trap (similar to most static or fixed traps) unwanted fish returned to the water alive or occasionally during low market prices just dumped back. Larger mesh in the fykes allowed smaller fish to escape, while reducing “weed” that also could enter fykes. Fykes were set “to the bottom” depending upon water depths. Years of severe storms no doubt washed and scoured out any organic debris in high energy areas, so set fykes often found firm shelly bottoms.
The storms during the 1870s were severe and created the foundation of the extensive breakwater construction program of the 1890s. But storms in the building heat of the late 1890s now made for excellent soft shell clams sets. Transitioning habitats made this choice of gear type most appropriate. From historic fishery reports – shallow areas now supported immense sets of the soft shell clam a favorite food for winter flounder. This bivalve shell liter is often a preferred habitat type for winter flounder (Howell, Molnar, Harris, Juvenile Winter Flounder Distribution by Habitat Type, Estuaries Vol. 2, No. 4, December 1999).
This paper was developed for the Connecticut River Museum celebration of the annual Essex Rotary Shad Bake held each June since 1957. A model net display was organized in conjunction with the Shad Bake in the Boat House of the Connecticut River Museum June 7, 2014.
The eastern section of Long Island Sound is open to large storms and its rivers mouths often contained several sand bars which moved with them when they did sets of bivalves often occurred on these new marine soils. Inside these river mouths were coves also swept clean by heavy ice and strong storms. Areas of cobblestones and clean sand frequently covered by kelp could be found in them. It is these eastern areas that winter flounder sought out to lay eggs – estuarine bays that had slightly alkaline “sweet” marine soils. This is in stark contrast to those soils covered in Sapropel – high in sulfur and containing organic acids, a black ooze like material deadly to winter flounder eggs. Colder 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