Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-01-25
Tht Sire press.
SMELT FISHING.
A Decaying Industry.
How It Used to Be Carried on in its
Flourishing Days,

A Glance at the Paraphernaiin ana
pecuJaritIe, of the Present Fisher
men.
Years ago, before the city of Burlington
became connected with the Associated Fish
Exchange and received its daily supplies of
this intellectual food from the great centcrs
of intelligence of the country, the local fish
ing industry was great and flourishng
institution. Especially in the winter time.
when rthc lake was frozen over and the
toothsomc smelt gathered in immense schools
around our rocky points and near our break
water and docks, the piscatorial talent of
the town had an opportunity to display it
self to advantage. AS soon as the bay fairly
closed, regular village of small huts used
to spring up around the brakewater, almost
as suddenly as metropolis in the mining
regions. How they got there, or where
they came from, nobody seemed to-
know, but at all events, there they
were, with the smoke pouring out
of the section of stove-pipc that served
them as a chimney, and the inhabitants of
the village circulating hither and thither,
borrowing and lending bait and tobacco, and
getting ready for the first days fishing of the
season.
But these good old times are well nigh
past. A visitor to the lake at the present
season will find only few scattered huts
here and there, and few half-lrozen fisher
men squatting around holes in the ice, rooted
by all out doors and surrounded by mountain
walls and snowy shores. The glory of smelt
fishing has departed forever And, strange as
it may seem, with decrease in the number
OF fishermen has come corresponding
decrease in the number of fish. More perch
and fewer smelt are caught by our winter
fishermen now than in the days of yore. But
the industry still thrives in feeble way, and
the smelt ale Just as toothsOme as they were
before the time when man could order as
good fish as ever were in the sea on Friday
morning, and have them smoking on his din
ner-table by Friday noon. The present
smelt-fshcrman is by no means the impor-
tant and awe-inspiring parsonage that his pro-
totype was. He has au aspect of broken gen
tility, like the old Virginia country gentleman
in these post-bellum days. He seem aware of
the fact that OthellO's occupations gone,
and that it behooves him to manifest in his
person the decadenCe of his class. Especial
ly is this humility to be noted in the SILVER
ing fisherman who crouches unsheltered by
his smoky fire on the ice and peers wistfully
into the ever-freezing hole where all his for
tunes lie hidden. What contrast to the
proud and comfortable proprietor OF a
''shanty." under the old regime Even
the fish will not bite as they used to,
IndiiTerently and in disp;rited way, they
hover around the seductive hook, poking it
now and then with their clammy noses, or
giving il disguised flap of the tail, which
causes the discouraged fisherman to wake
from his stupor and draw up the line with a
beating heart, only TO find the bait intact.
Occasionally he gets bite that reminds him
of a cross eyed bull dog on a dark night, and
after long and severe tussle, during which
his line gets sadly frayed on the sharp edges
of the ice, he lands a half-pound perch,
and gets his fingers stabbed to the quick by
the vicious dorsal fins of the monster as he
laboliously removes it from the hook. Bat
what is a perch worth, anyway, compared
with the toJthsJme, silver smelt?-so much
bones and sawdust, that is all.
Here and there, like the dccaying estates
Of landed proprietors, we find the old-timt
fishing "shanty" The proprietor sits within
on his bench, before the little cosy stove, anC
ruefully manipulates the idle lines which rur
down through the floor. The smelt are no
'baitcd' enough nowadays, he will tel
you. They do not come in such big schools
II reward the patience of their faithful
friends, the fishermen. Still days wori
with the lines is profitable. The smelt bring
a good price in market, and are favorlt'
ElludN ulSu Win iluuy VI bul NlllHNbS
The toll of securing them is not much NOR
arduous than sitting around the cooking
stove at home, and smoking for something
to turn up. For this reason the in
dustry still survives. The little cab
on the ice is not a bad place t
spend the day IN lofty contemplation
occasionally interrupted by the necessity q
pulling up wIlggling victim and biting on
its eye for fresh bait. The mouths Of thes
ancient and approved fishermen, by the way
are made to serve the exceedingly practic'
purpose Of bait recepticlus a good share {
the time and it is almost impossible to CT
gage one Of the meditatIve philosophers
conversation until he has disgOrged misce
ceaneOus assortment OF smelts' eye
chunks Of perch flesh, and supplement
airy layers of fat pork, all LIBERAL
seasoned with compound decoctlc
Of tobacco Juice and garlic. III
required Information will then be imparto
in a brief oracular manner, and the sage W
then at once relapse into sphynX'ikc sienc
The occasional skater stops to view the I
suits Of the fisherman's labor, and then skin
away to warm his blood. The dull hours
the winter day drag on, and still the bethai
ic figure sits upon the ice and medilates, wi
eyes fixed upon the inky water, aud {,
film slowly gathering round his line III
is chapter of piscatOrial experience viii
quaint Isaak Walton never lived
write: and, to tell the truth, we dou
whether the cd gentleman would have be
able to appreciate the romance of SIN
fishing, rs 1t exists to-day, in
ice-blund waters of Lake Cnamplain