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Letters from DA Casey #2
Further on my series of letters from my father DA Casey, attached is a 1956 letter that Dad sent to my mother Audrey about Danny and Billy fishing lobsters. We actually had a lobster license and six traps. I was 11 and Danny was 13.
We fished in the 8 foot pram that Dad made. Brian’s boat had been destroyed in a storm and the boat we had now had featured higher sides and was much more seaworthy. However, it was still only 8 feet long and had square ends.
We now had a 5HP Johnson outboard, which was green. It was much better than oars. Pulling the traps would almost tip the little boat over, but we managed. We didn’t have any way to prevent the lobsters from using their claws on us even though they were just in the bilge of the boat. We had to pay attention to where they were in the bilge.
If I recall correctly the lobster license was 25 cents. They cost a little more now.
At that time the Bay was full of lobster traps, and we would just put our traps in the middle of the other traps because surely the fishermen knew the best spots. We had no business being that far out in this little boat, but we went out every day to check traps. Some days we even checked our own.
We fished in the 8 foot pram that Dad made. Brian’s boat had been destroyed in a storm and the boat we had now had featured higher sides and was much more seaworthy. However, it was still only 8 feet long and had square ends.
We now had a 5HP Johnson outboard, which was green. It was much better than oars. Pulling the traps would almost tip the little boat over, but we managed. We didn’t have any way to prevent the lobsters from using their claws on us even though they were just in the bilge of the boat. We had to pay attention to where they were in the bilge.
If I recall correctly the lobster license was 25 cents. They cost a little more now.
At that time the Bay was full of lobster traps, and we would just put our traps in the middle of the other traps because surely the fishermen knew the best spots. We had no business being that far out in this little boat, but we went out every day to check traps. Some days we even checked our own.