Fife Folklore, Fishing in Fife - At The Lines

Between the two world wars, most of the bigger boats in the harbours spent part of the year at the line fishing. Some went for only a few weeks between herring seasons; some, called the oot -bye boats, did not go to the summer drave at all, but fished all summer in more distant waters, remaining at sea for ten or eleven days, taking fifteen or sixteen tons of ice to keep the fish fresh for market.

A considerable number of smaller boats, particularly in Pittenweem, engaged in line fishing in local waters, using sma’ lines.

Gartlins were the lines used when fishing in deep waters for haddock, cod, ling, halibut, etc. They were made of Spanish hemp, about the thickness of a pencil.

Stroods or snids were slightly finer hemp lines joined on to the main gartlin at intervals of 3½ fathoms. Stroods was the word used in Cellardyke and snids in Pittenweem and St. Monans.

Tippins were long loops of twisted cotton line, with a
hook whipped on. The tippin’s attached the hook to the
strood.

Heuk—Hook. The gartlin heuks were about 4 inches long. Tyin’ on heuks was a perpetual activity at home and afloat, and many retired fishermen earned tobacco money by tyin’ on heuks, i.e. whipping the hook to the tippin’, for the younger men still at sea.

Sculls were large scoop-shaped baskets which held the
lines. The deep end of the scull had a border of cork or
rope in which the heuks were neatly arranged for easy
handling.

Stickin‘ was coiling the gartlin neatly and returning
the heuks to the border ready for use.

Taes was a measurement used for the manilla line
from which the gartlins were made. It was not a
standardised length. An East Neuk taes, for example,
was 75 fathoms in length, but an Aberdeen taes was
only 60 fathoms. There were six taes of line in an East
Neuk gartlin, and each man usually put in five gartlins.

Faddom was a Fathom, i.e. Six feet. The men used
body measurements for general purposes, and measured
fathoms as the length of their outstretched arms.

Bichtin‘ was putting the line into the sea in bichts, i.e.
so that it lay in a kind of curving zig-zag to achieve good
coverage of the chosen fishing ground.

Gowk or gowkin’ stick was a heavy wooden or iron
implement for stunning the big fish as they came
aboard.

Dahn was a long pole, with a float or a bundle of corks half way down, put into the sea to indicate the end of the gartlins. A flag on top sufficed during the.day and
a dahn-lamp could be put on top in darkness.

Gradin’ irons or graders, were an implement for picking up the line from the sea bottom when it became broken or detached.

Weengs were the compartments round the hold where the fish were stored in ice after they had been gutted.

Bait nets were the nets that were taken to catch herring or mackerel for baiting the gartlins. About 4,500 hooks had to be baited daily when fishing with gartlins, and oot -bye boats fished for eight or nine days each trip.

Sma’ lines were the lines that were used for fishing near the shores, in small boats with three or four of a crew. Each man put in two lines of five taes. The lines were much lighter than the great-lines, and the snids were only about 3½ feet apart.

Reddin was tidying a sma’ line that had become ravelled, and coiling it ready for use again.

Shiel, was to take mussels out of their shells. This was women’s work.

Baitin‘ was putting a mussel on to every hook. To shiel the mussels and bait the two lines could take a woman about three hours.

Mussel Scaup was a place at the edge of the sea where mussels could be kept alive if they were not required, e.g. on a day too stormy for the boat to go out. At one time, before motor transport and improved communications, each man would have had his own scaup where he could leave his own mussels which
would knit together when the tide covered them.

Creels was the word generally used for baskets without handles. In the fishing communities it was used for the baskets which fishwives carried on their backs when they went to sell fish, and it was also used for the traps in
which crabs and lobsters were caught. To be “at the creels” meant to be engaged in crab fishing at one time a very poorly paid job

Haund-barrie was a kind of sparred stretcher on which two people could carry fish boxes or fishing gear etc when wheeled transport was not possible. In Pittenweem, where there was only one road for carts to get down to the harbour, much use was made of single wheeled barrows and haund-barries in the narrow twisting wynds where the fisher folk lived.

Jig was a special type of line for catching a few herring, perhaps a dozen at a time. The small hooks were baited with mussels and the line jigged up and down by hand among the herring.

Sprool was a method of catching a few white fish, like cod or whitings. No bait was used, but the piece of lead that held the group of hooks was scraped to make it shine, and so act as a lure.

Flake was a slatted framework on which fish were dried in the sun after splitting and cleaning. Dried fish would keep for months and most homes had one or two in store.

Pauchler was someone who did things in a small way. It was often used for men at the sprools or jiggin’, as well as for those working in yawls using anchored nets, reels, etc. It could also refer to unsuccessful fishermen and
those who did not try too hard.

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