NEWFIE MEMORIES FROM THE PRAIRIES by Hayward J. Prince I was born in the 40's in the small outport of Princeton on Bonavista Bay in Newfoundland, the son of an inshore fisherman. The fond memories related here are of my younger years till age fifteen, when I left home to live in the city. SQUID JIGGING There's been many a "dirty" story told about squid jigging, but just in case mine is the first and you plan to go squidding, I'll give you some kindly advice: (1) Don't lean over the side of the boat and (2) Keep your mouth shut. You see, when you pull the squid to the surface, it can squirt its black juice five or six feet in the air and so, if your face and your mouth are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you know what can happen. Most of the older fishermen had the knack of getting the squid in the boat before it squirted its black juice, but some of us younger fellows new to the game were not quite so lucky. We often got in right in the eye, which of course added to the fun and excitement. The best way I can describe our appearance after an hour or two jigging squid was something you would see in a horror movie. But with lots of soap and water we did manage to look normal again. Like cod fishing, it seemed the best time to catch squid was at dawn, just as the sun was setting, or at dusk, although there were times you could catch them night or day. To really get in the spirit of squidding you had to wear a suit of rubber clothes and on your head a sou'wester.....and patiently wait for a school to come by. Then all of a sudden it seemed the bay was alive with squid and as fast as you could pull over the side you would, knowing as fast as they appeared, they would disappear. The squid would stay in the bay late in to the Fall, which meant it got pretty cold in the early morning out there on the squid jigging ground; in fact sometimes you could see frost covering the boat when daylight would break. You probably can appreciate how uncomfortable it was to get a blast of that black squid juice right between your eyes or up the sleeve of your coat on a morning like that. The fishermen would often swing their arms and hands around and against their bodies to try to keep warm. I'm sure an outsider, not knowing what was going on, would think they were trying to fly, but I never saw anyone airborne. However, it did help to keep warm. That's when Uncle Jim's boat that had a house with wood stove and bunks in it was appreciated. He would often let us come on board to warm up, and sometimes have a nap, because sometimes we would spend the night on the squid jigging grounds. In those days we always used two red jiggers about two or three fathoms down. As one jigger was going down you could be hauling up a squid on the other jigger, which was often the case when a school would come by. We would take turns working our jiggers during the night and when a school would come by you would holler out to the other fellers, alerting them to the presence of squid. You can imagine the excitement as everyone scrambled to their jiggers. You can also appreciate the disappointment if it was a false alarm and you only caught two or three. Yes, squid were so unpredictable; you could load your boat or just catch a few. But while patiently waiting for the squid, the squid jigging grounds was a pretty peaceful place to be in the middle of the night as I lay in the bunk on board my uncle's boat. The only sounds to break the silence were the chatter of the fishermen outside and the sound of a slight lop against the bow of the boat, as it gently swayed back and forth on its moorings, in the light breeze of the night. Yes, many's a time I can recall squidding with family, uncles and friends as dozens of boats gathered on the squid jiggin' ground. I think I enjoyed the jokes and the yarns as much as jigging, but to this day I'm still trying to decide whether or not some of those old fishermen were really telling the truth.   Submitted By: Hayward Prince