To be sure there were seasons when Skipper Tom was hard put to it to make ends meet, and a scant diet and a good many hardships fell to his lot and to the lot of his family.  And when he had enough and his neighbors were in need, he denied himself to see others through, and even pinched himself to do it.

But he saved bit by bit until, at the age of forty-five, he was able to purchase a cod trap, which was valued at about $400.00.  The purchase of this cod trap had been the ambition of his life and we can imagine his joy when finally the day came that brought it to him.  It made more certain his catch of cod, and therefore lessened the possibility of winters of privation.

It is interesting to know how the fishermen of The Labrador catch cod.  It may be worth while also to explain that when the Labradorman or Newfoundlander speaks of “fish” he means cod in his vocabulary.  A trout is a trout, a salmon is a salmon and a caplin is a caplin, but a cod is a fish.  He never thinks of anything as fish but cod.

Early in the season, directly the ice breaks up, a little fish called the caplin, which is about the size of a smelt, runs inshore in great schools of countless millions, to spawn.  I have seen them lying in windrows along the shore where the receding tide had left them high and dry upon the land.  This is a great time for the dogs, which feast upon them and grow fat.  It is a great time also for the cod, which feed on the caplin, and for the fishermen who catch the cod.  Cod follow the caplin schools, and this is the season when the fisherman, if he is so fortunate as to own a trap, reaps his greatest harvest.

The trap is a net with four sides and a bottom, but no top.  It is like a great room without a ceiling.  On one side is a door or opening.  The trap is submerged a hundred yards or so from shore, at a point where the caplin, with the cod at their heels, are likely to run in.  A net attached to the trap at the center of the door is stretched to the nearest shore.

Like a flock of geese that follows the old gander cod follow their leaders.  When the leaders pilot the school in close to shore in pursuit of the caplin, they encounter the obstructing net, then follow along its side with the purpose of going around it.  This leads them into the trap.  Once into the trap they remain there until the fishermen haul their catch.

The fisherman who owns no trap must rely upon the hook and line.  Though sometimes hook and line fishermen meet with good fortune, the results are much less certain than with the traps and the work much slower and vastly more difficult.

When the water is not too deep jigging with unbaited hooks proves successful when fish are plentiful.  Two large hooks fastened back to back, with lead to act as a sinker, serve the purpose.  This double hook at the end of the line is dropped over the side of the boat and lowered until it touches bottom.  Then it is raised about three feet, and from this point “jigged,” or raised and lowered continuously until taken by a cod.