FISHERIES OF THE GREAT LAKES IN 1885. 313 



few set-lines and spears. The traps, fykes, and spears are employed 

 more or less at all seasons, while the nets and seines are fished only 

 during the spring and fall. 



Species occurring in this section. — Bass, bull-heads, pike and pickerel, 

 herring, whitefish, sturgeon, eels, and a very few suckers are the kinds 

 of fish caught. Whitefish of large size are taken, being especially 

 abundant off Sodus Bay, where the average weight of the fish is 6J 

 pounds. A few sturgeon are taken 2 miles west of Sodus Point, off 

 Salmon Creek. No trout were landed in 1885, although about 1,C00 

 pounds were secured in the previous year. 



Disposition made of catch. — A small proportion of the fish are reserved 

 for home consumption, and a few are shipped to New York, but the 

 larger part of the catch is sold to peddlers and to the people of the in- 

 land towns and villages near the lake. Only one man salted his fish in 

 1885, six half barrels of herring being the quantity thus prepared. 



Statistics. — The number of men engaged in the fisheries was 47, 11 

 being professional and 36 semi-professional fishermen. Their appa- 

 ratus consisted of 8 gill-net boats and 41 other boats ; 10 sturgeon gill- 

 nets, with a total length of 3,300 feet; 157 whitefish gill-nets, 54,120 

 feet long; 98 herring gill-nets, 31,268 feet long; 8 trap nets; 11 seines, 

 6,338 feet long; 120 fyke-nets ; 3,750 feet of set-lines, with 250 hooks; 

 and shore property and other apparatus. The capital invested in boats 

 was $1,200; in gill-nets and seines, $2,041; in traps, fykes, and lines, 

 $1,879; aud in shore property and miscellaneous apparatus, $1,130, 

 giving $6,250 as the total value of fishing property. 



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

 was: Bass, 46,185 pounds; bull-heads, 20,650 pounds; pike and pick- 

 erel, 18,570 pounds ; herring, 9,000 pouuds ; whitefish, 8,040 pounds; 

 sturgeon, 5,000 pounds; eels, 600 pounds ; suckers, etc., 120 pounds. 

 Six hundred pounds of the herring were salted. To the above should 

 be added 50,000 minnows used for bait. The total value of the products 

 was $7,100. 



108. WAYNE COUNTY, NEW YORK, BETWEEN EAST BAY AND THE COUNTY- 

 LINE. 



Fisheries of East Bay. — This section of coast is 10 miles in length, and 

 is very rocky. Two miles from Big Sodus Bay is a small indentation, 

 about three-quarters of a mile long and half a mile wide, known as East 

 Bay, which is from 5 to 8 feet deep. It is the principal fishing-ground 

 of the farmers aud others in the vicinity aud of the inhabitants of 

 Huron.and North Huron, small post-offices to the south. The fishing 

 is of no very great importance; a few seines are drawn, and trap-nets 

 and fyke-nets set in the bay in violation of the law, and there is a little 

 pleasure fishing during the summer, but beyond this nothing is done. 

 A party of men fish throughout the entire year, using fykes with lead- 

 ers and wings, a style of net nearly unknown elsewhere in Lake On- 



