If I’m ever out fishing, I’ll often wonder about what fishing would be like without all the research and gadgets that’s are at the common fisherman’s disposal. Such as boats, fish finders, plastic jigs. Without those things, I would have viewed fishers as unsuccessful when attempting to fish. But surely people were able to make a hobby out of it, or even a living. Was fishing effecient for the common man as it is today, or was is it not even an attainable hobby and strictly left for people making a living off it?
The following exchange is taken from Ælfric's Colloquy, an 11th Century Latin textbook which takes the format of a series of conversations between a teacher and his class, and a variety of individuals that they may be likely to encounter in their day-to-day life. The conversation with the fisherman is thus:
Teacher: What skills do you have?
Fisherman: I am a fisherman.
Teacher: What do you gain from your skills?
Fisherman: I get food, clothes and money.
Teacher: How do you catch the fish?
Fisherman: I get into my boat, put my nets into the river and then I cast my bait and wicker baskets, and whatever I catch I take.
Teacher: What if the fish are unclean ones?
Fisherman: I throw out the unclean ones and I take the clean ones for food for myself.
Teacher: Where do you sell your fish?
Fisherman: In the town.
Teacher: Who buys them?
Fisherman: The townsfolk. I cannot catch as many as I can sell.
Teacher: What sort of fish do you catch?
Fisherman: I catch eels, pike, minnows and dace, trout, lamprey and any other species that swim in the rivers, like sprats.
Teacher: Why don’t you fish in the sea?
Fisherman: Oh, I do sometimes, but it is seldom as I have to make a long trip by river in order to get to the sea.
Teacher: What do you catch in the sea?
Fisherman: I catch herring, salmon, dolphins, sturgeon, oysters, crabs, mussels, cockles, flatfish, plaice, lobsters and such like.
Teacher: Would you like to catch a whale?
Fisherman: No, I don’t think so.
Teacher: Why not?
Fisherman: Because catching whales is a dangerous business. I find it is far safer for me to go to the river with my spear than to go to the sea with many ships to hunt whales.