|
Commercial
fishing in the Brighton area from 1850-1900 as told to me by
my great grandfather, my father and other
fishermen.
1850-1900
Fishing was mainly done in this period by sail boats
about 25 ft to 35 ft. Nets used were made of cotton and were
handmade. All meshes were seamed by women in the long
winters and strung on sidelines by the men. The floats were
made of white cedar, treated with boiled linseed oil, and
varnished leads for weights were made from lead melted in
pots and poured in blacksmith-made moulds.
Fish caught in this period were Lake Trout, Herring,
Whitefish, Pike, Perch, Sunfish, Suckers and Bullheads. In
the early years the fish were salted in oak barrels for
shipment across the lake to Oswego, Rochester, New York and
Toronto. Some fish were taken by horse and wagon with ice
and sold or bartered to farmers for meat, chickens,
vegetables, etc. in Brighton Township, Cramahe Township,
Murray Township, and Trenton. Fishing families involved in
this period were the Semples, Quicks, Coopers, Covells,
Lumleys and Gerows.
1900-1950
This period was a real growth time in the commercial
fishery. Fish were boxed in crushed ice, taken in the winter
and stored in ice houses with sawdust. In this period all
fish were shipped by railroad. In express cars service was
so good that product could be loaded at the old CNR station
at night and delivered to Toronto and Montreal the next
morning. Shipping to New York City, Detroit, Michigan,
Chicago and Illinois would take only two days.
Species produced were Whitefish, Lake Trout, Pike, Perch,
Ciscoes, Herring, Sunfish and Bullheads. Nets used were gill
nets, hoop nets, seines and hooklines. Boats used were built
from local timber and the keels and ribs from white oak
planking (either white pine or white cedar). All were built
by The Shewans, local boat builders.
Dow Claus boats were 30 ft to 45 ft in length and powered
by single-cylinder engines first and later by four cylinder
motors made by Durant Buchanan, Ford, Dodge. Top speed of
these boats was about 12 mph.
Hoop net boats, called punts, were flat bottomed and
rowed.
There were fish buyers and packing plants in Gosport.
Snelgroves were at the town launching ramp. Russ Covell was
where the Harbourview Motel is, and Grant Quick's fishhouse
is today. In this period there were up to 35 boats fishing
out of Brighton.
1950-1999
This period brought many changes. Gill nets changed from
cotton-linen to nylon and no more treating with coal-tar
lime. Also, a lot less time is spent reeling and drying
nets. Boats changed from wood to steel and the aluminum
engines got larger. Boats ran faster, net pullers and ice
makers were invented. There is no more storing ice in the
winter thanks to refrigerated trucks delivering fish caught
today to the markets and processors.
In the 1960's, contaminants in Lake Ontario started
affecting some species. These were restricted -- Eels, Lake
Trout and Pickerel over 23". Today testing of all Lake
Ontario fish finds the contaminant levels are dropping,
thanks to the clean-up. The future looks better and we hope
and pray that Governments both provincially and federally
look at us as a viable industry, proud in tradition, of
hard-working people who produce fish to feed the people who
enjoy mother nature's most self-sustaining resource on the
earth.
Today there is about 3-1/2 million dollars worth of fish
produced in Eastern Lake Ontario commercially and one
million going through Quick Fisheries yearly. This could go
to 20 million dollars and make hundreds of jobs for
Northumberland and Prince Edward Counties.
|
