 circa 1920 (Daniels Net Equivalent)
A Double Throat Fyke (2 Funnels) page 53
6 Foot Fyke
1) Body (Barrel) front 44 meshes long by 140 meshes around
2) Funnel 30 meshes long by 140 meshes around
3) Body (Back) 90 meshes long by 180 meshes around
4) Funnel (Back) 35 meshes long by 180 meshes around
5) Front Funnel (Throat) set in 1.5 meshes from the front first circular hoop (on the round) second funnel set in at junction between barrel and back
All 2.25 inch mesh is thread medium
1 6 foot bow hoop – first hoop often flat to help stabilize the roll is called a “bow” (rainbow shape)
3 6 foot wood hoops – circular steamed sapling
1 5 foot wood hoop – circular steamed sapling
Total 5 hoop fyke series Bow 6, 6, 6, 5
22 meshes between the first two hoops
30 meshes between the last three hoops
Sewn tapered funnels could be “soft” or “hard”
Hard funnels ended in a ring – similar to lobster traps today – the first funnel ring had a 18 inch wood ring. The second funnel was a 15 inch wood diameter ring.
Two wings 42 meshes deep by 120 meshes taken up by a third.
Leader various lengths also hung on a third but larger mesh from leader end – 6”, 5”, 4” larger meshes tended to let leaves and seaweed pass. However from time to time terrestrial leaves and marine seaweed could completely fill fykes, or in heavy tides, rip them from setting stakes.
With the records now being made available by Google™ in cooperation with the University of California at Berkley who is slowly making available the entire series of the Connecticut Biennial Reports of Fish and Game online and in doing so enabling the habitat/placement of these key fishing gears to date.
For example The State of Connecticut Biennial 1901-02 report contains this section for fish reports for the lower Connecticut River.
1901-02 Four fishing companies were operating Fyke and Cove Nets in the lower Connecticut River.
C.V. Miller, Lyme Fish caught. 600 suckers, 300 eels, 75 flat, 50 perch, 500 frost, 45 striped bass.
James Daniels Hamburg Fish caught. 545 pickerel, 1,700 perch, 590 suckers, 185 bullheads, 1,925 roach.
Gilbert Johnson, Essex Fish caught. 1,500 alewives, 42 striped bass, 145 pickerel, 290 perch, 3,600 suckers, 55 bullheads, 295 roach, 3,250 eels, 1 German carp.
Elliott W. Ely, Hadlyme Fish caught. 40 shad, 8000 pickerel, 900 perch, 2,000 suckers, 1,200 bullheads, 2,400 roach, 300 eels
By 1911-12, the fyke net fishery had greatly expanded on the Connecticut River and elsewhere. The Rivers and coves of the Connecticut shoreline made setting of fykes ideal, shallow and semi protected areas with firm and shelly bottoms made them very effective. Hugh M. Smith – writing in the US Fish Commission reports (1890) mentions the significance of the Connecticut on pg 319 – The Fyke Nets and Fyke Net Fisheries of the United States. “As already shown, the fyke net fishery of Connecticut is more important than that of any other New England state” and our Connecticut fyke net fishery expanded into shad. Shad was no longer the neglected fish of the coast but now commanded the highest prices, a Fulton Market New York report; March 5 to March 10th, 1915 has some surprises. Lobsters “Prime” at 32 cents/lb, large Cod at 10 cents but Shad “Roe” from Georgia, So. Carolina, and Virginia priced for $1.20. The Oysterman and Fisherman newsletter by 1912 listed the roe shad being more valued for the roe delicacy and looked apart from the flesh. As shad catches increased from 1870s so and the fyke net fishery, 1901 saw a record 124,947 Shad caught in Connecticut. (The Connecticut River Museum in Essex, CT continues to make available a documentary CD titled “A passion for Shad” it includes rare video footage of the fyke nets and some of the last known haul seine operation in Middletown, CT from the 1930s.)
Where Were Fyke Nets Set
The 1911-12 Shad Report of the Connecticut Department of Fish & Game now includes location of fykes of three large firms, L.A. Champion of Old Saybrook, G. B. Hayden of Essex and Jared S. Daniels, Lyme, registered nearly 60 fyke nets from Hamburg Cove to the Connecticut Riv