CAPE MAY COUNTY MAGAZINE 22 JUNE '93

21

I: Did they do any of that down here (Wildwood)?...Did they have a house there for you to stay in? H: Oh yeah. We called them shanties, you know, where you stay. They had a cook there, a cook for you. You got three meals a day. I: Here in Wildwood they did that? H: Yeah, up in Wildwood Where the City Hall in Wildwood is now there was a train station. They took the fish there and loaded the train. The train went all the way down to the dock, you know, in Otten’s Harbor ..And the train went also to Two Mile. There Was a turntable there...The box cars and all they backed them down to Two Mile. They loaded in the box cars. There were barrels in them days. There were no boxes. I: When you first started fishing here in Wildwood, then you started pound fishing? H: No, I started dragging. We were flounder fishing...! haven't done any pound fishing down here. I: Did you have different types of fishermen that were here in Wildwood? H: Yes, handliners and gill netters and different kind...See, there was a lot of boats come up from Newport, North Carolina, handliners - all that old craft... I: Were they commercial boats? Ilandlining for sea bass? H: Yes, they were all commercial. The harbor was full of boats...in the spring of the year when you were rigging up, there could nave been, maybe, between three or four hundred people... I: When you came over here, and you fished over here, how did you generally find the fish? H: Over there, you had to try different places...you could get sounding machines that showed! the bottom - the depth of the bot-l tom. You couldn’t buy them; you[ had to rent them. In 1946 you could buy them, so I bought one, because that showed you how the bottom was - how the bottom lay. Before then you used to have the net, the net line. You’d throw the nets. But sometimes, you know, one fellow, he was out on deck, picking the fish and I was staying with the net and to the wheel at the same time. Especially if you

fished along the shore here. I got so used to it I could take a bearing from Cape May and up the coast to Stone Harbor and Avalon, and I wouldn’t have to use no net because I would know exactly how the bottom would go. I’d throw in - using the net - and then you’d use the chart at the same time. Of course, the chart shows you the depth of the water. Because the fluke, they lay in the deep...They would never lay up on the shallow except in the spring of the year when they first come. Then they are feeding in the sallies. Then you can fish anywhere... I: Do you remember some of the prices that you got for the fluke? H: .. .Well, I’ll tell you, we got as low as 25 cents for 100 pounds. That was big fish too. There were no small fish because in them days they didn't catch small fish...we went in the hole. We didn’t have enough to pay the expense... I: Were they generally setting the price for fish wherever you went? H: Yeah, oh yeah, they set the price. Of course, there were market prices in them days... I: Did you have any broker in the market for you, or did you just send them up? H: Yeah, we sent them up, you know ...and whatever it was, that’s what you got.. The first time I was here I went out fishing with my cousin. We had 96 barrels. There would be 192 boxes. We got $96 for them. That was in 1927. ..You didn’t buy the fish down there on the docks at that time because there was a lot of fish around. So you had to ship them, you couldn’t do nothing with them. You had to ship them and take what you could get... I: Was there competition when you went out fishing? Different grounds? H: More Or less...Well, I’ll tell you, we've been doing all right. We’ve been getting along pretty nicely, you know, even when It comes to fishing, you never got in anybody’s way or anything...! have done OK since I have come to this country and there is one thing -1 was never stuck for a job, wherever I went. You got to go a long way, to find places like this.

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