| 1930's |
| The early days started in a primative way. "Those were lean years", Tom Sewell wrote. " We knew how to drive nails, so between us we built our first floats and boats and went into the marina and innkeeping business." Always willing to try something new, Dan Sr. started to experiment with a new way to catch salmon, by using herring strip as bait on a rod and line. This was unheard of at the time: all saltwater fishing had been done by trolling from a rowboat with plugs and spoons tied to simple, handheld lines of strong twine. When the fish hit, the fisherman simply wound the string onto a wooden holder and hauled in his catch. Particularly strong opposition came from the plug and spoon suppliers, who saw a threat to their business and claimed that herring strip would bring unwanted dogfish and cod into prime salmon fishing grounds. Dan persevered and their fears were unfounded. |
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Casting for salmon with rod, line and herring strip quickly caught on. Within a short period of time traffic to Sewell's became heavier and Dan was credited with introducing the method to British Columbia waters. |
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| They were no boat builders, but they learned to build boats. Instead of the usual V-shaped transom row boats, they built their U-shaped so that the fishermen could stand up to cast and the boat would remain stable. Dan's original rental "fleet" of clinker boats was built of cedar and copied from designs of boats he liked. Heavy to row, these boats had the disadvantage of not being able to take their occupants very far out into the sound. Dan Sewell was about to try another first. |
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