clocks that we need to respond to. For farmers I guess it’s the
dawn, when its light enough to see what your doing and which
stretches to the dusk. All in all a long day in the height of the
summer, but is balanced by the dark of winter. For factory workers it’s the clocking in machine, that no
nonsense system that demands you be on time, or you won’t be paid.
What I hated about this system is that it never seemed to take
account of day or night, snow or sunshine, just a continuous pattern or rhythm
like Fords assembly line.
Cheekpoint area they rhythm was the tides. The tides tripped off
our tongues, even as children, and before we really knew what they
meant. Tides change approximately every 6 hours and we get two high
waters and two low waters in an average day. As a fisherman you followed these with a
tenacity of any good hunter following his prey.
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| Sonny Doherty and Andy Cunningham “hauling them back” from an outward bound ship on the Ebb tide Photo credit Tomás Sullivan |
For Eels , fishing tended to happen when the tides are at there slowest, hence High and Low
Tides, day or night. Similarly for Trawling and for setting and hauling the weirs. But
the salmon fishing was a bit more complex. The salmon had a
season and a weekly close. So we started originally on February 1st
and fished to August 15th.and weekly we fished from 6am on Monday morning to 6am on the Saturday. The rest of
Saturday was giving over to repairing nets and Sunday to rest. The drift net was used in Cheekpoint, employing two men to an open 18ft punt. . We used a set of 6 nets marked by buoys on either end. Originally punts were oar powered but outboards made things a lot easier in getting about to the drifts.
with High Water. Thus the tide was at its highest on the banks of
the river and along the shore. On neap tides high waters were
something you could relax around, but on spring tides you needed to
be cautious, the higher tides tended to bring weeds off the shore and
you were at risk of filling your nets. Once the nets stood still in
the river it was High Water, and once they started to slip back down
the river it was known as “First of Ebb”.
went ashore, and nets would not be set again in the area until the
“Stripping of the Mud” about two hours after high water. The
Strippin was a word we heard daily during the salmon season, and even
as a child there was a recognition of its importance. The Strippin
was a drift that was waited for in the Bathing Box below the mount
quay. Boats would often go in to the bailing box to wait for two to
three hours for the chance to be first boat to set on the Stripin.
The wait was straightforward. First boat in, was first to set, as
long as one of the two crew men stayed with the boat. If they left,
their place was forfeit.
set others could set at the same time from the Binglidies or Snow Hill or at the
Point. The Stipping occurred when the mud on the Wexford shore was
exposed by the outgoing tide. It also marked the tides being at
their strongest.
continued with punts drifting down as far as “The Castle” or
“Buttermilk Point” on the eastern side of the estuary or to the
Barn quay or Ryans Quay on the Western shore (Waterford side). When
the drift ended the nets were hauled and the punt returned to the
Bathing Box to await their turn to set once more, or set them in on
the Point if there was a space. The drifting continued to “Low
Water” although many punts went home depending on how catches were
going, whilst others when they reached “The Castle” would haul
and reset the nets on Seedes Bank and drift them down towards Passage
East and Ballyhack.
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| Tom Sullivan hauling nets at Ryan’s Quay on the ebb tide Photo credit Tomás Sullivan |
Low Water could be
drifted from a number of points, but the favourite was “Low water
on the mud”. This drift was waited for at “the Rock” and was
started depending on the strength of tides or wind direction and
indeed time of day and whether the sun was out. Again, the boat had
to be manned and generally it allowed that one person could go home
for a feed, while the other waited. They could use the time to
repair nets and generally it was a great way to hear news as other
boats passed by. Coming close to low water, a stick could be placed
in the mud beside the dropping tide to gauge the time it was taking
to drop. The stick would be moved to beside the river until the
river stopped dropping, and actually started to “rise” on the
stick. The rising tide meant that it would soon be low water ie the
tide would stop running out of the river and start to run in again.
Antoher great measure of the tide was the stroke that would drift in
onto the rock marking a change in the tide.
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| First of flood pushing inwards at “the Point” |
crew decided it was time to set for Low water, they set off for the
wexford side of the estuary and set the nets off from the mud at
“Campile Pill” and then came back in and held the nets close to
the mud as they drifted down, in order to “jam” a fish in the
shallows, or prevent them getting round the inside end of the nets.
Low water was determined when the nets stopped drifting down. This
would be seen first with the outside bouy on the net “hanging back”
or the corks going “slack” as the current slowed. “First of
Flood” was marked by the nets starting to drift upriver again. As
the tide strengthened this was called “Flood Tide”.
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| Tom & Michael Ferguson RIP drifting the flood tide Photo credit Tomás Sullivan |
The “Covering of the
Mud” was another milestone in the day, as the mud on the Wexford
shore was covered once more by the inflowing river, and most boats
were keen to have their nets in the water for this time of tide. The Flood tide then
continued to High water and the whole process was repeated.
So to recap:
High Water
First of Ebb
Ebb Tide
Strippin of the mud
Low water (Standing tide)
First of Flood
Flood Tide
Covering of the mud
High Water
I publish a blog each Friday. If you like this piece or have an interest in the local history or maritime heritage of Waterford harbour and environs you can email me at russianside@gmail.com to receive the blog every week.