In Our Words Canadians Reading Together

What Do You Know Now That You Wish You Knew Opening Day

MICHAEL STEPHEN

John was wide-awake as soon as his feet hit the cold floor. He didn’t need an alarm or a cold floor to wake him. Tomorrow was opening day of the lobster season and he had been waiting for this day for the past month. It didn’t seem like a month had passed since his dad had taken him and brother Simon to town to pick up the gear they would need this year. They picked up some netting to repair the wooden traps his grandfather set (tradition held that you set at least a few of these no matter how efficient the new wire traps were). They also picked up some new sets of ‘oilskins’; orange or yellow sets of pants and jackets designed to allow water to run off. They also needed some new lines and buoys for the traps; the lines were coiled and measured in fathom lengths (6 feet 1 fathom) and were nylon so they floated on the surface. John’s dad also needed some parts for the boat motor.

After the trip the preparations really speeded up. In October they put out to sea and set their mackerel nets, which they would check on a daily basis for two weeks. The mackerel would be used for bait in the traps and would be frozen whole until they were needed. Repairs had to be made to the traps, they were allowed to set 250 of them, and they would all have to be ‘tagged’. The tags were plastic and had the license number of the fisherman who owned them. Each year the tags were a different colour. The penalty for fishing with untagged traps could vary from a warning if there were only one or two traps (it was understandable that you miss tagging a couple) to loss of license and a stiff fine for more than that.