Fish Used to be Plentiful

Oneida Sound Recording

Description: Description of old time fishing told by Jessie Peters to Dennison Hill and read by Amos Christjohn

Digital Files: MP3 | OGG

Written text: Internlinear Translation (PDF)

English Translation

Fish Used to Be Plentiful

Often I am thinking as the spring is here that there used to be a lot of fish long ago. Then we didn’t know anyone would forbid us to fish. The old people knew the signs when the fish were teeming at the fishing spot they used to have in those times. The spring frogs (three kinds) would be croaking so that was the time when the fish were again plentiful at Amos Baird’s place where they used to fish. In those days our grandparents sure put a lot of effort into catching fish. Quite often they brought their spouses. The women would be cooking fish on the banks all night long. Often they would make fires here and there and others would be cooking soups of sucker heads. Every so often they would have a meal and they wouldn’t be too anxious to get busy again here until daylight was coming, but they wouldn’t be hungry and they wouldn’t be cold even if they were fishing all night. Often the fish were so plentiful they would just grab them and really work at throwing them on the bank. In the morning they would hitch up their animals. Some might ride as they were going fishing and bring along those who didn’t have animals. And so they would travel to fish in the water. They would divide the amount that they caught. Often they would fill a wagon with the fish they caught. Even if it snowed on them while they were fishing, that would be no reason to go home before it became daylight. Now we just enjoy the fish we can steal away as we kill them. Now there is even a dam on our river so it doesn’t seem the fish will be plentiful again where we used to fish long ago.