Fishing Tools & Techniques 4,000 Years Ago Our ancestors were skilled at harvesting the plentiful resources of river and sea.  Although spring and summer were the primary fishing seasons, some fishing was carried on all year. Fishermen traveled among the region’s many bays, coves, salt marshes, and tidal pools and even ventured into deep waters in canoes. They varied their techniques depending on the season and the type of fish they were trying to catch. Fishing with Weirs In this region, weirs were usually constructed out of wooden stakes or lines of stones interwoven with branches or brush.  People easily retrieved the trapped fish with dip nets or spears.  Weirs are underwater fish traps, usually walls of stones or stakes, that capture fish as they swim down rivers, brooks, and streams.  Some weirs allow fish to swim over their barriers at high tide, only to leave them stranded when the water flows out at low tide. In the spring, people often built weirs at river mouths to trap schools of anadromous fish, such as shad, that swim from sea to river in order to spawn. Hooks and Lines Hook-and-line fishing was practiced with stone, bone, or wood fish hooks, hemp lines, and stone plummets, or line weights. Perch, flounder, and pickerel are some of the fish that could be caught with hook and line. In the winter, people fished for pike and perch through holes cut in the ice. Spears, Harpoons & Nets Fish spears or harpoons fitted with stone, bone, or antler points were used to catch fish such as bass in shallow water, or lamprey and salmon at waterfalls as they swam up on their way to spawn. Men also spearfished offshore from dugout canoes. Large nets weighted down with netsinkers could be dragged across rivers, or submerged in ponds, streams, and coves, to catch shad and white salmon. Smaller dip nets were used to scoop up fish from weirs. Weaving and repairing plant-fiber nets, often done by women or elder men, were important year-round activities.