fish v
   1 To engage in the sea-fishery, esp for cod, as opposed to angling in fresh water for trout.
   [1583] 1940 Gilbert's Voyages & Enterprises ii. 328 [Hayes' narrative] At Sea towards the East there is nothing els but perpetuall mists, and in the Sea it selfe, about the Banke (for so they call the place where they find ground fourty leagues distant from the shore, and where they beginne to fish) there is no day without raine. 1620 WHITBOURNE 51 Yet there are many other excellent good Harbors where our nation useth to fish, lying betweene them both. which are very good for ships to moore fast at anchor. [1663] 1963 YONGE 60 Nor are the fishermen better to pass, who row hard and fish all day, and every second night take nets and drive to catch herrings for bait. [1794] 1968 THOMAS 170 It was common for a Boat's Crew to be Fishing all Summer for a Master who supply'd them with a few necessarys, the men letting their Wages remain until the Season was over. [1886 LLOYD 72 On Stormy days when the cod fishery cannot be prosecuted ... the fishermen go 'trouting,' as they say.] 1895 PROWSE 21 The bank or deep sea codfishery was carried on very differently... The men all fished from the ship, each in a sort of gangway hung over the side of the vessel. [1951] 1965 PEACOCK (ed) i, 54 "Feller From Fortune": Oh—Sally got a bouncin' new baby, / Father said that he didn't care. / 'Cause she got that from the feller from Fortune / What was down here fishin' the year. T 54-64 That summer I fished ashore [inshore] on the easter side o' Hilliard's Harbour.
   2 Phr fish cross-handed: see CROSS HANDED.
   fish for stamps: to engage in the fishery for a period sufficient to qualify one for unemployment insurance; cp STAMP.
   1979 POTTLE 63 It is a far cry from ... seeing with mature insight our condition in terms of its hazards and its opportunities—to be looking always for our salvation to government dollars or 'fishing for stamps.'

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