186 REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Trade. — The catch of all the steamers with the exception of the soft 

 and waste fish is sent in ice to Chicago. The fish caught by one of the 

 sail-boats is shipped fresh to Milwaukee while the remainder are sold 

 to a local dealer who ships them to Chicago and other places. Tbe 

 pound-net fish are mostly salted. The price received from the Chicago 

 dealers averages 4 J to 5^ cents for whitefish and trout, which are weighed 

 and shipped without sorting. 



Gill-net fishery. — The steamers carry an average of four hundred to 

 four hundred and fifty nets each, fishing chiefly north of Frankfort vil- 

 lage off Glen Haven and about the Manitou Islands, occasionally going to 

 the Fox Islands, fully GO miles distant. The sail-boats, numbering eleven 

 in 1885, carry from fifty to two hundred nets each and fish only a 

 few miles from the mouth of the harbor. The fishing begins early in 

 March or at latest by the 1st of April, and continues uninterruptedly 

 till December when the rough weather prevents the sail-boats from vent- 

 uring out, and two or three weeks later the steamers are obliged to 

 haul up. The whitefish are abundant at all seasons, constituting nearly 

 two- thirds of the entire catch, though during the six weeks beginning 

 with October 1 trout are taken in somewhat greater quantities. About 

 5 per cent, of the whitefish taken in gill-nets are of the varieties called 

 blackfins and long-jaws, which occur in the proportion of about three of 

 the former to one of the latter. The nets used average about 50 fathoms 

 in length. They are almost exclusively cork and lead, only one small 

 rig of float and stone being used in 1885. The boats differ greatly. 

 Among them may be seen the mackiuaws, hurons, Norwegians, and 

 several mongrel types. Some are well built and expensive while others 

 are small and of little value. The average for the entire fleet would be 

 about $115. 



Found-net fishery. — The first pound-net in the vicinity of Frankfort was 

 set in 1875, since which time three or four nets have been fished with 

 greater or less regularity. In 1881 three pounds were fished between 

 Platte and Herring Rivers, and the following season seven were in use, 

 this being a greater number than heretofore employed in any one year. 

 The catch averages from 200 to 250 half-barrels of salt whitefish to the 

 the net, in addition to a quantity of fish too small for salting, which are 

 thrown away. The nets are set late in Juue, and most of them are 

 taken out by the middle or last of September. 



Seine fishery. — Seine fishing has never been important. In 1885 one 

 seine was used at Platte River for some six weeks, the catch amounting 

 to about 200 half-barrels of salted fish. Another seine, owned at South 

 Frankfort, was not fished at all during the year. 



Other fisheries.— There is no winter fishing of importance with either 

 hooks, nets, or spears, for the reason that the limited amount of ice on 

 the lake does not favor it. No fykes are owned in the locality and but 

 two trammel-nets were in use, these having been brought here by St. 

 Joseph fishermen, and occasionally set in winter in the river and inland 



