ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 49 
In cutting up menhaden slivers for haddock bait, sections are 
made trapezoidal or square in form, with a surface area of about 
a square inch. One of these pieces is placed on each hook, and 
as the hooks are baited the line is coiled in the tub, the hooks 
being placed around on the side, points up.* When the fisher- 
man is ready to bait his trawl, he sits upon his bench with the 
empty tub between his legs and the trawl-line removed from 
the tub and turned right side up in front of him, his bait being 
in abucket at his side. In his left hand he takes eight or ten 
pieces of bait, and with both hands he pulls the line towards 
him, coiling it in the tub after baiting the hooks; he places 
them in the tub in the manner just described. 
As is always the case when a number of men are working 
together at the same employment, there is a sharp competition 
among the men as to who shall be the first to get his trawl 
baited. The average time consumed in baiting five hnndred 
hooks is from forty-five to sixty minutes, though the most skill- 
ful men have been known to accomplish the task in half an 
hour. It will be seen that the labor of baiting three or four 
tubs, which falls daily to each man when the fishing is good, 
occupies a considerable portion of the day, or, rather of the 
night, since the baiting is usually done at night. In baiting at 
night, each man has a lamp of peculiar pattern which is fastened 
to the edge- of his tub by a hook; sometimes the trawls are 
snarled, and the whole night is devoted to clearing and baiting 
them. A man will go into the hold to bait after the fish are 
dressed in the evening, and perhaps not finish his task until 
daybreak, when it is time to go out to set again 
Methods of Fishing—As has been remarked, the haddock- 
catchers never anchor on the banks when fishing. The usage 
in this respect has greatly changed within the last few years. 
When the fishery was less extensive and was carried on entirely 
upon the inshore grounds, they were accustomed to anchor, set 
their trawls and under-run them, but now the trawls are all set 
while the vessel is lying to, waiting for the dories. This oper- 
* The Irish fishermen of Boston place their trawls in baskets, coiling the line in one part 
and putting the baited hooks in another division of the basket. 
