A Longshore Fisherman

By Jack Maple

Sometime in the middle of the twentieth century, longshore fisherman Jack Maple, who fished near the shores of his home in East Kent, penned a manual for those seeking to learn how to fish the proper way. Now, decades later, his originally handwritten guide is presented as both a how to manual and a historical perspective on fishing.

In an easy and chatty style, A Longshore Fisherman offers succinct instruction on how to make and use everything from lobster pots to crab hooks. It also explains why one doesnt ever leave shore without a spare bung for the boat and features a variety of amusing anecdotes reflecting a time when people were more self-reliant and did not have the resources to go and buy whatever they wanted. Using this guide, you can make all the gear that Jack made and hopefully derive as much pleasure from fishing with it as he did.

In this unique mid-twentieth-century fishing manual, a longshore fisherman provides personal narratives and practical advice on fishing close to shore.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Sep 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504304009

Jack Maple

Jack Maple (1905–1989) lived—and fished—during a span of turbulent times from World War I through the Depression. He was a participant and casualty of World War II and thence onward to the sweeping social and intellectual changes of the 1960s and beyond.

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Copyright © 2016 Jack Maple.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com.au

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-0399-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-0400-9 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 09/09/2016

Introduction

This is a fascinating account of the methods followed by a forgotten band of fishermen who practised their calling close into the shoreline in East Kent. It is historical in that its author, having been born in 1915, lived through two wars and beyond and was privy to the wide and challenging changes in society which altered the practice of fishing; for both amateur and professional alike. From both the historical perspective, having been written we believe, somewhere around 1950: but also from a sociological point of view; it is an account of life when people were more self-reliant and did not have the resources to go and buy whatever they wanted. It describes making everything from sinkers to lobster pots and is a ‘how to’ book for the man, or boy; who wants to learn how it is really done. It also demonstrates the grit and determination required to achieve a goal.

Today, you can bet that the chap standing on the breakwater or pier has not only bought his rod, reel, and line but has also purchased his bait as well. He most likely hasn’t a clue as to the habits of the seafood he is seeking to catch and will often spend a lot of time catching nothing. Fishing was never a pursuit that inspired me personally: in fact, I can safely say that if I was a member of a fishing party: then it is almost guaranteed that nobody will catch anything. My Uncle Jack, however, took a great deal of time and acquired a vast amount of experience getting to know the habits of the quarry. Here, in this little book, he explains and demonstrates how to be a successful fisherman and catch anything that is left in the sea after it has been stripped bare by the commercial fishers. What is more, it shows how to do it with equipment you have made yourself, which of course, gives the ‘catch’ a great deal more personal satisfaction.

This is also a rather strange, almost ghostly little book when one considers how it came to be published at all. It is worth dwelling a moment on the journey that the manuscript took and the way it travelled from its author’s pen to being lost, seemingly to everyone, and then reappearing like the phoenix halfway around the world.

As far as we were able to determine, Jack was unsuccessful in getting his book published; partly because it was hand-written, (he didn’t own a typewriter) and it was pushing against the volume of ‘New Age’ nonsense which clogged the bookshelves of the late nineteen fifties to the mid nineteen sixties.

In December 1956, Jack had married his long-term friend Ethel Smith and subsequently they received a visit from Ethel’s American relatives, her nephew Oliver Lillis and his wife who lived in California. It would seem, that Jack gave the manuscript to Oliver Lillis to take back to the USA with a view to publishing it there. This didn’t happen, and eventually both Oliver and his wife died leaving their daughter Cheri.

Move forward if you will to 2015 and we receive a mystery email from a lady in California called Lynn Horn, asking if by chance we were related to ‘ A Jack Maple who had lived in Margate. Kent’. The address she gave was indeed Jack’s flat and we heard the story of the manuscripts discovery by her friend Cheri Hoffman in amongst her mother’s papers in San Diego and that she was anxious to return the papers to the Maple family. It only remained for the manuscript to be collected by our son and for him to deliver it to us in New Zealand.

So, here it is, read and enjoy. We hope that you will derive as much pleasure from both the book and your fishing as Jack did.

Chuck Maple

June: 2016

Oamaru

New Zealand

Note: We have used Jack’s Graphics, exactly how he drew them, in an old, second-hand notebook: some with the original, partly erased, writing showing through. It was felt that we would be doing him an injustice to try and redraw them.

W HEN I WAS a boy there was a breed of man who obtained a living from the sea, catching many varieties of fish and using a wide selection of methods to achieve a catch; often close into the shore. These hardy fellows were called Longshore Fishermen: a race which has practically died out, mainly because the modern fisherman is usually a specialist in just one form of fishing. Even amateur anglers usually only have one rod to fish from a pier or a boat, buying their bait as well.

This is not fishing, it is just plain laziness, so why not try your hand at everything. You may never make a fortune but your brain and body will constantly be rejuvenated with a lifelong hobby. There is no closed season with sea fishing, each and every month is a good period for some kind of fish, and you can eat the lot.

On our coastline, the year starts in January with cod and whiting. They are followed in early spring by flounders and pouting only to be replaced by plaice, sole, dabs, and skate. As summer approaches bass, mullet, eels, pollock, mackerel and tope arrive, and depart by early autumn. Dogfish, hass, and smoothound make a call. The pouting then makes a short second visit to be followed by the cod and whiting.

Shell Fish

During the winter, early spring and late autumn, cockles, mussels and winkles. For the summer, whelks, lobsters, pungers¹, shrimps and prawns are all to be caught in different ways. Bear with me, and I will show you how not to starve.

As a youngster born by the sea, I spent all of my time with my grandfather (Charles Constable Maple 1859-1938) who happened to be the foreman of our local bathing station (St Mildred’s, Westgate on Sea, Kent). In those days you couldn’t undress on the foreshore or even walk about half naked. It was not the thing to do and any ladies were certainly not amused. Changing into full-length bathing costumes was always done in bathing tents which had open wood slatted floors. These floors were a constant source of income for bathing assistants as coins would pop through.

Having made up my mind at a very early age that one day I would own a boat, I saved my finds, mainly coppers. I had another regular source of income, collecting sea water for the local nursing home at 3d (1½p) for a two-gallon bucket; and two were required at a time. The buckets were covered with linen and filled through this