On a chilly day in November, three fishermen are patching holes in a large trap net spread out on a field in Little Compton, Rhode Island. The catching part of the season is long over and in a few more days, so will the four months of net mending and repairing. It’s all part of the seasonal rhythm of trap net fishing, one of the oldest methods of commercial fishing in New England, with origins dating back to Native Americans. At one point in the late 1800s, more than 200 fish traps lined the shores of Narragansett Bay and the state’s south coast.
The Wheeler family owns two of the last trap companies in Rhode Island. Come spring, they’ll set their floating nets, one off Newport and the other off Sakonnet Point, which in May will swell with tens of thousands of scup, or porgies. These silvery fish are good table fare and sold fresh to local markets, with the bulk shipped to the Fulton
