Fishing has always been a part of everyday life in Les Saintes. In the past, it was practiced by oars or sailboats. The elders have not forgotten this era, which they recount with nostalgia.
It is often said that the people of Les Saintes are the best fishermen in Guadeloupe. It is true that fishing has always provided a livelihood for the inhabitants of the small archipelago.
In Les Saintes, everyone fishes: trolling, seining, longlining, casting nets... Fish has long been the population's main source of food and their main income. "Fish was the staple food," recalls Roger-Christian Dabriou, a carpenter-fisherman born in 1919. "We ate it with rice or breadfruit. Almost everyone fished." Lorains -
While today, the activity is practiced in comfortable boats equipped with ultra-powerful engines, it wasn't always the same. In the past, fishing was done by oars and sail. "You had to see the boats leaving every day," recalls Alain Foy, 71, a now-retired ship's carpenter. "We would have regattas to be the first to arrive at the fishing grounds." Then we took down the sails and put in the oars. There were three or four sailors on board. One day, when I was little, we caught 80 wahoo at once."
Roger Christian Dabriou shares the same memories. "We would wake up at 3 a.m. We would set out sailing on the dry land of La Coche, 8 km from here, to look for traps. In July and August, there was no wind. So, we would set out with three oarsmen. We worked with the moon; it was dead calm. Then we would row down to Trois-Rivières, 20 km from our fishing spot, to sell the fish. Sometimes, we had to walk up to the village of Trois-Rivières, with our 30 to 40 kg of fish hanging from an oar, hoping to sell our catch. At the time, there were plenty of fish: tench, cardinals, and wrasse. We would catch 30 to 50 kg each time we went out. Then we would wait for sunset to come back." rowing in Les Saintes. All that for a few cents. When we didn't sell, we gave our fish to the poor unfortunates. From November to February, the breeze picked up. It was the season for fishing in the hollow (snapper fishing) at a depth of 300 meters. Starting in February, we trolled under sail. The next day, we went to sell under sail in Basse-Terre. By noon, the fish were worthless; it was poverty at that time. In 1950, I built my own boat. The first motor arrived on the Island in 1960."

Don't be fooled. Cast net fishing isn't like casting net hunting, with a bird of prey spotting the fish and swooping down on it like a pelican. A cast net is a net used to catch piquettes, small fish used as bait or fried for fritters. There are barely a handful of people in Les Saintes today who practice this type of fishing, and even fewer who make the famous round nylon net that is cast following the wind.
Yves Joyeux, a professional fisherman, is one of those who has mastered this technique best; he even won the cast net casting competition two years ago. "I started learning at the age of 15," he says. The secret to casting with a cast net? Balance! Putting his words into action, the fisherman grasps one of the many weights that weigh down the 7 kg net, then distributes the net's meshes by eye on either side of the weight. When balance seems achieved, the net, thrown into the air, unfurls before falling into the water, trapping the wriggling fish. One haul can bring in 20 to 30 kg of fish at once.

Saturday morning, village beach. The fishing teams participating in the fish trap-rigging competition are busy. Nimble fingers deftly cut, twist, and bend small pieces of barbed wire quickly attached to the bamboo that forms the frame of the traps. Roger-Christian Dabriou hasn't forgotten the technique, he's made so many traps! But back then, he would gather bamboo from the Jarry mangroves and cut wild cherry trees from Les Saintes. The traps were woven with vines.