By Vicki Brown
vbrown@lowcountry.org
Richard Crawley is a self-proclaimed Jack of All trades, saying he “can do, make or fix just about anything.” However, Crawley says his unique specialty is making shad nets.
In 1960, Crawley learned his shad-net skills from an “old man at Westbank Public Landing.” It was a skill that he never forgot and has actually enjoyed for many years. Now, at 77 years old, Crawley still makes shad nets and sells them by word of mouth.
“I never have advertised my nets,” said Crawley. “Word would just get around and people would call me and ask me to make them a shad net,” he said.
Today, making shad nets by hand is almost a lost art.
Shad is a highly valued commercial fish known for the quality of its meat and roe (eggs). The male shad is an excellent game fish for anglers because it likes to jump and flip. The female is prized for the roe.
These silver fish, weighing anywhere from four- to six- or seven-pounds, can migrate up freshwater rivers to spawn.
According to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR), Adult American shad migrate from the Atlantic Ocean into coastal rivers when water temperatures reach 55 degrees Fahrenheit, usually around mid-January to April.
They migrate between fresh and salt water.
Males generally arrive first. Spawning activity occurs in the evening in shallow waters. The eggs are released in batches by the females as they swim hundreds of miles up unimpeded streams. The females will deposit anywhere from 100,000 to 600,000 eggs.
The eggs generally sink and are carried by the currents.
Once the eggs hatch, young shad will remain to feed and grow in lower rivers and estuarine areas. In the fall, young American shad migrate to the ocean.
To help the fish travel their natural routes, fish locks were constructed at Pinopolis and the St. Stephen dams in Berkeley County to assist shad and other migratory fish species in their spawning migrations. Currently, the St. Stephen fish lock annually passes some of the highest numbers of American shad on the East Coast of the United States.
“I remember when shad was so plentiful, you could put your net down, bring it back up, and it would be full of shad. The best time to catch them is in early spring and in the evenings when they spawn in the rivers,” said Crawley. “Years ago, the channels would be full of boats pulling in shad. Now, it’s usually just me or maybe one other boat out there…and we don’t pull in that many. Everyone who used to net shad have died off, and young people don’t seem to care about it. I used to catch 100 shad a night. Now, just one or two.”
Crawley puts a lot of time and effort into creating his nets. He starts with designing the bottom of the net by using hollow cord where he inserts evenly spaced lead drop weights. Then, using fishing net needle shuttles, he “sews” and ties the weighted cord to bundles of mesh webbing using nylon cordage, carefully counting inches and webbing holes along the way. Next, he sews the top cord to the mesh webbing, adding doughnut cork periodically. His nets usually range anywhere from 25 to 100 feet in length. He says that if he gets started and has no interruptions, he can sew an entire net in less than two hours. They are highly prized works of art when finished.
While Crawley enjoys catching shad with his nets, last week he caught several other things in the net he was working on in his yard. “I had sewn some mesh to just a small portion of the weighted cord and had to leave it for a while,” said Crawley. “Later, when I came back to work on it, I discovered that a robin had become entangled in the webbing. What I couldn’t believe is that also next to the robin was a hawk. It had become entangled trying to get the robin. It wasn’t hurt, just tangled up. I had to free it. I was worried the hawk would try to attack me, but I held it close against my chest while I worked the webbing free. The hawk was perfectly still and calm. Then holding the bird high, I just let it go. It flew right up into a tree,” he added. “That was the most unusual thing I have ever caught in one of my nets.”
