First day brings good catches to P.E.I. fishermen

By Eric McCarthy

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

WEST POINT, P.E.I. — Claude Boulter saw smiles on the faces of many fishers at West Point Harbour, P.E.I. on Monday, Aug. 11.

Boulter worked many years on wharves weighing and buying lobsters and, while retired now, he couldn’t resist the urge to be on hand for the first official catches of the fall season.

Landings, he observed, were good.

“They may not be as happy tomorrow,” he acknowledged.

That sentiment was shared by others. Having remained in port on Sunday, Aug. 10, fishermen were bringing in a catch from a two-day set to start the season.They were not aware of any Island boats fishing Sunday, nor were they aware of much Sunday fishing by their counterparts in New Brunswick.

Last year several New Brunswick boats fished on the first Sunday of the season after storm seas delayed setting day to Saturday, Aug. 11.

No one would actually say how good their catches were, but they admitted being satisfied.

“It looks like there’s fish,” observed Wayne Livingstone as his catch was being weighed in.

Like most of the boats from the harbour, he reported to the scales twice. It’s all about bringing in a quality product he pointed out.

“Everybody seems to be getting fish all over,” he said, referring to positive chatter on the radios and on the dock.

But, he stressed, that’s a catch from traps that hadn’t been fished in 48 hours.

“It’s quite a difference from 24 hours,” he noted. As to what he expects when he checks his gear on Aug. 12: “I bet it won’t be half.”

Like many other boats, this year Livingstone fished some of his gear on Saturday, Aug. 9 just a few hours after they went into the water. Gear that didn’t get fished on Saturday, he observed, were the ones that fished the best two days later.

Ralph Bulger, a buyer for Kildare Bait and Lobster, said fishermen had good catches Monday and a decent catch Saturday. He admitted it’s hard to judge landings based on Saturday’s catch, as some people checked all their traps and others checked half or less, and some took part of their catches home for weekend feeds.

While happy with the catch, Livingstone is still keeping his fingers crossed on price, aware that bait and fuel costs are much higher this year than last.

(Eric McCarthy is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Journal Pioneer, which is a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)