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Common Whitefish — Part 2
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The fall run strikes in along both shores the same as the spring, but at the western end of the lake the fish now become widely distributed over the platform, and a large number pass through the Detroit River into Lake St. Clair. There is considerable difference in the dates of the appearance of the fish at different places, especially on the platform, but this diversity is of only local significance. It is not improbable that during the western movement a certain proportion of the fish also proceed through the deeper waters until they reach the platform, but nothing positive has been learned regarding this matter, as the schools are never followed by the gillnetters as in the case of the herring.
After the whitefish reach their spawning grounds on the western platform, they give rise to an extensive local gillnet fishery of very limited duration. During their passage up the Detroit River, mainly in the latter part of October and the early part of November, they are caught by means of seines, and in Lake St. Clair a few are taken in the pound nets.
It is interesting to note that during the spawning period a large body of fish still remains in the deeper water, where the gillnetters continue to take them, though in smaller quantities than in the summer and in the early fall.
The entire distribution of the spawning grounds of the whitefish in Lake Erie is not known. During the spawning season a part of the fish remain in their normal deep-water habitat, but it is not probable that they spawn there. The regular fall movement carries a very large body to the western platform, where many well-defined spawning grounds occur. These are chiefly rocky reefs and shoals, characterized in part by the water-worn surfaces of the common limestone of the region, the so-called honeycombed rock. Hard gravelly and sandy bottoms in some places are also said to serve the same purpose, but this fact has not been entirely substantiated. The distribution of the grounds on the platform is from the neighborhood of Kelleys Island to near the Michigan shore, on both sides of the boundary line. Some of the best known are two shoals north of Kelleys Island; the reefs and rocky shores about and in the neighborhood of North Bass, Middle Bass, Rattlesnake and Green islands; the reefs about the Hen and Chickens, Niagara Reef, and occasional patches off the mainland shores. The depth ranges mostly from about 4 to 20 feet, but is sometimes greater. It is in these places that the gillnet fishing is carried on during the spawning time, and mainly here and in the Detroit River that the eggs have been obtained for the artificial propagation of the species, The fish taken in the Detroit River are mostly bound for Lake St. Clair, although the river itself is said to contain one or more spawning places.
It seems scarcely credible that the great stock of whitefish which has characterized the deeper waters, where the catch has many times exceeded that of all the remainder of the lake combined, can have been maintained solely through the agency of that body of fish which reaches the western platform, and it is possible that extensive spawning areas will sometime be discovered farther east. One small ground is known to be located between Dunkirk and Westfield, N. Y., and two others are reported off Port Dover and Port Burwell, Ontario.
The spawning time varies somewhat in different years, dependent on the conditions of the weather and also with respect to the locality. Our information on this subject is mainly limited to the platform, where the dates have been accurately determined in connection with fishcultural operations, as follows: Ripe eggs have been obtained, but only rarely, as early as the latter part of October, the first being taken generally in the early part of November. Spawning may continue into the first week of December, but the last eggs are seldom secured later than December 1, generally a few days before that date. The bulk of the eggs have usually been obtained between the 10th and 25th of November, but sometimes beginning as early as the 5th or 6th and continuing as late as the 28th, which dates may be considered to mark the limitations of the main part of the spawning season. These figures are based on the averages for several years and for the different grounds where eggs are procured for the hatcheries. In any one place the bulk of the spawning may be, and generally is, completed in a much shorter space of time, from 5 to 10 days. They begin to fish for the hatcheries on the Detroit River in the latter part of October, but the fish are not then ripe and are penned until the eggs mature.