Page 66 - A Visit with Steve Whitty, Ingonish Beach

ISSUE : Issue 36

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1984/6/1

fish, all you had to do was reach for the gaff and hook your fish. I was so used to that. Not me alone, but all. Everyone was fishing. Then the fellow right behind you, with this trawl tub, he was piling your gear as fast as you were pulling it in. (Was he baiting it?) No, no. You had to bait it fresh again, the next day. Now if there's any good fishing, every 7 lines (one tub) you lighten your dory. The boat comes up alongside of you--we call it "lightening." She takes that tub that you hauled in aboard the boat, and your fish, and then you start on the sec? ond tub. After she leaves you, she goes down to the other dory, to do the same thing. Then she comes back here to you. She waits there till you get to the end of the second tub, gets your fish and your tub. It takes you an hour to haul a tub of gear in good fishing, (And one tub of gear might give you a doryload?) It could. In good fishing, it would. In the fall of the year, you generally always lighten out a tub, anyway. You never want your dory too heavy. These dories used to take 1000 pounds of fish, round fish--they could take more than that, but that's all you'd put in them. For safety. A fine calm day, you'd take more than that--1400. The man aboard the boat always had some? thing for you to eat when you went aboard-- meat and potatoes or fish and potatoes. And tea and everything. But sometimes you had a hard haul in the fall. You'd get a load of fish to every tub--probably you'd have 5 loads of fish to each dory--that'd be around 10 thousand pounds. I've often seen the skippers of the boats--I didn't fish all the time with my father--but I of? ten saw the skippers of the boats come and fire you a bun of bread in. Just get it like that and tear it in two halves, and one fellow take one half and the other, the other--take a bite and lay it down like that and start pulling again, boy. At night, after you'd clean your fish, af? ter you've hauled in the 5 tubs of gear, you'd_ start in, say, and there'd probably be no wind--little or no wind--and if there was no wind, you had to get in your Treasure Cove Gifts and Hancicrafts BRASS GLASS HANDCRAFTS CHINA A SELECTION OF QUALITY BOOKS TOYS WOOLENS LEATHER GOODS TARTANS Phone 564-8158 Corner Charlotte St. & Townsend St. Sydney Sport Co + Formerly Ski Loft Phone 539-7165 featuring: Wool rich - Spring and Summer Clothing also available: a fall wool-lined Mt. Parka jacket Tom Taylor sailing wear Deck Paws: canvas shoes and moccasins and rubber boots New Balance Hik-'ng Shoes 199 Townsend St., Sydney (66)

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