FYKE NETS AND FYKE-NET FISHERIES. 
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places is the prevalent form. It is usually known as a “ set of fykes.” It consists of 
two separate bags arranged with the openings opposite each other and connected on 
one side by netting, while from the other side wings and leader diverge. Each bag is 
18 feet long and has 6 hoops and 2 funnels, the largest hoop being 5£ feet in diameter, 
the smallest 4 feet, the gradation between the hoops being about 3 inches. The leader; 
made of netting with a 3^-inch mesh, is 120 feet long; the wings are about half that 
length or less. Striped bass, perch, shad, herring, catfish, eels, and pike are secured. 
In Caroline County a fyke net made of wire bagging and net wings was used some 
years ago. The nets in this county are mostly the “ set of fykes” just described. 
The “set of fykes” is also used in Talbot County, where the fykes proper are 
called “pockets”; they are 12 to 18 feet long, with a 2| or 3 inch mesh; there are 5 
hoops, from 3 to 6 feet in diameter, and usually two funnels; the hedging is 50 to 75 
yards long. In the Wye Eiver region, small single fykes, 8 feet long and 2 feet in 
diameter, are used for herring. 
In Queen Anne County fykes with a leader and straight or curved wings are the 
commonest form in use. In the Chester Eiver the fykes are almost always set like 
pound nets, with “forebays” and “hedging.” At Centerville a net with straight 
wings, a leader, and 5 hoops, is called a “set of fykes.” The catch in this county 
consists chiefly of striped bass, yellow perch, catfish, herring, and pike; pike are said 
to very frequently escape after being caught. 
The fykes set in the Potomac Eiver are mostly similar to the ordinary winged 
nets of the eastern shore of Maryland, which have already been described. They are 
set in water 4 to 6 feet deep, usually in creeks, with the mouth toward the incoming- 
tide. They are also sometimes set in strings across the bed of a creek or at the mouth 
of an inlet. Five to 8 nets are arranged side by side in a straight row, with about 25 
feet of netting between each adjoining pair, and with a wing from 60 to 120 feet long 
extending from each end net, forming an obtuse angle with the line of nets and having 
an inward turn at the end. The nets employed in this river are set during the fall 
and winter and catch chiefly pike, catfish, eels, yellow perch, white perch, and suckers; 
terrapin or “sliders” are also caught in small numbers. 
VIRGINIA. 
The close proximity to Maryland, the similar topographical conditions, and the 
similarity of the fishes taken would seem to insure to Virginia a fyke-net fishery of 
similar importance and extent to that existing in the adjoining State. Such, however, 
is not the case ; on the contrary, the number of these nets found in Vinginia is only one- 
thirtieth that used in Maryland and the catch is correspondingly less. The principal 
feature regarding the fykes of Virginia is their relatively high value and large stock 
as compared with Maryland. While the average value of the nets in the latter State 
is less than $4, in the former it is about $17 ; and while the average value of the 
catch in Maryland is only $6 per net, in Virginia it is nearly $40. 
Fykes are employed in 14 counties in this State bordering on the Chesapeake Bay 
and the numerous tributary rivers and bays. They are most numerous and most pro- 
ductive in York County, although Gloucester, James City, and Northampton counties 
have rather important fisheries. The nets used are in great part similar to those found 
in Maryland, and need not again be described. The prominent species taken are 
squeteague, striped bass, spots, croakers, shad, white perch, and catfish. 
