496 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



show great fluctuation in the abundance of the fish in the nets from day to day in 

 fall and spring and in the date of appearance and disappearance with the season. 



The foregoing records are for the main lake, but reports concerning the Saginaw 

 Bay schools, while more detailed, are little different in character. I am indebted to 

 John Trudell and John Lixy, of East Tawas, for the records for that port and to 

 W. P. Cavanaugh and Fabian Willets, of Bay City, for the records for the rest of the 

 bay. The herring apparently move into the bay from the lake. About the middle 

 of October the schools begin to appear in the pounds in 10 to 40 feet of water on 

 clay bottom off East Tawas. A few days later they appear in the pounds on sand at 

 White Stone Point, and about the first of November they are along the south shore 

 of the bay. The fish remain at each of the above localities, except East Tawas, to 

 spawn. At East Tawas only the small fish are left after November 20. Near the 

 mouth of the bay some are known to remain under the ice. Id the spring they are 

 not found commonly at the south end of the bay. At Point au Gres none appear 

 until April 20 to 25. At East Tawas they appear by May 15 and stay until July 15. 

 At the Charity Islands they are said to occur until June 10 to 15. Huge swarms 

 of small herring 1^2 or 2 inches long are said to precede the runs of larger ones by 

 a week in the fall along the shore from East Tawas to White Stone Point. They are 

 not so common south of the latter point. There are few of these small fish in the 

 spring. No one has identified these small fish positively, and they may be species 

 of Notropis, which abound on the sandy shores of the lake. 



There are few sources of data on the behavior of the herring on the Canadian 

 shore, but such information as has been collected indicates that the Canadian fish 

 behave as their brethren on the other side of the lake. At Wiarton, in Georgian Bay, 

 Dan MacDonald says that the herring appear in his pounds in Colpoys Bay at any 

 time during the fishing season until October, but that the biggest run is during the 

 month of June. Throughout the season, however, the schools come and go without 

 apparent reason. The hydrographic map shows only a very narrow shelf along the 

 shore in this region, which possibly supports little food, and the herring thus are driven 

 to seek food in the open bay. Their absence in the fall is due, no doubt, to the lack of 

 suitable breeding grounds in Colpoys Bay. The bottom here is chiefly mud. The 

 race at Cutler (manitoulinus) in the North Channel is occasionally the object of com- 

 mercial fishing operations, particularly in the fall. Alex Purvis, of Gore Bay, who 

 has fished the Cutler herring, says that one year about November 5 they were taken 2 

 miles outside of Johns Island, toward Gore Bay, in 8 to 10 fathoms. By the 10th they 

 were around the islands in Cutler Bay in 12 feet of water. They enter the bay to 

 spawn and usually remain about three weeks. After spawning they leave abruptly 

 and are seen no more until the nets are put in in the spring. After the month of May 

 they are gone once more until the following November. Where they spend the re- 

 maining portion of the year no one knows. It might be inferred from their dark 

 coloration that they do not simy far from the neighborhood of the Spanish River, 

 whose muskeg waters empty into the bay. 



Data on summer occurrence. — The herring are not followed by fishermen after 

 they move out of shallow water in June. Only a few casual observations made by 

 the fishermen and by me are available for the period during which the herring are 

 offshore. Various fishermen have told me that occasionally they see schools swim- 



