POUND 

 NETTING: 



Rich Fishing Tradition Seeing Decline 



A 



/ ms Mike Peele guides his old shad 

 boat through the middle of the Pamlico Sound, 

 the water is so smooth he sets the automatic pilot. 



Standing toward one side of the boat, Peele 

 spots a group of white poles and moves back to 

 the steering station to slow the engine. With one 

 hand on his knee and the other on the steering 

 wheel, he maneuvers the boat into the middle of a 

 huge maze of fishing net. 



"I just put on a new propeller," says Peele. 

 "The engine is like a sailboat — slow and easy. I 

 will be working two nets. If the wind's blowing 

 30 mph, you can put 10,000 pounds of fish in the 

 gunwale." 



After anchoring almost four miles behind 

 Hatteras Island, Peele slips a pair of rubber 

 gloves on his hands and green overalls over his 

 tank-style T-shirt and shorts. Immediately, he and 

 his fishing partner, Jeff Kennedy, tie the net to the 

 side of the boat and pull it in so tight that the area 

 is closed off. 



'This is called bunting or pursing up — 

 forcing the fish on one side," says Peele. "Pound 

 netting is the safest way to fish. You get all live 

 catch and can sort through what you don't want." 



To recover the catch from the pound net, 

 both fishers use dip nets. Peele pulls up a few 

 wiggly fish, including a pompano, butteifish and 

 a five-pound flounder. 



"This is a pretty one," he says while holding 

 up the flounder. "The biggest flounder I ever 

 caught was 10 pounds." 



A muscular, middle-aged man with several 

 tattoos on his arms, Peele is the fifth generation 

 of his family to set pound nets for flounder each 

 fall in the Pamlico Sound. 



By Ann Green 



"I was probably 10 when I started doing 

 pound nets with my father and Uncle Nacie 

 Peele," he says. 



After Mike's dad died, Nacie continued to 

 fish. On a recent day, the colorful 82-year-old had 

 caught about nine pounds of flounder. 



"I have been fishing for 68 years," says 

 Nacie. "I fish every day. The best fishing is with a 

 pound net." 



Nacie collected his first paycheck for 

 fishing when he was 13. 



"For my first paycheck, I pulled in 5,000 

 pounds of flounder and got half of the price — or 

 $13," he says. 



Fellowship Among Fishers 



There is camaraderie among Hatteras Island 

 fishers. Young guys help old-timers when they 

 need a hand and vice versa. They even borrow 

 each other's boats when one has a broken part. 



While in the middle of Pamlico Sound, 

 Mike Peele stops and chats with Wayne Basnett 

 who is checking his net. Basnett has been fishing 

 for flounder since 1957. 



"I will come and help you," says Peele. 

 "You need to raise up the pound." 



For the Peeles and other fishers on Hatteras 

 Island, flounder season starts in early September 

 when they set their nets in permitted spots in the 

 sound. 



"There is a lot of work involved in setting 

 nets," says Mike Peele. "You have to go in the 

 woods and cut the wood for the poles and then 

 tote it out. Now you have modem technology to 

 take the wood down. But you used to have to cut 

 Continued 



RIGHT: Herbert Byrum checks another herring catch on the Chowan River. 



16 WINTER 2002 



