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With the talk by our conservationists and Isaac Waltons that Crappy Bass, Sun Fish and Blue Gills are beginning to be seen in our Beaver River, I wonder if our early fishermen are doing flip flops in their graves and quietly laughing because they know what real river fishing was.
At a time when there was no limit, or nothing against any way you could take fish, our stream was full of Black, White and Rock Bass, Perch, Salmon and Catfish, and in the Spring plenty of suckers and giant "Red Horse".
One of our earliest commercial fishermen on record was Robert McGahey who lived on the river bank at Seventh Street, Beaver Falls, and fished a little north of his home at Isaac Warren's Soap Factory where offal thrown in the water attracted many fish of all species and size. A daily catch was between two hundred and three hundred pounds.
Two others who made their living at this so-called sport were Ben and Joseph James of Fallston. They caught fish by every known means of man, including the use of set nets, seines, night lines, gill nets, black powder and shooting with a gun. They maintained a floating live box in the Fallston race, from which they regularly loaded a spring wagon and peddled them around the Valley.
In 1860 and for years later, Jacob Stahl and his father of Rochester were professional fishermen along the Beaver River, owning and living in a house boat which they took through the different locks of the canal, anchoring at various fishing locations. One of Stahl's favorite anchorages was below the Upper Beaver Falls or Adams Dam, where they once caught a catfish weighing over one hundred pounds. The fish, which was too large to put in the boat, was tied with clothesline to the stern, where it was seen by many of the doubting townspeople who had heard of its enormous weight. On these excursions when the boat was filled, Stahl's would drop down through the canal to Rochester where they would get a tow to Pittsburgh and there dispose of the cargo.
One of the famous sports at this time was shooting fish with muzzle loading rifles. Large suckers and red horse would lie in the ripples opposite the upper end of Fallston and tempt these riflemen. The idea was not to hit the fish, but to aim a little ahead so that the impact of the ball on the water would stun them. They could then be retrieved by boys, called "doggers", who would wade in and get the woozy pectorial prizes.
To get the best results, trestle platforms were built over the water so that the men could shoot directly down on them. It is said that Rufus Covert, a famous Fallston marksman, constructed such an elaborate trestle that in spite of warning by the more experienced in the sport, the first time he fired, the recoil kicked him and his "work of Art" into the river., He waded ashore while his wooden support floated down stream.
Some of the men built platforms in the large sycamore trees that lined the Fallston race. These were a lot more comfortable and cooler on hot days. John and William Caler and David Lloyd took advantage of such platforms.
In the same ripples other men would use three-prong spears to get the large fish. They usually worked in pairs and at night, one spearing the fish while the other carried a strong flare of oil on the end of a pole. Some of these suckers and red horse would weight fifteen pounds, and the catfish much more.
In the "good old days", while the methods were crude and there was no thought of limit or conservation, the catch usually ended. up where it should -- on someone's table.
--from old newspaper accounts.