The bad old days of Pulaski Pin Cushions
Remember Pulaski Pin Cushions?
I do, and I wish I didn’t, at least most of the time.
But, yeah, I used them, along with thousands of others who employed them for about 25 years, when snagging salmon was a legal activity on New York’s Great Lakes tributaries.
Boy, those were the bad old days.
Pulaski Pin Cushions were treble hooks, maybe size 5/0, with an ounce or two of lead molded around the shank. They were crude but effective snagging tools.
Pacific salmon, cohos and chinooks, were introduced to the lakes in the late 1960s to help reduce the sometimes unbelievably massive populations of alewives. Some of us still remember the giant windrows of dead alewives piled up on the beaches.
It was believed the salmon would not strike lures or take bait during their fall spawning runs. So, since the big fish were going to die anyway and it was thought that making use of their flesh and eggs would be a good idea, snagging was allowed and encouraged.
Another comment made in favor of snagging was that it could be the only chance many people would ever have to hook up with a truly large and powerful fish.
Those were all bad arguments in my mind. There were many reasons snagging was a bad idea or turned into one.
What a mistake.
For one thing, snagging encouraged a lack of fair chase ideals, meaning it emphasized getting a fish by any means necessary. It wasn’t hard to imagine that the attitude could and did, in some cases, extend to other kinds of fishing, and hunting, as well.
For another, the blood lust it engendered resulted in a lot of bad behavior. I went snagging only a few times, probably since I had little use for salmon, neither the flesh nor the eggs. I
never saw anything outlandish myself, but I heard plenty of stories. There were threats, fistfights, and even guns being brandished, or so I heard. None of that made me want to participate.
Huge crowds were a minus, as well. At times, the Sportsman’s Hole on the Salmon River was solidly ringed shoulder-to-shoulder with snaggers, and you might have to wait till someone took a break to get a spot to throw your Pin Cushion.
Also, if you snagged a sizeable fish in the head, that was one thing. You could get control of it. If you got in the tail or back, it was like trying to pull in a burlap bag full of rocks. It was more like work than fun.
And, you know, you could snag fish other than salmon. Not a good thing.
Maybe, after my initial exposure, I might have developed a negative attitude toward the whole enterprise because I wasn’t particularly good at it.
My first foray on the Salmon River was around Columbus Day sometime in the early 1970s. On one of my very first casts, I ripped the rod a couple of times, got what I believed to be a hookup, and yelled, “Fish on!”
Only there was no fish on. “You’re tangled up with a guy on the other side,” I was advised by some very sarcastic enthusiast. I sure was. Our Pin Cushions were locked together a few feet above the middle of the river. Embarrassing.
Another embarrassing moment came later that day. One of my companions hooked a salmon, I hurriedly turned to get our net, stumbled into a rock, and went head over heels. That water was cold!
I didn’t think anyone noticed since they were so busy hauling in fish, but a couple of weeks later I found out differently. I walked into Prop’s Inn in New Hartford – I’ve told this story before, but it’s a good one – and before I got to the bar owner Duke Mosakowski pointed at me and announced very loudly, “I know you! You’re the guy who fell in the Salmon River!”
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one, but that didn’t help my ego one bit.
I believe snagging was banned in 1994. That was a good thing.
However, I do believe Pulaski Pin Cushions can have a positive purpose. Yes, I do. I still have a few of them, and one came in handy recently. I was glad to have it despite all the negatives connected with it.
We were working over at our church, and somehow a ventilation grate was knocked loose and fell down a shaft. I was given the assignment of getting it out of there. It was at least 12 feet to the bottom, and the passage might admit a five-year-old kid, but no adult was going to get down there. There were no little kids willing to do the job, anyway.
For some reason, Pulaski Pin Cushions quickly came to mind. I thought one possibly could serve as a miniature grappling hook. So, I tied one to a piece of parachute cord, and dropped it down the shaft. Unbelievably, I was hooked up immediately, and my brother and I hauled the grate up and put it back where it belonged.
As far as I’m concerned, that’s the best thing that ever happened concerning snagging salmon.
Write to John Pitarresi at 60 Pearl Street, New Hartford, N.Y. 13413, email him at jcpitarresi41@gmail.com or call him at 315-724-5266.
Notebook
Audubon Society sets open house
The Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society will hold an open house Saturday, Oct. 7 at the Franklin MI Hawkwatch in Oneonta.
The program runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will include a workshop on identifying flying raptors, a trail walk and a program with live raptors by Deborah Saltis of Falcon Heart Rescue in Herkimer.
Information, including directions to the hawkwatch, are available at https://doas.us/events/2023-hawkwatch-open-house/.
Legislature bill
The New York State Legislature has passed a bill that would make it unlawful for any person to organize, sponsor, conduct, promote or participate in any contest, competition, tournament, or derby with the objective of taking or hunting wildlife for prizes or other inducements, or for entertainment.
This does not include contests for hunting white-tailed deer, turkey, bear or fishing contests.
The New York State Conservation Council opposes the bill and is asking citizens to write to Governor Kathy Hochul to ask her to veto it.
In its letter to the governor concerning the bill, the council defended such contests, stating in part: “These contests are not wanton killing events. They are comprised of a number of individual hunts conducted under the same statutes and regulations as any individual hunting, fishing, or trapping activity. Contrary to often-stated complaints, these contests do not involve any confinement or impairment of fair chase practices.”
Whether you are for it or against it, you might want to make your feelings known.
You can write to the governor at The Honorable Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York State, NYS State Capitol Building, Albany, NY 12224.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Fisherman finds new use for the old Pulaski Pin Cushion
