Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-06-17
JUST FISHIN'.
With the KennebeCkerS
Who Make a Business OfIt.
Good Catches and Good Money
Some Days Of Late.
Happy and Thrifty Hungarian Resi-
dents.-Chat Down the Valley.

Bath, Me, June 15.-(SpeciaD. One
thousand men from Gardiner to the
mouth Of the Kennebec make their
living by fishing. l get this state
ment from a well known fisherman of
the north end of Bath who adds that
probably some hundreds of Kenne-
beckers this spring have been out
drifting for shad and sturgeon. OF
the former fish there have been more
come up the river this year to spawn
than for two years past. The shad
fishermen this spring have been send
ing most of their catches to Boston
and New York, receiving for the bucks
30 cents and for the roes Is cents adj
ditional. Those have also been the go
ing prices in this city at retail, until
the past week, when the arrival of the
sea shaG in big schools lowered the
prices to an average of % cents per
shad in the local markets while ped
dlers have been getting but Is and 20
cents apiece hawking them about
town and no more from the dealers in
the cities to the west.
Saturday the law went on both shad
and sturgeon for the Kennebee, al
though shad may continue to be
caught below Bluff Head, a point
little below Bath. Shad make this riv-
er for spawning purposes, running up
as far as Augusta Falls.
Some seven years ago between the
Falls and Gardiner they were as thick
in the river ''as hairs on a dog" as
one fisherman expresses to the Tray
eller the large numbers in which at
that time the shad schools came.
Such slaughter of shad then oc-
CURED that the fish were frightened
anG scarcity was experienced for
several years thereafter and for that
cause. as many fishermen insist
Sturgeon also go far up the Kenne-
bee to spawn and are much slower in
swimming than are the shad. When
a sturgeon jumps out of the water at
given spot of the river. it is more
that likely that he will be found with
in stone throw of that spot a week
after. When ready to spawn the stur-
gcon will go up the river often as far
as Hallowell and even Augusta. But
they don't generally spawn until July
and for this reason some of the Bath
fishermen insist that they should be
protected during June and allowed to
be caught when the fish come down
from spawning the first of July. With
more protection the Kennebec would,
these fishermen claim, again be pie
thoric with sturgeon as it used to be
80 and even 25 years ago. Sea shad
are young shad which do not spawn
until the following year.
Bath fishermen have made thous-
ands of dollars this spring on their
drift and weir catches of shad. Down
III Jones Eddy this week one fisher
man one night, drifting, hauled in 120
sea shad and another the following
night caught 81 including three roes.
Several sturgeon have been caught
this week by Bath shad fishermen, the
big fish dressing from 100 to $50 pounds
and carrying from 50 to 40 pounds of
roe which brings from 70 cents to 81
a pound for the making of Russian"
Caviare
A singular bit of information, which
the Traveller gets from his fisherman
friend, is that for day fishing for shad
a eo1ored net is preferred, the color of
the IIleSl tNllle DeiitS biut u l6SSiIibiG
more the tint of the sea.
Thrifty Hungarians in Bowdoin.
ON the electric ears going to Lew
iston the other day a man from the
town of Bowdoin got aboard. He was
an intelligent and prosperous man,
as are indeed most all the farmers of
this beautiful garden spot of the
county of Sagadahoe AS the car
slowed up at Pejepscot crossing to
allow the motor man to "shoo" away
d couple of Slav infants from the
track, the Rowdoin man remarked
that one Hungarian farmer who had
gone into Bowdoin, in eight years
made enough at farming to pay the
mortgage on his farm and purchase
another farm alongside. He now has
four horses, numerous cattle and mon
ey to let: and last fall, in addition