The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1895-02-16
10000 SALMON AT ONE HAUL.
How the Fish Are Caught in Upper
Canada

IF to see how the magnificent salmon
OF the Pacific coast are caught almost takes
the heart out of man who loves to cast the
fly for these lordly fish, he would lose it
entirely if he ventured to Ungavy Bay. in
Upper Canada, and saw how they capture
salmon there
The speaker was Findlay C. Raynor
who Tor many years was an agent of the
Hudson Bay Company, and is now presi-
dent Of the new Raynor Oil Company.
1t was only few years ago that the
possibilities of the south coast of Uneavv
Bay and Hudson Straits in the way of sal
mon and lake trout fishing were discov-
cred, and to say that they are now being
worked for all they are worth is putting it
mildly. The salmon of that high lati-
tude are undoubtedly the finest in the
world, They are further north than any
other salmon taken on this continent. and
the lower the temperature Of the water the
better the salmon are, The Restigouche
or any OF the salmon of the St Lawrence
basin are far superior to the Oregon sal
mon, and the Hudson Straits salmon are
just as much superior to the Restigouehe
fish Besides the salmon the waters of
the Hudson Strait coast TEEN with deep
sea trout which has not its ike on the face
of the globe
But the method adequate for catching
these fish is just as peculiar as the fish
themselves are, and it is doubtful if sal
mon or trout fishing is done in the same
way elsewhere The coast of Hudson
Straits is indented by thousands of small
bays ana estuaries and many rivers ira
verse it to the bay. At low tide there is
little water in any of these inlets, but at
high tide the water mshes up into them
for long distances The tides rise twenty
five and even fifty feet At high tide, in
the salmon and trout running seasons, these
fish follow with the water into the bays
and rivers as far as the tide goes, and
swarm back with it when it ebbs. | have
seen the smaller rivers. streams. or rather
stream beds one hundred feet wide actu-
ally choked from shore to shore with the
biggest salmon man ever saw struggling
upward with the tide
Ii Is not more than eight or nine years
ago that the first attempt was made To
establish fisheries there ON large scale
Drawing seines was impossible, and the
hsh wheels Of Oregon were impracticable
80 a simple hut exceedingly effective trap
was introduced. Ii was not original with
the salmon fishermen; the idea being Dor
rpwed from the porpoise fishermen of Hud-
son Bay Immense nets are made from
the largest and strongest twine, aud of
length and depth To suit the inlet to be
hshed At low tide the nets are set at
the mouths Of the bays or inlets, and the
top Of the ne, is hauled to the bottom so
as to offer no obstruction to the water or
fish a. they pass upward with the rising
tide just before the tide turned the
line holding the ioater side of the net to
the anchored side is drawn out The
huoys instantly rise to the surface and the
trap l. sci When the tide comes back
men are stationed above the nets some dis
tance, aud with poles and brush beat the
water and make noises of various kinds.
This is to keep the great body of fish from
pressing upon the net at once. and as the
fish are exceedingly timid they rush back
up stream by the thousand, and will
actually be left on the dry land by the
reeediug tide 80 panic stricken do they be-
come at the noises made by the men
When the tide has gone out the dry beds
of the inlets win be piled with tons upon
tons Of salmon or trout Not salmon and
trout for both kinds are never found in
the same inlet In one the trap may
secure fifty or one hundred tons of salmon
at run, while in the next estuary below
the catch will be trout | have seen
10. 900 salmon taken at one haul
i have seen the marvellous salmon runs
Of the Oregon rivers, but they are no com
parison To the tremendous rushes of those
Hudson Straits fish 1t may be that if
the latter had big fresh water rivers to ex-
plore they would not be massed so thiekly
along coast, but the channels they seek
are not sufficient 10 let them all in. If
the salmon supply of the world elsewhere
should ever become exhausted. ii can be
replaced easily by the fish of those great
Northern waters \ thousand big vessels
could take on cargoes of salmon and trout
there every season without visibly lessen
ng the supply.