User:Kweborg/Pound net

Pound Net: A fishing device used in shallow lakes and bays in both fresh and salt water. It consists of a square arangement of poles that were originally driven into the bottom using a pile driver on a barge (thus the name pound net). The present method is to anchor out the corners of the square, using 2 anchors per corner. There are usually 7 poles ranging in length 30 to 70 feet to suit the water depth used in the array. The square of poles support the "pot", a large net basket where the fish are trapped. The fish are tricked into following a "lead", a wall like large mesh net that directs them toward the pot. When they near the pot, they enter into the "heart", a heart shaped net arrangement which confuses the fish into entering the "tunnel". The tunnel is just that, a web tunnel that leads to the center of the pot much like a store-bought minnow trap. When it is time to "lift" the net, a boat (pound net boat) enters the pot, where it frees up the bottom lines holding the pot open. The pot netting is then overhauled into the scooping corner of the pot (a finer meshed area which prevents escape through otherwise larger mesh by the panicked fish). From there the fish are scooped into boxes and taken to port for sale. When the lift is completed, four corner ropes are pulled on to draw the corners of the pot back to the bottom, then the tunnel support rope is pulled until the tunnel is relocated in the center of the pot. Pound Net fishing has been mainly replaced today by the use of "Trap Nets". In Door County Wisconsin, where I was born the fishermen no longer pronounced it "Pound", but instead used the word "Pond" to describe the net. However, the name "Pound" which derived from pounding the poles into the bottom is still the official spelling. The concept of fishing this way was brought from Scandinavia by our ancestors. I have seen them still being used in the North and Baltic Sea.