The Indians of Virginia often used spears to fish in shallow water. 
The Indians in the canoe demonstrate how they fished at night by 
lighting a fire to attract fish. The fish were then scooped up with a 
net. In the upper left-hand corner is a weir- a palisade of sticks, set 
into a stream, which trapped fish. Fish and shellfish were an 
important part of the diet of the Southeast Indians. John White, who 
documented the Indians when he came to Virginia in 1585, wrote 
that the Indians he encountered ate clams, mussels, and shad, which 
he called "... for sweetness and fatness a reasonable good fish."