[SO-Zeltiva] Nets, Rods and Patience I

[Jay Darkcrest]

Summer 10, 513 AV


It was the perfect day for an adventure, bright and sunny. After midday, Jay left the Palivar and swam over to the Lucky Catch. In the Sebakem, the water was cold, no matter the season, but Jay still rolled on his back and splashed around a bit before hauling himself on board of the Casinor. “Hamel? You there?”

The Svefra in question came over from the other side of his boat, grinning and nodding at the naked Kelvic. “Oh, Nasir mentioned you’d be coming over today. Put this on, for Laviku’s sake, and then we’ll get started.”

Jay grimaced a little, but still put on the pants Hamel tossed him. He still didn’t understand humans and their need for clothing, no matter how many times his mother explained it, but at least he could go shirtless. A few days ago, his father had announced Jay was to learn fishing that summer and of course he had to learn from the best. Hamel and his elder brother Rand were the best fisherman of the pod, they knew their trade in and out. Rand tended to be quiet and almost withdrawn, Hamel was more outspoken and cheerful. Jay had been relieved when Nasir had spoken to Hamel for fishing lessons, not Rand, because he often felt awkward around the older brother. He couldn’t read silence very well, but Hamel wore his heart on his sleeve just like the Kelvic did.

Truth be told, Jay hadn’t understood why he was to learn fishing at all. “I can hunt fish just fine!”

Nasir had grinned and ruffled his head affectionately. “That may be true, my boy, but fishing is still more efficient. When you’re short of time or exhausted, you can still cast the line and wait until a fish bites.”

Jay hadn’t been quite satisfied with the answer, but complied for the time being. At his age, it was still unthinkable to reject his father’s decisions in earnest.

When he was at least partly dressed, Hamel returned from the cabin carrying a fishing net. It was smaller than the ones he’d seen the brothers handle before and the mesh tighter. There were a couple of sinkers on one side, a few floaters on the other. Hamel spread it out between his big calloused hands so Jay could inspect and touch the fine hemp ropes. “Alright, so this is called a gill net. We’ll start with netting because it’s a fairly straightforward fishing technique and this gill net can be used easily by a single person.”

Jay cocked his head. As usual, he had a hard time keeping still, so he alternated between wriggling his bare toes and fingering his gold earring. “Why don’t we start with angling?” He’d seen several of his relatives, including his sister, use a fishing rod and by Laviku, he wanted to cast the line as gracefully as they did!

Hamel, however, shook his head with a deep laugh. “Netting is easier, trust me. We’ll get to angling soon enough!”

With his brow furrowed, but momentarily satisfied, the young Kelvic followed the fisherman towards the low railing of his Casinor. Their little flotilla had anchored in Matthew’s Bay just within sight of Zeltiva, the tide was high and the water impossibly clear.

[Jay Darkcrest]

The boat bobbed a little, tilting to one side as the fisherman and the Kelvic perched on the railing. Hamel let one end of the net dangle into the water, the sinkers dragging it down and floaters bobbing up and down on the surface. Then he spoke again.

“So, the gillnet. It’s not the only type of net, obviously, but pretty useful and straightforward. You see how it hangs vertically in the water? That little net catches fish in three ways. First, they’re wedged, meaning their bodies get caught in the mesh. Second, the mesh slips behind their gills, so they’re gilled. And third, they’re tangled, meaning anything that’s not their gills gets caught in the mesh. Most often it’s the gills though. Tis how it got the name, obviously. You still with me?”

Jay blinked and flashed Hamel a quick glance. “Aye.” His fingers folded, then unfolded. He wished he had his lucky coin with him, a golden miza his mother had given him for his fidgeting. Instead he lifted a hand to play with his gold earring.

Hamel nodded thoughtfully, realizing that his student wouldn’t learn much from sermons. “Gillnets are really effective in general, although it depends on mesh size, material, net length and a few other factors too. If you know what species you want and modify the net accordingly, you’ll hardly get any bycatch.”

Jay’s eyes lit up. “That’s a good thing, aye?”

Smiling, Hamel gave him an approving pat on the back. “So it is! Now, you should’ve heard of other nets too, so I’ll just mention a few.”

Jay had shrunk back from the fisherman’s touch – although he trusted all Darkcrests, body contact was only alright with close relatives like his parents, sister and the cousins he played with – and was slowly sinking back into his previous state of half-attentive, half-distracted listening. He moved his feet and watched the ripples spreading out from his ankles, bleeding into the steady waves on the ocean surface.

“First, drift nets are just nets which aren’t anchored. A gillnet is a drift net too. They’re usually used in coastal waters. Good for fish that tend to stay on the ocean surface. They can bring in many fish with only one catch.” He paused, catching is breath. “Then cast nets. They’re round with weights around the edges and cast by hand so it spreads out and sinks. Fish are only caught when it’s hauled back in. Got it?”

Again, Jay ceased dangling his feet to glance up at Hamel briefly. “Drift nets and cast nets, right?”

“Right. Well, you’ve seen us pull nets through the water with our boats, aye? Those are trawl nets because the pulling part is called trawling. This boat’s a trawler. You won’t be doing that anytime soon though – what with it being my job, eh?”

He barked a laugh and Jay flashed a hesitant grin. After that, Hamel got up and lifted the net between his hands. “Alright, enough of nets and stuff. I’ll show you how to use this one and then you try it yourself, what do you say?”

When Jay jumped up, the Casinor swayed dangerously again, but he hardly noticed. Finally they were going to do something! “Sounds good!”

[Jay Darkcrest]

Jay hadn’t seen Rand on the Lucky Catch so far. As Hamel led him towards the stern of the boat, his brother was still nowhere to be seen, so the Kelvic assumed he’d gone to visit someone on their Casinor or the Palivar. Anyway, watching Hamel was far more interesting than wondering about the whereabouts of his elder brother.

The fisherman was stacking the net carefully in a space at the stern that had been covered with canvas all the way up to the railing. Waving Jay closer, he pointed at it. “That’s a good way of making sure the net doesn’t get snagged on the railing. Also, stack it up properly, with floaters on one side and sinkers on the other. When it goes into the water, you don’t want them to get tangled in the netting or your lines.”

Finally there was something to see, something to do! Hamel’s net wasn’t too big, only about 20 meters long and not even half as wide, but Jay knew size didn’t matter in that case. As he watched Hamel stack it up, he tried to memorize the pattern it made on the canvas.

Eventually Hamel straightened with a groan and looked out over Matthew’s Bay. “Next thing you want to check is current and wind. If it’s strong, you set the net with it. If it’s weak, you can set the net across it.”

Jay cocked his head, imagining the scenario. “So fish that swim with the current get trapped in it, aye?”

The fisherman grinned and nodded. “Then you want to know how deep the water is because that’ll determine how long your buoy ropes are – the ones that go all the way to the surface while the net’s on the bottom. Shallow water? Ropes should be one and a half times longer.”

“And in deep water?”

Hamel rubbed the back of his head. “I’d say thirty meters, but you won’t need that. For deep water, you want nets that are bigger than this cute toy.”

Jay grinned, imagining huge nets in the murky depths of the ocean, nets that were many times bigger than him, bigger even than his mother as a killer whale.

“So once your anchor rope is long enough, you tie it to the end of this floatline.” Bending down again, the fisherman held up the end of a long rope that had been prepared on a hook by the net. Then he picked up the end of the net and pointed out where the floatline was. Then he gestured for Jay to do it and the Kelvic eagerly jumped at the opportunity of doing something with his hands. After he’d tied the ropes together with the appropriate knot, they rose again…

And Hamel grinned. “What do you say, lad? Wind’s good, isn’t it? Let’s put this girl into the water then!”