Know-How Acquired Starting in Childhood

Eel fishing is an occupation that has been handed down from father to son for generations. Simon Beaulieu talks about this, echoing what Georges-Henri Lizotte said in 1994.

Josée Malenfant and Simon Beaulieu are sitting on a couch facing the camera and take turns talking.

[Simon Beaulieu] I’ve always done this. I was born into it. My father did it.

Colour photograph of Simon at 5 years of age. He is holding an eel above his head with a pair of tongs and is smiling. He is standing between a tractor and a trailer filled with eels.

[S.B.] I learned to follow him, to play on the shore of the river and watch people fishing there in the fall. That was how I fell into it. And I went on from there. My grandparents fished as well. My father fished.

Josée Malenfant and Simon Beaulieu are sitting on a couch facing the camera and they take turns talking.

[S.B.] My mother’s father also fished. Fishing has always been in my family. Here, every farmer who had land next to the river used to fish there. We’ve continued this.

I learned by watching with my two feet in the water.

Colour photograph of Simon at 5 years of age. He is standing in front of the leader of an eel weir, with a pair of tongs in his hand.

[S.B.] I could say that no one ever taught me. I just learned by watching and trying to do what the grown-ups were doing when I was young. That’s how it was.

Text: Excerpt from an interview of Georges-Henri Lizotte in 1994.

A black and white photograph of Émile Lizotte, Georges-Henri’s father, appears on the screen. He is standing in front of a brush weir holding an eel with a pair of tongs.

[Georges-Henri Lizotte] I started with my father when I was 10 or 12 years old. I went fishing at night and during the day. I followed him the whole time.