AREA HISTORY:  Shad Fisheries, Manchester Township, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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SHAD FISHERIES – Page 614

Nothing gave more interest to the river settlements in early days than the extensive 
shad fisheries, an industry now almost unknown above the dam of the Susquehanna 
Canal at Columbia.  Shad fishing has greatly declined south of the dam too, of late 
years, all caused by injudicious management.  On account of the purity of the water 
and the absence of many manufacturies along this river, which caused refuse matter 
to flow into it, the shad of the Susquehanna River have long been famous for their 
delicious flavor, large size and nutritious qualities.  From York Haven to the mouth 
of the Codorus, the limits of the eastern boundary of Manchester Township, there was 
almost one continuous line of valuable fisheries.  The season lasted from five to 
seven weeks.  Usually, if the season were short, the largest amount of shad were 
caught.  The shad pass up the river annually in large schools from the salt water of 
the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay into fresh water to spawn.  They cease to go 
up after the middle of June, and sometimes about the first of June.  A few have been 
caught in fish-baskets on their return to the salt water late in the season; but 
they then are scarcely edible.  It was a most interesting sight for fisherman to 
watch for a “school of fish” to come up stream, and then row around them in a skiff, 
leaving out a long seine, made with a network of large meshes especially for shad, 
and quickly pull the seine to shore by the skiff, freighted with hundreds and 
sometimes thousands of this large fish.  Before catching a large “draught of 
fished,” all fishermen were as still and motionless as possible, as the sense of 
hearing with fish is very keen; but when a large “haul” was made it was a grand 
signal for a triumphant cheer, and the jolly fishermen were active in counting the 
number caught.  As far back as 1815, these shad brought as high as 12½ and 15 cents 
apiece by wholesale.  Dozens of wagons, owned by anxious purchasers, were always 
ready to buy them at that figure, and take them fifteen or twenty miles south and 
west to dispose of them.  Some of the fisheries were along the shore, but the most 
profitable ones were near the small islands.  The right of fishery was purchasable; 
sometimes the owners of islands in the river sold them, but reserved the right of 
fishing for shad.  Lichty’s two fisheries, near the mouth of the Conewago, were 
famous – 1,500 shad were caught at one haul there in 1825; “San Domingo,” a small 
island of two acres surface had a noted fishery.  The entire island was swept away 
by an ice flood in 1830.  The next in order down the stream was known as “Santa 
Cruz;” “Black Rock,” so called because it was used by colored people as a fishing 
station for a time.  The Indians were accustomed to catch shad here with large “dip-
nets.”  In the days of its prosperity, Black Rock Fishery was owned by William 
Reeser, founder of the town of Liverpool.  Haldeman’s pool in the Chestnut Riffles, 
near the mouth of Codorus, “Forge Island,” “Center,” “Silver Lake,” “Small Island,” 
and “Bald Eagle” fisheries were very profitable for many years.