The Portland daily press., 1895-05-22
HUDSON BAY SALMON.
And How They are Trapped 10000 at
Haul.
(From the New York Sun. J


of the Pacific coast are caught almost
takes the heart out Of the 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 captured salmon there -
The speaker was Findlay G. Raynor,
who for many years was an agent of the
Hudson Bay company, and is now presi-
dent of the Raynor oil company.
1T was only few years ago that the
possibilities of the south coast of Ungavy
bay and Hudson straits in the way of sal
mon and lake trout fishing were dis
covered, and to say that they are now
being worked for all they are worth is
putting it mildly. The salmon Of that
high latitude 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 salmon are. The
Restigouche or any of the salmon of the
st. Lawrence basin are far superior to
the Oregon salmon, and the Hudson
straits salmon are just as much superior
to the Restigouche fish Besides the
salmon the waters of the Hudson strait
coast TEEN with deep sea trout which
has not it's like on the face of the globe
s'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 and esturaIies, and many rivers
traverse it to the bay. At low tide there
is little water rushes up into them for
1,,,1 ~ Nhn i
even 30 feet. At high tide, in the salmon
and trout running seasons, these fish fol-
low with the water into the bays and riv-
ers as far as the tide goes, and swarm
back with it when it Gibbs. 1 have seen
the smaller rivers, streams, or rather
stream beds, 100 feet wi de, actually
choked from shore to shore with the big
geSt salmon man ever saw struggling
upward with the tide
1T is not more than eight or nine years
ago that the first attempt was made to
establish fisheries there on a large scale
Drawing Seines was impossible and the
fish wheels Of Oregon were impracticable
So a simple but exceedingly effectiv e
trap was introduced. 1t was not original
with the salmon fishermen, the idea being
borrowed from the porpoise fishermen Of
Hudson bay. immense nets are made
from the largest and strongest twine, and
Of length and depth to suit the inlet to
be fished At low tide the nets are set
at the mouths of the bays or inlets, and
the top of the net is hauled to the bottom
so as to offer no obstruction to the water
or fish as they pass upward with the ris-
ing tide. Just before the tide turned the
line holding the hoater side of the net
to the anchored side is drawn out The
buoys instantly rise to the surface and
the trap is set. When the tide comes back
men are stationed above the nets some
distance, and 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 receding tide, SO panic stri cken
do they became at the noises made by the
men. When the tide has gone out, the
dry beds of the inlets will 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 so or 100 tons of sal
mon at run, while in the next estuary
below the catch will be trout. I have
seen 10, 600 salmon taken at one haul.
81 have seen the marvellous salmon
runs Of the Oregon rivers, but they are
no comparison to the tremendous rushes
of those Hudson straits fish. 1t may be
that if the latter had big fresh water
rivers to explore they would not be massed
nels they seek are not sufficient to let
them all in. If the salmon supply of
the world elsewhere should ever become
exhausted, it can be replaced easily by
the fish of those great northern waters.
A thousand big vessels could take on car
goes of salmon and trout there every sea-
son without visibly lessening the supply