Omaha daily bee., 1903-03-29
Lent the Fisherman's Harvest Time

addition to nested dories, 1t can carry Q
forty-foot seine boat on deck and stow the
seine away there also.
The three methods Of fishing among the
Gloucester men are with nets, with travis
and with hand lines.
Gill nets are set at the surface to catch
mackerel, herring and other fish that swim
on the surface. The meshes are just large
enough to admit the heads OF the fish and
as the Irvine is very thin, they swim into
them blindly and entangle their gills SO
that they cannot escape.
The seine used mostly for catching
mackerel and herring, however, is the
purse seine, also used for taking men
baden. The purse seine is IN immense and
complicated net, running about LOO to
1.400 feet in length and with a depth OF
from 60 to $50 feet. The cost of such a net
is from $500 to 81, 1000, and it is lowered
around a school Of fish by tackles. After
the prey has been surrounded, it is closed
automatically at the bottom, forming a
purse from which the fish canno: possibly
escape except in the occasional instances
when the catch is so huge that the net
breaks from the excessive weight.
The gill net is used sometimes for catch
ing cod In such cases it is weighted down
and set on the bottom.
The trawl is a long line with hooks set
at intervals of a few feet-three feet for
paddock and twelve to fifteen feet COR hall
but The trawl lines are baited on board of
the smack and then coiled carefully into
tubs so that they will pay out without en-
t~angling.
When the dories go out, each takes its
quota of tubs of trawl lines and sets them
at various distances from the smack. The
trawl is sunk by being weighted at one end
with an anchor, which has a long line with
a buoy attached to it so that, after the line
is on the bottom, the fishermen can find 1t.
After the anchor is down, one dory man
rows slowly along while the other pays out
the trawl, and when the end of the line is
reached it, too, is fastened to a buoyed
anchor and dropped overheard.
Travis run from 5000 feet to 10000 feet
in length and carry from $500 to 5000
hooks.
A ~trawling vessel carries from three to
nine dories and two men go in each dory.
In fair weather in hand-line fishing each
dory often carries only one man.
The dories are supposed to be fitted out
with water and food every time. they are
put over side, but the men go of without
them far too often, and consequently when
they become lost in a fog or are driven
away from the feet in a storm their suffer-
ings from hunger and thirst are shocking.
Besides trawl lines and tubs, a we'll
found dory carries an extra. anchor and
anchor cable, a big tin horn to be used as
a fog signal, a gait hook and a maui or
club to kill big fish.
The amount OF appliances carried by n
fishing vessel is bewildering. For every
trip the smack is fitted out with enough
-
store, for the vessels have only themselves
to depend on for from four weeks to three
months and must be able to replace any
amount of gear that may be lost or ruined.
In addition to a huge stock of the regular
hand lines for cod, pollock and mackerel
fishing, and the tens of thousands Of hooks
needed for travis, big quantities of lines
and tackle to be used for special methods
of fishing must be carried.
There are sets of lines for "jigging' for
mackerel. "Jigging'' is done when a school
Of mackerel flashes around the craft. The
mackerel jigs are bright metal squids with
sharp hooks fastened TO thin lines. They
are tossed among the school and jerked
up and down as fast as the fishermen can
work their arms. The mackerel snap at
the shining metal and are hauled in-board
as fast as men can "slat" the fish of and
bait.
Common blue-snapper lines must be
abroad also. They are thin lines with