Evening journal., 1919-03-03
SHAD! OH fHAD!
ON TABLES SOON
Fishermen Expect Earlier
Run of the Fish This
Spring
CAPTAIN DENNEY
OUT OF BUSINESS

Shad fishermen. expectant OF an un-
usually early fishing season this spring
because OF the exceptionally mild win
ter and the absence OF the usual heavy
ice -1oes from the Delaware River and
Bay. are also hopeful that these extra
ordinary conditions will serve TO brins
more shad into these waters.
A revival in the shad fishing indus
try, which has been on the rapid de-
cline In recent years. is assured to some
extent this year by the prospects Of a
much earlier season and by the fact
that the ending Of the war has re-
leased from the munition factories and
other war industries many former shad
fishermen This Is more particularly
true around Pennsgrove and Pennsvllle,
where the powder boom was under
way In the spring Of 1915. War re-
strictiOns will also be lifted from shad
fishing and the fishermen expect that
they VIII again be permitted 10 spread
their nets In what had been marked out
as forbidden zones. 0rd'nally the shad
fishing season does not get we'll under
way until April. but this year the mild
weather has so tempered the water that
the fishermen expect the shad to begin
TO run at least a fortnight ahead OF
their regular schedule. The seasons
skirmish line Of fishermen has already
reached the fishing hamlets at Hope
Crook. N. j., and the other little havens
for the crews and their craft along the
lower Delaware Bay and River. There
ls a hustle 10 paint boats and mend the
Hets and sst-ether equipment in shaps.
Captain sam Denny. who for half
a century ran the shad boats from the
Delaware Bay TO the Philadelphia
markets. and who Is regular en-
cyclopedla on shad and shad fishing.
believes these waters have simply been
drained OF shad by everlasting. He
came TO this conclusion two years ago.
when he suspended his freight boat
service to the fishing grounds, declar-
ing It no longer paid.
Captain Sam has studied shsd flshing
from all angles. He Is now more than
severity years old. but hale and vigor-
Gus and still running his little river
steamers. but on other errands than to
the fishing grounds. He used 10 wade
along the beach at his home at Penns-
grove when a boy and paddle about In
the water which, he says. then literally
swarmed with schools Of young shad.
He grew up with the shad industry
having established his line OF shad
boats In 1856. and he has seen the shad
thin out even faster than the hair on
the top OF his head. Two cents apiece
for shad, he says, was nothing unusual
IN the days when fishermen simply
made big hauls Of the fsh. dumped
them altogether In the holds OF the
bsrges and sent them In bulk TO the
markets. It was Captain Denny who
towed these barges every morning dur
ing the shad fishing season TO the Phil
adelphia markets. In addition to the
many nets which made a veritabIe web
all the way up the bay TO the very
end Of the tidewater, large hauls IN
previous years were also made from
fisheries at regular points along the
Jersey and Pennsylvania shore. Some
Of these fisheries where the big shad
hauls were made up until a few years
ago were at Washington Park, Fish
house above Camden, Badgers Island
and Dutch Neck, the last two above
These large shore fisheries 4
have been abandoned and virtually all
of the shad are caught by crews who
make their drifts and hauls from their
boats. There will be little shad fish
Ing in the upper Delaware this year
except by gilinet fishermen. '---