The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-10-08
GRAB UP ROUGH FISH
SEEMING HAS BEGUN AT MADI-
SON LAKE; THE BIG NET.
Mere Than Two Hundred Spectators
Watched Proceedings With a Great
Deal of Interest; How Undesirable
Inhabitants of the Waters Are
Brought to Shore; Two Tons Sc
cured in One Haul Yesterday.

The first draw of the seine at Mad
ison Lake was made late yesterday
AFTERNOON, by the fishermen, Messrs
Holzinger and Williams and their crew
of about ten men, and resulted in a
fine haul. More than ton of fish
perhaps two tons, was the result. The
fish We're from all sizes, from one
pound sheephead to forty pound buf.
faloes. 1t was great sight to see
the mass of big and little wriggling
and squirming and trying in every
way to escape from the net that was
slowly but surely closing in upon
them. A couple of hundred spectators
watched the proceedings with great
interest, about half of whom were
from Mankato, and the balance from
the village and surrounding country.
The seine was stretched across the
first bay south of Stony point, and
being nearly half mile long the en-
| tire bay was enclosed, and the sweep
was made from quarter of mile
! to half a mile out from shore. The
huge seine proved not to be deep
enough, as it came nowhere near the
bottom of the lake, and a large part
of the fish must have escaped, includ-
ing all of the pickerel and perch, as
not fish of those varieties was found
| i'm the seine when it was hauled in.
Before any more SEEMING is done,
the width of the net will be doubled,
and instead of twenty-five or thirty
feet, it will be made fifty feet wide,
so as to reach the bottom in the
deeper water.
and it took until nearly five o'clock
| to get the seine in The lower edge
was weighted and the upper edge held
up by floats. 1t was pulled in slowly
and carefully, and as it contracted
| to very small proportions and got into
water two or three feet deep great
care had to be used to keep the fish
from running under it, and the men
held their feet on tine lower edge as
| it was slowly pulled in. A very few
fish succeeded in escaping by leaping
over the seine. At first many people
thought that water haul had been
made, as they did not see sign of a
| fish, but as the seine was brought
close to shore, the water was seen to
become disturbed by nigh fish blowing
through it just under the surface, and
presently scores of big fins could be
seen above the water. Then OCCASION
| allv fish would become entangled
in the net as it was hauled in, and
| it was picked out and if game
| fish was thrown outside of the net.
| and if rough fish thrown inside
Men with dip nets occasionally lifted
bass or croppy outside of the SEINE
Game and Fish Warden Jordan was
| present to see that all game fish were
| thrown out.
Forty Pound Buffalo.
When the seine got close to the
shore, great fish could be seen dart
ing about, and one of the fishermen
caught it and held it up. 1t proved
to be forty pound buffalo, and many
| llodaks were snapped at it as the man
held it up. Then several small boys
| essayed to catch big fish and got
| ,plashed when the great tails dashed
the water. The same thing occurred
to the men, as they would try to
catch big one during the waiting
periods.
Finally the seine was brought up to
| fifty to hundred feet from shore
md it was seen that there was almost
I solid mass of fish in it. The newly
constructed barge was brought along
| side and half dozen men with dip
nets dipped the fish from the water
| into the boat as one would shovel
snow or chunks of coal. Some of the
larger ones were gotten out of the
| seine in this way. 1t was seen that
| the barge would not hold all of the
| fish, so the seine was closed up and
| tied and was taken out into the lake
and supported on huge stakes and left
over night, to be taken care of this
| morning. Today the fish were packed
md placed aboard the freight train,
and started for New York, where it
is said they will be canned and sold
as salmon.
More Than a Thousand Fish Caught
The fish caught included buffalo,
carp and sheephead, mainly, with a
very few gars and dog fish. Sheep
head were very numerous, with carp
nearly as plenty. The very large fish
were mostly buffalo, but some of the
carp were monsters. Many big sheep
head were netted, but most were one
| to five Founders. Scores of ten to
thirty pound fish were secured.
1t is thought that more than one
thousand fish were caught, averaging
three or four pounds eacn. 1t is
| thought that ar estimate of two tons
would not be far out of the way.
/, This is. not as large haul as the
| firm has made in the Mississippi
where as high as $4,000 pounds of
| fish were secured at haul last season.
! 1t is the largest haul by far that has
been made in any of the local lakes.
Larger Hauls Will Be Made
When the seine has been doubled in
width it is expected that larger hauls
will be. made. The work will proceed
until all the lakes in this vicinity