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The oldest type of net used by the Chesapeake Bay watermen is called a pound net. Wooden stakes are pushed into the bottom of the Bay, spaced apart in a line that runs across the tide. Nets are strung between the stakes and along the bottom of the river, making a fish trap. In late February the pound netter starts to put in the stakes. By the middle of March he will set his nets and start fishing. Each day the waterman goes out to the pound net and scoops the fish out with a hand net. He will not remove the pound net, except for many repairs, until November.
Pound net
These traditional boats tended to the oyster fleets working the beds in the Bay, buying harvested oysters from the oystermen in the afternoon, and running those oysters to faraway markets and rail centers in Norfolk, Crisfield, Baltimore, and Washington DC, and to local shucking houses and canneries around the Bay.
Restored Chesapeake Bay oyster buy boat

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