der waters contains more oxygen and any organic matter from the land or sea would tend to be broken down and quickly become part of the marine food chain leaving a shelly sandy and firm bottom. This describes a habitat type in which winter flounder thrives, so it is understandable that fyke net fishers produced the largest catches of them in eastern Connecticut immediately following the 1870s.
The Connecticut River also had a fyke net fishery most for shad river herring and some alewife and with various freshwater species. Further west Branford, Connecticut had a small fyke net fishery for menhaden (bunkers). Fyke nets were used in Western, CT also but not near the numbers used in the central and eastern sections. Hugh Smith of the US Fish Commission wrote about the Connecticut Fyke Net Fishery in 1890 and mentions that fykes were used to capture shad, especially in the Connecticut River. A description of the fyke net fishery follows:
“Fyke net fishing is carried on along most parts of the coast of this State. All the prominent towns have more or less fishing of this kind. The largest number of nets is found in Stonington, Quiambaug, Mystic, Noank, and New London.
The first now taken in the fyke nets of Connecticut are principally flounders, frostfish, tautog, menhaden, and striped bass. In a few places terrapin are taken, and in Stratford these are much more valuable than the remaining part of the catch. In 1880 the species reported to be caught in fyke nets were sea bass, cod, bluefish, eels, weakfish, flounders, herring, shad, and occasionally sturgeon. At Mystic the nets are set about February 1 and taken up about March 31; they are again set about October 1 and remain down until December 31. Flatfish and frostfish are taken. At Noank, the nets are fished from the first of February to the last of April, and from the first of October to the middle of December. The principal fishing, however, is done in the spring. The nets are placed in water 6 to 15 feet deep. In Groton the fykes are operated at the mouths of the rivers during June and July, and within the rivers during the rest of the year; flounders and frostfish are secured. The largest catch is made in Quiambaug, where the greatest number of nets is used. Here nearly 140,000 pounds of flounders, frostfish, and tautog, valued at $2,550, were obtained in 1889. Seven nets at Branford were fished for menhaden; about 100,000 fish were taken in the year named.
The fyke net fishery of Connecticut in 1889 resulted in the capture of 455,250 pounds of fish” (pages 318-319). The Fyke Nets and Fyke Net Fisheries of the United States US Fish Commission – Hugh M. Smith, The Connecticut Fishery.
The eastern CT fyke net fishery was mostly for flounder while the Connecticut River dominant fishery was shad.
Shad and The Connecticut River 1900 - 1920
What makes the lower Connecticut River so interesting about its fisheries history is the ability to connect four key gear types for the capture of Shad Alosa sapidissima*. Haul seines, traps and weirs, fykes and gill nets all were used that suited particular habitats. Historic fish landing statistics and even fishing gear ownership to individual firms or persons is now possible as more historic records become available. One of these areas was Hamburg Cove in Lyme, CT home to the Daniels fish company. With the US Fish Commission Reports 1880s, New England Fish Net and Twine manual and the State of Connecticut Biennial reports it is possible to represent gear type and design for shad, alewife and herring fisheries, such as river herring and menhaden. The lower Connecticut River had been the site of immense fishing efforts in the past and evolving gear types and recorded in the 1889 report of the United States Fisheries, Commission on Fisheries issued in conjunction with the 10th census. Nothing is seems was to impact Connecticut’s fisheries and habitat history of rivers more than Shad. (Connecticut State Fish – The American Shad (Alosa sapidissima) The American Shad was designated as the fish by the General Assembly in 2003. It was selec