Subject: Re: gig?

From: "David C. Hufford" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 14:39:07 -0400 (EDT)

Mike:

Alewife?  Kayack?  For a fellow raised on the Great Plains, these are 
strange words.

D.C. Hufford

---

From: Michael Spencer <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 96 17:22:36 EDT

D.C. Hufford wrote:
> Alewife?  Kayack?  For a fellow raised on the Great Plains, these
> are strange words.

I'm no fish guru, so without going to the encyclopaedia...

Alewives appear here and there in Victorian novels. I gather that
there several varieties on both sides of the Atlantic. They're marine
fish in the herring family -- greasy and bony. Here in southeastern
Nova Scotia, they're called kayacks. Also called gaspereaux in other
parts of the province -- presumably a term of Acadian French
origin.

These critters run up the local rivers in April or early May.. They're
the only fish that it's legal to dipnet. Whole families go out to the
nearest river and scoop them out of rapids or small falls. Most people
smoke them (really -- not dipped in some smokey chemical). The result
striles me as resembling well-aged bootsole with tiny springs
embedded, in creosote sauce. Some folks love 'em and eat them year
round. Matter of taste.  Exporting them to the gourmet market is
probably a megabuck biz waiting for the right entrepreneur.

Nobody tries to spear kayacks. Dip nets on 10' poles
are too easy. But eels winter in the mud under the ice and are, well,
a little reclusive, so eel spears on (maybe 15') hafts are used
through holes in the esturaine ice.

- Mike