Twillingate Fisherman

Hubert Waterman

At the time of this story, 1998, Hubert Waterman's family-owned boat was out to the ice, hunting seals. The Nancy Joanne had a crew of ten people. Four were his sons and four were grandsons. A man of the sea, his ear was tuned to the ship-to-shore radio as he told of his life. He started fishing when he was a boy.

I WAS PRETTY YOUNG, and I enjoyed it. I was only about twelve years old when I went with my grandfather and father. We always had motorboats, that was one good thing. Some of the crowd around here never had motors. They had to row.

That first summer, grandfather, father and I fished on the grounds out here.

We fished on the Gull Island Ground, and on good days we would go out on Old Harry, down off Long Point. Then there's another spot below that, Phillip's Spot. Just outside that was Daley's Spot. Below that was Easter Ground and then Young Harry, and then it was Gull Island.

In the fall of the year, I fished the ground out there, too. There's Smoker, Hooper's Ledge, Bread Box and Fudge's Ground. I know the marks of all the grounds and I know just where to shoot a trawl. We'd go trawling late in the fall, and we'd take up a lot of cod years ago.

That's right out here, sir. I can go out there and take you right on the mark, to put your line right down.

My grandfather and father had schooners. They used to travel to Labrador years ago. They gave up the Labrador and started fishing off here, handlining and with traps.

I used to cut my tails then, and made a few dollars. Well, if I made twenty dollars, that was a lot of money years ago.