From Howard Mitchum's Provincetown Seafood Cookbook

Wow, that is a cool picture Fred!!! :btu:

Oh my Cod!:rotf2:

From a dory in P-town Harbor. Those musta been some great times. No money but epic fish!!

With a hand line no less! Holy Mackeral!!!:jump1:

As I am sure that you have done as well Fred.. talking (actually listening to them, I should say) with the real old timers over the years... most all long gone now, and really listening and grasping, what life on this sandbar was like, in the early part of the prior century... and very correct on the "no money" part...but,, the part I picked up on, was that they didn't miss it (money) or really need it... they had a tough life for sure, but a Great life, it was.
The Key, and I remeber this statement well, from one old timer.. because it really struck me..
"Less People, No Money, More Freedom, No Rules, except the Golden One"
rings true...they saw the best of it Fred.

saw pic alot of years ago p-town museum at monument.caught drop line thinking like close to 700 lbs.think it was posted pic,thanks fred.

In the dory boat days, halibut handliners were viewed as the premiere highliners.

Larger fishery then always the best equipment. Check out pics in
Down on T Wharf

Incredible.

My favorite part, "He caught it with his bare hands using the line shown in the photograph."

Any idea on the year of that photo?

Halibut was mostly a winter fishery in NE. I'm saying March photo

The book describes the time as one fine Summer day in 1890. It mentions one of my neighbors of the time, Stu Phelps,book was published in 1975, as a halibut high-liner even then. Times have changed.
I remember the outer Cape being poorer than the Appalachia that I was being raised in at the time. But the Cape had fewer folks on the dole and more working, sometimes more than one job. That was the early 60s. There seemed to be hustle and bustle going on and good food on the table, much of which came from the earth and sea.
If you ever get a chance at this book, grab it. Mr. Mitcham was chef at Pepe's and a tutor to Anthony Bourdain. The man knew seafood.:uhuh:

As an aside, there's still a fellow who longlines from a dory in P-town Harbor. You'll see him off Day's Cottages chasing fluke.

Incredible

he musta been a scrappy old codger

wow that is impressive. I know a fisherman ,older gentleman,, from Sandwich that hand lined a tuna in the 700+ lb range with another guy. He told me about it this year. So big they had to motor over to a dragger and pay him a small fee to lift it on to their boat. Peaked hills area.

Nice flounder