Outboard Fisherman, USA (1956)

[Music] all [Music] occupation commercial fisherman distinguishing marks or features rugged resourceful proud horary some of the time independent all of the time American fishing's small businessman the independent operator who stays close to Shore and seldom fishes deeper than five fathoms for his catch he's the industry's deep sea counterpart the man who fishes for a living on a small scale his equipment a boat an outboard motor and some fishing gear yet every year all over the country thousands of these small boat fishermen bring in millions of pounds of fish in the singular he may not be too important in the plural he and his kind are spread from Maine to Alaska from the Great Lakes to the Louisiana bayou in Creeks rivers lakes bays and inshore Coastal Waters and his job which is one of the oldest in the world forms an important part of America's national economy tank Delafield for Lobster off Rockland Maine he sets his course from number six Mar buy and travels East for 5 minutes locating his pots by dead reckoning lobstermen have a strong sense of property rights So to avoid trespassing each man's Boise bear his own distinctive colors [Music] lobsters aren't the world's most sociable creatures Hank has to put pegs between their claws to keep them from killing each other before he pegs them Hank also has to watch for shorts because of conservation laws under size and egg bearing lobsters have to be thrown back but it's easy to screen the candidates especially when your eyesight is improved by a state fine the Lobster Pot is a fairly simple device the inside is [Music] baited An Empty Bottle or cork float is tied to the bo line about a fathom from the pot to hold the line off the bottom and keep it from fouling when the lobster locates the bait he usually climbs through the funnel net to investigate once inside he's only hours away from a gourmet's dinner plate Hank fishes about 100 pots a day a good catch runs from 50 to 100 lobsters and when you consider they average better than a pound each it adds up to a pretty fair day wage it's not a bad life if you can survive the hurricanes and live off your Capital when prices are [Music] down [Music] America's commercial fishing isn't confined to saltwater 1,000 M Inland the fresh waters of the Mississippi and the Great Lakes yield another source of wealth the catfish and near Bayport Michigan in Lake huron's Sagen Bay the kulakowski brothers are going out after [Music] them catfish are usually caught with a trot line which is nothing more than a long line of Fish Hooks the gear is secured with keg floats on each end and anchors on the bottom hanging from the strot line at regular intervals are ganging lines hanging from the ganging lines are baited hooks the rest is up to the catfish the next day is the [Music] payoff the catfish is very popular in the midwest the Mississippi cat May weigh as much as 70 lb it also has some pretty spectacular cousins a huge European variety that weighs in at 400 lb and the electric cat fish of the Nile river which shocks its [Music] enemies but there's still another reason for the catfish's popularity in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River areas from Fort Wilkins Michigan to Fort Philip Louisiana this be whiskered fish has been many a politicians strongest Ally for local officing ERS have found that a political rally and a good fish fry go hand in [Music] [Laughter] hand East by Southeast and back in saltwater about 150 M south of Cape Cod near Stonington Connecticut Jim Gardner is dredging for Bay scollops [Music] aside from being one of the most valuable shellfish in America the scallop is also a very eccentric individual it propels itself through the water jet fashion by opening and closing its shell this ludicrous and unseaworthy maneuver fortunately has one advantage it develops a muscle the only part of the scallop we eat Jim likes them raw most people prefer them fried or broil like all other states Connecticut has its conservation laws so boating is more than just a hobby with ins Adams still the relationship is friendly besides who wants to get chased when you're dragging a [Music] dredge the handling of Nets is a familiar site in fishing areas all over the world in fact the fishing net is older than the Old [Music] Testament Every Spring within the shadows of New York skyscrapers the Hudson River becomes alive with spawning [Music] Shad no one knows exactly where they go during the rest of the year but somehow they find their way back with amazing accuracy marine biologists say the Shad like the Hudson salt content many of these profitable fish are caught with a steak Gil net like Angelo brato and his men are using it's called a Gil net because when the fish try to swim through it on their way up River their gills become Tangled in the [Music] mesh [Music] oh it's hard lonely backbreaking work breaking clams in New Jersey barnat Bay but Harry Benson has a family to feed so he works until sunset even though with no moon it'll be hard to navigate tonight and home and dinner are at least 2 hours away [Laughter] the Chesapeake Bay Area America's oyster Barrel here in the Tidewater section of Maryland and Virginia you'll see them fishing in fleets for these grounds yield almost half the oysters caught in the United States it's nice country down here just north of Cape Hatteras the Marine world's Mason and Dixon line and you're not far from historic Yorktown where a Lord by the name of corn Wallace signed a piece of paper ending a 4-year War a war fought among other things over right to commercial fishing grounds [Music] men like Sam frisbee Tong for oysters up and down the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and as far as the Pacific [Music] Northwest Sam tongs for seed [Music] oysters [Music] seed oysters are sold to a buy booat and the bubo owner sells them to a cultivator for planting new oyster beds it's really farming underwater you know if you told any of these men not to eat an oyster in a month without an r in it you'd get a l today with modern processing oysters are on the menu throughout the entire year the Chesapeake Bay Region is not only America's oyster Barrel it provides a large share of the crabs caught in all the coastal Waters of the United States Frank Jackson's trop line is much the same as John kulakowski in Lake huran except instead of baited hooks Frank ties chunks of salted eel directly to the line if the crabs are hungry enough or mean enough they get a one-way ride to the surface where Frank catches them with a dip net Frank will shuttle back and forth along the trop line most of the day dipping crabs as he [Music] goes [Music] further south along the continental shelf where the water turns clear and blue and the shoreline tumbles into Florida sand dunes Joe Sykes and his son are out looking for [Music] mullet in a way you need two kinds of fishing gear to catch mullet a Gil net and silence there they are mullet one of the most important food fish in the south as a military maneuver this operation deserves a salute from a five-star general after you locate your school of fish the basic strategy is to drop a Gil net around them in a large Circle you have to be very quiet if the mullet get frightened or suspicious they'll Escape before you can close your net [Music] [Applause] the circle is completed now you make as much noise as possible to drive them into your [Music] gild [Music] he and that's how you catch mullet you know the Florida mullet fisherman is an extraordinary fellow he often catches only enough fish to pay the bills then knocks off and goes fishing with a pole in line just for the fun of [Music] it [Music] the fisherman has good reason to be [Music] thankful Westward along the coasts of Mississippi and Louisiana and up into the bayus you'll find families like the blanchards asking for divine protection today is a special occasion the shrimp fishing was good last year so they're starting this season with a brand new motor [Music] when the blanchards reach their fishing grounds Lou sometimes uses a cast net to locate the shrimp this old family skill isn't absolutely necessary but Lou gets a kick out of throwing it [Music] [Music] there a shrimp down there all right lots of them small tender [Music] ones [Music] they start to drag using a small otter troll a bottle is used as a marker board as the boat moves along the mouth of the troll is held open by two planks called Otter boards cork floats raise the head rope lead weights sink the foot rope helping to keep the mouth open and the gear on the [Music] [Music] bottom not a bad catch for a first drag the place Alaska the time salmon [Music] season elanar Morgan and her husband Steve work for a local caner which owns their boat and Motors the Morgans are part of a large Fleet selling all of its catch to the caner by agreement when the salmon are running up here everybody goes fishing when Secretary of State Seward bought aaska from Russia for 2 cents an acre a lot of people thought he paid too much of course in those days about all Alaska did was Supply San Francisco with ice and Catherine the Great with birds maybe that's why they called it Seward's ice box and Seward's folly but the secretary knew a bargain when he saw one the territory proved to be a lucrative investment chiefly because of its largest and most valuable resource salmon in fact salmon was the main reason for Alaska's phenomenal growth over the past half century sometimes the only difference between an amateur and a professional might be the number of lines he has in the water the legal limit is four to conserve salmon the fish and wildlife service also limits the season because time means money fishermen usually keep an extra motor and other gear on hand just in case many of them use Outboards if an outboard gets grounded by the strong Alaskan Tides it won't harm the propeller because of the Tilt up action of the motor [Music] the Morgans have a strike now the fun begins [Music] can you imagine people spend money to go salmon fishing in Alaska and these two get paid for it [Music] oh [Music] when the salmon aren't running elener is a full-time housewife and Steve goes after clams and CB commercial fishing played an important part in the development of the United States in fact the fishing grounds of New England gave birth to some of the first American colonies but even more important this Hardy vital industry helped shape the character of our people today every day of the year alarm clocks ring from Maine to Alaska and men like Hank Dela field get up and go fishing in Creeks rivers lakes bays and inshore Coastal Waters contributing much to America's economy and keeping alive a tradition of rugged Independence