Etiquette Went Fishing

Whether fishing for sport or fishing for one’s food, good etiquette is a requirement. Follow all posted rules and unposted rules, if you discover any apply, if you wish to be welcome back. Etiquette is big component of good sportsmanship!

       

Etiquette Rule of the Sea:

Old Whaling Law Applied to a Twice Caught Cod

The etiquette which is observed among the fishermen that journey to the fishing banks was discovered by an amateur angler on his first trip. The amateur hooked a codfish, but his line parted just as the fish was above the water. Back fell the cod-fish. carrying with him two sinkers and the hook.

Twenty minutes later another angler eried out that he had captured a cod with two sinkers and a hook. The amateur went up to the angler, who appeared to be an old salt, and asked for his hook and sinkers, which had his name stamped on them. He was surprised when the old salt told him to take the fish also.

According to the rules generally followed on the fishing boats, the second angler was entitled to the fish, but the hooks and sinkers should be returned to their owner. The old angler explained why he wanted to give up the fish.

It seems that he had followed the sea a great part of his life. When a young man he was a whaler, and, according to whaling law, a dead whale belongs to the ship whose name appears on the harpoon that killed it. Therefore the old salt figured that the amateur owned the codfish he had taken. –New York Sun, 1909

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia