<Begin Segment 6>

MN: Now how many months per year was your father away from home?

JM: Practically every day, unless they had a full moon. When the full moon comes out you don't fish for five days, two days before, two days after, 'cause it's too bright and you can't see the fish in the ocean.

MN: So you're talking about fishing at nighttime. Is this for sardines?

JM: (Yes), sardine.

MN: How do you see the sardines?

JM: When it's swimming in the ocean it creates a phosphorous, so you could see the phosphorous from the top.

MN: What months were sardines, what was considered sardine season?

JM: September, October, (...) to February.

MN: Now how do you catch the sardines?

JM: Catch it?

MN: Yeah, how do you --

JM: A net.

MN: You just toss the net over?

JM: No, no, no. We have a big net and it's (...) piled on the back of the ship and the end of the net is tied to a skiff, a big skiff. Then when we follow the school you find out which way they're traveling, see how fast they're going, then we go in front and lay the net out. When they let the net, we (...) unleash the skiff, then the boat goes and it's pulling the net out, so the net goes around and it comes around to the skiff and we catch the end of the net, pull it on board. There's rings on the bottom with lead, cork on the top, so the lead goes down. Then there's a cable in the rings, so we pull the cable up and that closes the net so the fish won't be able to get out. Then we start pursing the net up on the one end, bring the (fish) all the way to the bag -- that's the strong part of the net -- then we would bring the net up and we got a big, what do you call it, scoop, with the net, and that's the way we would reel the net (and the fish) onto the ship.

MN: How many men does it take to bring the net over, and how heavy is the net?

JM: Nets are heavy. About five (men) on the net, one on the cork, one on the lead line, three or four in between, and what they do is we pull the net up with the winch, then lower it so we'll have to pull it and lay it out flat, nicely so it'll go out smoothly (in the next set). If you don't do that it, then it (gets tangled). That's the way you tear the net.

MN: Now what's an average catch of sardines?

JM: Usually ten ton, if it's a smaller school we don't touch it (...).

MN: So when you say five ton fish, you're talking, you're saying that's a small school?

JM: Uh-huh.

MN: So you would go after --

JM: (Larger schools).

MN: Bigger tons of (fish), and you have carry that net into the boat?

JM: Yes.

MN: So it takes about five people to bring that in?

JM: Usually it's about ten to twelve people, crew members.

MN: So that's sardines. How different is that in terms of catching tuna?

JM: Tuna usually, after the war we have to go down to Mexico 'cause (large schools of) tuna weren't coming in to San Pedro.

MN: How about before the war? I know you weren't fishing before the war, but how did they catch tuna before the war?

JM: They'd catch it, well, with pole and they had nets.

MN: And what kind of pole was this?

JM: Oh, about six foot pole and a small line with hook, and when they see the tuna they throw live bait. Then the tuna gets so excited they'll bite anything, so when they see the, the hook, it's silver, it attracts so they bite it, so they hook it, bring it up, and they snap (their wrist) right when it gets to the back. That releases the hook, so they put the (line) right back in the ocean so they could catch another, one after another. When a fish gets bigger, then they need two poles, and bigger than that, get three poles with one line. So everything has to be real teamwork. They all have to do the same thing. And the new fishermen, don't know (how) to do that, they don't know timing, so they have to bring that fish up, drop the pole, go over, (...) take the hook out, then put it back, so you waste a lot of time. So newtimer, don't get full share; they only get half share.

MN: Now, the hook, does it go in the mouth or in the gills?

JM: They go in the mouth.

MN: In the mouth.

JM: (When) they see that shining (hook they'll bite anything).

MN: Now, before the war, how far did your father go out to catch fish?

JM: Before the war there were a lot of fish, so they didn't have to go too far, so maybe Newport Beach and Santa Monica on the north side.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.