Postcard Memories is a series of historic views, stories and photos of Bradford West Gwillimbury, a trip down memory lane on a Saturday morning.
Today, ice fishers on Lake Simcoe and the Holland River are looking for yellow perch, Lake trout and Whitefish, and the fishing is purely recreational.
But in the first half of the 20th century, there was a commercial ice fishery in the area – for carp. The market was down in Toronto, and buyers wanted their fish to arrive fresh, and alive.
“We fished with seine nets under the ice, and it was quite a cold job as it was almost impossible to keep dry,” wrote Ben Steers. “I remember at one haul we got about 50 ton, and it took us all day and the next night to dip them out of the net and put them in wooden crates which were sunk in the ice and water so that they would stay alive until it came time to ship them.”
At first, the fish were hauled by horse-drawn sleigh over the snow to the railway, where the carp were loaded and shipped to market.
Later, Ben Collings of Bradford took over Spence’s fishery, shipping the carp in water tanks.
Details from the Archives at the BWG Public Library, and Governor Simcoe Slept Here: The legacy of West Gwillimbury.
