846 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
river, they distribute themselves about the falls where the strong current renders 
them inaccessible to fishermen. The fish work upstream into numerous channels 
between various islands lying amid the rapids. During summer low water fishermen 
at one time prepared traps to capture the fish in these channels by constructing wooden 
slides at favorable points in the rapids. The fish, forced to descend the rapids through 
lowered river level, were guided onto the slides and were forced to remain against 
slats by the pressure of the current and could be easily removed by the fishermen. 
As many as 300 fish of 30 pounds each have been removed from a slide in a single 
day. This efficient fishing device has been recently outlawed by the State of North 
Carolina. (See fig. 25.) 
The striped bass congregate at the foot of the rapids at Weldon and are taken 
in large quantities during the spawning season by skim nets. A skim net consists 
of a large bow frame of hickory, about 6 feet long and 4 feet wide, to which is hung 
a linen net about 6 feet deep and 1%-inch square mesh. The bow frame is fastened 
to a stout wooden pole at least 20 feet long. Two such nets may be fished from a 
small power boat simultaneously but a man must sit in the stem of the boat and 
keep it broadside to the river current as it drifts downstream. A fisherman usually 
stands amidship holding the net in a rigid vertical position against the gunwale with 
the bow frame lifted a few inches from the river bottom. The touch of a fish against 
the net signals the fisherman who quickly lifts the net vertically out of the water and 
deposits the fish in the boat. The catch consists chiefly of ripe fish from which eggs 
and milt are taken for artificial propagation. 
Most commercial fishery methods for the capture of striped bass are confined, 
through legal restrictions, to more open areas than narrow river channels and rapids. 
Pound nets, haul seines, and gill nets effectively take the fish from Rhode Island to 
North Carolina. Salt-water areas provide the most abundant catches in northern 
waters while brackish and fresh-water estuaries and rivers afford the best fishing 
from Chesapeake Bay south. Sunken gill nets are used in winter and drift gill nets 
in summer. Pound nets or trap nets are most advantageous along the open coast 
line and off river mouths. Haul seines are favored in large estuaries and purse seines, 
now outlawed, were formerly employed to capture schooling striped bass in Chesa- 
peake Bay. No commercial fishery for the striped bass now exists in California; the 
species is reserved for hook-and-line sportsmen. 
Commercial catch statistics for striped bass from the waters of Maryland, Virginia, 
North Carolina, and the Middle Atlantic States are given in figure 26. The annual 
catch records show a decreasing supply of fish despite the more efficient gear employed. 
The catch in Maryland decreased from a peak of 1,413,000 pounds in 1925 to 314,000 
pounds in 1933. The striped bass in various Middle Atlantic States has provided an 
annual catch of less than 207,000 pounds (40,000 pounds in 1933) since the early part 
of the present century although this area in 1889 produced over a million pounds of 
the fish. North Carolina, relatively free from coastal river obstructions and wide- 
spread industrial water pollution, shows a decrease in the catch from 1,175,000 pounds 
in 1902 to 362,000 pounds in 1934. Virginia, however, shows a steady catch at about 
one-half million pounds annually. 
The intensity of the fishery for striped bass in upper Chesapeake Bay may be 
estimated by the high return of released fish in a marking experiment conducted in 
1931. A total of 29 percent of the 305 released fish were recaptured by fishermen 
within 2 years, and about 20 percent of these fish were retaken within 6 months after 
