The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-02-24
SMELT FISHING.
CATCHING SMELTS FROM SHAN
TIES BUILT ON THE ICE.
Old and New Style of Fishing for the
Piscatorial Tidbits - Fishing
with Bag-Nets the Most
Profitable.

These delicious little ish-the smaller
the better-come principally from Maine,
although opposite Burlington, Vermont,
in Lake Champlain, they are taken in
sufficient numbers to constitute trade.
The st. Lawrence river is also famous
ground for winter fishermen, who make
good catches of smelts and ''tomcods." q"
No longer does the half-frozen angler
stand on one leg by his hole in the ice,
and change his line from hand to hand
dozen times minute, and spend an hour
in batting his hook. He sits now in
comfortable shanty heated by stove,
with often several partners to keep him
company, and fishes through long and
narrow opening in the floor, which is
over a corresponding hole cut in the ice.
Then, when the fish do not bite, the
opening is covered over with planks, and
cots are made up for the men.
AS soon as the ice forms at the begin
ming of winter, the shanties are pulled out
from the shore and placed on the edge OF
the channels, and as near to the open
water downstream as possible. The
holes in the ice are cut, and if the position
is good and fish bite rapidly, they are
kept.open as the ice thickens. If, how
evzr, the place selected is found to be q
poor one, then the shanty is shifted about
until the right spot is found. Often with
out apparent reason the fish stop biting;
then the houses are moved about good
deal, looking for new grounds, and some
times at Damariscotta, Maine, almost the
whole little village of one hundred huts
can be seen moving about over the bay In
various directions, presenting a curious
and novel scene.
Many of the 'smelt houses'' are small
enough to haul on a boys hand sled,
those used at Damariscotta being about
four by five feet in size. They are frame
structures, walled with cotton drilling,
and, to prevent their blowing away, are
made fast to the ice by grappling-irons.
Usually there is but one man to each
house, single houses being thought the
best, as gang of fishermen is supposed
to make too much noise. It is said that,
the smelt bite best on cold, stormy days,
and some fishermen assert that there are
two varieties, known as the ''school
smelt" and the "permanent smelt"
the former, which is constantly
moving about, are supposed to bite
most readily. This smelt is distinguished
by a light-colored back, while that of
the other is dark. Many smelt' fisher
men work only at night, burning strong
lights beside the holes to attract the fish.
When this is done, surgeons and other
big fishes are also often attracted by the
light, and drive the smelt away. In
tide-waters the ebb or outgoing tide is
supposed to be the best time to fish, but
is not to be relied upon with any GER
tainty.
In some localities only one hook and
fine is used to a house, but it is more
common for each man to ''thumb" two
or more lines, with several hooks attached
to each line. In the large wooden
shanties the hand end of the lines are
fastened to an overhead rack. Each
fisherman is provided with two or more
lines, which are rugged with leaden
sinkers and wire spreaders, from the
prongs of which dangle hooks of about
No. s or 9, sproat, in size.
Every smelt fishery has its local pre-
iudices and notions as to bait. Often
whatever can be most easily obtained is
used. In some places the favorite bait
is the marsh minnow, which the fisher
men collect in quantities in the autumn,
and preserve alive in springs, or in their
cellars in tanks of water. In other
places they use clam-worms-long, red
worms found in the mud where the long
clam abounds. CLANS themselves are
used, also chubs, smelts, raw beef, and
hogs liver chopped fine. The fish are
packed frozen in boxes, and their princi-
bal market is in New York. Philadelphia
and Boston.
Smelts are taken not only in the Pen
obscot, but in many other rivers in
Maine, and by various methods. The
law permits fishing for them from Octo-
Der to April 1, and in some places by
some modes of capture the fishing con-
tinues the entire period.
tits found that fishing with the bag
nets is most profitable. These nets are
set at or near the bottom when practical
BILE, and always in a strong current; in
some places on ebb tide; in others, on
flood. They are commonly thirty to forty
feet long, with a mouth spreading twelve
to eighteen feet in width and ten feet in
height. In certain localities, as between
the piers of the bridge at Bucksport, they
are fitted with long ropes that run
through sheaves at the bottom of heavy
poles which are set upon the bottom and
1ashed to the bridge. These ropes are
the '"down hauls," which pull the net
down to it's place; two other ropes are the
''up hauls," whose name suggests their
use; two more ropes are the openers, -"
by means of which the mouth of the net is
opened after it has been drawn down. The
fisherman set these nets when the tide is
favorable, and draw them up just before
the tide turns. In places where the ice
makes strong enough, the poles are
run down some thirty or forty feet
into the water, never touching bottom,
and the nets drawn down to their ends,
the whole affair rising and falling with
the tide. In still other places, where
the water is too salt for ice, they sink very
heavy 'moorings'-great rocks--to the
bottom, having fastened to them piece
Of chain, and long log or buoy, to the
free end of which is attached frame of
wood on which the mouth of the net is
stretched; this swings with the tide
around the ''mooring." These open
water nets are operated from boats; when
the tide is slack, the buyancy of the log
and frame brings them to the surface;
when the tide is running strong it forces
them to the bottom. A halyard which is