Clayton Renouf

Clayton Renouf’s Interview

Clayton Renouf, nicknamed Clatis, is a sixty-one year old retired fisherman from Cape St. George. He has been retired now five years, after fishing for twenty-eight years. He began fishing in 1971, when he was twenty-eight years old, and stopped fishing in 1999, at the age of fifty-six. He stopped fishing because he received early retirement.

Clatis fished at area 13A and 13B, which consisted of Cape St. George and Port-au-Port Bay (Gulf side). He mainly fished lobster, cod, herring and mackerel. He fished in a flat bottom boat with an outboard motor. There was lots of fish to catch when Clatis fished. He said you could easily full your boat up with each trip.

Clatis misses fishing for a living because he loved to fish. Fishing was an occupation that he enjoyed. It was also an occupation that was kept up from generation to generation since fishing was the main source of income for people in the community. The struggles Clatis faced when he went out on the water was winds and rough weather. There was no fishing season or quota at first when Clatis began fishing. But over the last thirty years there has been a season for lobsters. At the area where Clatis fished there were ten fishermen with five boats.

Clatis did not have much stories to tell about his fishing days but he did have a few things to tell. One thing he mentioned was that when he use to fish, he use to be so excited to go fishing every morning, that he would wake up before his alarm would go off. He would grab his mitts and rush to the water. One thing he could honestly say was that he was never cold on the water. The reason for that was that he was too excited to go fishing because he knew that he would not be disappointed with his catch. He had courage to fish because there was always something to catch.

Another thing he mentioned was that his father and Arthur Felix would leave from the Cape St. George shore every morning and go fishing in Black Duck Brook. That was a long way to go to go fishing.