304 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



100. THE VICINITY OF YOUNGSTOWN, NIAGARA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



General summary. — The village of Youugstown is on the right bank 

 of the Niagara River, about a mile from its mouth. It has a good har- 

 bor, and the steamers navigating the lake touch here. The population, 

 numbering 600, consists principally of merchants and farmers, only a 

 few of the inhabitants being engaged in the fisheries. Several of the 

 men fishing in the vicinity of Youugstown — off the mouth of the river 

 and off Six-Mile Creek — are Canadians, living at Niagara, Ontario, who 

 set their nets during the spring and fall in American waters, returning 

 home in the summer. There is no fishing of any consequence at Youugs- 

 town itself, the fishing- grounds being from 1 to 10 miles distant. Owing 

 to the remoteness of this locality from the places where the fish are 

 taken, it is probable that it will never be a fishing center of very great 

 importance. Some ill-feeling exists between the American and the 

 provincial fishermen, because the latter have every privilege in our 

 waters, while the former are not allowed to go over the line to the Cana- 

 dian side of the lake. 



Species and season. — The fishing is for sturgeon, herring, bass, perch, 

 and pike ; no whitefish or trout are caught. The season for sturgeon 

 is in the spring and fall; herring are caught mostly in the autumn; 

 while bass, perch, and pike are taken at all times. During the summer 

 several hundred people fish for pleasure at the mouth of the Niagara 

 River, patching bass, perch, pike, suckers, etc. 



Statistical statement. — The number of fishermen at Youugstown in 

 1885 was 20, 13 being professionals and 7 semi-professionals. They 

 used the following apparatus: Seven gill-net boats and G other boats, 

 worth $371; 114 sturgeon gill-nets, with a total length of 18,810 feet, 

 worth $565; 5 whitefish and trout gill-nets, 825 feet long, worth $25; 

 57 herring gill-nets, 9,400 feet in length, worth $270; and shore prop- 

 erty and miscellaneous apparatus, worth $340; the total value of fish- 

 ing property being $1,571. 



The number of pounds of the different kinds of fish taken in 1885 was 

 as follows: Sturgeon, 32,724; herring, 7,G10; and miscellaneous varie- 

 ties, consisting mostly of bass, pike, and perch, 10,600 ; the total catch 

 being valued at $2,256.25. 



Fishing at Lewiston. — At this place, which is 6 miles above Youugs- 

 town, on the Niagara River, there is a little trap fishing. The appa- 

 ratus employed consists of a wooden box, sunk in the bed of the river, 

 in which the trap of the net is placed ; from this a leader is run about 

 50 feet into the river. The box is provided with a windlass with which 

 to lift the net from the water. There are three such traps at Lewistou. 

 It is said that as many as a thousand pounds of perch, sunfish, etc., are 

 sometimes taken at a single haul. This fishery, being isolated from the 

 lake, did not come within the scope of this investigation, and no statis- 

 tical or other data are available in addition to those above given. 



