Harvest Home

As a child on holiday in Carradale one of the great treats was to be taken out for a night on one of the fishing boats. The boat was usually owned by someone we knew and it was a common sight to see holidaymakers on board going out at sunset and arriving back at dawn or before if the boats were full. It was a great thrill to see the brown marks on the echo sounder indicating a shoal of Herring or "Silver Darlings" as the fishermen would sometimes call them. The nets would be cast and the boat then circled the shoal before picking up the end of the net. The boats would work in pairs pulling the net in until the Herring were tightly packed between them. The fishermen would then uses a large net scoop to bring them on board and into the holds. It was a wonderful sight and a memory that is impregnated in my mind.

Nowadays the boats are more like rusty machines used to rake the seabed for their harvest of prawns and clams. Health and safety put an end to trips on working fishing boats, and looking at the mess of most of them, I don't think anyone would want to go out in one. They now seem to work mostly dayshift, although there was still a crew on board one of the boats tonight, sorting out their catch and throwing what they didn't want over the side, much to the satisfaction of the seagulls!

There always seems to be a bit of activity about the harbour at this time of night and I think it may well become my favourite blipping spot for the next month or so!