arkable one); the catch has been only about thirty-five thousands, indicating a decrease of one fourth in twelve years. On both rivers, the number of fishing places abandoned, because no longer profitable is very great. There were probably three times as many places thirty years ago than now are on any given part of these rivers” (page 16-17) Report of the Commissioners concerning the Protection of Fish In The Connecticut River To The General Assembly, May Session 1867.
Habitat Reclamation / Restoration
Interest increased in the late 1970s in fish restoration especially anadromous fisheries – some questions were how large were these shad fisheries, what types of fishing gear did they use – what happened to these gear types? Since full size representations were not suited to workshops or lectures. Models could however illustrates fishing gears and understand some of the habitat constraints of their use.
In 1985 the first fishing gear models were created for use in the Connecticut River Museum Shad programs. In following years different types added for additional displays. It is possible with the help of very old net plan manuals to represent some of the most elaborate gear types and demonstrate what made them work for shad, alewife and other fisheries in the Connecticut River. For many plans I have relied upon an old copy of the Linen Thread Company, 200 Hudson Street, New York which has gone of business.
Why Little Remains from the Last Century
Most of the gear types of the past century used natural twines (cotton, linen, manila) and materials such as wood hoops for the fykes. To maintain the gear, dips and salting by fishers tried to prevent bacterial damage to natural fiber webbing and but very few fyke and haul seine examples survived to our times. Manila, linen and cotton twines quickly rotted in the marine environment (bacteria) requiring constant drying and dipping in metal salt solutions. This is where the Linen Thread Company (sole selling agent for the American Net and Twine Company established in 1842) catalog is so helpful. Connecticut at one time contained many factories for the production of webbing such as CoFish™ in Haddam and Brownell Twine™ in Moodus. To send customers the correct amount of webbing from which to make a net, they maintained a catalog of net plans and made storage suggestions on page 12. (1932)
“A foul, wet net piled up under a tight cover may be quickly ruined by bacteria and mildew. This has caused serious losses to fishermen, especially in warm weather. The Bureau of Fisheries has previously recommended washing shad gill nets with lime water – 1.5 lbs of slack lime in 12 gallons of water. After fish are removed from the net, plenty of lime water should be thrown over the webbings, which should be then rinsed with clear water, either salt or fresh. No known preservative (coal tar, pine tar, Hemlock bark juice or copper sulfate) will protect nets against damage from lack of cleanliness or careless storage.”
Elaborate net reels were constructed to dry the very fine linen, shad gill nets and cotton haul seines along the Essex Connecticut shore. When modern synthetics were invented in the late1930s and by the 1950s, nylon and monofilament net webbing soon replaced natural fibers as they were consumed by bacteria. As gear became worn out it was just simply discarded and unfortunately within the net plan designs. Lobster traps for example once all wood with manila funnels simply rotted away. After 1960 webbing distributors mostly stopped providing net plans.
In 2002 a historic discovery of the Daniels fish traps of Hamburg Cove was detailed by the Connecticut River Museum (see fyke net fact sheet CT River Fyke Nets and Long Haul Seines found in Lyme, CT 2002). It was a rare opportunity to look at they very gears described by CT Biennial Reports of the last century used in Connecticut River Fisheries. It is to my knowledge the largest intact fyke net collection ever documented in New England. Net plans from these fykes were very similar to a American Net and Twine Plan (1920).
A Fyke Net Plan –