(An email to a Niece.)
Most people think of “fishing” as traditional angling with rod & reel, baitcasting or flyfishing, with wet flies or dry.
Many people never find out about fishing with nets.
There's "Subsistence Fishing," usually by "set-nets." They are
set in a river or alongshore on saltwater, fixed position, anchored to shore.
Salmon swimming up alongside the coastline of the bay get caught by their gills until you get off work and come disentangle them.
In the evening's sunlight shining diamonds in your eyes,
You get a pink-orange glow on your skin. You don't need
a boat for this, except to set the anchor on the waterside so it doesn’t float away in the alongshore currents, or get washed onto the beach and get tangled in itself. The shoreside end can be staked out.
There's also bay set-nets, out from shore a way, anchored on both ends. They check those by boat.
In the evening's sunlight shining diamonds in your eyes,
You get a pink-orange glow on your skin. You don't need
a boat for this, except to set the anchor on the waterside so it doesn’t float away in the alongshore currents, or get washed onto the beach and get tangled in itself. The shoreside end can be staked out.
There's also bay set-nets, out from shore a way, anchored on both ends. They check those by boat.
They have flourescent pink plastic
floats a foot in diameter on the surface to hold the
sides of the net vertical.
Then you can also run lines out to two more anchors set in the sand upstream in the currents coming out from the rivermouth, or against the incoming tide on which the fish swim.
That holds the top (water surface) edges of the net at the surface of the water, so that the current doesn't just bend it
over and the fish swim over top of it flapping in the current.
On the Copper River, flowing through the Wrangell
Mountains, Alaska-resident fishermen, including myself,
jetboat down into the turbulent waters of the canyon and anchor ourselves to the cliffs, where we hang out over the tops of rapids with nets with 15-foot handles.
We hold the net under the surface in the eddy at the base of a real strong rapid where the fish are congregating to rest before the push to the next rapid.
floats a foot in diameter on the surface to hold the
sides of the net vertical.
Then you can also run lines out to two more anchors set in the sand upstream in the currents coming out from the rivermouth, or against the incoming tide on which the fish swim.
That holds the top (water surface) edges of the net at the surface of the water, so that the current doesn't just bend it
over and the fish swim over top of it flapping in the current.
On the Copper River, flowing through the Wrangell
Mountains, Alaska-resident fishermen, including myself,
jetboat down into the turbulent waters of the canyon and anchor ourselves to the cliffs, where we hang out over the tops of rapids with nets with 15-foot handles.
We hold the net under the surface in the eddy at the base of a real strong rapid where the fish are congregating to rest before the push to the next rapid.
When we feel a surge of energy or a knock on the rim of the basket
we scoop and lift real fast, and have sometimes a great
salmon.
Upriver, subsistence families, (subsistence means you
live off the land with minimal income from cash) can
use "fish-wheels."
These are giant floats anchored to the shore of great rivers like the Yukon and Tanana. There is a
central axle and a wheel like a paddle wheel or mill wheel,
which turns with the current.
But instead of mere blades being turned, the ends of the
blades have wire baskets on them. As the wheel rotates up to the surface there are often fish
flopping around.
salmon.
Upriver, subsistence families, (subsistence means you
live off the land with minimal income from cash) can
use "fish-wheels."
These are giant floats anchored to the shore of great rivers like the Yukon and Tanana. There is a
central axle and a wheel like a paddle wheel or mill wheel,
which turns with the current.
But instead of mere blades being turned, the ends of the
blades have wire baskets on them. As the wheel rotates up to the surface there are often fish
flopping around.
When the wheel goes over the top the fish get dropped into the weir (big storage basket).
In the winter and spring, after the migrations are done, Eskimoes and Indians, and others of the bush feed dogs and families with set nets under the ice.
In the winter and spring, after the migrations are done, Eskimoes and Indians, and others of the bush feed dogs and families with set nets under the ice.
They go out daily and chop holes in the new ice on each end, and pull the nets up for the
locally resident fish.
The species are more often burbot (lingcod) ("Tiktallik" in Inupiaq Eskimo) and whitefish or grayling (big long fin on back called dorsal fin.)
On commercial fishing boats and ships they use seine nets, purse seines, with a rope tied around the rim of a globe net, hoisted by motor pulley from a mast.
The rope around the rim of the basket net is in a circle, hauled by a small skiff from the back deck.
The surface edge of the net has a rope running through rings. The bottom does too. The crew waits
for a school of herring or salmon to swim almost into the curtain under the surface, then runs the skiff around the whole school, and pulls the lines tight
at top and bottom.
When the boom mast pulley is motored, the lines haul
up the whole purse of fish. Then they swing it around
over the deck or uncovered hold, and open the bottom
so all the fish spill out.
The surface edge of the net has a rope running through rings. The bottom does too. The crew waits
for a school of herring or salmon to swim almost into the curtain under the surface, then runs the skiff around the whole school, and pulls the lines tight
at top and bottom.
When the boom mast pulley is motored, the lines haul
up the whole purse of fish. Then they swing it around
over the deck or uncovered hold, and open the bottom
so all the fish spill out.
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