ted because: 1) it is a native Connecticut fish; 2) it has great historical significance in that it provided food for Native Americans and colonists; 3) it was, and continues to be, of great commercial value to the State; 4) because the hardiness of this migratory fish reflects the true Connecticut spirit stated in our motto “Qui Transtuli Sustinet” (He Who Transplants Still Sustains) from the official website of the State of Connecticut.)
Harvesting Shad during the Last Century
The fishing gear descriptions can be found in the historical literature and divided into four basic types. Habitat and weather determined fishing “seasons.” The Connecticut River was soon to have a large fyke net fishery.
Potential Examples for Display Models
• Fyke Nets – See the Daniel Fish Trap Company Hamburg Cove Lyme to 1901-52 State of CT Biennial Report.
• Gill Nets – Lower CT River gear type after the haul seine fisheries – 1875 to present US Fish Commission – The Fisheries of the Connecticut River – CT Board of Fisheries and Game 1965.
• Long Haul Seines – a modified “bunt and square” seine developed and fished from manmade fishing piers at the lower reaches of the Connecticut River – 1880-1905, see American Linen Thread Manual Trap Net Designs. These remnant seine “piers” still exist today although just piles of rocks below the surface in the lower Connecticut River.
• Traps and Weirs – The earliest shad fisheries
Native American South Cove Old Saybrook Pre Colonial to 1680 Colonial the Floating Pound or Trap Nets to 1940s and 1950s paper presented at the Archaeological Society of Connecticut October 18, 2008. This model seeks to represent a Native American basket weir that predated fykes. Local history referenced these weirs in Old Saybrook’s coves. Later pound or stake fish traps were used in Old Saybrook – some of the largest fish trap companies were located in Westbrook, CT. It is thought that 1950’s dredging in North Cove Old Saybrook incidentally removed a Native American fish weir.
The Connecticut River Shad Fishery has been described as important to Connecticut since the first settlements as the first legislative “fisheries” report issued by the General Assembly regarding Connecticut River Fisheries was in 1867. It recommended then that factories not pollute the Connecticut River with toxins and suggested building fish ladders over dams. A century before Connecticut salted shad fed Washington’s troops held up at Valley Forge. Some of the observations and recommendations of the general assembly 1867 report are still valid today regarding shad. This report commissioned by the Connecticut Legislature in 1865 was the result of diminished shad runs. Although salmon was mentioned, and the number of dams blocking salmon from spawning habitats but was uncertain for Shad.
Shad numbers seemed to be large one year and low the next giving the appearance of over fishing but most likely reflected diminished habitat capacity years before. Another bias in the report reflects a lack of knowledge about long term habitat quality trends – mostly climate related. This is an excerpt which describes some of the concerns in 1867.
The gentle Connecticut is precisely suited to their nature (Shad), as is well by the way in which they hold out in that river, despite a multitude of gill nets at its mouth, and the dams that have stopped their free migrations. Nevertheless, they too have decrease in numbers seriously. Three quarters of a century ago they were so abundant as to be thought of little value, and were taken in large quantities in weirs. As many as two thousand were sometimes caught by one haul of the seine at Hadley Falls. There has been no such fishing in recent years, except in 1849, when the fish were headed off by the closing of Holyoke Dam, and two thousand one hundred were then taken by one sweep of the seine. Ever since the building of that dam there has been a perceptible diminution of shad. Thus, in 1853, (not a remarkable year), between forty and fifty thousand were caught at Hadley Falls; during the past season (1866), (which was a rem