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TETLIT'ZHEH/FORT MCPHERSON
Three years ago Abe Stewart Jr. decided to commit his time and energy to traditional fishing and he hasn't looked back since.

Abe Stewart Jr. has happily returned to the fishing life he learned as a child with his mother and grandparents. - NNSL file photo

"I used to fish lots with my grandparents and my mama," said Stewart. "When I was a young boy I went out lots and then I haven't been fishing for quite a few years and then about three years ago I really got seriously into it. I just love it."

"You're out there on the land fishing. I have a cabin and I've got a smokehouse out there, right beside the river. It's nice and quiet. I cut fish all day sometimes. Right now I'm cutting fish as we're speaking."

The summertime means Stewart is spending the majority of his time at his cabin at Eight Miles, also called Nataiinlaii, taking advantage of the open water and warm weather.

"I have a camp there and I live there in the summertime," he said. "I make dry fish and I smoke fish, too. I cut them and I smoke them.

"People come around and they eat fish. They want fish and I give them fish. Some of the local people, they buy it off me. I'm saving as much dry fish as I could, it's good for winter."

The 2012 summer fishing season started for Stewart around the second week of June. He said this year's high water levels in the Peel River started dropping just in time for him to start dropping nets.

"I just put a net in because the water went down a bit," he said. "I caught fish right away so I know fish were starting only now. It looks like it's going to be a pretty good season.

"This is about the same time that I put in my net (last) year. Any earlier and it's too early."

Whitefish and inconnu are his most common catches, he said, and he usually gets between 20 and 25 fish when he checks his net in the morning and another 20 to 25 at night.

"It's a lot of fish every day," said Stewart. "It's really busy."

He said the summer fishing season lasts until the end of August. The same types of fish are caught during the winter through ice on the river but dry fish can only be made in the summer, he said.

While he's enjoying the profession for now, he said he hopes to pass on his fishing skills to the next generation just like his grandparents and mother passed theirs on to him.

"I have three boys and I'm just hoping they'll be with me this summer," he said.

"I've been out there for the last (three) years, (the recreation committee) brings some young people up there ... and they watch me as I cut up fish for dry fish and the things I do around my camp."

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