chiefly due to the fact that a greater quantity 

 of apparatus was used. As already stated, the catch is mostly trout, 

 108,000 pounds in 1885 being of this species. There were also 7,000 

 pounds of sturgeon, 5,000 pounds of whitefish, 6,000 pounds of herring? 

 and 15,300 pounds of suckers, perch, and less important species. About 

 50,000 pounds of herring, valued at $300, were used for bait in the set- 

 line fisherj 7 . 



Trawlline fishery. — Trawls, or set-lines, were introduced about 1873, 

 when the fishermen set them for two or three months in the winter 

 and caught large quantities of trout; since which time they have been 

 regularly used, supplanting the gill-nets in certain instances because 

 less expensive and equally productive. 



The two steamers at Eacine carried set-lines provided with 17,000 

 hooks ; one of these, the George B. West, had five thousand hooks and. 

 also a full supply of gill-nets; the other, the Albatross, fished with set- 

 lines exclusively. Two small sail- vessels, with three men each, also 

 used set lines, one working two thousand hooks and gill-nets as well, 

 the other six thousand hooks and no other form of apparatus. 



Each section of trawl has fifty hooks attached at intervals of about 

 18 feet. The hooks are baited with ciscoes and the trawls are left in 

 the water three or four days before being hauled. About five hundred 

 or six hundred hooks are examined daily by each crew, the fish being 

 secured, and the lines rebaited. Bait is obtained in gill-nets carried 

 by each crew, seventy-eight being the total number used at Kacine in 

 1885. The bait-nets are 200 feet long, 40 meshes deep, with a 2-inch 

 mesh, and cost $6 each when new. It is estimated that 50,000 pounds 

 of herring were utilized for bait in 1885. The herring are impaled on 

 the hooks through the back in such a manner that they resemble a fish 

 swimming naturally, care being taken to avoid the viscera, injury to 

 which causes the fish to turn over and float to the surface with the hook. 



Sturgeon fishing with set-lines was at one time a prominent fishery at 

 Racine. It began at least twenty years ago in the harbors and small 

 creeks of the vicinity. The first to engage in it were professional fish- 

 ermen who, owing to storms, were unable to fish their gill-nets between 

 early in January and the middle of April, and they put in their time to 

 advantage by taking sturgeon during that season. Later, fishermen 

 came from Chicago during the winter months, and engaged in the fish- 

 ery, and continued in the business for a number of years. The fishery 

 attained its maximum about 1875, soon after which it began to decline 

 and in two or three years was practically abandoned. When the fishery 

 was important, it is estimated by competent authority that fifteen hun- 

 dred or two thousand sturgeon, averaging 40 pounds each, dressed, 

 were caught annually, nearly all of which were shipped to Chicago, 

 where the price received, was from 4 to 7 cents a pound. 



Nine men were engaged exclusively in this fishery in 1885, and ten 

 others fished gill-nets as well as set-lines. The length of the lines used 



