The Opelousas courier., 1891-11-07
HOW INDIANS CATCH FISH
DESCRIPTION OF THEIR CURIOUS
METHODS AND TACKLE.
Hooks of Shell, Lines of Bark, Nets
OF Vegetable Fibre, Clubs and

Spears.
Not much is known as to how the In
dams in the East, the aborigines who
wandered over the Sdawangunk and
Catskills, caught their fish. They had
hooks and they had lines. The hooks
were made of bone and even shells,
which were rudely whipped upon lines
made of bark or dried plants. When
poles were used they were tree branches
or saplings. Upon the hooks were
placed bugs or insects. It is true, though,
that most Indians used fish traps and net
contrivances to get the fish that then
teemed the waters that now an angler
must patiently work in with his arti-
fetal cast of flies, thankful for a dozen
fish, happy with double that number.
Some idea of the primitive tackle and
methods of the early days of the coun-
try can be gained from the Indians of
the northwest coast, who are slow to
adopt modern apparatus, and even now
make little substitution for the tackle of
200 years ago except in accepting iron
barbs for the early hooks of shell or
bone. The Indians of the earlier period
had to do mostly with salt water fish,
and depending largely upon fish for food
were obliged to develop the piscatorial
art and make big catches. To put out
a hundred set hooks and gain a like
number of fish was a matter of common
occurrence with them. The size of the
fish did not bother them, and they safely
landed immense halibut weighing as
much as $50 pounds.
Salmon were so common in various
parts of the coast rivers and streams
that a fish trap was often used. Some
times they used spears at narrow pas
sages in the river.
The Indians OF the northwest coast
retain their old tackle to this day. The
big hooks obtained from the whites are
used for gatf hooks and as spear heads.
The hooks are traded as other merchan-
disc. A primitive style of hook used
by the Haida tribe of the northwest is a
straight piece of bone, the shank a
straight piece of wood, and the snood or
smell a straight piece of whalebone, the
smell being attached to the shank by
lashings of bark. In another style a
narrow block of wood is used with a
spike of bone, shell, or iron, and a snood
of spruce root or whalebone. In Alaska
large haIibut hooks are also used. At
first these were barbed with bone, but
now they are with iron. They are made
In two pieces, each dashed at the joint
with cedar bark, the shanks made in
different designs, supposed to give good
luck to the fishermen. Some are made
from the forked branches of trees, yew
and spruce being generally used. In the
wood is set the bone, shell or iron barb.
The bait is lashed to the arm of the hook
which carries the barb, and placed just
under it. These are very strong, and
halibut weighing as much as fifty pounds
are caught on them.
By steaming and bending a tough
piece of a yew branch, various shaped
hooks are made. One variety is twisted
just as though the shank of a long weak
fish hook were bent in an oval shape and
brought back so as to leave q little be-
tween the point of the barb and the long
space shank, and across it a strip of steel
is placed upon which to tie a piece of
bait.
The hook that is used in catching cod
and founders, constructed with the spe.
cial purpose of preventing foul1ng, is
described by Judge ]. q. Swan as fol-
lows:
"They are made of knots of hemlock
limbs, cut out from old decayed logs.
These are split in pieces of suitable size
and Whitfield to the required shape and
bent by being steamed into the form
which III the skill hook resembles the
longitudinal section of a goose egg. The
lower portion OF these hooks is turned
inward to form q barb, and when not in
use the two ends of the hook are fast
ened together by piece of Irvine, which
is also used to tie on the bait. The two
parts OF the hook are separated by means
Of a stick or peg, which the fish knocks
out when he takes the bait, and the two
ends of the hook close together and hold
him fast. The peg floats to the sur
face and indicates to the Indian that he
has caught a fish.
.The sinker is another ingenious con-
trivance. 1t is a large stone weighing
from twelve to fifteen pounds and q
smaller one to serve as a tripping stone.
The line is wound around these stones
many turns and a blight or loop tucked
under enc of the parts in the same man
ner. A signal officer rolls up a flag in a
ball ard tucks a blight of ballard under
a turn which, when pulled out. sets the
| flag free. So when the Indian fisherman
thinks from the number Of floating pegs
that he has enough fish, he pulls out the
loop of his line, the stones become zoos
ened and fall out, and hauls in his line
relieved of the weights.
"The Haidas frequently put on 100
hooks to a line, which act like a trawl,
and SO plentiful are the black cod that
often from fifty to seventy-6ve are
hauled in at one time. The bait used
seems to be anything handy, as The ski
is a greedy feeder and will take either
fresh herring, squid, Or a strip of the
white skin from a halibut's belly. The
Indian. however, had enemies to contend
with, one of the most formidable being
the groundish, or nursefsh, as the sailors
call them, which will eat off the bodies
of a long line Of fish, leaving only their
heads. There is also a small sculpin va
riety, which will steal the bait. Dog6st
also are at times very troublesome.
Whenever the Indian is sure of the pres
ence of these pests he goes to another
MACE to fish,