Evening star., 1921-04-03

"HE Potomac nShlnS season OF
1921 is on, and reports of
abundance and reports of
scarcity are coming from the
fishing shores. The price of fish is
high. but whether fish prices are out
of line with food prices in general is
a question on which everybody is at
liberty to hold opinions. Though fish
prices are high, the fishing season is
young and big catches may help lower
the cost of living. That is but a hope.
The Potomac fisheries" have re-
ceded downstream until they have
virtually passed out of the river. Nets
and seines scoop up the shad and her
ring in the bay, and relatively small
numbers of fish reach the rivers that
pour their foods into the Chesapeake
Before the Chesapeake fisheries took
the lead the fishing shores far down
the Potomac were so highly developed
and were seined on such an extensive
scale that they gathered in great hauis
Of fish that otherwise would nave
come far up the Potomac 10 spawn
The actual supply of fish has grown
smaller. while the number of tables
to be served has increased by mil
lions. Fish propagation and fish con-
servation are in their early stages
yet. though marked progress has
and conservation the fish supply will
continue to dwindIe while the popula-
ton Of the country mounts.
Men not yet old can remember
that fishing -shore rights and seine
trict Of Columbia In the late '7os
seine hauling was a familiar spring
sight in the Eastern branch, both
above and below the Navy Yard
bridge. Seines were hauled on the
fSsrss e{e RuSa!' rasss of Talsurit isnd no% ana
closely built on. Giesboro Point. on
the south side of the confluence of
the Eastern branch and the Potomac.
was a fishing shore having valuable
rights-that is, the fishing rights
were let every spring to commercial
fishermen at big: round sum; That
Virginia. shore which went by the
name of the jackson City fishing
shore was a place of profitable seine
hauling and SO was Gravelly Point. a
little below the Long bridge.
The Sandy Bar fishing shore was
celebrated as a place of rich hauls.
and that shore lies along the north
side of Broad creek, which forms
small bay at it's entrance to the Po-
tomac south of Rozier's BLUM. on
which Fort Foote stands and which
Alexandria. The river shore along
those tracts known as Bellevue
magazine. Blue Plains and Shepherds
were long ago called Daingerfield's
were made there. The fishing rights
in the bay formed by Oxon run. at
its entrance to the Potomac, were
valuable and the rights to haul seines
on the shore south OF Oxor run,
along that tract first owned by the
for nv q
Berry family. brought in a large an
nual income to the owners of the
land. Fisheries were valuable in
Piscataway creek, and Monkeys
Point, across the creek from Fort
Washington. was famous shore. and
that adjoining it on the south was
for more than century known as
Bryan's fishing shore, after its owner.
from about 1900 to 1853. Richard
Bryan of Richard. 1t continued to be
it descended to his son. Sudworth
Bryan. and many old-timers still call
it Bryan's fishing shore. The place is
now owned by the government and
there has been set up a great hatch
cry plant of the fish commission. 1t
That shore. from colonial times to
the civil war. was one of the highly
profitable, ones on the Potomac river
near washington and it continued to
be. paying shore through the '70s
and sos.
The White House fishing shore under
the bluffs of the Fairfax estate of
Belvoir, now occupied by Camp Hum
phreys. was a valuable shore, and the
Freestone fishing shore, a long. sandy
beach on the estate called Leesylvania
owned by the Lee family. which first
owned and fished it. and which in the
early part of the nineteenth century
became the property Of q branch of
the Maryland Fairfax family. was a
great place for big hauls. Many of
these upper Potomac fishing shores
rented for $4,000 for the season dur
ing the run Of shad and herring
A few of the other celebrated Poto-
mac fishing shores were High Point,
Stoney Point. Fair Landing, Long
wood. Bridges creek. Fowke's Land
ing. Whites Shore (now Colonial
Beach), Maryland Point. Windmill
Point. Stump Neck. Stump Landing.
Afkendale. Walters Landing. Goose
HaloinE Point, Monkey Point, Dipple,
Sandy Point. Eagles Nest, Mount Mo-
riah and Tent Landing Seines are
still hauled on most of these. but the
results are trivial compared with
what they used to be.
There was usually a good element
of speculation in fishing shore rights.
The shore owners were satisfied with
a guarantee and sometimes the COM
mercial fishermen and packers lost !
heavily. Sometimes they made for i
tunes. Even in the good old days" ,
there were "on seasons" but what /
was then an "off season" would now
be thought season Of wonderful !
One of these OF seasons !
was in 1876 and the alarm was then !
sounded that the fish supply of the |
Potomac was declining in a way to |
cause men to take heed for the fu-
ture. The Evening Star of Saturday. |
June II. 1876, published the following !
letter from a correspondent. who |
wrote under the pen name Of North |
ern Neck"
The fishing season Just closed has been more |
disastrous to the seine fishermen than last |
years and the repetition o. the same I'll luck |
next year win sweep the long seines out Of
the river. It 10 to be regretted that % i'm /
portant an industry should Be- pfostrated by |
too eager pursuit. but 1t IL not the hrst time