Coastal Fishing
Whammel-netting is a traditional way of catching salmon and sea trout in the Lune estuary. The whammel net is a drift net up to 960 feet long and nine feet high, leaded at the bottom and corked at the top for buoyancy. It was traditionally made of linen thread. It is paid out from the stern of a whammel boat while crossing the river on an ebb tide. The net forms a vertical wall which is soon drawn into a bow by the current. Fish are simply gill-meshed in the net which is then hauled aboard.
The net itself is suspended from an 18-foot long horizontal wooden or aluminium pole supported by three legs. This frame is placed across the current by a fisherman standing behind the net in the cold water and holding the central upright. The net streams out in the water and bags, or pokes, form in the net. As soon as a fish swims into the net the legs of the frame are allowed to float to the surface thereby trapping the fish, which is disabled by a blow from a wooden club called a nep, priest or killer. A rope is threaded through the gills of the fish, using a wooden needle, and tied to the waist of the fisherman until he returns to the shore.