FYKE NETS AND FYKE-NET FISHERIES. 
345 
The following table gives the quantity and value of the principal fishes taken in 
Lake Erie in 1890 : 
Products of the fyke-net fishery of Lake Erie. 
Species. 
Michigan. 
Ohio. 
Total. 
Pounds. 
V alue. 
Pounds. 
Value. 
Pounds. 
Value. 
Black bass 
Catlish 
Perch 
Pike 
Saucers 
Wall eyed pike 
; Other fish 
. Turtles .... 
500 
30. 000 
20. 000 
1, 980 
8, 000 
1,520 
25, 000 
$30 
750 
200 
99 
240 
76 
125 
82, 085 
346, 250 
283, 670 
314, 440 
360, 855 
720 
1, 006, 925 
25, 705 
$4, 504 
2’, 240 
15, 193 
3, 816 
36 
7, 150 
514 
82, 585 
376 250 
303, 670 
316, 420 
368, 855 
2, 240 
1, 031, 925 
25, 705 
$4, 534 
7,670 
2,440 
15, 292 
4. 056 
112 
7, 275 
514 
Total 
87, 000 
1,520 
2, 420, 650 
40, 373 
2, 507, 650 
41, 893 
The fyke-net fishery of Lake Erie is more extensive than at any previous time. 
While no figures exist for making detailed comparisons between its present and past 
importance, some notes relating to the years 1880 and 1885 can be presented, and for 
the latter year the number and value of nets can be shown. 
Of Maumee Bay it was stated in 1880 that “a few fyke nets are in use for catch- 
ing ‘panfish,’ but their products are of no considerable extent.” On the shore of 
Monroe County, in the same year, there were 14 fishermen using 35 fykes. Only 50 
nets were reported in the Sandusky region. Between Locust Point and Ottawa 30 
nets were in use, and at Huron 20 were noted. 
In 1885, when a comprehensive investigation of the methods and statistics of the 
fisheries of this lake was made by the U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, the num- 
ber of fyke nets employed was 1,069, valued at $62,148, distributed as follows: 
Fyke nets employed-in Lake Erie in 1885. 
Sections. 
No. of 
nets. 
Monroe County, Mich 
43 
39 
76 
893 
12 
5 
Maumee Bay, Ohio 
Locust Point to Port Clinton, Ohio 
Sandusky Bay and the outlying islands, Ohio 
Cuyahoga County, Ohio 
Lake and Ashtabula counties, Ohio 
Erie County, Pa 
Total .■ 
1, 069 
Of the 1,021 nets credited to Ohio, 893 were set in Sandusky Bay and around the 
islands lying off that region. The following notes on the fisheries of the principal 
regions are taken from the report* already quoted. Beferring to Monroe County, 
Mich., which occupies the extreme western end of the lake, it was stated that — 
Between October 15 and April 15 a number of fyke nets are fished for the same species as are 
taken in the seines [bullheads, black bass, rock bass, perch, pike perch, grass pike, suckers, and 
herring]. They are located as follows: Six in Huron River near its mouth, 16 within the mouth of 
Swan Creek, and 15 in Plum Creek and Pleasant Bay. Each fyke consists of two staked and 
anchored funnels of netting, each 12 feet long, one opening into the other, and a 190-foot leader. The 
first funnel has a mouth 4 feet in diameter and an opening at the small end of the diameter of 1£ 
* Review of the Fisheries of the Great Lakes. 
