Fisheries

  Fishing was the main occupation of Russian old-timers. It was it that supplied the main foodstuff for people and fodder for dogs. The words ‘fish’ and ‘food’ were identical here, and one could often hear expressions: ‘Food appeared’, ‘Food was well fished’, ‘Without food they sit’, etc. - all about fish.

The main fish species fished in the Indigirka River were omul, muksun, ripple, chir, and nelma. All fishing grounds were traditionally assigned to individual farms. And the plot was passed from father to son, from son to grandson.

  Fishermen were in dire need of horsehair, hemp (gallow grass), yarn - the most necessary things for making fishing gear. Old people told that there were even cases when women cut their braids and wove nets from them. In April 1901 the Russko-Ustiinians applied to the Yakutsk regional administration for a loan of 916 roubles 50 kopecks to buy fishing gear. The answer they received two years later: "The General Presence did not recognize the verdict of the Verkhoyansk burghers on loaning them 916 rubles 5 kopecks for a period of 5 years deserving of respect, and therefore the journal of 29 November 1903, № 546 determined: the said petition to leave without satisfaction, about what and announce to the burghers through Verkhoyansk district governor [Central State Archive of the Yakut ASSR, f.8, op.1, d. 258]. Deprived of any material support from the state, people continued to struggle hard for their existence".

  Seine fishing began on Fedosyin Day, i.e. from 29 May (hereinafter the dates are given according to the old style), and lasted until 14 September (Vozdvizheniev Day). After that the seines were ‘hung up’, because after spawning the fish ‘turned’ to the sea.

  As a result of long labour activity for the development of the region, the Indigirka people have developed quite a clear fishing and economic calendar.

  For example:

  Egoriev Day (23.04) - arrival of geese.

  Spring Nikola (9.05) - the sun does not set over the horizon.

  Fedosyin day (29.05) is the beginning of open water fishing. There was a saying: ‘Egoriy with grass, Mikola with water, Fedosya with food’.

  Prokopyev day (08.07) - beginning of goose formation and mass movement of broad whitefish.

  Uspeniye (15.08) - the beginning of the mass movement of herring (‘herring’).

  Ilyin Day (20.07) - the sun sets over the horizon for the first time.

  Mikhailov Day (08.09) - the beginning of the polar night.

  Pokrov (01.10) - the beginning of dog riding.

  Dmitriev's Day (26.10) - mouth guarding.

  Kreshchenie (06.01) - the sun comes out, the end of the polar night.

  Evdokiyi day (01.03) - it is forbidden to use lighting.

  Alexeyev day (17.03) - trip to catch seals, etc.

  Mostly women and children fished with seines. On richer fishing plots several families gathered together. The headman of the plot was elected. Seine fishing was called "nevodba", and a separate drowning was called "metaniye tony".

  The time between the end of one haul of fish and the beginning of another - "nazhidaniye tony" - was determined by the sun and certain landmarks and should not exceed about one hour (although no one had a watch). If someone did not adhere to this time, he was nudged, i.e. told to hurry up, which sometimes caused misunderstandings.

 The most successful for fishing, especially in August and September were considered (during sunrise) and evening (during sunset). The order of priority was set for the morning fastening - "pristroynu" and for the evening "zakatnu". The 7080 metres long seawall consisted of wings, of which one, ‘careful’, was made shorter and lower. These wings were tied from separate nets ("merezh") from 10 to 15 metres long to 4 metres high. The wings of the seine were sewn to the sack-shaped skein. The skein threads were made thicker and the meshes were smaller, usually two fingers in diameter. The skein was knitted separately.

 A 1 cm thick rope was passed through the cells of the upper and lower edges of the seine.

 

 Wooden floats were attached to the upper string 25-30 centimetres apart, and weights ("kibasya') to the lower string. Floats 20 cm long and 10 cm wide were made of dry larch root of oval, somewhat elongated shape with a hole at one end through which a rope was passed for tying to the bowstring. Seine weights (‘kibasya’) measuring 8*5 cm were made of mammoth bone or reindeer antlers.
Extending 2-4 cm from the ends of the seine, the ropes were joined together in a triangle to form ‘ears’ with the lower side longer. A wooden float ("naplav") of about 50 cm was tied to the ends of the ‘ears’ so that the ‘ears’ of the seine would float on top without sinking to the bottom. Long ropes - ‘brails’ (‘rechnik’ and ‘berezhnik’), by means of which the seine is pulled, were tied to the ‘ears’. A large float (‘logda’) was attached to the upper bowstring, which is two 30 cm in diameter, fastened together at right angles. One half-circle has a round hole in the middle and the other has a cross-shaped cutout. A bunt is 3-5 metres long.

 As a rule, there were three people who cast the seine: one walked along the shore ("berezhnichayet"), the second sat on the oars ("vygrebayet"), and the third threw out the seine ("vybrasybalshyk"). If the third person was missing, he was hired from outside for 1/3 of the catch (‘labourer from the part’).

 During the mass movement of fish, especially in August, around-the-clock seining was established.
We remember the hard war years: meagre food, lack of clothes and shoes.

 Feet and hands in constant dampness. Sometimes we had to fish barefoot. Often we children were not happy about good catches, because for us it was exhausting labour. After all, we had to take the caught fish by boat 5-10 kilometres away and hand it over to the reception centre, all this was done manually. We sometimes prayed in our hearts: ‘If only the weather would drop down and blow along the river for a couple of days, we would sleep well!'

 Small rivers flowing out of large lakes, through which fish went to spawn or returned back to the sea, were collectively blocked. A pack seine was made of strong seine webbing and set on strong poles ("payek") across the river. Women actively participated in such collective fishing, but the distribution of the catch was based on the number of males in the household. One portion was allocated to the owners of the portion.

 Men caught fish with nets. It was woven from horsehair. The height of the net was 2 metres. (27-29 knots), length 18-20 metres. (300-350 cells). The size of a mesh was determined by means of fingers. For Arctic cisco (omul) the net "pyatirik" was used - five fingers (which corresponded to 50 mm), for broad whitefish (chir) - "shestirik" (six fingers), for whitefish (muksun) and inconnu (nelma) - "semirik" (seven fingers). The nets intended for catching ash were called "seldeviki", the mesh size was three fingers (30 mm). Each net, like a seine, had upper and lower ropes, to which floats and sinkers were tied.

 The net floats were of three types:

  •  Floats of large-mesh nets - ‘trupki’. This wooden plate 10 cm long, 3 cm wide and 1 cm thick was permanently attached to the bowstring for the entire lifetime of the seine;
  •  Floats for ‘seldevki’ - ‘plavki’. These are wooden circles 7-8 cm in diameter with a cutout in the middle for threading the ropes and tying them together when the seine is folded;
  •  Temporary floats - "naplavy". These are thick round sticks 50-60 cm long, which were tied during net installation. If the net was removed, the floats were untied and dried in the sun. Sometimes, instead of floats, small chunks ("kirbeni") were tied.

 Seine weights (‘kibasya’) were made of small stones attached by talus roots to a wooden ring 10-14 cm in diameter, wooden colts were made of the outer strong dry layer of larch - ‘krenya’ - and steamed in hot water, The rings well protected the stones from tangling in the mesh of the seine.

 For weaving seines and thread nets were used:

  • a bone or wooden needle - shuttle, on which the threads are wound;
  • a plank used as a mesh measure (depending on the species of fish, it had different widths).

 The technique of weaving a hair net is as follows: the thread for weaving is knotted at the knees and made up of five to seven hairs.

 The two threads thus obtained are joined together at one end with a double knot. From the first knot by means of a bone or wooden yardstick ("sadki"), which has notches on its edges for different cells, the length necessary for the cell is put off and the second knot is made. Thus, the first mesh of the seine is obtained.

 And when such cells will accumulate; 50 pieces (‘column’), they are threaded on a special bone (wooden) plate, enclosed between the two ends of the bone (wooden) shackle (‘net head’). After that, again measuring the measure ("sadka"), continue to make the second row of cells, connecting one thread of the first pair with the thread of the second pair. When the threads are close to the end, other threads are tied from below. Other rows of knots are made in the same way. When the 29th-31st rows of knots are tied, one ‘column’ of the net is ready. Six to seven such ‘posts’ are required for a net. Ready ‘posts’ are connected to each other with hair threads. Even horsehair was used for netting. The net was dried on the knee, for this purpose a "nakolennik" - a piece of suede - was put on it, sprinkling it with ash from time to time.

 Women made and repaired the seine. Men made only floats and weights for it. In early spring, during the floods, nets were set in laidas (glacial outbursts), a long river bays (kuryas) and small rivers, and in summer in ‘catches’ on the river - backwaters. All catches were accounted for and assigned to individual farms or farmsteads.
In autumn, in September, the seines were lowered to the bottom of the river (‘lowered to the pit’) in deep places, where muksun and nelma were mostly caught. After the ice-fall they put nets on the river and lakes. In December, all fishermen went to the mouth of the Indigirka River to ‘throw nets’, i.e. to put them on sea omul.

 The method of setting seines under the ice is as follows. An ice hole was dug with a pawn, then a distance was measured along the length of the net and a second hole was dug. A long thin pole ("norilo") was lowered under the ice and a long rope ("progon") was tied to its end. There was not enough norilo for the whole length of the net, so a hole was cut in the middle. An auxiliary hole, where a stick with a hook at the end ("kruk") was lowered, which was used to catch norilo. The norilo was pushed to the next hole using a special horn ("vylky"). To throw ice out of the hole, a "sak" was used - a stick 1.5 metres long with a wooden intertwined hoop at the end. Each fisherman set eight to ten nets (‘tier’) in a row across the river.

 In December, the ice on the Indigirka reaches half a metre thick, in these conditions setting up nets is an extremely labour-intensive job, requiring physical hardening and skill.
It is said that in the olden days there were good men ("dolbtsy") - masters of ice fishing. As if a good dolbets in December frost could set eight nets in four hours, and at five-six metres depth from the bottom of the river with the help of a pash and a rope could retrieve a knife or a pipe that had fallen into the water. Finally, under a one and a half metre layer of ice he could splice two norilas, etc.

 In autumn, burbot were fished under-ice with "ud'. The "ud" is a 7-8 cm long wooden or bone spokeshave with sharply sharpened ends. A strong thread 20 cm long was tied to the middle of the spoke, the other end of the thread was attached to the leash. The bait (usually half a grouse) was attached to one end of the rod.

 Indigirka natives, like all Russian old-timers of the North, have been and remain excellent fishermen and hunters. On the basis of centuries of experience they have developed skills of careful attitude to nature and rational use of its resources. This is especially true for fish, which was their main food. They have peculiar wildlife sanctuaries, where they did not fish at all, being engaged in fishing only for a certain, strictly limited time.

 It was forbidden, for example, to fish until Dmitriev Day, i.e. until 26 December (old style) in the following places: below Stepanov on the Russko-Ustinskaya channel, below Karbas - on the Novaya channel, below Turku na - on the Srednaya channel and below Kolesov - on the Kolyma channel. These were winter feeding grounds for fish.

 

From Alexey Chikachev's book ‘Russians on the Indigirka’

 

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