Pat has fished for 42 years and now he is retired. When Pat started fishing, he fished in a bang bang boat. It was a one cylinder engine boat, which made a "bang bang" sound. They had no cabins on the boats. When Pat started fishing in 1949, they only had a box compass for direction. If the pointer was pointing in one direction, then you would go that way. When you were heading back, you couldn't turn the compass around so you would have to make sure that you were heading in the opposite direction you came from. Today's boats have many electronics to help guide them in their fishing. To find the fish back then, they had to get their information from the land. They could find fish by looking at the birds. If there were two seagulls sitting on the water, then you would follow them and they would find the fish for you.

You would have to be your own weather man to tell if the day was going to be fit to go out. You could tell if it was going to blow, if the birds were flying high in the sky. If there was a red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in the morning sailors take warning. When you can see all the things at the bottom of the ocean, there will be wind. If you can see all the reflection in the water, then there will also be wind. If the clouds were moving, then there will be wind from the direction that the clouds were moving in. If there was no wind before 9 o'clock, it was going to be a nice day for fishing.

There is a limited amount of traps now, unlike back in Pat's days. Before, they would have to haul all their traps by hand. Now, they haul with a boom. Back in Pat's day women were not allowed to fish, but today there are many fisher women.

Pat fished with a man named Dickie Power for one year, before obtaining his own boat and hiring Stephen L. for almost six years.

Pat fished five kinds of fish: cod, hake, mackerel, tuna and lobster. Sometimes he caught the odd skate, scuttle or sturgeon. They were called "junk fish" and were thrown away because there was no market for them.

In Pat’s early days lobsters were worth little. Farmers would hire hands to spread the lobster shells over the fields for fertilizer. The farmers would feed the hands lobster for their lunch, because it was so cheap.

Back then fish were worth 27 to 30 cents a pound. Now fish are wroth $5.00 a pound. In Pat’s day a lobster license cost 25 cents. Now they cost $500-550.

When you bought a boat, it would cost you about $575. Now a fiberglass boat is between $80,000 to $90,000 without an engine and fully completed costs $160,000-$200,000.

If Pat had the chance to go back fishing, he said that he definitly would." It’s in my blood," he said.

Pat had a funny story to tell. When he purchased his first boom to haul the traps, Stephen L was fishing with him.

One day Pat asked, "How do you like the boom?"

Stephen replied, "We should have two!"

Pat then asked, "Why?"

Stephen replied, "In case one breaks down."