Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1892 — Grappling for Sturgeon. [ARTICLE]

Grappling for Sturgeon.

One day in March, 1851, writes a Youth’s Companion contributor, I was walking along the road built on top of the great dam which spans the Grand River at Dunnville, Ont., when I saw a curious sight. Drawn up by the side of a waste weir at the west end of the dam were several farmers’ deep-boxed wagons, the owners of which were engaged in the exciting and profitable sport of loading them with great, floundering sturgeon. In a minute I was down among the men, watchiDg with interest this novel mode of fishing. The race or weir was literally filled with the fish, which, in attempting to run up stream to spawn, found themselves stopped by the dam. Every moment fresh schools were coming in from the river, crowding the vast masses already jammed into the shallow passage until some of them were actually forced clean out of the water. Each of the farmers was armed with a common ten-foot rafting pole, in the lower end of which were a spike and hook. With these rude implements they were simply grappling the sturgeon, and hauling them one by one to shore as quickly as their strong arms could work. The fish averaged from forty to eighty pounds in weight, but now and then a monster of perhaps one hundred or one hundred and ten pounds was hooked. Three times I saw one of these big fellows drag his would-be captor off the bank, and pitch him headlong upon the squirming shoal, to the infinite delight of his companions. Notwithstanding many laughable accidents, the wagons, eight in all, were fully loaded in the course of two hours, and as each contained at least a ton the total catch for that boat must have been some sixteen thousand pounds. Yet after the men had driven away the waste weir seemed as full as before! At that time the sturgeon was not the important article of commerce which it has since become. These farmers would salt down the best portions of the fish, or so much of it as they could use, and feed the rest to their hogs. Now, such a catch as above described would net the fisherman quite a respectable sum of money—perhaps three cents a pound, or four hundred and eighty dollars in aIL