224 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



nets now used, which have smaller meshes and finer twine than form- 

 erly, the catch is chiefly trout, and scarcely any whitefish are taken 

 while their size has much decreased. 



Fyke net fishery. — The fyke-net fishery, which is of considerable im- 

 portance, is usually carried on by men who also have pound-nets. 

 There are, altogether, about seventy -five fykes fished in different por- 

 tions of Saginaw Bay, and in the river and its tributaries there are 

 considerably over four hundred, of which nearly half are fished above 

 Saginaw City. 



Ice fishing. — Formerly the winter fishing through the ice was very im- 

 portant. In January, 1875, between three and four hundred shanties, 

 6 by 12 feet in size, built of rough boards covered with building paper, 

 were located upon the ice at the mouth of the Saginaw Eiver. In each 

 of these, beside a small sheet iron stove, crouched a fisherman, armed 

 with a short-handled spear, who all day long watched over a hole about 

 18 inches square, through which he dangled with his left hand some 

 fresh herriug, tied to a string, holding ready the spear in his right hand. 

 The fish thus decoyed within his reach he skillfully transfixed by a sud- 

 den dart of the spear, and hauled it in by means of a line fastened to it. 

 The shanties were placed over water from 10 to 15 feet deep, through 

 which the sandy bottom of the lake, together with every iuterveniug 

 object, was plainly visible to the fisherman peering through the hole. 

 In the winter of 1874-75 the value of the fish caught in this way was 

 about $40,000 a month. In 1878 the hook-and-line was generally 

 adopted by the winter fishermen, with minnows for bait, and was found 

 to be easier and more successful than the other method. At present 

 both spears, lines, and herring gill-nets are used in winter, but the 

 fishery at this season is no longer important, and the number of men 

 engaged is seldom twenty-five. 



Trade. — A very large proportion of the fish caught are shipped fresh. 

 Two of the dealers have establishments for freezing fish; the dealers 

 also salt certain species purchased fresh from the fishermen. The ex- 

 tent of the trade in 1885 is shown in the following table, which repre- 

 sents not only fish taken by Saginaw Bay and River fishermen, but also 

 the catch of other localities in Lake Huron visited by steamers which 

 collect for the dealers : 



Species. 



Whitefish 



Trout 



Pike and pickerel 



Bass 



Herring 



Sturgeon 



Bull heads 



Perch, mullet, suckers, etc 



Total 



Pounds of 



fish 

 handled. 



161,200 

 1, 181, 550 

 1, 225, 250 



174, 500 

 1, 683, 000 



174, 000 



48, 500 



1, 705, 000 



G, 353, 000 



Average 

 price paid 

 to fisher- 

 men. 



Cents. 

 4 

 4 

 4 

 4 

 1 

 2 

 2 

 14 



Pounds 

 frozen. 



40, 000 

 20, 000 



28, 000 



88, 000 



Pounds 

 salted. 



69, 200 

 200, 800 



970, 000 



62, 000 

 1, 302, 000 



