Cape Breton's Magazine

boats, sail boats, they'd have 8-horsepower engine in them • and to go off very far they couldn't do it in a day. Where the swordfish turned up to be plentier was what they called The Edge, on the edge of the bank. The edge of the ground. The continen? tal shelf. You go off the water wouldn't be very deep. From the shore off the bottom was pretty level; it just deepened a little. 30-40 fathom. You went off and by and by you started going 70 fathom. When you go so much further than that you go right over and there would be over a hundred. That was the edge of the ground. That would be 30 miles offshore. Some of the Newfoundland fellows started going off 30 miles • they'd just about go and come in the day. But some of them started to go off and stay off all night • and they'd get all day. Come in, they'd have two days fishing. And all big ones they'd get off there. 500 to 700 pounds, that'd be a big one. It's a pretty good fish when they average 300 pounds. We didn't have the boats in Neil's Harbour for that but afterwards we got some. Then the Nova Scotia fellows • western fellows we used to call them • they came down and they only had small boats. They were lobster fishing up in their own towns. But after a while they started getting bigger boats. Two car engines in them. They could go off pretty quick, you know. 10 miles an hour. They could get off on the edge a pretty good day there. When the ban came on, pretty near everybody that fished went swordfishing here at Neil's Harbour. There's no boats now; it's all lobster boats. There was about nine swordfishing boats there in Neil's Harbour. Took quite a bunch of men, you know • 3 and 4 in every boat. There was nine just there alone, and there was hundreds used to come there. And they banned it, and no more of that. It kind of got bad on the end of it. They got scarce. They started fishing them offshore is what probably caused that. They cleaned up the schools or broke them up before they had a chance to come inshore. And I think that was it. They started fishing on the banks, you know, up around Sable Island and all the banks up there, up on Georges and every? where. Even went onto the Grand Banks swordfishing. They took big, big fish. Some of those fellows had been at it from the time they could walk pretty near, and they kept getting bigger boats, bigger boats • and they foimd out more about the swordfish • they found out they were down on the Grand Banks. (Eampo Antxtima $c Art 238 Charlotte Street Sydney, Nova Scotia Phone 539-6333 Wandylin Motor Inn Kings Road Sydney A. M, HASSIN STORE Clothing Furniture Appliances Carpeting 295-2887 in Baddeck Quality Wool Clothing Hardy Amies Suits, Shirts & Ties Christian Dior Suits Viyella Shirts Hudson Bay Blankets & Jackets I 303 Charlotte Street, Sydney Cape Breton's Magazine/4 A B A D A K Overloaded circuits, burnt fuses, dimming lights, fading television • the story of your life? Change it all with a call to BADDECK HARDWARE AND ELECTRICAL, 295-2507. 220-systems installed or increased with very slight interruption to your power supply* Building, renovating or installing elec? tric heat? Talk to your electrician FIRST. He can save you time and money* Fast, efficient service. Certified electri? cians. Cash, Chargex or NSPC Financing. Baddeck Hardware & Electrical Electrohome Sales and Service Phone 295-2507