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Interview with Harold Reed

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Identifier
NA 805 (local)
Date
1974 (Date created)
Summary
Harold Reed interviewed by David Taylor, February 5, 1974, at Reed’s home in Frankfort, Maine. (ISO 100). 4 page index. Reed discusses, in detail, his experiences as a fisherman on the Penobscot River in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. Reed talks about how his father, Fred Reed, fished for smelt with bag nets at Winterport around Bald Hill Cove during the Great Depression and the men his father fished with, including Herbert Alley, Phillip Alley, Carl Clegg, and Leon Perkins. He discusses his own fishing on the Penobscot River and Marsh Stream in Frankfort during high school and after World War Two; fishing with gill nets, and how to set them, how they caught fish, importance of net shape and how to rig the nets, where to get the nets, the floats and sinkers used on the nets, how to haul the net into the boat; the size of a good catch, and what kinds of fish were caught in the nets, including smelt, trout, and eel; how the fish, mostly smelt, were packed and shipped to market; and the prices paid for smelts; fishing licenses and warden Lewis Stubbs; the effects of weather on fishing and on the nets, how to care for the net, and how much money one could earn in a season. Also fishing with bag nets, how to fish through the ice, men who fished with bag nets, including Herbert Alley, and Charles Alley, their fishing camps. Penobscot River Commercial Fisheries Project. Tape 1 hour: T732
Creator and/or Contributor
Harold Reed (creator), Taylor, David (contributor)
Language
Dialects)
Materials Designation
sound tape reels (analog)
Related Entities:
Harold Reed (creator)