254 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
tents being about six feet long, five feet wide, and high enough for a man to stand up in them. 
These tents are covered with cloth, heated by a stove, and lighted usually by a lantern. I have 
known the temperature of my tent to vary, however, 60 degrees within 10 minutes during a cold 
day. 
A hole about six feet long and eight inches wide is cut in the ice, and the tent set lengthwise 
of this. Six lines attached to a pole fastened to the plates of the tent hang into the water nearly 
eight inches apart. These lines, during fishing hours, are always kept in motion. 
The way the fishermen handle these lines, how they can bait the hooks and slat smelts, when, 
as they say, they are “ taking holt,” is certainly wonderful. I have known one man to catch 100 
pounds in less than one hour. This means at least 1,000 fish, or about 17 a minute. One smelter 
has been known to catch 500 pounds during one tide’s fishing. Some have made $25 to $30 a day, 
and others $200 in a few weeks. But these big catches are only made by those expert in fishing. 
The chances are that a green hand would starve the first winter if dependent wholly on what fish 
he caught. 
During the fishing season politics, religion, war and all other subjects generally discussed in 
the stores are dead issues. Nothing but smelts is talked about; nothing but fish discussed by 
the fishermen. The usual salutation when meeting another is: “How many?” 
It is a beautiful sight some still, cold, morning to watch the streams of white smoke belching 
out of a hundred stove pipes and slowly ascend almost perpendicular 100 feet in the air. From a 
distance these little houses huddled together remind one of some miniature city. Sometimes when 
the Bay first freezes these villages come into existence with as little notice as that of a mining 
settlement. 
The smelts are all shipped to Boston and New York markets. 
For about the same period (1899-1900) the report of the commissioner of sea 
and shore fisheries of Maine (Nickerson, 1901) indicates a continued prosperous 
smelt fishery in that State. It says that from this business (considered small and 
practically of no account by those who do not know about it) in the year 1900 the 
State derived a revenue to its fishermen of $77,074, the yield being 1,017,434 
pounds. The total investment in boats and gear, weirs and camps used in this 
business in 1900 was $25,398, or about $26 to each person engaged in the fishery, 
which numbered 977 persons, men and boys. All the counties on the coast except- 
ing Knox, Cumberland, and York prosecuted the fishing largely through ice from 
camps, while the Waldo County catch was taken without the use of either weirs or 
camps, and that of York County entirely with hook and line. Most of the fishermen 
carry on the fishing but a few weeks and in some sections but a few days, still the men 
engaged average about $80 each. As compared with the previous year (1899) the 
catch and money return increased somewhat over the latter year, and the men fish- 
ing increased from 830 to 977. Large shipments continued to be made to Boston 
and New York markets. 
The commissioner’s report for 1903 and 1904 (Nickerson, 1905), states that the 
aggregate yield for the term of the report was greater than shown in any previous 
report; the catch of 1903 was very large compared with previous years, being an 
increase of 343,000 pounds over 1901. The average price in 1903 was 11 cents per 
pound, a higher average than in previous years, which showed a good demand in 
the markets of New York and Boston, where the fish are principally shipped by the 
fishermen direct. The report says: 
While the winter fishing is much pursued as a sport these fishermen receive very good wages 
while thus engaged fishing through the ice. 
