316 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Mr. 0. G. Atkins, of the G. S. Fish. Commission, in a report* on the river fisheries 
of Maine, speaks of the fyke nets used in the smelt fishery as “ double bag nets, the 
large open-mouthed net in front leading by a narrow opening at its apex into a smaller 
one, termed the ‘pocket,’ from which, as from a weir, fish escape with difficulty. The 
fish are taken out by drawing up the 1 pocket,’ through a separate hole in the ice, and 
unlacing an opening at the bottom, the main part of the fyke remaining under water 
for weeks or months.” Mr. Atkins further says that “ the fyke has been used in 
various parts of the State, but does not appear to have given entire satisfaction. 
There is complaint of its being more difficult to clean of rubbish, anchor ice, etc., than 
the plain bag net, which has in some cases superseded it.” 
In the Wescongus or Pleasant River it was reported in 1880 that most of the 
smelt nets were fykes. “ They are set by attaching them to poles, which are planted 
through the ice into mud in a location where the water is 8 feet deep at low tide. The 
nets are set both on the flood and ebb tide, and hauled at both high and low water. 
Fishing begins as soon as the ice will bear, which is generally about December 10 
or 15, and continues till near April 1, the limit fixed by law.” 
In the Kennebec River, the introduction of small fykes was accomplished in 
1851. They were used in the river for many years, but the fykes have gradually been 
supplanted by the bag nets, introduced at the same time. 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
Fyke nets are used for commercial fishing in Essex, Barnstable, and Bristol coun- 
ties, in this State. They are most numerous and important in the last-named county, 
but, considering the entire State, are among the least productive of the forms of fishing 
apparatus there used. Only six persons were engaged in tending these nets in the 
last year covered by the inquiries of the Fish Commission, only fifteen typical nets 
were employed, and the product was less than 45,000 pounds. The fishes entering 
into the catch are chiefly scup, flounders, butter-fish, and cunners, of which the scup 
are the most important. The catch consisted of 44,655 pounds, valued at $1,400, of 
which 39,165 pounds, worth $1,098, were taken in Bristol County. The quantities of 
each species were as follows : 
Products of the fyke-net fishery of Massachusetts. 
Species. 
Pounds. 
Value. 
Butter-fish 
2, 650 
$82 
Cunners 
2, 340 
10, 200 
29, 465 
210 
Flounders 
264 
Scup 
844 
Total 
44, 655 
1,400 
It may be stated that there are also used in parts of Massachusetts numbers of 
pot-like nets, as represented in plate lxxiv, fig. 1, which have been regarded as forms 
of fykes by the writer but were classed as pots in the canvass of the fisheries by the 
agents of the Fish Commission. 
* The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, section V, vol. i. History and 
Methods, p. 692. 
