A
trout is a trout, a salmon is a salmon and a caplin is a caplin, but a
cod is a fish. He never thinks of anything as fish but cod.
Early in the season, directly the ice breaks up, a little fish called
the caplin, which is about the size of a smelt, runs inshore in great
schools of countless millions, to spawn. I have seen them lying in
windrows along the shore where the receding tide had left them high
and dry upon the land. This is a great time for the dogs, which feast
upon them and grow fat. It is a great time also for the cod, which
feed on the caplin, and for the fishermen who catch the cod. Cod
follow the caplin schools, and this is the season when the fisherman,
if he is so fortunate as to own a trap, reaps his greatest harvest.
The trap is a net with four sides and a bottom, but no top. It is like
a great room without a ceiling. On one side is a door or opening. The
trap is submerged a hundred yards or so from shore, at a point where
the caplin, with the cod at their heels, are likely to run in. A net
attached to the trap at the center of the door is stretched to the
nearest shore.
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