The Opelousas courier., 1893-04-22
FISHING ON THE LAKES.
N IMPORTANT WINTER INDUS
TRY OF THE WEST.
Fhe Fish Supply for Eight Great
States The Kind of Boats and
Nets Used in the Business.

or of greater public Importance
G than the fisheries of the great
lakes. The charming blue of the waters,
their freshness, the beauty of the species
of fish taken aud the methods employed
render them very picturesque as we'll.
From the depths of these great seas are
taken tens of thousands of tons of fish
every year, and the food supply of at
least eight States is vastly richer and
better for it. Lake whitefsh, trout and
pike find a welcome place in their season
on the menus of hotels throughout the
North, and caviar is manufactured of
such quality and quantity that not only
the home demand is supplied in the
main, but a considerable amount is ex-
ported to Germany and other European
countries.
Each lake has a distinct character in
its fisheries. Whitefsh are the great fish
of Lake Superior, lake trout of Huron
and Michigan, and herring and blue pike
of Erie. All species are found in all the
lakes, and a considerable quantity OF
each is taken in every one of them, but
the predominant species caught gives in-
dividuality and character to the whole,
In size of catch Erie ranks first, with
Michigan second, Huron a close third
and Superior fourth. Lake Erie alone
yields about twenty-five thousand tons of
fish annually, two-6fths of which is lake
herring, a smaller species of the white
fish family that rarely exceeds a foot ID
length and a pound in weight, but rivals
the whitefsh itself IN beauty of scale and
the mother-of-pear effects of sunlight
on its silvery sides when taken from the
water. Blue pike comprises another
fifth, r~ivaling the color of fine blued
steel in splendid metallic luster.
About one-tenth is sturgeon, the
largest species of lake fish, and one of
the most uncanny looking. They are
more common in the eastern end of Lake
Erie, and sometimes reach many pounds
in weight. Their roes, which have been
taken weighing as much as sixty pounds,
when properly picked and splced, are
the caviar of commerce., while from their
bladders isinglass is made. This fish, in
the early days of lake fishing, was highly
esteemed, but smoked sturgeon is now
cured IN large quantities and sells read.
lily in all the principal markets of the
country. The remaining three 'tenths
are whitefsh, sangers or sandpike, perch
and bass.
More than half the great catch of
Lake Erie is sold while fresh. 1t IS
shipped on ice to all the cities aud
towns of Western New York and Penn
sylvania aud cfOhio and Indiana. About
5000 tons are sailed and sold over a
wide area in the familiar ''kits' and
quarter barrels, while 1000 tons are
frozen and 1900 smoked. The three
greater lakes together produce less than
SO, 900 tons annually, a total gigantic in
itself, but small indeed compared with
tbs product of little Erie.
The fisheries of the lakes are carried
on principally with two kinds of nets
the pound and the gill net. seines are
sometimes used, and grapnels are m
ployed to some extent in sturgeon fish
ing, but at least nlnety-fve per cent. Of
ali the fish taken is by the two means
named. The gill net is the only device
used in deep water. Where the depth
exceeds fifty feet the pound net is IN
profitable and impossible, and usually is
not employed in a greater depth than
TWENTY-FIVE feet. The gill net is about
six feet wide, a single sheet of meshes.
varying in openness with the size of fish
to be taken. Each net is about 300 feet
long, and they are set together in gangs
of forty to sixty nets.
Thus each stretch of gill nets is be-
tween three and four miles in length.
By means of floats on one side and sink
ers on the other it takes an upright posi-
ton on the bottom of the lake, where il
is anchored and its place marked by
buoys and little flags at the surface. The
fish in swimming up or down the lake
strike this May stretch of Irvine, push
through it if they can, and those that are
too large to pass through are caught by
the gilIs and held. It is a cruel method,
because if the net IS not lifted in a few
hours the fish is drowned and will then
soon become worthless. Not infre'
q~uently in November the storms prevent
a visit to the nets for several DAYS, and
often when they ale lifted under such
circumstances there are hundreds of dead
and bloated FISH in them.
The pound net is a much more humane
continuance. It takes the fish alive and
keeps them SO until the fishermen come
to remove them. It was first intro
duced en- the lakes about 1850, and is
the familiar net of Connecticut fisher
men. 1t has three parts-leaders, fun.
mel or heart and bowl or pot. The fish
strike the leaders, and if too large tt
pass through its meshes turn aside and
follow along to the funnel, and thence
through it into the bowl, from which
they rarely escape. Lifting a pound net
consist, accordingly, of simply raising
the bowl and scooping the fish from il
into the boat, while the whole gill ne
must be taken up and changed and
washed every time it is visited.
A few years ago the fishing tug was a
rarity. The dingy and pound-net sail
boat were almost universal. But with
the development of the industry the en-
pIoyment of the steam tNg Of from five
to twenty tons burden came in rapidly
A score of them are now in the business
in Erie, Penn, nearly as many in Cleve'
land, and many more in sandusky. They
will soon about entirely supplant the
sailboat, as steam is more certain thar
the tickle wind, and getting fish to mar
ket promptly is quite as important al
catching them, Lake Erie is now being