Song

Fishing was undertaken not only in good summer conditions but also in winter. However, fishing under the ice was not that easy and required considerable knowledge, experience and professional equipment. The indispensable tools, used to cut large quadrilateral holes in the ice to let in seines (large fishing nets) and smaller, triangular ones for pulling the net with a pole included an axe and a pick. The ice chopping axes had distinctive narrow blades. Picks, known under various names (depending on the region, in Polish they were called pieśnia, piśnia, piechnia, pluśnia or pika) took the form of large piercing devices - skewers mounted on rather short, wooden handles. These tools were made by blacksmiths. The fisherman used the pick by striking the ice vertically downwards with great force. The presented pick is the only one of its kind in the fishing collection of the Department of Ethnography of Pomerania of the National Museum in Szczecin. It dates back to the first half of the 20th century. The tool was used by the fishermen from Mętna Wyspa on Dąbie Lake (currently Sadlińskie Łąki). It was transferred to the museum collection from the District Office of Liquidation in Szczecin in 1948.

Agnieszka Słowińska