Stories About Fishin' The White And James Before Tr Dam...

[bfishn]

Been readin' Steamboats & Ferries of the White River, lifted a couple clips of interest. The first is at Jacksonport Ferry;

You don't see that on the river these days...

And a little closer to home, the pre-bridge ferry at Beaver Town. From the same vantage point, the view today hasn't changed much;

[Wayne SW/MO]

Here's a jaw-dropper;

"The Leader ( a Branson paper) reported a winter 1918-1919 export of 72,000 pounds of cleaned bass and crappie to city markets."

Pretty easy for most of us to forget that a century ago, you could do near anything you pleased in regard to fishing, and by most accounts they did just that. Here's the engrossing story (long) of the battle to regulate Ozark river fishing. It's got it all, greed, intrigue, politics...

http://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/wrv/v31/n2/w92c.html

That might not be as bad as it sounds once you realize that a boat the size of the MoArk could navigate the river. We just don't have the water now to support the fish.

[exiledguide]

bfshn, My great grandfather was a market hunter in the 1890s just how do you think fish meat and birds got to market with no refrigeration and no transportation. The story was they fished with gill nets and hunted with a punt gun which was more like a cannon and at first light blow away any birds on the water off to market. That all ended as modern agriculture came into being. Soon he was a commercial fisherman ,boat builder etc. I think in some states you can still sell fish you catch at the dock.