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Originally Posted by slow eddie
 nebe turned me onto this book. it's called" fishing in american waters".
the book was originally printed in the 1880's. it shows how the people fished back then and the tackle and baits used. salt water and sweet. a great chapter on a fishing/camping trip to canada for salmon. an interesting aside is there being 3 different references to the concerns of menhaden netting and the fears that the game fish would dissapear along with the bait. some thing never change. enjoy |
I collect that stuff and that is a great book, Eddie - the abundance of fish in our area was nothing short of amazing.
Genio Scott already had an idea of what was about to happen and it did exactly that.
The striped bass and pogie populations crashed at the turn of the century and resulted in the closure and sale of most all the great striped bass clubs of the time, the bass stands fell into disrepair and many were finally taken out by the '38 Hurricane.
Another book that I have that was published in 1921 tells the tale of the crash from a first hand perspective:
"Many large fish were taken in this manner every season. For example, Mr. Thomas Winans and his nephew took in three months’ fishing from stands built for the purpose on the rocks in front of his house at Newport, Rhode Island, 124 striped bass weighing 2,921 pounds, an average of over twenty-three pounds, the largest being a fish of sixty pounds. I have known my father, the late George Griswold, who was a keen fisherman, to bring home before breakfast, four fish that would weigh over fifty pounds each, but that was in the sixties at New London where no bass are now to be found.
Last season (1914) heard of but three large fish taken in the waters off the Elizabeth Islands. They weighed 51, 52, and 63 pounds. The summer before but one large fish was reported.
The fishing clubs have been abandoned, the stands have been destroyed by the action of the sea, and the waters are no longer chummed or fished, for the large striped bass have become a tradition of the past. This has been caused by excessive net fishing, for the bass, being a migratory fish, has been and is still netted along the full length of the coast both going and coming as well as when in southern waters, and the result has been fatal."
Pretty cool stuff.
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