The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-05-27
How the Fishermen Work
During the Brief Busy
Season.
KING OF THE FOOD FISHES
And Where the Finest Abound
Gloucester's Famous for
Catching and Cooking.
Specfa1 to the Jerseu Ctr Ne,rs.


Florida. 1t is fiabby. grayish compo-
sition with little taste; the North Caro-
lima variety, which arrives later is no i'm
provement; it is small and as thin as an
underfed heifer; it has tarry flavor and
it lacks the lustre in scale and eye that
one sees in the Delaware beauty. The
shad reaches its perfection in the Della
ware; even those taken in the Hudson
and Connecticut Rivers can not compare
with it. Long before old Cornelius Meys
and his broad buttoned craft sailed up
from the cape to which he gave his name.
there were fisheries all along the shore
lines of the future States of Pennsylvania,
Jersey and Maryland, for the aborigines
laid in huge stocks of the smoked shad
and dried herring. Centuries before, the
Dutch West India Company took possess
sion of The Swedish strongholds, the
original proprietors of William Penn's
province set their basket nets in the coves
ana currents to catch the first of the
great schools which swept up, almost un-
interruptedly, TO the spawning grounds
above where Trenton now stands.
COLONIAL RECORDS OF FISHERIES.
There are very few records OF the colon
ial fisheries in the Delaware. Following
to matters of local history. and so there
are found, here and there. scattered
through quaint books of 100 odd years
ago, fragmentarY descriptions of this in
dustry. BY all odds the best account is
found in n "Notice of the Shad and Shad
Fisheries of the Delaware" from the pen
of DR.. Samuel Howell. nearly sixty years
ago.
The annual catch along from 1925 to
1887 was about 100000. and yet the aver
age price paid was 81 per 100. The main
fishery then was at Fancy Hills-now
employed there. including foremen. clerks,
wal chmen and tide watchers, was nearly
100. An average of twenty men were
required at each of the other fisheries.
The shad were disposed of to buyers
who came in boats and wagons. The great
mass of the fish were salted like mackerel
for domestic use, though they were some.
times treated like hams. viz, by rubbing
them with fine salt, saltpetre and mo-
lasses, after which they were smoked for
few days.
I'm the fresh state" says DR.. Howell,
'they are, in the height of the season, one
of the most delicious of the tinny tribe
and decidedly the best mode of cooking is
that called 'planking.' which consists in
mailing the fish to a clean oaken plank,
previously heated, and setting it before
brisk fire. BY this method the juices of
ln6 usH are all preSerVeu
GLOUCESTER HOLDS HER OWN.
Gloucester has held it's reputation for
shad fishing and plauked shad for 100
years and more. Every year the an
nouncement of the opening of the season
draws crowds of visitors to the long,
curving, yellow shore. where the fisher
men, wrapped in oilskins, toll day and
night in sun and storm until the law
steps in end puts an end to their labors.
During the season hundreds of nets are
set in the tidewater between Gloucester
and the head of the bay. and hundreds of
men do a more or less remunerative pusi-
ness with their seineS.
1t requires 81 certain amour of capital to
embark in this trade. First, there mus
be sixteen foot boat. net from 200 to
500 fathoms long, buoys. lamps, and per-
haps a small furnace and cooking uJen-
sils, if the fisherman intends living in his
boat. The outfit costs anywhere from
500 to $780, The boat is broad bottomed
skiff, with wide stern for paving out the
net, and two or three cts of oars. The
net is of fine hempen twine, with meshes
of about five inches in size. Its depth in
the water is estimated by meshes, its
length in fathoms. Thus net forty-eight
meshes deep and 800 fathoms long is
twenty feet deep and 1.S00 feet in length.
The bottom of the net is weighted with
lead, about twenty pounds every 300
fathoms, while the top is buoyed up with
squares of cork every ten or twelve feet.
When set in the water the top of such a
seine is three feet below the surface, with
It's bottom dragging the bed of the river
il the depth is three fathoms of water or
less
To each end on the net there is attached
a buoy; usually half heer keg painted
red, or a rough wooden float lifted at least
six inches above the water; there are
iron grooves or twine strings by which
1antnPn he Qttpphq1 nf
night, RS a warning to boatmen and other
fishermen. There are number of Phila-
delphia fishermen who set their nets at
various points down the river as far as
Chester and even at places between
Chester and Wilmington, These men
from Sunday to Sunday during the season
practically live in their boats.
HIS OFFICE IN HIS BOAT.
The shad fisherman's catch is sold right
off his boat. There are sailing craft
whose owners make it business of car
rving the fish caught by this class of
market. These boats have their helds
and decks divided into compartments.
Each fishermen's catch Is thrown into one
of these and carried up to the commission
merchant on Dock or Vine street. For
this service the fisherman peys one cent
per shad to the boat owner. The com
mission of the Dock street dealer ranges
from a cent piece up to ten per cent. of
the total sale. Settlements with the
fishermen are made weekly.
The law prohibits fishing between
twelve O'Clock midnight of Saturday and
twelve o'clock midnight Sunday. The
fisherman never fails to get back to the
fishing grounds at least Two hours before
midnight on Sunday. The twenty-four
hour interval has given the fish greater
opportunity to get up the river, and the
early Monday catch is usually the largest
of the week. 1t is a great temptation
10 fishermen to evade the law, and there
are not few who take the risk and drop
their nets as soon as darkness falls over
the water on Sunday. But it does not
pay for shadfisher, all of whose capital
is invested in his boat aud net, to thus
juggle with the statutes, for If he is once
apprenended all his belopgings-net,
boat, oars, everything-is confiscated by
the authorities.
In hauling in or putting out fish net
a certain order must be observed. The
cork floats are attached to twine lengths
of three feet. These always are kept to
the right haud of the man who manages
the net. The sinker line is kept to the
left In the boat.
The time selected for casting the net is
about an hour before the turn of the tide.
1t is lifted a couple of hours later. There
are fishermen who drift" as it is called.
every three hours or so. AS fast as the
net is hauled aud cleaned out it is dropped
again. But there are scores of people
a lopcr ha rfveV mill man and rnapho pics