Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-05-28
Maine Fish and Game Notes.

At Dresden. this week, So shad wera
taken from one weir. The results of one
nights fishing.
Fishing at Moosehead was never better
than it is now and the catches being
made there are surprising even the old
time resident sportslncn.
The lobster fishermen ut Vinalhaven re-
port Holsters very scarce. one man who
has IS traps out only caught four
Wednesday.
George iIagan Of We Islands caught
four big Goldfish the other day, which af-
ter being split and dressed, weighed l6i
pounds
The notes Of the black game fowl. af-
ter it had been feared they had turned
their backs on that section for good, was
den people this spring. 1t was like Il
message from their old home across the
seas.
A party of boys in a acid near the Riv-
or road. Lewiston, caught Is bobolinks in
an open cage trap, Friday. The trap was
placed in the centre Of the field and the
spring door was worked by means of Il
long strins running to the spot where
the boys sat on the hillside l0o yards
| away. The birds are sold for pets.
Twenty thousand Tosus fry has been
put into Lovewells pond from the Enfield
hatchery, taken there in charge of Fred
II. Fife. Six thousand was put in at
Lower keZar and G0o0 at Upper keZar in
Lowell from the same lot. Black bass
fishing is extra good in Lovewells pond.
some large catches having been. made the
past week.
Fish Agent Moore of Warren. has been
putting in the fish traps and is now about
| ready for the annual catch of alewiveS.
The river below the dam is alive with
fish and the fishermen at South Warren,
lower down the river, nave already made
large dips. This industry is great ben
eft, yielding from $500 to $1,000 not to the
town of Warren annually.
Fishermen of experience and veracity
have pronounced the fishing in Sebec lake
this year the best it has been for years.
| In fact, many of the resident fishermen
say that never before in their remem-
berance has it been equal to what it has
been this season. The fishing was done
at the mouth of the Wilson stream but
when the logs went out of the stream.
the grounds at the falls at WillimantiC
became popular
Mackerel have appeared in the Boston
market, and it is about time to look for
schools along the Maine coast. Perhaps
the war ships may brighten them il
shore-Who knows? Maine would like to
see another big fishing season, one -.--e
that of 1881. for instance, when 1870 900
barrels We're sailed in the New England
StateS-a year which the Fishing Ca
Zette pronounces the banner year of the
fishery. Since then the decline has been
more or less steady. and of late years
most marked. Last year the combined
landings Of salt mackerel of the New
England fleet aggregated only l3,l5t barr
rels-fgures which speak with marked
emphasis Of the iishery's decay. Con-
corning this fishery, the Gazette contains
other interesting facts. Between the
years 1S5-perhaps earier-and 1870 the
method of capture was largely with
jig" little hooks with heavily loaded
shanks. II is known. too, that for many
years the fishery was carried on almost
exclusively by New England fishermen
From the hamlets and fishing villages
round and about Cape Cod from GOO to 900
craft of various sizes engaged in the cap
ture of the fish. In those days, and we'll
down to within n few years, the boats
rarely went further south than the Abb
secom light. Rich harvests of the fish
were found abreast of Sandy Hook and
about the shores of Block Island. The
darling fins of cleaning millions of fish
ripled the waters for miles along the
coast. one ignorant of the immensely OF
the seas vast resources and the wonder
full fecundity ot tho fishes therein would
ment if told of the number of fish one OF
the large schools contains Mackerel
fishermen of less than a generation ago
describe the schools as seen by them as
being "windroWS of fish hundreds of
yards wide and miles long" And one
school seen eff Block Island in the seY-
entities was estimated 10 contain upward
OF a million barrels of fish. 1t is idle to
remark, perhaps. that schools like these
are never seen nowadays. The mighty
multitude coming in from the sea is bro
ken up into small detachments long be-
fore the fish strike the coast.