FYKE NETS AND FYKE-NET FISHERIES. 
317 
RHODE ISLAND. 
Considering the length of its eoast line, Bhode Island has a rather extensive fyke- 
net fishery compared with the other States of this region. Nets are set in three coast 
counties, between 100 and 200 nets being operated in each county. The nets employed 
in Bhode Island present the same general features of construction and shape as 
those in New York, although some types peculiar to the State are used. The fykes are 
most valuable in Washington County, most numerous and productive in Kent County, 
and relatively the most important in Newport County. The 43 fisherman have ou an 
average 9 nets each, with a boat to each 18 nets and each 2 men. The average catch 
to a net is about 305 pounds, worth $8. The fishery at the present time is essentially 
a flounder fishery, flounders being the only commercial fish taken. Of the 114,250 
pounds secured, about 50,000 pounds, valued at $1,200, were caught in Kent County; 
35,000 pounds, worth $1,050, in Newport County, and 29,250 pounds, valued at $795, 
in Washington County. Most of the fishing is done in winter under the ice. 
Compared with 1 880, the fyke-net fishery of Bhode Island has undergone a notice- 
able decline as well a marked change in methods and in the fish taken. In that year, 
865 nets, valued at $7,530, were set in the waters of the State. Of Little Narragansett 
Bay and Pawcatuck Biver it was stated: 
There are fully fifty fyke nets employed. They are set thus : At the center of one side of the 
heart of a pound net a hoop fyke is attached, opening into the heart; when the net is lifted, instead 
of “hunting” the net toward the further end of the howl and then hailing the fish out, as is usually 
done, they are driven into one of the hearts, and thence into the fyke; the end of this is lifted into a 
hoat into which the fish are emptied. The mesh in these fykes is very fine. Fyke-nets are also set 
all along the shore in shallow water, and catch chiefly hass, flounders, and perch. * 
The most numerous and generally distributed fyke net now employed in the State 
has two diverging wings and a leader, as represented in plate lxxv, fig. 2. The wings 
are 18 to 20 feet long, and the leader is 50 to 100 feet long, depending on the nature of 
the locality in which the net is set. About 5 stakes are usually required to support the 
leader, which is 3 to 4 feet deep. The wings are kept in position by a single stake at 
their outer ends, the inner end being attached to the first hoop. The bag is about 15 
feet long or less and is distended by 3 or 4 hoops, the first being 3i to 4 feet in diame- 
ter, each succeeding hoop decreasing in size by 6 or 8 inches. Some nets have 1 
funnel and some 2 funnels. The net is kept in place by a painter or stayline attached 
to the end of the pocket and made fast by a half hitch to a stake driven in the bottom. 
The cost ol such a net is $6 to $10. The manner of rigging the nets is often varied 
somewhat by different fishermen. In Little Narragansett Bay, for instance, a fyke 
has recently been used with a square entrance and a prism- shaped funnel leading into 
the cavity of the net. This feature the fishermen think is an advantage over the 
ordinary circular entrance in the case of large fykes set in comparatively deep water. 
The nets are usually set in shoal water. In somedocalities tautog, in addition to 
flatfish, are now caught. The fishing season is fall and winter. Fishing under the ice 
is considered more profitable than in the open water and is the customary method 
pursued, owing to the fact that the products then command a much higher price than 
during the season of open water. 
A peculiar form of apparatus used at Apponaug during the past three years for 
taking flatfish resembles in some respects both the fyke net and the pot, but seems more 
* Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, section ii, p. 310. 
