292 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



the total amount realized from the season's fishing is between $65,000 and $70,000. 

 As this has been the most productive of seasons, so it has been the most severe. The 

 waters of the lake froze over very quickly last winter, and there being no heavy 

 blows usually so prevalent here during December, there was no slush, and no anchor- 

 ice formed which serves to hold the main body in place. On several occasions gales 

 set in suddenly, causing the ice to move and pile up, endangering the lives of hun- 

 dreds of fishermen who were out upon the lake at the time. * * * 



Set-line fishery. — April and May are the months in which this fish- 

 ery is mostly pursued ; it is also followed to a less extent during June, 

 and from September till the closing of the lake by ice. The boats or 

 skiffs employed are clinker-built keel craft with sharp bow and stern; 

 they measure about 18 feet in length, 4 feet in width, and 15 inches in 

 depth, and carry two pairs of oars. About fifty boats, carrying two men 

 each, were employed in this fishery in 1885. Set-lines, baited with 

 minnows, are* used, and the species caught are chiefly pike, with a few 

 perch and sturgeon during the month of April, and pike, sturgeon, a 

 few whitefish, perch, herring, mullet, and pickerel during the months 

 of May and June; while in the fall pike are again caught in greatest 

 quantities, and next in numbers come perch and sturgeon. About the 

 middle of June the pike begin to migrate from the American side of the 

 lake to the northern shores, and these are followed by the sturgeon 

 about the middle of July, neither species returning till the autumn 

 gales set in from the south and west. The use of sail-boats carrying 

 nets instead of set-lines is becoming more and more extensive. In the 

 spring of 1887 over twenty were thus employed while in 1885 there 

 was only one, as Mr. Williams states. The leaders or ground-lines of 

 the set-lines are first placed in the water and heavily anchored, and 

 then the hooks that have been previously baited are tied on at dis- 

 tances of 2 or 3 feet, the line being raised for that purpose by means of a 

 small grapnel. The lines are left to fish during the night and freshly 

 baited hooks are provided each day. It has been found that sturgeon 

 and pike are caught in the greatest quantities when the lines are set 

 over red clay and mud bottoms. 



Grapnel sturgeon fishery. — This is carried on from the middle of May 

 to the 1st of July, during which time the sturgeon are spawning. 

 The fishery is engaged in by boat fishermen and the method is essen- 

 tially by trolling. The hook or " grapnel " is somewhat similar in shape 

 to a small boat anchor, and is provided with three or four prongs which 

 come to a sharp point and are slightly barbed. The shank of the hook 

 is heavily leaded. A " gaff-hook," fastened to a pole about 3 feet in 

 length, is the only other implement required. The manner of using the 

 grapnel is thus described by Mr. Thomas Williams : 



A row-boat, manned by two men, is pulled to the spawning-grounds of the stur- 

 geon, and as soon as a school makes its appearance, one man rows leisurely, but 

 steadily and quietly, in its direction, the other fisherman being seated in the stern of 

 the boat with grapnel and lino in hand, keeping watch on the fish and directing the 

 movements of the boat. When the vicinity of the school is reached, the hook is low- 

 ered to the bottom and allowed to drag behind the boat. When the grapnel is felt 



