The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-12-19
millions of HERRlNe.
Easy to Catch. but Hard to Sell, Evon u
They Are Fat.

They Are E8ts
"Plenty of herring, but no market this
year. said a fisherman who was paint
ing dory, which rested bottom up on
the beach at Newburyport ''You can
catch all the herring you want any
night, but you can't sell 'em. There is
one net in use. and two or three boats
20 cut at night torching, but there isn't
much money in it. Last night oLc of
the boats brought in twenty barrels of
fish, and farmer bought the whole lot
for six dollars to put on the land as 8
fertilizer. The squid are so plenty now
that we can't sell many herring. even
for manure, because the farmer would
rather have squid. We used to sell her
ring for bait. but they don't do much
TRAVELLING. The meters have killed that
business and only a few boats go out
trawling. Are the herring good for
food? Why, certainly, but they're too
cheap to pay for catching them. Peo-
pie about here use a good many, and the
peddlers take a few barrels every day
and sell the herring for about five cents
a dozen. The fish are bigger this year
than usual and are first rate to eat.
Generally they are about third grown
when they come into the river, but this
year they are as large as Labrador her.
ring. Where they make business OF
taking herring and curing them in
large quantities, it probably pays. The
regular herring-fishers follow them from
Cape Cod all along the coast to Port
land and beyond and catch immense
quantities, and that makes it unprotita-
bic to follow the business in small
way as they once did here. Besides
that. the small mackerel are very cheap
now-two or three dollars a barrcl-and
people would rather have mackerel than
herring any time. 1t don't pay very
well for three men to work ali night
catching herring at six dollars boat
load. In fact any kind of tishlr~ "cn't
pay nearly as well as it used to and there
are only six boats sailing out of New
buryport now.
If you want to see them catch her
ring come down on the sea-wali at night
when the tide comes in. In the day
time the herring keep outside and out
of sight, but when it grows dark they
come to the surface and follow the tide.
The darker the night the better the fish
ing. Three men got out in dory, two
to row and one to fish. The best place
for herring is where the tide eddies
around point; and the fishermen pull
out to an eddy and look for the school.
The man in the bow has torch, and
and the light attracts the fish. They
will get so crazy after a torch on a dark
night that they'll boil right out of water
around the boat. It'll be just solid her.
ring and nothing else, and all man
has to do is to shovel them into the boat.
I've heard some chaps say they've seen
the herring so thick as to lift boat
clean out of water. and one fellow down
on the point swears that he drove
school in shore one night aud walked TO
the beach on top of the herring without
getting his feet wet: but I've always had
some doubts about that. The same fe!-
low says he's seen the herring crc'yi
each other so far ont of water that
they'd spill each other over the gun.
wales and Ell up the boat themselves.
don't know about that, but it is 4 fact
that man with scoop net sometimes
Cdd ldhc III IL piIItt VI ilSH III Oic UP.
At that rate it doesn't take long to fill a
boat TO the gunwales. That's about all
there is to 'torching' herring. You
jus; 90 out where the fish are-and you
can easily find the place by rowing the
cddies and watching the surface of the
water-and then scoop them in: and
when You come ashore you may get
thirty cents barrel from some farmer
for your catch. l can remember.
though, when barrel of herring used
TO bring five dollars.
How longwill the herring stay here:
Oh. until the ice begins to make. and
then they'll clear out" And the fisher
man picked up his paint-pot and drifter
away.-BOSto3 Globe.