Voices from the Past: Frederic J. Haskin Part II

The final part of the article by Haskin deals mainly with commercial fishing.
Fishing Tackle, Part II

by Frederick J. Haskin

Use of the Gill Net


In the herring fisheries the gill net is used, and some of these are of such remarkable size that they contain dozens of tons of fish when hauled in. It is ascertained in which direction a school of fish is traveling, and the gill net is placed across its path. The meshes of the net are big enough to admit their heads and to pass their gills. But the larger part of the body cannot pass through. In this predicament they figuratively back-pedal until their gills become hopelessly fast in the meshes. When the nets are full as is desired they are drawn up and the fish emptied on the deck. Many other kinds of fish also are caught with the gill net.


Beautiful painting of gill netting by the great Frederick Remington
Long-line fishing is another of the commercial methods by which the world's fish supply is captured. A single line, sometimes as much as 10 miles long, is shot out from the side of the boat. A heavy weight is attached to the end first thrown overboard, and at intervals of a few feet short lines with hooks on them are attached. The long line is then stretched across the tide, and thus the hooks are kept at a proper distance apart. When the big line has remained out long enough it is hauled in and on the thousands of hooks, sometimes 5000 of them, there are nearly every kind of fish one can imagine, a veritable Noah's ark of the deep. In miniature, this line becomes the "trot line" of inland river fishing.


Long line fishing has been tremendously damaging to the environment
Hand Line for Cod

In the great cod fisheries of Newfoundland, the simple hand line in a boat goes out and pulls them in one after the other until he gets a boat load. The long line and the nets are sometimes used. It is said that a fish has more curiosity than any other living creature, and in sport fishing for mackerel the best bait that can be used is simply a piece of scarlet flannel or ribbon, tapering to a point. There is nothing in the sea that this imitates: it is merely intended to take advantage of the mackerel's inquisitiveness.



Perhaps the most dangerous and thrilling calling in the world of marine life is whaling, though the advent of the steam whaler has tended to lessen both the danger and the romance of the chase. That the harpoon used in whaling is of very remote origin, as well as whaling itself, is shown by the fact that in the book of Job it is asked concerning the Leviathan, "Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons?" There is a tradition that the indians of Florida, long before the white man set foot on American soil,w ould jump on the head of a whale, plug up one nostril with a wooden peg, then allow him to go to the bottom, and when he came up again plug up the other nostril, and thus suffocate the monsterl Of course, no one credits this tradition, but there seems to be no room for doubt that the ancient Eskimos would surround a whale, and at a given signal fill it full of harpoons to which were attached inflated sealskins. Thus buoyed to the surface it was only a question of time until the whale would die. The use of the bomb harpoon gun, in which a bomb with fuse attached is hurled with a harpoon into the whale, is comparatively recent. When the bomb explodes it usually inflicts a mortal wound.

Ride on Turtles' Backs

In the South Sea Islands turtle fishing is carried on in the most primitive fashion. The fishermen swim out from the vessel, climb upon a turtle's back, and, like the Old Man of the Sea, ride him to the vicinity of the ship, where a line is passed to him and hooked aournd the turtle's head, halter fashion. Then the captor swims off for another victim. Sometimes they make goiod shark bait, a fate which they doubtless deserve, as they literally burn the turtles alive, in order to get the shell off; some fiend having discovered that when the shell is taken off before the turtle is killed it makes a finer quality of tortoise shell.


For American sport fishing, the deep-sea fishing off the coasts of California and Florida and in the gulf of Mexico, where the tarpon, the black sea bass, and other large fish abound, is said to be the most exciting. Very strong tackle must be used, and the rods, reels, and lines must be of the very highest quality. It requires hours to land one of these big fish, and infinite skill and patience; sometimes it degenerates into an endurance contest. For trout and other inland game fishes, an inexhaustible variety of rods, reels, lines, and artificial bait is to be had. It is said that the Chinese and the Japanese make the finest fish lines in the world. Some of the best are made by the fisherwomen of the Straits of Magellan. They use their own hair for material. The average American angler is satisfied with a kit costing a few dollars. Some of them, however, have kits in which they have spent thousands of dollars. But whether it is the bent pin and the wad of raw cotton used by the small boy or the most expensive rod, reel, and lines that money can buy, skill and patience are the most necessary parts of a complete outfit of fishing tackle, and money cannot buy them.

-- Dr. Todd

Voices from the Past: Frederic J. Haskin Part I

Few people today recognize the name, but Frederic J. Haskin was a prominent national writer around the turn of the twentieth century who contributed a number of articles on fishing to The Washington Post and other august publications. The following 1910 article from The Post is illustrative of his eclectic approach to writing about fishing. As the author of a number of works of international flavor, Haskin's articles often had a global perspective.

Fishing Tackle, Part I

by Frederick J. Haskin

In these April days no subject so completely possesses the minds of the average American man as that of fishing tackle. The lure of the opening of the game fish season ever has been a strong one, and whether it be a hook and line fit for catching a minnow, a steampower net for catching hundreds of barrels of herring or mackerel, or a harpoon gun for laying low the mighty Leviathan of the sea, fishing tackle is full of interest to him who dreams, and in his dreams hears the faint, far, call of the wild. So far as game fishing is concerned, the present season opens up inauspiciously, and that for the sole reason that some Yankee has invented a new piece of fishing tackle, a rod, and line, which is alleged to register the weight of the fish one does not catch. Of course, no fisherman could be worthy of the name and still believe the testimony of such a cheap-john instrument as against that of his own muscular sense, but he does dread to hear the demand of the man from Missouri.

Animals that Catch Fish

In the fishing world many remarkably instruments and appliances are used, but one must go to the Orient to find the most peculiar sort of tackle. One occasionally hears in America of a trained otter, and the fisherman who is lucky enough to possess one has a guarantee for a good season's work. In the Mediterranean turtle fisheries the remora, or sucking fish, is used as an assistant fisherman. It is a curious sort of fish which attracts itself to a larger fish, to turtler, or to boats themselves, and when it gets a good grip a mud turtle is not in its same class for holding-on qualities. When it is caught a heavy ring is placed about its body just ahead of its tail and it is tethered to the boat. When a turtle is in sight the remora is thrown out, and it fastens its 40-leech-power suction apparatus to the shell of the turtle. It holds fast to the turtle until that creature has been towed alongside of the vessel, when it is pried lose and sent after another turtle. Sometimes the remora gets contrary and will not try to take hold of the turtle, but will swim back to the boat and fasten its sucker to the hull of the boat.


Akin to the remora in turtle fishing is the use of the cormorant in China for fishing purposes. The birds are caught when young, and are carefully trained. A light collar is placed about their necks, to which strings are fastened. They are thrown out into the water and taught to catch fish and bring them to the Chinese boars. It takes infinite patience, much plotting, and some boxing of ears to teach the cormorant to fish without a collar and strings attached, but when one masters the art it is a most valuable aid to the fisherman. The cormorants take a certain pride in their work, and when they are unsuccesful in their efforts they take their places shame facedly to await the next try-out. The young usually are trained to work by the assistance of the old birds. The owners are kindness itself to the birds when they work, but box their heads and hurl imprecations at them when they fail.


Spider Webs as Fish Nets

In some of the South Sea Islands a species of spider proves that it was the original fishnet maker. A bamboo sapling is bent on a round shape and tied. It stays in this position for some time, and then a spider comes alongs and uses it as the framework on which to build its web. This converts it into a sort of Brobdingnagian tennis racquet, and with this the native knocks a fish out of the water as a tennis player would strike a ball out of his side of the court. The webs are as strong as the dipnet of ordinary design.

In the commercial fisheries of the world all sorts of tackle are used. Of course, the vast majority of the world's fish supply is caught in nets. The most important of these nets is the trawl net. This is a large-mouthed net bag of gigantic proportions, with a beam of about 40 feet. At either end of this beam is a triangular hoop, which serves the threefold purpose of sinker, beam supporter, and sled runner. This net is "shot" from the stern of the boat and trawled along until it is filled with fish, when it is hauled in.


Trawl Net Fishing in Canada, ca. 1900
The seine is one of the nets which the populace owes much of its fish supply. It is a plain net, with sinker weights at the bottom and cork floats at the top. It may vary in size from the huge, quarter of a mile long and 60 feet wide Cornish Pilchard seine to the little band net worked by the fisher children along the beach. In the heavy salmon fishing of the Northwest the seine and the gill net are much used. The seine is short in a semicircle across the stream, and when it is full of fish it is hauled ashore, horse and steam power often being used in the operation. The fish wheel is also used in the salmon fisheries. It looks much like an overshot water wheeel, and over this the fish are shot into a stake inclosure.

-- Dr. Todd