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When fish were big and boys were small
One of the staple things we had growing up was fresh, frozen and salted cod. Here in Nova Scotia haddock reigns supreme, but nothing to me beats the taste of a fresh out of the water cod. Generally the casual fisher back home used a hand line with a traditional or Norwegian jigger. We’d lower the line overboard till it hit bottom and then pull up a fathom or two and start jigging back and forth till we hit a fish, then we’d pull it up and into the boat to be immediately cleaned.
I can still remember the feeling when you hit a big one, or as dad called them, a growler. You’d be jigging the line back and forth and then suddenly you’d bring up solid. Sometimes they were so hard to pull in. And if you happened to hook a mackerel well, then your line was on times tight and then loose as they’d swim madly like a fly fish.
And of course in the days before nylon line, we’d have the older cord, everyone had notches in the gunnels of their boats where the line wore into the wood.
This one year, for whatever reason, dad decided to try a trawl. Essentially it was a line with 50 smaller lines attached, with baited hooks on each. We set it out near our marks somewhere and came back a day or two later. Well we were pulling it in and caught a few fish, and then… it appeared. As you can see on the left, the fish was bigger than me! This was probably about 1974 or 75 I think, I’m pretty sure it was before my sister was born, making me 9 or 10 in this picture. The cod weighed in at 65 pounds!
We cleaned it and tried to salt it, unfortunately it was so thick it didn’t take well, or we didn’t leave it long enough, and some spoiled, but we still got quite a few meals!
Trick or Valentine? Fruit chips ahoy!
The Pop Shoppe
Over the weekend, my buddy Bernard and I were discussing a memory of growing up in pretty much anywhere in small town Canada. For people of my generation, a trip to The Pop Shoppe was a fun and regular occurrence. Unlike traditional pop, and before the time of so many store …Sliding
My little niece went sliding for the first time over the weekend, and reminded me of times sliding back home. Generally we didn’t have the plastic slides you see today, the fanciest we had was a crazy carpet. Most times sliding involved a toboggan, or the old fashioned coaster you …Wiener Roasts and Fireworks
Its the lazy days of summer now, evenings are starting to close in a little earlier, nights are a little chiller, perfect for sleeping, and for fires on the beach. In our teens, and likely much beyond back home these evenings often led to a bonfire on the beach, or …
Carry on and Mastodon

If you follow the tech scene at all, and likely even if not, you’ve probably heard a lot of buzz about Mastodon lately. I’m actually perhaps a little late to the scene, but I joined the bandwagon this past weekend, and thought I’d share my thoughts and tips. Sorry for any incoherence. And I’ll update […]
10 Channels, 2 Programs… why?

Was watching (or trying at least) to watch some sports last night. Harkening back to my love of curling, there’s a tournament in Toronto, and I was expecting coverage. Apparently they aren’t deeming to until Thursday, so be it. But for the love of god, between them TSN and SportsNet have 10 different feeds. Last […]
Picture Says it all Really

I can’t say I watch wrestling much anymore, but when I was younger I remember going to some bar or another to watch almost all the major events. I have a memory of this one motel bar out by what used to be the beginning of the divided highway, which was nearly into Kenmount road […]
Olympic Hockey Done

The NHL announced today it won’t be participating in the next olympics. I get some of the reasons, but I really think it’s short sighted. Yeah it’s in the middle of the season, yeah some of the players could get injured. But they could get injured walking to the rink too. To me the the olympics […]
Chess on Ice

I’m currently watching the men’s world curling championships. I know a lot of people laugh at the game and can’t seem to follow it, but to me it’s probably my favorite thing to watch. It sounds simple, get your rock as close to the center as you can, and prevent the other team from doing […]