314 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



tario, and catching bull-heads almost exclusively. The latter are the 

 most abundant fish in the bay ; there are also pike, perch, and eels. 



Port Bay and vicinity. — Port Bay is 2 miles farther east and is twice 

 the size and four or five times the depth of the preceding. On its shores 

 are hotels for the accommodation of anglers, who, to the number of three 

 hundred, visit the place annually and fish for bass and pike. The post- 

 offices in the vicinity are Wolcott and North Wolcott, which are 5 and 

 3 miles, respectively, from the bay. The people in the vicinity are all 

 farmers, who take fish chiefly for their own use; a few sell to peddlers, t 

 and a smaller number ship to Rochester. Only one fisherman salted 

 any of his catch. The apparatus is similar to that in East Bay, with 

 the addition of a small number of gill-nets and set-lines. There is a 

 little fishing carried on at the mouth of Bed Creek, 2 miles east of the 

 bay, by a fisherman from North Wolcott. 



Men, apparatus, and catch in 1885. — Sixteen men, including 5 profes- 

 sional fishermen, were employed on this division of the coast. Their 

 outfit consisted of 13 boats; 4 whitefish gill-nets, with a total length of 

 1,320 feet; 5 seines, 1,548 feet long; Strap-nets; GO fyke nets ; 1,500 

 feet of set-lines, with 100 hooks ; and miscellaneous and shore prop- 

 erty, the value of all of which apparatus was $1,325. 



The catch included 17,100 pounds of bull -heads, 4,600 pounds of 

 bass, 4,100 pounds of eels, 2,600 pounds of pike and pickerel, 2,000 

 pounds of herring, and 700 pounds of perch ; of the herring, 1,000 

 pounds were salted. The total value of the catch was $1,550. 



109. LITTLE SODUS BAY AND VICINITY, CAYUGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



Topography of the section. — Little Sodus Bay is about a mile from the 

 western line of Cayuga County. It is 2J miles long and a mile wide, 

 with 4 to 6 fathoms of water. Near the head of the bay is the village 

 of Fair Haven, the post-office of the people residing in vicinity of the 

 southern end of the bay. There is no harbor here, but at North Fair 

 Haven there is a good port with 6 fathoms of water. The place is a 

 railroad terminus, with large coal and ore docks, and wharves at which 

 the largest steamers can lay. 



Between this bay and Osw r ego, a distance of 13 miles, the shore is 

 rough and stony, and affords no spawning grounds for whitefish, but 

 excellent feeding-grounds are said to exist off the mouth of the bay. 



Fishing in the bay and vicinity. — The bay is a favorite resort for an- 

 glers who come hither in large numbers during the season and fish from 

 boats hired from the keepers of hotels, three of which are on the shores 

 of the bay. The water abounds in bass, bull heads, and pike, the bass 

 being particularly numerous ; sturgeon and eels also occur. A short 

 time ago Little Sodus Bay yielded a great many fish, but within the last 

 few years there has been a falling off in the catch owing to the law forbid- 

 ding the use of traps and nets, and the fishermen have been getting fish 

 from Canada to supply their orders. Three men from Oneida Lake fish 



