FOREST AND STREAM. 
— So mre he oo “al ahh as ————— = “i 
there hole below the pint,” Time passed quickly. From a 
half a mile up the river came the unmistakable sound that 
Jack had dinner ready. 
“Sonny, I'll give you a quarter and two fish-hooks it you 
sit here and watch my pole; and if you get a bite, run up to 
the top of the hill, where you can see the camp, call at the 
top of your voice and I'll hear you, and I'll come back 
whether IL get any dinner or not.” 
ae will you give me two hooks with rings on em?” 
é eg,” 
“Lido it.” 
Tn about an hour, almost out of breath, C. returned. 
“Well, sonny, kave you had a bite?” 
“Yes, sir (exulfingly). I ketched one, See him thar be- 
hind that ere log? 1 couldy’t find yer wunis, so I ketched 
me some crickets. I'll have another’n a-floppin’ here in a 
minit.” 
It needed but a look to convince C, that his bait was stone 
dead. Reaching for his hook box, he threw the boy two 
hooks, and with many adjectives drove him away. 
The poor little fellow crying, left, unconscious of haying 
committed a wrongs, and only remembering that the other 
party failed to fullfil the contract in the way of the promised 
quarter. C. sat down on his log, wondering what to do 
next. Pulling out his pipe, he proceeded to fillit. ‘‘Darn 
the boy!* he said. ‘‘I should have known better; it’s an old 
adage, ‘Never send a boy to the mill.’” Lighting his pipe 
and turning around, he observed a young man, clad ina 
ragged shirt, an apology for a suspender holding up a pair 
of trousers that might have been long enough for him six or 
seyen summers before, and a hat without a crown, coming 
toward bim, 
“Good evenin’,” he said. 
C, only nodded. 
Have any tuck?” 
C. shook his head. 
"Mister, kin I have this fish layin’ here?” 
©, nodded again, 
Taking out a ‘‘barlow” he cut a long willowy pole from 
the hillside and pulling out 1 hemp line he carefully tied it 
on the pole, then from the other pocket he produced a copper 
wire snell with a large Limerick hook on the end of it, which 
he tied to the line. Reaching down he took the sucker and 
passing the hook through both its lips, and wading into the 
river above his hips, he began to skitter his bait backward 
and forward in the water. C,, in the meantime, sat in 
amazement, silently smoking his pipe. Presently something 
took the bait to the bottom and calmly the young man bides 
his time, occasionally tightening on his line a little as if to 
feel for his prey. But the line moves off and with a sharp 
strike sends home the hook. The battle which ensnes is 
long and furious and finally his pikeship turns his side up to 
the sun, then with an accelerating puil he drags him high 
and dry, nor does he stop untill he is out of danger. 
Yes, C. was right. He measured four and a half feet, and 
as Our rustic angler thrasts a pole through his gills and out 
of his mouth and with a heave swings him over his shoulder, 
he looks up at C. and modestly says, “Mister, that’s a good 
‘n,” and sturts up the river. 
©. called, ‘‘Say stranger; what will you take for that 
pike?’ The young man turned around and looked at his 
game said, *‘Mister, I'd liice ter sell you this pike, but 1 jest 
merried a week ago, an’ this is the first fishin’ I done since I 
been merried.” LittLy SANDY. 
Norre MippLaerown, Ky- 
A Bass Lear.—Muskegon, Mich.—Bass fishing was very 
good until the equinoctial storms came on, since which it has 
been very poor, J had the best suecess with the fly all 
through the month of September, taking almost nothing 
with the bait, although J have tried both minnows and frogs. 
Is it not strange their taking the fly so late? J find them 
about sunken logs and old poles, elc., very few among the 
grass and rushes. While fishing onemorning late in Septem- 
ber, | took a bass of about two pounds weight which leaped 
entirely clear of the water (1 was fishing with the fiy, of 
course), making as fine a rise as Lever saw a trout make. 
Perhaps this is nothing uncommon, but I haye used the fly 
for bass for several seasons, and this is the first experience 
ur ae kind I have had. Let us hear from the experts.— 
. » We 
Nor Fonrranis.—Crested Butte, Col., Oct. 6.—Editor 
| Forest and Stream: Have just returned from Denver, where 
I saw the head of s mountain trout, whose weight was 26 
pounds. J did not see the rest of the trout, but from the 
head should have judged him to have weighed at least 30 
pounds. Is this of the genus Salmo fontinalis? The fish 
/ was caught with a fly at the mouthof Bagle River,—Sprort, 
VirerniA Bass.—Mont View House, Front Royal, Va.— 
Bass fishing is good here now. Also have splendid gunning. 
Quail, grouse and wild turkeys are abundant, and deer are 
numerous,—J, M. §, ‘ 
Hishculture, 
GILLNETS FOR CODFISH. 
RESULT OF THE INTRODUCTION OF GILLNETS INTO THE AMER- 
ICAN FISHERIES, 
[A paper read before the American Fishcultural Association. | 
,BY CAPT, J. W. COLLINS. 
HE United State Fish’Commission, though it has in somany 
ways done a useful and important work in the artificial 
propagation of food fishes, has not confined itself solely to 
fishculture as a means for improving the American fisheries. 
it has accomplished quite as important objects by disseminat- 
ing among our fishermen knowledge of methods of fishing, 
etc., to which they were previously strangers, and which 
been of the utmost advantage to them for the successful pros- 
ecution of their work. The introduction of the use of gill- 
nets inthe codfisheries may be mentioned as an instance in 
point, and viewed in the light of results already attaimed 
(though we may yet consider this method of fishing only fairly 
_ begun), it seems not toa much to claim that the bringing about 
we 
of such an inovation in the ocean fisheries, is entitled to rank 
among the most important works of the Commission. The 
change that has been made in the method of taking cod and 
other species of the Gadidw, has proved of such immense ad- 
vantage to the New England fishermen that an entire reyo- 
lution has been created in the winter shore cod fishery, and it 
is difficult to predict to how great an extent the gillnet fishery 
for cod may be prosecuted inthe future. It is not possible 
now to ay Wwithany degree of certainty whether or not gill- 
nets may be successfully employed in the codfisheries of the 
outer banks, since a thorough and careful trial needs to be 
made to settle that question. A few unsatisfactory attempts 
aye already been made by the fishermen to use gillnets on 
the outer banks, but in no ease haye these trials been so ex- 
tensive and thorough as to demonstrate what might or might 
not be done, In consideration of the results which have already 
been attaimed, it seenis desirable that a brief historical sketch 
should be given here off the intreduction of gillnets into the 
codfisheries of the United States, and also of the varying suc- 
cess which has attended their use since they were first adopted 
by American fishermen. 
Though gillnets haye been long used in Northern Europe, 
more especially in Norway, as an apparatus for the capture 
of cod, and are considered by the Norwegians as quite indis- 
pensable, they have not, until recently, been employed by 
American fishermen. In 1878, Professor Spencer F. Baird, 
United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, knowing 
how profitably these nets were employed by the Norwegian 
fishermen, decided to make experiments with them at Cape 
n, with a yiew_to their introduction among the fishermen 
of this country. He accordingly secured a number,of the Nor- 
wefian nets, which were forwarded to Gloucester, and there 
tested by the employes of the Commission. 
Hxperiments were made when the winter school of cod 
were on the shore grounds in Massachusetts Bay, but the re- 
sults obtained were not satisfactory, owing chiefly to the fact 
that the nets were found far too frail for the large cod which 
frequent our coastin winter. This was apparent from the 
numerous holes in the nets, which indicated plainly thatlarge 
fish had torn their way through, none being retained except- 
ing those that had become completely rolled up in the twine. 
The current also swept the nets afoul of the rocky bottom, 
which injured them still more, so that they were soon ren- 
dered nearly unfit for use, They were invariably in bad order 
when hauled from the water, but even under such unfavor- 
able circumstances nearly a thousand pounds of fish were 
caught on one occasion. ‘This seemed to indicate that nets of 
sufficient strength might be used to good adyantage, at least 
on some of the smoother fishing grounds along the coast. 
These preliminary trials, therefore, haying demonstrated 
that nets could be employed advantageously in the American 
codfisheries, Professor Baird availed himself of the first chance 
that offered for obtaining definite knowledge of the methods 
of netting cod in Norway, with the intention of disseminating 
this information among the American cod fishermen, 
The opening of the International Fishery Hxhibition at Ber- 
lin, Germany, inthe spring of 1880, presented a favorable op- 
portunity for accomplishing this purpose. Professor Baird 
haying appointed me as one of the commission to attend 
the exhibition on the staff of Professor G, Brown Goode, de- 
sired that I should make a careful study of the foreign methods 
of deep-sea fishery as represented at the exhibition. The 
method of capturing cod with gillnets, as practiced by the 
Norwegian fishermen, was mentioned as a subject which 
should receive especial consideration. 
In the meantime, Professor Baird offered to lend the nets to 
any responsible fisherman who would give them a fair and 
thorough test. But the fishermen were conservative and hesi- 
tated to adopt any “‘new-fangied notions” for catching fish. 
This disinclination to try the new method was due chiefly to 
the fact that fishermen cannot usually afford toe spend any 
time in making experiments, especially when they feel fairly 
eee of good returns by continuing in their old ways of 
shing. 
Mention has been made of the introduction and trial of cod 
gillnets by the United States Fish Commission in 1878, but no 
attempt was made by the fishermen to use them until the fall 
of 1850, when Capt. George H. Martin, of Gloncester, Mass., 
master of the schooner Northern Hagle, fitted out with them 
for the winter codfisheries off Cape Ann and in Tpswich Bay. 
The immediate cause which lead to this trial was the difficulty 
of getting a supply of bait, the procuring of which is a source 
of considerable trouble te our shore fishermen, and its cost, 
even when obtainable, is such a heavy tax on this branch of 
the fishing industry that often the fishermen hesitate to en- 
gage in it, fearing that the result may be aloss rather than a 
gain. It was to obyiate this difficulty about bait, and to 
render our codfisheries more valuable in consequence, that 
led Prof. Baird to bring the cod gillnets to the notice of 
the American fishermen. The bait principally depended upon 
by the shore fishermen in the vicinity of Cape Ann, during the 
fall and early winter, is young herring (Chypea harengus), 
known as the “‘spirling.” The appearance of these fish about 
the Cape is somewhat uncertain; sometimes large schools re- 
main for several weeks, and at other times but a few can be 
taken. There was so little prospect of getting a supply of bait 
in the season of 1880, that Capt. Martin hesitated about fit- 
ting out for trawling, fearing that the cost and difficulty of 
securing a supply of this article, which is indispensable to the 
trawl-hne fishery, would render the undertaking unprofitable. 
While the matter of fitting out in the old way was under con- 
sideration, gillnets were suggested by the father of Capt. 
Martin, an employe of the Fish Commission, as a means of 
solving the perplexities of the bait question, He thought the 
idea a good one, and, togéther with several of his crew, visited 
the station of the Commission at Gloucester, looked at the 
Norwegian nets that were there, and consulted with the agent 
in charge as to the probabilities of success. The result of this 
interview was that Capt. Martin decided to fit out and give 
the new method a thorough trial, and nets were therefore ob- 
tained for this purpose, part of them being supplied by the 
Fish Commission. 
Betore the trial trip was made Captain Martin had an inter- 
view with me at Gloucester, to get some additional informa- 
tion as to the management of the nets. I briefly explained to 
him the methods adopted by the Norwegians. He thought, 
however, that the netSmizht be “underrun,” as trawls some- 
times are, which woul@ enable one man to handle a gang of 
nets for which an entire boat’s crew, six to eight men, is re- 
quired in Norway. I could see no reason, myseif, why the 
nets could not be underrun, providing the current was not too 
strong and the water not too deep, It may be explained here 
that the Norwegians set their nets late in the day and take 
them up on the following morning, the apparatus being car- 
ried to the land, the fish removed from the meshes, and the 
gear prepared forsetting again. This involves a largeamount 
of labor and much loss of time, as compared with the method 
of underrunning, which may he considered ‘‘another Yankee 
invention.” 
When the nets areset for underrunning, the anchor is first 
thrown over, and twenty-tive fathoms of line paid out, when 
the buoy line is bent toit, The buoy and line are then thrown 
over, and the remainder of the anchor line, the end of the lat- 
ter being made fast to the nets, which are the next to follow, 
A middle buoy is attached to the center of the gang. When 
the nets are all out, the anchor line, with the buoy line at- 
tached, is veered out, and last of all the anchoris thrown 
over, which finishes the werk. The nets are usually set in the 
afternoon, and allowed to remain im the water for several 
days, unless for some reason the yessel leaves the fishing 
ground, Wyen then, when the vessels haye been forced to 
seek the shelter of a harbor during a storm, the nets have 
frequently been left out. Fish are caught only at night, and, 
consequently, the nets are underrun only in the morning, 
unless the men are detained by unfayorable weather until 
later in the day. In underrunning, the fisherman goes to one 
of the bnoys on the end of his gang of nets, takes itm the 
dory, and hauls away on the buoy line, the buoy being thrown 
out on the other side and the line allowed torun ont on one 
side as fast as itis hauledin onthe other. When the anchor 
line (or underrunning line, as ib is sometimes called) is up, it is 
taken across the dory, and the fisherman hauls along toward 
the nets, The gearis underrun by pulling the nets in on one 
side of the dory, and, as fast as the fish are removed, al 
the apparatus to pass over the otherside into the water, the 
allowing 
anchors, which remain firmly fixed in the bottom, holding the 
nets in position until the wook is accomplished, When the 
end of the gang is reached, it is thrown off the dory, and the 
nets remain setting as before, needing no further attention 
until the next day. 
As will be readily understood, this method of fishing can be 
carried on with the minimum of labor, and it has also this ad- 
ditional advantage, namely: While the gear is still out, the 
vessel may take her morning's catch to the market, or, if the 
weather is threatening, she may quietly remain at anchor 
oyer night in the nearest harbor, though, in themeantime, her 
nets are fishing. 
Ipswich Bay, where the nets haye been chiefly used, more 
particularly in the winters of 1880-81 and 1881~82, lies north of 
the prominent headland of Cape Ann, which divides it from 
the waters of Massachusetts Bay on the south. A sandy beach 
extends along the northern and western sides of the bay, and 
the bottom sinks gradually from this, only reaching a depth of 
twenty-five or thirty fathoms at a distance of several miles 
from the land. The bottom of the bay is a sloping and sandy 
plateau, with only here and there small patches of rocks or 
clay, supporting but a small amount of animal] life that may 
serve as food for the cod. Itis, therefore, a spawning rather 
than a feeding ground for these fish, and large schools visit 
the bay during the winter for the purpose of reproduction, and. 
generally remain until late in the spring, The nets are usually 
set along the northern portion of the bay, only a few miles 
from the shore, in about fifteen fathoms of water, where thsra 
is less current than at many other points along the coast. 
this connection may be mentioned a curious fact which 
has been observed concerning the fish that have been taken in 
Ipswich Bay during the past two or three winters, It is stated 
that a large portion of the fish caught in this bay have been 
netted on a small area not exceeding three-fourths of a mile 
in diameter. This piece of ground, Il have been told by the 
fishermen, for a considerable portion of the season seems to 
be swarming with cod, while the adjacent bottom appears to 
be quite barren of fish, According to Capt. 8. J. Martin, the 
center of this area bears south by west from Whalesback 
Light, Portsmouth, and southwest by west from the light- 
house on the Isle of Shoals, Itissomewhat irregular in out- 
line, the fishermen say, judging from where the fish are taken, 
but so far as anything can be told of its physical conforma- 
tion it does not differ at all from the rest of the sandy slope 
immediately surrounding it, Itis said that there is no “feed” 
on the bottom, The fishermen have a curious theory that there 
are fresh-water springs in this particular locality, around 
which the cod love to gather. nor, indeed, can they assign any 
other reason, since there appears to be no special feature in the 
character of the bottom to attract the fish. So persistent are 
the cod in clinging to this locality that it almost invariably 
follows that nets placed within its limits come up well filled 
with fish, while gear that is set a dozen or twenty fathoms 
outside get very few, if any, cod. The fishermen confess that 
itis a mystery to them, and they are exceedingly puzzled to 
know how the fish get there and escape the walls of netting 
which surround this spot in all directions. They do not be- 
lieve it possible that enough cod could be there at once to fill 
the nets night after night for months, and they arrive at the 
conclusion that the fish must reach the place during the day, 
at which time they are supposed to rise above and swim over 
the nets that bar their progress near the bottom, and which, 
of course, can be seen by: daylight.* 
The results that were obtained from the use of nets by the 
Northern Hagie, during the winter of 1880-81, were con- 
sidered very remarkable. The amount of codfish taken in the 
first three trials (which were madein Massachusetts Bay) in 
unfavorable weather and with inferior nets, was 4,000, 6,000 
and 7,000 pounds respectively. On a trip ending Jan. 11, 35,- 
000 pounds of cod were taken by the Northern Hagle, $,000 
pounds of which were caught in a single morning. Two other 
vessels, which were absent the same Jength of time, fishing at 
the same place with trawls, got only 4,000 and 8,000 pounds 
respectively. After that time she made another trip, takin; 
the same amount, 35,000 pounds, in four days’ ishing. 18,0) 
pounds of which were caughtin one day. On this day the 
schooner Christie Campbell, of Portsmouth, set ten trawls 
(each trawl having 1,000 hooks) close to the nets. The 10,000 
hooks caught 2,000 pounds of fish to the 10,000 taken in the 
nets. 
The Northern Eagle began fishing with nets on Nov. 27, 1880, 
and as early as Jan. 20, 1881, she had taken 111,000 pounds of 
eod. None of the trawlers during that time caught more than 
one-third of that amount, though they were fishing at the 
same place, The netted fish were much larger than those 
taken onthe trawls, averaging during the first six weeks’ 
fishing twenty-three pounds each. Among these were indi- 
yiduals which weighed seventy-five and eighty pounds a piece, 
but there were no small fish, such as are frequently taken on 
trawls, and which can be sold only at reduced prices. This, 
it may be stated, has inyariably besn the case when gillnets 
have been used. Noimmature fish or what is termed as “trash” 
by the fishermen, have been taken. At first the nets met with 
the same opposition from the trawl-line fishermen that trawls 
did—when first introdueed—from the hand-liners some thirty 
years ago, Notwithstanding, however, thatmany of the fisher- 
men were inclined at the start to inveigh against ‘‘building a 
tence” to peyent the fish from moying about on the bottom 
it was not long before they all began to realize the advantage 
of using gillmets. It is said whenever in port the deck of the 
Northern Eagle was crowded with fishermen, anxious to learn 
about the method of capture which she had adopted. Before 
the close of the first winter seyeral vessels, both from Glouces- 
ter and othér ports, fitted out to a greater or less extent with 
nets. Asarule these schooners commenced their operations 
so late in the season that they could not make a fair test of 
the gillnets, for the schools of spawning fish that had been in 
Ipswich Bay began to leave the shore grounds soon after the 
vessels began operations. 
Gillnet-fishinge for cod and pollock opened fayorably in the 
winter of 1882, but the shore codfish were much less abundant 
during the greater part of that winter than in the previous 
year; and consequently the success of this branch of the 
fisheries was nob so pronounced as has generally been the 
case, 
Writing under date of Noy. 15, 1881, Captain Martin says: 
“JT find that pollock will mesh as well as codfish, The first 
night the schooner Maud Gertrude set her nets, twelve in num- 
ber, they caught 5,000 pounds of pollock and 2,000 pounds of 
cod. The nets were set on ‘‘Brown’s.” [This is a small rocky 
shoal lying off to the sontward of Eastern Point, atthe entrance 
to Gloucester harbor.] * * * Captain Gill told me that if 
the nets had eight-inch meshes, they could get them full of 
pollock. The ten-inch mesh catches large pollock, some of 
them weighing 20, 21 and 211g pounds.” The nets are often 
very badly torn by the polleck, which is well known to bea 
remarkably strong and active fish. ; 
ft does not seem necessary that I should go into detailed 
statements of statistics of the amount taken each season, since 
the following instances that are given of catches made on vari- 
ous occasions will, L think, serve to convey a fair idea of the 
results obtained. \ 
Although the winter of 188182 was unquestionably the 
least productive of any season since the introduction of gull- 
nets into the shore codfishery, we find that the catches were 
* Captain §. J, Martin, writing from Gloucester to Professor Baird 
under date of Jan, 7, 1884, says: ‘‘In_ Ipswich Bay the fish are in one 
place. Four hundred nets are setina place one-half mile wide by 
olie-half mile long. The nets are across one another, The vessels 
have set their nets all over the bay, but find only afew scattering 
fish except in that one spot. There they get good hauls every morn- 
ing when there is a chance to haul the nets, * * * The fishermen 
think strangely of the fish being in one place, They can find nothing 
(there) to keep them alive.” : 
