FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 179 



02. OCEANA COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 



The fishing stations. — Clay Banks, Bcnona, and Pentwater are the 

 only communities in Oceana County from which fishing is carried on, and 

 the fisheries of Pentwater are the only ones that have any considerable 

 commercial importance. Clay Banks and Benona are small villages of 

 about 100 people each, situated north of Montague. The inhabitants 

 are chiefly farmers, and but four men in the former and two men in the 

 latter are engaged in fishing. 



Fisheries of Clay Banks. — At Clay Banks the apparatus consisted of 

 three pound-nets, and the catch, amounting to 38,300 pounds and val- 

 ued at $1,500, was made up as follows: 



Sturgeon.. 

 Whitefish 



Trout 



Pike 



Perch 



Fresh. 



Salted. 



Pounds. 



Pounds. 



15, 000 



200 



13, 200 



1,700 



5,000 



500 



1,000 



200 



1,500 





Fisheries of Benona. — The fishermen of Benona operated 2 pound-nets 

 and 105 whitefish and trout gill-nets. Their catch was 4,180 pounds of 

 sturgeon, 6,800 pounds of whitefish, and 2,760 pounds of trout; and sold 

 for $568. 



The fisheries of Pentwater. — Pentwater is a town of 1,500 people, on a 

 small harbor in the northern part of Oceana County. The shore on 

 either side is made up of clay, and sand banks. Lumbering is the 

 principal occupation of the people. The fisheries have increased since 

 1879, when there were but four men engaged in fishing and the yield 

 was only 7,000 pounds. In 1885 there were twenty-two professional 

 and two semi-professional fishermen, and the catch was twenty-five 

 times that of 1879, as will appear from the context. 



Apparatus and methods of Pent water fisheries. — Pound-nets are more 

 extensively used at Pentwater than any other form of apparatus. 

 Seven gangs of fishermen, consisting of twenty-two men, operated 

 twenty-one pound-nets; the same men fished one hundred and twenty- 

 nine whitefish and trout gill-nets, two seines, and 58,000 feet of set- 

 lines. But the pound-net fishery consumed most of their time, and the 

 other apparatus was used incidentally rather than regularly. The men 

 have shanties on the side of the harbor opposite the town, and remain 

 there during the fishing season. About half the pound-nets are set 

 double, but in no case are more than two set together. The leaders of 

 the pounds are about 1,300 feet in length with 8-ifich mesh; the mesh 

 of the bowls is 3 or 4 inches. The pounds are set as soon as the ice 

 moves out, and are left in the water until November. As in portions 

 of the lake farther south, the fishermen here are troubled by the pres- 

 ence of quantities of sawdust and drift-wood from the saw-mills. There 



