Joe Roderick, a fisherman’s story • Part 5

Story as told by Joe Roderick, part 5 of 5

They changed the regulations on the nets. You would have to disregard the net that you were working with and make it to the government's specifications. We had a driveway full of different nets that you could not use. The mesh must be six inches. A pretty good size ground fish might stay in that net. 

I started fishing with the Jimmy Boy in '50. I fished til '87. And I started fishing in '39 with Manuel Thomas. I fished for almost 50 years. I tried to make a living. I know I did a lot of fishing, but I had to do a lot of fishing because I had so many men on the boat. 

That was really the joy that I got out of it. I didn't have any children, but I liked to see that the families of my men on my boat were doing well. The crew that was with me the longest was Tony Menangus and Junior Leonard. He fished with me for a good many years. His wife remarried Rocky Taves.  In fact, Junior just died not very long ago.  

I took boys that went to college. I took Joe Taves. I took Joe Corea, Annie Corea's nephew.  He graduated and went on. He never went fishing anymore. He's a school teacher up in Portland.  I took Arthur Reis, junior. It was a family thing, but there were additional ones that I would take. I'd only take them for the summer. They were going to school.

I don’t have any regrets. I don't have any regrets to this day. If somebody wants a piece for them, and I can get it for them, I will give it to them. I don't expect to go out and go sell it to somebody.  I would never do that. When I owned the boat. I would give fish to anybody. I didn't care who they were as long as I didn't know that they weren't gonna take that same fish and go out and sell it.  Frankie Bottles was one of them.  I could write a book about him. I was very happy.  I was very happy in what I was doing. I know that from '50 to '87 I don't think there was a man that fished with me whose family wasn't living as good as anyone in Provincetown.  That was the big satisfaction. If I didn't have that satisfaction, I don't know what would have happened.

Emily:  “He was thinking of going fishing out in California. 

Joe:  “I’m glad that fell through because I know I wouldn't have been happy doing that. 

Emily: “I didn’t want you to stay out fishing for three months at a time. It's just the two of us. He certainly could make enough money around here for the two of us to survive rather than me sitting by myself in California for months.”

What I see here, the whole business, and I'm only talking about the history of Provincetown.  Just take Provincetown... Can you imagine what used to be here in Provincetown with fisheries and how many people were concerned with the fisheries? That was their only means of livelihood. And I can't understand how they could have had so many boats going out of Provincetown. They were manned mostly with Provincetown people, and they al1 must have made a good living. I know the boat owners made good livings. You did for years. The old Yankees first started the fishing business. Look how long they were in power. Then we Portuguese came.  How long did that last? I always remember from when I was a boy the old sailing captains, the old schooner captains. Captain Manuel Gaspar, captain of the Valerie. You can still see their homes around Provincetown. I'm glad to see the ones that own them now have restored them.  It’s all-unbelievable.