Fishing
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"People used to fish a lot.
They would get the thread that they needed once a year at treaty day
and make their own nets. They fished to feed their own families, there
was no commercial fishing. Dry wood was used for floats and rocks
for anchors." (from an interview with Philip Sewap - Cree Elder) |
| Archival photo from Rossignol School, Ile a la Crosse | |
Fishing has been a mainstay of the Northern Saskatchewan lifestyle for thousands of years. The many rivers and lakes provide an abundance of freshwater fish including lake trout, northern pike, sturgeon, pickerel, sauger, whitefish, tullibee, burbot, suckers, and arctic grayling.
Traditional people used many methods to catch fish including snares on the end of poles in the rivers in the spring, and nets. Today, angling is very popular for northerners and tourists alike, and nets are used by commercial fishermen.
Fish caught for sale are dressed, processed, and sent to markets around
the world. These pictures show fish being processed at Waite Fisheries
in Buffalo narrows
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A tub of whitefish arrives fresh
from a northern lake.
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The fish is sorted ....
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...and weighed.
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The fish moves through processes
that prepares and packages it for market.
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Note: Click the following 3 pictures below to view the video
In the summer, nets are set and fished from small open
boats. This video shows a fisherman setting his net in the evening. Note
the care taken to ensure that the net is not tangled.
The next video shows him fishing the net the following
day. The fisherman's reward for his efforts is shown at the end.
In the wintertime, nets are set through the ice. This process involves a tool called a jigger that is lowered through a hole in the ice with a long ropes attached. Through pulling one of the ropes, the fisherman manoeuvres the jigger a distance under the ice. Skill and judgement is then used to listen for the jigger under the ice and chop a hole to pull it out. You can chop for a long time for nothing if you are not sure where the jigger is! The net is then attached at the first hole and pulled under the ice.
When the net is fished, the end must be chopped out of
the ice and the net pulled through the hole. The following video shows
men fishing a net in the wintertime.
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Children learning how to set a
net under the ice.
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People fishing a net that was set
under the ice.
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An archival photo of winter fishermen
with some very large lake trout.
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Anyone who has ever used a net for fishing knows untangling and net-making are important activities. These photos show Elder Mary Anne McKay showing children how to make a net.
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This is the special tool that is used when making nets.
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The photos below show a family
getting their nets ready at Pinehouse Lake.
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