222 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



78. IOSCO COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 



Geographical description. — Iosco County is about 35 miles long. It is 

 generally high or hilly, with a low, sandy beach intervening near the 

 water in the district north of Ottawa Point. The water is deep at the 

 mouth of Sable River and in Ottawa Bay, but elsewhere it is usually 

 quite shallow near the laud. 



Towns and industries. — There are five villages on this coast, each with 

 its own post-office, four of which are on the line of a new railroad. 

 These are, in their geographical order, beginning at the north, Oscoda 

 and Au Sable, both settled in 1849, and with a population in 1885 of 

 3,500 each; East Tawas, settled in 1864, population 1,850; and Tawas 

 City, settled in 1853, population 1,000. 



Location of the fisheries, — There have beeu fisheries with gill-nets and 

 pound-nets in this region since its first settlement. The fishing is carried 

 on at different places scattered along the shore, each owner of a fishery 

 having one or more shanties on the spot which he considers best 

 adapted for the work, where he resorts with his crew during the fishing 

 season. There are six of these fisheries outside of the villages, and at 

 all of them pound-nets are now exclusively used. Two are near the 

 northern county-line, two on Point Au Sable, aud two on the east side 

 of Ottawa Point. One of the first-named has been in operation since 

 I860, and one of those on Point Au Sable since 1865. The others have all 

 been established during the last three years (1883-1885). As early as 

 1849, the year the villages of Oscoda and Au Sable were settled, gill- 

 nets were used therein; and, though fish have been scarce for the last 

 eight or ten years, Au Sable still had one gill-net crew and one pound- 

 net in 1885. The gill-nets are set from 3 to 16 miles out from the shore, 

 in from 12 to 40 fathoms of water. At Tawas City and East Tawas 

 gill-nets were introduced by a firm from Bay City, aud were first used 

 in 1850 and 1851, while pound-nets were introduced in 1860. In 1868 

 fish of all kinds became very scarce, and since that date no pound-nets 

 have been fished aud only a very few gill-nets. At present there is no 

 fishing there, and none at Alabaster, where it was carried on with 

 pound-nets on a small scale from 1865 to 1884. 



Species. — The catch consists of whitefish, trout, bass, herring, pick- 

 erel, and sturgeon, but principally of whitefish and herring. The white- 

 fish are taken most abundantly during the spawning season. At Point 

 Au Sable they have beeu scarce for a number of years, aud herring are 

 now almost the only species taken there. 



Trade. — Prior to 1868-70 the fish taken, aside from the small quantity 

 used in the vicinity, were all salted and sold to traders for shipment to 

 Bay City, Detroit, and ports on Lake Erie. Since that date nearly all 

 those which are not sold to the village trade are, with the exception of 

 the herring, shipped fresh in cars and boxes to Bay City, Port Huron, 

 and Detroit, and the salted herring are sent to the same places. At 

 present the local consumption of hard fish at Oscoda and Au Sable 

 amounts to between 8 and 10 tons annually. 



