Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-09-06
THE HERRING wErRs,


All over and around Quoddy bay and the
inlets and rivers tributary are hundreds Of
| weirs where are captured the young herring
which the Eastport factories cure and nacI
into boxes for sardines. These weirs are
| really traps Of a rude sort where these m,dgets
are imprisoned at high tide and released Unto
poats) at low tide. Seen from q steamboat
they appear mere bits Of the bay-a few acres
] in place fenced in with bean poles that rise
considerably out Of water when the tide is out
! Inc fence 10 built around three slider of this
Enclosure, the upright stakes being hori-
2ontally waited with willows and other 1.-the
| saplings and then filled in with brush SO closely
as to furnish an obstruction to the herring
infants which thoughtlessly drift into the
open gate with the falling tide. Then, at the
| right time, boats 60 in armed with seines and
sake captive the bewildered sinners. boat
| load will sometimes sell for go or $50.
| The eight-hour law is not enforced in East
port because a sardne factory is liable to start
up ut any hour of the day or night and must
keep going as long as there is anything to do,
lest the tender catch should spoil. They are
! apt to work more by night than by day. because
the piscatorial small fry can be best taken at
| the daylight high tide. When the catch ia
| washed and dressed, baked, oiled and boxed,
then the hands go to bed and catch their forty
| winks, more or less, before they are summoned
again to the loud-smeiiing factory.
sIaNALISe THEIR LUCK
| cruise the skipper signals to the lookout at the
factory the measure OF his success and the
hands are called from all parts of the town
! To this end bells are ruDg and each factory has
different code, SO that its employees know who
| 10 calling and pretty nearly what is expected of
them.
This dwarf herring is first cousin to the clupe
which forms the sardine Of France. 1t is not
quite SO hard and the cotton seed oil in which
halm16 q ~ init l.
olive oil in which its aristocratic cousin of Con.
carneau lies entombed. But he is as numerous
| and he is easier caught. When the French
skipper OF Concarneau desires to get boat
| load OK clupes he must first purchase a most
| seductive bait-the roe Of cod-which costs
| about $40 barrel. This expensive luxury he
must spread upon his net before be dips il in
| the sea and scatter it upon the waves after
ward to entiee the wary and insignificant fish
ing. But the Eastport skipper uses no bait
and no auxiliary save the mighty tide which
leads the diminutive wanderer within the
sound and leaves him helpless there. The
whole OF the French coast, according to Henry
haynie, produces annually about sixty million
boxes OF sardines and Eastport, Me-, produces
about third as many.
So much for little fish; now for the big ones
CATCHING TIE BIG FISH.
/ never saw such fishing az there is here
never. The expert angler wouldn't like it.
For the expert angler is never happy unless
| the fish are very difficult to catch. The az
pert angler avofds those spots where fish are
plenty. He likes to sit all day in the hot sun
aud get two reticent bites, and carry home a
three-story appetite and nose that peels like
| an over-ripe banana. Set tho expert angler
down where fish are plenty and be bushes.
acknowledges that he has made a mistake. and
at once moves off to some spot where the game
ne seeks Is more exclusive. There are shoals,
focks, swarms and herds of fish here
tremendous
| some-cod, pollock, paddock. sword fish. bake
scrod, halibut and all the long-shore fighters
OF the sea. The individually OF school Of fish
here average about the size of the in
five or six pull in fish bigger than themselves.
had listened to these yarns and had re-
ceived them with bushels Ct allowance for the
forid imagination Of fishermen. l never knew
an amateur fisherman who would lie. but I
never knew one from whose hook fish did not
occasionally escape that were twice as big as
they ought to be. One day at Campobeiio
Island mustered a sail boat party for the fish
ing grounds-about 20 acres Of a pollock para
disc out in the briny just where Quoddy bay
meets the Bay OF Fundy. There were five Of
US. the party besides myself being four ladies.
just about as ignorant of fishing as 1 was. All
OF us had hshed, but none OF us had ever caught
| fish il we could help it. 1 never could bear
to see an angle worm wriggle and usually had
my wife bait my hook Thus weighted down
1t was naturally not expected that the boat
would bring in fish. But it did. Listen to
my tale.
GETTING BITES.
We shortly tackled across the track of small
boat and got some bait for 10 cents water
pail full Of undressed minnows-sardines
decollette. The two-inch hook is baited with
fresh ssrdine whole. 1t was deep sea fishing
$50 feet OF stout line. One lady sat pensiveIy
under her parasol and looked on while the
other four fshed, keeping the skipper pretty
busy batting our hooks. To tell the melancholy
truth the fish got away with most OF our bait.
The painful silence in which we began the
solemn exercise was broken by one of the
ladies, who eagerly exclaimed:
II got i'm! l got i'm! I've got fish! I
feel i'm bite He pulls like everything! Per-
haps it isa log. There! He keeps bitingw
Why don't you pull up on your line7" sug-
There The He bis. again. Oh, isn't it fun! I
.'Yank i'm I'M" we shouted in chorus,
1t took her about three minutes to pull In
the line and then her hook was bare
"What made hum get away?' she asked, look
ing distressed
HAfter gettin' y'r bait" said the skinner.
"and eatin' on it and digestin' it. reckon he
must have laughed an went of to consider wot
| to do next!"
Il feel bite!" said another.
''Fm sure it's q bite! Oh. dear, he keeps
| a-biting! There! See that! How he pulisi
There, he bites again! I shall just spoif this
Pull i'm in!' was yelled again.
The skipper hurried across the boat took the
| line in hand and hauled in and landed q good
! pollock weighing fifteen pounds.
He put on fresh bait and handed back the
| line, observing, "Wen you git a fish you must
git i'm Fish enjoys conversation, but faint
good fer EN-"
The captured fish stopped our nonsense. We
| gradually settled down to business. There was
| little more Cabling or dallying. When one of
| the girls got bite she tackled to the animal
| and hauled him in hand over hend. Three or
| four were SO big that the captor could
not lift them over the guards unaided. It ealy
was fun.
| As intimated about two-thirds of our fish
| got away from us on account Of our inexpert-
| We had got into the boat about $50 pounds of
them-pollock, cod and lakeland the largest
| one weighed twenty-five pounds. There were
twenty-five dead fish in all We did not count
| the number that spit out the hook and saun-
| tered on while We we're considering the pro-
priety of hauling them in, but estimate that
! there must have been at least sixty of them
| The skipper insisted that the fugitives laughed
at US, and suppose they did We all felt IL
| keenly. Nothing can be more Illuminating than
to be the object Of fsh's derision.
/ SILK paKssxs sAcaIrIcEp.
Another thing: Several silk dresses were
spoiled forever. The girls had tn the mornin z
been conscious Of their unskillfulness in wrest-
ling with the monsters of Quoddy, and feeling
/ certain that they would not appear TO advanf-
age anyhow they made IN effort 70 appear -