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Remembering Commercial Carp Fishing in Cook's Bay in the 1920's

  • CA BWGPL PH25602

Municipality :
Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
Lot :
Concession :
Description : When I was about 18 years old I worked for the Bradford Fish Company which was owned by a man by the name of Jack Spencer who lived on Barrie Street. This was about 1924 or there about. At that time we were living on the 14th concession of West Gwillimbury about three miles from Gilford.

The main fish that we were fishing for was carp, a fish that was in great demand by the Jewish people. The carp was a fish that lived mainly on the roots of wild rice which was quite plentiful in the bay at that time. They also ate the rice that fell off the stalks when ripe. For this reason the carp had to burrow into the bottom of the bay and into the mud to get their food. This is why the flesh had a muddy taste when eaten, although I have eaten carp and the gentleman that was the cook for the company seemed to know how to cook it. He used to boil it right in quart sealers. He may have added something to it but he never told us his secret. I really believe that a lot of the cheap salmon that was available in those days was really carp.

At the end of the road at Gilford the company had three buildings - cook and bunkhouse, a boathouse, and a large building just north of the Gilford road which was used as a work shop and a place to store ice used to pack the fish. The fish had to be alive when they reached their destination as they had to be killed by a Rabbi. The carp was a fish that would live for a long time and when packed in ice would live when shipped away as far as New York.

When the ice was 24 inches deep (and I have known it to be 30 inches), we would have to store about a thousand blocks and when packed in sawdust and well covered it would last until well on into the next summer.

We had a large ice crusher in this building which would crush the ice into small particles with which to pack the fish. The fish were shipped in boxes that held 100 pounds. They were about three feet long and around 30 inches wide usually made of hardwood lumber. When it was stormy or too rough to fish on the open water we used to put in our time at making these boxes.

In the fall the first thing to do before the bay froze over was to drive down poles into the bottom of the lake in the areas where we intended to fish under the ice. Then we built a platform and a shelter large enough to hold the machinery and a large reel on which the nets could be stored. A slide was built from the front of the platform down to the bottom of the bay. This was used to haul the net up onto the platform.

As soon as the ice was thick enough to hold a man (about two inches of good blue ice) the first thing to do was to run ropes under the ice out to each of the corner posts that had been driven into the bay before freezeup. This was accomplished by using a pine board about six inches wide and around 10 or 12 feet long with a rope attached. Starting at the platform we would cut a hole and put the board under the ice and with a pike pole shove it as far as we could in the direction of the first corner post. Then we cut another hole and gave the board with the rope attached to it, another shot forward. This was done until we reached the first corner post, about 500 feet away from the platform. With a pulley we continued joining the posts by rope.

By the end, we had a way of pulling the net out from under the ice. The nets were known as seine nets and were about 300 yards long with lead weights on the bottom of them so that it would sweep the bottom of the bay. Cork floats were on the top of it to make it float to the top of the water.

As the net was hauled around to each of these posts a man had to be there to take the rope out of the pulley and put another rope, which was attached to the front of the net, through the pulley. When finished, we had a net that would sweep a swath at least 300 yards wide in a semi circle.

The fish would as a rule, swim back towards the centre of the net so if the net was pretty well all back to the platform before you saw how many fish you were pretty near certain that your catch wasn't very large, perhaps only two or three hundred pounds.

Of course there are almost always certain fish in the catch that had to be thrown back as it wasn't legal to fish with a seine net for game fish such as muskilunge, bass, pickerel or whitefish. Sometimes you would get no carp at all but maybe three or four hundred pounds of mullets or suckers and perch. These were all saleable. We also also used to get a lot of what we called dog fish. There was no market for them so we just threw them out on the ice for the gulls to eat. The proper name for them was Ling and I understand that now in some places they are called a delicacy and there is quite a demand for them.

The largest haul of carp that we got while I was working there was something over 40 tons in one haul. It took us two days and one night to empty them out of the net.

As we did not always have orders every day for fish, we had to make wide slatted crates 12 foot by 6 foot that sunk in the ice and down in the water When the fish were stored in them the fresh water flowed through them at all times. This way if we had a few days when we didn't get many fish but had some orders, we always had the crates of fish to fall back on.

Our main camp and cookhouse was situated just at the mouth of the river where it enters the bay. Our cook was a man from Bradford, George McDonald. We received $15 a week and our board which in those days was considered pretty good wages. On Saturday night when we were paid the first money I spent was to stop at he Gilford store and buy 25 cents worth of chocolate bars, six for 25 cents and about three times as large as what you would pay 45 cents for today.

As soon as it looked like the ice was going to break up in the spring we would carry a long pole with us in case we happened to step on a place where the ice was rotten. I remember one chap who worked with us used to walk to the store at Gilford almost every night and one night when the ice was getting soft in spots, he decided he wanted to go to the store and he wanted someone to go with him. We told him it was too dangerous and he said we were afraid and he was going anyways. So off he went and about 300 yards from the camp with us standing the veranda watching him, down he went. Well he got out all right and when he saw us watching he didn't turn back but kept right on going.

The same chap thought he was a little bit better than the rest of us. Most of us, when we were finished for the night would take off our hip rubber boots and walk around in our stocking feet, but he had to wear a pair of slippers all the time. So one night when he had gone to the store someone got some tacks and nailed his slippers to the floor. Well when he came home we were all in bed but not sleeping and he went to put on his slippers and the air was blue so he just ripped them up and left the tacks in the floor.

When we fished in the spring and fall in open water we just loaded the net into a seine boat and with a couple of men rowing the boat, a couple more would lay the net out. I remember one time when fishing in the open water the net got caught on a log or a stump and we had to pull it all up by hand. By the time we had it loaded, the back end of the board was just about two inches out of the water. That was one time that I would much sooner have been on dry land.

In the spring of the year when the water was fairly high the land which is now built up with cottages used to flood and the carp would go up into the water holes there and on the marsh to spawn. We used to have to go around with dip nets and catch them.

The female fish were called sows and they often weighed as much as 35 lbs. It didn't take many of them to fill a box.

If we only had an order for five or ten boxes, we would ship them by express but I know we would sometimes get an order for a freight car load.

The first foreman that I know of when the business started was Foxy Bantam. He was the father of Helen Bantam and Gordon Bantam. He was killed one Sunday while driving around the lake in a motor boat when a thunderstorm came up and he was struck by lightning.

When I worked there the foreman was Edmond Gibbons who now lived in Lefroy and is well over 90 years of age. He was an older brother of Leanord Gibbons who lived in Bradford.

Mr. Spencer quit the fishing business in Bradford and sold out to the late Dodger Collings who carried it on for a year or two. I think when Mr. Collings was running the business the dealers from Toronto used to come up with water tanks and transport the fish that way.

As the lakeshore property was developed around Gilford, and the reeds and wild rice were cut down, the carp population declined. It is now pretty well cleaned out.

Ruffetts' Celebrate 72 Years of Marriage

  • CA BWGPL PH25695

Municipality :
Community : Lefroy
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Ruffetts' Celebrate 72 Years of Marriage
By Georgina Mitchell

Bill and Susan Ruffett celebrated their 72nd anniversary last week, with many friends and relatives calling in to congratulate them.

Bill is well known for his recitations and he has memorized over 100 verses since retiring at the age of 80.

He recalls the first time he recited 82 years ago at the Churchill Presbyterian Church Sunday School concert.

Bill and Susan eloped when she was 16, and he 20.

The bride, born Susan Hardy recalls taking the train from Lefroy to Gilford (where her sister lived) and then north to Barrie where she met Bill.

The couple then walked to the Collier Street Methodist Manse where they exchanged vows.

Bill remembers having only $7 in his pocket, of which $2 went to the minister.

Bill began work at the ice company in Lefroy, and worked there from 1910 to 1930.

With the advent of electric refrigerators Bill turned to carpentry and built about 200 cottages before his retirement.

He continued to build bird houses as a hobby, and still does when the weather is favorable, with his son Charlie giving him a hand.

Bill and Susan raised a family of seven children, the oldest and youngest girls, with five boys in between.

They also have 18 grandchildren ranging in age from 12 to 42, 21 great-grandchildren, and one great great grandchild.

Historical Letter is Discovered

  • CA BWGPL PH25696

Municipality :
Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Historical Letter is Discovered

What has been described as a "once in a life-time historical find," was uncovered last week in the home of Bernard Horne in Bradford.

President Eleanor Reid of the Scotch Settlement Historical Society and Ruby Faris were invited to Mr. Horne's home to view a collection of letters and memorabilia belonging to Scotch Settler Angus Sutherland.

On the very top of the pile, Mrs. Reid was amazed to discover a handwritten letter signed by Lord Selkirk, who launched the first major settlement of Scots in Canada.

"It took a couple of days for this discovery to sink in," Mrs. Reid said. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime find."

Included with the letter are about 50 other historical items, including bills, letters and accounts.

Mr. Horne turned the material over to Mrs. Reid who donated it to the Simcoe County Archives where it is now being restored.

The letter from Lord Selkirk was probably sent to the ship's captain who would transport Mr. Sutherland, his mother Elizabeth and sister Betty to Fort Churchill in Manitoba.

It reads: "Golspie (in Scotland) May 28, 1813."

"Angus Sutherland, Auchvalch, has paid 28 pounds eight shillings, in part of the passage of himself and two others of his family who are to be received on board the ship at Stomness on paying the balance of four pounds, two shillings."

It was signed "Selkirk."

Written below by another person was "balance (sic) paid."

Another letter followed written by Alexander Sage, a minister at Kildonan, Scotland.

FREE FROM ANY SCANDAL

It reads: "These do certify that Elizabeth Sutherland in Auchvalch a widow who has family of one son and one daughter, both of them single and unmarried, are natives of the Parish of Kildonan and county of Sutherland, and during the residence in said parish have behaved themselves Decently and Inoffensively. Free from any Scandal.

Meeting Church Censure may be admitted into any Christian society where Providence may Assign their lot is attested at Kildonan in name, Presence and by appointment of the Kirk Session of Kildonan, the 14th day of June, Eighteen Hundred and Thirteen Years and subscribed by Alexander Sage, Minister and George McLeod Session Clerk. Her son's name is Angus Sutherland and her daughter's name is Elizabeth."

CONSUMPTION

History has recorded the voyage of the Sutherlands, and Betty's death from consumption at age 18, shortly after their arrival in Fort Churchill.

Angus and his mother later settled on the 5th Concession of West Gwillimbury where he farmed 100 acres.

The rugged pioneer life in West Gwillimbury must have agreed with Angus Sutherland.

He died in March, 1885, aged 103.

Mrs. Reid said copies of all the material found in the box will be donated to the Bradford Library.

She said the letter, once restored, will likely be on public view at the archives.

Letter from the Dominion Census Taker

  • CA BWGPL PH14257

Municipality :
Community : Bradford
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Letter from the Dominion Census Taker for Bradford, Mr. J.S. Cordingley, detailing the size of the population and the problems he encountered in carrying out his duties.

Marsh Hunter Dies of Concussion in Fall

  • CA BWGPL PH14392

Municipality :
Community : Holland Marsh
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Andrew Turczyniak dies of a concussion after falling off a catwalk over the an old bridge on the canal.

Ex-Warden Scott, Creemore, Passes

  • CA BWGPL PH14717

Municipality :
Community : Other - Bradford
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Isaac Scott, former reeve of Creemore and former warden of Simcoe County, dies at the age of 71 following a week's illness.

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