FISHING IN OLDEN DAYS.
July 6, 1911
THE Teeming Waters of the lake Country When Outlet Streams Were Unobstructed.
Tire. Lake Country waters were famous for their fishing grounds in the olden days, and as some fine catches of trout are being made at present time, the following sketch is not out of place these midsummer days, when the anglers are seeking the shady spots Aug. the shores. The facts were given by Henry Carr of Union Springs, one of the first State Fish and Game Protectors for the twelfth District and a veteran fisherman, and what was stated of Cayuga was true of Seneca in the time of the pioneers. Cayuga Lake when I was a boy swarmed with as good fish as were found in any body of inland water. Salmon were plentiful and were caught in great numbers in the streams tributary to Cayuga Lake. The erection of a dam in the Seneca River at Baldwinville  prevented the return front salt water of the salmon, and in avery short time  they had all disappeared from Caynga Lake  and the upper waters of the Seneca River.
“In those days lake trout were so plentiful that in an hour one would catch all he was able to carry. The trout ranged in size from five  to twenty-five pounds. Tons of white fish were also caught Herring were also numerous, and the large yellow perch pike were plentiful as perch are no now. The lake trout, the herring, the bite fish and the yellow perch did not go over the Baldwinsville dam.  The first nets used in the river were seines Later gill nets were introduced, and they were followed by the lazy mans net, the fyke The use of nets increased as the inhabitants along the river increased A favorite netting place was at the foot of Cayuga lake where the water is shallow and where the bass white fish, pickerel and perch had their spawning bed. Before the use  of nets became general I have seen a seine net mauled and nine hundred pike taken from it, weighing on an average six pounds. In those days I have known one catching three hundred and fifty pounds of fish in one day. Now a man could fish with a hook and and three hundred arid fifty days and not catch that weight of fish. doubt it could do it with a net. I have seen a ton of white fish caught in one evening. Herring were also caught in such great quanrtities that they were burned in wagon loads, being a soft fish, then would not stand handling. When nets were first used upon the river I saw one hundred and twelve bushels of bullheads taken in one haul of a net. Now one might fish on these same  grounds  with a net and not take one hundred and twelve bushel of bullheads in ten hauls. The bullhead will soon be a stranger in these waters. Hundreds of fyke nets were placed in the dam of Cayuga Lake from Cayuga Marsh down  to Mud Lock and down the Seneca River to Oswego. The  fisherman soon learned to ship their catches to Eastern markets and they carried on the netting until the lake and the river robbed of its white fish, lake trout, herring, and black bass. In 1889 the first step was taken to reclaim the river from the net pirates. A bill prohibiting net fishing in Cayuga Lake and the Seneca River was introduced by Assembleman Fitts and in the senate by Senator John Raines. It -was passed and signed by Governor Hill, The passage of the bill put an end to open act net fishing; and in the short space of two years an improvement in the fishing was noticeable.  An angler had no trouble in catching all the bass and pike he cared to in a few hours spent upon the waters  of the river or the lake. Gentlemen from Auburn and other cities built cottages at favorable localities along the lake and river and considerable money was spent in this way.    But  the net fishermen did not accept  the new  order of things. They were not without some mystious  influence, and they suceeded in getting through the legislatnre a bill which allowed them to fish for bullheads with nets in the river in Seneca, Wayne and Cayuga Counties. In 1896 law was given amended   so as to permit them to use the nets the entire  length of the river. This has been a bad blow to time honest fisherman. Angling on the  lake and river has once more become a fruitless occupation. With 1,500 nets in the river, the markets of Auburn, Seneca Falls, Cayuga and Geneva can not get a pound of bullheads. This is a state  of affairs which goes to show that the fish are about fished or netted out. In the markets of these places salmon  sale are obtained from a Buflalo fish concern.


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