FISH KILLING CLUBS CEREMONIAL AND PRACTICAL
 

I READ AN ACCOUNT OF TRYING TO KILL A HALIBUT GIANT FLUKE AKA FLOUNDER. A LARGE FISH IS A WORTHY OPPONENT AS THEY ARE ALL MUSCLE AND BONE SOME SHARP. BONES CAN BREAK AND PUNCTURES OCCUR SO THE FISHERMAN OFTEN NEEDS A WEAPON TO GET AN EDGE.
#1. HALIBUT KILLING CLUBS FANCY CEREMONIAL ONES FROM THE N.W. COAST HAIDA TRIBE.

THERE ARE SALMON KILLING CLUBS USED BY THE NATIVE AMERICANS ALONG THE COAST BUT I DON'T HAVE PICTURES. FISHERMEN HAVE USED THESE SINCE ANCIENT TIMES AND STILL DO TODAY. THE CLUBS ARE SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS THE PRIEST AND OFTEN ARE LEAD WEIGHTED OR HAVING A METAL HEAD. NO DOUBT THE NAME CAME FROM GIVING THE FISH ITS LAST RITES. :) HUNTERS HAVE USED CLUBS TO SUBDUE OR FINISH OFF GAME QUICKLY AS WELL.

one of the crew on my coast guard cutter in the early '70's caught a fluke in a bay of an aleutian island where we sheltered for a sunday off. after fighting it for hours, he brought it to the surface. it weighed about 300 lbs. so the captain lowered a ships boat and they attempted to haul it onto the boat. too wiggly, so the gunner's mate got his .44 magnum out of the armoury, climbed down to the boat and shot the fluke which was alongside in the head. took about 4 rounds. they hauled it aboard the boat, hauled the boat onto the ship & all 60-odd of us ate fluke for about a week. breakfast, lunch and dinner. it was excellent. they are indeed hard to pacify without a weapon. but tasty.

very cool clubs, by the way. :)

A friend's uncle caught one of those giants off the Cape; laid out it more than covered a large picnic table.
Impressive and dangerous fish.

I think you can tell by the clubs shown the respect they had for their prey. :)

Thank you Barry. I didn't know these existed. I learned and like them.

#1. 19 INCH LONG TLINGIT TRIBE FISH CLUB NORTHWEST COAST AMERICA
#2. 20.5 INCH HALIBUT KILLING CLUB NORTHWEST COAST

european & american fishermen also can use them, they call them 'priests' - for the reason mentioned above. they tend to be fairly short versions of dcudgels we would consider weapons...

this one is from amazon, looks like a nice yew one. :) not quite as nice as the pacific northwest ones tho. they look like they'd fall into the 'arms' category, or at least dual purpose.

#1. HAIDA TRIBE FISH KILLING CLUB
#2. TINGLIT TRIBE HALIBUT FISH CLUB