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Fishing For Shad Research Paper

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WILLIE
For some unexplained reason, on our way back to the cabin after a successful couple of hours on the lake, my thoughts drifted back to my childhood again. This time I was fishing for American Shad from the shore of the Hudson River at Crawbucky Beach. Shad is a salt water fish from the Atlantic Ocean. They are a silver scaled fish with black spots on its back and adult shad often reach the weight of 4 or 5 pounds. Each spring the shad return to the Hudson River to spawn in their ancient hatcheries.
The Sint Sinc Indians were a tribe of Native Americans who lived in the area of Ossining prior to the arrival of the Dutch colonists. Each spring, the blooming of a local bush plant named Amelanchier would signal the arrival of the shad. In turn, the natives would ready themselves by building large fishing baskets to use as nets to trap the once abundant shad.
For centuries, there were two reasons why fishing for shad was popular. Of course, the most important reason being is to feed one’s family. The Sint Sinc would net as many shad as they could then dry them in the fresh spring air. After the moisture evaporates from the fish, the natives would preserve the shad by salting. If the tribe was lucky, the stockpile of fish would last then until the next spawning season. The other reason why shad were so important to the …show more content…

I would hail to the gang about the craft’s arrival and Gramps would order me to “hustle my ass” and help Cheese dock the boat. I later found out that I was sent me to the boat club for two reasons. The first was to learn how to tie a proper cleat hitch knot from an expert and second was to meet Willie, Cheese’s son. Gramps knew Willie didn’t have many friends, and in fact neither did I. Gramps figured Willie and I had a lot in common and we would become good pals. It turned out Gramps was right as

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