6 -THE FYKE NETS AND FYKE-NET FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 
WITH NOTES ON THE FYKE NETS OF OTHER COUNTRIES. 
BY HUGH M. SMITH, M. D. 
DEFINITION OF THE FYKE NET. 
The inquirer who goes to the standard books of reference with a view to learn 
the distinguishing features of the fyke net will be disappointed at the meager 
definitions given by the few authorities who make any mention of it. Although the 
fyke net is one of the most important forms of fishing apparatus employed in the 
United States and is used in a more or less modified form in nearly every country in 
the world, no reference is made to it in the Encyclopedia Britannica, Chamber’s 
Encyclopedia, Appleton’s (American) Encyclopedia, or in any other similar works to 
which the writer has had access. The dictionary of Worcester, under the word 
‘-fyke,” says: “A bow net for catching shad. [Local, U. S.]” Aside from the facts 
that the name is anything but local in the United States and that the net is used in 
the capture of a hundred aquatic animals besides shad, the name bow net Is seldom, 
if ever, applied to it and should be restricted to other forms of nets that are properly 
and commonly so called. The definition of “bow net” in the same work — “a net 
made of twigs bowed” — indicates that the nature of the fyke net was not understood. 
In Webster’s dictionary a somewhat better, though far from exact or complete, idea 
of the net is given: “A long bag net distended by hoops, into which a fish can pass 
easily, without being able to return.” The fullest account of a fyke net which has 
been met with is contained in the Century dictionary; it is as follows: 
A kind of fish trap, consisting of a bag net distended by boops ; a bow net. The trap is set in 
water about 10 feet deep at high tide. The fish coining from either direction are led to the trap by a 
leader running from the shore. The outer openings are formed on a hoop from 3 to 6 feet in diameter ; 
they have two or three funnels, similar to those of an eel or lobster pot, and gradually decrease in 
size. The whole trap is about 10 feet long. It is largely used in New York and Connecticut waters. 
This definition, if not incorrect, is, considering the recognized authority of its 
source, disappointing. So far as it may be intended to apply to one special form of fyke 
net it is satisfactory, but there are dozens of types to which it would have no appli- 
cation. In the first place, there is no reasonable limit to the depth of water in which 
fykes may be set. Some, operated like lobster pots, are dropped from the side of a 
vessel or boat into 20 or 50 feet of water ; others are set in water only a few feet deep. 
It is not every fyke that fish may enter from either direction, many being so constructed 
that the entrance of fish is possible from only one point. The leader is an unessential 
part of a fyke, and there are many types of such a net having no leader. Some fykes 
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