FYKE NETS AND FYKE-NET FISHERIES. 
341 
and maybe appropriately quoted, both for the information conveyed and the oppor- 
tunity offered for making comparison with present conditions. The u Review of the 
Fisheries of the Great Lakes ” contains the following references to this lake : 
Fyke fishing in Lake Michigan is confined largely to the waters at the southern end of Green 
Bay, in the vicinity of the city of that name, where they are fished extensively in the shoal waters 
and along the borders of the marshy flats. They are used to a small extent in other localities, but 
not in sufficient numbers to render the fishery important. 
Sixteen of the twenty-seven fykes owned in Oconto County belong at Pensaukee, and the 
remainder, with two exceptions, at Little Suamico. The kind used has a hoop 5 feet in diameter 
with wings 82 feet long and a 165 -foot leader. They are set in 6 to 10 feet of water in winter and in 
still shoaler water in summer. They are fished from the late winter to the early summer for perch, 
suckers, black bass, pike, and pickerel. 
The fyke net was first introduced into the fisheries of the region between Suamico and Green Bay 
City, Brown County, Wis., about twenty years ago, although prior to 1880 it was a rare occurrence 
for anyone to make a business of fishing with such apparatus. Scores of them are now in use, 
belonging usually to the gill-net or seine fishermen, though in some cases their owners are persons 
who do no other fishing. Occasionally single fykes are fished for pleasure or home supply. 
Those now used are from 4 to 6 feet in diameter at the mouth and have two funnels. The hearts 
contain 24 to 30 feet of netting each, and the leaders are 200 feet long, with a 4-inch mesh. Although 
the cost of a new one is $30 or $35, the average value of those actually in use can not be placed 
higher than $15 or $20. A small scow, 15 feet long, with a 4-foot beam, is usually employed in setting 
and lifting the nets. It is 3 feet wide at the bow and 24 feet at the stern. It has a centerboard, 
with a box 3f feet long, nine knees, a bottom rounding up at stem and stern, and a place to step mast 
forward. It is worth $12 or $15 when new. In those cases in which fykes are owned by pound-net 
fishermen they are fished from ordinary pound boats. They are set particularly in the mouth of Duck 
Creek, but also in the Fox River and the intervening sloughs along the bay shore. Each man fishes 
his own nets, without needing anyone to assist him. If the weather is bad he tends half his nets 
each day, but otherwise he lifts the whole number, usually about ten. The season extends through- 
out the entire year, with the exception of July and part of August. In winter the fykes are fished 
through holes cut in the ice. All the species common to the region are taken. The most successful 
fisherman obtained in 1884 nearly $600 worth of fish in twelve fykes. 
Between Bay Settlement, in Brown County, and Namur, in Door County, Wis., twenty fyke nets 
are fished throughout the year, on the shore between Green Bay and Wequiock, by four professional 
fishermen, each of whom operates five nets. The nets are about 104 feet long, with three or four 
hoops from 3 to 8 feet in diameter. The catch consisted of about 30,000 pounds of perch, pike, 
pickerel, herring, and suckers, valued at $500. 
At Little Sturgeon, in Door County, eight men, who gave their principal attention to the pound- 
net and gill-net fisheries, fished eighteen fyke nets, worth $350, from six weeks to two months in the 
spring, and occasionally in the summer and fall. Most of the nets are 20 feet long, with hoops 3 to 
34 feet in diameter and a 3-inch mesh. They are set close to the shore, the stakes being driven in 6 
feet of water. The catch in 1885 consisted of 24,900 pounds of perch, whitefish, suckers, bass, catfish, 
and pike, valued at $630. 
There were only ten fyke nets owned along the shore of Door County between Death’s Door and 
Sturgeon Bay in 1885, six of which were at Ephraim and four near Egg Harbor. The framework of 
these nets is composed of two or three iron hoops and a rectangular iron frame called the door. This 
is covered with netting, which is extended to form two long wings or leaders, one on each side, and 
there is a tunnel inside the door through which the fish are conducted into the interior. In a speci- 
men from which measurements were taken the dimensions of the door were 5 by 2 feet and the wings 
were each 83 feet long. There were two hoops about 4 feet iu diameter, and one 34 feet, with a wooden 
ring 1 foot in diameter at the inner end of the tunnel. The mesh was 44 inches in the wings and 24 
inches in the body of the trap. The other fyke nets are of different sizes, some smaller than the 
above and some much larger. The fishery is of very little importance, and in the summer and fall of 
1885 no more than four of the nets were used. Two of the fyke-net crews from Little Sturgeon fish 
during a portion of the year from Hat Island, off Egg Harbor. The catch consisted exclusively of bass 
and perch and amounted to 1,900 pounds, valued at $95. 
Although formerly of considerable importance in Milwaukee County, Wis., this fishery has of late 
deteriorated, chiefly on account of the polluted condition of the water flowing from the river, at the 
