314 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
The following table is a classification of the products of this industry, based on 
the nature of the water in which caught. The table is not entirely satisfactory, 
however, owing to the fact that the catfish and eels, which are classed as fresh-water 
fishes, are in small part taken in salt and brackish water, but can not be separately 
shown. 
Classification of the products of the fyke-net fisheries. 
Species. 
Pounds. 
Value. 
Salt-water products : 
Bluefish 
Butter-fish 
Flounders and flatfish . 
Menhaden 
Scup - 
29,350 
48, 850 
1, 744, 830 
743, 667 
72, 065 
53, 705 
209, 769 
33, 665 
54, 328 
97, 200 
20, 000 
12, 420 
$1,184 
880 
42, 211 
1 , 759 
2, 090 
6, 672 
1,549 
1, 542 
243 
125 
2, 845 
Spots and croakers 
Squeteague 
Tautog and ounners... 
Other fish 
Refuse fish 
King crabs 
Terrapins 
Total 
62, 338 
Anadromous fish : 
Alewives 
Frostfish or tomcod . . . 
Perch, white 
Shad 
391, 245 
77, 100 
246, 558- 
244, 453 
183, 757 
3,144 
1,842 
13,763 
10, 296 
15, 160 
Striped bass 
Total 
1, 143, 113 
44, 205 
Species. 
Pounds. 
Value. 
Fresh-water products : 
Bass 
Carp 
Catfish 
Eels 
Herring (lake) 
Perch, yellow 
Pike and pike perch... 
Suckers 
Trout (lake) 
Whitefish 
Other fish 
Turtles 
112, 803 
47, 915 
1, 472, 180 
407, 376 
333, 650 
1, 994, 543 
1, 183, 829 
917, 502 
15, 480 
9, 685 
1,485, 345 
25, 705 
$6, 551 
1,733 
44, 539 
19, 711 
4, 446 
36, 844 
44, 579 
18, 114 
645 
465 
17, 757 
514 
Total 
8, 006, 013 
195, 898 
Grand total 
12, 268, 975 
~ 302, 441 
FISHING SEASON, METHODS, MARKETS, ETC. 
The fishing season for fyke nets varies somewhat with the locality and with the fish 
taken, but in most places it continues throughout the spring, summer, and fall months. 
In the Great Lakes, Maine, Rhode Island, Chesapeake Bay, and elsewhere, consider- 
able fishing is also done under the ice. 
Fyke nets are usually tended in boats, but in a few localities the physical features 
are such that the fishermen can wade out to their nets and lift them. In some places 
the nets are lifted daily, in others only two or three times a week, the frequency 
depending on the abundance of fish, the state of the weather, the condition of the 
market, and, to a certain extent, on the kinds of fish taken. Most fykes are so con- 
structed as to provide for the removal of the fish from the final compartment, the end 
of which is closed by means of a purse string. The end of the net, being detached from 
the stake or anchor which holds it in position, is drawn into the boat and the contents 
are taken out without the necessity of loosening the entire net. Small nets, however, 
like the drop fykes in the Middle Atlantic States, are drawn bodily into the boat. 
When fykes are set under the ice, the pocket is reached and the fish are extracted 
through a hole in the ice, the body of the net remaining undisturbed, as in ordinary 
fishing. 
Nothing of special application can be said regarding the methods of handling the 
fish caught in fyke nets, the lines of distribution, the markets, etc. These vary with 
the locality and do not differ from the cases of other fisheries in the same regions. 
Fykes are often employed in conjunction with other apparatus, the catch in the differ- 
ent nets being shipped together. 
