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. THE KNIFE One summer after the fishing for cod with a cod trap was over, Uncle Reuben and I teamed up to do some handlining. Squid was one of our favourite baits, especially the pip, as cod rarely turned away from that temptation. Anyway, I had to use a knife to cut the squid open to get at that juicy bit of bait; the remainder of the squid I would throw overboard since I had no other need for it, and of course the gulls flying overhead were always tipping me for being so kind to them. I would go through this procedure day after day -- cutting the squid open, removing the pip, throwing the rest overboard, cutting another squid open, removing the pip, throwing the rest overboard. Well, one day, bye, I guess I was daydreaming and, instead of throwing the discarded squid overboard -- you guessed it -- I threw the knife overboard. For years after, whenever I would go back home to visit, Uncle Reuben would tease me about this incident; we had many a good laugh about it. When handlining, the best place to catch the fish was on "the marks" that some fine fisherman (maybe one of my relatives) had made many years before my time. One mark that comes to mind was straight out from a large round white rock on shore, in line with the tip of Pincher's Point and the tip of Tickle Cove Point. Throwing our anchor overboard there and letting our boat sway in the wind, we would often catch some big ones. Another good spot was "Bob's rock", but I don't recall the marks for that, although I would guess it was straight out from a white cliff on shore, in line with the tip of Summerville Head and Tickle Cove Point. I know there were many other good "marks" to catch the fish, but with the passing of so many years, they've faded from my mind. Another method, similar to handlining, was jigging. That means using a jigger to catch fish without bait. Although it had no real bait, it looked like it did. We used two types: the Norwegian jigger, which had a shiny lead with three little hooks clipped together with a red ribbon in between, and this all dangling freely from the lead; and the Newfoundland jigger which had two large hooks soldered in a makebelieve caplin. By letting your boat drift slowly along the shore and keeping your jigger about two or three feet off the bottom and making big yanks, you would often hook an unwary cod. That summer we did catch lots of fish and my hands would almost bleed from hauling them up with that small line from the salt waters. Although Uncle Reuben would tease about the embarrassing knife-overboard incident, he often reminded me of the good times we had working together on the waters of Bonavista Bay.   Submitted By: Hayward Prince